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The New Year is often looked at as a new beginning. An opportunity to start fresh, set new goals, cut toxic people off, to work on yourself.

Ashtray didn't believe in New Year's resolutions–he believed that if you wanted to make a change in your life that it could be done whenever. Whether it's the new year or not.

He rolled his eyes at Mariah the morning of New Year's Eve when she jokingly said that her only New Year's resolution was to give Ashtray a niece or nephew.

Ashtray hated kids. He knows he's a kid too, don't remind him you know he hates it. He hates a lot of things, actually. But the only thing that Ashtray hates more than anything in the world is fucking crackheads.

Junkies, druggies, whatever you wanna call them. He hates crackheads.

To Ashtray, a crackhead is anyone who snorts any type of drugs. It doesn't have to be crack, it could be any little illegal substance that you snort through your nose. They all get you the same and if you do enough of them, they all kill you the same.

His mother was a crackhead.

He doesn't know anything about her other than she was a crackhead, and that he hadn't seen her since he was like 2 years old when she left him with her dealer–Fezco's grandma–as colateral, and never returned to pick him up.

She abandoned him with a drug dealer, who luckily had a good heart and took him in as one of her own, while other drug dealers would have done other, terrible things.

Ashtray's mother is the reason why he hates crackheads. He knows people have problems that they believe will get better with substances, which is why so many people start consuming them and becoming addicted, but he doesn't care. He hates the fact that people become dependent on it. He hates the fact that people go broke for drugs, ruin their families and their lives and risk losing everything all for a short high.

He hates the fact that his mother wanted drugs so bad that she abandoned her son for them.

Ashtray has not an ounce of sympathy towards drug addicts. And being a drug dealer, it doesn't eat him up inside knowing that he's feeding into someone's addiction, which could lead to their death.

Shouldn't have done it in the first place.

Ashtray had spent his time at the New Year's Eve party situated outside by the pool on some poolside chairs with a few partygoers, selling little baggies with an assortment of pills or eighths of weed to whoever approached him with cash.

The night had been going good. I mean, there was that drug deal earlier that sort of got out of hand when Mariah and Rue and that one girl that Custer's dating and Mariah somehow knows got basically kidnapped out of Fezco's car and dragged into the drug supplier's apartment, but everything and more importantly, everyone's fine so lets just forget that for now.

Ashtray had people walking up to buy from him all night, shit he even had people follow him while he looked around for somewhere to set up shop, so that people knew where to find him in case they wanted to buy more.

Crackheads always needed more. Ashtray didn't recognize faces often but he did recognize dilated pupils. He knew right away when someone was on drugs.

There was some high school girl flirting with him on the chair to his right in hopes that he'd slide her something for free, even bringing him drinks and slices of pizza from inside the house.

Ashtray told her to fuck off as he bit into his pizza slice. He didn't play about his supply or his money.

She had rolled her eyes and dropped the Coke can she had grabbed for him on the pavement, standing up and storming off.

The now empty chair that she had sat in gave Ashtray a view of the rest of the backyard area, his eyes falling onto two very familiar people.

Rue held Mariah's straightened hair back as she proudly watched her snort the line she cut up for her off the cooler that the two were seated by.

He unknowingly clenched his jaw as he watched Rue hype Mariah up, both giggling as Mariah dismissed herself to quickly head back inside to find Fezco.

Ashtray didn't like Rue. He couldn't hate her because he knew Fezco actually cared about her, and she was funny sometimes and maybe like once in a blue moon she was fun to be around, but he really honestly couldn't stand Rue.

But Ashtray loved Mariah.

He didn't like her very much at first either, and for a while he was convinced that she was trying to set him and Fezco up after he found out that she lived with Mouse.

But after the night that Wayne and Mouse died, Ashtray had nothing but love for Mariah.

For the girl who not only was down to help him and Fezco get the money for Mouse, but for the girl who watched him and Fezco both take the lives of two men who had both done some harm to all three of them in some way.

Ashtray didn't play about his supply, or his money or his work or his family. That night he had to worry about all four.

