The Switch

Chapter 9

I foundit hard to go to sleep with the man staring at me from every fuckingangle I laid in. I didn't know how she did it. It grew more and morestrange every time I thought about it. I found it a little odd thatAshley didn't have to work on a Friday, but she explained to me thenewspaper she worked for was very small and only did a paper fourdays a week.

I awoketo the smell of food. Which was different than I was used to sinceMark was always sleeping and if he wasn't he was not home usually. Icame out of the bedroom and down the stairs, following the smell ofthe food which was now growing stronger. "There you are." One ofthe girls from last night was standing in the kitchen at the stove.She was cooking what I assumed to be breakfast since it was onlyeight AM. "Here I am." I said, with a little less enthusiasm. Theother girl walked in and touched me on the shoulder as to walk by me."I just got off the phone with my brother." she said. "Your carbattery does need replacing. He has a spare one though that he'swilling to give me which I'm giving you. He's coming over in about anhour to put it in. We will just have to drive it for a bit to chargeit up." I nodded. "Thanks." I replied. Apparently, my carbattery was dead. I had no idea. The food finished cooking and we allsat down to eat together. The conversation ended up on the Grammy's."Are you absolutely sure you don't wanna watch the Grammy's thisyear Ashley?" I thought for a minute. Why wouldn't I? "Yeah, Iguess we can watch it." I said. They both looked at me withconfused looks again. "Didn't you just say-?" the other girl cuther off, "Hey! No. If Ashley wants to watch them now, then we willall do it together." I was confused, but agreed nonetheless. 

Itseemed like as soon as we finished eating and I helped clean up thedishes there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it." one of thegirls excused herself. The other one pulled me to the side. "Youknow Ash, you're pretty calm about seeing your ex boyfriend. I reallythought you would have objected at breakfast." This dude is her exboyfriend? "Oh, well, I mean, its been a good while since we brokeup right? I've got to move on eventually." She gave me a look likeshe didn't believe me. "Its been two months, you're allowed tostill be upset." the girl said. "Besides, she didn't even tellyou she was doing it. And 'Marshall' as you refer to him, doesn'ttake the place of an actual real life companion." Okay, this girlwas a little bit of a freak. I didn't know what to say. I personallydidn't think the man was all that impressive.

BeforeI had a chance to respond, a tall, tan man who looked to be in histhirties came walking into the kitchen we were still standing in."Hey Ash." he said, tossing up his hand casually. I smiledbecause I wasn't sure what to say. "He actually just got thebattery in. So we need to take the car driving now." I nodded. "Ineed to go put on some clothes." I said, motioning to my pajamas. Iexcused myself from the kitchen and headed for the stairs. As I putmy hand on the wooden railing I felt a firm squeeze on my shoulder. Iturned and this man was standing there. He was pretty handsome nowthat I was studying him up close. "Can we talk?" he asked me. "Isthere anything we really need to talk about?" He thought for asecond. He wouldn't make eye contact while he was doing so, lookingup the stairs and at the photos on the walls around me. "Well, I'vebeen thinking about what you said when we broke up and I realize youwere right." I motioned him to follow me up the stairs and we wentinto my room and shut the door. He sat on my bed as if he has a usualspot and I went into my closet to find something to put on this bodyof mine. Everything in this girls closet either had eminem on it orsomething related to eminem. Do you know how wrong it felt to wearthis after almost sleeping with him? Anyways, I picked one and turnedto catch the man I almost forgot was sitting there looking around theroom at all the many faces on the wall. "Kind of embarrassing huh?"I said. As I did, he looked at me and said "For me it would be. Butthat's something I've always admired about you, you don't care whatanyone thinks." He patted the bed next to him, indicating I shouldsit. "I didn't know you admired anything about me." "I admirelots about you. Including the way you stood up for yourself when youdumped me. I know I was in the wrong, but no one has ever just toldme off before. It made me think. I think you make me a betterperson." I smiled. I didn't know if Ashley wanted anything to do withthis guy. I didn't want to go making decisions for her that could belife altering. Just like I didn't want her doing that to me. "Look,"I began, "I know this is going to sound weird, but I am really notmyself right now. I don't want anything to happen here because ofthat okay?" He looked at me for a second and then asked me "Areyou okay? Physically?" I nodded. "Its nothing serious, just needno more than a couple days to sort some things out." I stood up andhe followed suit. 

Weexited my room and rounded the corner just in time to see everyone atthe bottom of the stairs. One of the girls was giving me an assuminglook. "Nothing happened. We talked. Can we go now?" Theyexchanged looks with each other and nodded. The mans sister walkedhim out and I saw them hug before he got back into his truck and pullaway. Then, all of us girls got into my car, which started with notrouble and took off up the road for some driving.