Fire And Ash Read online

  The head of every single girl turns to look at Derek when he enters the cafeteria, which means they look at Cass and me too by default. The looks she gets are impassive. Everyone has figured out by now that they are related, therefore she doesn’t pose a threat. The looks I receive run the gamut from jealous to incredulous. Some of them say how is she of all people be talking with him?

  I ignore them all. The opinions of people I go to school with have never really mattered to me.

  The three of us get food in the lunch line and sit down at an empty round table not too far from it.

  Matt, our school’s quarterback and the football team’s captain, comes up to our table. He is as all-american as a guy can get. He is tall, stocky but athletic so he does not look overweight, and he has short blonde hair with baby blue eyes and a down home smile. If that’s not enough he drives a Ford dually truck and has a Texas twang that he brought with him when he moved to Laurel Springs in the sixth grade.

  “Derek right?”

  “Yeah. Who are you?” Derek’s tone isn’t at all friendly. It is clipped, guarded and a little threatening.

  “I’m Matt. I saw that you have a nice throwing arm and run a pretty fast mile in gym. Did you play football at your last school?”

  “No,” Derek snorts more than a little condescendingly. It’s nice to see first hand that I’m not the only one he is a complete ass to when first meeting. Big boobs and an empty head must be a requirement for him to be nice.

  “Well you should think about playing for Laurel. Try outs for new students are next week. I can tell you right now you’ll have a spot on the team. We need a new running back. One of our two starters graduated last year.”

  “No thanks,” Derek doesn’t even pretend to be polite enough to consider it or to act like the idea mildly appeals to him.

  “Well think about it anyway. In the mean time do you want to sit with us? Maybe it will change your mind before next week.”

  The space between Derek’s brows wrinkle in the way it does when he is particularly annoyed. He is about to tell him to fuck off when Cass speaks up for him.

  “ Yes, he does. And we’ll come too,” she rushes the words out before Derek can object. “I mean if it’s an open invitation,” she adds bashfully.

  When I see the hint of pink coloring her cheeks I know exactly the reason she is pushing Derek to go sit with Matt and his football buddies. She thinks he’s cute.

  Miranda shoots me a stormy glare from the other end of the long rectangular table when Cassie, Derek and I sit down with Matt. I smile sweetly back at her.

  To my surprise Derek actually ends up allowing himself to be pulled into the conversation Matt and his friends are having about cars. By the end of it I figure out whose idea the Mustang GT that Derek and Cass share was. Derek is apparently a car enthusiast. I also find out that what he really wants is a Shelby but they cost about fifty grand on the low end and his mom says if he wants one, he’ll be waiting until he can buy one himself. At that Matt laughed and said moms never understand. That’s what his said about his doully truck. Luckily, she and his dad have been trying to one up each other since they got divorced and his dad bought it for him just because she said no.

  As Cass and I approach the Mustang in the student parking lot we see that Derek is already in it. He is revving the engine as Matt and a few of his friends oh and ah in the way guys do over stupid things like cars.

  I watch Cass as she watches Matt. Her eyes take on a dreamy quality.

  “You like him don’t you?”

  Cassie turns a bright red. “What? No?! How can I like him? I don’t even know him.”

  “I don’t mean like him, like him, but you think he’s hot. And you’re looking at him like you want to get to know him.”

  “Well…maybe,” she admits.

  “So are you going to talk to him when we get to the car?”

  “No, I can’t. That would be weird. And desperate since he hasn’t talked to me first. It would be different if we were at a party or something. Then it would be normal for me to walk up to some random guy I don’t know and say hey, how’s it going. But at school it’s just so obvious.”

  I don’t follow her logic. It seems to me like it is the same thing either way.

  When we get to the car Matt is asking Derek what he is doing for the labor day weekend coming up.

  Probably one of the skanks that’s been falling all over him all day. I must have seen at least a dozen numbers slipped to him during school. And those were only the ones he got when I was around.

