AN: I have made a few changes to the prologue, so if you want to read that go ahead. I am astounded by the response I have already gotten and I hope you like it! The beginning may be a little slow so sorry in advance.
Fourteen years later
"Grab a can of green beans, would you Ashe?" Twenty nine year old Christine Daae looked at her list and back up at her daughter. Ashleigh Desiree Daae wrinkled her nose as she picked up a can of green beans and dropped it in the cart with a satisfying clang. Christine sighed at her teenage daughter and looked back down at her list. Bread, apples, turkey, mayonnaise, pasta… the list went on down the page.
"Can I go get some chips?" Ashe asked, looking back at her mom. Christine nodded. Ashe was tall for a fourteen year old (about five nine), she had her mom's curls but her hair was jet black and she had piercing ice blue eyes; however her beautiful eyes weren't usually the first thing people noticed about her. On a normal basis, people noticed the white porcelain mask that adorned the left side of her face. They just stared at her. When Christine was around she would usually glare at them in a protective, motherly way, when she wasn't around… Ashe came home crying a lot when she was younger. When she was in sixth grade all of a sudden she became cold and distant to most people. The only people that she would let behind her walls were her small group of friends.
Christine thanked the Lord everyday for the small group of friends that Ashe had. It was a blessing to both of them that some people were raised in sensible households and knew better than to judge people by what they looked like. They saw past the mask and the clothes that were so similar to what Christine wore as a teenager. Jay, Aimee, David, and Hunter had been Ashe's friends since elementary school and had been a tight knit group ever since.
Ashe came shuffling back with a bag of baked Lays and wordlessly held them up, Christine nodded, and Ashe put them in the cart. Looking her feet, Ashe pulled out her black Ipod and slipped the ear buds into her ears, tuning out the world and slipping into one full of music.
As Ashe and Christine rounded the corner into the cereal isle, Ashe took out the ear buds and looked up at her mom, the white mask slightly obscuring her expression. Christine glanced at her, "Did you want something sweetie?"
"Could… could you tell me about my dad?" Ashe asked quietly. Her dad was something that they had never really talked about. Ashe knew that she was not supposed to happen, but she never doubted that Christine loved her. The "dad" subject was not avoided per say, but it was not something that was a frequently discussed topic.
Christine bit her lip, "Well I guess I could, a bit anyway. What do you want to know?"
"How did you meet?"
"I was fifteen, he was sixteen… I think… he may have been seventeen, I'm not completely sure. We went to the same high school and we hung out in the same crowd, but I never talked to him. Anyway, Aunt Meg was throwing a party, you know how she loves to entertain, and I was drinking-"
"Mom!" Ashe laughed a little, the image of her mother drinking and getting drunk was something that could send her into hysterics if it wasn't such a serious topic.
"I was young and stupid, something you aren't; besides I was still mourning my mom's death and I suppose I was trying to get back at the world. But I was pretty drunk, and I went to get another beer when your father bumped into me and being as clumsy as I am, I slopped beer down the front of my shirt. I whirled around to cuss him out, but was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
"But when it all comes down to it, we were both drunk and looking for something we thought we could fulfill with sex. I haven't seen him since, but I got you," Christine leaned down and kissed Ashe's forehead tenderly.
Ashe rolled her eyes, trying to hide the small smile that was threatening to commit treason on her lips. "What was his name?"
"Erik, I don't know his last name."
"What did he look like?"
"Honestly, in the looks department, the only thing you got from me was your curly hair and maybe your facial structure. Your hair color and eye color is all him."
"And," Ashe gestured to her face.
Christine sighed, "I am not sure honey, but he did wear a mask like that though. I don't know what was under it. I'm sorry."
Ashe shrugged, "Its okay. Can I ask one more question?" Christine nodded. "Do you know where he could be now?"
Shaking her head, Christine apologized, "For all I know he could still be in Indianapolis." Ashe just put the ear buds back in.
With a growling stomach, Erik pulled into the Chick-fil-A across from a Meijer.
"Thank you for choosing Chick-fil-A, how may I help you?" the tinny voice came across the intercom.
"I would like one chicken sandwich and one large, unsweetened iced tea please."
"Okay… that comes to 3.65, please pull around to the first window."
"Thank you." Erik pulled around, paid, and got his food. Imbeciles, he thought, with all the crazy things that kids do to themselves, they just have to stare at a mask. Thank God I will never have kids. Spare someone else this horror.
"Hey Mommy!" A little boy pulled on his mother's pant leg, "Mommy, look at that girl!" His stubby little finger pointed at Ashe.
"Shush Josh," the woman muttered, not turning around.
"Mommy," Josh whined, "look at her! She is wearing a mask!"
"Joshy," the mom turned around and looked where her son was pointing. His little finger was pointed directly at Ashe who was looking at him, the corners of her mouth turned down in a frown. "Um, come on Josh." His mom took him by the arm and started pulling him away.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Christine tapped the woman on the shoulder.
"Yes?"
"I believe you and your son owe my daughter an apology."
"Josh, say you are sorry to the girl." The little boy shuffled his feet and looked at the ground. "Joshy!"
"What?" He looked up at his mother with wide innocent eyes.
"Apologize, now!"
"No."
"Excuse me?" Christine and the mother said at the same time.
"Ma'am, please just leave this to me, he is my son, and I can take care of it." The woman turned on Christine.
"I don't believe you can because if you could, you would have had him apologize to Ashe when he said something the first time and not tried to walk away, and you would have instilled him with enough morals to not point and make fun of someone, especially when they are right in front of you!"
The woman spluttered, "We are both sorry," and she turned on her heel and dragged her little boy by the wrist down the isle.
Fuming, Christine stalked back to Ashe's side. "Mom, don't worry about it." Ashe blinked rapidly to keep the tears at bay. "I get it all the time."
