FIC The days after their first kiss …part 3 (Spencer/Ashley) PG
Title: The days after their first kiss …part 3
Author: astabasta
Rating: PG
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Spencer/Ashley
Summary: Ashley surprises Spencer…in more ways than one. Feedback and comments are welcome.
Spoilers/Warnings: None

Chapter III

"Sooo…where are we going today?"

With a twinkle in her eye, Spencer glides her finger up Ashley's thigh, "I have exactly 55 minutes before dinner."

"Then," Ashley snaps. "I'll take you home"

"Okay…What's with the 'tude?"

Ashley drives in silence. Her jaw is clenched and a slow dull pulse beats behind one of her temples.

"Ashley, please say something," Spencer pleads.

"There's nothing to say."

"Ashley…"

The sound of the Cayenne's engine fills the silence.

"Ashley…?" Spencer playfully walks her fingers up Ashley's arm to her shoulder. She puts her finger through one of Ashley's golden brown ringlets and suggestively twirls it.

Ashley jerks away and barks, "Who was that?"

Spencer looks at her questioningly.

"Little Orphan Annie, back there?" Ashley clues Spencer in.

"That was…" Spencer hesitates. "I think her name is Emily? We work on the same floor. She's nice." I like her.

"Uh huh…and…" Ashley patiently waits for Spencer to continue.

"And what?"

"And she likes you."

"Does not!"

"Her hands were all over your face, Spence."

"She's an artist. She's expressive like that."

"Spence," Ashely turns her eyes away from the road to give Spencer a brief, deadpan stare. "What you just said? Didn't make any sense."

"I know…I know," Spencer says trying to squirm her way out of the direction she thinks their conversation is heading. "But I don't know what else I'm supposed to say to make you not feel....jealous."

"I'm not jealous. I'm just… I spend the whole day waiting to see you and I turn the corner and some girl's touching you."

"But Ash, you know that no one can touch me like you do."

Ashley tries to fight back a grin that is about to form on her face.

"How many minutes did you say you had?" Ashley asks.

"50 and counting."

Ashley guns the engine towards her parents' house.

---------

Once inside, they bound up to Ashley's room and lie on her couch with their backs against opposite arm rests; their legs outstretched and intertwined.

"You really should consider doing something with your summer," Spencer says. "Aren't you bored?"

"You mean like what you're doing? I don't do stuff like that. That's for college suck ups," Ashley says with disdain.

"Gee thanks, Ash."

"I don't mean you. I just mean in general. Besides, with all this free time, I've been thinking and you know what I realized? I'm not the college type. I'm not going."

"You're kidding?"

"Why should I, what's the point? To find a job and make money? If you haven't already noticed," Ashley gestures to her surroundings. "I'm set for life."

"But it's more than just that, Ash. College is a chance to move away from your parents, have your own place, and just be free, to like, find yourself or something."

"Spence, as it is, I barely see my parents, practically live alone, and I've had more opportunities to find aspects of myself that I would rather lose again. So what's your point?"

"I don't know what my point is. I just wish your life wasn't so different from mine, so difficult, and so lonely."

"I'm not alone now."

Ashley untangles her legs from Spencer's and gets up onto her knees. Spencer's legs are in between Ashley's thighs when she leans into Spencer. Their foreheads touch and they kiss tenderly, softly, lips lingering over lips. Fingers stroke bare arms, shoulders, backs. Spencer feels a surge that she looks forward to feeling when she anticipates being with Ashley. It starts as a muted throb in her head that descends down through her throat and chest. Its rhythm settles as a pulsating, unbearable beat in an area of her body that Spencer is just learning gives her an unquenchable pleasure she's never known. The waters begin to fall.

"Besides," Ashley whispers mid-kiss. "I can't commit to anything this summer." Staring into the cool blue of Spencer's eyes, I could just dive into them, Ashley sits back on her haunches; Spencer's legs are still beneath her. Ashley takes one of Spencer's hands and languidly traces circles and swirls into Spencer's open palm. Spencer flinches at the ticklish and sensual touch while she and Ashley gaze into each other's eyes.

I want you to…

I want you, too.

Ashley says, "I'm going to Europe next week."

"What," Spencer's body goes limp and her hand drops out of Ashley's like a dead weight. She pulls herself out from under Ashley and sits straight up. "When…when were you going to tell me?" She can barley disguise the catch in her voice.

"Today. I just found out late last night. My dad's going on tour. His band's really big in the Eastern bloc so we'll be in places like Berlin, Prague, Budapest, you know."

"No…no, I…I don't know," Spencer hears her words as if they are coming from somewhere else; behind her or from above her, but not from her own mouth.

"Come with me," Ashley says matter-of-factly.

"Europe? Ash, I'd love to but I just can't get up and go. Are you playing with me?"

"No, but I'd love to."

Spencer is suddenly pale, "I want to go home."

"You just got here."

"I know but I don't feel so great anymore. I just want to go home."

Ashley's eyes plead for an explanation.

"It just sucks, okay. It just sucks!" Spencer begins to confess. "It's my first summer in LA and my first summer with you and my mom's lost her mind and has me on the shortest leash possible and I barely see you because of this internship and now you tell me this and you're leaving and now I won't see you until school starts." Spencer barely catches her breath.

"What am I supposed to do? You're right. I'm bored," Ashley is exasperated. "I thought this summer was going to be all about us. I wanted to show you LA, take you to concerts, and show you things you've never seen before. But now all we have are these little secret moments between picking you up from work and bringing you home. So when my dad bought me two tickets to Europe I thought that anything would be better than this."

"Two tickets?" Spencer asks.

"Ya, I asked him to get one for you."