DISCLAIMER: I don't own South of Nowhere. Really, I don't. You could really sue if you wanted to, but all you would get would be my freakin' sweet Carpal Tunnel gloves.
I'll go ahead and pour myself a drink,
I could really care less what you think...
The elevator jolted to a stop, and both girls crashed down against the thin layer of carpet with equally loud thumps. The box shuddered, as if the weight of two girls, two suitcases, a purse, and some other miscellaneous items was just too much. Spencer, sitting up wide-eyed and fearful, crawled over to where Ashley lay unconscious. Shaking the brunette's shoulder once and then twice, the blonde girl began to panic. "Oh my god," she murmured as she pulled Ashley close, "Oh my god. Wake up, Ashley. Wake up!" The purse, laying close to Ashley's side, had spilled out all of it's contents and a bottle of water had rolled up next to Spencer's foot. Grabbing it, she unscrewed the cap and poured it onto the sable haired girl's pretty face. After a few seconds, not even five really, Ashley began to sputter and slap at her cheeks like a crazy person.
"What the ... stop that! Hey! Quit it!" At the sound of Ashley's slightly groggy and hoarse voice, Spencer let out a minute cry of happiness. Throwing her arms around the brunette and holding her tight, as if Ashley had been on the brink of death and by some miracle Spencer had saved her, and beginning to wail; Spencer had never in her life been so terrified, not even when. . .
She wasn't going to think about that, not at all. Closing her eyes, the blonde rested her head on the crown of Ashley's own, whispering thankful prayers to God. Then, with a start, she realized what she was doing and shoved Ashley roughly away. "Hey!" Ashley said with mild indignation, "What happened to sweet, nurturing Spencer? Now, all I've got is combat-Barbie Spencer, and I'm not sure if I like it."
Despite her uneasiness, Spencer chuckled before the lights in the elevator flickered once and then twice. The dim lighting from their small power-outage was gone, and soon the whole elevator was bright and florescent. "The lighting is back!" Spencer cried, before leaping to her feet and racing forward to press a button on the panel by the doors. With a smart little ding! the elevator began to rise smoothly upward, as if the terror rides down it's slippery cable hadn't happened at all. Spencer clapped her hands with a child's delight, and began to dance about the car. "It's working, it's working, it's working!" She sang before grabbing Ashley's hands and pulling her to her feet. "Dance with me, Ash! The elevator is working." The last word so empathized it almost oozed out of her pouty lips.
"Well thank you, Captain Obvious, but I don't dance." Ashley said with mild sarcasm but still managed a small smile. Spencer was cute when she was all happy and peppy like this, even Ashley had to admit that. Pulling away from Spencer's grasp, Ashley bent down to begin gathering her things when she felt a small tap on her shoulder. Looking up, to see Spencer's blue eyes were very round and very focused on her own deep brown orbs; Ashley felt a little shiver go up her spine. There was almost a hunger in Spencer's eyes, something that hadn't been there before. Stepping close, the blonde pressed her full, luscious lips close to Ashley's delicate ear. "I said, dance with me. I didn't phrase it as a question." Spencer smiled mischievously before placing one of her delicate, soft hands on Ashley's waist, whilst the other one grabbed Ashley's own delicate palm. "Shall we?"
Throwing her head back in a surprised laugh, Ashley grasped Spencer's waist and pressed closer to the blonde. "We shall, indeed. I suppose you'll be leading then, Spence?" She drew out the masculine form of Spencer's name, grinning at the way the other girl's expression changed from predatory to almost shy.
If only the doors hadn't swung open then as they reached their originally intended destination. If only the Director of Admissions hadn't been standing there, looking exceptionally gorgeous as she examined her fingernails. If only Aiden hadn't been waiting for them, a goofy grin on his face and a cell phone ready and waiting in his hand.
If only. . .
"Is that a... dildo?" Aiden asked, his eyes round and innocent as he looked at the little rubber penis laying so non-discreetly right in front of the doors. He looked from the intertwined and poised-to-dance girls, to the clothes strewn about all over the elevator car, and finally to the barbeque chips haphazardly crunched on the carpet; a slow grin beginning to spread widely across his handsome face before he finally spoke again. Raising one hand to grasp his chin in a scholarly fashion, he grinned with the lust only a man can give off like some sort of disgusting cologne. "Oh, I see. Don't mind me, ladies. Just go ahead and keep doing whatever you were doing before the doors opened."
