Disclaimer: I don't own South of Nowhere.
Disclaimers are still relevant right?
Shadowing Phantoms
Chapter 11: Twice Fallen
"Sparkling Green Tea Lemonade," the barista called from behind the espresso bar.
A medium size, 16 oz plastic cup, dripping with condensation was placed firmly on the counter, a ring of liquid pooling at its bottom.
Ashley Davies, deftly picked up her order, indulging in the sudden chill that sizzled against the hot flesh of her palm, cooling it instantly.
She'd been in the studios the past few days, practically living there, working directly with the talents, DJs, guest artists and producers alike, finishing and refinishing, harmonizing melodies, mixing sounds, but mostly fiddling with strings and chords on various string instruments, guitars, cellos, violas; she even spent half the day on the ukulele.
Her fingers were bursting with joy, tingling with warmth at the constant contact with various objects.
Ashley needed to keep herself occupied, needed to throw herself into her job. It wasn't a rare occurrence to find Ashley Davies, CEO of D Records, and Davies Holdings, roaming the halls in the middle of the night. She usually embraced it whole heartedly. Thrived on it, even. Losing herself in the space. But lately only one thing occupied her mind. It was only a few more days, and it was finally happening.
'She' was coming home.
Home, with Ashley
The brunette could feel it, her body bursting overzealously with excess energy.
The impression of her overworked hands marred the foggy exterior of her liquid dinner, cooling, pacifying the surplus warmth.
It wasn't much but at least it was something. Her appetite craved nothing of sustainable substance.
It was much harder trying to not think about her now. 'She was everything.'
"I'm ready this time."
Ashley twitched, groaning, the heavy rays of sun pinned her to the stiff elevated bed. Her eyes contended against the light to maintain any semblance of darkness that sleep embellished.
In the obscurity of darkness, where shadows caressed her, held her.
Wet kisses, a teasing tongue, fingers curled in her hair pulling her in closer.
"Oh god...Ashley..."
That voice so crisp, clean, clear, echoing in her mind.
"Ashley," a firm foundation, catching her, cushioning her, "Right here," supporting her frenzied mind.
Soft sighs breathing life through her veins; moans enticing; lips prying apart the concrete coffin that cradled her dejected heart.
Ashley gasped. Her arm flung forward, as her entire body lurched off the mattress. Confused molten pools panicked trying to bargain their bearings. Her right arm securely wrapped by a clear IV tube, fastened to various machines.
The IV acted as an anchor, keeping her from flinging herself off the hospital bed when her body jolted awake. The accelerated pounding of her heart overpowering the meticulous jackhammering of her brain.
'What the fuck happened last night?' the heiress was alarmed. She hadn't felt this disoriented in years.
She touched her lips, they still burned deliciously, the ghost of playful teeth nipping.
Ashley felt it.
'So real…'
Frantic eyes scanned the cold sterilized hospital suit for anything, any potential semblance that would merit truth to her ever deceitful mind.
The downward snap of the steel knob drew wild eyes to the opening door as a blonde head popped through.
Her heart stopped… flashes of golden tendrils, like silk to touch.
'That's new.'
She was blonde. She was sure of it, but how she led to that conclusion-eluded her in a frenzied blur.
"Ashley, you're awake! Thank goodness!" The falsetto hitch in that voice was all wrong.
Disheartened chocolate pools glowered into the intruder's eyes, 'Green.' Swirling green eyes sullied her vision, proving only to falsify her initial premise.
"What are you doing here?" Ashley choked back a sob; her dry throat masking the accusation, her fists clenching the blank sheets, berating herself for even daring to hope.
This was reality.
It was only Brie.
Her treacherous consciousness was always setting her up for disappointment. "Hello old friend, it's been a while…'
It really has.
Ashley was beginning to believe that the past would fade, yet everything felt renewed, like someone hit refresh, dousing the shadowed memories with renewed vigor.
An offended scowl marred her companion's initially relieved expression, "Good to see you too," Brianne scoffed, shutting the door behind her, and entering the room.
Ashley shut her eyes, trying to hold onto the abandoned familiarity that briefly completed her, but the jackhammering working her head only intensified tenfold. The perturbed blonde and her slamming door did not alleviate her migraine in the least.
It was gone. Yet her chest was lingering, urging action, humming, buzzing.
