- Part One -

I press my forehead to the cool glass of the window as we speed by rolling green fields and tall, strong Cypress trees. I could hear the faint sound of the tracks below lulling me into a daze, while the even louder drone of the obnoxious girl behind me drags me right back out of it.

"All I'm saying is that she was wrong, the Sistine Chapel couldn't have been restored in 1477, I'm more than confident that when I was in school, they taught us…"

I could almost hear my eyes roll, as I turned my head as slowly as I could toward hers.

"Kyla, can you shut up, please? You dragged me to see the damn thing, I don't want to have to talk about it all the way back to the house."

She hung her mouth open a small bit before closing it again. She retrieved her snotty look before I turned my head around again to place my forehead back on the glass.

Three months. Three months I agreed to spend with Kyla in Europe while she drones on about tour guides being wrong. Why you ask? Why would I subject myself to this torture? Mommy dearest thought we needed to spend more time together. If only dad were here to see his two daughters getting along so "great."

I breathed out hard, making the window fog in front of my vision. Just as it cleared, the train station floor appeared in front of my eyes. We were finally back in Florence.

I stood up before Kyla could gather her things around her, grabbed my bag much quicker than she did, and sped out into the hallway that was just starting to show signs of life.

I tried to outrun most of the people just opening their doors, but unfortunately got stuck behind a particularly old man who was having a great deal of trouble getting his suitcase out of his doorway.

Part of me wanted to help him along quite forcefully, anything to get away from Kyla. But I'm not that mean…so I waited for the inevitable screech that would come from behind me any minute now.

"Ashley what the hell? Why didn't you wait for me?"

"Oh um…I have to pee." I tried on a small smile, but it faltered after about two seconds of trying.

"Look, I was trying to tell you something before you left, but now I guess we'll have to wait until we get out to the car."

"Oh, what a shame," I yell, not falling for her bait to interest me into talking to her. I start following the old man who finally got his suitcase unstuck, out the door, out onto the concrete train station floor.

I could feel Kyla hot on my heels as I walked as fast as I could toward the parking lot.

"Hey, I thought you had to pee!" She yelled at me as the crowd got heavier and louder around us, her keeping up all the while.

"Oh uh, I was gonna wait until we got to the house, you know, public bathrooms and all."

I heard a faint "mhmm" as I reach the parking lot, and our rented vintage Mini Cooper.

I opened the trunk, put my bags in, then left Kyla to put in hers as I slid myself into the driver's seat and started the ignition.

Kyla slid in after a few seconds of struggling with her three bags (she expertly decided to bring on a two-day trip).

"Okay, now we need to talk about our plans tonight," she says as she turns toward me and breathes out, trying to catch up with me was hard work for her I could see.

"Tonight?" I asked her as I pulled away from the station, "Kyla it's already 7 o' clock at night, what historical monument could you possibly want to see now?"

She rolled her eyes at me. Apparently, the irritation was mutually shared.

"It's not any historical monuments, idiot. Remember how I told you I ran into that guy the other day while we were in town? Remember, he went to King High with us, Aiden?"

"Kyla I already told you when you showed me his stupid I-still-think-I'm-cool-even-after-high-school Facebook that he didn't look familiar to me at all."

"Fine, whatever, the point is, he invited us to a club tonight with some of his other friends. Apparently, a lot of them went to King High and they all decided to take a trip here together! Isn't that cool?"

"Oh, super cool. Kyla how do you know these people even went to King High, and aren't just looking to kidnap you and sell you off?"

"Ashley for fuck's sake, I told you I used to hang out with Aiden."

"Kyla, I have no memory of this. And regardless, why would I want to hang out with you and your loser high school friends?"

"Because, if anyone does kidnap me and sell me off, it'll be your fault and you'll have to answer to Christine."

I sighed. I knew there really wasn't a way out of this, so I cut my losses early to avoid wasting more of my precious energy talking to my sister.

Although I did take a few extra seconds to reply, just to screw with her.

"Fine. I'll go. But we're coming home within an hour!"

"Four hours."

