I was inspired by "My Best Friends Wedding" with this one. You'll see why. Contains hints of Crellie, Jimash, and Crash and Ellie/Marco friendship. Please be sure to review and let me know what you think!
Chapter 1: Love Will Tear Us Apart
Ellie lay on her bed and sighed as she thought of the events that had transpired in the past week. She graduated from high school which was pretty much the one good and normal thing that happened, her best friend returned from England, her other best friend that she was secretly in love with returned from Vancouver, and she rejected one of her really good friends' attempt at turning their relationship into more because of her crush on the latter.
After seeing Craig at graduation with Manny and knowing that Ash was back for good, she resigned herself to give up this dead end crush. However, her plans changed a couple of days later when Craig and Manny had this huge blowout over who knows what exactly and broke up. Naturally, he came to Ellie for consolation and she tried to do the best she could without actually jumping up and down with excitement over the fact. She hated to be the rebound girl and she really didn't want to screw up her friendship with Ash, but deep down Ellie knew that it was her only chance and on some strange and somewhat stupid whim of courage she told him that he chose the wrong girl. To her surprise, Craig conceded with this and they ended up sharing a kiss.
Now she is smack in the middle of dealing with the aftermath of that and dueling with her voice of reason that she should let Ash know about everything and Craig's desire for her to keep things quiet until they officially decide what they are. She is unsure how she feels about this particular detail even though he said the reason is so that they don't have to deal with any unneeded conflict and because he and Ash aren't exactly on the best terms yet seeing as they haven't spoken since her return from England.
As usual, Ellie decides to go her own way despite a possible problem with Craig. She calls Ash to see if she wants to hang out and it's agreed that they will meet at The Dot for lunch and possibly go to a movie afterward, though Ellie has a feeling that the second part of those plans is likely not going to happen.
Ellie thought about doing the usual small talk first and was pretty sure that's the way it was going to go but as soon as she saw Ashley she knew she had to get it out of her system right away. They hug in greeting and Ellie makes sure to pick a corner table to ensure more privacy. Before Ellie can say a word Ashley starts off the conversation by apologizing to her, Ellie finds this ironic as she is about to tell Ashley that she has essentially betrayed her. "El, I just wanted to tell you that I'm so sorry about that whole thing with Jimmy, I really thought that he was the one you were talking about. I felt so bad about it all." She looks so genuinely sorry and hopeful that Ellie will forgive her that she almost wants to back out and fake being sick so that she can go home and then call the whole thing off with Craig. But she has to be strong about this, and Ash deserves to know. "Actually, Ash, I kinda wanted to talk to you about that whole thing also." Ashley's face goes from concerned to a little surprised and Ellie can tell that she thinks that maybe she changed her mind about Jimmy. "I don't blame you for thinking it was Jimmy that I had a crush on and I guess I should have just told you from the beginning so he didn't have to get dragged into this too." Ashley's eyes narrow and she definitely looks confused now. She moves to talk but Ellie continues before Ashley can get a word in, "Please don't say anything yet, I have to finish or I'll lose my nerve. Okay, here goes, Ash the guy I have a crush on is Craig." As soon as the words leave her mouth she wishes she could go back in time and start going to a different group when Craig joined hers and not hang out with him all summer. She would change anything so that she didn't have to see Ashley with that look on her face right now. Instead of being angry, or even sad, she looks more disappointed. Disappointed that Ellie couldn't have been a better friend to her and right now Ellie completely agrees with that, because she isn't finished and she has to make it worse at this point.
"That's not all. I don't know if you know yet but Craig and Manny broke up last week. Well, the other day he came to talk about it with me and we ended up kissing. It only happened once Ash, I swear and I really haven't seen much of him since, but I really do like him." Now the anger Ellie was anticipating finally made it's appearance. "So, what, El, you want my blessing? You can't even tell me that you've had a crush on my ex for who knows how long and you're telling me now because you think you have a chance and you want me to approve of it first?" As harsh as Ashley's words were, deep down Ellie knew that they were true. "Look you and Craig do what you want to do but don't act like you did the right thing by coming to me first. If you had told me before you acted on it, I might have gotten used to the idea. Now, I don't know. I'm just going to need time okay? I'll see you around." And with that, Ashley got up and walked as fast as she could out of the restaurant, not even giving Ellie a chance to say anything else. Ellie sighed and banged her head on the table, she really messed up this time.
As if Ashley's tirade wasn't enough, Craig wasn't very happy when Ellie let him know that she told Ash everything. She was currently in her second argument of the day. "I told you that you should have waited, now she hates both of us." "She said she just needed to get used to it, okay, just give her time to let off some steam. Besides, it's not like you two are on the best of terms right now anyway." "Exactly, Ellie, I was kind of hoping that we could have a clean slate. I had my fill of the wrath of Ash a couple years ago." For the second time Ellie was reconsidering and wondered if all of this was worth the trouble. "I just, I don't want any more of this drama. That's all my life has been since grade 10. Look, maybe you should go home and we can both sleep on everything. I'll see you later, okay?" Ellie tried to hide her disappointment and she really wanted to kill herself for having to fight back tears, so she just gives him a half smile and practically runs out the door.