Page 16 of Ashes to Ash’s

“Fuck no. He’s just a stubborn ass who thinks being gay is ungodly or some rubbish. It’s the same shit his parents drilled into his poor innocent head when he was at an impressionable age, that’s all. Once he’s taken my cock, he’ll learn what’s right.”

Ethan was nodding slowly, his focus back on his bottle, and that label.

“Yeah, I mean, sometimes lessons need to be taught the hard way, and sometimes it takes more than one. Sometimes the biggest lesson is the one you didn’t see coming though. The one that shows you that you were never a good person. I mean, this is what you’re all like anyway, but for me it was a shock.”

“Could we have like one conversation where you’re not insulting or condemning my family, dude? You’re one of us now.”

Ethan grimaced, shoving the empty bottle aside as he straightened up.

“Yeah, I know. Still feel the need to rebel against this fucked up shit sometimes, but I know it’s where I belong. So what if my own parents still won’t talk to me? At least I have this psycho family now, right?”

He turned and left the room, while I went back over his words in my mind. His family disowned him back when the accusations came out, but they’d still not forgiven him? What the fuck was their deal? I knew it was unrealistic to hope all parents would be as cool as mine, but it reminded me that Ethan wasn’t the only one dealing with that issue. Maybe the fact wasn’t that I needed to change Cal’s mind at all. Maybe it was more about removing the hurtful influence from his life altogether. Without his parents dictating at him, and controlling him, he’d be free to be with me.

Chapter Eleven

Callum

Ishouldn’t have done it. I felt like a complete monster, but I knew it was necessary to save him from what he’d become.

“Was I like that after?”

Elizabeth patted my cheek after straightening her clothes.

“Yes, love. It’s how we retrain your mind and body. He’ll be fine. Just sit with him until he’s conscious again at least.”

She left the hotel room, and I sat across the bed from a groggy, confused Ash. He slipped in and out of consciousness over the next few hours. I knew it was for the best, so why did it feel so wrong?

Two hours earlier

I watched Ash walk into the hotel bar, his swagger and smug grin telling me that he thought he knew how tonight was going to go down. I ignored the way my heart raced faster at the sight of him, knowing that it was wrong to feel excited to see him. He was misguided, and confused, having fallen into the same depravity I’d fallen into as a teen. He could still be saved.

“This is the right thing, isn’t it?” I turned to look at Elizabeth, my uncle’s friend, who’d helped me through my own issues. She nodded, straightening the front of her low-cut dress as she watched Ash approach.

“It’s necessary to save him from himself. He’ll thank you later, just like you thanked your uncle, and me.” She was older than me, but younger than my uncle, probably somewhere around thirty, and a devout member of his church, but also this separate group of believers who worked so hard and tirelessly, to help convert confused teenagers who found themselves on the wrong path. She’d helped me, back when I was fifteen, so she could help Ash now.

He finally stood beside me, glancing with confusion at Elizabeth. “Who’s she? I didn’t agree to a threesome, babe.”

I shuddered. Everything about him was so depraved and wrong. It helped to receive such a reminder, because it proved to me that this was the right course of action. This would be the moment that saved him, just like it had been for me.

“This is Elizabeth. She’s uh… a friend of mine. Have a drink with us, before she goes to meet up with her friends.”

Ash eyed us both uncertainly, but took the seat at the bar with us.

“What are you guys drinking?”

I pushed the extra glass in his direction, lifting my own to gesture at him before taking a sip.

“Some girly fruit punch stuff that Elizabeth likes. She wanted to get a drink for us too.”

Ash picked it up and sniffed it, grimacing as he lowered it again.

“Yeah, thanks but no thanks. That smells like piss. I’ll just get a beer.”

I shot a panicked glance at Elizabeth, and she rested a comforting hand on my arm.

“That’s not very gentlemanly, Ash. Callum led me to believe that you were a decent man, was he lying? Is he mistaken about you?”

Ash’s face tensed, and he glared at both of us for a moment.