Ash

The girl’s eyes lit up when she saw Ash and rushed to him, “who’s your friend??”

“Wha-what? Friend?” Ash stammered.

“The super hot guy. The one smoking outside right now,” she answered and pointed to the glass door, “with the sunglasses.”

At first, he couldn’t see AJ, but a stream of smoke coming from the right caught his attention. Ash slowly opened the door, and his heart skipped a beat at the sight. 

He was so bright. So blindingly radiant.

Dressed in a white collared shirt with rolled-up sleeves, beads of sweat glistened on the man’s face as he took another drag of his cigarette. Ash followed the dots of perspiration from AJ’s face to his neck, then down to the dip of his collarbone, and his face flushed when he noticed the wet shirt clinging tightly to his chest— 

He shook his head and took a deep breath; he needed to apologize for taking the bag. “AJ! I’m sorry—”

AJ swiftly pressed his ring finger on Ash’s lips and tossed his half-smoked cigarette into the ashtray on top of the black trash can. “Did you take my bag yesterday?” 

Ash blinked, then sealed his lips fully and gulped. Salty. 

As if he knew Ash tasted him, AJ knotted his eyebrows and pulled back his hand like his lips were on fire.

His eyes flitted from corner to corner, avoiding AJ's intense gaze. Should he say yes? Would AJ be angry that he took the bag? Did he want it back? Hopefully not. Because he didn’t bring it with him to work today. Should he have? Was he mad at him? 

Impatient, AJ leaned in, and the cool breeze from his shadow sweeping over his heated cheek stopped Ash’s heart. His face was just an inch from his own. His lips were just an inch from his ear.

It restarted when he felt a large hand curling around the back of his head, AJ’s damp fingers sliding through the disheveled hair at the nape of his neck. He shuddered at the warmth swirling around his ear when AJ exhaled.  

“Hey. Dishie, relax,” whispered AJ, his breath dragging on Ash’s tender skin, tickling the inside of his ear. Time stopped as AJ continued to speak, “I want you to use the things I bought for you. Go look it up on the internet if you don’t know how,” the words forced themselves deep into Ash, sending tremors throughout his body.

As quickly as when he first grabbed him, he released Ash and leaned against the brick wall again. “And keep the notebooks. And pens. You draw…well.”

It was hard to tell because of the sunglasses, but Ash swore that AJ’s blushed a bit.

“Than-thank you. For the b-books. The ointment—I’ll bring it back to you…after my hand heals if it’s okay? Sorry for—”

“What the hell are you on about? I don’t want half a roll of gauze and a used tube of antibiotic ointment back,” he scoffed, jabbing his finger at the shrinking boy.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t thin-think—. “

“Of course, you didn’t think. You never do. And stop apologizing. What is wrong with you?” angry words AJ had stored up from the past few days spilled out from his lips, unable to stop himself.

Ash whimpered; the lump in his throat swelled until he couldn’t take it anymore. He ran around the restaurant and stopped by the kitchen's back door to catch his breath.

He prayed that AJ didn’t follow him. 

Ash waited outside the back door for an eternity, but no one came to find him.