"Jesus, Kyla. One and a half."

"Two?"

I slowly let out my breath again.

"Fine. Two."

She squeals with excitement and turns straight in her seat.

About five minutes later, we pull up to our rental house out in the Italian countryside. I get out, not even bothering with my bags, and head straight to the door.

"Hey, get ready 'cause we leave in an hour!" She calls to me.

I shut the front door and walk into my room, making sure to shut and lock my door as I went. Kyla has a tendency to follow me everywhere I go.

I throw myself down face first into my pillow, and sigh.

Rolling over, I look at the ceiling and my mind starts to reel as it always did when I was alone. I let the silence of the room invade my ears when suddenly, I see flashes of light behind my eyes as my vision starts to blur. I hear a weird noise, then suddenly, a bang on my bedroom door.

"Ashley we're leaving in ten minutes, you'd better not be asleep!"

I roll over and wipe the sleep away from my eyes. I guess I was tired from the train ride, I don't even remember falling asleep.

Sliding off the bed, I head toward my closet to find something to wear. I pull it open and yawn, unexcitedly pulling out a short, long sleeved lace dress that I brought, you know, in case we ran into Giada de Laurentiis or something.

I lay it on the bed and start pulling off my travel clothes, not even bothering with a shower. I showered yesterday, what more could Kyla want from me?

I pull on my dress, and head to the mirror to Audrey Hepburn myself up. I knew if I walked out of this room without makeup on, Kyla would personally make me look like I fell into a Sephora face-first.

After pulling my eyelashes every which way with my mascara stick and probing my eye-shadowed eyelids with a liner pencil, I stand up and admire my handy work. What would take Kyla an hour to do, took me ten minutes. I pride myself on being better than Kyla on even the smallest of things.

I nod to myself and grab a pair of fancy flats that had been thrown to the side of my bed, assumably in a drunken attempt to get them off my feet the last time we went out. Drinking is a pretty good vice when I have to sit in a booth and watch Kyla gyrate herself onto equally drunk Italian guys. There's a lot of drinking involved. A lot.

I walk out of the door and see an irritated Kyla standing on the other side of the room, arms crossed, glaring at me.

"What?"

"I told you ten minutes, it's been at least fifteen."

"What are we late for Kyla, you're herpes appointment?"

She rolled her eyes and grabbed her purse off the stand next to the front door and stomped off to the car out front. I smirk a little, happy to get under her skin, and follow along.

The drive into the city was not the greatest time I've ever had. Kyla thought she needed to pump me up with her stupid music she thinks is "bomb," and all the while I'm trying not to swerve off the road every time she smacks my arm when I go to turn it off.

I don't need to listen to Miley Cyrus no matter what situation I'm going into.

We pull into the club parking lot, a little more aggressive than was needed. I hear house music thumping through our thin windows already, and colored lights streaming through the open door out front.

"Let's go!" Kyla squealed with excitement, and I grunted with disgust.

She runs up to the front and flashes her ID, and walks in, hurriedly.

As I follow moments after her, I round the corner to see an uncomfortable amount of sweaty 20-30 years old's drinking and grinding against each other. I can feel my feet already starting to turn me around to leave, when I hear my name being called shrilly over the music.

I turn my head to see my neurotic sister jumping up and down next to some dumb looking jock, waving his arm at me.

I sigh, prepare myself for the worst, and walk over to the table where she is still bobbing up and down, looking like a little girl at a Jonas Brothers concert.

And this girl has no drinks in her yet. Amazing.

"Ashley, this is Aiden, the guy I was telling you about!" She yells a little too close to my ear.

I look up at the towering dumb-jock-man.

"Hi- "

Before I can get my halfhearted greeting out, he picks me up in a giant bear hug and swings me from side to side.

When he finally puts me down, he smiles big and says, "wow, it's so great to see you!"

"Wish I could say the same," I say, as I nurse my now sore ribs.

"You don't remember me?" He asks, looking only slightly hurt.

"Um…" I look over at Kyla, who was giving me a, 'be nice or else' look. "Of course, I remember you, Aaron."