But when the sun rose the next morning, all his worries had been hammered away.

He and Fezco needed to find a new supplier, sure, but his money was good. His work was good. He and Fezco and grandma were good.

And Mariah was good.

Ashtray didn't get a blink of sleep that night, thinking about Mariah. And not in the way that Fezco thought about her, no ew. I mean, Ashtray did lowkey have a teeny tiny little tiny crush on her, but no ew.

He thought about everything that she did for them–for Fezco and Ashtray, and shit even grandma. And other than Fezco and grandma, Ashtray never had anybody like Mariah.

So he couldn't dislike her like he did with Rue, and not only because Fezco cared about Mariah–Ashtray cared about her too.

Mariah departed from Rue after her line, making her way back inside the house to go sit back down on Fezco's lap after having ditched Maddy when she ran into Rue, who started telling Mariah about how she just almost died in the laundry room.

She smiled as she made eye contact with Ashtray, who had been watching her the whole time, unbeknownst to her.

Those dilated pupils of hers matched the same ones he stared into earlier at Laurie's apartment while Fezco handed Laurie the money for their new supply of drugs, having noticed that she was off.

"Hey pookie," Mariah waved at him, then patted his head as she stopped walking.

Ashtray shrugged her hand off, taking another bite of his pizza slice as he shot her a look.

"Go away I'm working," He spoke with his mouth full, knowing Mariah hated when he or Fezco did that. "And don't call me pookie."

"Do you like bookie better?" Mariah asked him with a taunting smile, tapping her nails on his head gently. "Ouu ASMR on your big ass head."

She was always bugging him just for fun, for her and Fezco's entertainment, and Ashtray was used to it by now; he was the same towards her. They just loved to fight and go back and forth sometimes, like little ass kids on the schoolyard or like siblings.

But Ashtray wasn't in the mood to play fight with Mariah right now. He wasn't even in the mood to talk to her, honestly. He was pissed.

Like, genuinely pissed the fuck off.

The first thing he felt was worry and concern when he realized Mariah was coked out back at Laurie's. He kept eyes on her throughout the drug deal, a million thoughts running through his head afterwards as he glanced back at Mariah every so often in the backseat on the way to the party.

But his worries only faded out into anger when he watched Rue and Mariah do lines together just a few feet away from him.

Doing drugs was one thing, but doing drugs with Rue was a whole other thing. And Ashtray couldn't help but be mad at Mariah for doing both.

Especially when he had opened up to her about why he hated Rue, and why he hated crackheads. He couldn't help but be mad when he had opened up to Mariah about why he hated his mom.

Ashtray gave Mariah a weird and annoyed look, squinting his eyes up at her as he grabbed her hand off his head. "Go away Mariah."

Taken back by the sudden aggression, Mariah withdrew her hand and returned the weird look to the kid, about to ask him who pissed in his Lucky Charms before he spoke again.

"Or do you like junkie better?"

Ashtray's tone was so harsh, his words laced with pure disgust, which Mariah would have noticed if she weren't high off her ass. Yeah he was mean, but he didn't speak to her that way–Fezco would kill his ass.

"How bout crackhead?" He continued anyway, confident that if Fezco knew what Mariah had been up to with Rue, he'd kill her ass too. Ashtray didn't have to worry about himself.

Nonetheless, a small teeny tiny part of him felt a little bad for the way he spoke to Mariah, watching the confused expression form on her face at his words, clueless as ever.

Mariah'd never been called a junkie before, much less a crackhead, and rightfully so too, as she'd never been really into anything but weed, not counting her experimental phase–because it was experimental for a reason–which she had told Ashtray about.

"Boy bye that was a long ass time ago and I wasn't even close to a crackhead," She laughed, shaking her head at him before walking off, playing it off like she wasn't partaking in Rue's crackhead activities earlier.

She didn't know, or even think that Ashtray knew of what she did with Rue, and she definitely didn't think he'd seen, letting the current situation completely fly over her head.

She giggled to herself at what she thought was a little play fight with Ashtray, quickly rubbing her nose as she made her way back to Fezco.