"Brie," Ashley opened her eyes to look at her friend, her face scrunched in pain. "What happened?"
"You tell me," shot back, arms fixed across her chest condescendingly.
God, she really hated that tone.
"I get a call in the middle of the night." Not receiving an answer the blonde continued, "Ashley Davies is in the emergency room, drug overdose." Ashley could feel unimpressed green eyes, shooting waves of disappointment at her, "Mind telling me what that's all about," her toe tapping, a one dimensional rhythm.
'There goes my sobriety,' eyes clenched shut again. She really wished her initial assessment of the situation was wrong. She was so close. Glen was even going to throw them a party for their accomplishments. They were supposed to be in this together and yet here she was.
"You said you were fine," Brie accused.
She did. She had no intention of touching drugs again. She was coming up on five years, she was going to get a chip, or a pin or something.
"You were supposed to be on a walk."
She was. Ashley just wanted to be alone. Explore the city, take in the sights, at her own pace. The launch party was too overwhelming, all that booze, all those people and all the drugs that started flowing.
She didn't want to be tempted.
She was vulnerable. She was always vulnerable this time of year. The powers that be liked to get together and fuck with her life this time of year.
Abandoned with strangers…the illusion of a home, somewhere to belong, only shattered…ransomed…Aiden…promises of unyielding love…forfeited with sex, sexuality, desire…challenged…girls the ever fairer sex…titillating unspoken desires of the forbidden…against all social conventions… the baby…the impossible standards…the drugs…her father…Dee…
Taking and giving. Temptation at every corner. Giving and taking. The glimmer of hope. False security. Taunting her.
Ashley met 'her' this time of year.
Ashley felt alive this time of year.
'She came back this time of year…if only…'
A deceitful energy thriving through her veins only to be ripped away.
'…if only to say goodbye.'
It was all some sick game.
Her life.
Since the whole incident with Dave, Ashley usually made it a point to make it back to Ohio, spend it with her surviving family, she even tolerated Christine this time of year, after all they were all she had left.
But the company needed her here this year. In New Orleans. It was too big an event for the CEO not to be there.
"Sorry, the cosmos tries to break me this time of year," was not a good enough excuse, apparently.
She had to be responsible. She was all about that now.
'Right,' she scoffed.
Responsible enough to abandon one party, with elusive substances and the like, tempting her at every turn; responsible enough to stray so far from a key pillar of her support, the crutch she knew she needed especially now; for another party where temptation assaulted her senses, where she was destined to fall, and only fall.
The 'Chateau.'
She didn't even know how she found the den of decadence. Was it the drunken proclamations in crowded streets boasting of a mansion of sexual depravity, where the most illicit, decadent of kinks were delivered, given a price. Or was it an internal reflex to succumb to failure, a compass leading her away from success.
She just ended up there.
The temptation was too great. She'd only really been to Voluptas and that was in her modest hometown. Curiosity drew her in, but the contrast kept her.
A masquerade, strangers engaging anonymously.
The parallel nostalgia was intoxicating.
So she indulged. It was Mardi Gras after all.
She typically limited her alcohol intake to two maybe three drinks a night, needing to be in control at all times.
But that fleeting thrill that encased her, dancing, grinding, touching strangers. It was the same but wasn't. She was closer to that echoing pleasure from years past. It was almost within grasp.
The liquor began to flow, that ecstasy was within reach.
Two became one, one ounce drinks turned to doubles, three drinks became six. The count began to cloud, a task too tedious to carry on.
It was fun. She was young. It was freeing.
She could match any price. Money wasn't an issue, not for her, she made sure of that. Unfortunately, the currency up for bargain was more than she was prepared to ante.
Someone must've slipped something in one of her drinks.
She may or may not have noticed, it only enhanced her experience, to relive that delicious dream. The ease in which she lost herself within the haze, the closer 'she' was.
Ashley wanted to be lost, lost in' her' again.
It was a rollercoaster of extremes.
She just felt too good…until she didn't.
Everything was the same as before but it felt so wrong. So disjointed.
But it was so much closer. The closest she's ever gotten.
She felt energetic, yet sick and drained at the same time. A moment to breathe, reminding to pace herself led her into the shadows… and suddenly everything was perfectly the same, identical even, her body hummed, burning with unfettered desire.
