Be Gay Do Crime

Drug deals in the halls were rare, but Ashe had still stumbled across a few over the years, but she had to admit this time was a bit of a novelty.  She knew that Todd attended Halsey High, and there he was, passing a packet of something to one of Gray’s football buddies.  

She didn’t remember the football guy’s name, nor care to, but he looked somewhere between terrified and thunderous.  Right, she had kicked the shit out of him about a month back, that would prove to be something that someone might get hung up over.  Todd on the other hand was apprehensive, he probably wasn’t sure if he should admit to knowing her. 

“Todd,” she said, settling that debate.  “The usual on Thursday?” 

A bit of double meaning there, as that was the evening they had designated for weekly training with Kyle and Eric.  A good lie had elements of the truth embedded within after all, and Todd wouldn’t even have to stretch his imagination to remember that one.  Hell, he could even tell the truth to the ass he was dealing to and they would just assume it was a neat cover for dealing to her. 

He nodded, then turned back to the other, rattling off prices, how often he could deliver, and so on.  It felt weird knowing that those were her drugs being sold, that she would be seeing a cut from each and every sale.  It was almost intoxicating, knowing the power she was coming to wield. 

Shaking her head, she continued on towards her next class, which she would share with Rachel.  Ashe knew she was now working with Todd, helping guide customers to him.  It was strange, working with her former bullies in any capacity.  Last she heard, Heather was now withdrawn from Halsey, apparently having moved across the country in her flight from whatever forces sought her silence.  It was almost funny, as Heather was the least involved of her bullies. 

It wasn’t her concern, and she tried to not dwell too much on the past, not when her future was full of far more pressing concerns.  Robbie’s supposed death still made no sense, and she was having little to no luck investigating things.  Brie had the girls she trusted asking around, but nobody heard anything, not even a whisper of a rumor.  She was starting to think that he had just decided to retire and the Viuda helped him disappear. 

Too bad making Gray disappear wasn’t that easy. 

His flunkies were hard at work attempting to claw back a reputation lost following almost half the team showing back up in various states of recovery.  The season was long past, so they didn’t need to worry about missing games, so there was that working for their favor, not that Jericho had ranked on the state level. 

Two of them were accosting some kid by the lockers, but the warning bell sounded and the kid split before she could even bring herself to care what was going on there.  The two jocks were having a spirited conversation after that, but it wasn’t like anything in the school was her business.  Ashe was a nobody that was frequently bullied, nothing more.  She planned to keep it that way until graduation if she could manage. 

She took a seat in her English class, thankful that Gray wasn’t present, though Rachel was already in her seat.  Just because Ashe knew that Rachel was putting on an act for the others, didn’t make dealing with her antics any easier.  Her patience was already low, and she was more than a bit irritable that Crystal insisted she skip her pain meds that morning. 

Her wounds were healing, but they weren’t healed.  They still ached, and there was only so much store bought pain meds could do about that.  She almost considered going back to Todd and asking for something to get her through the day, all she would need to do is say she forgot to take it before school, it would be easy enough. 

The sharp ring of the final bell and the teacher stepping up to the blackboard ended that line of thought for the moment, but the temptation remained as the lesson droned on.  She really didn’t care much about the subject matter, trying to figure out why the curtains in a room happened to be blue was more than a joke.  She had enough writer friends through her MMO days to know that the author probably looked around their room and picked the first color to come to mind.  It was also why so many fictional characters had blue or green eyes despite brown being the most common color in the world. 

Oh, now she was thinking about Crystal’s green eyes, unable to keep the grin off her face as she did.  She could wax poetic about how they captured the sunlight, the way her chosen hair color made them almost teal in the right lighting.  She squashed the voice that whispered that Crystal was too good for her, that she didn’t deserve such an amazing girlfriend. 

She’d shoot that voice in a back alley if she could figure out a way to do it. 

The class let out with the lunch bell, and she made her way down to the front of the school, using the crowd to avoid being caught up in any bullshit.  She was largely successful, heading down the steps and towards the front gate where a green motorcycle was parked and a vision of beauty stood beside it. 

Deep blue hair in a gorgeous side cut fluttered in the breeze, her arms covered by a riding jacket that was currently unzipped, showing off her short tanktop and hinting at the tattoos barely concealed underneath.  Her midriff was exposed by the too short top, the barest hint of abs showing. 

