Fairytale Remix: Blayze & Ash Read online

  “That’s always good to hear,” I say as we stop in front of a door on the second floor. “It’s so much quieter up here.”

  “That’s because Ash has strict rules about anyone being near his room.”

  “But I’m here.”

  “But you’re not anyone, are you?”

  “Apparently not, or so I’ve been told.” I suddenly grow nervous. This is Ash’s room, and no one is around. We will be all alone.

  Wait, is he even here? Why did she bring me up here?

  “Don’t be nervous,” she says. “I’m Elladonna, by the way, but you can call me Donna since I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

  My worries soon settle as Ash opens the door.

  He’s dressed up like the rest of the people downstairs, but his tie is loose around his neck. He looks tired, like he was about to fall asleep. Then the tiredness vanishes when he sees me, though he tries to contain his excitement.

  “I was worried you weren’t going to show.”

  “Yeah, sorry I was a little late. I had to make dinner for my dad; otherwise, he’d probably burn down the house.”

  A smile spreads across his face when he notices the necklace around my neck. He steps back and holds the door open, gesturing for me to come in.

  I step inside the dark room, telling myself to chill out. Then the door shuts, and the room is smothered in darkness.

  I can hear the soft lull of music playing from inside the room and smile to myself.

  “You’re playing the first song we listened to in the booth together.”

  “It’s a good song,” he murmurs. “It reminds me of you.”

  My lips curve into a smile, but the smile swiftly falters.

  “Ash, why are none of the lights on?” I ask with my hands out in front of me. “And why are you sitting up here by yourself?”

  “I thought you weren’t going to show tonight, and I was about to fall asleep. I hardly ever hang out at parties.”

  “Then why do you have them?”

  “Because it’s what I’m supposed to do,” he utters quietly.

  My fingertips brush across his hard stomach, and I clutch the bottom of his shirt. “Can we turn the lights on now that I’m here?”

  “I’m kind of liking the dark even more now.” Then his lips brush mine, and I nearly stop breathing.

  Our tongues tangle as he backs me into the room. I clutch on to him for dear life, gasping against his lips as my fingers drift up the bottom of his shirt.

  “Your skin’s so soft,” I murmur against his mouth.

  He slips off my jacket and traces his fingertips up and down my arms. “So’s yours.”

  My eyes drift shut as his hands continue to search my body. Before I know it, my boots and dress are on the floor along with Ash’s shirt. I’m about to undo the button of his jeans when the backs of my legs bump into something solid. I fall backward and land on a mattress with a bounce.

  With a soft growl, Ash climbs onto the bed with me and covers his body with mine, continuing to kiss the air from my lungs. He kisses me until I’m so breathless I can’t breathe, until my heart is racing so violently I swear it’s going to flee out of my chest.

  “Your heart is racing so fast,” he whispers with his hand resting on my chest. “Are you nervous?”

  “A little bit,” I admit.

  “It’s okay … We don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”

  I wish I could see him. I can feel him staring down at me.

  He brushes my hair out of my eyes, and then his hands wander down my side, tracing my ribs, before resting on my hip. “You’re so beautiful.”

  “You can’t even see me right now.”

  “I don’t care. I still know you’re beautiful. You always are, no matter what.” He kisses me again, almost painfully slow, as his fingers brush across my thigh and slip inside me.

  Minutes tick by. Hours. I get so lost, consumed by everything he’s doing to me, that I almost forget where I am. By the time he pulls away and helps me get dressed, I wonder if this night has the potential to turn out perfectly.

  I should’ve known better, though.

  “Let’s get a drink,” Ash says when we head downstairs to the party.

  I let him lead me to the bar area, starting to notice right away a change in Ash’s demeanor. That smug smile has returned to his face, and he keeps snubbing people who try to talk to him yet chatting and high-fiving others. He even pushes a guy out of his way, muttering, “Who the hell invited him?”

  “Are you okay?” I ask as he pours me a drink.

  He shrugs indifferently. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

  My mood deflates. I hate to think it, but perhaps Zeke was right. Maybe Ash is different around other people.

  “Hey, you look … disheveled,” Zeke says, suddenly appearing by my side.

  I look down at my wrinkled dress. “I was just—”

  “Getting it on with the rich douche,” Zeke says.

  “He’s not a douche,” I argue. “Ash, is just—”

  “Why the fuck are you here?” Ash’s voice cuts through the air.

  Zeke gives me an I-told-you-so look before turning to Ash. “Because you invited me.”

  “No, I didn’t.” Ash smirks. “Trust me; I’d never invite a loser like you to one of my parties.”

  A bulky guy sneers behind Ash and fist bumps the guy beside him.

  Ash leans over the counter, his eyes darkening. “Why don’t you do everyone in this room a favor and get your pasty face out of this room? Spare us the pain of looking at the hideous thing.”

  Instead of growing angry, Zeke gets a pleased glimmer in his eyes. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

  Ash’s forehead creases, but then he shakes his head. “Get the fuck out before I make you.”

