Ch 7:

Again I woke again in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar couch. This time though I woke with two very warm arms around me and her wonderful smell filling my nostrils. Luckily the couch was wide enough that I was nuzzled in her neck with my back against the back of the couch.

Ashley had her right arm wrapped around me and her left arm was holding my two hands in front of her chest. Her lips were pressed against my forehead as she was snoring softly. I smiled up at her and and and then peaked at the clock before nuzzling back into her neck. As I fell back to sleep I felt her squeeze me tighter and press a feather light kiss on my forehead.

I awoke about two hours later when I could feel some one staring at me. I looked up at her and she gave me a nose crinkling smile and I smiled back at her. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was almost about the time that school would be getting out. I sat up and immediately started to panic. I could tell that Ashley registered the fear on my face because she immediately shot up as well. She then put a comforting arm around me and brought a cup of water off the table to my lips.

After I took a long sip of water and regulated my breathing i stood up and looked expectantly at Ashley.

"Do you want me to bring you home Spence? Or do you want me to bring you back to the school?" Ashley said holding on to my hands.

"Um could you just bring me back to my house" I said not wanting to see the place I have known as hell.

Ashley grabbed her keys and helped me out to her car.

"So Spencer why don't you tell me about yourself?" I panicked for a second trying to figure out why she would want to know stuff about me. Once I realized that I was panicking for no reason and that Ashley was just trying to be nice, I decided to let her in.

"Well I live with my mom and my brother Glen. Both of them happen to be extremely homophobic. My dad divorced my mom when I was in 7th grade when we lived in Ohio. He has a new wife and even a little boy and he is very happy. In the middle of 8th grade we moved out here to LA where I became friends with Madison. I made the mistake of telling her I was gay and three years later here we are."

I could see Ashley taking in everything as I told it to her. Once I mentioned the part about Madison I could see Ashley visibly cringe and a slight bit of guilt wash over her face.

"So tell me about yourself" I replied inching to figure out more about the girl that had saved my today.

"Well as I told you I just moved here with my half sister Kyla and my mom and boyfriend number 5. When I was twelve my dad died and then I found out that he had fathered another child and her name was Kyla. It was hard at first but now we are actually really close. Once we moved here Kyla thought it would be a good idea that I join cheerleading to fit in. At my old school once they figured I was gay, I wasn't exactly popular."

I could see Ashley sigh as she continued telling me about herself.

"I thought that maybe it would be different here and that the girls wouldn't be as mean as they were at my old school. But once I saw them treating you like that I knew that this school was exactly the same as my old school. From that moment on I knew that I had to protect you, because I couldn't let them do the stuff to you that the girls at my old school had done to me." at this point I could see that she was crying and that she truly meant that she would protect me. "Spencer I am going to protect you from whoever you need me to protect you from"

Once she said this I felt the need to be close to her so I reached over and placed my hand on her thigh. I could feel her momentarily tense under my hand due to the fact that she probably wasn't expecting it. She then relaxed under my touch and turned to face me and she smiled.

We pulled up to my house and my hand tensed on her thigh as I thought about what I was going to have to deal with once I got inside. I started to tremble and could feel the tears start to brim on my eyes.

"No sweetie, no please don't cry, everything is going to be okay" she placed her arm around me trying to comfort me but all it did was cause me to sob even harder. "Shhh baby, it's okay I'm going to put my number in your phone so you can call me if you need anything at all, okay?"

I nodded and placed my phone back in my sweatshirt pocket. Ashley gave me a kiss on the forehead and I stepped out of the car. As soon as I stepped out I heard a car rumble in behind Ashley's. I turned around expecting it to be Glen getting home from basketball practice. I saw it was a silver Mercedes and I could feel my breath get caught in my throat.

Ashley turned around and saw it was my mother. I felt her step to get out of the car and she walked over to me and grab my hand out of view of my mother.

"Well, well what do we have here." She said as both Ashley and I both visibly gulp realizing that Madison was going to be the least of my worries.