Opposites Attract (On-Hold) - Chloe Knox (novels for students txt) 📗

“Ashley-hun, you need to give your father a chance,” My mother said in her soft voice. She rubbed my back, tracing large but gentle circles all over the tops of my back, as I wept into my pillow. I lifted my head feeling even more frustrated that the gentle compassionate touch of my mother—that ALWAYS calmed me down—did nothing now, “Give him a chance? After what he did—what he said? He didn’t give Zane a chance!”
“It’s only because he cares about you—“
“No! Don’t even!” I mumbled angrily into my pillow, to muffle my innate attitude.
There was a long silence, which made me want to choke.
Of course, I did not like disobeying or lying to or making my parents upset or angry, disappointed. But my father, he had had NO right, to say the things he had. Even just thinking about it, made my body heat in anger, “Ashley…you deserve better,” My mother said quickly, as if scared to say it at all.
That one sentence made my heart stop, and I sat up to look her in the eyes, “Excuse me?”
“I’m sure Zane is a nice boy, but he…he…?”
“He what, mother? Spit it out!” I snapped, making her wince.
“He lives in a trailer park for Christ’s sake, Ashley.”
“So?”
“So…at his age and where he’s from…he’s used to being around drugs, and alcohol, and…sex, so he’s bound to—“
“Mother!” I gasped out with disbelief, “What are you—how dare you!”
“Ashley, me and your father just don’t want to see you get hurt! I’m sure Zane’s nice now, but what’ll happen when you don’t give him what he wants, huh? He’ll leave you, and not give a damn about your feelings!”
“He’s not like that mom!” I yelled, to dry and angry to even think of crying.
“People can be very deceiving,” my mother said with a somber look in her eyes. In them I usually found comfort and reassurance. Now all I felt was disgust, “Yeah! Tell me about it!” I mumbled before storming out of my bedroom and running downstairs into the cellar, which my parents had turned into a “game room” with a pool table, wii, x-box, bean bag chairs, and a sofa. I slept on the sofa, and the next morning snuck out of home before my parents woke up.

I was sitting on the front lawn of the school, looking up at the bright blue sky and its fluffy clouds. I took in a deep breath, inhaling all the amazing foliage and clean crisp air of spring.
Spring break had finally come!
The bell rang and students came running out of the school, over excited for the one week of vacation, that would go by twice as fast as it should. Only minutes passed before the buses had left, and almost every car in the student parking lot was gone.
I stood up, and brushed the ends of my cut-off jeans with a sigh. Lucy was supposed to pick me up after school for a girl’s night, but most likely got tied up in Nathan’s attention and forgot. It wasn’t that rare of an occurrence. She’d come to my house tonight and say ‘I’m sorry’ over a billion times, before realizing I wasn’t that bothered by it and continuing back to her house to watch some chick flick.
“You’re such a loser, standing here all by yourself,” I heard Zane mumble as he wrapped his arms around me from behind.
“Oh, aren’t you charismatic.” I said with a soft giggle, as Zane rested his head on my shoulder. I turned to face him, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
“So what happened to ‘girl’s night’?”
“I was stood-up, can you believe that?” I asked with an exaggerated frown.
“Awww, that’s too bad. I was hoping I’d be able to get front seat tickets to a pillow fight.”
I giggled and gave him another kiss.
“Guess you’re stuck with me,” he whispered against my lips, making me smile.
“Yup! We can watch chick flicks, and have our own little pillow fight.”
“Ummmmmmmmmmmm,” Zane mumbled with an amused grin, “I’m pretty sure I won’t have to throw a pillow at your face to keep you entertained.”
“Oh yeah? And what is that?”
“I’ll just get out Mortal Kombat, let you beat my ass. You’ll be occupied for a good few hours.”
“You like being beaten with my stick?” I asked, and Zane opened his mouth, but nothing came out for a good minute, “Okay, if you have a stick and I enjoy being beaten with it; we’ve got a serious problem here.” I laughed, “You know what today is…?”
“Enlighten me.”
“It’s been two months.” I hinted with a smile, and Zane grinned, “Two months and four days, but who’s keeping track right,” he mumbled.
“So you know what that means?”
“What? Expensive jewelry?”
“Nope.”
“Good, because the most expensive thing I can buy is made out of macaroni.”
“It means you’ll have to spare five dollars for some ice cream.”
Zane laughed and mumbled as he kissed my neck, “I can handle that.”

