HAH! How's that for quick updating! I can't promise that the rest will be that fast (given that I just spent my entire afternoon and evening on this), but I wanted to try and make it up to you guys just a little. I don't think my writing in this one is anything spectacular, but there were a couple scenes that I quite liked in this one. Thanks so much for all of your comments and encouragement, especially chunkymonkey3 who went through and commented almost every chapter XD Anyway, thank you thank you thank you everyone, and keep the feedback coming!

Chapter 14 – Forgiveness

The scene from the night before repeated itself in my dreams, each time bringing a pang of remorse, a touch of conscience that should have kept me from swinging my hand in the first place. I had never hit anyone in my life. My eyes opened slowly, but I felt as if I'd been awake the whole night. The clock read 8:03 AM. First day of winter break, and here I was, lying awake at what was practically dawn.

I peeled myself from the blankets, threw on a tee-shirt, and departed my room. The house was quiet – everyone was asleep, as they rightfully should be. Once in the living room, I plopped down onto the couch and flicked on the TV.

About 10 minutes had passed and I realized that I had barely acknowledged the images that played across the screen. I was restless – my knee was bouncing, my hands were fidgety. Sitting still was not in the cards for me this morning. I ran to the kitchen and began to scribble onto a post-it.

"Gone out for a run. Be back in a bit. – Spencer"

Within a minute I was changed and out the door, my feet immediately pounding rhythmically against the sidewalk. The sun was peeking just above the horizon, and red rays of light painted the sidewalk beneath my feet. The air was a nice cool temperature, and I was happy to be outside. Running wasn't something I did terribly often, but whenever I had things on my mind, it was a good vent. Only one thing was on my mind today, and that was Avery's gaping stare. Normally Ashley would be on my mind as well, but this morning, my guilt drowned out all else. With each moment I thought of her face, my stomach contracted and twisted uncomfortably. I had caused that look of shock. By no means did I feel that Avery was right in what she said, but it didn't warrant physical violence. I was very out of line. I shuddered, thinking of me doing something like that. I resented it when my mom slapped me all those years ago, and I resented it now. The heat of the moment was over, and the reality of what I did hit me full force.

I suddenly knew where it was that I had to go, but as it happened, I was already headed there. It was as if my feet subconsciously knew where they needed to be.

The three miles passed by quickly, my breaths coming easily with my effortless strides. Soon I was just outside her house, my legs tingling with the lack of activity. I stepped towards the door, took a breath, and reminded myself that I could do this. I had to do this. I had to make things right. Knock knock.

A few seconds elapsed, but soon enough there was the sure sound of footsteps coming my way. The door opened, and I was greeted by a figure in similar attire to my own. I knew she'd be up or I wouldn't have come at such an early hour.

"Hi, Sydney."

"Hey, Spencer. How's it going?"

"It's okay, I don't think Avery is very happy with me, but that's why I'm here." I said, wondering if she already knew what had transpired.

"Yeah, she seemed upset when she came in last night. She didn't tell me anything, though. Did you guys have a fight?"

"Yeah. Is she home?"

"Do you think she's awake and out?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I guess not." I laughed.

"Well she's upstairs in her room. You can go ahead in and make yourself at home. I'm gonna head out for a run." I nodded and thanked her. "Oh, are you working tonight?" Shit. Work.

"Uh, yeah… Yeah, I guess so." I replied, trying to hide the complaint from my voice. And failing miserably.

"Don't sound so enthusiastic." She laughed. I rolled my eyes and proceeded inside. Well, there goes any plans I might have made tonight. I had the 6-10 shift.

Without a moment's hesitation, I climbed the stairs and crept quietly around the second floor. I opened her door – she was still asleep – and quietly and made my way to the beanbag chair in the corner. On her desk I found a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which would become my best friend for the next two hours.

I had read about 160 pages of the familiar text when she began to stir. I decided against looking up, feeling that it would be creepy if she opened her eyes and I was looking at her. Then I laughed at myself, thinking of how ridiculous it was that I was concerned with being creepy when I was here to apologize for something much worse.