"Ashely, it's Aiden," Kyla hisses in my ear.

"Mhmm, I'm gonna go grab a drink, anyone want one?"

Suddenly, Aiden grabs my shoulders.

"No, no, I'll get it for you, it's my treat!" He shouts excitedly as he leads me to the booth that some other people are already occupying.

"You can get to know everyone else while I'm gone!"

I start to protest, but next thing I know, the boy is halfway across the god damn room, and I'm sitting down with complete strangers. Great.

I look around the table, awkwardly trying not to make eye contact.

Kyla sits down at my right side, forcefully sliding me further into the booth, and points to the girl immediately to my right, introducing her as "Madison."

Madison barely grunts in acknowledgement, not even looking up from the phone she was texting furiously away on.

Must be having a riveting conversation.

Then she motions to two boys, three empty pint glasses sitting in front of each one, both animatedly talking about some sports game.

Kyla tells me their names and I'm sure I heard them. But just as she started telling me who they were and some great story from their awesome high school days, my eyes caught motion of a girl sitting immediately to their right.

I hadn't noticed her until then, she seemed to sink into the seat around her. But now that I have noticed her…she stood out more than anyone else in the room.

Her blonde hair falling in front of her face, she tries to keep it up while she takes a big gulp of a dark amber liquid in the glass in front of her.

Her watery, piercing blue eyes were fixed down at the table. The expression on her face, the slight pout on her lips, make it seem like her thoughts are miles away. Maybe they were.

I see a few empty glasses in front of her as well, but unlike the boys, she didn't seem to get energy from her drunken stupor.

All she seemed to be able to do was attempt to manage her unmanageable hair, those locks still falling in front of those eyes.

Those eyes…why can't I breath all the sudden?

Just then, Aiden walks over and sets down a pint of a dark colored beer for me, sets a glass in front of Kyla and another in front of the blue eyed girl. I wonder what number refill this was for her.

"Kyla told me you like Guinness, so I got you one!" Aiden shouts, looking very pleased with himself. I nod at him, and take a small drink from the frothy top, and continue to stare at the girl over my pint.

I hear Kyla continue on in my ear, when I fling my elbow in the direction of her ribs.

"Ow! What the hell Ashley?"

"Kyla enough about the frat party," I flick my eyes back to the two boys that Kyla was still going on about, then back to the girl, who had already gotten halfway through her refreshed drink.

"Who is she," I demand more than I ask.

"Oh…that's uh, Spencer, I think. Aiden's friend."

I look over at Kyla, a weird tugging in my chest, but I can't put my finger on it.

"Did she go to King High too?"

She picked up her weird fruity looking drink and took a rather large gulp, and set it back down.

"I don't really know. Might have."

"What-"

"Ash come on, let's go dance!" Kyla starts tugging on my arm, but my eyes don't want to be taken off her…off Spencer.

Kyla pulls some more, finally I tear my eyes away to glare at my obnoxious sister.

"Kyla I never agreed to dancing," I try and yell to her over the music while she tugs me toward the dance floor.

"You agreed to come out which entails all things that you could do in a club, including dancing!"

I roll my eyes so hard it hurts, let her pull me along, all while my eyes wander back behind me, trying to get one last glance.

We fall in line in between all the people around us, flailing their arms around like idiots and pretending they're all having a good time.

I try and put some effort into dancing with Kyla, trying mostly to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of my mind, that was starting to move down to my chest again.

Every once in a while, I try to inconspicuously crane my neck and look back at the booth. Much to my dismay, at some point Kyla had moved us so far into the middle of the chaos that I wasn't even positive if I knew where the booth was. I didn't even know where I was.

So I try again to get back into it, focus on the beat of the song, and let the bass fill my chest instead. Trying to let it clear my mind was almost successful, the song was right, the mood was right, and Kyla had stopped talking and just let things be for a second.

I say almost successful, because ten minutes later, I feel a hand on my back, and turn around to see Aiden had somehow joined us.

Great.

I try and slip away from him and Kyla, not that they would even have noticed since they've now started grinding on each other.

