~ Zoie's POV ~
"Oh my God! I can't believe that just happened!" Zoie squeaked. "My body was, like, on adrenaline or something!"
"Watch the road," Asher said simply, keeping his eyes to the front. Zoie noticed him grimacing a little, like it was hard for him to speak. He must be in a lot of pain.
"Ash, are you okay?" Zoie asked, alternating her view between the road and him.
"I'm fine," he put his hand to his mouth as he coughed, and Zoie saw blood coming out of his mouth.
"Oh my God, you're bleeding everywhere! We need to go to the hospital-"
"No!" he cut her off sharply. "That's not necessary,"
"But, Ash-"
"They're gonna ask too many questions. We don't want that,"
"But-"
"Do you want your dad to hear about all this on the news tomorrow?"
Zoie piped down instantly. Asher was right. Her dad would go ballistic if he knew what just went down. And not only that she'd get a ton of shit coming from him, but Asher would too. Zoie could already imagine how that conversation would play out.
"How did this happen?!" Damon would yell angrily. "Why wasn't Asher with you in the first place?!"
"Well... we got into a fight and I didn't want him around anymore..."
"What kind of fight? What happened?"
"Well... we hooked up. Again. And then he was acting so cold and I got hurt, so yeah, I don't wanna be around him..."
"You two hooked up!?!"
"Yup. We hid that part from you because we thought we can be professional and get on with our lives. But we can't. And then I left and got myself kidnapped by Miles and his friends,"
"Who the hell is this Miles?!"
"My ex-boyfriend who Asher beat up because he was a cheating man-slut. He wanted revenge because Asher took away his chances at college and baseball and all that,"
"Zoie!!! What the hell!!!"
Zoie shook her head quickly. This could never reach her dad's ears. Ever! He must never know about any of this. Or else, he might pull her out of Stanford completely.
"See?" Asher said again. "I didn't think so,"
"But, what about you...?" Zoie turned to Ash worriedly. His face was all torn up. His body was full of bruises and cuts and he could barely walk. Who knows how many bones he'd broken? "We can't just not treat your wounds..."
"Just get me home. I'll know what to do," he said simply.
Zoie narrowed her eyes at him.
"Are you sure?"
"Trust me," he chuckled. "It's not my first rodeo,"
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~ Asher's POV ~
"Ash! I can't do this! I can't look!" Zoie squeaked and closed her eyes.
"You have to look!" Asher pressed, pulling her hands from her face.
About an hour later, Asher and Zoie were back in the living room of their apartment. On the floor, there were bottles of alcohol, both the drink and the cleaning type, the first aid kit, and several bandages.
Asher sat on the floor only in his pants as they were cleaning up his wounds. His legs and knees were messed up pretty badly, but he just needed to bandage them up and let them rest, let them heal on their own. In the meantime, however, he had to deal with the cuts on his upper body. He didn't want to be staining his sheets with blood everywhere, so they gotta patch up the cuts.
"Ugh..." Zoie's hand was trembling as she held the needle in her hand. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"
While frowning and grimacing, Zoie stitched the torn up skin on Asher's arm. He asked her to do this, he taught her how to. Asher bit his lip to suppress the pain as he held tightly onto a bottle of Vodka.
"Agh!!" he groaned in pain as she finished the stitching. As soon as she was done, he put the bottle to his mouth and gulped the drink.
"Should I stop?" she asked, looking worriedly at him.
"Keep going," he said as he put the bottle down.
Asher already received stitches in six parts of his upper body. What was left now was the cut on the side of his eye. This one would probably hurt the most since it was right on his face.
"Okay. One last time," Zoie said as she let out a deep breath. It was like she was more afraid of the pain than Asher was.
Asher watched in silence as Zoie came closer. She carefully dabbed some alcohol onto a cotton pad and brushed it along the wound. The alcohol stung his skin pretty badly, but Asher didn't even flinch. Zoie's face was so close to him, he could only look at her like he was entranced. This was the first time he could see her face up close like this since that night. So yes, this was a big deal for him. He kept staring into those purple-blue eyes and wondered how anyone's eyes could be so beautiful. He noted how her cheeks were blushing rosy pink, and those lips... Oh, they looked so soft. He could only imagine what they would feel like if he'd slam his lips onto them right now...
"Okay, we're done!" Zoie said suddenly, catching him off guard. Asher flinched back as Zoie was finishing up her last stitch, and he felt his skin stung with pain.
"Fúck!" he grimaced.
"I'm sorry, was that me?!" she looked apologetic as she pulled her hand away.
"No, it's not," he shook his head. "It's fine,"
"We're about done with the stitches now," she said as she put the box away. "What now?"
"Now, we need to patch these up with some bandage and we're done," Asher replied. He moved his arm around and though he felt some pain, he figured they were manageable. In a few weeks' time, he'd be back and good as new.
"Just wrap those tightly over the wound, but not too tight. Two wraps and tape it up," he instructed her, pointing to all the necessary tools.
Zoie nodded her head and obeyed, doing them exactly how Asher told her to.
"How did you learn to do all of this anyway?" she asked as she cut up some tape for the bandages.
"From the fight club," he answered. "I can't afford hospital bills all the damn time, so I learned how to do it myself,"
"The fight club?"