  When Derek says nothing, Matt says he isn’t either.

  “It can get pretty boring around here before and after football season,” Matt complains. “During it is when all the parties are thrown. Man it sucks that it’s a three day weekend and there is nothing going on.”

  “Actually,” Cass inserts herself into the conversation. “Ash and I were just talking about having a party at Derek’s and my house on Saturday. We have a pool in the backyard and plenty of space.”

  Derek shoots her a murderous look that says what the fuck are you doing?

  She shoots him a pleading one back.

  He clenches his jaw together, but doesn’t say anything. Cassie and his mom are his weak spots.

  “Cool,” Matt says. “What time does it start?”

  “Seven,” Cassie answers excitedly.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Liars Go To Hell

  The first week of school passes much as the first day did. Having Cassie there makes Becca’s absence easier to swallow. Cass isn’t stand offish like me or abrasive like Becca. She exudes this naturally bubbly personality that automatically attracts people to her. Cass can’t be described in any other way but as a social butterfly. As she socializes with people I find myself doing the same thing simply by proxy.

  “Cassie! Ash!,” Lauren Reynolds, the girl we just finished working on a group assignment with in Hamilton’s class, waves us over to the table she is sitting at with a few other girls who actually aren’t all that bad either.

  “Should we go over or find Derek and sit with him?”

  “You didn’t really just ask me that question,” I tell Cassie. “You know my answer. I tolerate Derek because of you.” Just like he tolerates me because of her. “The less time I actually have to spend around him the better.”

  We sit in two of the empty seats at Lauren’s table.

  “This is Daniella, Nikki, and Casey,” she motions to the other three girls sitting with her.

  I’ve never really spoke to any of them much, but I know all three of them. I had Biology with Daniella Lopez freshman year. She’s extremely down to earth. She is super smart and really pretty but she isn’t aware of either of those attributes. Nikki Peters is Mrs. Peters daughter. She plays basketball, volleyball, and runs track. In eight grade she was extremely self conscious because she towered over most of the boys. She became more comfortable with her height in high school after a lot of the boys hit their growth spurts and she was no longer the tallest person in our grade. And whereas Lauren is the extreme extrovert of the group, Casey Carmichael is the extreme introvert. She is as soft spoken as she is shy, and she prefers for the spotlight to never be on her.

  “Hi,” the girls all say at the same time.

  “Where is Becca?” Nikki asks me. Becca is into team sports too. They’ve played volleyball and run track together since freshman year.

  “She decided to stay in New York with her mom.”

  “I was wondering why she didn’t make that decision in the first place,” Daniella chimes in. “If I had the opportunity to get out of Laurel Springs I would take it. It’s why I can’t wait to go to college. I’m not even staying in the state of Colorado. I’m gonna go to California or Florida or somewhere with lots of beaches and lots of sun.”

  “Even if it means leaving Trey behind?” Lauren teases her.

  Daniella purses her lips together like she just sucked on something sour. “Especiall
y if it means leaving Trey behind. That two-timing, no good, cheating dog. You know I caught him in his dad’s pick up truck with Miranda over the summer. She tries to pretend to be all like I’m such a perfect Mrs. Goody-two-shoes-cheerleader but then turns around and in the same breath is so obviously a skank. I heard she had sex with Brent too over the summer and the new guy Derek.”

  “Derek did not have sex with her,” Cassie and I both shriek. Not that I’d care if he did, but she’s my friend. I’m supposed to be offended for her.

  “Really?” Lauren says like she just got wind of the latest juicy bit of gossip. “Because she sure is insinuating that every time she goes on and on about how she met Derek over the summer.”

  “Derek might hook up with random girls but he doesn’t screw them. He doesn’t act like it but he does have some standards,” Cassie defends him.

  I snort. Loudly. I can’t help it.

  She cuts her eyes at me.

  “Sorry,” I tell her. “But you know I think Derek’s an ass.”

  “And you’d be right, but I still have to defend his honor.”