I push my way through waves of people, and finally find a wall. I trace the wall until a bathroom appears in front of me. I squeeze myself through to get in the door, and shut the door hard behind me.

I find a stall to hide for a little while, to introvert in.

Time passes and I'm not sure how long I've stayed in here now, probably a good hour at least. Flappy Bird can really make the time go by fast. Stressfully fast.

Two girls had come in, one crying, the other trying to comfort her, for about 20 minutes. Another girl came in laughing drunk, and had (apparently) almost fallen into the toilet. I heard a big thud, and a, "whoa that was clooooooose," followed by lots of laughter.

I mentally prepare to leave the stall and to go back out and face the music, quite literally, when I hear the door fling open again suddenly.

Quick footsteps fly into the stall directly to my left, when I hear some poor girl start puking her guts out. Yeah, that's about right, crying, laughing, now puking. All from what I hope and assume are different girls.

I open up my stall, and see the stall to my left is open. I see a set of shoes, and decide maybe this girl needs help with her hair. What am I if not a good Samaritan?

I turn the corner to go into the stall, and my heart jumps a beat.

Spencer's sitting next to the toilet, her hair in her face, with her head laid back against the bathroom wall, and her eyes closed.

How can someone look so beautiful in such an unpleasant situation?

I try and catch my breath and walk in toward her, kneeling down as I go.

I guess the movement of me coming close startled her, and her eyes snapped open as quick as they currently could, her head flopping over in my direction.

At first she looks at my legs, then her eyes slowly move up to my face. I think it's the first time she's looked at me since I arrived.

I see her eyes fill up with tears, when she turns quickly back to the toilet and goes for another round.

I reach down and start pulling up as much of her blonde locks as I can, to try and keep them clean for her. So far she (and I by extension) had gotten lucky, as her hair is puke free.

I try and help her clean up after she sits back down, but she just keeps mumbling something unintelligible.

Then the tears start again. Her brow line scrunches up, as tears start to roll down her pink cheeks.

"Shhhh, it's okay, you'll feel better soon, okay? Your body just needed to get a lot of that out, it'll be okay soon. Want me to go get someone? One of your friends?" I ask.

"No, please no," she slurs at me while staring at my face. She hasn't looked away in a while, and I'm beginning to think I might have something in my teeth or on my face or something. At least I'm able to understand her words a little better now.

"I think maybe someone should know so they can take you back to the place you're staying so you can get some sleep, yeah?"

"No no nonono," she starts mumbling along with a string of other words I once again couldn't understand, and then grabs my arm firmly as if she thought I'd go away if she didn't.

"Okay, okay, I'm not leaving. Okay? Can I clean you up, at least?"

She stares for a second longer, her eyes filling up with tears again, as she gives me a small nod.

I get up and grab some paper towels and wet them, bringing them back and sitting on the floor with her again. Not really where I thought I'd end up tonight.

I wipe her face, and use another as a cool wet towel for her forehead. I've seen them do it in movies, so it must help, right?

When I'm done, she still hasn't stopped crying, so I put my hand up to her face, to catch one of the tears before it makes it down her cheek.

The back of my fingers graze her soft skin, and my chest tightens, catching my breath.

She looks at me, and her tears finally stop.

"I…imamsurrey," is what comes out of her mouth.

"Um…what was that?"

She closes her eyes for a second, before opening them again.

"I am surrey," she says a little slower, and a little more understandable.

"You're sorry?" She nods, and starts trying to cry again.

"No no, don't cry, it doesn't matter, okay? I'm happy to help you, I wish you'd let me get your friends to take you home though, you look...well, like you aren't doing so good." I tuck a bit of her hair behind her ear for her, watching it get dangerously close to her mouth and anticipating another round of yacking.

For a second she stops crying and looks like she's going to say something else, before the door to the bathroom flings open again.

"Ashley!" Kyla screeches as Spencer jumps about two feet into the air.

"Kyla, Jesus! What?"

