Love Thy Neighbor (28 page)

He nods, all the while looking at Chris in
warning. And then he’s gone.

***

I wait all second period by the lockers. I
feel like an ass just standing here, but I want to talk to him.

Finally, there he is. Dark brown hair,
lightest brown eyes I’ve ever seen and making out with a hot girl.
He’s got his hand on her ass and for a second, I’m jealous.

I’m taller than him. Not by much though. I
wait til he passes me in the hall and run to catch up with him.

When I reach his side, I walk with him. I
say, “I’m Asher.”

He nods his head, looking straight ahead. He
replies, “I’m Nik.”

We walk the halls together and people stop
and stare. People like me don’t hang with people like Nik but
there’s something about this guy. He’s got an attitude to him. He’s
one of those guys that makes the trends. No one would dare question
him.

I know why the people are staring. I have
holes in my clothes and Nik wears designer shit. We just don’t
match. Halfway to class, I ask, “Why’d you do that?”

Acting dumb, he asks, “Do what?”

I’m this close to losing my shit. I snap, “I
don’t owe you a fucking thing, pretty boy!”

Nik grins. A single dimple pops out and he
says, “Never said you did, asshole. Calm your shit down. Here’s
what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna come eat your lunch with me
today. Just me and you. We’ll talk then.”

Then he disappears down the hall.

***

Nik sees I don’t actually have lunch and
gives me half his sandwich. He says with a full mouth, “So what’s
the deal with all the angry?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “What the fuck is
there to be happy about?”

Nik grins. “Good point.” His face becomes
serious. “You been through shit?”

I don’t answer, just stare him down while I
take a bite of the sandwich. He nods and says quietly, “Yeah, me
too.”

We don’t talk during the rest of lunch. He
finishes his sandwich, and stands. “Come over tomorrow after
school. Got some shit you might like to see.”

He walks away, and I can’t help but wonder
if I really just made a friend.

***

I stare at the object in my hands with wide
eyes in complete awe.

Nik says through a smile, “You like that,
huh? Pops gave it to me last year. It came from Russia.”

It’s a .45 caliber pistol. I lift it, hold
it up and point it out the window. Nik snatches it from my hands,
waving the gun in the air and says, “My dad says never to aim at
something you don’t intend to kill.”

I need to figure out how to steal this
gun.

Curiosity gets the better of me. I ask, “You
ever used it?”

Nik nods his head then hands me a bag. I
take it but don’t open it. It’s soft. I’m guessing it’s clothes.
“If something doesn’t fit, just throw it away.”

I wonder why this guy has my back.

Regardless of how hesitant I am, something
tells me to stick around and find out.

***

I don’t know why I’m so nervous, but I can’t
stop watching Nik’s dad. I think I’m waiting for the ball to
drop.

Why did Nik get a dad like this and I got
mine?

The funny thing is Ilia (weird name - it
sounds like Ee-lee-yah) watches me just as closely. It’s like he
can see inside me. See what I’ve been through. My heart races as I
sit at the dinner table in between Nik and his brother, Max. Max is
okay. He’s annoying, but in a lot of ways, he’s like Nik. They
really don’t give a shit where I came from.

I’m surrounded by a loud, happy family. And
it sucks. Reminds me of what I don’t have.

Nik’s mom looks at me through saddened eyes
and I want to leave. I don’t want to be a charity case.

“Thank you for dinner, but I need to get
home.” I stand and make to leave.

No one says a word. I can see Nik’s mom is
disappointed. Ilia stands and says in a thick accent, “Come. I’ll
walk you out.”

Keeping my head down, I don’t say goodnight
to anyone. Ilia puts a hand on my shoulder and I want to burst into
tears. When he closes the front door behind us, he motions to the
front steps and I sit. He says, “You ever need any help, son, for
anything at all. You call Niki and he’ll tell me. I’ll take care of
it.”

Stunned, I look up at him and he states,
“Bruises on your arm there, they look just like a grown man’s
handprint. Now, I’m not saying that I saw what I saw but scars are
not easy to hide.”

Leaning back he whispers, “No man should
ever lay a hand on a child. Children are innocent. They deserve
better. If you ever feel like you’re unsafe, you come here. If I
find out through Niki that you came to school with bruises, I’ll go
see your parents myself and I can’t promise I’ll be nice.”

