Whoa, another chapter?! Damn, I'm on a roll. Hope you like it. :)
We're in Ashley's Jeep enjoying the 3 hour drive back to Marietta, OH. The ride has been surprisingly comfortable, despite the little uh…mishap back at the dorm rooms.
We've just been laughing and singing the whole time. Bad singing on my part, excellent on hers. I swear she just keeps getting better and better. I love a gal that can sing!
There's almost an hour left of driving and I realized that I actually don't know a lot about her family, and we've barely talked about mine. I can tell it's a sore subject for her, so I don't really know how to go about bringing it up.
"Hey Ash, what are your parents like." She visibly tenses.
Great Spencer, subtle as a fucking train wreck.
Worried that I've upset her. I go to tell her not to worry about it and that I understand how families are, when she interrupts my thoughts.
"Well there's not really much to say. My Dad died 3 years ago in a car accident. It pretty much took all I had not to just stop…living, ya know? But I pulled myself together, no thanks to my Mother. She barely batted an eyelash when she found out he didn't make it. It didn't help that not even a month after he had died we found out that he had another daughter that was only a year younger than me. God, I hated Kyla when we first met. I mean she just showed up, out of the blue. I felt betrayed and alone. My Mom was never there and still isn't. I didn't feel sorry for her though, I mean if I was married to that wretch I'd probably cheat too." She chuckles and wipes a stray tear that escaped from her.
Wow, and I thought my Mom was a bitch. Well I mean, she is a bitch…but not like that.
I put a comforting hand on her and that's resting on the gear shift. She briefly smiles at me and turns her hand to lace our fingers together. I gave a gentle squeeze to let her know that I was here and she could continue.
"Kyla and I have gotten over our differences now. Yeah, she's annoying. But I do love her and I would do anything for her…hence the surprise." She says with a bright smile as she looks at me. Her eyes are shining with tears, but I can see excitement behind them.
I think it's adorable how much she loves Kyla. From the way she talks about her, you'd never even know they were only half-sisters let alone that they've only known each other for a short period of time.
"Alright Carlin, now its your turn."
Oh boy.
"What's your family tree?" We both laugh at her attempt to lighten the situation.
"Hmm, well my Mom, AKA Satan, is well….Satan?" Ashley starts laughing at this. "Come on Spencer, she can't be that bad."
I look at her with wide eyes. "Paula Carlin is not a force to be reckoned with. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if one day our lives turned into that one Buffy episode where the Mom is a witch and she thinks her daughter is wasting her life away so she casts some witchy voodoo spell on her and they switch bodies and she totally lives it up being a hott teen while the daughter is old and locked away in the house so no one will find out an-"
I'm interrupted by Ashley laughing her ass off. She's literally shaking with tears.
Uh. Ashley, road. Heh.
Wow she just got awfully close to that car.
And that guardrail.
She is still laughing.
I'm glad she thinks our death is gonna be funny.
"Hey Ashley….the road? You might wanna…you know…drive better." I say with an embarrassed pout.
This seems to shake her out of it a little, she's a bit more focused, but still laughing.
"God Spence, you're a nerd. But you're cute when you ramble." She gives me a nose crinkling smile.
Hrumpft. I guess she's forgiven.
"Now please continue, I'll try my best to behave." I stick my tongue out at her and continue.
"Anyways, when Paula isn't being an evil potential body switching witch, she's a Doctor. I guess a pretty good one too. Since she's at the hospital all the damn time. She wants me to be one too, but that's not gonna happen. Her and I aren't very close, she seems to just pick out everything that's wrong with me. I can only imagine her reaction when she finds out I'm gay. I'm sure she'll try and send me to some Church Camp that turns Homos into Heteros or something. My Dad is pretty amazing though. He keeps to himself and so do I. We've always had this unspoken bond to care from a distance. I also have two older brothers, Glen and Clay. Clay is adopted and Glen is an ass. But I love them and I've missed them a whole lot more than I thought I would. Glen has a basketball scholarship to UCLA and Clay is doing Habitat For Humanity in Honduras at the moment. So there you have it. My lil' ol' life." I finish in a country accent.
Ashley chuckles at that. "So you're not out to your family? So how many relationships have you been in?"
Whoop there it is. Wow I didn't think we'd cover that. How much time left in this drive. Wow. 45 minutes? Really?
Hmm. Maybe I can fake sleep? Or coma?
Shit. She'd definitely know.
"Uhh. I've actually never had a relationship. Am I a total loser for that? I mean I've been kissed so I'm not that lame. I've just never…ah…you know. Made it to that step….or any other step after that." I mumble to myself but I look up and I can tell by the shocked look that she totally heard it.
Awesome.
My cheeks are burning red. I suddenly find the passing trees very interesting.
