CHAPTER 14: ASH
“You’re an idiot.”
Like I needed Spitz to tell me that? I glanced around at the surrounding booths of Waffle House then lowered my voice.
“Yeah, I know,” I said, thanking God that Kent wasn’t here. He’d left about thirty minutes ago to make curfew, and I’d waited to spill the beans until then. This was too damn embarrassing. “So, what should I do?”
“Grovel, beg, kiss the ground at her feet,” she replied, twirling a fork in her leftover syrup. “All good options.”
“You’re not being real supportive there, Spitz.”
She threw up her hands. “What do you expect, Ash? You tore the poor girl’s heart out just to make her jealous. You even brought Sadie into it. You screwed up big time. Now, you have to make it right.”
“Shh,” I hissed, looking around again.
Spitz rolled her eyes. “Like anyone’s going to hear me.”
She had a point. At 10:55 p.m., there were only four other customers—including Smith who sat a booth over, tapping on his phone. After I’d dropped off Snow and Koi, I circled back to the field. I couldn’t go to Sadie for obvious reasons, and Spitz was my only other true female friend. Didn’t take a genius to see the plan wasn’t working. These past few days Snow’d been like a ghost. At CCDS, she hardly spoke to me, and when she did, all I got was one-word answers. It was time to switch gears.
“But what should I do?” I asked again. “Me and Sadie were never together. It was all a lie.”
“I still can’t believe she thought that. You and Sadie?” she scoffed. “You’d tear each other’s heads off. Plus, Sadie’s way too cool for you.”
“You know, when we were younger, Sadie used to have a crush on me.” For like three days before I tore the head off her favorite teddy bear, I thought but didn’t say.
“Who can explain the mysteries of youth?” she said.
Despite myself, I laughed. “I really have missed you, Spitz.”
“Same here.” She smiled—then her eyes got serious. “So tell me: Is this Snow girl worth it? From what I saw, she doesn’t seem all that great.”
The hell? “What are you even saying, right now?” I knew I was talking too loud but couldn’t help it. “Snow is amazing.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Come on, Spitz, how could you not?” All the things I loved about Snow made a mad dash through my head and rushed out unfiltered. “She’s smart, like really smart, and braver than anyone I’ve ever met. She’s funny. I love teasing her, and I’ve never met a girl who can give it right back to me like she does. She’s so beautiful she doesn’t even need makeup. And she can kick my ass, which surprisingly enough turns me the hell on. So stop saying she’s not great, okay? Or I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”
By the end, I was breathing hard, while Spitz’s eyes were wide, and she was grinning from ear to ear.
“What?” I asked.
“Congratulations,” she said, shaking her head. “That was exactly the right answer. There’s hope for you yet, my friend.”
My eyes narrowed on that grin. “You mean, you just said all that to…”
“Make sure you’re actually into her? Yeah, I did.”
“Very sneaky, Spitz.”
She shrugged. “I try. Now, would you grovel and beg for Snow? Would you say farewell to the Dark Side and become a true Jedi Knight?”
I shrugged. “I could try.”
“Do or do not. There is no try.” Seeing my confusion, she rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Ash? It’s like the best known Yoda-ism there is.” Spitz sighed, then, “Would you sacrifice your pride to make things better?”
I didn’t even have to think about it. “Yeah, I would. I’d do anything for Snow.”
“Then you do whatever it takes,” she said.
“Whatever it takes,” I repeated, thinking hard.
“You know, girls still love the grand gesture.”
“Ah, come on,” I said. “That’s not me, Spitz. You know I hate that crap.”
She shook her head. “Don’t underestimate the power of a truly swoon-worthy, totally humiliating act. It never fails—especially when you’ve screwed up as royally as you have.”
I grunted.
“If you’re having trouble,” she said and gave my arm a squeeze, “the truth’s usually a good place to start. Take it from someone who knows. See you around, Stryker.”
“Yeah, bye, Spitz.”
The truth? I thought, running a hand over my face as she walked away.
“Shit.”
* * *
Sadie wasn’t taking the news well.
“You did what?” she cried. “She thinks you and I are…that we’re…”
“Together,” I finished. “Yeah.”
“But why?” she asked. “You’re into her, I can tell. And Snow obviously wants you. Why would you do something so stupid?”
I shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. You know jealousy can be an effective tool. I thought…well, I thought it would make Snow come around. Guess I was wrong.”
Sadie looked at me, eyes flashing. Her wild hair moved with her as she slowly shook her head. I’d just explained everything—about my plan to make Snow jealous and her unwitting role as the “other woman.” In response, as predicted, Sadie looked ready to tear my head off.
