Sorry I didn't have this up sooner guys. It's kinda hard juggling two stories now, but I will update as soon as I can. Promise!

Chapter 21

When I arrived to school Monday morning I was immediately bombarded by questions from Kyla and Chelsea. I guess they are a little worried about what had happened to me on Friday night.

"Clay didn't tell you?" I asked Chelsea while pouring some water into a graduated cylinder. Chelsea, Kyla, and I are all lab partners in our Chemistry class.

"No not really. He said he didn't want to tell me because he didn't know if you wanted anyone to know about it." She paused while she poured some liquid into a glass beaker. "But he did say you got hurt by someone."

They both stopped what they were doing and waited expectantly.

"Alright I'll tell you, but you two can't tell anyone else ok? I don't want people knowing my business." More like I don't want people hating me for getting the star receiver kicked out of school.

They both assured me by nodding their heads eagerly.

"Well…" How do I begin? "You know how me and Derek went out once and then we stopped suddenly?"

They shook their heads in agreement. Are they ever going to use words again?

I leaned over our lab table and motioned for them to come closer. "It's because he's psycho." I whispered the rest of the story so not even the station next to us could hear anything.

"Oh my god!" Kyla said piercingly.

"Kyla! SSSHHHH!" I said quickly. I looked around to see if anyone had heard her obnoxiousness. Everyone was looking in our direction with furrowed brows.

Of course everyone heard her, she has a big mouth!

Our teacher walked over to us and pointed a firm finger. "You ladies better stop fooling around and get back to work."

"Sorry." we all said in unison.

"I'm really sorry Spencer… it's just… oh my god!" she whispered this time. "I never thought Derek would do something like that… to anyone."

"Me either." Chelsea added. "He always seemed so nice."

"Yeah well don't let him fool you like he did me." I said frustrated.

"Hey don't be angry with yourself for believing him." Chelsea walked over and put her hand on my arm. "It could have happened to anyone of us."

"I suppose." I sighed. "I don't want to talk about it anymore. I've already had to tell my parents, my brothers, Ashley, and the police." I started fiddling with some tools we had at our table.

They both nodded in unison again. As we all went back to out assignment, Kyla looked up from what she was doing, as if abruptly realizing something.

"Wait wait wait." Kyla turned towards me. "Ashley? As in Ashley Davies?"

I looked at her puzzled. "Yeah… why?"

"She actually talks to you?" she asked surprised. I gave her a sort of hurt expression. Am I really that much of a loser? "Wait that came out wrong. I'm just surprised because she's a bitch and thinks she's better than everyone else."

"Well she doesn't act like that towards me." At least she hasn't in a little while. "How would you know what she's like anyway?" Ok that came out a little more harsh than I intended. But I don't like when people say bad stuff about Ashley. Why is that?

"Because she's my sister." Kyla snapped. Whoa whoa whoa! Did I hear her correctly?

"Umm… what?" I asked astonished. Chelsea also looked at Kyla with surprise.

"She's my sister." she whispered, just realizing what she had said.

"Why haven't you said anything about her before?" Chelsea asked.

"Because things are complicated between us."

"Well…" I said silently asking Kyla to go on. She didn't even look up. Ok I guess I'll have to spell it out for her. "Are you going to tell us the details or what?"

"Why don't you ask Ashley about that one. She started the whole thing anyway." After that was said Kyla walked away and asked the teacher if she could use the bathroom.

I turned to Chelsea. "She never even told you about this before?"

"Definitely not. I would have remembered something like that."

"Now that I think about it… they do look alike."

"I can't believe she never told me that." Chelsea seemed a little upset. I guess she thought Kyla and her were closer than that. "That must be why she never invited me over her house."

"This is crazy." Chelsea agreed with a nod.

We went on with our lab alone because Kyla never came back to class.

--

Tap. Tap. Tap. The only sound in the tutoring center today was my foot hitting the floor. I was sitting at a table tapping away. It's an impatient habit. There was no one else occupying the room except for me. Not even a teacher. Ashley was late. I wonder where she is? She hasn't ever been late before. What if something bad happened to her? I immediately became worried. Not too worried, but worried enough to get up and try to find her. Besides, it's not like I have anything else to do right now.

