Ashley Cooper's Arc

Chapter 26 of 37

The mansion shrank behind them. Mike drove fast, both hands tight on the wheel. His knuckles were still red from hitting his aunt. Ashley watched the gas needle drop toward empty. They had no home now, no plan, and no place to sleep. If they kept driving, the car would stop and leave them stranded in the dark. "Pull over," Ashley said. "We can't just drive forever." Mike found a gravel lot beside a closed gas station. He cut the engine. The quiet felt heavy. He kept staring straight ahead, his jaw hard. "I keep punching people," he said. "My aunt tried to kiss you, so I hit her. Same as Ricky. I don't even think anymore." Ashley looked at her hands, one flesh, one bone. She had run because Mike loved her arm when no one else did. But something had been sitting in her chest for days, and now it climbed up her throat. "Your aunt kissed me," she said slowly. "And I didn't hate it." Mike turned. "What?" "I mean it wasn't right. She was old, and she was your aunt, and I wanted her to stop." Ashley pressed her bone hand flat on her knee. "But part of me felt something. And I don't think I've ever felt that with a boy. Not even you." Mike said nothing. The dashboard light glowed green on his face. "I think I might like girls," Ashley said. Saying it out loud made it real. "I've been running with you because you accepted me. That's not the same as loving you back. I let you believe it was." Mike let out a long breath. He wasn't angry. He looked almost relieved. "I punched a dead man and my own aunt over a girl who doesn't even want me," he said. Then he laughed, tired and cracked. "That's the worst basketball season of my life." Ashley laughed too, and it hurt and helped at once. "I still care about you," she said. "Just not like that. I'm sorry I hid it." "You told the truth," Mike said. "That's more than I've done all week." He started the car. The engine coughed. The needle sat below empty now. "So what do we do?" Ashley asked. "We stop running from each other, at least." Mike backed onto the road. "There's a diner two exits back. Enough gas to reach it. We eat, we think, and we figure out where you actually want to go." Ashley nodded. For the first time since the hotel, she wasn't hiding anything. Not her arm, not her heart. She had told Mike who she really was, and he had stayed in the car with her anyway. But she wasn't running toward Mike anymore. She was running toward something she couldn't name yet, and she had no idea where to find it.