Spencer scowled and stepped away from Ashley's embrace, much to the brunette's regret. "We weren't doing anything, Dennison. We were simply dancing in happiness that we weren't stuck in this elevator, having to listen to you play the macho hero." With one hand on her narrow hip and a pointy expression on her normally kind, sweet, and round face: Spencer looked freaking scary.
With a soft 'tut tut', Ashley leaned over to whisper into Spencer's ear with a teasing note in her beautiful voice, "Hostile, much?" Chortling, she stepped out from the elevator car just as the doors slammed shut and the car dropped another floor, taking Spencer's scream with it. The rush of air on Ashley's back had shown how close she had been to being made into a size nil. "Spencer!" She shouted at the shut doors, trying to pry them open with her fingernails. Turning around to look at Aiden, who was grinning at the black box he held in his other hand ( the one not holding the cell phone ), and glaring at his now upturned guilty face. "What did you do?" Ashley demanded with a harsh toss of her curly hair, "What did you do, you blithering idiot!"
The beautiful raven haired woman, who had been watching this whole scene with something like amusement in her jade green eyes, piped up, "I do believe she was sent to the lobby." The obvious British accent caught Ashley's attention, and the brunette looked up. "That's the remote for the lift," the young Admissions Officer said with a small grin as she tilted her head in the direction of the black box in Aiden's hand, "But I do say it may be the remote for taking out the trash now, especially the has-been whore. Am I right, Aiden?" The dark haired woman and Aiden began to laugh, the sound of their amusement cruel and horrible in the silence of the hall.
Taking Aiden's cell phone from his massive fingers, Ashley threw it on the floor and began to stamp on it with the end of one heel. "There," she said with a satisfied grin as she looked at the mangled piece of metal, "You have my number now." With that, she flounced away to find the stairs and to somehow rescue Spencer from the confines of the elevator from hell.
You can't fence that in, stupid boy.
It's like holding back the wind...
"Thanks," Spencer said shakily as Ashley handed her cup of ice cold water. "I think my nerves have been shot past the point of existence." Sitting in the middle of her room at Winchester, Ashley began to wonder how on earth she had suddenly become best friends with the biggest loser in her new school. Did it really matter? She thought quietly, Spencer seemed to be the nicest girl Ashley had ever met, so what if she was a little odd? Odd wasn't bad, and Spencer wasn't crazy, so maybe things would be fine in the end. Here's to hoping, right?
"Spencer," Ashley said with mild hesitation, "I hate to bring this up, I really do... but why don't you like Aiden, and why doesn't he like you? I mean, he seems pretty nice—"
The blonde looked up, her blue eyes suddenly flashing gray and wintery. "Appearances can be deceiving." There was something so firm, so final in Spencer's tone that Ashley just had to press the matter further.
"What do you mean?" Biting her lip, the brunette had never felt more uncomfortable in her life. Here she was, pressing a girl who looked as if she didn't have a chance of even getting Aiden to even know she existed, let alone actually getting him to actually talk to her.
Spencer huffed quietly and looked out the window of her ground level dorm-room, seemingly in pensive thought. When her eyes darted back to Ashley's dark brown orbs, the brunette thought she could see a mixture of pained confusion in those now steel gray ovals. "He and I... we..." She didn't seem to know what to say, how to phrase exactly what she was feeling or thinking. "When I first came here, I wasn't quite the same as I am now." Spencer sighed softly, sitting up to run a hand through her tangled blonde hair. "I was... like everyone else."
"Oh?" Ashley was now intrigued, what exactly did Spencer mean by being like everyone else? Did she mean in the sense of fashion? Of personality? Of mind? Ashley chuckled at the last bit, as she thought about Spencer's sometimes 'out there' brain function.