"Why did you leave?" She demands, as she eyes the situation in the stall, both of us sitting on the ground opposite each other while I have my hand on Spencer's hand that I only noticed when Kyla's eyes did.

I pull my hand back and question how I don't remember grabbing Spencer's hand, and start to try and stand up.

"I wasn't gonna just stand there and watch you and Aiden's animal planet mating ritual, so I came in here."

"Oookay…so what's up with her?" She motions toward Spencer, who's eyes had turned back toward the ground, like they were when I first saw her.

"Drank too much. Go find one of her friends, they need to take her back to her hotel, she's not doing well."

"You're gonna help this girl you've never met before?" She has this judgmental look on her face that's honestly pissing me off.

"You're telling me you'd just leave her here? Good to know what type of person you are, Kyla."

Kyla looks frustrated, and hesitates a while before answering.

"Fine...I'll get Madison." She says putting her hands up, and leaves the bathroom as I bend down to help Spencer up off the floor.

"Hey…Spencer?" I try the word out for the first time, sounding out each syllable a little longer than was probably necessary. "Let's try to stand up, can you do that for me?"

Instead of answer, she grabs my outstretched hands, and starts to try and pull herself up with my help. Once she gets on her feet, she throws her arm around my neck to hold herself up, and I slide my arm around her middle, and hold her as best as I can.

All I smell off her is alcohol, but for a second, I get the faintest smell of a perfume… I could have sworn I've smelt it before. What is that? Does Kyla have that perfume…?

The door opens as me and Spencer are just about to get to it, and Kyla comes in with a piece of paper and a purse.

"This is her purse, and this is the address of the hotel she's staying at. Madison already left which apparently was her ride anyways, and she said she does this all the time and not to fuss too much over her."

"Okay Kyla, I'll just go leave her in a ditch somewhere, sound good?" I roll my eyes at, grab the paper and purse aggressively, and push past her to the door saying, "I swear to fucking god, you people are the absolute worst friends," while I adjust my grip on Spencer so I don't drop her in the crowd of people.

Kyla keeps up with us, and once we break out of the flock, tells me, "Aiden said he'd give me a ride in case I want to leave before you come back, so don't worry about picking me up on your way home, okay?"

"Oh Kyla, you're not gonna sleep with him are you?" I stop and give her a disgusted look.

"Well aren't we the judging type tonight?" She shoots me a look and walks back to the booth I can finally see again, where Aiden is waiting for her with a big gross smile on his face.

Apparently if you're a tool, you're Kyla's type.

I swear there's no way I'm really related to her.

Me and Spencer head toward the door to leave the club, and out into the brisk fresh cool Italian air. I stop and breathe in deep, letting Spencer feel the wind on her face a bit, before I move her again toward the car.

"Is it okay with you if I take you to your hotel?" I ask her when we get to my car.

"Yes, please," is all she can get out, before she stumbles a little on her own feet.

"Whoa, take it easy, I've got you." I almost didn't have her, to be honest. She's small, but my arm muscles are non-existent.

I help her slide in the passenger seat, and lean back her chair a little bit so she can relax some, and shut the door.

I walk over to the drivers side, and get in, trying my hardest not to slam any of the doors.

I pull the card with the address on it out of my back pocket, put it into my phone, and let the GPS bark directions at me toward the more metropolitan area of Florence.

We ride in silence for the most part, as I'm pretty sure Spencer passed out in the passenger seat. I take extra care to avoid bumps and potholes in the road so she doesn't get thrown around in her drunken state, which I would find quite irritating if I were in the same situation.

Finally after about 30 minutes, we pull into the parking lot of some fancy looking hotel that I wasn't even going to begin to try and pronounce. I get out of the car, walk over to her side, and pull the door open carefully. It was like when you go grocery shopping and your bags fell during the drive home and you have to open the door kinda slow because she was HUGGING that door.

The door finally opens enough for me to unbuckle her, and start to pull her up and out of her seat. I make sure to grab her purse so that disaster didn't have to happen. I am not walking this girl all the way back out here for a purse.

