Hallows: Duets

That B!tch Is Hella Creepy

The Game ft. 50 Cent- Hate It Or Love It

Ashley:

Lily's side of the room looks like something out of a crappy old cult movie. There are plants, little jars with labels on them, and really old books already decorating her space. Her black violin is set up on the floor next to her bed.

"Whoa," I say looking around as I go over to the boxes James brought over from the house.

"Uh, I have my own room. You're more than welcome to share it with me," Dante says reaching for one of the boxes on the floor.

"Is that a collar with spikes on her bed?" I ask ignoring his request. He laughs.

"I'm serious, by the way," he adds.

"I know you are," I smirk at him.

I take my pocket knife out of my back pocket and start taking the plastic wrap off the new mattress. It's odd to see Dante doing chores. I can't help but laugh as he helps me make the bed. But that's all he does. Once the purple and gold bedspread is on the bed, he lays down and watches me take things out of the boxes. When I open the closet to put some of my clothes away, I find that there are already things in it.

"Oh, those are from Kelly," he says reaching for my candy box.

I ignore him and the fact that Kelly is once again going to take over my wardrobe. I actually don't mind anymore. Whenever I had to go somewhere with Dante over the Summer break I called her and despite the time difference and Carter's complaining she would stay up until she thought I was presentable. I feel like an asshole for not going after her earlier. She seemed genuinely upset.

"I should tell her to come down, right?" I say holding up my phone.

"No, we have class in the morning. I don't get to see you until lunch. Don't ruin it," he says putting a chocolate and a spicy mango candy in his mouth at the same time. I watch him without saying anything. It takes him a moment to realize what was going to happen.

"Do you want to spit it out?" I ask him. He nods. "Restroom," I point at the door next to the closet one. He rolls off the bed and rushes inside.

"f**k," he spits into the restroom at the same time a loud barking noise comes from inside. He slams the door shut and looks up at me eyes wide. "There's a f*****g Doberman in there,"

"Why the f**k is that in there?" I ask, going over to him. The dog keeps barking on the other side of the door.

"The dog collar," he points at the bed. "It's Creepy's,"

"Don't call her that," I scold looking back at her bed.

"Ashley," he calls my name. "Darling, that b***h is hella creepy. You cannot say she's not f*****g weird as s**t,"

"Okay, so she's a little different. What am I supposed to do? She's my partner," I refuse to give up on this. What if the school decides me not having a partner is a deal breaker?

"I'll get you a new one," he shrugs.

"No, I want this one. She's the one that destiny brought down from musical heaven to play with me," I show him the lillie David gave me.

"Nooo, baby. That girl was f*****g spawned from hell. I'm telling you she's going to do some weird s**t to you, darling. Come and stay with me. Look she has a f*****g dog. You hate animals. That thing has pointy demon dog ears. I would know. Teegan is a hellhound,"

"Maybe we just scared him," I go over to the bed to pick up the collar to see what the dog's name is. The collar is fancy. Black leather, gold spikes, and a gold name tag. I turn it over and let my head roll back.

"What's the dog's name, Ash?" he asks with a smirk on his face.

"Lucifer," I whisper. He burst into laughter when I toss the collar back on her bed. "Don't laugh. What if my roommate sacrifices me to the Dark Lord? And for once I don't mean you,"

"Come stay in my room with me. No one is going to say s**t,"

"Hey guys," we both stand up straight when Lily appears at the door. I immediately point at the bathroom.

"You have a dog," I say accusingly.

"Oh, yeah. That's Lucy. He's my baby. I-um. I have something called IED and he's my emotional support dog. He's trained and very gentle. I've got his paperwork and everything,"

"You hear that, darling? She's got IED," Dante looks over at me with a triumphant smirk on his dumb face.

"Jokes on you. I don't know what that is," I stick my tongue out at him.

"You're not allergic, are you?" she asks worriedly.

"No, no. I'm just extremely scared of dogs. I got mauled by one when I was little,"

"Oh, sweetie," she takes my hand. "Do you want Lucifer to apologize on behalf of all dogs so you can get over it?"

"Oh, s**t," Dante laughs. I press my lips together and nod understanding what's happening now.

"Okay, b***h," I rip my hand out of hers. I step into her space so we're eye to eye. "I'm trying really hard to be your friend. But if you ever disrespect my friends again. I will f**k your s**t up. I don't care if you got some weird disease. Get rid of the f*****g dog or I will kill that motherfucker,"

"Really?" she grins. "I'd love for you to try and kill Lucifer. See what happens,"

"Get rid of the dog, Lily," I warn her.

"Get rid of yours," she glances in Dante's direction without moving her head. Anger rushes through me. She did not refer to him as a f*****g dog. I'll stab her.

"Come on, Lily," Dante takes my knife out of my hand and pulls me back. "This is dumb. You're being petty to her because of us. You don't even know her,"

"I don't have to know her. She's in love with you. That's all I need to know," she hits back relentlessly.

"I never did anything to you," he says matter-a-factly.

"No, but you stood by while your little buddies did. Call it hate by association," she shrugs and crosses her arms over her chest. There's a silver knife in her hand.

"You're right and you have every right to be mad at us. Ashley had nothing to do with that. She didn't even know we existed. You have two choices here. You drop it, we all move forward, and you two get to make evil tunes together or you keep this s**t up and you don't. Ash can find another accompanist. She's a team player. Are you?"