“Thank you.” I mumbled as we walked out of the local ice cream shop. I took a quick lick of the lavender color ice on top of my kitty cone. The moment I felt my tongue go numb, I leaned forward and licked his weak spot: the skin of his neck right under his ear, next to his jaw. Zane quickly jerked away and put a hand to his neck, “Holy shit that was cold.” I giggled.
“What flavor is that again?”
“Black Raspberry! You want to try it?”
Zane shrugged, and so as we walked down the sidewalk in town, I held my small cone of ice cream to his face.
He took a quick lick, and I pulled the cold treat back to my lips to taste, “You like it?”
Zane nodded and shrugged, “Yeah. I still prefer rocky road, though.”
I scrunched my nose and giggled, “What? You have something against chocolate?”
“I hate rocky road! I hate chocolate ice cream!” I said as I shook my head in disgust.
Zane laughed, and then gestured toward the ice cream in my hands, “Can I have some more?”
A devilish thought came to mind and I giggled.
I held out the ice cream to his mouth, and when he leant down to taste it, I thrusted the ice cream into his face.
Zane huffed in disbelief and quickly pulled away from the freezing cold frost. A soft melting coat of purple ice cream surrounded his lips, dripping onto his chest, “Ashley, you spoiled brat!” he yelped, making me laugh even harder.
I threw my ice cream cone onto the floor, making the weirdest sloshing-slash-squishing sound as the ice cream hit the edge of the side walk.
“Hey! You owe me three dollars for that wasted ice cream.” Zane said as he lifted his hand to his mouth, about to rub the milky purple stuff off his face.
I slapped his hand, making him pull back, and pushed him up against the closest building, which ended up being a laundry mat.
I rubbed his neck, and kissed him, making sure to lick up some of the raspberry frost around his lips as I did. Zane, without hesitation or further encouragement, kissed me back.
I stuck out my tongue and licked the corners of his mouth and laughed.
“Oh, you think it’s funny, hu? Huh?” Zane mumbled against my lips, and then he turned, so that his ice cream covered cheek rubbed against my own.
“Zane! No! Stop it!” I yelped as I laughed, but he didn’t listen. He just kept thrashing his head back and forth rubbing his ice cream coated cheeks against my face.
I tried to pull my face away from his, but he only tightened his grip on me and pulled me closer to his face. After a moment of trying to get away, I gave up and kissed Zane again, not caring who was watching or what anyone thought.

“Truth or dare?”
“Um, truth.”
Zane snorted, “Ugh, you’re no fun.”
I scoffed, “We’ve been playing for half-an-hour, and you have yet to do a dare.”
Zane squinted at me, and then chuckled, “First kiss…?”
“Are you serious?”
“Mhmmm.”
“Oh god,” I croaked and whined and groaned, as the memory of my first kiss came to mind, “Okay, um…it was with Nathan.”
Zane’s smile immediately disappeared, “Nathan? As in Lucy’s Nathan?”
I could feel my cheeks grow warm with embarrassment, “Yes, Lucy’s Nathan.”
“Really?” Zane mumbled as he looked aimlessly at the blankets on the wooden floor we were lying on, “And how was it?”
I giggled, “It was horrible—“
“Good.”
“—we were in the fourth grade, and neither one of us had had our first kiss. We were both friends so we figured…why not? I was excited, actually, but he…oh my, he was so nervous he practically missed my mouth; there was slobber all over my chin—“
“Ha-ha, oh god!”
“What about you? What was your first kiss like?”
Zane laughed, “I was in junior high, just lost my braces—“
“You had braces?” Zane nodded, making me laugh.
“—Sally Jenson was the most popular girl in the sixth grade; always wore pink.” Zane scrunched up his nose in disgust at the color, “I asked for a peck on the cheek and at the last second—“
“Really? That’s how you got your first kiss? You tricked the girl?”
Zane laughed, “Yeah, pretty much.”
We both laughed as we talked about how awkward our first kisses were, and eventually the amusement died down, “Truth or dare?”
Zane looked up at the ceiling and cocked an eyebrow, as if thinking extremely hard. He inhaled a long and deep breath, and then exhaled noisily. After a moment of silence, Zane turned to look at me, “Dare.”
“Ooooh! Aren’t you a dare devil, pun intended!””
Zane laughed, “Just tell me what I have to do.”
I thought for a moment and smiled. There was so much I could say or do…so much I could make him say or do. There was no limit, I was in charge.
“Well…I could tell you to stop smoking—“ Zane rolled his eyes “—But I highly doubt that’ll happen. I could tell you to do my homework—“ Zane’s eyes went wide with fright “—But I’m not that cruel.”
“What do you want, Ashley?”
My heart was pounding, faster and harder than it had ever before. The pure thought of what I was about to ask for, made me knees shake and my breath catch in the back of my throat. My mouth suddenly went dry, making it even harder than it already was to speak, “I, um…I’m dirty…and smelly.”
Zane narrowed his eyes at me in confusion, and then laughed, “What are you talking about?”
I took in a shaky breath, which tickled the back of my dry mouth. The nervous laugh escaped my mouth—my natural way of