Last one for the night. Enjoy!


Chapter 23: That Son Of A Bitch

Ashley's POV

I know. I know. I 'm a horrible person. I still haven't told Spencer about how Kyla wants me to make her fall for me and then break her heart. But can you really blame me! I don't want to hurt her and I sure as hell don't want to lose her. I mean how can I break her heart without breaking mine? Or how can I do it and have them believe it, but still keep me and Spencer intact? Spencer is not going to like this at all and I know that. I also know that she knows that I wasn't saying something. But I couldn't say it right then. I couldn't find the right words to tell her and I still can't find those words.

When I was talking about what happened at Kyla's I was silently pleading with Taylor not to say anything. I knew that she knew the full story but I really didn't want to tell Spencer in front of Collin. That boy already causes enough problems and I'm not about to add fuel to the fire. He'd only try to get in the way like he always does, and I know he doesn't like me, so it would not have turned out good. In fact, it probably would have been worse. Lucky for me, Taylor got the hint and kept her mouth shut.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have every intention of telling Spencer. I would just prefer to do it when we are alone. That's why I came up here to look for her after I was finished with the maintenance guy and the air conditioning problem in one of the other apartments. But, when I got here she wasn't here. No one was here. And that struck me as kind of odd because someone is always here. This place is like a revolving door between the three of them, so you could imagine how shocked I was when I found that no one was around.

Of course, I started to worry about Spencer. Maybe she didn't trust me anymore. The feeling in the pit of my stomach kept growing and I had to go find her. The problem was that I had no idea where the hell I was supposed to start. So I just figured I would start in town and work my way out.

About ten minutes into my search for Spencer, I ran into Madison, Glen, Clay, Chelsea, and Paula. They were sitting in the park at a picnic table, looking like someone had just killed their cat. Madison waved me over and I reluctantly walked over there. At the time the only thing on my mind was Spencer and whether or not she was ok.

I walk over to the table slowly, trying to buy some time. These people are the last people I want to see right now. But I can't exactly ignore them either. When I get up to the table, they all turn to look at me. It looks like they've been crying. Their eyes are all red and puffy and I can see the mascara marks running down Paula's face. What the hell?

"How long, Ashley?" Glen asks and I'm a little confused.

"Uhh…how long what?"

Madison reaches over and puts her hand over my own.

"How long have you had feelings for Spencer?" She asks softly.

My eyes widen as I look around at everyone. How the hell could they possibly know? My mind is reeling and I'm not so sure that I know how to answer. As if he was reading my mind, Clay speaks up.

"We can tell by the look in your eyes every time she's brought up." He says quietly.

Am I that obvious? If Kyla finds out then I am going to be so screwed. But it's not as if I can lie now. I take a deep breath and tell them the truth.

"Since the first day I met her." I say softly.

After a few minutes of silence. Chelsea looks over to me and smiles.

"Well, then. We need to come up with a new plan." Chelsea says and we all snap our heads in her direction. "Spencer's been through enough, and I'm sorry Mrs. Carlin, but we can't do this to her. It'll kill her."

"I just want my little girl, back." Paula says quietly. "I just want her back." She says I think she's in a trance or something.

After we sat and talked for about a half hour more, I noticed Sheriff Whitely's cruiser drive past us. I looked over and noticed that he was looking directly at us as he continued to drive by. I thought that was a little weird at first and then a light bulb went off in my head. Maybe he just talked to Spencer. I convinced everyone to come with me because I thought that Spencer needed to hear what they had to say. And that's how I ended up back at her place with everyone in tow.

Honestly I never knew that they felt the way that they did. No one would ever know unless you pried it out of them. But they were defeated in their tones and broken on the inside and I knew that they were in pain. I knew that something wasn't right and I knew that I needed to get Spencer to talk to them. Whether she wanted to listen to it or not, she needed to hear their side of things because it really blew me away. I swear small town secrets could kill a person if you let them. No pun intended of course.