I could soon feel her eyes on me, though, and the suspense of her expression was too much for me to handle. I looked up. She was expressionless. I bit my lip and closed my eyes.

"Avery, I am so so sorry." I enunciated each word carefully. "I was completely out of line last night." I wanted to say much more, but I waited to gauge her reaction.

"Yeah, I'd say you were." She said after a pause. She then turned the opposite side of her face to me to reveal a red area across her cheekbone. My jaw dropped and I fumbled for words. Before I could respond, though, she spoke again, "But I'd say I was too."

"I shouldn't have done that to you, Avery, you can't even imagine how awful I feel, I -"

"Spencer I know. I wasn't surprised to see you in here this morning. It was very unlike you to do what you did, so after a lot of being angry, I realized that I provoked you in a serious way, and for that I'm sorry."

"But what you said didn't make it okay for me to - "

"I know. But I forgive you. Is that okay?" Is that okay? My mouth still hung open and I groped desperately for words that wouldn't come. I closed it and nodded. "Good. Now what's for breakfast?" How could she move on from this so quickly? I hit her. I hit her. At my lack of response, she spoke again. "I'll make it easy. On my desk there's 7 dollars. That's probably enough to get us each something at McDonalds."

"I still can't believe you forgave me so soon." I said, my mouth too full of a breakfast sandwich for any normal human being to understand me. I never said though, that Avery was normal.

"I can. I mean, I was mad. Really mad. But there was fault on both sides." She said this very confidently. Too confidently, I thought, but I knew that I must be reading too far into it.

"Well, I'm glad we were able to solve it." I said finally. I couldn't explain it, but I felt more and more like it wasn't completely past us. It was way too easy.

"Me too." She smiled. "So what are we doing tonight?"

"Well, I'm working for your sister." She rolled her eyes in response.

"Ugh, damn it. Well then I'm booking you for tomorrow."

"I don't know… my schedules looking pretty busy – I might already be taken." I meant it as a joke, but evidently didn't execute it properly, because she was leering at me. "It's a joke, Avery. You're my girlfriend, of course I'll be with you tomorrow." She sighed and rolled her eyes subtly.

The rest of our morning was spent walking around some local shops as the sun filled the streets with a nearly blinding light. We enjoyed light conversation, and every time I had almost forgotten the incident, her sore cheek reappeared to keep my mood from elevating to new heights. When she would see my face fall, though, she'd just lace her fingers into mine, not breaking her stride. Eventually she walked me home, and it was then that we parted. The next few hours were spent catching up on restful sleep that I'd somehow missed the night before. In my last moments of consciousness, though, I couldn't help but think that something wasn't right. Something was off about her. I wasn't sure that I should complain, but the voice in my head wasn't going to die out anytime soon. I decided that until I knew what it was that was different, I shouldn't approach her about it. With this thought, I drifted.

"White Mocha" "Grande" "Java Chip Frappuccino" "Venti" "Caramel Macchiato" "Spice Latte" "Half-caf."

These words became the soundtrack of my life starting at 6. My hands worked tirelessly to prepare each drink while Sydney took the orders. Thank, God – Sydney was much better with the customers than I was. Tonight, though, even Sydney struggled. It was as if every other coffee shop in LA had closed down. Before the counter was an interminable sea of heads. A sea of thirsty heads.

"Grande Strawberry-Banana Vivanno!" Sydney called, anxiety breaking into her voice. I grabbed the sharpie and marked one of the plastic cups that would have to wait its fill like the others in the little cup line before me. I could only move so fast. The only other person on duty tonight was Robert Truman, who was essentially useless in a coffee shop – 23 years old and clutzier than anyone I'd ever met. We had at least 4 spills each shift he was on. Sydney tried putting him on the register once, but as it turned out, in order to correctly count change, he needed twice the time of a normal worker, given that a vast majority of the change would end up on the floor. After that, she put him in charge of making simple teas and coffees. All of the fancy stuff was left up to me. "Robbie, help Spencer" She called to a confused looking Robert. Oh, great. I thought. With his clumsy hands, he began to work at my direction.