I want to ask why he’s offering this but I
change my mind. A bed in a safe house with warmth and food, I’d be
stupid to pass that up. I tell myself it has nothing to do with the
fact that I like Nik and Max. Looking up at him, I nod in
agreement. He smacks my shoulder in a fatherly way and I stand to
leave.

Walking away from Ilia, I turn halfway down
the drive and tell him, “I hate him. I wish he was dead. Some
nights, I wish I was too.”

Ilia’s face softens. I don’t wait for a
response.

I walk home to whatever kind of hell waits
for me.

***

Sixteen years old. Later that year…

I pack whatever I can fit into the gym
bag.

Cannibal Corpse blasts ‘Hammer Smashed Face’
from the cassette player, and I imagine doing every single thing
this song says to my father.

I’ve been sleeping at Nik’s place. A lot.
Truth is, I don’t want to be here anymore, not even to protect my
mom, so I’m packing a bag and leaving right now. The other week I
came over pretty late and when Cecelia, Nik’s mom, saw my bruised
face, she cried for me and hugged me tight. It felt nice to have
someone care. Ilia took me aside and ordered, “You will pack
whatever you can and come back here. I will not send you back to
your death.”

I argued that my father wouldn’t allow it
but he said, “Leave him to me.”

I got a sick sense of satisfaction knowing
my father would likely have his ass handed to him.

As I run out into the hallway, my mother
stands there. When she sees the bag in my hand, she crumbles. I
yell at her, “Don’t even, Ma. Don’t you fucking cry. Run! Just
fucking leave. He’s going to kill us if we don’t.”

Looking up at the bruises on my face, she
whispers, “Nothin’ more than I deserve, Ashy.”

With one last look at her, I turn and swear
to never come back to this place.

As soon as I step out of the property line,
I breathe a sigh of relief.

I’m going home.

Chapter Twenty-Two
Shit hits the fan

Sitting up in bed, Ash rests his head on my
stomach with his arms tightly wrapped around me. He squeezes me in
his sleep while I run my fingers through his hair. I listen to his
deep breathing. My only form of comfort right now is knowing he’s
sleeping soundly without nightmares of the abuse he suffered as a
child.

My heart is heavy.

I’m feeling helpless and withdrawn. I never
feel like this. The last time I felt like this was when Mia died.
Tina’s daughter was a huge part of my life. I was her aunt, and it
affected me as much as it did Tina. I loved that little girl with
all my heart.

Cursing myself, I lean my head back on the
headboard with a soft thump.

I wanted to know what happened to him. I was
the one who pushed. He told me it was fucked up, and I pushed and
pushed til he had no choice but to tell me. And now I wish I didn’t
know.

So now I sit here, tears streaming down my
face in devastation for what this beautiful man endured as a child.
I will never forget what I was told tonight. It was as if he zoned
out. Like he wasn’t even in the room with me. It seemed like he
spoke for hours, when in reality all it took was about a half hour
for me to get the general idea of how his life was before he met
Nik.

Next time I see Nik, I’ll be lucky if I
don’t burst into tears. I knew I liked Nik before, but now…now I am
grateful for him.

Burnt. Cut. Bruised. Choked. Hit.

He was just a fucking
baby
.

All I want to do is find his parents and
punish them. He told me his father died quite a few years back and
to take pity on his mother, he said, “Mom never hurt me, but she
never helped me, so I guess she did hurt me regardless, but she was
weak. Weak physically and weak in character. Whatever dad said, she
went along with. Didn’t have it in her to fight. She’s not like
me.”

If Ash is anything, he’s a fighter
alright.

He had a broken arm for three days before
they took him to the hospital. It was infected so bad that the
doctors thought he might lose it. Trying to downplay it, he told me
he didn’t remember much of it. But I don’t care. Given the chance,
I’d hurt them as badly as they hurt him.

When I asked him if he had any brothers or
sisters he said, “Nik, Max and Trick
are
my brothers. Only
ones that matter.”

