Chapter 9 Ash #2
“Rude.” She stood fluidly and walked over to the small table that had been pushed to the side when the couch was delivered.
“This is a joint project that we made the summer we decided woodwork was our thing.” Her smile was wide as she picked it up and showed me the underside of it, the heart with “Mia and Ava” inscribed onto it.
“We kept it, obviously, but we know not to actually put anything on it, it won’t hold, and this leg .
. .” She wiggled it, and it fell off. “Falls off. Woodwork was not our thing.” Putting it back, she looked over her shoulder at me.
“These drapes? These were in Ava’s front room, but we accidentally set them on fire one day playing with matches, so before Ava’s mom came home, we tried to cut the damage off and sew them up again.
” Proudly, she held up the bottom of the drape, and I laughed at the crazy run off.
“We failed horribly, so instead, before Jill came home, we replaced them with Ava’s ones from her bedroom and told her mom we were redecorating Ava’s room. ”
I laughed at her impish grin. “Did she believe you?”
“Nope, not one word. Ava got grounded, and then I got grounded for helping her lie.”
Laughing, I sat up straighter. “What else?” I encouraged her.
Moving to the ugly picture on the wall, she pointed at it with pride.
It was random splatters of different colors of paint, and it hurt my eyes to look at it.
“This is art.” At my look of disbelief, she giggled.
“Under all the different paint blobs is a list of all the people we disliked in high school and all the things we wanted to say to them but weren’t brave enough.
Then because we were scared someone would find it, we wanted to throw it away, but we were afraid someone might find it in the trash.
Plus, Ava had been watching some crime documentary where the forensic scientists could piece together shredded paper and make the note or letter again, so we covered it with paint to hide it instead.
” Red looked slightly embarrassed. “You know, so the CSI crew couldn’t find out who we said bad things to in our head. ”
I liked the story, and from what I had seen of them, it fit the two of them perfectly. “Why do you still have it?” I asked curiously.
Chewing the side of her lip, she looked at me and then it. “Because in my list, I wrote a cuss word, and Ava insisted we keep it to commemorate the day, even though no one would see it.”
“You swore?” I asked in amazement as I stood and moved over to the painting.
“I did.” She giggled as she looked up at me as I studied it. “You won’t see it, but it’s right about . . .” Reaching up, she pointed to a clump of blue, yellow, and red paint splatters. “Here.”
“What word did you use and in what context?” I asked her as I looked down and saw her hazel eyes looking back up at me. Shit, she was a looker all right.
Her tongue darted out to wet her lip. “The C word.”
“Fuck off!” I threw my head back and laughed loudly. “For real?”
She nodded and went back to the sofa, taking a seat again, her legs automatically pulled up to her chest.
“Which boyfriend or crush deserved such a sentence?” I asked as I looked closer at the painting. Now that she mentioned it, I could make out faint script, but it was illegible and nowhere near where she had pointed. “Red?”
“My dad.”
“Oh.” Awkward.
Her shoulder rose in a shrug, and she looked over at the kitchen.
“The clock’s my grandma’s, the plates and stuff are Ava’s from one summer she worked in a diner and learned to cook instead of what she was actually supposed to do, which was wash plates, but because she kept breaking the plates, they asked her if she could cook. Ava, being Ava, said yes.”
“Your history is here,” I said as I settled back down on the sofa. “Here I thought it lacked personality, and it’s filled with you both. Your memories.”
She smiled, and I don’t know how, but it made her look soft and vulnerable, and I felt something stir within me. I decided it was because of how open she was being. Sure, we’d hooked up, but we’d been all about the sex and not so much the talking.
“Yeah, so, you can guess why I flipped out about your brother trashing my home.” Her tone was light, and I knew she wasn’t being a bitch about it, just stating a fact.
“They didn’t take any of your mementos?” I asked, feeling guilty about the improvements for the first time.
“No. Trust me, Ava would have let you know.”
“Not you?”
“I’m calmer than Ava.”
She was delusional. “And earlier with my cleats?”
“Perfectly calm. Ava would have shoved them up your butt.”
I almost protested, and then I nodded. “Yeah, she probably would have.”
“So, distraction over, why Mayhem?” she asked as she leaned back against the couch, waiting for me to talk to her.
“My dad and the twin’s dad are twins,” I started, and I saw her nod.
“Well, Kage and Kerr were actually triplets, but the third one died. Anyway, that isn’t important, well it is, but not to the story.
” I took a deep breath. I was babbling. “My grandpa was apparently quite the troublemaker, and so was his brother. My great-grandfather and his dad before him, they wanted to leave their mark, not just in companies and things, but my great-great-grandma was a teacher, and she was always teaching, educating, but in those days, she wasn’t teaching in schools like she wanted to be.