"Spencer." She gives my hand a squeeze and I look at her. "It's okay that you're not…experienced in dating or…other stuff. That's completely fine. I was just surprised since you seemed so...comfortable with….our stuff." She finishes lamely.
Well I don't feel like such a babbling idiot now. At least she didn't notice that I'm not exactly a 'ladies lady'.
"Ash, I'm comfortable with you." She gives me such a genuine smile and it melts my heart.
How can she not see that I'm falling for her?
Tearing my eyes away from her I ask the question that I'm kind of dreading.
"How many relationships have you been in?" Please say you were a nun until you saw how hott I was and decided you had to have me right then and there.
"A few, I'd only consider one serious though, Carmen."
Well there goes my little nun dream cloud.
"Did you date her long?" Gosh Spencer, shut up. Green jelly is not a good look for you.
"About three years, we broke up about 6 months ago. She cheated. I was pretty upset over it. But it made me realize how much better I am without her. She was always such a Debbie Downer. It really didn't take me that long to get over her, so I guess it wasn't love. I dunno. She came into my life when my Dad died, so I think I just needed someone to care about me. Our break up almost tore Kyla away from me too. That's how I met her. She's Kyla's best friend. Carmen and I was wrong to put her in the middle of us, I was just so mad. I eventually decided that Carmen wasn't worth loosing Kyla, so I took the high rode and forgave her. She actually goes to OSU with Kyla, but Kyla never mentions her or anything so I happily wrote her down in my diary as a regret and moved on." She says with a nervous chuckle and glances my way to see my reaction.
I process everything that she's said and had to admit, a part of me knew that she has dated before. Not everyone is a slow starter like me.
I didn't realize until now I was like….Mountain Man slow though. Damn. Next thing I'll be growing a beard and hoarding taxidermy.
I try to make light of the tense situation by making a funny. "Oh well it's good to know that you weren't Madison's…chica?"
"Ewww Spence, hell no. I'm not up for STD's. I worry enough about that sharing a room with her." She says with a disgusted look on her face.
Her face stays that way for an entire minute and I bust out laughing.
My laughter dies in my throat though and I look up to see where we've pulled in at. My jaw drops as I take her house…no…mansion.
"You..you live here?" I said with obvious shock on my face.
"Well I wouldn't technically call it living here, but for the moment…I guess you can say that." She says grimly.
Her face breaks out in a smile though when she points out a car in the driveway off to the right of us. "Look! Kyla must be here already! Lets go!"
She hops out of the Jeep and runs over to open my door.
Damn she's cute.
She takes my hand and helps me down and half run half walks to the front door. I can tell she's trying to stay calm.
It's not really working though considering I was just drug down the sidewalk. I feel a few droplets on my face and look up. Great it looks like the weather man was actually right and it's about to snow…a lot. My arm starts to tingle and I look down and realize we're still holding hands. We've basically been like this for an hour now. At least if we get snowed in, I'll be in good company.
I wipe the dorky smile off my face as she unlocks the door and ushers me inside the foyer.
Whoa, this place is even nicer than the outside. There are marble floors, wooden banisters, and expensive art everywhere.
"Ky! You here?" Ashley's voice pulls me out of my wonderment and I start getting nervous.
I hope she likes me and I don't act like an idiot.
Yeah right, like me not acting like an idiot is an option.
"Ash?" Comes Kylas voice from what looks to be the kitchen. She steps into view and I take in her appearance. She actually doesn't look that different from Ashley, despite their different Moms. She's a bit shorter than Ashley and her hair is just a bit lighter. Her style is a bit different than hers too, she has opted for a simple black dress and black heels. She has the same golden brown eyes, although hers seem to lack those golden flakes that I've grown to love so much. Or maybe it could just be the shocked expression she's wearing. Guess we surprised her.
"Hey baby Sis, I've missed you!" Ashley says as she grabs Kyla in a hug.
Kyla seems to shake out of her shocked state a bit and hugs Ashley back.
As they pulled away her panicked expression returns though. "Ash, I had no idea you were going to be here. I thought you said you weren't coming?"
"I know silly, we wanted to surprise you." At Ashley's words, Kyla seems to finally realize that I'm here. This seems to send her in another level of panic.
"This is Spencer, my gir-…uh..well….heh…I guess we haven't really discussed that have we Spence?" Ashley says uneasily.
Nope, we sure haven't. Well hello there Mr. Elephant in the room!
Wait…did she almost call me her girlfriend?!
I'm pretty sure she did.
Yay!
Suddenly another voice joins us. "Hey Kyla who was at the do-" The voice stops abruptly as the owner of it steps into view. An attractive Latino looking girl stands there dumbfounded.
"Hi Ashley." She says nervously.
I look to Ashley and see confusion, shock, and anger all at once on her face. She takes a deep breath and calmly says "Hello Carmen."
Carmen?!
Oh shit.
Well this should be interesting.
Uh-oh. :) Review, review, review!
