"I don't think of home much when I'm on the road…that's one of the perks of this kind of life. I have friends and family but they don't live in San Fran anymore." I said, answering the question as honestly as I could. Phone interviews were always the toughest; you could never see the interviewer's face to gauge their reactions to your answers or even figure out their motives for asking the things that they did. Some magazines and radio stations wanted fun stuff, favorite gum or sneaker brand. Others were all about the love life and who you were dating. The worst ones, tough, wanted to know about family, skeletons in the closet, people in the closet. I kept it pretty light overall. Reporters, talk show hosts, radio jockeys…they were all the same; basically paps who got promotions. The more you let them in, the more leverage they had. I'd been doing the teen idol thing for what was going on three years and I had a handle on things.
"Anybody special that you look forward to seeing at the end of a grueling tour?"
"Yeah, I'd have to say my best friend and my little brother. They keep me centered."
"Oh, who's lucky enough to be the best friend of teen hotty Ashley Davies, gotta be someone insanely great." I laughed, knowing that he was fishing.
"Yeah, she is."
"Aw, don't hold out on us Ashers, everyone here in London is listening intently and we all want to get a look inside the life behind that beautiful set of pipes of yours."
"And I appreciate that Dan but privacy's a hard thing to come by, especially in this business. There aren't many things that I can keep to myself, having a best friend is just one of things that help me to be a normal teenager."
"Speaking of normalcy, how would you characterize your genre of music? I mean, your fan base is one of most diverse of any artist"
"Maybe Indie, with a little bit of techno funk mixed in. I honestly don't know. As for the fans, I like to think that my music has connectivity. I sing about love and pain and anger; everybody feels or has felt those things at one point in time. Human emotion transcends race, age or what have you."
"That's totally vibin' babe and on that note we're going to take a listen to your newest song and title of your sophomore album 'Closer'. Thanks for chatting with all of us fans here across the pond."
"No problem Dan, thanks for having me" I hung up my cell phone as Spencer cranked up the radio.
"I love this song Ash… You sound sooo good. " She whispers as she pulls me up to dance with her.
I don't want to give you up Your love is so good that I want to show you I don't want to give you up
I don't want to hold you up
I don't want ambiguous
I just know that I've had enough
I want you to travel with me
Let loose and let your mind go free...Show you things that you've never seen
You just got to go with me
Ohhh
Don't make me responsible, for something that you can't find
Ohhh
Your loving is so good, so good, the closer
I want it, I want it
Into me
I want it, I want it,
Leave it here
I want to get close to you baby
Experience...
I want it, I want it
Generous...
Lay down what's impeding you
Cause I want to get close to you
I'm tired of the pull and push
I'm tired of the making love
Don't you feel like you've had enough
I want you to journey with me, explore all the innocence
I don't mind us to build tension but we've got to move in the same direction
As we swayed goofily around her room, I let my mind drift to the first day that I met Spencer. I couldn't believed that we'd known each other almost a year.
I wasn't really ready to leave San Francisco when we did; everything that I needed was there with the old house. I would miss the rain and the way that the sun felt hot on my cheek after a long harsh storm. Mom said that all good things ended and that in order to launch my career properly we'd need to settle in Atlanta where all of the big shot record producers set up shop. I didn't have the heart to tell her, then, that I wasn't sure if I could lift my voice to sing without dad there to cheer me on. The divorce had been so messy; the fighting and the yelling had dragged us all through the mud. Mom told the lawyers that dad had been verbally abusive to her and when dad found out he flipped. He threw the little clay owl that I'd made for him at mom, at me. We shattered as that thing hit the floor and broke into so many pieces.
We were on a plane to Atlanta the next day, me, Conner, and Mom. The ride had been silent and long because none of us knew exactly what to say. We kept quiet as we moved into our new house, even as we started our new schools the next day.
"Ashley, I'll pick you up after school and then we'll ride to get Con together."
"Kay."
"Well…be safe."
"Yep." I said as I walked out of the door that day. Fifteen minute walk to the new school from our house but I lollygagged about it; I was in no rush to face the fact that my old life had officially ended.
Maybe it was fate that the sky opened up and poured rain onto my already frustrated head that day; a dose of home to let me know that things would be oaky. I had rounded the corner and was literally about twenty or so feet from the door of the school when the water began to fall. There were few students on the lawn and for that I was grateful. I was just about sink completely into the embarrassment of having to spent my entire first day soaked and cold, when I noticed her. She was ordinary from my viewpoint; her clothes were typical as were her mannerisms. The thing that had caught my attention had been her failure to rush in when the rain started. Instead, she'd just sort of stood there with her head tilted up towards the sky.
