Chapter 14

When Sean pulled up to Spencer's house, he wasn't sure which version of his friend was going to show up: the cheery one he had picked up the previous morning, or the surly one he had said goodbye to when he had dropped her off. He thought he had the blonde figured out, but the last few weeks had him questioning that theory.

She clearly had a lot of things she was dealing with, so he was going to try and cut her some slack. The best he could offer was to be there for her, whatever she needed.

For the second time in as many days, before Sean had the chance to go get her, Spencer came out of her house all ready to go to school. It was the strangest behaviour and it made him wonder what it all meant. "So I get the happy version of you today?"

"Yes, aren't you lucky?" Spencer replied once she was in the car.

She'd actually been up for a couple of hours, images of Ashley dancing in her head.

More specifically, images of what her and Ashley had been up to the night before.

Sure, they had kept things over the clothes, but that didn't mean it hadn't felt out of this world to be with Ashley like that. Last night had been different than any of their other encounters.

Spencer suspected that had to do with the air mostly being cleared between the two of them. It had upped the intensity factor by a whole lot.

"And the reason for you mood change?" Sean wasn't trying to pry, but if there was something good going on in his friend's life, he wanted to know. "Besides getting to see my handsome face every morning."

"It's nothing," Spencer told Sean without looking directly at him. She hated that she was continuing to hold back the truth from the one person who hadn't let her down. The problem was, telling Sean would open up the blonde to being judged for what she was doing with Ashley. She wasn't ready for that. "Maybe my hormones are out of whack."

Sean laughed. "You're hormones are always out of whack. But, fine, if you don't want to tell me, I'll try not to be too butt-hurt about it."

"When there's something to tell, you'll be the first person to find out," Spencer said vaguely. It pained her to be less than truthful to Sean.

"Good to know. Now, onto more pressing matters: Friday night, you up for a scary movie marathon?"

"That depends, are you going to scream your head off and use me for protection like you did last time?" Spencer laughed, glad for the subject change. "I still have the nail marks in my arm from your attack on me when we watched Saw."

"First of all, you are totally exaggerating what happened," Sean countered. "Second of all, shut the hell up."

Spencer continued to laugh and make fun of her friend the whole ride to school. The nagging voice in her head that was telling her to be upfront with Sean was ignored. A confession would have to wait for another time.

Ashley had barely stepped out of her car before she was accosted by Madison. It wasn't enough to kill her good mood though. She might have been nervous for what was going to happen today, but that didn't mean Ashley couldn't enjoy the great feeling that came with being with Spencer.

What they were might not have a clear definition at present, but it was so much better than being trapped in a cycle of anger and pretending the other person didn't exist.

"Why have you been ignoring all my calls?" Madison asked, sounding pissed off. "I've been trying to reach you all night."

"I didn't feel like talking to anyone," Ashley answered as she tried her to best to hide the grin that was threatening to come out. She'd been way too busy with a certain blonde to care that Madison had been attempting to contact her. "What's up?"

Madison glared at her friend. "What's up? What's up? You broke up with Aiden, that's what's up!" She was almost foaming at the mouth. "How could you not let me what you were going to do? When Aiden told me-"

"Aiden told you?" Ashley was surprised, he didn't think that Aiden and Madison spoke to each other outside of school. Once they reached her locker, she opened it up to put a few things inside.

Madison got momentarily flustered before she was able to compose herself again. "Yes, he told me and I can't believe I had to hear the news from him and not you! What is wrong with you?"

"I'm fine by the way," Ashley said dryly. "It had nothing to do with you, so what's the big deal?" The last thing she wanted to do was spend time talking about Aiden. She could be focused on other things. Things like responding to the latest text Spencer had sent her.

"The big deal is," Madison had her jaw clenched so tightly Ashley could almost hear her teeth grinding, "you're supposed to be my best friend and I would expect you to tell me beforehand when you're going to break up with your boyfriend of two years!"

"I'm sorry," Ashley apologized while trying to suppress an eye roll. She actually wasn't sorry, but wanted to stop Madison from hounding her anymore about her decision.