Ashe had to bite her lip as she approached, because her girlfriend was simply breathtaking. 

“Crystal!” she said, jogging the last few feet, only to fight down a wince as the tightness of her healing injury twinged uncomfortably.  She pulled her girlfriend into a hug and gave a chaste kiss before pulling back.  “What’s for lunch today?” 

“That hungry?” Crystal asked with a chuckle, her hands loosely on Ashe’s waist.  “Though, I could understand why you might be excited.” 

Ashe grinned as Crystal retrieved a bag from her cargo compartment, only to blink at how bulky the package was.  “Crystal, when you said you were getting a mess of gator bites, I didn’t think you meant literal pounds of them.” 

“I only got two large orders,” she countered.  “The bulk is the fried pickles, waffle fries, and okra.” 

Swallowing hard, Ashe could only salivate in anticipation of the coming meal, even if it was just an excuse to talk business while at school, she was coming to really appreciate having her lunch with her girlfriend.  It carried the added benefit of acquainting the rest of the school with her, even if they were having their meals in the picnic area outside. 

She was going to be her date to the prom, and that thought still sent a thrill through her.  That entire night was going to be something amazing, for several different reasons.  Just the thought of being out on the dance floor while everyone glared at her for bringing Crystal Ellington to the dance…  

Well, it went without saying that a lot of the guys would be just itching to try something.  She just hoped they would give her the excuse.  Oh, that was quite the intrusive thought.  Those were getting distressingly common when something annoyed her.  She was getting too used to shooting her problems rather than talking to them. 

Ashe knew she should probably talk to someone about that, maybe even her parents, play it off as a bit of trauma after the convention center rather than an emerging pattern thanks to her growing rap sheet.   Ashe shook all that off as they walked around the school perimeter and picked a bench just beyond the outskirts of the school ground on what was technically a city park. 

“Anything new happen the last few hours?” Ashe asked, helping Crystal set the food out.  She couldn’t help but pop some okra in her mouth as she opened the container. 

Crystal sent her a mock glare for the theft.  “Nothing pressing.  The girls are still being extra cautious with things, and those precautions seem to be working.  They’ve not had a reason to test them, but should someone try what that Russian fuckstick pulled?  Well, we should be able to intervene in time.” 

Ashe nodded, her mouth full.  Having someone follow the girl’s tracker if they ventured more than five minutes away was probably a good thing, even if it did cut into potential revenue, the girls were readily volunteering for the job.  More so, word was getting around about Inferno promising worse fates to anyone who hurt her girls.  Recruitment was up.  

Considerably. 

She wasn’t quite comfortable with that, but she wasn’t sure she would ever be.  At last report, Caralina had thirty girls working with her between their drugs and sex work.  Todd had built a network as well that consisted of half a dozen dealers in the area schools.  That part made her sicker than any other, knowing that some of the less fortunate schools in the area were now being supplied by her. 

If anything, Ashe was surprised that nobody was taking issue with her dealing just yet.  Or, trying to work out a deal to supply her going forward.  She had the supplies to keep up with the growing demand for at minimum the next three months if the growth curve evened out in the next two weeks.  She would either need to hit another Iron Patriot distributor, or find a supplier of her own if it didn’t. 

Whoever said the criminal lifestyle was glamorous had obviously never tried to manage a gang. 

“What about you?” Crystal asked.  “Anything of note for the first half of the day?” 

“Bumped into Todd while he was dealing to one of the popular kids,” she said, waving a waffle fry as she did.  “Played it off as if he was my dealer too.” 

Over by the door, Ashe almost missed someone looking outside, then narrowing their eyes before they ducked back in.  She didn’t recognize them, but she had a feeling that trouble was coming.  It was more of a surprise that it had taken as long as it had for someone to start some shit with her daily lunches. 

Crystal originally suggested it just to reduce the likelihood of making her injuries worse, but even with the healing being mostly done, she was going to keep it up for the remainder of the year.  Getting real food rather than the shit the schools served was reason enough, never mind the better company. 

Crystal glanced off to the side, catching how her attention had drifted.  “Hopefully someone doesn’t get the idea to search you for drugs because of that.” 

Ashe snorted.  “Let them.  The worst I have on me are some 500mg pain tablets which anyone can buy at any corner store.” 

“You know they would take them from you out of spite,” Crystal said, her eyes following something off to the side.  “Oh look, here comes someone.” 