"Are you alright?" I asked, as I made my way towards her, reluctant to keep walking past despite the weather. She looked at me with a whimsical look on her face.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?"
"That'll be a no and my signal to head in." I said awkwardly as I turned to walk away. As I entered the building, the bell for class to start sounded overhead. I sighed as imagined the onslaught of annoyances that would be sure to follow due to my tardiness. For instance, I would have to hurry and locate the attendance office before reporting to the registrar for my schedule. The place, let me tell you, looked like some sort of complicated prison maze that I'd decided had been designed to provoke confusion. Why else would they not number the doorways and have each hall painted the same pasty blue color? I wondered around and around, squeaking in my sneakers, in vain. There were no officials in hall nor were there any students to assist. After a while of this pointless searching, I decided to just poke my head in one of the classrooms and ask for help.
I eased the door to one room open. I imagine that I must've have looked quite ridiculous as several of the students began to chuckle but it took a minute or two for the teacher to notice that I was even standing there.
"May I help you, young lady?" He asked abruptly.
"Yes, actually. You see, I'm new and well..I'm late. I assumed that there would be an attendance office or something for me to check in at but I can't find it at all."
"You have a note?"
"Like from home or something?" he rolled his eyes as if to say that my question was absurd.
"Yes that's usually where you get them unless they come from a doctor's office." the class really let loose after he had said that.
"No, I don't. I was delayed because of the rain. "
"Well, with no note, the attendance office won't be able to help you. The best thing for you would be to report to class and take the tardy and whatever consequences your teacher assigns for that kind of thing."
" I have no schedule as of yet and I don't know here to go to get that either."
" Hmm, that is a pickle. I'll tell you what, why don't I send one of mine to get you where you need to be."
"I'd appreciate that, thank you."
" Carlin!" As he shouted a head in the back of the classroom popped up.
"Yeah, Mr. H?"
" I need you to show Miss…
"Ashley."
"Miss Ashley here how to get to the uh…"
"Registrar's office and then to my first class."
"Yeah, what she said. Maybe while you're escorting her you can wake yourself up enough to actually be a participating member of class when you return."
"Gotcha." as she walked to the front of the room, I recognized her as the girl from earlier that morning. We walked for a bit in silence.
"So are you special ed?" I halted immediately.
"What? No! What gives you that impression?"
"I don't know, you seem a little out of it."
"It is my first day and all. That kind of thing tends to be a little disorienting."
"I guess. It has everything to do with motor skills; you know brain reception and stuff."
"I'm not slow, okay?"
" Of course you aren't. It isn't about fast or slow. Some people are just a little more FG than others and that's perfectly alright."
"FG?"
"Forrest Gump."
"You're comparing me to that guy?", I asked incredulously.
"Comparing wouldn't be my word of choice. It's more like grouping…or characterizing."
"I'm not mental, okay?"
"I understand perfectly." I knew that she was doing that thing that sane people do to crazy people. You know, when they assure them that their attempts to validate their sanity are being accepted when really it's just tipping the scale against them.
"This is the registrar's office." she announced, stopping suddenly in front of a door. I stared at her oddly.
"Do you want me to go in with you?" She asked me slowly and deliberately.
'Ugh! Forget it."
"Are your interviews always that brief?" Spencer asked as we both stretched across her bed. The song had finished and we were settling into the familiar.
"Yeah, the ones over the phone are. It gets weird when they try to stretch things out." she nodded solemnly.
"You okay, Spence?"
"Yeah, just…can I ask you something Ash?"
"Shoot."
"Did you mean what you said about your best friend and Con keeping you centered?"
"Yeah, why?"
" I don't know…who's your best friend?"
"You, duh."
"Really?"
"I mean, is that okay? Just because I consider you my best friend doesn't mean that I have to be your best friend. I mean, you're a likeable person Spence, I know that there must be loads of people gunning for that best friend spot and I would never begin to presume that just because we hang a lot…"
"Ash…"
"I get it, I do. You just, uh, are important to me and plus I don't have a whole lot of friends. I mean even if I did, you'd be the best…
"Ash…"
"No , I understand and maybe I should have run it past you before I brought it up on the radio with that DJ Dan guy…" she pressed her hand lightly against my lips.
"Stop obsessing. You should know that you are the most important person in my life and, naturally, that would mean that you're my best friend. It's just nice to know that you care about me too." I struggled to speak against her hand.
