I want to thank you all for your wonderful words. They're as wonderful as you are.

"Bitches."

"What?"

"Bitches."

"What?" I repeat from the kitchen.

"Bitches!" Madison yells from my living room. "They're all bitches."

I walk into my living room with a bag of chips in my hand. "Turn this shit off, I'm not watching Rock of Love with you."

"Seriously, what bitches." She says, changing the channel to Family Feud. "I love this show!"

I chuckle and sit down on the opposite couch. "What?" She asks. "Don't tell me you don't enjoy this show, Davies."

"No, I like it. I love it."

"Name something you wouldn't pay money for..." The host asks the contestant, who looks like she might puke all over the floor.

"Bitches!" Madison screams loudly. I give her a seriously confused look. "Sorry, that word was echoing in my head." She answers quietly.

Madison leans back and props her feet up on my cluttered coffee table. "Anyway, how was the engagement dinner?"

"Sucky." I respond. "I had to greet all my mother's friends."

"Oh shit. Did that one lady ask you if you had a boyfriend again?"

I nod my head slowly. "She did. I said I was still looking for the right man." I laugh out.

Madison snickers. "Geez, some people are so dense."

"Yeah, Spencer didn't bring Carmen though, so that was a nice little bonus." I grin evily.

"I'm sure. Did you confess your undying love for her?"

I give her a look. "No, Madison."

"Well why not?" Madison whines like a two-year old.

"Um, because she has a girlfriend and just, because." I say angrily.

"Come on Ashley. I'm telling you right now to do it before it's too late." She turns to me and says. Her eyes are sincere and that's what kills me.

I shake my head. "And what could make it too late?" I ask sarcastically, popping a chip in my mouth.

Madison shrugs. "I don't know. There could be an earthquake."

I snort. "You're such a freak."

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When Madison leaves my apartment, it is still relatively early. I have no lessons planned out for the rest of the day, so I decide to do something I haven't done in a while. Something I used to do all the time, but drifted away from.

I walk slowly through the streets I've come to know so well over the years. It is unusually warm out for being fall, and I am thankful for that. I move slow, taking in my surroundings. It smells like fall. You know, that smell of leaf piles and grass. Something rustic in the air. Of course, I can only smell this once I get to the park, where there actually is grass.

Sundays are one of my favorite days. There is just something so peaceful about a Sunday. Something calming that can only be associated with this day. I pick a bench that is unoccupied in an area with only a small number of people passing. I set my guitar case down and open it up. I sit for a little while, just looking around.

And when I actually do open my mouth and start to play a song, my voice cracks and it takes a few minutes for me to get in synch. But I eventually do. I fumble around trying to remember verses for the first song that pops in my head.

No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this tonight.

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun.

Had a talk with my old man
Said "help me understand"
He said "turn sixty-eight
You renegotiate"

Once in awhile, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
'Til you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing,

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can
Cause now I see I'll never stop this train.

The second I stop playing I hear clapping come from across the pathway. I was so into it I hadn't even realized that Aiden was watching me intently the whole time.

Aiden walks up to me and sits down next to me on the bench.

"Thanks Aiden." I say, with a slight blush on my face, a little out of breath.

"That was awesome Ash." He says and nods.

I shrug. "I think I missed some parts, oh well. What's up?"

Aiden leans back on the bench. "Nothing really. I just had a late lunch with Glen. He was telling me all about his new job and stuff."

"That's cool."

"Yeah, definitely." We sit in a peaceful silence for a couple seconds. "Spencer talked about you the other day." Aiden says casually.

I try not to show too much eagerness. "Really, what'd she say?"

Aiden meets my eyes for a second before staring straight ahead again. "Just that she's all happy you guys are seeing a lot of each other again. She was basically peeing her pants with excitement when she said you guys went out to lunch the other week."

I smile. "Yeah, It was really nice. I'm happy too, I miss her. God, I miss her a lot."

"Her and Carmen have been fighting." Aiden says randomly.

I stop myself from standing on top of the bench and jumping for joy. I feel like that might not be the most mature reaction. So I settle for saying, "Oh yeah? About what?"

Aiden shrugs. "I'm not sure. But I have my speculations." He says with a glance my way.

I chuckle easily. "Of course you do."

Aiden laughs and turns to look at me. "Yeah. Well, I gotta go meet Kate for an early dinner. Again, awesome playing, I'll see you around Ash."

I stand to give him a hug goodbye. "Have fun." I give him a wink and he leaves the park laughing.

