Sorry about the small delay today; I had to work. sigh, moan But I promised that I would update in two days, and I believe that is today. Besides, I have to do something to waste a few hours until Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods comes on MTV tonight. haha And I have been dying to write this conversation between Bradin and Ashley!

JmacKarla: Thank you for the kind words! And I think you are the only person I know who likes Michelle. haha Thanks for standing out!

acciodanrad9: Don't worry – he will find out this chapter! I couldn't stand to have him not know for much longer!! haha

Ash Riley: Oh yes! haha When you mentioned that, I had to go back and check my review number (135). I'll be sure to make another "double chapter" when I hit 150! And you never know, maybe Michelle will get offed and not just sent to jail. haha

Thank you to 6Ellie6 and Bittersweetgurlismylife77 (wow, talk about long name!) for your reviews also!

Now, the moment you have all been waiting for: Ashley reveals her secret!

Chapter 25: Sounds of Silence

Ashley and Bradin made it back to his house for dinner with the family at exactly 5:15, so they had a little time before Ava announced dinner to be ready. In the Gregory-Durant-Robertson-Rexford family, breakfast and dinner were always held on time. Ava made that executive decision the very first day the kids were there, deciding that they needed something stable in their lives. And, although it was only supposed to last until the kids got settled the first month or so, everyone got so used to it that it had become a tradition.

"That's so cute," Ashley smiled when Bradin finished explaining the meal arrangements.

"You're so cute," Bradin said with a laugh as he took her hand and brought her closer to him on the couch.

"No, I really think that's very sweet," Ashley insisted. "Your aunt and Johnny and everybody have sacrificed so much for you guys without any hesitation. I only wish that my family could be half as … Sorry, I didn't mean to bring the mood down, yet again. I guess I have a habit of doing that?"

Bradin didn't want to say she did in fact tend to bring down the happy atmosphere in his house when they talked about such things, so instead he just smiled and said, "You're a part of this family now, too, remember?"

Ashley smiled and snuggled closer to Bradin, resting her head on his shoulder, "I know. And that means the world to me."

Bradin and Ashley just sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. It was so nice to Bradin to finally be able to just do the most mundane things with a girlfriend, like sit together in the quiet or go to baseball games without any drama getting in and disrupting the moment. As if on cue, Ashley's cell phone rang with the dial of a text message arrival.

"Sorry," she mumbled as she reached into her mini jean skirt pocket to retrieve the phone. She opened the phone, but before she pressed anything to read the message she turned down the volume to vibrate so as to not interrupt the dinner. Then, she went back to her new text message and slightly stiffened when she recognized Michelle's caller ID. Without saying a word to Bradin, she opened the message and read: lunch was SO fun, A! i'm SO glad u agreed 2 the plan 2! tht way, it'll b easier 2 hit on ur hot bf 2morrow, w/ u not being able 2 say a word! xoxo, M

Ashley glared at the message on her phone, before angrily shutting it and throwing it back on the couch.

Bradin noticed her reaction to whatever the message said and asked, "Is everything okay, Ash?"

Ashley thought a moment before responding, but ultimately decided that it would be much easier to lie to him than tell the truth, so she said, "Yeah. I just got a head's up on a surprise test tomorrow from a friend."

"Well, at least you know about it before hand," Bradin offered, trying to calm her obvious pissed off mood. "Do you need to go back to study?"

"No!" "Calm down, Ash," she told herself at her sudden outburst. "I'll be fine," she reassured him, looking into his eyes. "I just need to study when I get back. But I'll have to eat anyway, right? Might as well do it with the people I love than myself."

Bradin smiled and kissed her softly on her forehead just as Ava announced that dinner was ready.

Bradin knew that Ashley was stressed out from school and the new pressure of having an agent and having to call him the next day to set up a meeting, but he didn't think that just that caused Ashley's sadness. "There has to be something she's not telling me," he thought as he yet again watched Ashley stealthily reach into her pocket under the table and pull out her cell phone, to read a text message and clench her jaw as she angrily wrote back. No one else seemed to notice, all caught up on their own issues this week. For the most part though, Ashley was a great liar. For, if Johnny or Jay asked her a question about school or the nerve-wracking experience of signing in front of a music producer for the first time, she would look up and answer their question with the normalcy as if she wasn't obviously upset inside. That, though, made Bradin question if she was lying to him as expertly.

After dinner and the congratulatory dessert for Ashley, Bradin asked if he could talk to her alone in his room. Ashley smiled and accepted, obviously thinking that he wanted to get in some action before she had to go back. So it was a surprise to her, when Bradin closed the door behind them and did not lock it like he would usually have. She sat on his bed and watched as he paced back and forth in the room.

A few minutes later of him doing this, and Ashley just had to ask what was wrong. "Do you mind not doing that? You're kind of making me nervous over here."

Finally, Bradin couldn't take it any longer. He just had to know. "Is there something going on, Ash? Something that I should know about?"

Her smile faltered for a second, until it came back with a hint of confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw you all during dinner, sending text messages back and forth. And you didn't seem all that happy."

"I'm sorry, but I-"

"Ashley, please don't deny it. I just wanna know if you're in trouble, okay, and if I can help in any way." Bradin stopped walking and was sitting on the opposite bed.

Ashley seemed to end her pretend 'everything-is-okay' stick and looked down at her hands in her lap. "You can't help me," she mumbled.

"Maybe I can," Bradin leaned forward and put a hand on her knee. "Can you at least tell me what's going on? I promise that we can solve the problem together."

"God, Bradin, sound like an after-school special, much?" she said sarcastically.