"Shhh. It's cute when you ramble but you have to promise me that if I remove my hand you won't get all ADHD again? Yeah?" I nodded.
"Good." she said pulling her hand away.
"Sorry."
"Please, Ash. You've gotta stop apologizing for being adorable." I smiled.
"I remember when you thought of it more as my special needs making themselves manifest rather than adorableness. "
"Ha. You were just plain weird around me, that's all."
"I was not! You just turned every little thing that I did into something that it wasn't!"
"We've talked about this Ash, It's okay if you're a little bit more…"
"Don't you dare say it!"
"A little bit more…"
"I' m warning you Spence, I will tickle attack."
"Ashley, it isn't my fault that you are more F.G than the average person…" I rolled on top of her and began wiggling my fingers, up and down her sides, beneath the fabric of her shirt.
"AH HA HA AH….god, you're so sensitive!" she laughed heartily as I continued with my attack.
"I'm sensitive huh?" I pulled her shirt up more and moved to blow her stomach.
"Oh god, please not my stomach…You're playing dirty!" Her laughter topped abruptly as the door eased open.
"Spencer….uh, I was calling you but obviously you didn't hear me. Aiden is in the driveway for you. "
"Yeah, Ashley's over." Spencer said, forcing her mother to acknowledge my presence.
"Hello. Anyway, he's been waiting for about fifteen minutes."
"Why's he in the driveway?"
"You know how your father feel s about him; after his last stunt with you, you're father has decided that he is no longer welcome in this house." I stifled a chuckle; I remembered that occurrence clearly
I'd just gotten back to Atlanta from my first World Tour. I'd driven as fast as I could with only one goal in mind…being the first person to wish Spencer a happy eighteenth birthday. In order to do that, I'd need to be in her room at exactly 1:17 in the morning. It was the time that she'd been born and she'd told me that she had always wanted someone to get her birthday right down to the time. I was speeding down the freeway, running red lights, doing everything I could to get there. My flight had landed at exactly 12:45 so I hadn't much time. In the last city of the tour, I'd picked her up a present. All I needed was to be there.
After parking my car about a block away from her house and full on sprinting all the way there, I basically leapt up the ladder that led to her bedroom window. She always left it open for me just in case I got to town and needed an impromptu place to stay. I eased in as quietly as I could and poised myself in the chair that directly faced her bed. The time was 1 :16 and I had just enough time to quickly text her and wait.
I heard my voice streaming from her phone…
"Every night I rest in my bed…"
She sat up sleepily and I watched as she read my message.
U look so peaceful when u sleep. Happy Bday.
She sat up abruptly and clicked on the little mermaid lamp that sat next to her bed.
"Oh my gosh….Ash, how did …"
"Happy Birthday Spencer."
"This is, just, I can't believe… Thank you, you know?"
"Are you crying Spencer?" I said, slightly nervous.
"Yeah. I am, get over here, you." I kicked off my biker boots and made my way over to her bed. She rested her head in the crook of my neck. " This is the best present ever, Ash."
"Actually, uh, I got you something."
"Ash…"
"I remembered when we were in New York on that class trip last year and you saw that necklace in the window…the one you said might have belonged to your great grandmother. Well, that one didn't but I did some research and, uh, found the one that did. " I pulled the tiny box out of my pocket. She traced over the velvet cover of the box with her finger tips, delicately, outlining its finish.
"I'm not going to open it."
"Oh?"
"Nope, I want to wear it with something beautiful, how about senior prom?"
"Whatever you want Spence."
"I love it Ash, I do. I'm just so emotional right now …because you're here, I just can't. Can I just, be here with you? I know that I'm probably crossing a million lines and I don't want to freak you out but I just really want, need, to kiss you. I just need to be that close to you right now, to show you how I feel …"
I leaned forward, slightly, giving her a chance to change her mind. As she moved to meet me, we heard hurried feet on the stairs.
"Shit! Ash, that's going to be my Dad. "
"Oh, okay I'll go."
" I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine." I said as I grabbed my boots and headed out of the window. I ran so fast from the house that I didn't have time to think o anything till I was in my car. After things had calmed down a little, I drove myself home. I knew my mom and brother would be asleep; I wasn't in the mood for questioning. When I got up to my room, I got a text from Spencer. My heart leapt in my chest as I read her message.
X
The next day she told me that her dad thought that it was Aiden that had been in her room.
AN:
So. The songs used in this chapter were Closer by Corrine Bailey Rae and a bit of Sweet Dreams by Beyonce Please Review….More to Come.