Sure enough, Ashe recognized the secretary from the prom sign-up walking over, along with school security.  Well, that promised to be a whole ordeal, but at least she was mostly full and Crystal had picked up enough that they could throw the leftovers into the air fryer for supper later that evening. 

“Excuse me,” the secretary—Karen, she recalled—said.  “Do you happen to have a weapon on you?” 

It took Ashe a moment to realize that she was addressing Crystal, not her.  Her girlfriend raised an eyebrow at the pair, but continued chewing rather than answer.  Each passing second only served to irritate the pair, and Ashe was having to fight down a smirk at the sight of it. 

“Do I look armed?” Crystal asked, moving her arm so her jacket shifted enough to show off her sidearm.  “You act like this is the first time you’ve dealt with someone who has a concealed carry.” 

“That’s not permitted on school grounds,” the security officer said. 

Ashe turned a smug grin on the pair.  “Then it’s a good thing that we aren’t on school grounds.” 

She’d picked this particular bench for her daily lunches for one simple reason, it was legally off school property.  By five feet.  A technicality to be certain, but that was enough to get away with Crystal still being armed in the event someone tried something stupid.  One perk of Jericho city ordinances, all city parks were legal carry zones, and it was encouraged. 

“Conrad Ellington City Park,” Crystal said, pointing to the sign in the distance.  “My great grand uncle was a bit of an ass, but I’ll take his help now.” 

The brief history lesson that Crystal offered made it a bit strange that the man would be honored like that, given he was Edward Ellington’s traitorous brother that started the civil war within the Storm Guard, but it did help preserve the cover of the family.  His sister, Crystal’s great grandmother, had the park declared right next to the high school as a place of recreation for the students.  Ashe had to wonder how many other monuments and such also held such dark origins. 

More than a few was probably a safe bet. 

The security guy blinked.  “Grand…  Wait, you’re one of those Ellingtons?”  Crystal nodded, popping some okra as she did.  “Karen, why didn’t you say so?” 

“Look at her!” Karen squawked.  “She’s obviously a deviant!” 

Crystal shrugged.  “Dad pissed me off, so I pissed him off.  Perfectly healthy relationship.” 

Ashe couldn’t help but snort at one of the most blatant lies she had ever heard, and that included when she lied to herself about being a boy.  The pair started arguing with one another and Crystal devolved into barely restrained giggles.  The funniest part of it, Karen was gesturing to them about whatever point she was trying to make, but the guard was having none of it. 

Finally, just as they were packing up the leftovers, Karen stormed off, leaving the security guy behind.  He was shaking his head while pinching his nose, which was probably a common thing given how that woman treated them at the prom sign up. 

“You have the proper permit for that?” he asked. 

Crystal nodded, pulling an ID from her jacket and holding it out for the man.  “I have a license to carry.” 

It didn’t really matter if she did or didn’t have the permit per Florida law, but it did tend to smooth things over.  After Ashe’s parents insisted, Crystal went through with getting the concealed carry back when Ashe was recovering, just to help smooth over their worries. 

“Sorry about that, Ms. Ellington,” he said with a respectful nod.  “Let me just say, I hope your father wins, this country needs him.” 

Crystal’s expression fell carefully blank as she nodded back to him. 

“I’ll let you two get back to your day,” he said.  “Have a lovely afternoon.” 

As he walked away, Ashe was glad she had already finished her meal, because that last little bit had soured her mood for the remainder of the day. 

“Fucking wonderful,” Crystal grumbled, grabbing the now much lighter bag.  “The more I interact with this damn school, the happier I was that I ended up dropping out.” 

“Despite the bullshit?” Ashe couldn’t help but ask. 

“Even with the bullshit,” Crystal said, pulling her into a hug.  “Take care in there, and I’ll see you after.” 

“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” Ashe answered, pulling back, then moving back in for a chaste kiss.  “Ride safe.” 

“Don’t kill any of the idiots,” Crystal countered.  “They tend to be our paying customers.” 

Ashe couldn’t help but bark out a sharp laugh at that.  “Too true!  Well, I better get back into hell before the bells all sound.” 

“Yeah, yeah, go learn some shit,” Crystal said, shooing her away. 

Ashe shook her head as she headed back up the stairs and into the school, a smile on her face despite the distraction and downer.  She was so damn thankful that she had Crystal in her life, and she would do whatever she must to keep her there.

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