The Blood White Rose
Chapter One
Ashley started blankly down the road at the stand-still cars in the regular traffic jam. She was sitting on a city bus bench. She was contemplating whether she should take the bus home from school or if she should just walk the rest of the way. Either way she would get home in the same amount of time.
She took a small drag from her cigarette and looked down at the ground, trying to keep the wind from drying out her sapphire eyes. Usually, she wasn't the smoking type, but she did when she needed something to wash away her problems and make her numb for a while.
"Hey, Ash!" a voice suddenly came from behind the bench. She felt a set of arms encircle her shoulders. Ashley didn't have to turn around to know who called her name.
"Whats up, Ino? I thought that Sakura would be stalking you and asking you about where you bought your messenger bag." Ashley spat. She wanted to be alone. Right now was not a good time for someone to come and bother her, or ask her what was wrong. But it was her fault that she was making everything so public. She had no where else to go. There was no way that she was able to hide at home.
Ino smirked. "Well, she isn't, but since you asked," she carried on. Ashley learned years ago how to ignore her best friend when she got into these kind of moods.
Ashley took one last drag from her cigarette while Ino smoothed out the back of her skirt and sat down next to Ashley on the bench. She shivered when the cold air blew against her legs. She crossed her legs and tucked her skirt between them to keep the wind from wandering up her skirt and send it flying for all the guys to see. She was taken by Shickamaru, the star quarterback at their brothering school and she wanted every guy to know it and leave her alone because she wasn't going to be wanting any of them.
"Whats the matter?" Ino questioned, gently running her fingernails though Ashley's bangs, which were being tossed around and eventually was tossed off her finger and lay across her shoulder. She was careful to not stare at the scar that Ashley had on the side of her eye from her father. "By the way, I love your hair. Its so nice and soft and so full of color. What type of shampoo do you use?" She never understood why Ino thought that she had nice hair. Ino always had an excellent sense of style, even when they were in the same kindergarden class and they were fighting over who got the right to use the bright pink marker to color a pony. Her long blond hair lay over her pea coated shoulders, piling into her lap and was being lightly moved back and forth by the wind, some thrown back over her shoulder. Her short midnight blue uniform skirt seemed to make Ino's long tan legs longer. It only made Ashley green with envy that she couldn't look like that even on her best days because of all the scars that were placed randomly around her body from beer bottles and cigarette burns.
Ashley looked over at her. Ever since Ashley stole that pink marker in kindergarden and they got into a huge fight over it and ended up pulling out each others hair, Ino always seemed to fallow her around and want to be her friend. Ashley never objected to having people follow her around. It was like she had her own personal set of fans and they all wanted her autograph. That was until they both were in second grade. Ino came over after Ashley strictly told her to never come over. Ino was the only one person that knew about how Ashley's dad beat her. The next day, Ino insisted that Ashley come over to her house. Now that was Ashley's escape when she needed to be far away from her father.
Ashley watched a genuine smile form on Ino's face. Ashley couldn't help but smile back. Ino always seemed to be able to read her mind and make her life seem so much better than what it really was.
"It's nothin," Ashley sighed casually as she dropped the cigarette butt on the ground and stubbed it out with the tip of her boot, careful to avoid looking at Ino.
Ino saw right through Ashley's lie. "Does it have anything to do with the girls, or is it Sasuke?"
"Maybe both." Ashley averted her eyes away from the ground where the pile of ash from her cigarette lay waiting to be taken away by the wind, to her best friend. Her eyes were fighting back the salty tears that threatened to come cascading down her face.
"Why do you think that it's both? You really don't think that Sakura would." She paused as if to think it over. The realization that Sakura had no shame. That was why she was never up for their shopping days, and never answered her phone. She was to busy sneaking around with Ashley's boyfriend.
"Oh, sweetheart," Ino soothed. Too bad she didn't notice that she was talking to deaf ears. Ashley didn't want Ino's sympathy or her pity. She had gotten enough of that from her when she first realized that Ashley's father beat her.
Ashley only started dating Sasuke three weeks ago, and he was already cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend. He told Ashley that he would never go back to Sakura, that he was all hers. Ashley guessed that he was pissed at her for not having sex with him.
Ino watched her best friend stand up. In all the time that they have been friends and all the crap that they have gone through since second grade, she had never seen Ashley as down as she was now.
Ashley pulled out another cigarette, lit it with her purple lighter, then stuffed the lighter back into her coat pocket.
"You know," Ino was about to say something about Sakura, hoping to lift the younger girls mood, but held her comment.
Ashley turned around, smiling slightly. "I know, these cancer sticks will kill me some day." All Ashley wanted to do was walk and smoke the rest of the pack of cigarettes that was laying in her uniform coat pocket.
"Right," Ino chimed, smiling quickly and jumping up from the bench. Ashley seemed to be so much more happier when she was with her friends and Sasuke, who was almost always high, all thanks to his elder brother, instead of when she was home with her father and his drinking habits. Of course, who wouldn't mind being away from a father who beats his daughter and blames her for the death of her mother?
They trotted across the busy street, careful to not get ran over by some of the cars that were coming down the road. They reached the other side of the road, Ino watched Ashley pull out another cigarette and light it, and brush the hair away from her face.
Ino looked down to see that the concrete had been replaced with patches of green grass from the park. This was the place that they would always go to when ever Ashley would sneak out when her father was abusing her.
"Ino." Ashley looked over at her best friend. "I think that Sakura should just take Sasuke back until she is totally done with him, instead of having him and then dumping him and then wanted him again."
