Short chapter I thought I would throw out before I fall back into assessments and coursework. Enjoy.
Chapter 11: Weekends are for relaxing.
"Aiden, if you push me in this pool my little black ass will go Rambo on you." Chelsea Lewis, art student, Clay's girlfriend and the best friend that Spencer had to hide away from Madison.
At school it was no secret that out of all the cheerleaders Spencer was the most liked, the kindest and the all round American girl that could represent their school. Madison, not one to miss out on such things, jumped on Spencer's little train and even tooted the horn - knowing that being head cheerleader, friends with Spencer and dating one of the basketball guys would cement her popularity for life.
But Chelsea would always be Spencer's best friend. When they had moved to LA, Chelsea was also moving onto the same street after uprooting her life from across town. In the time it took to unload plates and furniture to the time it took for the vans to drive away her and Spencer had become fast friends. Eight months later, she and Clay had started dating and now Chelsea was pretty much always around the house. She didn't attend King High; she had been offered a place at another school because of her talent in art.
Spencer watched as Aiden's hands came down sheepishly and he backed away slowly. He didn't know Chelsea that well but he remained nice to her for the sake of Spencer and invited her to his pool party, along with the rest of the Carlin's, their respective others and of course Ashley - who had brought along Taylor. The artist walked over to Spencer, who was happily lounging on a sun bed, and took off her flip-flops and joined her there.
"Your boyfriend is such a jock." Spencer simply smiled at the comment and let her eyes dance around the people there. Ashley and Taylor were doing some sort of staring thing in the pool, Ashley's hands on either side on Taylor's body, gripping the side of the pool, and Taylor's arms were around her neck. They were in conversation but Spencer hadn't failed to notice that they had progressively gotten closer and still had to break eye contact. Her mom and dad were sipping some reddish coloured drink with Aiden's parents, Glen was smearing lotion onto Madison's exposed back in the chair next to them and Clay was inside somewhere getting Chelsea a drink.
"Your boyfriend is whipped."
"I know. Someone had to get that brother of yours into shape, he was out of control." The girls laughed respectfully at the absurdity of the statement. Clay was well on his way to getting into any college he chose and, in Spencer's mind, was one of the cleverest people she knew. Spencer was about to reply when a loud 'fine!' was shouted from the pool and her eyes glanced over in time to see Taylor quickly making her way back inside the house, a towel clenched firmly in her hand.
"Lesbians are so dramatic." Spencer turned and saw the upturned lip on Madison; the cheerleader shook her head and looked at Spencer with wide eyes. "I told you that Ashley was nothing but trouble." The blonde repressed the eye roll that was begging for release and turned back to Chelsea.
"What do you think happened?" The two girls watched as Ashley got out of the pool, her tanned skin caught the sun and shone brightly. A scowl was evident on her face but it softened as soon as Aiden ran up to her, his hand was shrugged off of her arm and the girl quickly made her way to the chairs where Spencer and her friends were currently situated.
"I don't know. When I walked past earlier though I heard that Ashley girl talking about not wanting more, or something." She sent a smile to Ashley who had made her way over to the chairs and was rifling through her things to get a towel.
"You okay, Ashley?" The brunette looked up at Spencer's question and nodded quickly, before laying her towel on the chair and lying down quickly.
"What does it matter if she's okay? She and her life partner just had a little argument, not that anyone cares. Tell me, Ashley - was it because she wouldn't go down on you?" Madison had a smile on her face that indicated she loved this situation.
"Babe, leave it." Glen, though he would never admit it in front of his girlfriend, actually liked Ashley. The two had detention together about a month ago and he had grown to like her, Aiden then had invited the team out to a club and Ashley had been there - all over a girl, much to his pleasure. And he knew he couldn't discriminate anyway, he knew about his sister and her not-so-secret relationship with a girl long before anybody else did.
"Why? It's not normal the sort of thing that she does, I'm not going to give her any sympathy because she lives a life of sin."