Anyway, now we are stood here while Spencer sits in the chair just staring at us. Her gaze goes from me to them and I think she is finding this a little amusing. I can tell that she's trying to keep a smirk down. The light is coming in through the window and outlining her beautiful features. God, that girl is amazing. She's so beautiful. And her lips are so soft. I miss those lips on mine already. I miss her hands roaming my body in the heat of the moment. I just wanna….GAH! Focus, Ashley! FOCUS! Keep your hormones in check.

I turn around to look at the five of them behind me and motion for them to sit. I can tell that Spencer is extremely irritated. Her blue eyes are slowly turning black with anger and I can't figure out if it is because of me bringing them here or if she's mad at me about earlier, or if it's something else. Either way I know that even though she may look slightly amused, she's really more angry than anything else. She shifts her position and locks her gaze with mine.

"So, is anyone going to say anything." She says gesturing to all of us with her hands. "Or am I just sitting here for my health?"

I look around at everyone and I know that they aren't going to be the first to talk, so I decide to get things started and hopefully they will follow.

"I ran into them in the park a little bit ago and they were talking about you." Ok…so even I know that was lame.

"And I care why?" Spencer asks trying to contain her anger. Something else is definitely going on.

"Look Spencer." Glen starts. "We just want to talk to you about…about"

"About what, Glen?"

He takes a deep breath and looks up to her. "About that night. About why we did what we did."

Spencer stares into Glen's eyes before shifting her gaze over each and every one of them. Hell, I would even be intimidated by it.

"I see." She says standing up. "And what makes you think that I want to hear your excuses." Her voice is getting higher as she places her hands on the back of the chair and looks directly at them. "What makes you think that I give a rat's ass about any of you anymore, let alone the reasons why."

"They don't." Paula says softly before looking up at Spencer. "We don't." She pauses. "It's just that…We miss you…I miss you Spencer. I miss my daughter."

Spencer chuckles and shakes her head.

"You have got to be kidding me?" Spencer says exasperated.

"SPENCER?" What the hell?

The front door slams open and everyone whips their heads around to see who is causing the intrusion. I see Taylor running into the living room and when she sees everyone she stops dead in her tracks. She's fucking pissed. That much I know. I just don't know why she's pissed.

She locks eyes with Spencer and then looks at me. She never once glances over to the rest of them. She just keeps going between me and Spencer, who has her brow furrowed and is trying to figure out what is going on. I see Taylor's hands curl up into fists and I know that she just wants to hit something. What the hell did I miss? And please don't let her tell Spencer everything before I get a chance too.

After what seems like an eternity of silence, I decide to speak.

"Uhh…Taylor. This is…" I start but she cuts me off.

"I know who they are, Ashley." She says with anger lacing her voice as she finally looks over in their direction before bringing her attention back to Spencer. "And right now they are the least of my problems." Now, I am thoroughly confused. Did Spencer do something to piss Taylor off?

"Spencer, we need to talk. Alone. Now." She says.

"But Taylor, we were just getting to the good part." She says through a smirk.

"Now, Spencer!" Ok…now I know something is going on.

"Ok…let's talk." She says as she leads Taylor upstairs to the bedroom. "And you all can stay because our little talk was just getting good." She says walking the rest of the way up the stairs.


Taylor's POV

What the fuck are they all doing here? Did Ashley talk to Spencer about everything and now they were putting things into motion or what? They are the last people that I expected to see when I came through that door. And I am already beyond angry. That sight just heightened my anger to a whole new level. But, I have a more serious problem right now. We have a more serious problem right now.

We get to the room and I close the door behind me after we enter. Spencer goes and sits on the bed, and I pull up a chair. Things just got a whole lot more complicated. I know that she knows that I am mad and I can tell that she's angry about something that doesn't involve the six people currently sitting in her living room. But, I'm dying of curiosity.

"So, what's that about?" I say pointing over my shoulder.

She just shrugs. "Don't really know. I guess they want to tell me how sorry they are or some shit."

"I see."

"So, what's the big emergency. Because if nothing else I could at least get a laugh…"

"It's Collin." I say cutting her off.

I watch as her eyes meet mine and the anger takes over.

"What did the moron do now?" She asked agitated. "You know other than getting suspended from work for his little national display." She knew about that.