Though there were two of us now, drinks were getting processed no faster. The fact that I had to keep a peeled eye for falling cups was not something that helped my production rate.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry, but is my White Hot Chocolate coming up? I've been waiting for almost ten minutes." I didn't look up to greet the source of the irritating voice. The very same voice I'd heard order what couldn't be more than four minutes ago.

"We're going as fast as we can, your drink will be ready momentarily." I said, pushing aside other cups that were in line first to retrieve the annoying woman's cup.

All of the noises of the Starbucks had settled into a noisy and discordant song – though ugly and obnoxious, I was used to it and I wasn't distracted by particular sounds or voices. Robbie still struggled alongside me, but we had relaxed into somewhat of a rhythm. Well, that is until about 8:13.

A great number of things happened at once.

"Good evening, could I get a grande three pump caramel white mocha?" If it weren't for the fact that the voice was velvety, I would have been annoyed at such a particular order. Being as it was, though, the voice was as if made of velvet, and one I knew very well.

"Ash?" I looked up from my furiously working hands and caught her eye. Simultaneously, in the instant I looked away, an iced drink became unbalanced in Robbie's hands, and in an effort to save the drink, it ended up all over me and the floor. "Shit!" I hissed. One look at Robbie's wide and nervous eyes calmed me, though. "No, it's okay, really. Just be careful, okay?" I said in as soft a voice as I could muster. Meanwhile, Sydney took down Ashley's order.

I was wiping myself off when I heard her again, this time from the area where people waited.

"Spence, I had no idea you worked at Starbucks!"

"Yeah" I mumbled, wishing I could pay her more attention. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn't thinning quite yet.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I made things awkward last night – I really didn't mean to."

"It's fine." I wished I could go further into it without slowing down. In this instant, I resented Starbucks, and the entire coffee industry for forcing my focus away from her.

"You seem ticked." She said, just as another full cup fell and added another sticky layer to the floor. I groaned very loud internally, as Robbie whispered his frantic apologies.

"No" I moaned. "Just busy. I'm sorry, it's a really crazy night."

"Well can I help you?" I couldn't help but look up at her when she said this. Her amber-brown eyes sparkled in the low light.

"No, I couldn't ask you to do that, you must have plans."

"Nope. I told you yesterday, I don't really have friends." She beamed. Usually one wouldn't beam with a statement as this, but she did. "I'm totally free. Can I please help you?" I had been in a state of suspended motion looking at her for almost 15 seconds. 15 valuable seconds.

"Well, if you're sure, that'd be great." I smiled back at her, reaching down into the cabinet to grab an extra apron. She squealed and skipped around behind the counter, sliding the apron excitedly over her head.

"I've never worked in a coffee shop before." She was teeming with excitement. Oh, the young grasshopper had much to learn.

"Have you ever worked anywhere?"

"Well, no…" She laughed, looking at me.

"Well, there's not much to it. You can stick to the easy stuff – the recipes for each drink are on that laminated paper right there." I gestured toward the opposite counter. "You'll get used to those easy ones. Just come where Robbie is standing." I turned to Robbie, "And you can go back to coffee and tea." He looked at me as if I had just given him the gift of life. "Your welcome" I laughed, noting how the smile of one girl could completely turn my night around.

"Tall Chai Latte - " Sydney stopped when she caught sight of Ashley.

"Syd, Robbie, this is Ashley. She's an old friend and she said she can give us a hand tonight."

"Nice to meet you" Ashley said, as she poured milk into her first created drink. Sydney looked skeptical, but she was in no position to turn down help.

"You too" She concluded, and turned back to the myriad of customers.