"Grow up Madison." Ashley smoothly put her sunglasses on and blocked out the sunlight that had begun to hurt her eyes. "And it's not like you can say anything anyway. I mean I can recall a time a little while ago when -"
"Whatever Davies. Just work on your tan and shut up."
"I want chocolate." Chelsea announced, trying to rid the area of all the tension that was beginning to settle down on them. "Anybody else want something?" Each teenager rolled off whatever it was that they wanted and Chelsea turned to Ashley, who had taken to searching for a song through her iPod. "Do you want anything Ashley?"
"Yeah, get me a Kit Kat?"
"I hate them." Glen groaned standing up and walking to the edge of the pool, judging his distance and basking in how 'great' his dive would be. "How can you like them?" He turned to the brunette who had a wicked grin on her face.
"What can I say? I like all four fingers."
---
Spencer lay on her couch idly flicking through channels. She had done her homework and though she knew she should be with Aiden this Sunday, she had come to the conclusion she had spent all day yesterday with him - and all night - which was the perfect excuse to have a Sunday afternoon to herself. Ashley had phoned her earlier, asking her why the Maury show only had paternity tests on it and nothing else before finally getting to the point that she needed to borrow some notes. That was half an hour ago and the girls had planned that Spencer would e-mail her the notes later on in the day.
She stopped on one channel, some guy was asking why his wife was cheating on him and the woman in question was just drinking some tonic. Spencer rolled her eyes at the moronic storylines, which seemed to last months and months, before turning the television off completely. She contemplated getting up, before her brother came bounding into the room and went straight for Guitar Hero.
"Wanna see me beat your top score, loser?" Glen turned on all the right buttons before spinning around to face his sister.
"As interesting as that sounds, I should go and get the notes ready I'm giving to Ashley." She didn't move though and watched as Glen chose his level mode (Medium) and began to rifle through some songs he wanted to play.
"You like her?"
"She's alright. Why? Are you still embarrassed you fell into the pool yesterday after that Kit Kat comment?" Spencer suppressed her laughter, unlike the day before when she had tears in her eyes and a cramp in her stomach. Her brother's face had been priceless, Madison paled considerably, Chelsea had a look that crossed between shock and amusement and her mother, who had heard the exchange, sent daggers over to Ashley. The brunette had simply shaken her head after the comment, no trace of amusement on her face and lay back in the chair.
"That was wrong, Spence."
"But oh so funny, big brother." She frowned though and Glen caught the look in the TV. "I don't see why mom went all high and mighty over it though. It was just a joke."
"You know how mom is." A silence descended on the siblings and Spencer stood up.
"Yeah." She mumbled something about getting the history notes and quickly made her way upstairs. The sound of her door closing caused Glen to pause his game and run a hand over his face and through his hair as he sighed heavily.
When he had found out about Spencer and her little girlfriend, he had quickly jumped to the conclusion that Spencer was going to hell and everything that she was doing was wrong. He would make snide comments across the dinner table and would make sure that the two of them didn't have any alone time together, he would tease her and make comments about lesbians on TV and how what they were doing was wrong. But when the girl was around even Glen could see the happiness in Spencer's eyes, and he couldn't help but start to back away. She hadn't changed just because she liked a girl, or girls for that matter, he had never really asked.
She was still his little sister who teased him endlessly about those pictures of his 90's fashion.
She was still the little girl who crept into his bed when she was 7 and it was thundering outside.
She was still the baby sister of the family who had clung to him and Clay when they had taken her to the movies for the first time to see some sappy film, neither wanted to see.
She was still Spencer who, when he stood up to some bullies when she was twelve, sent him that smile that could melt stone.
The smile that only he, and Clay, got for being her big brother.
All that hadn't changed and so when he had confronted her about it and Spencer had broken down into tears, he had held her until she had fallen asleep in his arms and it was then, in that moment, he had decided that he was Spencer's big brother. And he would protect her from the snide comments and the teasing because as long as Spencer still sent him that smile, the one for being her big brother, everything would be okay.
"Glen, you are such an ass!" The blonde girl came running into the room and stood in front of Glen with her arms crossed and a blazing look across her face. "I told you not to download porn onto my computer. Now I have a virus."