So many questions came to mind. I asked him
why they call him Ghost, and he said that during his time working
for the Russians, they discovered he had a knack of getting in and
out of places undetected. And Ghost was born. I think it digs
deeper than that. I think it hits him somewhere right in the center
of his chest.

There’s more to it. I know there’s a reason
he gets pissed when I call him that.

I lift his head from my stomach and scoot
down the bed. I take a moment to look at him.
Really
look at
him. He looks so peaceful while he sleeps. Imagining the years of
torture he endured followed by years of night terrors…it makes my
heart ache. I watch him a moment longer then wipe away my tears.
Leaning closer to him, I kiss his lips whisper-soft and say
quietly, “You’re not invisible to me, Ghost.”

I snuggle closer to him and wonder if he
feels that warmth. The same warmth that I feel when I’m with
him.

Taking his hand in mine, I link our fingers
and close my eyes.

“Sweet dreams, Ash. Love you.”

***

Something taps my nose. I flap my hand about
to get rid of it.

Again with the nose. I growl and put my head
under the pillow. It smells like lemon and berries under here.

Nice.

“Asherrrr.” Nat. She says this in a
sing-song voice, and I know I have to look up at her.

When I lift my face, I rub the sleep out of
my eyes and freeze.

There she is, standing at the door wearing
only my shirt and panties. Sexy as sin and cute as hell all rolled
into one.

Then I’m doused in water.

In defense mode, I snatch her pillow and
hold it up while I roll off the bed army-style. I hear her pump the
damn water pistol and she yells out, “Fair’s fair,” then she throws
something on the bed.

Her footsteps running away from the bedroom
fill my ears. When I think it’s safe, I lift my head and look on
the bed. I smirk.

Picking up my own huge water pistol, I pump
it as far as it’ll let me. I check the water level. It’s full. My
lips pull down, raise my brows and tilt my head. The little minx
didn’t stiff me.

Respect.

Oh, now she’s gone and done it.

Stealth mode takes over and I crawl around
the bed til I get to the bedroom door, dragging my legs behind me.
I stick my head out from the bottom of the door, and I see a tiny
mouse head slipper sticking out from behind the kitchen counter. I
smirk.

It’s on.

I crouch and creep towards the kitchen,
being careful not to make a sound. Can’t nobody be quieter than the
Ghost. When I reach the opposite side of the counter, I mentally
count to three, then jump out with a war cry, guns blazing and
spraying the shit out of her.

Only, there’s no one there. Just a damn
slipper.

My back is suddenly saturated.

I turn and my front becomes drenched too.
Cutting my losses, I toss the gun and take two steps toward Nat.
She looks beautiful. Flushed cheeks, bright-eyed and laughing her
ass off at me. When I think of her, I’m going to see her exactly as
I see her now. She really is my pretty girl.

Narrowing my eyes with a cruel smile, she
stills a moment. When she realizes what I’m doing, she squeaks,
drops her gun, turns on her heel and runs. I yell out, “Run,
Forrest, Run!”

C’mon! Even
I
know
Forrest
Gump
.

There are only three possible places in this
apartment she can run to, and she just ran out of the kitchen,
leaving her bedroom and the bathroom as her only options. I walk to
her bedroom and throw open the door. It looks empty but…

Something falls in the closet and I chuckle
to myself.

The closet? She can’t get anywhere from in
there! Too cute.

I approach the closet door smiling like a
damn fool, take the knob and throw it open. I scrunch my face as
water splashes me in the eyes. The little shit has two small
pistols in her hands. She’s laughing so hard she’s crying. I snatch
the pistols, throw them behind me and pick her up and over my
shoulder. She doesn’t bother fighting. I don’t think she could if
she wanted to. Her body is weak from laughter.

This is what I like about this girl. She
doesn’t treat me like I’m damaged. I know last night must have been
hard to hear, but she took it well. Masked her emotions like a pro.
The only thing giving her away was her clenching jaw and the way
she fisted the covers.

This girl. She’s my girl.

She’s not perfect. Neither am I. But she’s
perfect for me, and I’ll do anything I can to keep her.

Walking across the room with her, I throw
her onto the bed. She looks up at me with those pink cheeks and
smiling eyes…and I’m home. No place I’d rather be than here with my
girl just goofin’ around.