"Yo where'd you go? I been missin you," Fezco's face lit up as he watched Mariah move his arms off his lap to take her seat, having smelt her perfume before he had even seen her.

"I was stalking Rue babe, sorry," She gave his bearded chin a little tickle, glancing over at Lexi, who sat bedsides Fezco with her mouth slightly open.

Mariah and her presence had cut her off mid sentence, Fezco having noticed his girl too quick for her to finish speaking.

"Mhmm," Fezco hummed, checking her out as she scooted herself up on his lap, pinching one of her rolls to get her to stop moving like that on his dick.

Lexi analyzed the way the two looked at each other–moreso watching Fezco as he communicated with his girl with their eyes.

She didn't know what they said, but even she got butterflies with the way he looked at Mariah, mad dogging her while she just smiled playfully.

"I'm gonna try calling Cass again," Lexi dismissed herself, giving Fezco an awkward smile when he glanced at her for a second as she got up and scurried off looking at her phone before he looked up at Mariah again.

Mariah watched Lexi walk off, fixing her hair on her shoulders, "Did I interrupt you and your girlfriend?"

Fezco scrunched his face up at her question, taken aback, "Yo, what?"

"Why you letting bitches get so close to you?" Mariah asked as she turned her head to look at him once Lexi was too far for her eyes.

Fezco gave her a confused look, opening his mouth to stutter out a girl I'm too high what the fuck is you talkin about right now but not fast enough before she continued, standing up off his lap before sitting down in the exact spot that Lexi was.

"Look how close this bitch was to you," Mariah narrowed her eyes at him as he glanced down at how far she was from him. Well, how close.

Fezco kissed his teeth, "Shit, I'm sorry mama. I ain't even realize she was close. C'mere."

He nodded his head at her so she'd sit back on his lap.

"Nah, go call Alexis," Mariah scoffed.

Fezco kissed his teeth again, "Mariah come the fuck here bro. Please."

She squinted at him, folding at his please, getting up and setting herself back down onto him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't notice. I been busy workin, and Alexis just over here talkin my ear off," Fezco apologized with a shake of his head. "But nah don't you ever say that shit again, you my girl."

"Mhm," Mariah hummed, still staring at him with her squinted eyes.

"It's a good night," Fezco reminded her from a conversation they had earlier, raising his eyebrows at her.

Mariah wasn't one to pick fights with Fezco. She was tired of toxic relationships, deciding to leave the toxic side of her in the past when she got with Fezco.

Sure she got smart with him here and there, and she had an attitude sometimes, but he'd never had to deal with her toxicity. Not until recently.

Not until around when she started doing lines with Rue Rue.

She'd been very protective over him before, for example when she worked at Wayne's. She made sure every dancer knew that the dope boy was her's and her's only. And whoever acted like they didn't understand would get swung on.

But lately, Mariah would pick fights whenever he sold drugs to a girl, or when he rang up girls at the store, or when he would be too nice to the drive thru employees when they ate out.

She started to secretly not so secretly go through his phone, she couldn't take any jokes, and she was clingy as fuck.

Fezco hated but loved it. It was weird. But he loved her, so fuck it gotta deal with it til further notice or sum.

To Fezco, it just seemed like they were going from the honeymoon phase of their relationship and into the phase where they had petty little arguments for no reason and just fought about stupid shit constantly.

Well at least that's what he read on Reddit. He didn't know shit about relationships.

But he knew his girl.

Not as well as we do though.

"Yeah I bet it is a good night," Mariah muttered under her breath, still bothered about Alexis sitting all close to her man.

She knew Fezco only had eyes for her but it's hard to fully be confident in that when she's been told the same her whole life by different guys who always somehow had extra sets of eyes for extra bitches.

She trusted Fezco but her previous experiences always fucked with her, and she knew that just because he didn't look at any bitches, that didn't mean that any bitches didn't look at him.

She knew good and well they did, having watched Alexis giggling at something Fezco said earlier that night while she danced with Maddy, looking at him in the way only she was allowed to look at him.