She was elated one moment then devastated the next.
How much was real?
"How did I get here Brie?" she felt so lost, in so deep. She craved that feeling again. She needed it.
Brie carefully watched her friend, the brunette seemed to be recalling the events and emotions of the evening before. Trying to piece it together, she couldn't remember. Brie walked over towards the window to stare down into the busy parking lot. She knew if she reprimanded Ashley anymore, it would only push her away, "The nurse said some woman dragged you into the ER."
Ashley's head snapped towards Brianne, her heartrate starting to pick up again. "Who?" Could it be?
"Don't know," Brie's eyes caught hers again, turning away from the window slightly. "Some blonde woman in 'hooker heels,'" Brianne snorted, her fingers making air quotes. Seeing Ashley's confusion, "You don't remember? She was the one who told the nurses who you were."
Ashley made it a habit long ago to never give her name, it brought only trouble, though most people instantly knew who she was without direct disclosure.
'It was real.' It had to be. 'A blonde hooker…' her bottom lip tingled again. Heart soaring.
"Where?" Ashley's voice croaked vulnerably, not wanting to be let down again. 'God, it really was her, wasn't it?' She was here.
Ashley's heart plummeted with the slight shrug of Brie's shoulder.
"Did you see her? Talk to her?" Ashley persisted, quick on unsteady legs, ready to shake the blonde for answers. 'Brie was great with faces, especially female. She had a photographic memory.' Ashely grimaced at the IV tugging at her arm, stunting any further advance.
Brianne shook her head slowly, trying to rationalize Ashley's behavior, her line of questioning not that odd, if Brie woke up disoriented in a hospital not remembering how she ended up there in first place, she'd be curious too, but this…this urgency was borderline desperate. She expected more sass and anger from her friend. Actually she expected a lot of anger, and being kicked out of the room, to leave the brunette to brood over her lost sobriety in solitude.
"Ashley?" the blonde regarded her curiously.
"Did you get her name?" there were tears in those broken brown eyes. There was no plausible explanation, she could still feel it…feel 'her.' 'She had to have been real.'
"No," Brianne felt guilty, as if she just kicked the broken woman. "The nurse said she dropped you off, and left."
She left.
"Not again," Ashley mumbled her head shaking in disbelief. She tore away from her companion, marching for the door. The IV stalling her movements again.
Brianne's eyes widened, as Ashley tore the IV, needle and all from her forearm, tossing it at the ground without a second glance or grimace, pulled open the door, instantly bee lining for the nurse's station, hospital gown flopping in her haste, bare-ass for all to see.
"Who was the woman who dropped me off?" Ashley demanded a stunned nurse.
The young male nurse just gapped at her.
"He wasn't even on duty when I got here!" Brie exclaimed grabbing Ashley to hold her from running amok.
Ashley ignored her. "Tell me."
"Ashley! This isn't even the ER! You were moved once you were stable!" There was no reasoning with this woman.
"Find someone who can tell me then," Ashley growled, her impatience growing.
"I'm sorry there was an emergency last night, everyone working the ER is with the feds right now," the young man explained, "I'm just an intern…"
'They were all useless!' Ashley spun on her heel towards the elevator. They gears were in motion working against her yet again.
"Where are you going now?" Brie threw herself in front of her, blocking her path.
"I need to find her," Ashley seethed, her fists clenching, time was of the essence. She could disappear again.
"You, need to lie down," Brie said sternly, jabbing the brunette's shoulder. Ashley knew not to doubt the woman's strength; despite her size, Brie was formidable. But Ashley was not a push over. She can hold her own. Even so, Ashley had to step back to catch herself from stumbling, surprised at how frail her body was. "You are in no condition to go anywhere," Brie continued, nodding towards the slow trickle of blood trailing down Ashley's arm.
'God, why was she always right?' Even her body was out to get her.
"You need to get out of my way," Ashley warned weakly, voice shaking. She would hit Brie. She would. "I'm not losing her again, Brie." Her entire body trembling from overexertion.
"Who?" Brie asked softly, touching her shoulder gently, trying to steady the slightly taller woman, "Tell me Ashley. I'll help you. You know I will."
Who? God, she wished she knew.
"She…" Ashley had no words. How was she supposed to describe her?
'She makes me feel alive with a single touch.