“You are such an idiot,” she said finally—and stormed past me through Academy’s front door.
“Sadie, wait,” I hissed, going after her.
She’d been outside when I pulled up for self-defense. Perfect timing, I’d thought. Now I could test drive Spitz’s idea before confronting Snow. So far, the truth was a crash and burn.
“Sadie.” I grabbed her arm in the lobby. Mrs. Lee was behind the desk watching us, so I tried to keep it down. “Hold up a sec.”
“What?” She whipped around, her hair nearly taking my eye out.
“I think we should explain this together,” I said, “so she won’t misunderstand.”
“Oh, you think?” Sadie faked surprise. “I didn’t know that was possible for a guy like you.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “I deserve that.”
As Mrs. Lee tilted her head, I got the weirdest feeling. Like she knew what we were arguing about. But Sadie and I had talked outside, right in front of the lobby windows. A thought hit me. Did the Secret Service teach their people how to lipread? Mrs. Lee’s ice-cold stare said they might. I swallowed hard.
“You know what,” Sadie said, gritting her teeth, “you’re my friend Ash, have been forever. But right now? I really want to eviscerate a certain part of your anatomy with my eyes.”
I shivered. “Geez, Sadie.”
She smiled. “And if you think that’s bad, I can’t wait to see what Snow’s going to do to you.”
With that, she strode into the gym, and I followed at a slower pace. The Elite members were doing their thing. Everyone else was waiting for self-defense class to start except Snow who was in the middle of crunches. This couldn’t end well. I’d known it from the start, but…evisceration of my man parts? That was a little harsh.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Smith said, coming up beside me. “No one can do that with their eyes. It’s impossible.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I mumbled.
“Trust me, Ash.” He patted my shoulder. “No girl’s worth all this. She’ll get over it or she won’t. End of story. And maybe it’d be better if she didn’t.”
“What?”
“Ever since Snow came on board, it’s thrown everything off. I respect Mrs. C, don’t get me wrong,” he said, hands up. “But hiring a teenage girl to guard you? That was a bad call.”
I glanced at him. “Nothing’s happened yet, and Dad’s weeks away from being elected.”
“Three more letters came today,” Smith pointed out.
“Yeah, but…that’s normal,” I said. After the whole rat incident, it’d been nothing but letters. An increase in letters, true, but that was to be expected as the election drew closer. “Like Mrs. Lee said, they’re just trying to scare Dad into dropping out.”
“Yeah, but what if something happens?” He shook his head. “I just don’t want you or your family to get hurt because of Snow’s inexperience. We were doing fine before she came along.”
“Don’t worry, Smith,” I said, pounding his back in reassurance. Even though I hated the constant babysitting, he and Evers had always cared about our family. “We’ll be alright.”
“Whatever you say, man.”
Right then, we reached Snow. She was on her feet again, done with her exercises, trying to pretend she didn’t see the three of us as we approached. Alright, I thought. Time to focus. With how pissed Sadie was, there was no telling what she’d do.
“Hey, Snow. Here,” Sadie said, handing her a disc. “The completed stunt reel is on there. I made three vids, each one a little different, so you’d have a choice.”
“That’s great,” Snow said. “Thanks.”
“Hey, ninja girl,” I said.
“Hi,” she mumbled, turning to put the disc away, not meeting my eyes. This avoidance—this—was why I had to tell Snow the truth. I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to start.
“Oh, one more thing,” Sadie said. “Ash and I aren’t together. He just pretended like we were to make you jealous, a plan I had no knowledge of until about five minutes ago.”
Snow stiffened. “What?”
My eyes closed as a Sadie-induced tick started in my jaw. I was going to kill her.
“I don’t know what Ash told you,” she said, “but we’ve never been anything more than friends. And right now I’m reconsidering that. I’ve recently discovered he’s kind of a jerk.”
“Love you, too, Sadie,” I muttered.
“No, you don’t love me,” she said. “Your sneaky heart belongs to Snow. You were just too chicken to tell her.”
“She’s right.” I’d be damned if I let Sadie have the last word. “I was hoping if I made you jealous, you’d get over the whole client-bodyguard thing.”
Turning, Snow faced us with a blank expression. “So, you’re not together?” she asked.
Sadie and I shook our heads.
Again with the blank face, this time directed at me. “And you came up with some dumb plan just to make me think you were?”
I ran a hand over my face. “Sounds pretty stupid looking back on it.”
“Really stupid,” Sadie repeated. “Like the stupidest idea ever.”
