We both turned.
Dominic was standing in the doorway.
Ash stiffened on the floor.
Dominic stepped forward slowly, and lowered himself to one knee beside Ash.
"Ash! What happened? When did you beco violent?" Dominic asked, still kneeling beside him.
I watched Dominic’s hand reach toward Ash’s arm. He actually wanted to help him up.
"Don’t," Ash snapped.
"Hey..."
"Don’t touch ."
Dominic froze.
His hand hovered awkwardly in the air for a second, then slowly curled back into a fist. His throat bobbed as he swallowed.
"You’re bleeding," Dominic said softly.
"And whose fault is that?" Ash hissed.
Dom looked hurt.
I didn’t even know if I was suppose to still be angry at him.
"That’s not fair," Dominic murmured. "I’m trying to..."
"You ghosted for weeks," Ash cut in. "You don’t get to show up now and pretend you care."
The hallway went silent.
Dominic’s face... I had never seen him look so devastated.
He opened his mouth to talk, then he shut them back. Like he didn’t know how to defend himself, or he didn’t know how to act around Ash anymore.
"Let help you up," Dominic said quietly, extending his hand again.
Ash stared at the hand...
Then looked away.
"June," he sniffled. "Help ."
I moved instantly, slipping my arm under his to support him. Ash leaned on , breathing heavily, cleaning the blood from his lips with his sleeve.
Dominic stood up with us.
"June," he said, turning to . "Please...I just want to talk to him. Let ..."
Ash started walking away from Dominic like he couldn’t stand being near him.
He gave Dominic the coldest side eye I had ever seen.
"I said don’t touch ," Ash yelled. "I’ve gotten used to life without you. Let be."
Dominic sniffled. He had dark circles all around his eyes, unshaved beards. He looked miserable.
"Ash... please. Let explain. You don’t understand what it’s been..."
"Save it," Ash snapped. "I really don’t care anymore."
Then he pulled toward the exit.
His hand slid into mine, his palm was warm. He held tight like was anchoring himself to the only person left who hadn’t abandoned him.
We stepped out of the school building.
I looked back again, Dominic was still standing in the hallway, watching us as we walked away.
His hand was still halfway in the air.
Like he didn’t know how to reach us, or how to let us go.
His expression broke .
But Ash didn’t look back even once.
He just squeezed my hand tighter as we walked away.
Almost an hour, Ash didn’t say a word the whole walk.
I kept glancing up at him, waiting for him to say sothing.
But he just stared ahead, breathing a little too quickly. He didn’t even bother wiping the dried blood on his lip.
We passed the bus station.
"Ash... this is our stop," I said gently.
He didn’t look at .Didn’t slow down either.
He just kept walking like he was trying to outrun sothing.
I groaned. "I can’t feel my legs anymore."
We walked another ten steps, and then, randomly, out of nowhere, I said sothing crazy.
"Omg....was that Dominic? Like... actually Dominic? Why does he look like he aged five years in two weeks? He had a beard. A whole beard. Is he okay? Is that grief beard? Is that heartbreak beard? Why.."
Ash didn’t even blink.
I tried again, louder this ti.
"I still can’t believe he ghosted you for two weeks and then just appeared out of nowhere like....like you should just take his hand back. That’s ridiculous."
Ash still didn’t react.
I stared at him dramatically.
"I’m talking. This is the part where you respond."
Still, nothing.
He walked another ten seconds before he finally spoke.
"Are you hungry?"
That caught off guard.
"...Yeah. I’m hungry."
We reached a small street restaurant, the type with shaky fans and loud music from an old speaker. We got two plates of food and sat at the corner table.
Ash didn’t eat at first. He just stared at his plate, tapping his fingers against the plastic fork.
It felt like two hours passed before he suddenly sighed and said.
"Let’s get alcohol. I wanna get drunk, cry, and then wake up with a hangover so bad I forget Dominic exists."
That caught off guard.
"Um... sure? But no one’s going to sell to high schoolers. We’re still in uniform."
Ash stood up anyway.
"Ash!"
He ignored and walked straight to the man behind the counter.
They talked.
The man looked at his uniform... then at his bruised, swollen face...
and then quietly handed him two bottles.
Ash strutted back to the table.
My eyes went wide.
"He gave you?? Just like that?"
He nodded, still looking surprised himself.
"The bruises," he chuckled, pointing at his face. "Probably make look badass. I just said, ’Yoo. Two alcohols.’ Didn’t even add please."
I stared at him.
"...Yeah, okay Dwayne ’The Rock’ Johnson. You’ve finally grown balls. Also you need to clean those bruises so you don’t die of infection."
He cracked the softest smile.
"I can’t believe how good that felt."
I snorted.
"What? Ordering alcohol? Growing balls? Or thinking you’re a badass?"
"No..."
He took a sip.
"All. Especially punching Ian in the face."
I choked on my drink.
"I still can’t believe you did that."
He shrugged.
"I always wanted to do that. All the tis he bullied . Even though he’s been nicer lately because of Dom, and you. I still liked hitting him."
I chuckled.
"You really surprised . You literally attached a tank. Like, Ian could’ve crushed all your ribs."
Ash laughed for the first ti.
"He almost did. But it was worth it."
We clinked our bottles.
And then... we just kept drinking.
One bottle.
Then another. And another.
We laughed too loud. Cursed too much. Talked about stupid things. Talked about painful things. Then laughed again because the pain was too much.
At so point the restaurant owner told us to "keep it down," but Ash just waved at him.
Everything blurred.
My head felt heavy.
At so point Ash started giving the shaky fan a motivational speech.
"You’re doing great. Keep spinning."
Then...
I really can’t rember what happened after, cos the next minute I opened my eyes, it was morning.
I woke up in the worst pain ever. My head was banging, and my body kept aching.
I groaned.
The sun wasn’t even fully in the room yet.
"Ughhh... why is it morning so fast?" I muttered.
Sothing moved beside .
Ash.
Also on the floor. Groaning in pain.
I squinted at him.
"What... happened last night?"
Ash pressed his palms to his face and exhaled.
"I... have no idea."
We just stared at each other.
"I really can’t rember a thing," Ash kept rubbing his head.
"Sa," I winced.
"Last thing I rember was you punching Ian... then we were at the restaurant... and then... nothing."
We stared at each other in horror.
"So who brought us ho?"
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