Her touch makes me crave the next.
She makes me want to live. Just to…
Just to feel her again.
She gets me.'
It was pathetic.
Not a physical description, meant to find someone. 'She's soft…' how do you find a soft person?
They'd all laugh, and no one laughed at Ashley Davies.
No actual physical attributes, years living in a drugged induced haze all she had was her feelings. She couldn't trust anything else. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.
"How?" Ashley asked the green eyed blonde warily. She felt exposed.
She tried for years.
Before today, she was even beginning to believe it was all some illusion she made up to get through those dark days. She probably was fucking someone at Voluptas but her inebriated state could've made it more than it actually was.
Her therapist thought she was, 'Holding onto the impossible. A dream. Fabricating imagined passion to fill the void.'
'But it was real…she was there.' She was in this city, right now.
Brie regarded the woman seriously, her mind already formulating a plan, she glanced up at the ceiling. "Security footage."
Ashley looked up at the little convex dome hanging in the corner. "She brought me in. She'd be on the footage last night!" Ashley realized, staggering again, unsteady. She felt Brie come up behind her, lending her strength.
Brie nodded, she pulled Ashley closer to firm her hold, she turned the brunette towards the room, "I want you to rest, we'll find her," Brianne urged, walking her back into the room.
Ashley nodded, allowing the blonde to guide her. 'She was close.' Brie would deliver. The relief allowed her to succumb to exhaustion.
Ashley made it back to the abandoned recording studio, the staff likely to have gone home for the day. Even security was scarce. There were only a few stragglers when she left for supper.
Drifting from darkened hall to darkened hall, Ashley Davies was nomadic in her thoughts.
She was weak. She didn't realize how weak until Brie brought her the footage.
"I'm telling you ahead of time Ashley," Brie warned, she knew the blonde would screen it first, to make sure nothing triggered her, only the usually perceptive blonde didn't know what would trigger Ashley Davies to yield to such desperation. "It's not the best quality. There isn't any audio. The picture is gravely at best."
Brie had talked security into allowing Ashley, to visit their office and view the footage from the night prior. It wasn't all that difficult given the rights strings tugged. The right people nudged in the right direction and anything could be accomplished.
Ashley nodded, she held her hands in her lap, to keep from fidgeting too much. Brie had settled her into a swivel chair in front of multiple monitors.
She started the footage.
It was in black and white.
The timer at the bottom of the screen displaying the time, it was quarter past midnight.
The picture was far from clear, but as the automated glass doors swooshed opened permitting a tall-taller than both Ashley and Brie at least-masked blonde to appear, Ashley recognized herself, a heavy, unresponsive, drooping form, burdening the woman's shoulder, weighing her down.
The blonde was frantic but determined in each of her step, her slender but sturdy frame baring the full weight of Ashley's. Her arms binding Ashley's unconscious form securely. She funneled, surprisingly speedily in her four-inch heels, towards the main desk, demanding attention.
Ashley sat stunned taking in the strong feminine form, trying to reconcile this body with the one in her memories.
Golden blonde locks curtaining her from the world, strong thighs securing her, impressing frame further into the mattress.
Her skin prickled. Ashley needed to hear her voice.
'There was no audio.' Brie's voice echoed again.
Ashley would give anything to hear her voice again.
As Ashley watch herself being ushered into the Emergency room, her blonde crumble in the arms of a paramedic.
'MINE!' her nostrils flared, her eyes narrowed at the bulky paramedic trying to comfort her blonde.
No one touched what was hers.
She felt the familiar rage build inside. She hated the thought of anyone touching her. She always had.
"I'm on a job, Ashley…" her crisp voice ricocheted in Ashley's mind.
Ashley's palms tightened.
She was still…
The same…
She admitted it.
Working.
It wasn't fate that brought them back together.
'It was a goddamn coincidence.'
She didn't seek Ashley out.
'It was an accident. A chance meeting.'
Fate was fucking with her again.
'She was working. Just here now, instead of back home.'
Rubbing it in her face.
It wasn't her job that drove her away.
There was no better life.
If it wasn't her job then it had to be…
'She was still the same.'
Nothing bad happened to her. 'Here, she was strong and beautiful.'
Nothing forced her away. 'She just left.' She left to get away from Ashley.
She never promised. "At least she said goodbye…" back then.