  “Gladly, but only after.” Zeke sticks his hand out, palm up. “You think so highly of yourself, Ashford, but I wonder if that arrogance would remain if you became hideous yourself. I have an idea.” His eyes darken. “How about we find out?” His lips move as he chants under his breath.

  The room grows so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Even the music has stopped playing.

  Then it happens.

  Ash screams out in pain, collapsing to the floor, at the same time the lights in the house flicker on and off. While everyone panics and stampedes for the door, I try to run to Ash, but I get jostled outside with the crowd.

  Once the mob has cleared out, I make my way back to the front door and knock. No one answers, so I try the handle. It’s locked and none of the lights are on.

  “Ash!” I bang on the door. “Open up! Please!”

  Crickets chirping are my only answer.

  I try to text him.

  Silence.

  So much silence.

  It makes me think too much.

  About Ash and that scream he let out before all hell broke loose.

  Chapter 6

  The next few months pass by slowly yet quickly at the same time. Before I know it, summer has ended and fall has kissed the land with pinks and golds. I enroll in online classes while my father continues to work in the shop downtown, building furniture from scratch. He seems happier than he did before we moved now that he has something to keep him busy.

  “I feel like I got a fresh start,” he says to me the morning after Ivy informed us that she’s no longer dating Aldman.

  Nope, she’s moved on to bigger and better things. The bigger and better thing being a fifty something billionaire she met in Paris when she was on a trip with Aldman. She tried to convince us that she was in love with this guy, that he bought her an eight-carat diamond and her own condo, so how could she not be in love with him? She’ll never truly love someone, though, until she starts seeing past the money, which I tried to tell her.

  She hung up on me after that.

  “I’m still sorry you had to change your life for me, Blayze,” my dad says. “You’ve given up so much.”
>
  “Not really. I still have all the same plans, and I still have you. That’s all that really matters.” I give him a hug. “I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you, too,” he says, wrapping his arms around me.

  After we pull away, I leave the house and head for the record store, because today is when they should be getting their new shipment. Zeke doesn’t work there anymore. In fact, I haven’t seen Zeke since the night of the party.

  When I’ve picked out my records, I go to Ash’s like I do every day. Donna lets me in and leads me up to his room.

  “How’s he doing today?” I ask as I slip off my jacket.

  She takes my coat and hangs it up. “The same. He stays in his room, won’t come out except to grab his food that I leave by his door.”

  “He’s eating, though, right?” I ask as we head upstairs.

  “He is.”

  “Has he …? Do you know what’s wrong with him yet? Why he won’t see anyone?”

  She pauses at the top of the stairway. “I do, but I can’t tell you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s not my story to tell.”

  She’s right. I should be getting the truth from Ash.

  I reach his doorway, and she leaves me there. When I knock, I have to wait a couple of minutes for Ash to come talk to me. He never actually opens the door, only speaking to me from the other side. Sometimes, we’ll talk for hours; other times, he only talks to me for minutes, depending on his mood. Still, I’ve opened up to him more than anyone, even trusting him enough to tell him why my family really left the States.

  “Hey,” he finally says from the other side of the closed door.

  I lower myself to the floor and recline against the door. “Hey, it’s me … Blayze.”

  “I know … You’re the only one who visits me anymore … the only person I want to visit me.”

  “Ash,” I sigh. “I wish you’d tell me what happened to you.”

  “I can’t.” His voice is so soft, breakable, like glass.

  “You have to be getting lonely by now.”

  “I’m not that lonely … I have you.”

  I stretch out my legs. “But we only ever talk through this door. That isn’t much.”

  “Of course it is. I love our talks. And the sound of your voice … You have such a lovely voice,” he says. “I do miss seeing your beautiful face, though.”

  “Then open the door, and you can see it,” I say, crossing my fingers he will.

  “I already told you I can’t do that.” His voice sounds strained. “Please, Blayze, I need to talk about something else.”

  Sighing, I give up on getting answers from him today and change the subject.

  “Your father and my sister broke up. Did you know that?”

  “No. I haven’t spoken to my father in forever.” Pain mixed with anger fills his tone. “I’m not surprised they broke up, though. At this point, my father’s usually moved on to someone he thinks is better looking.”

  “She actually broke up with him.”

  “That might be a good thing. His ego needs the bruising, just like mine did. I just wish it wasn’t such a horrible, permanent, hideous bruise … But I know I deserve what happened to me.”

  The sound of his voice breaks my heart.

  I turn around and press my hand to the door. “Oh, Ash, please open the door. I want to see you, want to hug you better. Whatever’s happened, we can fix it together.”

  Quietness is my only answer.

  “Ash?”

  Still nothing.

  I sigh and get to my feet, knowing our visit is over for the day.

  I spend the entire night trying to figure out what Ash could possibly be hiding from me. The next day, I find out on my own, though.

  When I make my daily visit and go to knock on his bedroom door, it creaks open on its own. I shouldn’t walk in. Ash has made it clear that, whatever’s going on with him, he wants to keep it to himself.