Yeah, she was still the same old Spencer.
---
"I don't get it." Ashley sat at the kitchen table as Kyla and Aiden sat across from her. She slid a bottle of water across the counter from hand to hand, refusing to look up until she desperately had to. "Taylor is freaking out because she says she wants more. Madison is still being a whore." She finally looked up and pointed at Aiden. "You're leaving me next week and..." She looked at Kyla this time. "Something is going on with you and I can't figure it out. What the hell is up with the world?"
"I'm only going for two weeks, Ash. I thought you'd be glad to get rid of me." Aiden grabbed the water she was sliding, unscrewed the cap and took a long drink of it.
"Whatever."
"Nothing is going on with me, by the way."
"Whatever."
"Wait, Taylor wants more from you? Did she say that?" Aiden looked at Kyla and then back at Ashley. He would never admit it, but Kyla had told him a few weeks ago that she suspected Taylor still had feelings for Ashley and she was right. Kyla had a way of reading people, that was obvious, but even he didn't see the depth of attraction Taylor held for his friend.
"Well...no. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to New York for a weekend, and of course I said yes. And then she started making all these plans and things, and I was like 'whoa, I wanna hook up while I'm there' and she sent me a look which told me everything. So I said that I didn't want anything more than friendship, with maybe some benefits on the side, and she went all quiet and moody and I asked her if everything was okay - and that's when she stormed off." She took a breath and looked at her two friends across the table. "What?"
"That's the first time you have ever opened up to us like that." Kyla commented, only to be backed up by Aiden who was nodding his head and popping a grape into his mouth.
"Whatever, she isn't worth it anyway." She stood up and walked to the fridge, opening and sticking her head inside to try and find something to eat.
Aiden and Kyla both shared a look, knowing that Ashley was only confused because she hated to hurt people she was close to. Of course, she was a girl to fuck 'em and leave 'em but when it came to hurting the people close to her, or causing them some sort of distress, she would feel it. Then as soon as she felt something she would bolt, running as fast as she could and finding some excuse that would justify her behavior. It had happened before and both friends knew it was happening again.
"So why is Madison a whore?" Aiden tried to loosen up the conversation and watched as Ashley turned around, something flickered in his friends eyes that he couldn't quite place before it was taken over by stone cold hatred for the girl.
"Because she just is. She was all over that Glen guy today and then she thought she could just throw in a comment like she did. If your parents weren't there Aiden I would have slapped her so hard." Ashley rolled her eyes and sat on the stool, after closing the fridge.
"Was she being her lovely homophobic self again?" Kyla now took the bottle of water and took a drink from it, looking between the two best friends.
"She was just being that bitch we all know and hate." Aiden scoffed. He wondered briefly how he was ever attracted to the girl, but when her face popped into his mind, her swagger made itself known in his memory and he quickly remembered why he liked her. She was a hell of a kisser too and pretty damn hot in bed.
"I don't see how she has a leg to stand on considering her past." Kyla noted. They all sat in contemplative silence before Ashley slammed her hands down onto the counter top and sent the two people in front of her a cheeky smile.
"Who wants to do some shots?"
"It's a school night, Ash. My mom said I could stay here but I doubt she'll let me drink, hell, I don't even think she knows that I do." Aiden watched as she got up and walked to the liquor cabinet.
"We have loads of vodka in here; I think that's a pretty good choice."
"You're mom will kill you if you drink her stuff." Kyla knew that wasn't true, her mom would probably join in if she was here.
"Oh, these glasses have our initials on them. I remember buying these."
"I have a test in the morning and Spencer would kill me if I had a hangover at school." Ashley put down three shot glasses on the counter and joined it with two bottles of alcohol she had grabbed.
"We won't drink much. Just until the big hand gets to 12 and the little hand gets to 10."
"Get a pack of cards and we'll make it into a game." Kyla relented and moved her chair so she was directly opposite her cousin. The two girls then turned to look at Aiden who was eyeing the glasses cautiously before sighing dramatically and sitting down.
"Just don't draw on my face this time if I pass out."
