Okay, I'm really not happy with this chapter, however I'm still posting it and remember - there are two sides to every story, and two ears on every head (random I know, sorry).
As always, thanks for the feedback, it's fab-a-roo!

Chapter 3 (Part A) "And the stomach acid finds a new way to make you get sick"

Two Months Prior

The brunette rubbed her eyes as she stared at the maths equation in front of her face, really who cared about quadratic equations? She leaned back, stretching out, satisfied when she heard her joints click and crunch. Yawning she let her mind wander, resting on her favourite subject; Spencer.

Things had been strange between them recently. They had gotten into another fight a couple of nights ago and it was killing them. Not the one fight though, it was one of many, and it was that, that was ripping them apart. The constant bickering. Neither girl needed it.

Spencer had come over the previous night and things seemed to be back on track. Although the blonde had seemed…"off", was the only way Ashley could put it. Her girlfriend was off. She wasn't her usual self; her mind seemed to be somewhere else. Ashley had made sure to ask Spencer if she was okay, the blonde girl would nod her head and mutter "fine", but Ashley knew she wasn't. But what could she do? Spencer wouldn't talk to her about it; all she seemed to be interested in was ripping Ashley's clothes off and throwing her onto the shorter girl's plush bed.

The sex had been incredible, it always was. But it was purely physical; there was no form of emotion attached to it – not from the blonde at least. Spencer had given her another great night, but the blonde didn't want her girlfriend touching her – not intimately, not like that. That was something else that seemed strange about Spencer that night – she never demanded sex from Ashley, but she was never as despondent as she had been the night before. Once she was sure she had gratified her lover and turned down her sexual advances, Spencer crawled into Ashley's arms and held onto her girlfriend all night long – almost afraid to let her go.

Ashley would have been willing to attribute Spencer's strange behaviour to her hormones or the order of the alignment of the planets or something, if, it weren't for the fact that Spencer couldn't meet her eyes. No matter how much she tried to hold her girlfriend's gaze, Ashley couldn't succeed; the blonde couldn't look at her.

Most people would have thought Ashley was a sleaze for sleeping with Spencer even though she knew something was amiss. But Ashley knew Spencer better than anyone else, and she knew that she wouldn't have managed to stop or question the taller girl, and she knew that Spencer wanted to be there with her – no matter how outlandish she was acting – and by forcing the blonde to stop and pay her the proper amount of attention, she would only start another fight. And neither of them needed that.

When Ashley had awoken the next morning (that morning), Spencer had been wrapped around her body, holding on for dear life, even in sleep her brow scrunched and knitted, her face an image of conflict and pain. It broke Ashley's heart to see the love of her life like that, but she knew that whatever the problem was, Spencer would confide in her, and she would in turn make everything alright again. Because that's what you do when you love someone.

Ashley blinked a couple of times, trying to focus her mind back onto mathematics, when her phone started to beep she grinned and threw her chewed pencil onto the open pages – happy for the distraction. She flipped the phone open, revealing her newest text message; "Need 2 c 2 u. Come 2 my place l8r, bout 9. Luv Spencer." Ashley frowned; her girlfriend usually threw in at least one "x" at the end of each message. She shrugged the uneasy feeling settling in her gut off, and smiled thinking of her beautiful girlfriend. Tossing her mobile phone back onto her bed, she decided she needed a shower.

At eight, fifty-seven Ashley pulled up outside of Spencer's modest house, sighing as she felt a wave of nausea sweep through her body – the uneasiness back. She shook her head from side to side, the motion making her chocolate brown hair free and tangle itself.

As she locked her car, her body went into autopilot, she had walked up to the same front door so many times before, she turned her very own key in the lock, pushing the heavy front door open. She started to ascend the same stairs she had walked up a hundred times before, once at the top she took the first turn on the left – just like she had done over and over again. Smiling she opened Spencer's cream coloured bedroom door, just like every other time.

Her watch double beeped signalling the turn of the hour, as the door swung open and the smile left her face. Her eyes glued to the bed, Spencer's bed. The bed Spencer was in. The bed she and Spencer had spent so many nights (and so many days) in. The bed that a nameless guy was in, with Spencer, his body moving in and out of hers – just like Ashley had done so many times. He was groaning and Spencer – her girlfriend – had her arms wrapped around his back, her chin resting on his shoulder.

Ashley felt like she was going to vomit, she could feel the bile rising in the back of her throat. The brunette turned and ran. Her feet hitting every other stair on the way down, her body throwing itself into her car and driving as far away as she could, the tears streaming down her face unnoticed.

At exactly nine pm Ashley felt her heart rip apart and shatter within her chest.