"And should you have to? No, you shouldn't."
"I'm used to it."
"You shouldn't have to be used to ridicule," Christine dropped a box of spaghetti in the cart.
"Well I am so can we just forget about it and leave it the heck alone!" A lone tear trickled out of sight, and under Ashe's mask.
Sighing, Christine hugged her daughter and nodded.
Erik pulled into the Meijer parking lot and as he got out, reached into his pocket and pulled out his list, lunchmeat, bread, wine, ground beef… all written in the fine hand of his butler, Damien. Sighing, he put it back in his pocket and walked though the parking lot and went though the automatic doors. A greeter pushed a red and grey cart into his hands, refusing to look at him. Biting his lip to keep from a sharp response, he rolled down the isle and into the produce section.
Inwardly, Erik cursed his butler for being sick, and he cursed Nadir, the closest person he had to a "friend" for being out of the country. As much as Erik hated being out in public, he had woken up and looked in the fridge and was amazed to find there was practically nothing in there except for a few slices of American cheese (which he detested when not melted or on something) and the remnants of a few past dinners which were not looking so good. His stomach had influenced his better sense, and driven him to go out and actually go shopping. Damien had a list that he kept on the kitchen counter, and Erik had snatched it up before he went out the door.
Bananas… bananas… Erik scanned the cartons for the yellow fruit. Ah, there they are. He rolled over and picked up a bunch to inspect it for blemishes. Turning it over, he spotted a large brown mark. Christine, her name broke into his thoughts for the billionth time. Whatever he tried, he could not forget that beauty with auburn curls. The way her skin felt against his had plagued his dreams for fourteen years. Not once had he gone a day without thinking of her. The things Erik saw as problematic though were the facts that he had only seen her once (but he would recognize her anywhere), he did not know her last name (but he wished that he could replace it with his), and he didn't know what her address was or her phone number (but Erik wished they were the same as his). Her chocolate brown eyes were so expressive and seemed to glide over the mask with only a moment's pause. Sighing, Erik ran his hand over the right side of his face, and continued to look for fresh fruit.
"What do you want for dinner tonight?"
Ashe only shrugged and looked disgustedly at the packaged rabbit in the meat freezer. "Well I can tell you what I don't want."
"What is that?" Christine sighed.
"Two things…"
"Ashe just spit it out will you?"
"Chicken butt or rabbit," wrinkling her nose, Ashe turned away and walked ahead of her mother to look at something less nauseating.
"Teenagers…" Christine muttered darkly.
Picking up a package of ground beef, Ashe walked back to her mom, "How about cheap spaghetti?"
"That does sound good. Will you go and get a package of chicken patties for me please?" Ashe muttered something and walked away to get the chicken.
Christine looked at her daughters retreating form. She looked a lot like Christine did when she was that age, except with a different twist. Ashe did the heavy eyeliner but skipped out on the black lipstick, preferring a blood red color or a clear lip-gloss. Baggy black cargo pants hung low on her daughter's waist and pooled over her (at the moment) bright pink Converse high tops. A white vest with black pinstripes was layered over a skin tight, pink, long sleeve shirt. Ashe's waist length hair was piled on top of her head in two pigtails that were gathered into messy buns. And of course there was the white mask on the left side of her face.
After a few minutes Ashe came back with the chicken patties and fell into step with her mom. They finished their list and got in line to check out.
"Oh, Mom, did we get spaghetti sauce?"
"Damn, no we didn't. Will you go get it for me?" Christine stuck her bottom lip out at Ashe. Sighing, Ashe shuffled away; Christine chuckled at her daughter's dramatic antics.
Bread, crackers and health food… no… Would spaghetti sauce be under foreign food? May as well look. Ashe stumbled down the isle, bright pink packaging caught her eye and she turned, Ooh! Ramen Noodles! Snickering, Ashe grabbed one of the mostly empty crates that the packages were in and filled in the spaces with Chicken and Oriental flavor. Humming the overture of Phantom of the Opera, Ashe grabbed a thing of Ragu (flavored with meat) tomato sauce and ambled down the isle and into the frozen food section with the Ramen Noodles resting on her hip.
Erik looked at the two cartons of Vanilla Bean ice cream in his hands; one was more expensive than the other and Erik couldn't figure out the difference and he couldn't remember what Damien got, so he was comparing the ingredients on the back. Shaking his head, he put them both back and grabbed a carton of mint chocolate chip, the only one he probably hadn't tried yet. Dropping it in the cart, he looked down the isle and smirked at a girl who was piling her arms with frozen dinners that were on sale for five for three dollars. She had black, curly hair, and she dressed in a way that reminded him of Christine, but in a more subdued way. Then again, he could find anything about a woman that reminded him of Christine. It was a curse.
Ashe piled frozen dinners on the crate in front of her, they came up to her elbows, and she had to lean back so that they wouldn't spill everywhere. It couldn't be helped, there was a sale, and sadly, Ashe and her mother were addicted to them.
After looking down at them for a while to make sure she was situated, Ashe looked up and found that people were staring at her, and that little kid, Josh, and his mom were back. And Mom just had to bring me out to go shopping with her. "Please Ashe?" she says. God I hate how I can't ever refuse anything to anyone I love.
"Look Mommy, she's back!" The little boy said loudly, pointing at Ashe. Anger bubbled up in her veins and she walked backwards, away from the boy, and she bumped into someone.
"Sorry," she mumbled. Ashe turned around to look at the person she was apologizing to, but when she looked around, she was looking at someone's chest, which was quite unnatural for her. She looked up and a glaring white mask exactly like hers stood out on the man's face. After doing a double take, Ashe looked at the man, Black hair, blue eyes, tall, mask… Oh my freaking God.