  “Please, Derek doesn’t have honor where girls are concerned. I’ve bared witness to his skank parade all summer.”

  “Of course I do,” Derek scoffs as he slides into the empty seat next to me and across from Lauren.

  “Ha! Lies! I bet you can’t name one instance.”

  “That night in your room. You sleep like the dead. I could have taken plenty of time to ogle you in your underwear but I didn’t. And when you yelled at me to get out I did.”

  “That doesn’t count,” I snap. “You broke into my house then restrained me in my bed. What were your words when I told you to get the hell off of me? Oh yeah, ‘Hmm. I don’t think I will just yet. It’s kind of amusing how uncomfortable this is making you.’ I do believe that is the exact opposite of being honorable.”

  Derek holds up three fingers and uses them to tick off each counterpoint he makes. “I didn’t break into your house I had a key that I was being nice enough to drop off along with your car to you remember. I restrained you after you assaulted me, and regardless of what I said I did move right after you told me to get off of you.”

  “The second time!”

  “That’s beside the point.”

  “That is exactly the point!”

  Derek doesn’t respond. Seeing me sufficiently aggravated his mission for the day is complete. “You’re cute when you’re mad,” he smirks as he gets up from his seat and smartly positions himself out of my swing range. “Almost as cute as you are in pink bows.” He smiles at me wolfishly from the few feet of distance he has put between us then turns around and strides away.

  I eye the plastic knife and fork on my plate. I guesstimate how much damage I can do with them.

  When I look back up Lauren, Nikki, Daniella, Casey, and Cassie are all gaping at me.

  I awkwardly clear my throat.

  “Okay that might have been the most intense conversation I’ve ever witnessed.” Nikki is talking to me but she is staring at Derek across the cafeteria. “And hot.”

  “Tell me about it,” Lauren agrees fanning herself. “I am so jealous. You were alone in your room with him and half naked. Did y’all like do it or at least fool around a little? Tell me y’all did because it would be a shame if you were in that situation with him and didn’t get a piece of that.”

  Cassie covers her ears with her hands. “Eww! I so don’t want to hear about z piece of Derek’s anything.”

  “I second that motion.” I wrinkle my nose in Derek’s direction to make it extra clear just what I think about him. “The only thing I have done with Derek is try very hard not to kill him and the only thing I want to do with Derek is stab him. Repeatedly. Saying we don’t like each other would be an understatement. We tolerate each other on a good day because of Cassie.”

  “It sure looked like y’all have the hots for each other to me,” Daniella just has to add her two sense in. “I’ve never seen people who don’t like each other argue like that.”

  “Trust me we don’t.”

  The three are about to descend on me with another round of questions and opinions and observations all about Derek but Cassie saves me. “I’m having a pool party tomorrow night,” she says changing the subject. “The address is 1745 Alcove. Y’all are invited if you want to come.”

  “I definitely want to come,” Lauren responds. “I’m not passing up a chance to see Derek shirtless and in swim trunks.”

  And of course we circle back to him. What is it with girls and Derek? Granted he is hot. Like an eleven on a ten point scale if you only judge him by his looks. But once he opens his mouth that rating severely plummets. And Derek always opens his mouth.

  “Me either,” Nikki quickly agrees.

  “Well if y’all are going I am too,” Daniella tells her friends. “I need a good distraction from Trey anyway. Maybe he will be there and I can find somebody to make him jealous with.”

  “That’s my girl,” Nikki smiles at her approvingly. “Screw him. Show him that there are plenty of fish in the sea.”

  “Are you coming?” She asks Casey who has been quiet the entire time.

  “No, I don’t thi-,” Casey starts to say she but then Lauren cuts her off.

  “Come on Case, you never come out with us. It’s junior year. We only have two years until we graduate. You should have some fun before we do.”

  Casey thinks about it for a minute. It’s clear she doesn’t want to go, but her friends are all staring at her expectantly. She ends up caving into their peer pressure and agreeing to the party.