Madison had her hands on her hip. "Why did you break up with him anyway? I thought things were good between you guys."

Ashley internally groaned. She couldn't stand how Madison was treating her, like she had to take orders, or something. Before the brunette could think of a suitable lie to tell the other girl, she saw Spencer walking towards her. She wasn't alone, but she was all Ashley could see. Nobody had ever made her heart race like Spencer was doing right then.

Spencer was half listening to Sean as he rambled on about a film festival he wanted her to go with him to next month. She hadn't expected to run into Ashley so early in the morning. She also wasn't expecting to be greeted with the sight of her in her cheerleading uniform. Had she always looked so good wearing it?

"Why are you ignoring me?" Madison asked, her voice getting shriller the longer Ashley evaded her question.

Paying no attention to the angry girl beside her, Ashley took a deep breath as she prepared to do something she hadn't done once since being in high school. "Good morning," she said as Spencer walked by. She gave the blonde a small wave and tried not to be too obvious as to how happy she was to see her.

Spencer also fought not to react too much to the greeting she received from the brunette. Sure it wasn't the thing that epic romance movies were made of, but it was more than enough for her. Even with their conversation the night before, and the promises made, it was natural for Spencer to have some doubts. Getting that acknowledgement from Ashley meant so much. "Good morning."

When Madison saw who Ashley was saying hi to she went nuclear. "Go fuck yourself, Spencer,"

"You know what, Mads, if you could stop thinking about me masturbating, I would really appreciate it," Spencer replied without missing a beat. "I don't need your face to pop into my mind when I'm getting myself off."

Ashley had to fake a coughing attack to not openly laugh at Spencer's response to Madison's vile words. She watched the blonde walk away and didn't miss the wink she received before the other girl was gone.

"Why are talking to her?" Madison asked when they were alone again.

"I was being polite," Ashley said before she closed her locker door.

"Not to her, you can't," Madison ordered irrationally. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, Ashley, but if you're not careful you're going to find yourself on the wrong side of the things here."

For the first time, that didn't sound all that bad to the brunette.

"Did you just say good morning to Ashley?" Sean asked when they were far away from Madison and Ashley.

Spencer shrugged, trying not to act like that was a big deal. "Yeah, we've been getting along a bit better on the project. That's all."

Sean put his hands on the blonde's shoulder and said, "Spencer, if you've been reprogrammed or are under alien control, blink twice for yes and I'll try to save you."

"You're hilarious," she gently pushed her friend away.

"I don't get you," Sean shook his head, "actually I don't get women so that's not a surprise."

"You sure don't!" Spencer quipped before laughing hysterically. "Hey, don't blame me! You walked right into that one."

Spencer felt her phone vibrate which caused her to immediately stop laughing at her friend's expense. She couldn't wait to see what Ashley had to say to her.

It wasn't a message from the brunette though, it was from her dad.

Jobs going longer than I thought, won't be back until after the weekend.

Hope all is OK

Sean wondered why Spencer's face had darkened so quickly. He leaned over to read the message and then understood why her mood had changed.

It was hard having a father that was never around. Especially when he was constantly choosing to drink over taking care of his own daughter. This wasn't the first time he had left Spencer home along for long stretches of time.

Each time she would act like it was fine. And each time Sean would do what he could to take her mind off being abandoned, because she wasn't fine at all. He really wanted to knock some sense into Arthur when he saw how much is behavior affected his friend. There was no point when there had already been numerous attempts to get him to stop drinking. Nothing had worked.

Spencer responded with a quick "fine" before she deleted her dad's message. She shoved the phone back in her pocket, determined not to let him ruin what had otherwise been a great start to her day. It wasn't like she cared anyway. The amount of times she'd been disappointed by her father had dulled the pain she may have felt. That's what she told herself anyway.

"So, I guess we're doing the movie marathon at your place then?" Sean asked. He knew his friend well enough to know that now was not the time to get her to open up about her feelings. "I'll bring the popcorn, you can bring the hot chicks."

Spencer shot her friend a very appreciative look. "Oh please, you know if I bought over any girls to watch the movies with us they'd be all over me and you'd be sad and lonely in a corner all by yourself."