I decided to look outside first to see if her car was still here. That way I wouldn't have to waste my time looking around the halls if her car was gone. You are just so smart Spencer!

When I got outside, near the parking lot, I noticed her BMW was still sitting where she had parked it this morning. I know where she parked because I saw her come into school in the morning, looking as beautiful as ever. She gave that stupid Aiden guy a ride though. I'm hoping only because his car broke down, he was left stranded, and she just happened to be the only nice one that would stop to pick him up. But I knew that was not the case when I heard him say to her, "Thanks for offering to pick me up this morning." And she replied, "Of course Aiden."

I need to get closer! I looked around and noticed a bush near them. I headed over to it and crouched down behind it, so I could hear them better.

"So I'll see you tomorrow morning then, beautiful?" he asked flirtatiously. I just want to sock him in the jaw!!

I saw her smile. But not that gorgeous, bright smile she usually has. This one seemed a bit fake. That made me feel a little bit better. "Yeah I'll pick you up. Same time ok?"

"Alright." he nodded.

She started walking away but Aiden reached for her arm and turned her back around. They stared into each other's eyes as Aiden began to make his move. Oh don't you dare to do what I think you're going to do jerk off! Just before he touched his lips to hers, she turned and his lips landed on her cheek. Oh thank god!

"Ok bye Aiden." Ashley said while walking away hurriedly. Aiden walked in the opposite direction, and hung his head in embarrassment. Haha sucka!

After a moment of cheering, quietly of course, I noticed Ashley turn in my direction. Ok I might have been a little loud with my celebration. Ashley started walking closer and closer to me. Shit I can't let her see me or she will know I was spying on her and Aiden! What should I do? I looked around for something, anything, to give me an idea of what to do.

"Spencer?" Ashley questioned. Too late.

Now what's a good excuse to use? I turned around to look at her. She had a puzzled look on her face. "Oh hey Ashley. What are you doing out here?" I said while standing up.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" she smirked.

Ok what can I come up with? "Umm… I… uh… I was just hanging out?" I said it like I was asking myself. Is that really the best you can come up with?

"Right." she nodded, but I knew she didn't believe me. "So should we get inside and start studying?" she asked me.

"Yeah let's go." I agreed.

Ashley started walking towards the entrance of the school, and I tried to follow. I failed, however, because my jean pants got caught on a sprinkler sticking out of the ground. I shook my leg to try and loosen the sprinkler's hold, but that didn't work.

A few moments later Ashley noticed I wasn't walking with her and turned around. "Are you coming?" she wondered.

"Umm… I'll be right there." I didn't want to tell Ashley I was stuck on the sprinkler because I was already embarrassed.

"What's up?" Ashley asked now standing in front of me.

"Well… I'm stuck." I pointed to the ground and lifted my foot up so she could see the problem.

When Ashley found out my leg was stuck to the sprinkler she immediately laughed. "Why didn't you just say so Spencer?" she giggled a little more.

"Because I knew you were going to laugh at me." I pouted.

"Oh I'm sorry. Let me help you out." Ashley leaned down and started fiddling with my pant leg. A second later I was unstuck. "Is your leg ok?" She gently rubbed my ankle a little and then stood up.

"Yeah it's great now." We smiled at each other. "Thank you."

"No problem. Now let's go." She wrapped her arm around mine and escorted me into school. Wow her skin is so soft and my arm feels all tingly. I like walking with her like this.

--

"Ugh I don't get this!" Ashley said frustrated. She leaned over on her elbow and rested her forehead in her hand.

"Ash you can't give up." I pulled her by the elbow to get her to sit up again. "You can do this I know you can." Ashley just rolled her eyes. Just then I got an idea. "Ok forget about the book right now." I pushed it to the side and started writing in Ashley's notebook. "Here. I wrote directions down, step by step, for you to do these kinds of problems. I know the book is kind of confusing, so I just simplified it for you."