I looked back to Ashley beside me, only to find that she was standing by the waiting customers, giving one the drink she had just made.

"Do you like it?" She asked, after having watched the man take a sip.

"It's great, thank you." He replied. She turned to me and gave me a big thumbs up before returning to my side.

"Hey Ash?" I said, about to tell her she didn't need to watch each drink get tested.

"Yeah?" her smile was unfaltering.

"…Nothing." I smiled back.

Ashley was a natural. Soon she was right in stride with me, and we were making drinks like rapid fire. For another forty-five minutes, we worked relentlessly, but then business began to slow, and we did likewise. We began to chat once we had the time, and I couldn't help but feel that it was natural to have her here beside me. Conversation came to us so easily, and I felt myself growing elated. At around 9:45, there remained only about 3 customers, who had all taken seats with their laptops, and we began to close up.

"So Ashley, how do you and Spencer know one another?" Sydney finally spoke. She had been casting us suspicious glances periodically. Ashley looked to me, as if asking me what to say.

"She's my ex girlfriend, actually." I said, eyeing Sydney with purpose. I tried to gauge her reaction. "We managed to stay friends." I smiled then, looking to Ashley. "Sydney is Avery's sister." A look of worry crossed her face for a moment, but she regained composure.

"It really is a pleasure to meet you." Ashley said again. I wondered why she couldn't have been this pleasant to Avery. The moment I asked myself that, though, I knew exactly why. One was my girlfriend, one was not.

Sydney smiled halfway and resumed putting chairs up on the newly polished tables. We finished at just about ten, and Sydney and Robbie couldn't get out fast enough. Normally I'd be the same way, but today I had another reason to stay.

"I'm gonna hit the lights on my way out." Sydney said, as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow?" When I nodded, she continued. "And thanks for your help tonight, Ashley."

"Anytime!" Ashley chimed.

Soon, it was just the two of us, and a few moments later, even the light left us. Dark room. Love of your life. Alone. Other girlfriend. Not good combinations.

"So I think I should probably be heading home." I said detachedly, my eyes clinging to hers, which were somehow still sparkling in the darkness.

"Me too." She nodded, and we began toward the exit. I savored each step – I didn't want to leave her.

"Do you want to walk with me for a bit?" I asked, immediately regretting the invitation, but even so not recanting it.

"Thanks, but I really should be getting home. I told Kyla that I'd watch Miss Congeniality with her tonight." I was relieved, in a way, but also disappointed, and…. Shocked? I never thought that Ashley would pass up time alone with me. I didn't outwardly question it.

"Okay, well I'll catch you later then?" I asked, turning in the direction of my house. As fate would have it, our houses were in opposite directions of the Starbucks.

"Sounds good." She turned toward her car, but suddenly turned back to face me. "Spencer?"

Before I could respond, she had enveloped me in a tight hug. My body responded immediately, but she pulled away soon after. "I had a good time tonight. I hope I can see you again soon."

"Me too."

As I tucked myself in that night, I was feeling much more positive than I had just 24 hours earlier. Ashley and I had had a really good night together, and there were no slip ups whatsoever. Maybe this friend thing really would work. Dream on, a little voice said. I quickly ignored it. I averted my thoughts to Avery, who was also seemingly good. How she had forgotten our fight last night so fast, I couldn't begin to explain, but I wasn't about to question it. There was no doubt, though, that something was strange.

Just then, my phone buzzed, and a smile rippled across my cheeks. I opened my phone, only to find something unexpected.

"I love you, Spencer." My stomach twisted and dropped. I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't ready to say it yet. I began to panic.

"You too, Avery." I typed back. Was that the same thing? I felt bad for circumventing it, but what else was I supposed to say? I sunk back against my pillow and allowed my thoughts to circulate when my phone buzzed once more.

"Goodnight, Spence" Though this text filled me with warmth, I couldn't help but feel that the moment had been spoiled by the whole "L" bomb explosion beforehand.

"Night, Ash."