She didn't even wait to see if the brunette was alright. 'She couldn't get away fast enough…'
Even Ashley recognized resolve, when the woman abruptly ceased her crying, 'God, she wants nothing to do with me.'
Ashley abruptly shut off the monitor, she couldn't watch her leave. Not again.
Ashley finally had her within reach and she fucked it up, royally. Someone up there, really had it out for her. On the brink of five years sober, she finally encounters her midnight maiden, only to be inebriated beyond comprehension.
It wasn't supposed to happen like that.
Ashley was supposed to keep her.
Ashley swore if she ever encountered 'her' again. She wouldn't let her slip away.
Ashley was torn, between the anger of being abandoned a second time and strife, incapable of acting on her vow. She was hurt, she was angry. She was on the brink of breaking again.
It was devastating. Ashley spent months in New Orleans, at the Chateau scouring, searching. But 'she never came.' The federal bust on the notorious pleasure house scaring off a lot of the workers, might have added to the fact. It might've caused her to run again, but Ashley remained persistent in her growing desolation.
Ashley fell into a cyclical habit of waiting and hoping idly for the unknown. As more and more time passed, Ashley grew desperate to hold on to anything, anyone who remotely resembled that feeling. Drugs kept 'her' touch alive, they fueled the hope that 'she' would returned. 'If 'she' was still the same. Ashley had to be as well.' Flawed reasoning dictated, in her inebriated state.
The substance made her quest tangible, even for a moment however brief, it kept their memory alive, fresh, an ephemeral moment that kept them together in her mind. She didn't want to forget her, she couldn't allow herself to forget.
She was so far gone. Ashley Davies was back with a vengeance. The world wanted her to fall, so why fight it.
"Goddamnit Brie, the fuck happened to her?"
'Uh oh, Glen was angry,' Ashley giggled, burying her face into the smaller woman's blonde hair. The thought of dopey old Glen angry was the funniest thing in the world. Her hands mindlessly exploring the firm landscape of her companions bottom.
"Stop that!" She felt the sting, as the blonde firmly struck her wayward palm, before being forcibly tossed into the back seat of some vehicle.
"I don't know Glen, I had to grab you from the airport," Brie spat back, breathing heavily. Her clothes disheveled.
Now Brie was angry. Her friends were such squares.
"Briiieee!" Ashley called, wanting that taunt body pressed against her, needing release. Undoing her jeans, and presenting her burning flesh. "Fix it…" she urged, trying to push her pants down further. The smaller blonde had dragged her from the peak of a rather satisfying oral orgasm. She needed to make it up to her.
She can just imagine that head of blonde hair between her legs. Her body shivered for the release.
"Oh God my eyes!" Glen wailed, turning away from the brunette.
She felt another smack right on her center. "Behave!" Brie tutted, pushing her hands away, and redoing the brunette's pants.
"Oww…" Ashley moaned. Her sex stinging pleasantly. 'God, Brie was kinky.' She felt her safety belt secure her to the seat. 'Really kinky.' "You want to tie me up and have your way with me Brie?" Ashley purred humorously, blowing into the blonde's ear.
Brie twitched annoyed. "You really aren't my type Ash." She pulled herself into the seat beside Ashley closing the door as Glen started the engine.
Ashley scoffed anyone with tits was the blonde's type. "I can make you feel good Brie," Ashley continued to taunt, "So good." Ashley rasped, panties usually dropped.
"You couldn't handle me Ashley," Brie snapped back, piercing green eyes glowing at the challenge, "not in your state." She smirked triumphantly.
"Try me!" Ashley growled struggling to be free. The blonde' rejection striking a cord within her. Now she wasn't good enough for Brie? What the hell was the world coming to?
"Calm the fuck down Ashley!" Glen glowered at her from the front seat. His booming voice, startling her.
"She started it!" both Ashley and Brie replied.
Brie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, staring out the window.
The silence was unnerving, sobering almost, Ashley didn't want that the stillness was too unsettling. "What the fuck are you doing here Glen? I didn't call you."
She met his saddened blue eyes in the rear view mirror, he was tired.
"What happened Ashley? We were doing so good."
Ashley broke their eye contacted. She didn't want to be accosted by his disappointment too. "You were doing good."