” I took a breath. “So, the old guys decided their legacy would not only be the business of warehouses and manufacturers, but they were also going to leave more. So, they built a school, Cardinal Saints High, and they allowed anyone in to learn.”
“Wow, in those days that was a big thing,” Red said in appreciation.
“Yeah, they got a lot of stick for it, and some folks claimed they must be agents of the devil to let just anyone in, no matter the color of their skin, their gender, or where they laid their head down at night.” Stretching my legs out, I leaned my head back.
“Our family, being immigrants themselves, thought, ‘Well, fuck your racists,’ and they then went on to build a college, so the kids who went to their high school had an even bigger chance of making it in the world with the proper education.”
“Was it free?”
I gave a rueful laugh. “No, unfortunately not. It takes a lot more money to run a college than a school, but they made sure every course to be taught had at least three scholarships, so kids who needed it to be free had that chance of going. Of course, in those days, the college didn’t have as many courses and stuff as it offers now, and it’s been extended a lot over the generations. But that’s basically the Santo legacy.”
“Huh? You cause Mayhem because your family built a school?” Red shook her head. “What?”
I grinned at her. “Our name is Santo, meaning saint. The townsfolk accused them of being devils.” Spreading my hands out in front of me, I shrugged. “The Devils were born.”
“I’m still not understanding.”
“My great-grandfather caused the original Mayhem when he decided he was going to build a school and offer free education to anyone who wanted to attend.”
“But you guys don’t do nice things,” Red protested. “You cause fights and breakups and chaos.”
“Fuck nice. Nice is boring.” Turning my head to look at her, I saw her trying to understand.
“In their day, what they did was considered by some as not nice. Now we do it our way; we cause disruption, we disturb the peace, and wouldn’t you want to know sooner rather than later that your boyfriend was gonna cheat?
” She looked away from me at the reminder, and I waited.
With a sigh, she turned back to look at me. “All your family has done it?”
“Yeah, all the guys.”
“Girls not allowed?” Red mocked.
“Did you listen to anything I said? We’re not dicks, and Quinn’s a Devil.” I reminded her. “Truthfully, Santo moms usually birth boys. Tilly, my little sister, is the first girl born in three generations, I think.”
“Dear Lord, even your DNA is overwhelmingly masculine,” Red scoffed.
“Yup.” I barked out a laugh at her tone. “And anyway, what we do, me and the twins, is nothing compared to what Onyx and his friends can do. Their brand of Mayhem is . . .” I shook my head. “Yeah, best you never find out.”
“He doesn’t seem like he would be unrestrained. I mean, he’s a little overwhelming, but he seemed to be a complete businessman.”
Fuck, if only you knew. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
“That I believe.” She dangled her foot off the couch, and I watched her painted toenails as she thought about what I’d said. “He’s a sports agent?”
“Yup, good one too.”
“He’s going to be your agent?”
“I don’t think I have a choice,” I said with a smile.
“There’s always a choice,” Red murmured before she took a drink.
“So, why were you singing in your panties?”
Her drink sprayed everywhere, and I started laughing as she spluttered and wiped at her mouth. “You just can’t say that!”
“Why? It’s factual, you were singing in your lingerie, and I want to know why.”
Rubbing her mouth to dry it and brushing her legs of any moisture, she looked at me and looked away. “You can’t judge me.”
“Zero judgment.”
“You know how they say imagine your audience naked?”
Tilting my head, I looked at her. “Uh-huh?”
“Well, I don’t want to imagine half the people that come to the recitals as naked. I mean, have you seen them?” She looked affronted at the thought.
“So . . . ?”
“I thought if I was comfortable, if I was almost naked, I would relax.”
I was going to laugh, but she looked so bare, I fought it back. “How will that work on stage? You planning on singing in only your panties? Because, not gonna lie, Red, I would come to that show.”
She laughed in delight. “No, silly, I’m auditioning sets to see which ones are the comfiest, and then when I find the right ones, I think my confidence may grow.”
My grin was gone as I sat up with interest. “Sets? Are you telling me there are more nights of wannabe Victoria Secret model happening next to my bedroom?”
Red stood with a sly smile. “Don’t be a horndog, roomie.” Picking up her empty can and mine, she went to the trash.
“I think you need to do this,” I said with conviction. “I will gladly help you pick.”
“Goodnight, Ash.”
“Seriously, I don’t mind,” I told her as she walked away. “Red! I can help!” I called after her as her laughter echoed back to me.
Shit. Now I had a woody at the thought of her prancing about in skimpy lingerie. Thank God we were away from home the next few nights — I wasn’t going to keep my hands to myself in this apartment, living with her. She was far too tempting.