Wait A Minute

Chapter 17: Testing Pages

"Sometimes... I feel like I'm a shitty person." The admission made Ashley pause. She rolled her lips together before continuing on her current project. Yet, as she finished coating black nail polish onto Larry's ring finger, the statement kept bouncing around in her head. She felt her jaw clench harder than usual as she swiped a stray drop of polish off Larry's finger with the tip of her pinky. Still, she said nothing as she looked up at Larry. His sad eyes stared back. They lost their spark a while ago.

"That's probably because you're, well, kind of a shitty person." The statement was matter-of-fact, and she smiled to herself, feeling Larry stiffen. She could practically hear the gears turning in his head, trying to process the information.

"I-" He hung his head, eyes focusing on Ash's nimble fingers painting his middle fingers nail. "You're blunt today." She laughed at that, momentarily releasing Larry's hand. He looked up at her with squinted eyes as she rested a hand on her chest, trying to quiet her chortles.

"Oh, come on," She snorted. "I'm not here to inflate your already bursting ego. You did Sal dirty, and you need to admit that." Larry stared hard at her, mouth pressed shut, not knowing how to respond. She was right after all whether he liked it or not. He just wanted to put everything that had happened senior year behind him, but he was finally figuring out that it wasn't that simple. No matter how much he wanted to ignore the problem, ignoring it didn't solve the fact that Sal wasn't speaking to him anymore. Ignoring it wasn't doing anything to help. If anything, he felt that it was actually making his situation worse.

"I didn't mean to-"

"What do you mean you didn't mean to-"

"Ash, go easy on him." The request came from Todd as he walked out of the kitchen, bag of potato chips in one hand, can of root beer in the other, and feet adorned with bunny slippers, ears flopping with every step. Larry didn't think he'd ever been so happy to see the disaster that was Todd. "No use yelling at him if his simple brain can't register that what he did was bad." Larry didn't think he'd ever been so distraught to see the disaster that was Todd.

"Okay, I know what I did was bad," Larry clarified, looking from Todd to Ash. "But I don't think that makes me a totally bad person."

"I don't think you're evil," Ashley started, earning a huff from Larry. Her eyes narrowed at him. "I think you're a little bit selfish, and I think that's really shown these past few months. But I don't think it's not something that you can work on and fix. I just... don't think that things are going to work out between you and Sal."

Larry was quick to respond to that. "What? Why? What are you talking about?"Ashley glanced up at Todd, signaling she was passing the conversation over to him. He let out a sigh, leaning down to put his chips and soda on the coffee table.

"You. Fucked. Up." Each word was enunciated with a sharp and swift hand gesture, as if Todd was trying to beat the words into Larry's skull. Maybe his weird conducting succeeded because Larry glanced away, eyes downcast. "Not just once, not even twice, you fucked up a lot.You can't keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. It's time to stop pursuing Sal."

    "At least romantically," Ash picked back up, glancing from Todd to Larry. "I'd hate to see you two never be friends again. You guys have been through so much." Todd's expression soured at the statement, like he wanted to object and say the friendship should stay ruined. However, he swallowed back whatever thought he had as Larry's face lit up a little.

    "Do you think so, Ash? I mean, he was pretty clear that he was done with me-"

    Her free hand grabbed his wrist hard, holding his hand steady. His anxious fidgets were making it hard for her to neatly paint his nails. "Yes, I'm positive of it," she firmly stated, a reassuring smile spreading her lips. "We just need to figure out a plan of attack."