I sit in the park and play a little longer, until I see the sun going down. I make my way home, with a slight smile on my face. When I get to my building I see Jamie sitting outside on the steps.

"Oh shit Jamie, did we have a lesson? I totally forgot." I rush out hurriedly. Jamie gets up with a big smile on her face.

"No, no we didn't. I just, well remember that girl I told you about?" Jamie says excitedly.

I take a seat next to her on the steps. "Yeah, the one in your class, right?"

"Yeah, I asked her out and she said yes!" She is basically jumping out of her skin, all smiles, all blushed face.

I laugh and smile at her. "That's awesome Jamie. Congratulations."

"Thanks!"

"So, how'd you figure out she was gay?"

Jamie gives me a mischievous smile. "Well, we were waiting outside my classroom for class to start. And I commented that I hated the song playing through the intercom. And she said she hated it too. And then I was like 'yeah, my ex-girlfriend ruined it for me.' And then she was like 'I understand, my ex-girlfriend ruined marshmallows for me.' But you know, I don't have an ex-girlfriend."

I laugh loudly at Jamie's story and excitement. "Clever. I like it."

"Thanks. I was so excited I had to tell you about it."

"Well thank you for sharing with me." I smile at her.

After talking a little more, Jamie basically hops up and down the street with excitement. I smile at her leaving form.

"Hello?" I said groggily into the phone that had awoken me from a deep sleep.

"Come over! Come over! Come over!" Spencer's excited voice said over and over again through the line loudly.

I glanced to my stereo clock. "Spence." I whined. "Are you aware that it's Saturday morning?"

I heard her huff. "Just, come over! Please Ash?"

"This better be important." I mumbled before I hung up.

When I pulled up to Spencer's house, she was sitting outside waiting for me, tapping her legs up and down, a very large smile on her face. Once I was in arms length of her, she gripped my shoulders and jumped up and down in place.

"I got it! I got in! I got in!" She rushed out, her eyes wide.

It took me a second to understand. "Wait, to NYU?!" I said in a higher voice than normal.

"Yes!" She exclaimed.

"Oh my God Spence!" I yelled and hugged her hard. I picked her up off the ground and twirled her around. She had been waiting for that letter religiously for the past month. She was so stressed out about it that I was starting to share that stress. She would get excited when the mail came but seriously pissed off when there was no response. Her anger had recently resulted in her throwing a plastic up at my head for my plea for her to "Please calm down".

I finally placed her back on the ground. "I'm so proud of you Spencer." I smiled at her.

And I was. Truthfully, I had been nervous. Because I was nervous about her leaving me to go to school. I wished things could just stay the same for a while, because they were good. I knew she would get into every school she applied to, there was no doubt in my mind. Really, we lived so close to the city it wasn't a big deal. I was planning to move there eventually anyway. But when I saw how excited and ecstatic Spencer was about getting in, it made my heart melt and all I felt was pure joy for my best friend. She deserved it, she deserved the full ride and everything they gave her. Because she was wonderful, and the admissions people obviously understood that as well as I did.

"Thanks Ash." She said, still smiling wide like an idiot. But an adorable one.

I gave her another hug. "Come on." I said, pulling her towards my car. "We're going to lunch to celebrate."

"I knew you were gunna get in." I told her over pasta at our favorite Italian place.

"Oh yeah?" Spencer smirked at me, twirling spaghetti around her fork. "How'd you know, oh psychic one?"

I laughed lightly. "Because you're wonderful. No- school would be stupid enough to reject you." I told her seriously, saying school instead of what I wanted to say, no one.

Spencer smiled wide at me. "Thanks Ash."

I shrugged. "It's true."

Do you ever wish you had a time machine? Sometimes I think things would be so much easier if I had a time machine. I would be selfish. I wouldn't go back to a war, and I wouldn't go back to the Medieval Ages and save people from the Plague. I wouldn't go tell Vanilla Ice that he really shouldn't be stealing Queens' beats. I wouldn't have warned Titanic about the iceberg up ahead or had them go back for the binoculars. I would be selfish and go back to a time when me and Spencer were great. When we were best friends and happy. I would have gone to the music program with her, or even better, I would have told her how I felt before Carmen ever entered the picture.

Really though, who was going to build a time machine for a girl with such self-centered thoughts and ideas? They would want someone who's interested in the good of the world.

But the thing is, Spencer is my world.

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Note: Song is Stop This Train by John Mayer. I shortened it, though. I usually wouldn't have put the whole song in at once, but I really like this song and something about it made me think it would fit nicely. :)