“You ready?” I asked him, hoping that he caught the urgency in my voice about how much I wanted to be away from them.
“So, you two a thing?” Mindy asked.
Ash considered them for a minute before that smile he used like a weapon appeared. “Why? You jealous?”
I genuinely hadn’t expected him to answer like that. I thought he would either ignore them or say no. Like someone normal, although there was nothing normal about us.
“Of Mia?” Mindy scoffed.
Skank.
“C’mon, Ash, she’s just jealous you like to sink your teeth into me.” Tossing my ponytail over my shoulder, I grabbed his hand and thanked him internally when he allowed me to pull him away from the bench.
Putting distance between them and us, we walked quickly up the path, me still holding his hand and, better yet, Ash letting me. As we rounded the corner in the path, I dropped his hand and looked up at him.
“I can explain, all of it.”
“What’s to explain?” Ash shrugged casually. “They see you with me, they assume you’re my new bounce, somehow that involves a biting fetish that I didn’t know you had, and then their allegations are confirmed when I walk away with you hand in hand.”
“You seem very relaxed about it,” I told him cautiously. “Also, there is no biting fetish.”
“Whatever, you’re not the first girl that other girls try to say I’m doing exclusively.”
I stopped walking. “Your terminology leaves a lot to be desired.”
He looked back at me, and I could see that he didn’t understand what I meant.
“Newbounce?Doingexclusively?” I explained to him. “Seriously? You can’t talk about girls like that.”
“Why?”
My mouth opened. My mouth closed. “What do you meanwhy?”
“I can call a girl whatever I want. It’s generic, wasn’t meant in regard to you specifically, and would you rather I said fuck? Hookup? Slut? Which I wouldn’t use by the way. Bitch, I probably would.”
“No!” I cried.
“Then what’s the issue?” Ash turned. “C’mon, we’re supposed to meet at the coffee shop.”
I knew I needed to address his thinking, but I could hear my classmates behind me, and not wanting Ash to blow my very recently won victory, I urged him to walk. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“Oooh goody.”
“Don’t be a jerk.”
“Why don’t you swear?” Ash asked me curiously.
“You’re interested inmyvocabulary?” I asked him in amusement.
“You’re what, nineteen?”
“Yes.”
“Never met a teenager that didn’t swear like a sailor.”
“Now you have.” I tucked my hand into my jacket pocket as we walked.
“But Ava . . . I mean, that girl has taughtmecurse words,” Ash said with a fond smile.
