Ashley awoke to voices in the hallway. She felt something, or someone, next to her and took a second to fully process what had happened the night before. As she heard the voices growing nearer, she began to panic. She started hitting at the person next to her in her bed.

"Craig, wake up!" She now starts shaking him, as the yelling is not working. "OK, I know you said this was my mom's idea but somehow I don't think staying over all night…in MY BED is what she had in mind."

"What, huh?" Craig replies barely awake.

"Ohmigosh, get out of the bed!" She now pushes him with all her might and he goes flying off the bed and onto the floor. In mid-flight, she realizes he has no clothes on and throws a pillow at him to cover himself and his…uh…parts up, though she slips in a quick peek before pretending to be asleep.

Craig still doesn't realize what is going on and falls back asleep on the floor.

Ashley pulls the blankets back over herself, all the way up to her nose, as she hears knocking on the door. Her mom walks in, not waiting for a response.

"Ashley, are you awake?" she asks.

At the sound of Kate Kerwin's voice Craig's eyes immediately open wide as he tries not to move a muscle or make a sound.

"Hmm? What time is it?" Ashley responds.

"Honey, it's early. I was just wondering how your night went."

"Can't I tell you when I'm fully awake and might be able to make sense?" Ashley asks.

Kate laughs. "Sure." She starts to walk out the door, but Ashley's voice stops her.

"Mom?"

Kate turns to face her daughter.

"It went perfect."

And with that, Kate walks out and closes the door behind her.

Craig peeks his smiling face over the bed after the sound of the door closing. "Perfect, huh? I guess I'm gonna have a lot to live up to."

"I guess so. Now get over here," she says pulling him back onto the bed.

He cuddles up next to her and places his hand over hers before speaking. "Hey, Ash?" he asks.

"Ya?"

"Come with me," he says.

"OK. Where're we going?"

"Vancouver."

"What do you mean exactly?" she asks.

"I mean, I'm leaving in less than a week and I don't want to be without you for any period of time…so come with me."

Ashley is in shock. "What…Craig?"

"Come on, don't think about it. Let's just do it!"

"I can't just go with you to Vancouver."

"Well, why not?" he asks.

"Which reason do you want me to start with?"

"How about the one that makes any sense," he responds.

"Uh, how about my mom…do you really think she would let me go AND stay with you? Are you nuts?"

"She let me do all this," he says pointing to her room.

"But Craig, that was one night. You're talking months!"

"Ashley, if that's your only reason…then I don't think it's good enough. But if there's something else, then tell me right now before I waste my time."

"I just…I just can't."

Ashley can see the hurt in his eyes. He stands up and puts his boxers on and walks to the lamp to retrieve his pants. He starts to say something but stops, and instead grabs his shirt and car keys and walks out her door. He walks right past Ashley's mom, without even trying to be sneaky about it, and proceeds out the front door. Kate Kerwin is left agape.

Ashley didn't know why she couldn't answer Craig and why she didn't stop him from leaving either. Besides her mom, she couldn't come up with one good reason why she shouldn't go with Craig to Vancouver. So why did she tell him that she couldn't go? And what does this mean for them? At the end of her thought, she heard footsteps approaching her door. Don't tell me Craig didn't sneak out, she thought. Oh, this was going to be fun.

Kate walked, or rather stomped, into Ashley's room without so much as a knock. She tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come out.

"I'm sorry," Ashley spoke.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry? That's all you're going to say?"

"Maybe?" Ashley closes her eyes in anticipation. She hears nothing, so she opens one eye and scans the room to see if her mom is still there. She is.

"Do you even have any clothes on under there?" her mom asks rather loudly.

Ashley again pulls the blankets up over her as high as possible, while allowing herself to peek out. This is her way of answering the question. Though she's sure it's not the response her mother had wanted.

"OK, I can deal with this. I can deal with this." She seems to be mumbling to herself and not really talking to Ashley. "She's an adult. This is what adults do."

Ashley presses her lips together as not to laugh at the last comment.

Kate turns her head. "Oh, this is not funny young lady! I do that boy…CRAIG, a favor and this is what happens!"

Ashley winces at the mere mention of his name and feels the tears begin to flow.

"Ash…Ashley what's wrong?" she asks.

"I think…I think I ruined everything…again," Ashley sobs.

"Why would you say that? Sweetheart, what happened?"

"It's just…everything was so perfect…and…"

"And what?"

"And Craig asked me to go to Vancouver with him," Ashley says.

"And that's a bad thing?"

"No, that's not a bad thing but I told him I couldn't."

"But, I thought you love him and you want to be with him. Why'd you say no?"

"OK, what? How are you not freaking out about all of this right now and telling me there's not a chance in hell that you'll let me go?"

"First off, I would not say hell and neither should you. And second…I don't know, Ashley. Everything's just changed lately I've seen how depressed you are without Craig and how happy you are when you're with him. So, if you have to go to Vancouver for a few months to be happy, then that's what I want you to do. As long as you're back before school starts, then I'm actually OK with it."

Ashley didn't know what to say. She couldn't believe these words were actually coming out of Kate Kerwin's mouth. Not only did she do a complete 180 regarding Craig, but now she was willing to let her only daughter leave with her boyfriend to another city? And not to mention the fact that she hadn't even brought up the whole him sleeping over that night. Well, at least not entirely.

"I think I'm just scared."

"Scared of what?" she asks.

"Scared that I'll get hurt again…no, that's not true because I've already been down this road. I guess I'm scared of the possibilities. I know in my heart how perfect Craig and I could be and I'm just afraid something will happen to screw it up…like it always does. I don't want to get hurt and I don't want to hurt him either."

"Well then don't hurt him."

"It's not that easy, mom."

"Sure it is. If you really want to be with him, you can make it work."

"I don't even know if he'll talk to me. I saw the sadness in his eyes when he walked out of my room today."

"Ashley…if you really want this, then MAKE him listen." She kissed her daughter on the forehead and walked back out of the room.

Make him listen, she thought. A smile appears across her face as she thinks of the irony of the whole situation…her mother giving her advice on how to get Craig back? Now that she knew what needed to be done, the only question left was…what was she going to say?