"Ashley," Glen sighed. "If you told me I…" He would've dropped everything for her. She knew. He was always there for her. But he worked so hard. Ashley didn't want to drag him down with her. Not this time.
"God Glen!" Ashley exclaimed, "I never wanted this. You did!" She did it for him. She did it for Kyla, "I did what I said I would. It's done! The Davies' are in the black now!" she did her duty, Dave was gone, Kyla was safe. Grams and Christine had their cash flow trickling in again. "Let me get back to being me!"
"This isn't you Ashley!" Glen sighed exasperatedly.
"This is me Glen!" Ashley refuted. "Don't you remember? This is how I've always been!"
"No Ashley. This isn't!" Glen retorted, pulling the moving vehicle over, turning back to catch her gaze once again, daring her to say otherwise. He looked over at Brie and her disheveled form, "You don't maul your friends like that."
Ashley braved a quick glance at Brie, her top was slightly torn, from her earlier wandering hands. Her usually kempt up do, now a frantic array of blonde tangles. Ashley remembered, as Brie manhandled her out of the club, she was fixated with running her fingers through blonde hair. She felt sick.
"Leave then," Ashley tried to hold Glen's gaze evenly.
"What?"
"This is me Glen, if you can't handle it, leave," he was better. He can be better without her. They both can be. "I don't need you, to be me." Ashley just needed to be the same Ashley Davies as before, and 'she'll come back eventually.' She didn't need anyone else.
"Quit being such a fucking martyr Ashley!" Brie snapped. "I've never seen you like this! The Ashley I know is not like this!"
"You've never known the real me!" Ashley shot back. Brie only knew sober Ashley. "Ask him," she pointed to Glen. "This is me. Parties, drugs, sex, this is me. I don't give a flying fuck about anyone else. I get what I want, when I want."
"What do you want then Ashley?" Glenn asked evenly.
"I want my life back."
Glen got out of the car slamming the door hard, startling both women. He rounded to Brie's passenger side door and tore open the door, dragging the little blonde out, gripping her arm roughly.
"Glen?" the blonde gasped.
"Give it to me," Glen demanded.
She looked up at him curiously.
"The drugs," he saw her confiscate it from Ashley earlier.
Brie warily handed him the small bag of pills.
Glen took the bag in shaky hands, he looked back at Ashley who was watching him carefully. "Sorry Brie," he mumbled, before pulling her into a crushing embracing suffocating her lips with his own. 'This was for Ashley.'
Brie fought against him trying to push him away.
Glen broke the kiss, his blue eyes cold, steeled with some unknown purpose. Brie glared daggers at him. They held each other's gaze for a moment, communicating, Brie's shoulders dropped slightly.
That was all the confirmation Glen needed, he swiftly ripped the remaining buttons off her blouse and tearing away her skirt, he shoved her back into the back seat with Ashley.
Ashley's eyes widened, trying to comprehend the situation, as her nearly nude best friend prowled towards her. "What the hell Glen?" she stuttered. Brie perched on her lap, fingers busy undoing her jeans.
"You said you wanted Brie," Glen shrugged, popping a pill into his mouth.
"GLEN!" Ashley exclaimed, he just threw away everything for her. Even Brie stilled her movements to watch the blond man, her eyes widening at the sight
Glen shrugged, "Don't be stingy Ash, we always shared right?" He began undoing his belt, then chucking off his loafers. "Brianne's always been a fox." He got into the vehicle behind Brie, closing the door softly behind him.
The task of undoing Ashley's jeans completed Brie's hand trailed under her shirt, passed her stomach to cup her breast, "If this is what you want," Brie pinched her nipple, "If this is what you need," Brie nipped at her ear.
'This was wrong.'
She could feel Glen, slide his arm securing himself behind Brie, she could see his blue eyes starting to blur.
Her mind's eye flashed back to the numerous women they shared in the past.
But this was Brie. This was different. Glen was supposed to be sober now. He had his shit together.
"Do try to keep up Ash," Brie's breath was warm against her ear. "Don't disappoint." She felt Brie's other hand start to sneak in to her open jeans, grazing slightly against her. The blonde had rejected her just moments ago.
'This was so wrong," Ashley's eyes clenched shut. This wasn't what she wanted.
"STOP!"
Brie's hand stilled. "Are you sure?" the blonde challenged, tweaking the brunette's nipple firmly.
