"What are we going to tell Dom?" Nicky asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she glanced at Jacky. The unease in her tone was impossible to miss.
Jacky hesitated, slamming her locker shut with a little more force than necessary. "I don't know," she admitted, her usual self-assurance wavering for a fraction of a second. "But we'll think of something."
Nicky didn't look convinced, but she nodded anyway, shouldering her backpack as Jacky did the same.
"Let's go," Jacky said briskly, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her face. "Or we'll be late."
The two of them hurried down the hall, their footsteps echoing faintly. Jacky's sharp gaze flicked forward, her mind clearly working through the problem of Dom. Meanwhile, Nicky followed close behind, casting a quick glance over her shoulder as if the weight of their decision was pressing down on her.
∞
The next few days blurred together in a haze of everyday life. Ash marveled at how quickly she'd slipped into the role of a normal teenage girl, so much so that her mission felt like a distant memory. She was too caught up in the whirlwind of cheer practice, navigating the school social scene, and finding every possible moment to spend with Nile.
If teenage life were an Olympic sport, Ash would be collecting gold medals by the handful. She'd perfected the art of the strategic hair flip during third-period calculus, mastered the exact decibel level of laughter required to turn heads in the cafeteria without seeming desperate, and developed an encyclopedic knowledge of who-kissed-whom behind the bleachers last Friday. The sheer absurdity of it all sometimes made her want to break character and laugh directly into the fourth wall of her existence. Is this seriously what passes for drama in this reality?
And Nile… well, he consumed most of her time and energy. They couldn't seem to get enough of each other. She'd even gone so far as to adjust her schedule to match his, ensuring they could spend every moment at school together. Nights were no different. After practice, Ash would swing by Nile's house, where he'd whisk her away in his oversized van for yet another night of adventures.
Nile's van -the automotive equivalent of a golden retriever, all enthusiastic size with no actual sense of spatial awareness- had become their mobile headquarters. Sometimes, Ash would catch herself staring at his profile as he drove, the dashboard lights casting his face in a soft blue glow that made her chest tighten with something that felt dangerously close to genuine attachment. Those moments terrified her more than any mission ever had. This wasn't in the script. The cold, calculated chess moves she'd planned were being disrupted by the warm, inconvenient reality of actually feeling something.
One evening, Nile surprised her with a date to the local movie theater. The two parked a block away because Nile was convinced his van wouldn't fit into the underground parking garage. Ash had tried to reassure him it would, but he'd just grinned and said something ridiculous about how she'd just said that. The joke made no sense, but his playful tone earned him an affectionate roll of her eyes.
As they walked hand-in-hand toward the theater, Ash mentally rehearsed her moves for the evening. The script called for a calculated encounter, a strategic play in her grand scheme. Yet part of her -the part that had started to enjoy the warmth of Nile's palm against hers- wondered if there might be a different version of this story. One where the villain became something else entirely.
As they reached the top of the stairs leading to the theater, Ash suddenly gasped and stopped in her tracks. The mission snapped back into focus with crystalline clarity.
"Shoot, I forgot something in the car! You go ahead and get the tickets. We're running late, and you said they won't seat us if we're too late. I'll be back in a flash, I promise."
Before Nile could protest, Ash leaned in and planted a quick kiss on his cheek, then darted back down the stairs. He chuckled to himself, shaking his head as he made his way to the ticket window.
Ash waited around the corner, counting the seconds with military precision. Three, two, one -her internal clock ticking in perfect synchronization with her heartbeat. She pictured Dom at the ticket counter, unsuspecting, about to have her world tilted on its axis. The thought should have filled Ash with vindictive pleasure, but instead, it left a metallic taste in her mouth. Like biting into a trophy only to discover it was made of lead. Why am I acting this way? She questioned once again. I’m better than this, damnit.
Through the thick pane of glass, Nile spotted Dom sitting at her station, one of her favorite comic books in hand as she lazily flipped through its pages. When she looked up and saw him, her face lit up with a warm smile.
"Hey there! What're you doing here? Flying stag tonight?" she teased, setting the comic aside.
Nile hesitated, caught off guard. "I, umm, well-"
Dom slid a clipboard across the counter, marking an X next to one of the lines on the page.
"Just sign this, and I'll get you in. Free of charge, as usual. If you want popcorn or a drink, just ask Jeff -he knows the routine. I'll catch you in there, okay?"
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Nile scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Umm, actually, it's for two. I already bought the tickets online."
He pulled out his card and slid it to Dom, who took it with practiced ease, her eyes scanning the area as she swiped it.
"Oh, is James here?" she asked casually, her tone friendly but tinged with curiosity. "That's great! I'm glad you two worked out whatever was going on. I've barely seen him around school lately. Tell him I said hi."
"Actually, it's not James, it's-"
This was Ash's cue. She rounded the corner, a supernova of calculated charm, transforming her walk into a performance art piece that belonged on a Milan runway. Time to land the killing blow in their little cosmic opera.
Nile's explanation was cut short as Ash appeared, her bright smile lighting up the dim lobby like a beacon. She wasted no time, wrapping herself around Nile's arm with an easy intimacy that left no question about their closeness.
"Hey, Dom!" Ash chirped, her tone overly cheerful. "Nile didn't tell me you worked here. How… quaint." She punctuated the word with a sugary sweetness that carried the faintest edge of mockery. Then, turning to Nile with a playful tug on his arm, she added, "Baby, we're late for the movie. Do you have the tickets yet?"
