I know... it's been too long since I've updated... eh, sue me.

Ashley collapsed on the bed with a sigh as she set down her last suitcase. When she felt someone sit down next to her, she slowly rolled over to see who it was.

"So, this is my new roommate, eh?" a short blonde mused.

"Yup," Ashley responded. "Straight outta high school…"

"Hey, not bad…" the blonde said. "I'm Molly… Molly Groves."

"Ashley D. Teslow," Ashley responded, rubbing her eyes a bit. "People call me Ashley for short."

Molly nodded. "Cooly. So…"

"I suppose you want to know a bit about me, then?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah…"

"Alright then… at age six, I was pushed out of a moving bus. I once broke three toes while in an epic battle with a brick wall, I'm nearsighted… what else… I have no reflex response in my right knee…"

"Uh… that's all very interesting, Ashley, but that's not quite what I meant…"

"Oh… well what the hell did you mean?"

"I dunno…" Molly admitted, after a pause.

Ashley stared at Molly, an eyebrow raised, then slowly said, "…Rrrrrrriiiiiiiggghhht…."

"Huh…"

"Well, tell me about yourself, then," Ashley said.

"Mm. Okay. Well… I'm 24... Aaaaand… I'm an only child… I have a daughter…"

"A… a daughter?"

"Yeah."

"Out of wedlock, I presume? I don't see a ring on your finger…"

"No, I was married."

"Oh, what happened?"

"Yeah… he died…"

"Oh…" Ashley said, letting out a chuckle. This prompted Molly to start laughing a bit, too.

"Wow…" Molly said. "But yeah, she's my little angel… I'm just so glad Mom offered to take care of her. She wasn't exactly supportive of my relationship with Brian, but… she's helping me out a lot now."

"Good to hear…"

"Anyway… what about yourself?"

"Eh, pretty normal life, really… well, the first… seventeen years or so. Past few months haven't been great…"

"Oh really? What happened?"

"Let's see… my sister committed suicide, I was institutionalized for severe clinical depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me, and the CD I was looking for at the mall before I flew here was out of stock." The two of them let out a small laugh again.

"Why are we laughing?" Molly asked.

"I don't know… it's the same thing with the 'your husband died' thing…"

"Yeah… sorry to hear that, anyway…"

"Yeh, well… we all go through some tough times… some handle it better than others…"

"And you're here now! Which is awesome."

"Yeah… and so are you…"

"Uh huh… I wouldn't have been here, but then I realized all the people at Pencey Prep are phonies."

"Huh?"

"I used to go to Pencey Prep before I went here. But everybody there was so goddam phony, I couldn't stand it… I just had to get out of there…"

"Interesting…"

"Yeah… you're really glad you didn't go there; trust me. Way too much phoniness."

"Well… I… have to be honest, I really don't care."

Molly laughed. "That's alright."

"Yeah…"

"So…" Molly said, acting as if she was trying to avoid speaking about something, "uh…"

"Yes?" Ashley asked, perfectly aware of what she was about to ask.

"About your, uh… sister…"

"The dead one, I presume?"

"…yeah…"

"What can I say? She made her choice…"

"Hm… wait, you mean you have another sister?"

"Yeah… Keely. She's 16."

"Keely?"

"Yeah… I know what you're thinking; what kind of name is Keely?"

"Right…"

"I should be talking…" Ashley said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway… Keely's… she's a bit of a social butterfly, really. She was more social before she met Phil… now she spends a lot of her time with him…"

"Ooh, Phil? Boyfriend?"

"Yep… he just kind of came out of nowhere, too. It's like he fell out of the sky…" Ashley frowned as she tried to remember where Phil had said he was from. "But that's not important right now," she said, mustering a smile. "I mean… a lot of her friends just seem to come up out of nowhere… like Via and Owen…"

"Who are they?"

"Via… I think her real name is Olivia… anyway, she's basically the only one in her little circle of friends that always thinks logically… as for Owen… he's just a rebel without a clue."

"Ah…"

"It's obvious that Owen really likes Via, but… he's really…" Ashley searched for the right word.

"Creepy?"

Ashley tilted her head to one side. "Eh, he's just a hooligan. Can't really describe it well…"

"Eh. I think we all know guys like Owen…"

"I think we do, too…"

"Anyway… what about you? What about your family?"

"It's basically my parents, my daughter… oh, and my brother and his wife and daughter…"

"Oh. Well that's… that's, uh…"

"Interesting?"

"No, not really," Ashley said.

"Didn't think so." Checking the clock, Molly added, "Eh, guess I'd better be going now… see you later, Ashley."

Molly headed to the door, when it opened in front of her, revealing a 5'10", brown-haired guy in his early 20's. "Oh, I'm sorry…" he said, while Molly walked around him, not bothering to close the door behind her, "I must have the wrong… room…"

"New here, huh?" Ashley asked, moving a desk away from the window.

"Yeah… do you know where room 217 is?"

"Um… no, sorry," Ashley said, looking up at him. "I'm new here, too, so… and Molly just left, so…"

"I'm sorry?" the man asked, looking up from the sheet of paper in his hand.

"Nothing," Ashley responded.

"Oh… anyway, sorry to bother you…" he said, heading to the door.

"No problem," she said. After he left, she walked over to her bed, collapsed on top of it, and slept for a few hours.

I really… rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreally don't like this chapter… it might seem a bit weird to you, but I'm high as a kite on medicine, trying to fight off this illness… The things I do for my readers… anyway, enough of my ramblings. Just review, okay?