"Excuse me for trying to help my girlfriend," he pulled back. But then, he stopped himself from becoming mad and tried again. "I love you, Ash, I want you to open up to me. That's what we do."

"I can't," Ashley said, looking him in the eye. "You can't know this. I don't want to bring you into this."

"I'm already in it, babe, because I'm already on your side," Bradin looked deep into her eyes. "You can tell me anything and I promise that I will be 100 percent on your side."

Ashley took a deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing for the stall to think, really think. She knew that Bradin would always be there for her, and that he would accept this and understand, but there was still that little voice inside her head telling her that he would hate her forever if she told and not be able to look her in the eye again.

"Can you lock the door?" she asked meekly.

"Yes," Bradin half smiled as he locked both doors leading into his room.

When he sat back down next to her, he held her hand as she began. "Trey was a sophomore at USC when he met Michelle, at that time a freshman. They started dating – this was before he started using – and I guess became close enough that he brought her back home for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. I met her then and she seemed nice, although I didn't know a lot about her then. After New Year's Trey was having a hard time learning this one trick on the water, and that's when he broke his ankle and became addicted to the pain killers. Michelle didn't know much about this, though. It wasn't until he was sent to rehab that she started coming around less and less, maybe once a week if anything. She told me that it was hard seeing him in a place like that, and I could sympathize so I didn't think much about it, since she obviously still cared for him deeply, maybe even loved him, I'm not sure.

"Anyway, one day I was having lunch with a friend and I saw something I wanted in a store so I walked into the store and looked at it on the mannequin. Well, I saw who I thought was Michelle sitting with another guy across the way so I decided to walk out and say 'hi'. Turned out that 'the guy' was something more, because when I got a closer look she was making out with him, and he obviously wasn't Trey. I knew they hadn't broken up, so it was obvious she was cheating on him. With more than one guy I learned after, but that's beside the point. I confronted her about it the next day when she came to visit Trey in rehab and she started apologizing, crying, you know all that crap. She said she was just confused and didn't know what was going on with her and Trey and it had been a while, but it was an accident and she swore she would change. I didn't believe her that much, but didn't want us fighting to get away from Trey so I just accepted it and moved on.

"So, time went on and Trey was released because everyone thought he had learned his lesson and changed. But, that wasn't the case …" she trailed off and her eyes took on a glassy tone as she couldn't help but think back to that time. "I have something to confess to you, Bradin. Something that I have never told anyone else. I knew that Trey was using again, after he came back and everyone thought he was fine. He wasn't – he had just become a really great liar. I know this, because I saw him one night. It was at a party on the beach during a weekend of his junior year. I saw him just take all these pills and wash them down with water, but I didn't say anything. At the time I guess I just thought that he would stop, without anyone's help. I just couldn't believe it; whenever I saw him after that and he looked a little weird, he would just say that he was sick and I would believe him. I guess I didn't want to think such a thing about my older brother. So, after he passed, I just broke down. I was in shock, but more so than the family because I could see it coming for months and I just didn't say anything."

She stopped for a second to catch her breath and wipe the tears that had formed in her eyes away before they could make their way down her cheeks. Bradin didn't say anything, for he could tell there was more. He just stroked her back as she caught her breath and continued.

"Michelle didn't take his passing that well. She was severely depressed and acting out all the time. Her parents had to send her away for a while for her to recoup, some treatment place in Utah. But before she left, she told me that she knew – that she knew everything. My parents thought that she was just crazy and didn't pay any attention to her, but I knew what she meant. For some reason, and I still don't know how she knows today, she found out that I knew about Trey using again before he died. She told me that she would never be able to forgive me and that she hated me for killing her boyfriend, the love of her life. She never loved him, and he never loved her; he would've told me and she was just a psycho.

"But anyway, a few days ago she got in contact with me. I guess they released her from her treatment, claiming that she is all better now. She lives in Playa Linda, so she came back home and started sending me these threatening text messages. That's who I was texting during dinner and all this time. I met her today for lunch, before the audition – I wasn't stuck in traffic on the highway. I hoped to finally tell her to back off and leave me the hell alone once and for all, but she had other plans. She told me that unless I do whatever she says, that she'll tell you all about my knowing about Trey, my 'secret' for lack of a better word."

"But you told me about it," Bradin interrupted. "What can she do now?"

"I'm hoping nothing. It's not like she can tell anyone else and they'll care. That's why I had to tell you. I just couldn't stand lying to you anymore."

"Well, I hate too say this, but you were very good at it," he said.

"I probably got it from Trey," Ashley said with a shrug. "Figures I'd get the messed up trait and not the surf queen one. But, you have to know something else."

"Oh, God," Bradin groaned. "What more?"

"It's nothing else about me. It's just that … when Michelle talked about you, she seemed to know a lot. Like, you're whole background actually. And I have no idea how, because like I said she's been packed away for the past three years. She said she had 'sources', whatever that means."

"Yeah, I'm not sure," Bradin said as he put an arm around her shoulders. "I'm glad you told me all that, Ashley. And like I said before, I'm completely on your side."

"For some reason I knew that you would always be," she said, putting her head on his arm. "I just wasn't sure … And I didn't want to jeopardize our relationship over something that happened so long ago."

"I'm still here, aren't I?" Bradin smiled and kissed her softly on her forehead. "Next time Michelle shows up, tell her that your loving and understanding boyfriend understands everything and loves you even more now that you let me in."

Ashley smiled and took her head off his arm, looking into his eyes. "I'll be sure to do that."

Satisfied? You know the secret. But, fear not, for that is not the last of the drama. It's just heating up in Playa Linda for Bradin and Ashley!

Song of the chapter: "Sounds of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel