Hey guys! Apologies again for taking a little long to upload this chapter, I spent ages trying to figure out how to structure it...
Anyway I hope it's worth the wait! I had a lot of fun writing this one, I sincerely hope you have as much fun reading it...
Chapter 6
I smile gratefully at my father as she pulls up outside Ashley's house. I thank him for the ride and kill him on the cheek as I clamber as gracefully as possible out of the car, knowing I will most likely be in no state to drive later on tonight if everything goes to plan.
I hesitantly approach Ashley's porch, flattening my dress as I go and realising I've never been inside it before. Suddenly, the front door bursts open and a tall man with fly away hair with blonde streaks in it rushes from within the house, retrieving his phone hastily and a little clumsily from his pocket as it rings loudly.
"Hello? Hello!...yes. Yes, I'm on my way over…yeah I'm in the car…" And with that he bolts into a silver Porsche parked in the driveway and speeds off down the road.
As if his shades or eccentric dress style weren't the biggest giveaway of the iconic rockstar's identity, his similarly shaped nose and chocolate brown eyes concealed behind his sunglasses leave me in no doubt that was Ashley's father; Raife Davies.
I continue towards the house, knocking three times on the glass windowpane. A few moments later, the door is flung open by a flustered looking Ashley.
She stands wide eyed, mouth slightly agape as I take in her appearance, dark and damp hair hanging like a curtain around her face and shoulders, no make-up, glasses sitting slightly lopsided on her nose, dressed in a baggy t-shirt and old faded sweats. It strikes me, like an iron-clad blow to the gut, just how naturally pretty this girl is.
"Hey," I state bluntly, stuffing sensitive Spencer back into her box and pulling my bitchy self out of the closet. No! Not the closet, the cupboard. I step into the house while the brunette stands frozen in by the door, one hand still on the handle, holding it open.
A moment later she shakes her head as if clearing it from bombarding confusion, glancing at the clock and realising she has enough time to get ready and that I am in fact a little early. Admittedly, being just as new to this as Ashley herself, I found myself getting ready hours too early in my anticipation and finally growing bored of waiting around, decided I could no longer delay leaving for the shorter girl's house, hoping Ashley was just as enthusiastic about this evening as I was.
Apparently she isn't.
Judging by the dulled twinkle in her eye she's ten times as nervous about tonight as I am excited for it.
"Ash-ley!"
A voice calls from the top of the staircase, each syllable enunciated in exasperation. I look up to see the same brunette from the Mall, Ashley's sister, holding a hairdryer and a brush in each hand and looking expectantly and equally irritably at her sister. She sends a fake and forced smile in my direction. Something stirs within me at her obvious dislike of me; a sadness of some kind which confuses me because I was never aware of my want for Ashley's family to like me. Shocked as I am, I push the feeling aside focusing on not peeking at Ashley's bum as she scrambles up the stairs, beckoning me to follow.
"That's my room down there," She points to an open door at the end of the hallway. "You can wait in there." And with a smile and a head bob she ducks through the nearest door and out of sight. I walk slowly down the hall, eyeing the insides of each open door as I pass in curiosity.
The bathroom is large and still a little steamy, the black tiles dulled by condensation and I wet towel lying abandoned in a heap on the floor in the corner. The overwhelming smell is of apples, no doubt from Ashley's shampoo. I frown, wondering how I managed to know that.
The next few doors are closed until I finally enter Ashley's bedroom.
The walls are a striking white and my heels clatter against the floor as I approach her bed and perch on the edge of it. My eyes wander over the posters gracing her walls, of the few photos scattered across her dresser, smiling faces beaming from their frames. I smile at the little sticky notes pinned to the edge of her mirror, because it's so nerdy it's just simply Ashley. This whole room squeals Ashley; not the Ashley I'm acquainted to now but the Ashley me and Madison tried so desperately to stamp out.
On that thought I pull out my phone and text Madison. We text back and forth,-asking about dress style, make-up, hair-do's, anything about the forthcoming evening to ensure we're both properly prepped-until Ashley enters the room.
She looks amazing.
A silky red dress hangs from one shoulder; not dissimilar to one worn by Zoe Saldana at some movie premier which I never bothered remembering, make-up that makes her eyes pop and her lips look luscious, hair straightened and styled perfectly thanks to Kayla, who stands in the doorway with her eyes glued to me as if gauging my reaction.
I swallow as my eyes travel down her legs, freshly coated in tan no doubt, and rest on a pair of black Jimmy Choo heels.
"Wow," I manage, focusing on not drooling over my own blue dress. Realising how much of an open book I may seem right now I clear my throat and sit up a little straighter on the edge of her bed.
"Wow, uh…I really like you shoes," I force the words out.
Ashley's smile falters a little, as Kayla all out scowls from the doorway before turning and finishing getting herself ready. I watch Ashley's face for a moment before she plasters her smile back on again, relishing in the simple fact that I complimented her, however backhanded it was.
She clears her throat after a beat of silence.
"We'll uh, be ready to leave…soon…" she throws in a tentative smile as she reaches across the side table for her phone.
"Yeah? Good…"
The pending awkward silence was thankfully cut short by a brief knocking on the door. I jump up, knowing that it's Madison and follow Ashley down the stairs.
"Damn, girl you look good," she greets me as soon as the door is opened, pushing past Ashley who stands rather helplessly holding the door again.
Me and Maddy hug, and she fawns over my manicure and my dress and I compliment her own dress, which is a rich and dark emerald green. When the Latina's attention finally turns to the nervous brunette, Ashley all but recoils under her scrutiny. Knowing Madison, she's probably looking for the tiniest aspect of Ashley's outfit that may seem imperfect to publicize. I know she's hard pressed; the brunette looks perfect to me.
Finally, she gives the shorter girl a silent head bob, a small smile pricking up the corner of her lips.
Ashley sighs in relief as soon as Madison turns away again. I struggle not to giggle.
Not a moment later, Kayla appears at the top of the stairs; wearing a black dress similarly styled to her sisters and red heels. The pair of them giggle excitedly and I feel butterflies erupt in my stomach when the limo pulls up outside the house and toots its horn.
I am a complete basket of nerves right now. And it shows as I crack my knuckles over and over-a nervous habit of mines-as we wait for Kayla, who left her purse in the house and promptly bolted from the limousine to retrieve it. I can tell the gentle 'click' of my joints is starting to irk Madison whose jaw is clenching tighter by the minute.
"Can you stop that?" she snaps, finally having had enough.
"Sorry…nervous," I mumble, dipping my head in an attempt to hide from her glare. Spencer's foot nudges my leg and I straighten up again, looking Madison in the eye for a brief second.
"Fine," she sighs, her calculating gaze leaving me so she can poke around in her purse. "Here," she pulls out a hip flask after a few minutes of searching and I eye it uneasily. "It will help calm you down," she adds, thrusting it into my hands. Glancing towards my house to make sure Kayla is not in sight, I unscrew the lid and take a large swig.
The liquid is vile and I gag as I swallow it, coughing violently shortly afterwards. But alas, Madison was right. I can feel it burning a warm path right to my stomach and I feel more relaxed almost instantly. I smile appreciatively at the Latina, who waves it away and cringes after taking her own swig, before passing to Spencer who does the same.
Before I can comprehend what is happening, Madison has retrieved a small bag from her purse filled with several white pills. I gulp.
"Chill, Ashley," Spencer's voice soothes, as she extracts a pill and sets it on her tongue, swallowing with another gulp of whiskey. "It will help."
And with that, I reach for one and follow the blondes lead.
.
.
The sun is evil. I decide that as he sneaks through a gap in my curtains and brutally attacks my eyes through my closed lids. I groan. My voice is hoarse and my head is pounding. I hear movements around the house but I simply roll over and duck beneath my duvet, shielding myself from the daylight.
"What the hell is this?"
My door bursts open, the sound invades my ears like a gunshot and caused my head to throb extra painfully.
"Huh?" I crack an eyelid open ever so slightly. The light is painful. My hazy and sleepy mind has yet to comprehend much.
"Look at the state of you," I finally recognise my father's voice as he throws something flat and cold down on the bottom of my bed, landing on my feet which are poking out from under my blankets.
"Mmm," I respond, pulling the duvet over my head once again.
"ASHLEY!" he barks. There's anger in his voice and I begin to panic. Gulping, I withdraw from my sanctuary and sit up, leaning against the headboard and nausea instantly overtakes me. I sway slightly as I regard my dad. His eyebrows are drawn together in a scowl as he watched me, in jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists. He picks up the magazine lying at the bottom of my bed, scans it quickly, and throws it back down again in disgust. "What the hell are you playing at?"
My face contorts in confusion. I pick up the magazine and examine it myself, at a loss as to why all this anger is suddenly being directed at me.
My jaw hits the ground.
The double page article is jammed full with pictures of me, all under the heading 'Davies #2 Parties Hard at Music Awards'. There are photos of me at the Award Show, beaming up from the page with Spencer and Madison who seemed to have strut their stuff the entire time. Pictures of me on the stage presenting awards with Kayla, pictures of me at a bar with a drink in hand, pictures of me dancing very close to some guy with his back to the camera, pictures of me throwing up outside, pictures of me throwing a punch at some strange girl, pictures of me with a bleeding lip and running mascara…
I raise a hand and run it along my bottom lip, wincing as it brushed the deep cut residing there.
More pictures of me in clubs. There is one picture of me with Spencer that intrigues me; the blonde and I both standing in a dark secluded corner with Spencer's hand resting on my hip and mines on her shoulder. I appear to be whispering something into her ear. The longer I look at the image, the more I can feel the skin on that hip tingle, as if her fingers are still placed there. Then a final image which I had failed to notice before catches my attention. Me, arms flung around the neck of a brunette boy with a handsome face, his long muscular arms wrapped around my face, lips latched.
"Oh my God, is that Aiden?" I squeak, horrified.
"Aiden? Aiden? I don't care about Aiden, who the hell is Aiden?" My dad snaps. I'd momentarily forgotten about his presence.
I open my mouth but he cuts me off, looking livid.
"This isn't the kind of life I wanted for you Ashley," he gestures towards the magazine now lying abandoned in my lap. "That is not the kind of behaviour I expected; perhaps from Kayla at one stage, but never from you, from my little princess. I thought you had your head screwed on, had your wits about you. Apparently I was wrong."
"Dad," I whimper but he starts up again.
"I've been through that hell, Ashley; the drugs, the alcohol. The press pick up on that kind of stuff and they're so damn mean about it. I was always so proud of you for not flaunting who you are, for acting and dressing and just being like a normal kid. I thought I'd only ever have to worry about your sister getting into this kind of trouble-you know how she is. But she never ever gave the media this kind of shit to eat up!"
I glance back down at the magazine, cringing at just how much of a mess I am in each photograph.
"I haven't seen you for days! And suddenly this article appears in this Magazine and those new friends of yours are in there too and I thought you were just fitting in. But they've changed you Ashley Davies. You're not my little girl anymore; the one who would go to school and come home and do her homework and play her guitar and sing along. I lost her…They stole her from me, those friends of yours. And I want her back, and you're not to see them until you're you again, they're a bad influence on you."
A moment's silence.
"You're grounded until I see fit…"
And with that Raife Davies turns and exits my room, slamming the door behind him. It's the first time I've ever heard those words leave my father's mouth while directed at me. I hang my head as tears fill my eyes, looking once again at the photos which are now swimming through my tears. I foreign feeling floods through me and constricts my heart.
Shame.
