Oh btw, we're pretending that Ashley never made that comment to Ellie in HF about her relationship with Ali being good, then bad, then over. It just doesn't work with what I'm trying to do 

Ashley got up early that morning. She knew Craig wouldn't be up at this hour, but she needed to go over what she wanted to say to him. She rehearsed it in her head, but it wasn't going as smoothly as she had hoped and didn't really know if she was even making any sense. She decided she needed input and called Ellie.

Ring, ring.

"Mom, the phone's ringing!"

Ring.

"Mom, it's still ringing!"

Ring.

"OK, I guess I'm getting it." Ellie forced herself out of bed and mumbled something that resembled the word 'hello.'

"Hey, Ellie. It's Ash!" she practically yelled into the phone.

"Holy crap, lower the volume please."

"Sorrryyy. Is it too early or can you talk?" Ashley asked.

"Well since you already got me…"

"OK, good 'cause I'm kinda freaking out here," Ashley interrupted.

"Wait…let me guess…it's about Craig," Ellie sarcastically replied.

"I'm glad that you find this amusing, but look, El." She paused to think about what to say next. "I know you try to play this whole thing off like Craig and I are a big joke and you act like it's no big deal talking about us, but I know you like him and if this is too difficult for you…"

"I never said I liked Craig."

"Ellie, you didn't have to."

"OK look, Craig knows how I feel and he doesn't feel the same way. He's made that very clear. And really, I'm OK with it. And since you're back, well, let's just say there's no competition when you're around."

"What does that even mean?" Ashley curiously asked back.

"It means that it doesn't matter who likes Craig when you're here, because you're the only one he sees; you're the only one he cares about. He tries to hide it, but everyone knows."

"Why does everyone else know these things, except Craig and I?"

"Because Ash, you're in denial or something."

"OK, whatever. It doesn't really matter anyway, because I'm not trying to get back together with him. I just want to explain everything to him," she said. "I want him to be able to forgive me someday, so I need to finally tell him the truth."

"About everything?" Ellie asked.

"Yes, about everything."

"Good. It's about dang time. Maybe if you would've told him earlier, he wouldn't be with Manny right now."

"OK, let's just not discuss her please."

"Fine by me," Ellie responded. "So are you gonna go talk to him now or what?"

"Ya, but I just don't know how to go about it."

"Just tell him the truth, Ash. And ya know what, don't call over there first. Just show up. Don't give him a chance to turn you down," Ellie advised.

"Good thinking," Ashley said. "Ellie, I appreciate this so much. I really don't know what I would do without you."

"I do. You'd probably go out to Vancouver, be living under a bridge somewhere in a cardboard box, while pining away for Craig and stalking him," Ellie laughed.

"Ya know, it's nice you can laugh at that. At least someone is." Ashley had to grin at that comeback.

"Ya, ya. Just go do your explaining already."

Ashley snickered. "OK, I'm going. But thank you, really Ellie."

"It's what I'm here for. Bye."

"Bye."

Ashley felt a lot better after her talk with Ellie. Jimmy was taken care of, things with Ellie were settled and now it was Craig's turn. She got ready in record time and made her way to Craig's.

She was about a block from his house when she saw a familiar face coming at her. It was Manny, who apparently was out for a morning jog. She was about to smile and say hi as they passed, but Manny turned to her and gave her the most evil looking facial expression she's ever seen. Ashley just stood there in a blank stare as Manny kept jogging right past her. What was that all about, she wondered?

She finally walked the last block and stopped. She really didn't want to have to face Joey after the way she left Craig, at least not yet, so she went to the garage first to see if Craig was in there. He was. It looked like a disaster in there, like a tornado just passed by. Papers were scattered all over the place. And Craig…

He was sitting on the couch, with his back to her. His hair was messier than usual and if she wasn't mistaken, he was wearing the same clothes that he had on the day before at The Dot. She didn't even want to think what that meant, especially since it seemed like Manny just left there. Eww. She opened the door and walked in.

"Manny?" he responded to the opening of the door.

"No Craig, I'm not Manny."

"Oh," he said and turned back around. "What are YOU doing here? You do know Jimmy doesn't live here right?"

"Huh?"

"Jimmy. Tall, good-looking, is in a wheelchair."

"Will you just stop?" she asked.

"I'm just sayin."

"Well, quit it and listen to me for once," she yelled. She was becoming very impatient.

"Oh this oughta be good," he said as he clasped his hands and put them behind his head.

She sat down next to him…but not too close. "OK well, I don't know why you keep bringing up Jimmy first of all."

"Probably because everywhere I go, I keep seeing the two of you making out. Don't you have a boyfriend? Or is this the new Ashley? You do two guys at once now or are there even more?"

Well, this is gonna be fun, she thought. "One: I'm not with Ali. Two: I'm not with Jimmy. Three: I'm not even with any guy. And four: What do you mean every time you see us?" she asked.

"First the school and then at The Dot," he said.

"The school?" she asked. "Are you on crack?"

"Oh will you just stop with the denial! I saw you kissing him at school in the hallway."

Ashley didn't know what to say. She thought he had arrived later, how did he see that? "I…uh…"

"Ya, that's what I thought."

"No, it's just that…I didn't know you were already here. That was not what that looked like. You didn't hear the whole conversation apparently."

"Oh I don't think I needed to. I pretty much got what was going on, no explanation necessary thank you."

"Craig, long story short: I thought Ellie liked Jimmy. I told him to go for it 'cause she liked him back, but she didn't and he thought no girl would ever like him because he's in a wheelchair. So I kissed him to show him that it wasn't true. And that is all that was. And that's what I told him yesterday at The Dot after you went storming out," she said all in one breath.

Craig took a second to gather all the information he was just given. "Oh." He felt a little embarrassed after jumping to conclusions. He should've known Ashley wouldn't cheat on her boyfriend, not after what he had done to her with Manny. But wait, hold up…did she just say she wasn't with anyone? Should he ask?