"Ok." She started reading what I had written.

"Now see if you can do this problem." I pointed to one in the book and she started right away.

As Ashley was concentrating on the math problem, I couldn't help but stare at her gorgeousness. She showed off way too much skin for her own good. I almost couldn't resist touching her. I knew I had to though, so I opted for smelling her hair. I leaned in closer praying she wouldn't notice. Mmmm… her hair is like the best smelling hair I have ever smelt before. Not that I go around smelling people's hair all the time. It's really super great though!

As I was lost in my thoughts of Ashley's perfect smelling hair, I didn't realize she was trying to ask me a question. I also didn't realize Ashley's head was making its way up, and was inevitably going to hit me in the face.

"Ouch!" My hands flew up to my nose, trying to ease the pain. Ashley's hand was also clinging to the back of her head. Geez Spencer what the hell were you thinking?

"What were you doing Spencer?" Ashley asked confused. I was searching for an answer when I felt liquid dripping from my nose. "Oh shit you're bleeding." she said worried.

I touched my nose and saw the blood on my fingers. "Oh my god." I said nervously.

Not a moment later, Ashley was leading me into the bathroom and gathering paper towels for me to stick under my nose. I began to lean my head back so the blood would stop dripping down.

Ashley instantly grabbed my head and it tilted it back up. "No you can't tilt your head back. You could choke on the blood if you do that." Then she started ripping a couple pieces of paper towel up. "Here. Stick these inside your nose and just let them soak up the blood ok?"

"Alright."

After I inserted the pieces of paper, I looked in the mirror. Don't I just look extremely sexy right now? What a perfect way to impress the most popular girl in school. Then I noticed I had some dried up blood under my nose and on my chin. I was going to wash it off, but Ashley was already on it.

"Let me help you with this." she smiled. She put one hand under my chin and the other began gently, whipping away the blood with a paper towel.

The expression on her face was filled with care and concentration, making sure she got every spot and didn't hurt me in the process. She was so close my heart started thumping. I could practically feel her cool breath on my face. It was only cool to me because her being so close was making me flustered. A few times she looked right into my eyes and my stomach fluttered every time. It didn't matter if she only looked for a second or two.

"There." she said with satisfaction. "How's that?" she asked while throwing the dirty paper towel into the trash.

"Much better." I said after looking in the mirror.

"My head didn't break anything did it?" she joked.

"No I think it's good now that you helped me." I guess that's my lame attempt at flirting.

"Ok good… because I wouldn't want to ever hurt that pretty face of yours." she smirked and I smiled big. Did she really say I was pretty? Geez I'm gonna blush again!

"I don't mind getting hurt by your head." Wow Spencer did you really just say that? Maybe you shouldn't try to flirt anymore! It just makes you sound more retarded. She chuckled. "I mean… uh…" I scratched my head, trying to think of some clever recovery. No such luck.

Ashley giggled. Her laugh is so cute. "Well if you're good I'll do it again." she said in a sexy voice. Ok that definitely was flirting right there! Is it getting hot in here? I'm feeling pretty hot right now.

I didn't know what else to do but laugh nervously. "So should we get back to the tutoring center?" I asked while taking the bloody pieces of paper out of my nostrils and throwing them away.

"Yeah I suppose." she said not really wanting to. I began walking towards the exit when Ashley spoke up again. "Or… we could do something else." she said slyly.

"Like what?" I asked intrigued.

"Like… I could take you out for ice cream or something? Since I hurt your nose." she smiled hopefully.

"You always want to get out of studying Calculus don't you?" I asked playfully.

"What can I say? I'm determined." she smiled confidently.

She didn't wait for an answer from me. Instead she grabbed my hand, like usual, and dragged me out of the bathroom. One thing that was different about our hands is that, this time, she interlocked our fingers, which really surprised me. But I didn't for a second think about moving them. If that's what Ashley wanted to do then I was going to let her. Besides, our hands fit perfectly together.