"At least I'd be happy in that corner," Sean replied looking pretty pleased with himself.

"You're disgusting," Spencer slugged her friend but she wasn't mad by his suggestive comeback. She loved that he was treating her like that message from her dad had never arrived. "And you wonder why you're perpetually single."

Sean waited for the blonde to finish offloading whatever needed to be dropped off at her locker. "I thought we already established that your demanding ways are the reason why I don't have a girlfriend."

Spencer went to hit Sean again but he took off under the guise of not wanting to be late to class. She texted him a picture of her giving him the finger instead.

Feeling much better than she normally would after getting disappointed by her dad, the blonde also made her way to her first class. At least she had time with Ashley to look forward to later.

Seconds before the bell rang, Spencer darted into Home Ec. She wasn't watching where she was going and almost collided into the teacher. After she apologized profusely she made her way over to her desk. She hated feeling rushed, but her state of agitation was cut short when she found Ashley's eyes on her.

"Hey," Spencer whispered after she'd sat down. When she realized that the brunette was still in her cheerleading uniform, she tried not to groan.

"Hey," Ashley whispered back. She was also caught up in admiring the girl beside her. It was amazing to her that she had spent so much time denying how gorgeous Spencer was.

Spencer wondered if it was normal to be so completely taken with someone. For a fleeting second she wished there was someone in her life that she could talk to about the sudden explosion of feelings she was experiencing. Maybe in a different life she could have spoken to her mom about it, but that was never going to happen.

Both girls had their attention taken away from one another by the obnoxious laughter of Madison. When they turned their heads to see what she thought was so funny, they were greeted with the site of her practically dry humping Aiden. She was all over him in a way that wasn't platonic.

"That's some friend you got there," Spencer quipped unable to help herself. She couldn't understand how anyone, let alone Ashley, could stand to be around her for more than two seconds. After the comment she did feel a little bad. "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"No it wasn't," Ashley replied, her eyes now back on Spencer. While she didn't care at all that Madison was clearly making a play for Aiden from a jealousy perspective, it still bothered her. "She really is something else."

Spencer scoffed. "That's one way to put it."

The brunette looked back at Madison and Aiden one more time and found that Madison was staring back at her. With a shrug of her shoulders, Madison was back to fawning over Aiden. Ashley took a moment to acknowledge just how stupid she was for ever thinking that she had a friendship with Madison.

Spencer watched the exchange and as much as she wanted to throw an "I told you so" at Ashley, she didn't. It was hard for her to fight the instinct to lash out. There was no point in doing that if she wanted to continue to see where things with Ashley led to. Deciding to be the bigger person, she squeezed the brunette's hand under the table and was rewarded with a smile.

"Can I ask you a question?" Spencer kept her voice low, to make sure nobody was listening. When the other girl nodded, she continued. "Do you really have to wear that cheerleading uniform or are you just doing that to tease me?"

Ashley was immediately disarmed by the blonde's question. It was like the words that Spencer had spoken had caused a riot to break out in her body. She had never realized before that it was possible to have such a strong reaction to words. She could feel heat rising within her all the way from her stomach to her face. It seemed that Spencer could make her nervous - in a good way - like no one else.

Spencer felt giddy in that moment. Apparently flirting with Ashley was more enjoyable than she had thought it would be. Seeing the brunette get all embarrassed and flustered by her comment made Spencer happy. That was a really nice change of pace for her.

"You checking me out, Carlin?" Ashley asked boldly.

Spencer smirked, but this time there was no malice behind it. "I think you know the answer to that."

Ashley wasn't sure she'd be able to survive if things with the blonde got more intense than they were already. She already felt like she was on the brink of a heart attack and it had only been one day since they decided to see what was going to happen between them. "I have practice after school, but if you're not doing anything tonight, you uh, want to get together?"

All of a sudden having an absentee father didn't seem as bad as it usually did. "Come by when you're done, I'm sure we can find something to do to pass the time." Spencer replied her voice low and husky.

Ashley involuntarily shuddered. She gave the blonde a smile so wide it made her nose crinkle.

Tonight could not come fast enough for her.