  I start to step back when Ash exits his closet, wearing only a pair of jeans. Instead of the smooth skin I traced my fingers along that night at the party, his skin is covered in rough, jagged scars that go up and down his chest, wind over his shoulders, and drag up his jawline.

  A gasp escapes my lips, and I quickly slap my hand over my mouth.

  Ash startles back, his eyes meeting mine. At first, he appears horrified, but the horror rapidly shifts to anger.

  “What are you doing in here?” He strides for the door. “I told you to never open this door.” He moves to slam the door, but I stick out my hand, stopping him.

  “The door opened on its own.” My voice trembles.

  “Well … good. Maybe you’ll stop coming here now that you’ve seen me.” He tries to close the door again, but I squeeze inside the room.

  He sighs in frustration, slumping against the door. “Blayze, why are you here?”

  “Because I want to talk to you.”

  “I know that, but …” He rakes his fingers through his hair, growing more frustrated. “You have to be getting tired of all of this.”

  I step toward him. “Tired of all what?”

  His hand falls to his side. “Having a boyfriend you can only talk to through a door. You haven’t seen me in months … since the party …”

  “I know that … And I’ve missed you …” I gently place a hand on his chest, ignoring the strangled noise that leaves his throat. “Ash, what happened to you?”

  “I can’t …” He chokes up as my hand wanders toward his jawline, smoothing across a scar there. “Do you believe in magic, Blayze?”

  “I didn’t always, but there were times … when I was talking to Zeke … He knew things there was no way he could’ve known.”

  “I think he put a curse on me,” he whispers. “He showed up the day after the party, saying all these things about how I deserve this for all those years I treated him like shit. He said I was cursed and that the only way to break the curse was if someone loved me enough to bare it themselves. At first, I didn’t believe him, but then I had doctors look at the scars and tried laser treatment to fade them, but they only got worse.”

  I think of what Zeke said to me in the store the morning of the party. Well, then, I guess I won’t have to do anything tonight.

  “Have you seen Zeke since then?”

  Anger boils under my skin. Yes, Ash was rude to him at the party, but punishing him this way was wrong.

  Ash shakes his head, causing strands of hair to fall in his eyes. “I think he left town.”

  I have an idea of how to find him, but it means risking calling someone from my old life. Before I take such a risk, I need to know …

  “Ash, why did you act so different at the party?” I ask, sweeping strands of his hair out of his eyes. “You were always so nice to me when we were hanging out and you seemed cool with Zeke whenever we were at the store, but you were so different … so cruel, saying all that stuff to him in front of everyone.”

  “I know I was. And I regret it now. I regretted it then. I hated that you saw me like that.” His shoulders slump as he lowers his head. “I’ve been so used to not caring. All of my life, that’s how I was taught to act. Then you came along and made me care, but that night … I got scared. I felt so … I don’t know, like everyone could see the real me, and I panicked. It’s no excuse. I never should have been that person. I get it now.”

  “Get what?”

  “That looks and wealth aren’t important, that there’s so much more to life than that.” His eyes blaze fiercely. I think he might kiss me, but then he presses his back against the door, as if he’s afraid of me. “How can you stand there, looking at me, when I look like this? I’m hideous.”

  “Looks have never been important to me, Ash. You should know that. And you’re still you. You are still the same guy who sat in the café with me and listened to me talk about my mom, who made me feel better when no one else did, the person I’ve been talking with for months now through a do
or who understands my crazy love for music.”

  His lips quirk to a ghost smile. “I never did teach you how to play the guitar.”

  “We still have tons of time.” I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him with everything I’m feeling inside, hoping he can feel it, too.

  By the time I pull away, I’m panting and want nothing more than to stay with him. Nevertheless, I need to do something first.

  “I have to go somewhere, but I’ll be back soon,” I promise him, kissing him once more.

  “Where are you going?” he asks as I hurry out of the room.

  “To find Zeke.”

  He shouts a protest after me, saying I don’t need to, but I run out the front door and down the road.

  My father always said I’d do great things with my life.

  It’s time I start living up to my name.

  Chapter 7

  It takes a few days for my friend to track down Zeke, but she finally manages to get a location. Turns out, Zeke is in town, living in a friend’s basement where he makes money telling people their fortunes.

  He has a client when I burst in without knocking.

  “It took you long enough to find me,” he says after the client leaves the room. “But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. With a guy like Ash, I’m surprised you’re even here at all.”

  I sink down in the chair across from him. “Tell me how to break the curse, Zeke.”

  “I think you already know the answer to that.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I think the real question is whether or not you want to make the sacrifice.”

  I suck in a breath and slowly let it out. “If I wanted to make the sacrifice, then what exactly would happen?”

  “You’ve seen the scars, right? All of those would be put on your body.”

  “And he would go back to how he was before?”

  He nods, observing me with a curious look. “So, I guess now the question is whether or not you love him that much. I mean, I know you liked him when he was hot … but now he’s just an ugly guy with an ugly personality.”