I walk her into the lobby and toward a couch so I can look for her room key in her purse. I search somewhat frantically after a while, realizing I'm not feeling a key or card at all in this bag. And I'm fairly confident her pockets in her pants are all fake, besides the fact that I'm not reaching in a drunk girl's pockets for anything. I pull out my phone, quite irritated at the lack of help from her friends and my airhead sister, and try to get Kyla on the phone.

Rings, rings, rings….nothing. I call about 12 more times before I finally put my phone in my pocket and sit next to Spencer, who's already passed right back out on the couch again. Actually…she may not have really woken up earlier…I think her feet were sleep-shuffling. Either way I was grateful for the help. I sat there for what seemed like ages before finally I get up and walk to the front desk to see if anyone could help me.

I try to dig up my best Italian to ask them if they remember this girl's room number. Halfway through my attempt at begging them to give me another key to the room, I hear laughter coming from the front door as Kyla and Aiden stumble through.

"Kyla where the HELL-"

"Ashley! What are you still doing here?"

"Well someone didn't get me a key or a room number so me and this poor girl have literally been sitting here this whole time because that same someone didn't answer their damn phone when I called."

Aiden reaches into the back pocket of his jeans and pulls out his wallet.

"Actually I have a copy of everyone's key…thought it'd be a safe idea for at least one of us to have access to everyone else if it was needed." He looked so damn proud of himself. What is that? Jock strap syndrome?

"Thanks. Hey while you're at it Hercules, help me carry her."

Me and Aiden try to wrangle Spencer, which was harder this time because she wasn't even sleep-shuffling anymore. Totally limp, like a wet noodle. A small, heavy, alcohol soaked noodle.

We get to her door, 107. It was literally right around the corner. Thanks front desk, super helpful.

I watch Aiden unlock the door while Kyla clings to his other arm like cling wrap.

"Okay," the door swings open, "you got it from here?"

"What? Allan, I don't even know this girl, why aren't you taking care of her?"

Of course, once he stopped looking at me and started looking at Kyla, they both stopped listening completely.

"Uh…yeah thanks," he laughs, as he pulls Kyla towards the other side of the hall where I assume his room is.

I really hate this guy.

I push the door open wider, and pull her in from under her arms. I swear it looks like I murdered this girl. Thanks, Aiden.

I get her to the side of the bed and kind of roll her on top of the blanket. I go to the closet to find some extra blankets to at least put on top of her, when I hear her start to stir.

"Ashley?"

I walk back over to her with a folded blanket under my arm.

"Hey…how are you feeling? I guess that's kind of a stupid question," I laugh softly, while I try and lay the blanket out on top of her.

"How'd we get to the hotel?" She slurs out, a bit more aware sounding than she has since I first heard her talk.

"Madison told me where you were staying so I took you…I hope that's still okay."

"More than…okay. Thank you." She lifts her head a bit to look at me, but I place my hand on her forehead lightly to stop her.

"You've had a pretty rough night…I'd just let your body rest."

She sighs and lets her eyes wander to my face.

"Will you stay?"

I'm instantly caught off guard by the question. Will I stay? She doesn't even know me.

Do I even want to stay? Well I guess I know the answer to that one. I guess I just need to use the same answer for both.

"Well…" I look past her to the door, as if staring at it would help me know what to do in this peculiar situation.

"Do you want me to?" I look hesitantly at the heavily inebriated girl in front of me, knowing full well that I may regret listening to her in the morning when she wakes up to find a stranger in her room.

"Yes. Please do." She tries to reach out for my arm but misses, and instead turns over and falls straight to sleep.

"Okay…I'll stay," I whisper.

I walk over to the light switch and flip it off, and move into the little living room set up area in the furthest corner of the hotel room. I grab another blanket on my way and throw myself onto the couch. This is REALLY not how I thought this night would go. I'm sleeping in the hotel room of a girl I just met while my sister has sex with some high school crush in the room across the hallway.

Yet instead of thinking about all of that…about this entire crazy night…my thoughts keep straying back to Spencer. And those ocean blue eyes.

And my chest starts to ache for the hundredth time that night.