"Yes!" Ashley squealed, pressing further into the seat behind her, hoping to get some distance away from the woman perched on her lap. She was still strapped by the seatbelt.
She felt the car shuffle as Glen fell into the seat a few feet away from her. His arm tossed over his eyes. Brie only collapsed further into her, molding her small frame against Ashley's.
The car was silent, save for their labored breathes.
"What the fuck Glen? Are you stupid? Why would you do that?" Ashley exclaimed, tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe he'd so willingly denounce his sobriety for her.
"I wasn't going to leave you Ash," Glen sighed. "You didn't give me much of a choice. We're in this together. I told you that."
"You're such an idiot," Ashley croaked, he really was an ass. But he was her ass. She felt Brie giggle against her. "And you," she pinched her side. "If I didn't stop, you were going to let Glen fuck you?"
Brie sat back on her knees, and rolled her eyes, "Please, I've told you before, neither of you can handle me," the blonde scoffed, "even if you tagged team me."
Glen groaned. He was still a hot blooded male, "We're done right?" he chanced a glance at his girls.
Brie looked back at Ashley expectedly.
Ashley nodded still unsure.
Glen tossed his shirt at Brie, "Cover up."
Her friends were both insane. But they knew her. They may have sobered her up momentarily but Ashley was weak. She couldn't just leave the past in the past.
When no one was around she'd sneak away. She'd disappear for days on end. The trail of paparazzi always capturing her at her worst.
The media frenzied over her decent, unsuccessfully digging into her past, her family's past, tarnishing their name, yet again, on a wider scale, deeming her the twice fallen angel. It undermined every success she'd ever had at redemption.
Ultimately, Glen checked her into rehab. This accomplished three things, it limited her access to drugs, bars and women, it kept her away from the media and vice versa, and it forced her to cope without her dependency on others.
The months away in isolation allowed Ashley to reconsider her whole encounter with her blonde hair blue eyed lover. It brought clarity. She left because Ashley was the same, because she thought Ashley was still the same broken teenager from years ago. Ashley convinced herself if only they met under different circumstances the woman would stay.
She was so focused on identifying her, and from the emotions that erupted within, she took little consideration to the crying. The sobbing. The devastation her broken form caused. It was that image that haunted her nights.
Ashley Davies emerged stronger willed then before. She needed the world to see she was different. If the world saw her different than 'she' would too. And 'she'd' come back.
Fate liked fucking with her. Chance meetings and all. It was time Ashley took it in her own hands, she was done waiting around for another happy accident out of her control. Thus, the idea for the revitalization of 'Voluptas' emerged.
Her lover cared. If she didn't she wouldn't have reacted the way she did.
With their last encounter engraved in the heiress' mind, she knew it must be true for 'her' as well. The buzz around 'Voluptas,' would draw her out.
Ashley was sure of it. Her body was sure of it. She wasn't setting herself up for disappointment. She was in control.
Her pocket vibrated.
'Stuck here with Dawnie, won't make it to Ohio.'
Ashley read the text, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows furrowed in displeasure. She read it again.
"Brie did not just text this," Ashley mumbled to herself in the dark recording studio.
It was worse than a break up text. The blonde knew how important, 'Volupatas' was to her. She needed her support there. Ashley needed them there just in case...
'No,' Ashley frowned, she will not let doubt cloud her mind, not this time.
It was cowardly. That text. The least Brie could do was call so Ashley can yell at her until she submitted and recast her decision.
'Quit frowning you'll get wrinkles.' Her phone chimed again.
Ashley grabbed her phone and dialed Brianne's number. Voicemail. "The nerve…" Ashley dialed again. She was dodging her calls.
'Sorry in a meeting, yell at me later.' another text.
Her stomach dropped, rumbling in displeasure. So she wasn't completely absolved from her dependent tendencies. It wasn't wrong for her to be prepared, least she was disappointed yet again, and lost her mind.
'Failure was not an option.'
Her stomach growled in displeasure again.
'Maybe I'm hungrier than I thought,' she proceeded to scavenge the studio, room by room, looking for something to ease her discomfort. She ended up in the break room, where the vending machines lived.
Selecting a nutty chocolate bar, Ashley sat herself down on the couch, beside a rack of newspapers and magazines.