"Yeah, it's a hella good night," Fezco nodded, smirking up at her as he slid his hand between her ass cheek and his thigh, gripping it in his hand. "Got dis beautiful ass girl on my lap and shit."

Mariah folded–not being able to fight the smile that formed on her face at that, getting butterflies as he pulled her closer to him.

"Can I have a kiss?" He asked.

Mariah loved that question. She found it so sweet coming from him, and didn't think twice before she leaned down a bit to connect her lips with Fezco's.

She giggled a few seconds into their kiss, making him smile against her lips.

Mariah pulled away, playfully rolling her eyes at him for ruining it.

"You good?" Fezco asked her rubbing his hand on her thigh gently.

"Mhm," Mariah smiled at him, placing her hand on his and trailing it higher up her thigh.

Fezco squinted at her, halting his hand, "Yo, we was just in the bathroom, ma."

"Yeah but feels like sooooo long ago. Deadass. Take me to the bathroom?" Mariah asked with a cute grin, eyes sparkling and all.

Fezco took a good look at Mariah, seconds away from giving in to her. Fuck he always wanted her no matter when, where, or what, but he knew he couldn't.

At least not yet.

"Nah, you needa chill bruh. I got you at home, where I can give it to you good," He mumbled lowly to her. "Promise, baby."

Mariah felt a swarm of butterflies flying around in her stomach as she listened to his words, followed by a moment of silence in her head as she processed his sentence before she snapped back into reality.

She looked around as the music filled her ears, people singing along to Work Out by J. Cole, playing beer pong on the kitchen island, couples making out in the dark spots while others poured up shots.

Maddy danced with some random guy she met waiting for the bathroom, side eyeing Nate here and there.

Mariah looked around at everyone for what felt like forever and in slow motion, everything coming returning to normal once she turned to look at Fezco.

She smiled upon meeting his eyes, the butterflies still going crazy in her stomach as he gave her ass a squeeze before dropping his hand besides her on his lap.

"Okay," She agreed, still smiling at him as his eyes dropped a bit to shamelessly checked her out.

"Yo, wasn't you with yo homegirl?" Fezco brought up to distract himself from the things he couldn't wait to do to her. He couldn't risk getting hard right now with her on his lap, and only 30 minutes until the new year.

Fuck would he have loved to go from fucking her all the way from this year to the next, but you want what you can't have.

His eyes wandered from Mariah to Nate Jacobs, who leaned on the kitchen island talking sorta flirting with McKay.

He watched Nate as he listened to his girlfriend tell him that she had ran into Rue and told Maddy she'd find her later and after she left Rue she decided she wanted to come try to get him to make love to her in the bathroom.

Fezco blushed at that, staring right into her eyes as she said those words. They'd been having the most passionate sex the past few weeks, whether it would be makup sex after a fight, or high sex after they smoked together, or middle of the night sex after a night out.

He felt so connected to her through their intimacy. They both loved it. They both loved each other. And they could feel it.

"Bitch!"

Maddy scoffed, having appeared right in front of Mariah and Fezco, two peach flavored Twisted Teas in each of her hands.

"You left me for Rue not for your man!" Maddy reminded Mariah, giving her a look as she shoved the Twisted Tea can in her hand. "Let's go fuckin dance, fuck Fez."

Fezco furrowed his eyebrows at that as Maddy grabbed his girlfriend's hand and helped her up off his lap, almost wanting to pull her back onto her seat out of spite.

"The fuck," He mumbled, making Mariah laugh.

"Babe you better come find me before the countdown so we can kiss," Mariah told him, leaning down to give him a quick goodbye hug.

"Don't be going too far then," He advised as he hugged back, feeling her kiss his ear.

"Don't be talking to no bitches," She whispered in his ear, the feeling being enough to get him bricked.

Mariah gently grabbed his face and planted a kiss on each cheek and then onto Fezco's lips before walking off with Maddy, leaving her man alone on the sofa.

But he wasn't alone forever. After dowming her drinks and dancing with Maddy through two Megan thee Stallion songs straight, she glanced over in Fezco's direction to see Lexi sitting down on the fucking sofa again.

