"Can you open the window?" Ashlynn asked. "It's so stuffy in here."
"I'll just open the door." I replied as I pulled a gray v-neck over my head.
As I passed the door, I turned the knob and threw it open as I walked towards her bathroom, intending to blow-dry my soaked hair. Mine decided to die on me, and I had been too lazy to go buy another one, though I'm sure Ashlynn would have appreciated if I would've done just that. Planting my ass on the counter of the bathroom, right next to the sink, I plugged it in and then turned it on.
Looking through the bathroom door, I could see Ashlynn typing away on the computer she had decided to get with the camera. After buying both, she had decided to start freelancing with artists and bands, filming music videos and the stuff that went along with it. The computer had been her source of editing, among other incomes. She had also decided to delve into graphic areas, as well - taking on logos and album art.
It was nice to see her smile as she was doing something. If anything, it made the monetary investment worth it, knowing that she would have made use of it all and enjoyed doing it. While I still hadn't gotten an answer of why she was so hesitant, I was okay with the result I saw. Money hadn't mattered, it was the fact that I wanted to see her happy. That was all I ever wanted for the people around me, yet it had rarely ever come out that way.
As the blow-dryer had blasted into my ear, I saw Ashlynn turn her head around and look at the door. Had someone shown up, housekeeping possibly? Nah. This place hadn't been nice enough for that. Who had it been, then? It had been two and a half days or so since I had texted her dad back, and had figured he wasn't coming - rather, maybe I was hoping that he wouldn't have come. I hadn't wanted to cause Ashlynn problems, yet I wanted to end the problem that was her father.
Turning it off, I stepped out of the bathroom quietly, and watched as Ashlynn talked back to a slightly overweight old man. Granted, it could have been a number of people from her uncle to a teacher, but it had also been pretty easy to assume that it was her father. That was what I had went with, and was waiting to see what he would do before I made a move. I hadn't planned on doing anything unless he got violent with her, that choice had been made for Ashlynn herself, who shouldn't have had to see that if it wasn't needed. As much as I wanted to batter the scum, I was going to hold back for her.
As usual, I flaked out of something I told myself I was going to do.
"Come on, Ashlynn. You're coming home." he spoke. "CPS is coming, what are they going to think if it's just me and your sister?!"
"I don't want to be there anymore." Ashlynn tried to close the door, only to have it smashed back open. "I'-
"Hey, old man." I brushed my hair out of the way, shooting a glare. "Careful with those hands of yours. I don't want an accident to happen.
For once in my life, I chose to use my words selectively. I said nothing that would incriminate me, yet enough to make him question the meaning - ominous and open. Though, it seemed to be ineffective towards him. He wanted his income back, and he was going to take it back. While it was news to me that she had a sister, I hadn't exactly stayed focused on it as I took another few steps forward.
Reminding me of a slightly taller, manlier, and skinnier version of Danny Devito, he was just as ugly, but not nearly as funny. Reaching for her hand again, she had pulled it out of his grip and took a step back. Just as he had been about to lift his arm, it had been as though my fist had instinctively, reflexively lifted itself and connected with the side of his head before he had even gotten a chance to do anything.
Her father had met the ground with a sound thud, followed with a pained groan that had matched the pain that my fist felt. Stepping through the frame of the door as I shook the pain out of my now cut fist, I stopped at the bottom of her father. My feet rested right at his head, leaving me to decide what I should have done. Should I have beaten the hell out of him? Had that been what Ashlynn wanted, would that have been what her sister wanted? Why had Ashlynn left her sister alone with him, of all people?
"Well?" I looked at Ashlynn. "Do you want this to go any further?
"I don't know." Ashylnn's arms crossed. "Do I want to see him get hurt? Obviously not. I just want him to leave me alone."
Stepping over him, I had disregarded Ashlynn's words and lifted him up by the collar of his checkered button-down shirt. Instead of a fist, I brought the cap of my knee back and then blasted him in the face with it, not once - but twice - before letting him fall down onto his back again. Had that been enough, or had he deserved more? Would Ashlynn tell me to stop if I kept going?
"How does the bully feel now, getting pushed around the same way he does to the children he raised?" I hissed, lightly pressing my heel on his throat. "Make you feel big and strong, fat ass? Make you feel tough pushing around girls half your weight? I can't respect someone who talks and acts big to women, but can't back it up against someone their own size. Shit, I'm not even your size or age and I'm still kicking the living shit out of you."
This time, I dropped a fist into his face once again. Why hadn't I felt anything doing this? No happiness, no feelings of revenge, or even guilt for beating an old man into the ground? Had I lost my feelings, or had I just not cared about this man at all? What about Ashlynn, how had she felt about this? Had this made her feel any better about what he had done to her? I turned, and saw her looking at me - and only me. Not a single eye had been on her father.
Her expression had been that of lost, or stuck even. It was as though she wasn't sure which way to go. Forgive her father, or let him get his? Watch him get the crap beaten out of him, or take the highroad and let him walk away without permanent injury? Neither? Both? Ashlynn had finally caught my stare, and took a moment before she had finally shaken her head back and forth.
Just as she had been about to speak, I heard the voice of a younger girl behind me.
"Dad?"