Looking up to glare at Ashley, the gray-eyed blonde looked as if she wanted to strangle her new friend. "Hey! If you don't believe me, go look in the top drawer of my dresser." Ashley sighed, but ever so obediently she stood and strode over to the bureau and opened up the first shelf. A picture of a beautiful blonde girl, so unlike Spencer and yet so like the blonde it was just mind-blowing, and a handsome dark-haired boy lay inside. They were both smiling at the camera, their arms linked around each other as they tilted their heads close together. Her lips were rouged and ravaged, as if she had just been kissed, and his eyes were bright and happy. "He dumped me shortly after he knocked me up," Spencer's voice floated over to Ashley from the armchair she lay so tiredly in, and the brunette jerked her head up in unconcealed surprised.
"He did what to you?" There was simply no way this God-loving-freak was anything but a virgin! No fucking way. Her shock and slight anger must have been clear on her expression because Spencer seemed to sink against the cushions with her dignity shredded.
Nodding, she sighed, "I went home for a year, had the baby and came back. Washed up, completely 'gone round the bend' ( air quotes ), or that's what they say around here anyway. But, I like to think I got some perspective on what's important in life." Spencer stood up and walked over to take the picture from Ashley, smiling while a tired expression lurked at the corners of her eyes. "I was pretty effing hot though, right? I could have so been Head Cheerleader my sophomore year."
Ashley just stared, before she collapsed onto her brand new bed. "This is like finding out that there is no Santa, I mean... I figured you were like, the epitome of innocence." It was rather disappointing to find out that her dreams of Spencer's supposed child-like ways were not reality, but ah! At least she didn't have to feel guilty every time she made a crude joke— which she seemed to catch herself doing a lot. Especially around Spencer, who would smile thinly and shake her head with quiet amusement. To Ashley, it almost seemed like disgust, but it was actually Spencer fighting hard not to giggle or give away the fact that she knew exactly what Ashley was talking about.
"I am, in a way. It's sort of like being paralyzed and then learning to walk again. I'm socially inept now, when I used to be socially inclined." Spencer laughed bitterly, before falling back onto the chair and taking another sip of water. "Well, that's the whole story on why I'm such a loser. How about you, Ashley? What on earth made you decide to move in with the socially challenged girl?"
Ashley grinned before retorting rather wittily, at least in her opinion, "Well, I want to see if light-bulb collecting and devouring runs in your family." Dropping her head, her expression growing more thougtful and pensive, "Seriously, though? I guess... there's just something about you that intrigues me. Maybe it's the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personalities, or maybe I just like you. I dunno, but I would like to find out." Then, grinning wickedly, "Or, maybe I just want to see first-hand how one becomes a raving lunatic."
After their giggles died away, Ashley stretched and yawned, leaning back to lay on her bed with heavy eyelids. "Well, I'm beat. This has been an incredibly long day. Ready to hit the hay?"
Spencer grinned, "Literally or figuratively?" At Ashley's glare, the blonde nodded and held her hands up in the air. "Kidding, kidding. I'm not that weird." At a pointed look from Ashley, she shrugged, "Agree to disagree?"
"Agreed." Ashley turned out the light just as Spencer began to settle into bed, when suddenly a raucous shriek came from the box springs of the brunette's mattress.
Spencer sat wildly up and flicked on the light, "What the hell was that?"
Ashley, laying diagonally across her bed, was flailing about as she tried to climb out of it's sucking hold. "My... bed... is broken!" The brunette panted, before finally falling still, "Help me!"
Laughing, Spencer turned over and hummed quietly to herself. After a few moments of letting Ashley fume, the blonde spoke, "I'm too weird to help you, Ashley. You might catch cooties."
Through gritted teeth, Ashley spoke with deliberate calm. "Please help me?"
"Ah, the magic word!" Spencer said as she rose from her bed, "Who can resist that?" At Ashley's indigent snort, which Spencer so honorably chose to ignore, the blonde began to chuckle. "Look's like we'll be sleeping together."
As soon as those horrible words left her mouth, Spencer began to invent a whole new red for the color wheel. "Uh.. I mean..."
"Oh, I know what you meant, Carlin."
The silence following was overpowering.
Author's Notes:
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- late edition