Only this time, Fezco was scooted more towards the edge and away from her, joint in his hand as he acted like he hadn't been staring at Mariah shaking her ass on Maddy when he saw her turn his way.

"Don't you like, get bored of sitting with Fez during parties? You're welcome for saving you," Maddy told Mariah as she helped her fix her hair, snapping her out of her head.

"We don't always just sit. He dances with me sometimessss," Mariah shrugged. "And nooo, I love my boo, I never get bored with him."

"That's cute. How did you guys even meet?" Maddy wondered as she pulled her phone out to look at herself in her phone camera.

Mariah smiled, remembering the day she met Fezco. It felt like so long ago, but it had only been a few months. The best few months.

"We met at the strip club I work at."

Maddy raised her eyebrows, "Oh so it's true, you're a stripper? That's hot."

Mariah laughed, "Well technically I'm not one anymore because the club I worked at is like, closed? The owner got killed a few weeks ago."

Maddy raised her eyebrows in question at the casual way Mariah said her boss just got murdered.

"Oh shit. Damn, that's wild, I was gonna ask for a hook up," She half joked, making Mariah laugh. "So like, did you make the first move? Cause Fez is like, super shy."

Mariah smiled, "I know, he's cute. I offered him a lap dance, and then he saved me from getting my ass beat by my ex."

"How?"

"Fez saw him being all aggressive with me and shit outside the club. People always saw, but nobody cared enough to interfere, either that or they'd believe my ex when he'd lie and make it look like something else," Mariah explained. "But Fezco isn't stupid–"

"You sure?" Maddy interrupted with a laugh. "He has like seven brain cells."

Mariah scoffed, "Bitch I'll smack you. You really wanna talk about my man?" She snapped at her.

Maddy raised an eyebrow at Mariah, "God, sorry. Didn't mean to offend your narco boyfriend or whatever. But I actually did wanna talk about your man–does he eat you out?"

Mariah blushed, side eyeing Maddy. "Girl I sat on his face for the first time last night. But it wasn't the first time he's ate me out, he doesn't stop," she bragged.

"Lucky whore. The sex is good?" Maddy asked.

"Too good."

"Respectfully he gives big dick energy," Maddy told Mariah.

"Girl I know. He doesn't just give though," Mariah smiled, both girls busting out into laughter.

"Scuse me, scuse me," Fezco politely made his way through the crowd of people to get to his girlfriend and Maddy, taking the drink from Mariah's hand and replacing it with the green sweater he was wearing earlier, but had just slipped off himself.

Mariah, who had been listening to Maddy talk about what fucking Nate was like when he could actually get it hard, looked up at her man as he set her cup down on the table they were by.

"Everyone, everyone!" The host Virgil announced in attempt to get everyone's attention. "One minute till fucking New Year's!"

"Cass!" Maddy explained upon seeing Cassie for the first time that night, cutting herself off as she told Mariah–and now Fezco too–the story, running off to join her best friend as the partygoers started their joint countdown.

"I'm excited!!!" Mariah placed her hands on her boyfriend's shoulders, standing on her toes for a second to give him a quick kiss.

"Shit, me too," Fezco agreed pulling her closer to him. "These past few months witchu have been the best of my life, mama. I can't wait to start dis new year together, for real, this one and the rest that I live."

Mariah couldn't fight her smile, feeling her fingertips tingling as he spoke to her.

10

9

"I love you," Fezco mumbled to her, his low eyes staring at her with so much love.

7

6

5

Maybe it was the joint he smoked, or the adrenaline that rushed through him for what he was about to do, or maybe he really just felt so strongly for her and he couldn't refrain himself from pouring his heart out a bit.

4

"I love you more," Mariah said back, tearing up a bit because fuck she just loved him so much.

3

2

"Das not possible," Fezco smiled at her, leaning in close enough to ghost his lips with hers. "Happy New Year."

1.