The word "baby" felt foreign on her tongue, like she was speaking a language she'd learned from a questionable translation app. Yet she delivered it with the confidence of a Broadway veteran on opening night. Ash knew exactly how this scene would play in Dom's mind: not just as a romantic disappointment but as a betrayal of epic proportions, the kind that would spawn a thousand angsty journal entries and possibly a revenge playlist on Spotify.
Nile reached for the two tickets that sat beneath Dom's trembling fingers, sliding them away with a nod of thanks.
"Hey, Dom. I'll see you later, okay?"
Dom nodded stiffly, her face carefully composed. "Next guest, please," she called out, her voice devoid of emotion as she turned her attention to the growing line behind them.
Ash felt Dom's eyes burning into their backs as they walked through the glass doors into the theater lobby. Dom pretended to focus on the next customers, but Ash could feel her gaze, sharp and unrelenting, like a knife tracing their every step.
When the doors swung shut behind them, Ash allowed herself a subtle, victorious smirk. The game was well underway, and she was holding all the cards.
Yet beneath her triumph, something unexpected stirred -a hairline fracture in her perfect facade. For just a millisecond, she'd caught a glimpse of genuine hurt in Dom's eyes, not just the wounded pride she'd anticipated. That pain had felt... familiar. Like looking into a mirror from another lifetime.
Ash tightened her grip on Nile's arm, her smile never wavering as they moved through the lobby's artificial darkness toward their designated theater. She was playing her role flawlessly. So why did victory suddenly taste like ash in her mouth?
∞
The movie was good. It had to be. At least the audience seemed to like it. Ash and Nile were too preoccupied with each other to pay much attention to what was happening on the screen.
Had someone asked Ash to summarize the plot, she would have struggled to piece together anything beyond "something exploded" and "protagonist probably saved the day." Her mission briefings had been more coherent, and those were typically delivered while dodging projectiles. The entire experience had been a blur of Nile's fingertips tracing circles on the back of her hand and the intoxicating scent of his cologne- a heady mix that short-circuited her usually razor-sharp focus. So this is how the mighty fall, she thought. Not with a bang, but with butter-soaked popcorn and a boy who smells like sandalwood and trouble.
Strolling side by side down the small town street, Ash basked in the warmth of Nile's presence beside her. The streetlights cast golden halos around them, like they were characters in their own little indie film -the kind where everyone wore vintage clothing and had profound epiphanies while staring at rain puddles.
"Hey, how about we head over to the Lost and Found and grab a late night latte?" Nile asked, his voice breaking through her cinematic daydream.
"Great! We can discuss the historic errors of the movie we just watched over coffee," Ash replied, secretly relieved she wouldn't have to reveal that her encyclopedic knowledge of medieval weaponry and battle tactics had been completely wasted on whatever period drama they'd just witnessed.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea."
Ash snuggled closer into Nile's side as they walked down the street. For a Friday night it was surprisingly lacking in foot traffic. Usually people didn't clear out until well after 2am, when the bars and clubs closed. The emptiness triggered the part of her brain permanently wired for danger -the part that had kept her alive through missions that would make action movie directors weep with inadequacy.
"Have you noticed how bare the streets are? Isn't that unusual this time of night? It's only, what, 10 o'clock?" Nile remarked, proving once again that his observational skills were sharper than his fashion sense.
"Maybe it's the moisture in the air? Like how some animals know when there's going to be an earthquake and go silent. All of the humans probably just sense a pending storm?" Her "slip" was deliberate -a small test. The kind she'd scattered throughout their time together like breadcrumbs, watching for any reaction that might reveal more about who -or what- Nile really was.
"All of the humans? Did I ever tell you how cute you are? I just love the way you talk," Nile said, his laugh rumbling through his chest and into hers where they touched.
Strike one hundred and seventeen, she mentally tallied. Either Nile was genuinely oblivious or he was playing a game so deep even she couldn't see the bottom of it. Both possibilities were equally terrifying, though for entirely different reasons.
Nile chuckled to himself as he hugged Ash closer to his side. Once they reached the coffee shop he opened the door for her and stepped aside.
"Always the gentleman."
With a flourishing bow Nile grinned. "But of course. After you milady."
"Why thank you milord." The medieval affectation tasted like honey on her tongue -sweet, yet with a complexity that hinted at something ancient and wild beneath the surface.
They made their way to a corner table and sat down just in time to hear the last song of the current act. The music wrapped around them, a sonic cocoon that temporarily shielded them from the world's sharp edges.
"Wow, those guys are incredible. I mean usually folksy music isn't my thing, but that trio is just amazing! Those harmonies. Just wow." Nile wasn't lying.
Ash felt it too, as she was intimately aware of how the music had reached past her carefully constructed layers of cynicism and touched something genuine. That seemed to be happening more frequently these days, a development that should have triggered every alarm bell in her system.
"I know right? That's why I hired them. Hey little brother," a voice interrupted, shattering their bubble with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel.
Nile was so taken by the music that he'd been unprepared for his sister to randomly show up. Of course it couldn't be all that random if she was helping to manage the place. Ash's mind instantly switched gears, filing away this new piece of intelligence. Sister. Connection. Leverage. Threat assessment: pending.
"Hey sis'. Nice selection."
"Thanks. Not too bad a selection yourself. Who's your friend?"
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