Asher let out a smile.
"It's a thing I used to do with my boy, Mikey. He ran this fight club thing in Miami and I'd be fighting for him. We made pretty good money from that. I was gonna use that money to build a racing team, but it's gonna take some time,"
"What happened?"
"Your dad happened," he shrugged. "He gave me an offer I couldn't refuse, so here I am,"
Zoie's lips curved into a soft smile.
"Speaking of Mikey, he's the hacker that helped me with the Miles stuff. He's a cool dude," Asher spoke again. "Maybe you'll meet him someday,"
Zoie's smile suddenly fell flat.
"Ash, why did you do that for?" she asked.
"Do what?"
"You didn't have to do all that to Miles. You beat him up pretty badly. Wasn't that enough?" she sighed. "No wonder he got so pissed and he did all of this-"
"That son of a bitch hurt you, Zoie. I can't let him go that easily!" Asher cut her off. "And trust me, if I wasn't in this state, I'd probably have killed that motherfúcker and his pathetic friends!"
"Asher, stop it!" Zoie said firmly, shaking her head. "All this fighting back and forth has to stop! You're not here to fight and kill people. That's not who you are!"
Asher fell silent. Something that she said struck a chord in him.
"But..." she said again, pausing for a beat before continuing, "I must say, I'm really glad you came for me,"
Asher still couldn't speak. For some reason, he could only stare at her.
"You pretty much saved my life... So, thank you..."
Zoie's cheeks were blushing bright pink. Asher didn't say a word or move an inch. And all of a sudden, she leaned closer and planted a soft, sweet kiss on his cheek. It was a simple and small gesture, but it made Asher feel like he was just hit by a bullet to the head.
Fúck! Don't be a weirdo! Say something!
"I-I didn't do anything except getting beat up," Asher chuckled to ease the tension. "You're the one who got us out of there,"
"No, but seriously, I don't know what would've happened if you never came, I don't even wanna think about that..." she said.
Zoie shook her head like was trying to forget everything that happened before Asher showed up. She didn't tell him what happened or what they said explicitly, but they must be bad because she looked so traumatized.
And not to mention... her clothes were all torn up... those fúcking sons of bitches!
Asher sighed and leaned closer, pulling her into a hug.
"Hey, stop thinking about that," he said. "You're okay now and that's all that matters,"
Zoie sighed as she buried her face deeper into his chest.
"I'm here to protect you, Zoie. That's all I wanna do," he tightened his grip around her harder, stroking her hair gently. "I'm sorry I messed things up between us, but I care for you. I really do..."
Asher's entire body was in pain, and holding her like this didn't help either. But still, he didn't want to stop. If he could hold her like this forever, he would.
"Ash... I... I'm sorry too..." she spoke suddenly, her voice almost like a whisper.
"What are you sorry for?" he asked, tilting her chin up with his hand.
"I was a total bitch to you this past week..." she said as she looked up at him.
"You're not that at all," he chuckled and shook his head. "I deserved it, to be honest. I was pretty harsh on you with the whole... you know,"
Asher gave out a smile, and she smiled back too, even if just slightly.
"I just feel like... I've failed you," he continued. "I should be here protecting you and I hurt you instead,"
"You didn't hurt me," she shook her head quickly.
"I saw what you had to go through," he shook his head too. "It happened because I was reckless,"
"It happened because I wanted it to happen too. It's not just your fault!" she said firmly.
Asher narrowed his eyes at her. And before he could say another word, her hand had reached up to touch his face. Asher found himself leaning his cheek into the palm of her hand.
"I wanted to be yours, Ash..." she whispered. "No, I still wanna be yours..."
"Zoie..." Asher found his voice turning into a whisper too. His heart was racing so fast, it might as well rip through his ribcage.
"Is that not what you want?" she asked, looking up at him.
That look in her eye right there, it was like an arrow shot to his heart.
"I want that more than anything, Zoie, but---"
"But what?"
"What about your dad? The deal? The family?"
Zoie fell silent for a beat before saying, "No one has to know,"
"Zoie," he scoffed. "We've tried this before, and where does it leave us?"
Fúcked and almost beaten to death.
"We never gave it a fair shot, Ash," she shook her head firmly. "We need to give ourselves a real chance here. Take some time to figure out what this is for us and when we're ready... we can tell them,"
Asher narrowed his eyes and studied her face. She looked so certain about this. He almost felt like this was a dream.
"A-are you serious?" he stammered.
"I'm game if you are," she said simply, smirking a little.
Oh, god. This is gonna be the end of me, isn't it?
Asher couldn't help but smile too.
"Your father is probably gonna kill me," he said, leaning closer.
"Does that scare you?" she replied, leaning closer too.
"It's probably worth it," he said, closing his eyes as he was about to kiss her lips. But before he could do that, Zoie stopped him.
"So, we have a deal then?" she reached out her hand. "We're not gonna tell my dad about any of this. Including what just happened and what's about to happen. At least, for the time being,"
"What's about to happen?" he asked.
"This," she said, then she pulled him by the neck and crashed their lips together.
And that, ladies and gentleman, is how I die.
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- - - - - - To Be Continued - - - - - -