We're on the red carpet, having just stepped out of the limo. I feel relaxed and bubbly, giggling with Madison and Spencer as camera's snap photo after photo of us. The blonde and the Latina pose, twisting and turning, eyes on the camera the whole time. Kayla wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me into her side as people shout our names and cameras flash brightly…
I'm on the stage, eyes scanning the vast crowd before me, well, that of it I can make out beyond the blinding stage lights. I feel strange, as if my mind and body are disconnected and so I merely stand to the side and slightly behind Kayla, smiling and applauding where appropriate…
We're at a swanky bar at the award's venue where the rest of the shows attendees have gathered for drinks and idle chit-chat and to gossip about their fellow celebrities. Kayla is socialising a short distance from where I'm sitting, perched on a bar stool with an empty champagne flute. Madison and Spencer have disappeared to the bathroom leaving me alone. A waiter approaches; "Refill Madame?"…
The guests have started loosening up as the bar continues to serve drinks to the attending celebs. Spencer has managed to meander her way back to me and orders us both another drink from the bar. We sip quietly, eyes scanning the crowd for any sign of Madison. Eventually, the Latina is reunited with us; her lipstick a little smudged which doesn't go unnoticed by either of us. I frown while Spencer winks. Madison looks very proud of herself. "Isn't she with Aiden?" I ask Spencer quietly while Madison pulls a mirror from her bag and sets about fixing herself. "Yeah, well…they're seeing each other but nothing's official…" I finish my drink and set the glass on the bar. Glancing at the other two I notice both their glasses are empty too. "Shots anyone?"…
We leave the awards when the three of us are pretty wasted; Kayla had left a while ago and the other guests were frowning and occasionally scowling at out loud antics by the bar. Madison stumbles slightly in her heels as we stagger down the road. Spencer hails for a taxi. The driver scowls at us, obviously for being so drunk. I'm feeling far too buzzed to care about him, far too buzzed to recall the name of the club Madison directed him to drive to. In the back of the cab, Madison inconspicuously recovers her small bag of pills once again and hands one to us. In my drunken haze I take it without question…
The club is dark and the music pounds loudly in my ears. The flashing strobe lights fascinate me and I watch them flicker and illuminate the shady room totally intrigued. I'm drawn from my musings by a tug on my hand and realise Spencer is trying to pull me towards the dance floor. I detach my hand from hers, instead ambling over to the bar and ordering a drink. My throat feels strange, like something is lodged in it. The drink helps. Sighing in relief and contentedness, I make my way through the throng of dancing bodies in search on blonde hair…
Having long given up on my quest for Spencer, or even Madison, I find myself swaying to the beat of music pulsing throughout the club. I jump slightly as I feel a pair of hands slide around my waist shortly followed by a body pressing into mine. The body mimics my dancing and so I dance along, resting my hands atop the larger pair wrapped around me. After a while I twist around within the arms holding me, coming face to face-well, face to chest-with a large guy. His face in indiscoverable in the darkness and for a moment I think it's Aiden I'm dancing with before realising this guy is taller and a little less lean. He pushed his thigh between my legs, moving his hands to cup my ass as we continue to dance, grinding into each other in time to the music…
I'm sitting in a grimy toilet, watching the guy from the dance floor pull his trousers back up and buckle his belt again. A smug leer covers his face, which is very unattractive, as he unlocks the door and leaves, a new bounce in his step. I remain sitting on the toilet lid for several minutes, consumed by an unwarranted feeling of emptiness. "I need another drink," I mutter. My voice echoes off the walls of the empty bathroom…
We wait outside the club for a taxi to come and pick us up. It's late, judging by the red beginning to steak across the sky, or else very, very early. Someone bumps into the back of me, causing me to spill the drink I'd manage to sneak out with me. The glass shatters against the concrete below us. "Watch where you're going!" I cry, eyeing my wasted drink in despair. I was enjoying that. That small comment, however, severely pissed off whoever it was who knocked into me because her fist collided with my face a moment later. Pain shoots through me, and a hot liquid poured from my lip. I take no notice as I aim a punch back at her, oblivious to the shouts from around me or the hands on my arms pulling me away…