Ino glanced sideways at Ashley as she blew out a ring of smoke into the air.
"Ash, I know you aren't willing to just let him go like that. Are you really going to just let your 'friend' take your man, just 'cause you don't want to be on her bad side?"
Ashley said nothing as she continued to take drags from her cigarette and blow out the smoke. Ino would have continued to rant her point, especially now that Ashley was stuck in a corner, but she felt someone wrap their arms around her waist.
"Hey, beautiful." A deep male's voice boomed from behind her as the man nuzzled his face into the back of her neck. She smiled and snuggled backwards into his chest.
"Hey, Shicka."
Ashley ignored them as she continued walking around the park. She should have figured that Shicka would have fallowed them. He was so protective of Ino, even though there was rumors going around that he was going to break up with her soon. Ashley admired that he was still acting like a gentleman with her, even though he was going to break up with her any second. Ashley never had that. Sasuke was more of the type of guy that was always to himself. Even at parties, he would sit in the far end of the room, and just get drunk. He would never get her anything to drink, or when she was going home, he wouldn't offer to take her home, or even call a cab for her.
"Ashley!" Another high pitched shriek erupted from a pink haired blob running towards her. She managed to move just in time before the other girl ran head first into her and sent them flying backwards.
"Hello Sakura. I thought that you had tutoring." Ashley hopped it would make the other girl leave because she just didn't want to deal with her right now. She glanced down at the ground. Sakura's heels had grass stains and dirty around the heel, as if her heels stuck into the grass as she was running.
'Well, I guess that they're going to be thrown away as soon as she gets home,' Ashley thought with disgust. Sakura was so rich. She was able to go out and buy whatever pair of shoes she wanted. She could do anything she wanted and get away with it too! She was always out until all hours of the morning partying and flirting with every guy she saw, and her parents never did anything to stop her. It was amazing that she wasn't pregnant yet.
"I did, but..." She paused and pulled a cigarette from behind her ear, and began to pat her coat, as if she was looking for her lighter. "Damn. I lost my lighter. Can I borrow yours?"
Ashley reached into the right pocket of her coat and pulled out her purple lighter and shoved it into Sakura's hand. She knew that Sakura was here for more than just to ask about borrowing a lighter, but she didn't want to stick around and listen to it. It was probably something about how someone bought the purse that she wanted.
"Wait, Ash! Don't you want your lighter back?" Sakura's voice was full of hope. Ashley turned around to answer and saw the cigarette hanging out of Sakura's mouth. It looked rather disgusting with her smile.
"Keep it, I have a whole bunch more." she said, referring to her father's collection of lighters.
"Ashley, wait. I'm serious. We need to talk about something, or someone." Sakura sighed while walking after her friend. At the mention of the 'someone' Ashley turned around and shot Sakura a warning glance. She should have figured that this was about Sasuke. Ino was right.
When Sakura caught up to her, Ashley stole her lighter back from Sakura, accidentally- on- purpose scratching her palm. Sakura didn't seem to notice. Today she was oblivious to everything and Ashley wanted to know why even though deep down, she had a feeling that she already knew.
"Now, onto the important business. I was going to talk to you in school. But I couldn't find you. Where were you anyway?" Sakura questioned, pointing a finger at her.
"I was somewhere." Ashley mumbled, even though she knew Sakura would eventually be upset about the lack of information.
"Oh well, whatever. Anyway." Sakura sat down on a park bench, crossed her legs exactly the way that Ino did earlier. She didn't bother to tuck in her skirt so that the wind could come by and lift her skirt for the boys to be able to see what was underneath, or what wasn't.
"I was talking to Sasuke earlier today, and he made mention that you guys weren't spending much time together. It is just my opinion but I think that you guys should break-up. I mean that you guys never see each other, other than at parties or when you guys run into each other on the street." Sakura pulled the cigarette out of her mouth, let out some smoke than put it back into her mouth. "So I was also thinking that he would be better off with me. Since me and him have known each other since we were basically born and we seem to fit together like peanut butter and jelly."
Just then, Sakura's phone beeped, signaling that her tutor wanted to know where in hell she was since she was so late. Sakura smiled to herself, and stood up.
"Look, Hun, I'm late, but I want you to know that I'm only trying to protect you from him. I have known him for, like, ever and I know all his tricks. I thought that you had a right to know that he hates you and was only dating you to try and make you look good." Sakura smiled one of her famous sly smiles. "Like that would ever happen." she giggled under her breath, so that Ashley couldn't hear it as she walked back toward Ino and Shickamaru to leave. Since she was already half an hour late for her tutoring at the coffee shop at the corner of ninety-third and twelfth, she didn't want to make her tutor anymore mad. Sakura couldn't help but add a small strut to her walk, now that she knew that she now could take back what was rightfully hers, Sasuke Uchiha.
It took every ounce of Ashley's being not to cry. She was tough on the outside, but when someone mentioned Sasuke, her only weakness, she lost all control on her feelings. Here she thought that Sasuke really wanted her but Sakura just burned those dreams up like the cigarette she was smoking.
It never occurred to her that Sakura was only jealous and wanted the only thing that Ashley was able to have, and she couldn't never have. Ever since Sasuke embarrassed Sakura, she had wanted to get back at him for it. He told her on the day that her broke up with her that he didn't need a girl who wanted to walk around and show him off like a new purse to demonstrate how much money or social power she had.
"I know," Ashley whispered to no one in particular. She watched Sakura walk away through blurry eyes, with Ashley's broken heart and dreams trailing behind her.