“I think we can all agree it was stupid,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’m sorry, Snow. It was a shitty thing to do. I get that now.”
“No big deal,” Snow said after a beat.
Huh?
At my incredulous look, she shrugged. “There’s nothing to be sorry for because I wasn’t jealous.” Turning to Sadie, she asked, “Did you need something else?”
Sadie’s jaw slammed shut. She was just as shocked as I was. “If you don’t mind, I was hoping to get more footage for the secret project.”
Snow nodded and—walked away? This was so not going how I expected.
“Hey,” I said, hurrying to catch up. “Hey, Snow?”
“Yeah.” She grabbed a towel and ran it across her neck.
“So…you’re not upset?”
“No. Why would I be?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Because I lied. Because I made you think Sadie and me are a thing when we’re not.”
She shrugged, face still unreadable. “I’d only be angry if I was jealous, which like I said I wasn’t.”
I cocked my head. “You weren’t?”
“Nope.”
“I think you were a little jealous.”
“Not really,” she said.
Okay, this was starting to piss me off. “But you stopped talking to me right when I started mentioning Sadie. You forced me to listen to practically every Patsy Cline song known to man. I now know all her lyrics.”
Snow’s eyes burned. “So?”
“So, I’m saying you were jealous.”
“You’re crazy,” she said, practically throwing the words in my face. Ah, there was my ninja girl.
“No, I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I just wanted you to know that I’ve never been interested in Sadie like that.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Snow gestured to where Sadie was sitting in the bleachers. She had her camera out, ready to record. “Tall, beautiful, skin the color of cream. She’s basically a curvy dead ringer for Taylor Swift. Or hadn’t you noticed?”
“Sadie’s like my little sister,” I shrugged. “I could never see her that way. Plus, she’s annoying as hell. Definitely not my type.”
“Yeah, right,” she said. “And what might that be?”
“I like smart girls who can kick my ass.”
The bright flush on her cheeks told me she got my meaning. Loud and clear.
I grinned. “Know anyone like that, Snow?”
Instead of answering, she said, “Want to help me with something?”
“Anything,” I said.
She nodded and called the rest of the self-defense kids over. “Alright, guys, today I’m going to teach you how to take an assailant down. This is an important lesson. In case you can’t get away, you should know how to inflict the most damage. Ash has volunteered to be my assistant for this class.” Turning to me, she said, “Ready?”
“Sure,” I said. “What do I need to do?”
“Nothing.” There was an odd gleam in her eyes. “Just keep getting back up.”
“Okay.” She shook her head, a slow smile forming on her lips. “What?” I asked.
“It’s a good thing you like girls who can kick your ass,” she replied.
And then I was flying through the air.
After about the tenth flip, I lost track of how many times my back hit the mat. Sadie laughed the whole time, recording as Snow proceeded to smack me around. The hour seemed to drag on forever. But by the end of it, even though my body was sore, and I felt like shit, I couldn’t help but smile.
“Class dismissed,” Snow said, staring down at me, hands on hips. Her face glowed with perspiration, a line between her brows. “And what are you so happy about?”
“Thought you said you weren’t jealous,” I said back.
“I’m not,” she said, but we both knew she was lying. The way she growled and stomped off just made it that much more obvious.
And that meant I still had a shot. My smile widened.
“You’re a dumbass,” Min-Hee said with a frown, coming to stand over me, Bae Bae at her side.
I nodded. “I know.”
Bae Bae was smiling; it was annoying as hell. “Snow beat your ass good.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said, getting to my feet. My legs felt like Jell-O. A second later, Min-Hee had an envelope pressed to my chest. “What’s this?”
“An invitation to our engagement party,” she said, eyes narrowed. “I like you, Ash, mainly because Snow seems to like you.”
“Thanks, Min-Hee.”
“But”—she brought her face closer to mine—”if you hurt my friend, I’ll make that beatdown seem like a love tap. You don’t mess with, Snow. I will take.you.out. Do you understand?”
I blinked. Min-Hee was little but fierce. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“Good.” She stepped back and smiled like nothing had happened. “The party’s tomorrow at The Singing Fish. We hope to see you there.”
“Is Snow going?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Then I’ll be there.”
It was enough to make her grin and Bae Bae frown, so I knew I’d done something right. Now, how to get back in Snow’s good graces… Nothing immediately came to mind—but then I remembered that conversation with Spitz. A grand gesture, she’d said. The public take down had to count as humiliation. Now for the swoon.
I looked down at the invite in my hands, grinning to myself as a plan started to form.
My ninja girl wouldn’t know what hit her.