"Did we see you with a guy tonight?" Madison giggles before tripping on her way up the stairs. "Yeah," I shrug indifferently. Madison gushes, wanting to know the details. Spencer watches with a flash of concern in her eyes that I blame on the alcohol in her system. She can't possibly care about me…
I open my eyes to a strange room, and in a panic struggle to remember whether I hooked up with someone else last night. I freeze as I feel a hand resting on my abdomen, fingers tracing delicate patterns on the fabric there. I realise I'm still in my dress from last night and my feet are aching from my heels. There's a slight pounding in my head but I vision is swimming slightly and I still feel the numbness of alcohol. "I think I'm still drunk," I groan, sitting up. The hand touching me is snatched away and my vision lands on a sheepish looking Spencer. "Me too," adds a dishevelled looking Madison, lying at the bottom of the bed. "Shit, it's 4 in the afternoon…" She grabs her handbag, begins fishing through it once more. "Bitches, I still have pills," she says slowly, retracting the small bag and three cigarettes. She lights one and Spencer scolds her for smoking in her room, but lights one too and takes a drag. She lights the third and hands it to me. I choke on my first draw and the others laugh, but after the second and third pull I begin to feel a little lighter. "Who's up for tonight then?"…
I'm in a club again, not the same one as last night. After smoking in Spencer's room and deciding another night of partying was in order we hastily fixed ourselves up, nicked some wine from Spencer's parents liquor cabinet, stopped for fast food and ended up here. I search for Madison, who demanded I take another pill. I find her at the bar, her lips attached to Aiden's. I promptly turn away, instead searching the crowd for Spencer…
"Hey pretty lady, you up for a repeat of last night?" The sleazy voice makes my skin crawl. "Fuck off," I slur, pushing against the body which now has me pressed up against the wall in the corner I sat in alone, unable to find any of my accomplices."C'mon babe, we had fun last night," the hot breath blows across my neck, emitting a stench of alcohol. "G'off," I mumble, too drunk to really get myself out of this predicament. This guy only makes the same empty feeling of last night return. Suddenly his weight is pulled off me, and Aiden is there, holding the guy by the scruff of his collar and the guy looks scared and sulks off once released. "Aww, my knight in shining armour," I giggle, wrapping my arms around Aiden's neck and hugging him. I pull back, accidentally bumping noses with the dark haired boy. Noticing how handsome Aiden is, how strong his arms are and how nice his smile is, I lean my head a little closer and brush my lips against his. He responds immediately, pushing his tongue into my mouth and pulling my body closer to his…
I'm outside heaving, listening to the sound of vomit splattering against the pavement. Aiden is rubbing my back, looking torn between concern and annoyance. My sudden need to empty my stomach interrupted our snogging session…
I stumble my way over to Spencer, who is seated at a booth in the far corner of the club. I rant about how I've been trying to find her all night and she shrugs and apologises half-heartedly whilst taking a swig of her drink. I sit opposite her, examining her sapphire eyes. "So pretty," I muse aloud, causing the blonde to snort. "You're drunk," she states. "Aren't we all," I respond in a sing-song voice. "I'll drink to that," she laughs, finishing the end of her drink and rising to get another, pulling me along with her. I trip as she trails me behind her, causing her to stop walking as I regain my balance. I pull her forcefully towards me and she herself stumbles, her hand gripping my waist as she steadies herself. I place my hand on her shoulder and lean towards her ear, so as to be heard over the loud music. "I did something stupid," I begin, but before I can continue recognition ignited her eyes. "Shit, I have something for you," and she pulls me towards the bar again, ordering us a drink and two shots each. I down both shots quickly, and lift my drink, carrying it over to the dance floor and trailing Spencer with me having had a sudden urge to dance…
Two pills appear on Spencer's hand from nowhere as her body moves along with mine. She placed the first one in her mouth and swallows. I hold my hand out for the second but the blonde doesn't hand it over. There's a mischievous glint in her unfocused eyes. She places the pill on the tip of her tongue and leans in towards me…
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So? What do you make of that one?
I hope you all are enjoying this, it's a major set back when trying to write a new chapter to think that ones work goes unappreciated...There is a solution though; hit that 'lil review button ;)
Seriously though, it's nice to hear your thoughts and comments on this fic, and motivated me to write more. And also makes me smile, which is the best bit :D
Much love!