Her eyes fill with angry tears and she holds her knife up pointing it at him. I tighten my hold on his hand because if she cuts him all bets are off.

"Do you promise not to let your little f*****g minions f**k with me again, Dante? Because I can't go through that s**t again. I will hurt one of you. You don't f*****g know me anymore," she growls. "I was up there six hours. Six f*****g hours,"

"I swear on my father's grave that they will not lay a hand on you so as long as nothing happens to Ashley whiles she's anywhere near you," he folds my knife and hands it to me.

She holds his gaze for a moment and then turns away pulling a black hanky from her little coffin-shaped purse to dab her tears away. She folds her pocket knife and puts it in her purse.

"I can't get rid of him. I really do have IED. I even have to take him to class with me," she walks over to the bathroom door and whistles. The barking stops and she opens the door. The dog is sitting back panting with his tongue out. "Eww, what the f**k is this? s**t?"

"Oh, uh- Dante had candy in his mouth and he spit it out when he saw the dog from hell in the bathroom,"

"Got to bed," she orders. The dog runs across the room and jumps up on her bed. "What kind of f****d up candy do you eat?"

"He put chocolate and a mango ball in his mouth. He doesn't always read the labels sometimes they're in Spanish," I say going into the bathroom to clean up the mess.

"I have to go. Carter is here. Are we good? I'll help you take some of this s**t up to my room right now if you want? We can come back for the rest later," he looks between us.

"We're fine," I shake my head. He gives me a disappointed look but then nods.

"If you change your mind, chirp me," he says and walks out.

"I'm sorry," Lily looks over at me scratching at her arm.

"It's fine. I get it. Lacy Bermudes stuffed me in a locker for ten hours in middle school. I spent freshman and sophomore year making sure she didn't lose her virginity and fat shaming her in front of large crowds,"

"Righteous," she nods. "You don't look like you'd fit in a locker,"

"I used to be really small," I laugh.

"Can you not tell Dubois about this? She's cool and I promised her I'd be on my best behavior," she says unable to meet my eyes.

I get it. They were mean to her. I'm not one to let things go myself, but she has to know that these are my friends and I'm not going to stop loving them for anyone. Even if I have to find another way to get the music out.

"As long as you don't tell her that I will be sneaking out in the middle of the night," Maybe I do believe in second chances after all.

"Deal," she grins.

"So, uh. Am I allowed to ask what IED means? It's that like a bomb?"

"Yeah, it is. It's also intermittent explosive disorder. Some s**t went down a few years ago and I snap sometimes. If I get really worked up or stressed out. I don't always know how it's going to come out. It could be violent, hyperemotional, or I'll just pass out. I've also had seizures. That's why I have to have the dog. He calls for help and warns people if it's going to happen. He'll cry and s**t,"

"Okay," I nod. "Do you take meds?"

"Yeah, but that s**t doesn't really work anymore," she sits on her bed. "So, how long have you and Dante been smushing? Last time I heard of him he was dating Aubrey whatever,"

"It's actually fairly new for both of us," I shrug. "We got kind of close over the Summer,"

"Oh, you don't want the Summer romance to end, huh?" she smirks. "I bet you f*****g hated him before that,"

"I did. I was terrified of him. I still am. He has I'll kill anyone who so much as asks me for a pen in class vibes,"

"And that doesn't set off blaring alarms in your head?" she laughs.

"It's Hellbourne. If he doesn't set off blaring alarms, he's probably a b***h," I shrug. "I can't have the biggest d**k in the relationship. Tried that once and it did not end well,"

"If that isn't true, I don't know what is," she grins.

"What about you? Do you have a blaring alarm in your head?"

"Nah, I'm not big on dating. My old man is a f*****g psycho. I was f*****g around with this one dude but he has a little friend he keeps around and it bothers me. You probably already know him. Teegan Phantom,"

"Really? You were f*****g around with Blackstone's cousin?" I laugh.

"Mm, word of advice. Never f**k around with your business partners,"

"Are you talking about him and Belinda?" I ask. She nods. "They're not a thing. She's got a girlfriend and a guy,"

"Really?" she laughs.

"Yeah, they all have weird attachments to one another. Like Dante and Kelly,"

"I always thought they were gonna end up together," she nods. "They were always glued to one another,"

"That is still very true,"

"I would hate that, sweetie. I've got real bad trust issues. My insercurities eat at my soul," she pats her dog on the head. "It's why I ghosted pretty boy,"

"You ghosted Teegan? You do know he'd going to be around, right? He's Dante's cousin and they're tight,"

"Yeah, it's gonna be a long f*****g year," she sighs. "I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me up if anything interesting happens. Leave the bathroom door open for Lucy. Never ever leave the toilet seat down,"

I finished unpacking and putting most of my things away. Lily slept through the entire afternoon and the night. I had to check to see if she still had a pulse before I went to bed. Despite me not wanting to go anywhere near her demon dog. This dog knows how to use the restroom. He even flushes. While I was going through the notes on my summer assignments, he watched me without making a sound. His gaze followed me around the room. I hate it, but I really don't have a lot of choices here. I'll give it a week and if things get worse, I'll stay in Dante's dorm.