Fezco pressed his lips onto Mariah's, feeling her kiss back immediately as everybody surrounding them screamed and cheered in excitement for the new year as the clock struck 12, people popping confetti cannons and blowing party horns as the belltower sound played from the TV that had been playing the countdown live from Times Square in New York.

Mariah deepened their kiss, forgetting where they were for a few seconds when she trailed her hand down his torso, but was interrupted when Fezco pulled away to look at his phone, which kept buzzing. Ash.

He looked over the three texts from Ashtray, who was waiting for the two in Fezco's car already, then looked at Mariah again as she moved some confetti off her face.

He reached to help her remove a few pieces making her scoot closer and trail kissed along his jawline.

"Happy New Year, Superman," Mariah smiled at him as she kissed his skin.

"Happy New Year, beautiful," Fezco said back, wrapping his arm around her after she hugged him. "We gotta cut, you ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah I'm good," Mariah nodded, giving him another kiss.

Fezco nodded, "Aight, go meet Ash in the car. I gotta take care of sum first," He told her, softly patting her lower back so she'd make her way out to his car.

"Kay, gimme a kiss," Mariah said, leaning in for one last kiss before she giggled to herself and walked off while Fezco walked off in the opposite direction, towards the island in the kitchen that he'd been watching very closely all night.

Towards Nate Jacobs.

Fezco had kept an eye on Nate through the night since he first saw him when he exited the bathroom earlier after taking a shit, the little plan that he and Ashtray conjured up on his mind.

Mariah didn't make it far, running into Maddy and her blonde friend who she then met as Cassie, which Fezco didn't notice as he approached Nate Jacobs.

"Oh my god, Cass! This is Mariah, Fezco's girlfriend," Maddy introduced Mariah to Cassie after stopping her on her way.

Maddy had told Mariah about her best friend, insisting that she was sure she'd click with Cassie the same way she did with her.

Cassie widened her eyes, recognizing her voice as the same voice as the girl who fucked Fezco in the bathroom earlier while Cassie was hiding in the tub from Maddy.

"How did Fezco get you?" Was the first thing Cassie said to Mariah, shamelessly in awe with the girl, trying to ignore what she witnessed earlier. "I mean, he's slow but he's hot, but you're like, a bad bitch."

Mariah loved compliments. But she hated when people called her man hot.

But she fought the urge to swing on this Cassie bitch because she's white and probably has a good lawyer, she's Maddy's best friend and Mariah really likes Maddy, and she also said Mariah was a bad bitch.

"He likes to play Superman and I love a man in a suit," Mariah joked, the three girls glancing over in Fezco's direction.

"Wassup, man?" Fezco mumbled as he joined Nate at the island, looking around for a cup and a glass bottle. "You havin a good time?"

Nate coughed a little after swallowing his cup of vodka, watching as Fezco grabbed a cup for himself, then proceeded to grab the bottle of Tito's vodka.

"Yeah," Nate replied.

"Happy New Year," Fezco nodded as he poured himself up. "You make any New Year's resolutions?"

Nate squinted at him, "No, you?"

"A few," Fezco said, looking up at Nate, who continued squinting at him, a rather amused expression on his face.

"The last time we talked, didn't you say you wanted to kill me?" Nate quizzed.

Fezco slightly shrugged his shoulders, holding his cup up to clink with Nate's.

"Yeah, well...it's a new year, playboy," Fezco said.

Nate let out of a huff of amusement, clinking his cup's with Fezco, just as Fezco clinked–no, more like smashed–the now empty bottle of Tito's vodka onto Nate's head.

The sound of the glass bottle shattering into pieces upon colliding with Nate's skull drew everyone's attention, people beginning to scream and rush to form a circle around Fezco and Nate as Fezco nonstop threw punches at Nate's face.

"Oh my god! Get off him!"

"Fezco, stop!!"

Fezco ignored the screaming as his fist continuously pounded itself into Nate's face, feeling no remorse as he beat Nate's face in, staining his knuckles and shirt red with blood.

That was for fucking with him, for fucking with his money, for fucking with his business, for fucking with his family, and most importantly, for fucking with his girl.

To the New Year.

hey:*

what we do we think?