She selected one with the latest celebrity couple gracing the covers, to flip through mindlessly. She saw a few adverts and contests, with giveaways for trips to 'Voluptas.'
Reservations for her hotel were already pre booked up to a year, filled with celebrity guests, and their entourage, the exclusively rich and beautiful, who all wanted to experience, Ashley Davies' promise of sensual pleasure.
Glen and Kyla thought that marked success.
Ashley not so much. She nearly had a panic attack, when she saw the exuberant pricing scheme.
Her goal was to attract only one person. If the hotel was booked with A-listed rift raft, at insane prices how can her lover get in?
Luckily Brie wasn't an idiot. She appeased the brunette by shortening the pre booked guest list pushing reservations well into the next year, opening space for general contests and giveaways to the more economically reserved folks. Deals with liquor companies, radio stations, charity raffles.
Ashley took it one step further and even spiked random cereal brands with gift vouchers. Kyla reprimanded her for that as they weren't trying to draw in children.
Grams, love her ever growing senile mind, suggested giving the townies themselves priority bookings if they so wished. Ashley kissed her for that. She was a genius.
Things were looking up. It was all falling into place.
Ashley finished skimming through one magazine and reached for the next, her hand grazed across a small plastic object tucked carefully in the shelf. She reached for it again, it was a small plastic bag, containing pills.
Her hand froze.
She took a deep breath. This was normal. People came in and out of the studios all the time. She could just ignore it.
She reached for another magazine. The cover story…
Another Stint in Rehab for Davies? Unavoidable.
The title screamed out at her.
Glen had warned her. The publicity around 'Voluptas,' was bound circulate gossip about her life.
She hardened herself, and avoided gossip magazines for that very reason. The media circus from her last stay, still barring heavily on her.
It was a poll, surveying readers, on their opinion. It was a current issue, maybe two weeks old.
97% of the readership thought she was destined to fall.
They were already dubbing her the 'Thrice fallen angel.'
Various photos, littered the page, of varying periods of her life. Shots of her entering and exiting clubs, parties. Associating with various people known for their recreational habits.
'It was mostly speculation.,' she tried to reason.
Quotes, comments and opinions predicting her demise, attacking her from the pages.
It's bound to happen.
She's had her chance.
I give her a year she'll crack again. She's a creature of habit. A photo of Glen, escorting her into rehab, all those months ago.
Thank God, the Davies' still has Kyla to fall back on.
Gertrude Davies is smart giving the young Vassar alumn veto power in Davies Holdings. Displaying, Kyla's law school graduation photo.
Just look at the talent she's investing in. Read the caption underneath a large photo of Dawn, taking a hit out of a bong.
It's in her blood. A photo of the former Raife Davies in his glory days, doing lines of coke, in a crowded club.
People like her don't change. Photos of her teenage years side by side with photos in New Orleans.
Ashley clenched her fists. 'No.' She will not let this get to her.
She was stronger now. Her eyes lingered on the newspaper stand, boring through the wood.
She needed to get out of here
Ashley crumbled the magazine, shoving it back into the stand, a slip of paper fell out.
Ashley picked up the folded line paper, three pages stapled together.
By Christmas M.A -$50, B.L $75 Feb 24th -$20 A.J
January 1st N.C $100 Feb 3rd -$75 H.D
By the end of the week M.G -$25 March 8th -$40 B.S
By the end of the month J.K- my entire bonus.
Various dates accompanied with dollar values adding up at an alarming rate. The most recent entries just earlier today.
It was a pool.
Even her employees were making a game out of her sobriety. People she spent day in and day, curtly smiling, encouraging her, throwing compliments left and right. Sucking up to her. People she thought respected her.
Betting on when she'd crack.
She was a joke to them.
Her blood boiled.
The world was still out to get her.
A.N. So apparently my last preview was a lie. My bad. I started writing Ashley and it didn't stop. I was trying to squeeze it all in one, but then that would've been forty pages. Fuckin' A, We got chapters, for a reason, I guess.
I'm gonna be mega busy the next two weeks. I'm studying for an exam, giving the whole schoolage thing another go. It's a lot more work than I anticipated, what with work and everything.
If only I was this studious during my undergrad.
C'est la vie.
So I'm giving y'all two extra long updates.
The preview from the last chap happens when you click next, yeah?
*ShyGirl1988