Twisting my head, I saw a girl that looked just like Ashlynn, just shorter and a couple years younger. Getting off of him, I wiped my blood-stained knuckles onto my jeans and began to walk towards who clearly had been Ashlynn's younger sister. Bending over slightly as I reached, I whacked my hair out of the way and looked back at him before returning to her, as though I was indicating it was about him.
"Did he ever hit you? How?"
She nodded with a clear hesitance, unsure if answering was the right thing to do. "Twice. He smacked me once and threw a bottle at me."
"Thanks." I smirked, pulling out my wallet and took out a fifty. "There's a couple restaurants across the street over there, why don't you find a place that sounds good and take your time?"
Maybe she had listened because of Ashlynn, or maybe she had just been too trusting, but she had done what I said. Within minutes, she had gone off into the visible distance. Honestly, it had taken quite a bit of composure to hold back. While I had been able to somewhat understand the smacking, the thrown bottle had taken it to another level. Who the hell would throw a bottle at a child? The same person who would punch their other daughter into a fucking table. That's who.
I was a piece of shit. I always had been one, and I would never deny that. I was the worst of the worst, and it was hard to get lower than me as a human being. There was only one type of person lower than me, one who abused those who couldn't fight back. Someone who abused anything that couldn't fight back on an even scale. That was the person he was. Lower than me, the man-whore and the manipulator, the drugged-up pessimistic asshole who was perpetually entrenched in his own bullshit.
"Aiden, stop it." Ashlynn told as I turned to the man who was on his way to getting up. "He isn't worth it."
It was far too late for that, as I had already thrown him into a car and was in face within seconds. Not only did I likely look like a rabid hyena, but I was probably been acting like one, as well. What hadn't phased me, however, was the alarm of the car that I had thrown him into. What I was focused on was the hand around his throat - my hand - held with a tightest grip I could have held. Pulling him out with that very same hand, I thrusted him back into that same vehicle, giving it another rocking as though an earthquake had passed through it.
My fist went up with reckless abandon, and just as I was about to throw it back down, I was ripped back by someone, only to watch as he slid down the car. Then his breath hit my nostrils, even then he was drunk. He'd seriously driven here with his daughter drunk, and then he wanted to drive back with Ashlynn? I was the lost cause, or so I thought, but he had been quickly putting a new meaning down on it. One that was several times worse than my own.
Ripping myself from the grip that held me back, I saw two pairs of people looking at what I had assumed to be their car and her father. If I guessed at that moment, I would have said college students, but could have easily been wrong. All I knew was that he stopped me from doing something stupid, or dangerous, to both her father and myself. Had I really been ready to kill someone with my bare fists? Had I been ready to murder someone, even if it were for revenge in place of someone else, someone stronger?
Had I been ready to live with that over my head? Had I been ready to spend a few years in jail, or even prison? Would I go to prison over someone like him? Stepping away, I put my locked my fingers behind my had and thought about what I was just about to do. If he had been so worthless, then why had I wanted to bury his face inside of his skull? Why had I thought that was okay to do, especially when Ashlynn herself had said no? It hadn't been enough to almost murder him, I had ignored her just to put the icing on the top.
"Get the fuck out of here. Alone." I muttered, pulling a cigarette free from the near empty pack. "It's fine if you want to kill yourself, but I'm not going to sit here and watch someone die because of a stupid mistake. Not again."
"...But I need th-" he sat up, waving slightly from side to side.
"Don't worry. I'll wire you your beer money." I lit and inhaled the smoke, shooting something of a dagger at the stranger who pulled me away. "You can thank this faggot for saving your ass."
Before I realized it, Ashlynn took me by my hand and ripped me away from them, and across the street to where her sister had went. Stopping just before entering the lot, she looked almost sadly and then pushed me. The shove said anger, yet her face spoke of something else. Had her logical mind betrayed what she wanted to show? What had that shove meant, and what had that expression meant?
"Why would you do that?" Ashlynn pushed me again, fringing on tears as she point at one of the restaurants. "You texted him where we were staying? He fucking drove here drunk with my fucking sister in the car! What if she got hurt? What if they got into an accident? Just because you wanted to make something right? Fuck you-"
"Then it would've been another thing I ruined and another person hating me for it."
Ashlynn was right. I had let my pride and ego do the thinking, and the answering of what was right and what was wrong. None of what she mentioned occurred to me at all when I was doing it, though I couldn't have known she had a sister - but that still wasn't an excuse - I should've told her what I'd done. It shouldn't have been me that was allowed to make that choice in her stead. She, herself, should've answered it. I should've been the one listening to her.
It wasn't my family, nor did I have a place in it. I was the outsider, and I didn't have any place forcing myself into it without her permission. Yet, I'd done just that. I shouldn't have had anything to say, and if I had said anything, it would've been selfish. I fucked up, and I was ready to own it since the moment I did it. I stuck my head out and it simply got itself chopped off.
At the end of the day, however, I did what I felt was the right thing to do.
Ashlynn stood in the same spot and wiped her tears away, and that had been when it became clear. She wasn't sad or angry with me, per se. She was irked over the fact that her sister was in the same car as a drunk driver. It was the worry of that single fact that drove her into the angry fit she was in. Ashlynn took my blood-stained shirt and tugged it down before she slammed her forehead into my chest.
She smiled, giving a small, air-filled exhale as she broke the silence.
"Fuck you."
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