"You knew about that? When did you find out?" I ask.

"About the suspension?" She asks and I nod. "About an hour ago. When did you find out?"

"About thirty minutes ago. And while that is a big problem for us, I think we have something worse to worry about."

"What's that?" She asks

I lean forward a little in my chair and clasp my hands together. Spencer is looking at me expectantly. Waiting for me to continue.

"Well, I was going to get some coffee from that little shop in the square when I overheard some arguing in the alleyway on the side the building…"

I left not to long after Spencer went for her walk. I'm strolling through the town square trying to familiarize myself with this place a little better when I see the small little coffee shop on the corner. I decide that I could use a nice hot cup of Java and make my way over.

As I get to the front door, I place my hand on the door handle to open it but stop when I hear quietly heated voices coming from around the corner. Curious as to what is going on, I let go of the handle and quietly make my way over to the little alley. Being careful not to be seen by whoever is over there. When I peered around the corner into the alleyway I could feel the anger swelling up inside of me. Consuming every fiber of my being. Standing there arguing animatedly was Collin and Aiden.

"Well, what the fuck do want me to do, Aiden? Huh? I just got suspended because of you!"

"Keep your voice down. You wanna draw a crowd? And you didn't get suspended because of me. You got suspended because you were stupid enough to do it at work!" Aiden says stepping into his personal space.

"Well, that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't insisted that the story go national!"

"Oh shut up! This is perfect. Everyone thinks it's her and that's all that matters."

As I continue to listen to them, it is becoming harder and harder for me not to round that corner and give them both a piece of my mind. That fucker has been playing me and Spencer for years and I will not let him get away with this.

"And now we have a major setback." Collin says.

"It's not a major setback, Collin. It's just a roadblock. Besides, if you were doing your job then none of this would have ever needed to happen."

"Fuck you, man! I tried but Spencer is fucking stubborn."

"I know that. But you had one job, Collin. One Fucking Job! And that was to keep Spencer and Ashley apart."

And now I'm really going to hurt him. I'm going to fucking kill him because now I know that this is not going to be good. That piece of shit turned on his own crew and that is completely unacceptable. Not to mention the fact that if Aiden knows about Spencer and Ashley then….

"It's not that simple, Aiden!" Collin yells

"Yes it is!"

"You know what? I can't deal with this right now." Collin says as he tries to walk away but Aiden grabs his arm.

"Unfortunately you don't really have a choice, Collin." He says angrily. "I have a contingency plan that has already been set in motion. All you have to do is play along and let me know how it's going."

"What kind of plan?" Collin asks and an evil smirk plays across Aiden's lips.

"We're going to kill two birds with one stone."

At that point the only thing crossing my mind was Spencer. I needed to beat Collin back to the apartment, if that's even where he was going to go afterwards, and I needed to tell Spencer. This was not good and I knew it. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what that contingency plan is and I have to find a way to stop it before anything bad happens.

After I finished telling her what I had seen, I could see the pure anger taking over her again. She was so mad that she was literally shaking. Her hands turned into fists. She was clenching them so hard that her knuckles were white and she was breathing heavily.

"So he's helping Aiden." She says through gritted teeth. It was a statement, not a question and I knew better than to answer. "How could he do this to me? To us?" She says angrily.

"I don't know Spencer. And I promise you he will pay for this. Big time! But there's a bigger problem in all of this."

Spencer looks at me quizzically for a minute before slight realization dawns on her and her eyes widen.

"Ashley." She breathes out quietly before making her ways towards the door.

Before she leaves the room I stop her and she turns to me.

"Spence, if Aiden knows about you and Ashley, then it's safe to assume that Kyla knows too." I pause and she nods as she goes to open the door. "If that's the case, Spencer. Then they're just setting Ashley up to see where her loyalties lie. And if it's not with them…"

"I know Taylor. I know." She says as she leaves the room and heads back downstairs.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes before I walk out of the room. This just turned into one big fucking mess and all because of someone who I trusted. Someone we trusted and he betrayed it. He betrayed the crew and because of that, only one thought crosses my mind.

I hope Collin can run because I'm going to gut him like a fish for this!