  ******

  Cass ends up with a pretty good turn out for her party. Most of the juniors and seniors at Laurel Springs High come and I spy a few underclassmen sprinkled throughout the upperclassmen too.

  Coincidentally Mrs. Jensen isn’t home. She started her job as a night nurse at the hospital in town a week ago. The cool thing is she knows about the party and is completely okay with it. She is the one who bought and prepared all of the refreshments for it. She was thrilled when Cass told her. She said that she and Derek needed to behave like normal teenagers more often.

  I don’t however think she would be cool with the keg one of Matt’s buddies smuggled in or the vodka another one used to spike the punch with.

  Boisterous and tipsy teenagers half clothed in swimsuits and trunks crowd the inside of the Jensens’ house and their backyard around their pool. Loud music plays from Cassie’s iPod hooked up to a portable speaker and amp Derek grudgingly let her borrow. The party has been in full swing for two hours and I have yet to see Derek emerge from his room. I’m starting to think he was serious when he told Cassie he wouldn’t be participating or helping her clean up the mess when we were putting up decorations around the house earlier.

  Cass and I hang out against her living room wall watching everyone else have fun around us.

  “I’ve never been to a high school party before. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do at one of these things,” Cassie confesses to me.

  “Me either. Becca dragged me to a few sophomore and freshman year but I pretty much just did the same thing I’m doing now.”

  “We’re hopeless,” Cassie smiles over at me.

  “Maybe I am, but you’re not,” I tell her. “You’re exuberant enough to be the life of the party. Go mingle,” I tell her.

  She frowns at me. “And leave you by yourself. I’d be a sucky friend if I did that.”

  I scan the room and find the exact person that will get her off the wall beside me. “Matt is in the kitchen by the keg. And he isn’t surrounded by his football buddies at the moment either. He is the reason you decided to have a party on the whim. It’s the perfect time and setting to just waltz up to him and say ‘Hi. How’s it going?’”

  When she doesn’t immediately move off the wall I decide to give her a little push. “Come on. I’ll go with with.” I grab her hand and drag her across the room, not giving her a c
hance to protest or make up yet another excuse for why Matt has been at her house for two hours and she has yet to talk to him.

  “Hi Cass. Hi Ash,” Matt says when we walk into the kitchen.

  I gently elbow Cass in the side.

  “Hi,” she sputters. “How is it going?”

  Really Cass?! Seriously?!

  Matt smiles at her and from the way he does, all sweet and trying to act cool like, I know he likes her too. “Nice party. Your parents must be really cool for letting you have it.”

  “Yeah my mom is. We’ve moved around a lot the last couple of years and she wants us to finally experience things high school kids do.”

  Matt asks her about where else she lived before coming to Laurel and I take that as my cue to retreat back to the wall.

  “Ash!” Lauren calls to me over the music as I’m crossing the living room.

  “Hey,” I say to her, Nikki, Daniella, and Casey.

  “Where’s Cassie?” She asks me.

  “In the kitchen talking to Matt.”

  “Ooh. Does she have a thing for him?” Nikki asks. “I can see why if she does. Matt is cute. And there is more to him than he let’s on. I had an honors english class with him last year. He’s pretty smart for a jock.”

  “Isn’t that kind of messed up coming from you. You’re an athlete too.” I can’t help but to point out the irony in her statement.

  “It’s not the same thing. Football players are a different breed of athlete entirely.”

  “If you say so.” Nothing about what she said made sense.

  “We’re headed out by the pool. Come with us,” Lauren says.

  She doesn’t give me a chance to object. She locks her arm through mine and starts towards the backyard.

  “I think I hate her as much as I hate him.” Daniella glares at Trey who Miranda is grinding all up on a few feet away from us.

  “Forget him and her. She’s a skank and you can do so much better than him,” Nikki tells her. “I hate to say it but I’m glad you finally caught him with your own eyes. There is no way for him to weasel his way out of this one and manipulate you into taking him back.”