Note: I want to apologize for the long, unwanted hiatus. It sucked, I know. But it's over, I'm returning my attention back to this story, and I'm hoping to wrap it up sometime this summer. Now, just so you know, I've changed some things, meaning I'm going in a slightly different direction than what I initially had planned. I like where I'm going to take it, though, and I hope you guys will too. One big change is in this very update. Not sure if any of you will catch it, but if you do, awesome. Points for you.

--

Complicated.

14:

Ashley padded into the living room, with one hand buried in her hair, flattening unruly curls, and the other carrying a mugful of coffee. After a successful journey to the couch, without spilling or sloshing the steaming liquid, she curled up into a corner, and brought the mug up to her lips and took a cautious sip.

Topher and Jenna were sharing one of the chairs adjacent to the couch, holding each other, offering an occasional kiss here and there, an obvious tell that they had made up, the juvenile fight the night before forgotten. The scene was enough to make Ashley grimace and release an unintentional groan, which received an eye roll from her roommate.

Topher pressed start on the video controller in his hand and paused the game he was playing before patting Jenna on the thigh. "Hop up, babe, I gotta take a piss."

The small redhead untangled herself from her boyfriend, stood, and collapsed onto the couch beside Ashley, snuggling up to her side. "My birthday's in two days."

Ashley nodded, and swallowed down a gulp of coffee. "I know."

"I feel so fucking old."

"You're only turning twenty-eight, Jen."

Jenna sighed, slumping further down into the couch cushions. "I know."

Ashley smiled, "That's not old."

"Sure, you can say that, you're only in your early twenties. You're not closing in on thirty soon. Thirty! Fuck!" She groaned loudly and buried her head in her hands.

"Your thirtieth birthday is still quite a ways away."

"Two years! But, that's not the point. The point is, by the age of thirty, my mother was married for ten years and beared three children."

"Um, yeah. So? You're you, your own person, Jen. Not your mother." Ashley set her coffee mug down on the side table. "Why are you freaking out about this all of a sudden? You were fine about your birthday yesterday." After she was finished speaking, it hit her. "Did you talk to your sister this morning?"

Jenna turned toward the television screen, staring at it blankly. "She called, yes."

"And, what? She made it a point, like she always does, to inform you of every milestone you haven't reached yet? Why do you let her get to you?"

"She doesn't get to me."

Lifting an eyebrow, the brunette stated, "Nora always gets to you. Look, just because she's twenty-four, married, has a kid and one on the way, and is your mom's fuckin' pride and joy doesn't mean your life is any less wonderful or fulfilling than hers. I mean, you're satisfied with your life, you're happy where you're at. Right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then, stop worrying about meaningless shit." Ashley picked up her cup and brought it to her lips. "And if you ask me, Nora started building her family way too young. She's pretty much thrown her life away."

"You say the sweetest things."

"What?" Ashley smirked. "Your sister's a bitch."

Jenna rolled her eyes, and picked at nonexistent lint on her t-shirt. A moment later, she looked up, "Hey, are you okay? About last night, I mean. The conversation we had..."

Ashley swallowed another big gulp of coffee before responding, "Yeah, fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"The way you stormed off, I don't know, I thought you might've gotten upset or something."

"I didn't storm off, I just... I was tired."

"Oh, okay." Jenna nodded, not believing the brunette at all, and licked her lips. She wanted to say more, but didn't get the chance before Topher reentered the room. "Hey, babe, you want an omelet?"

Topher plopped down into the chair and swung a leg over the arm, then snatched up the controller from the coffee table and restarted the game. "Uh, yeah, sure. Sounds good."

"Okay," Jenna said, standing up from the couch. "You want one, Ash?"

"No, thanks."

The hairstylist disappeared into the kitchen and, for a while, the two remaining in the living room stayed quiet. Ashley stared down into her nearly empty mug, while Topher stayed focused on his video game.

"Um, hey," Topher whispered.

Ashley lifted her eyes. "What?"

"Jen's birthday is comin' up."

"Yeah, I know. We were just talking about it."

"Oh, well, I thought maybe we could throw her a party. Like, a surprise thing. She'd be okay with that, right?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure she likes to make a big deal about her birthday."

"I know that, but I thought it'd be cool. The guest list wouldn't be too big or anything, just some close friends."

"Where would the location of this party be?"

"Here, on the roof, or something."

"This is kind of last minute. Her birthday's two days away."

"Okay, whatever." Topher dropped the controller onto the floor and pushed himself up from his chair. "I just thought it'd be nice to throw my girlfriend, your best friend, a party for her birthday. But if you don't think it's a good idea, then we won't do it. You'll get your way, like you always do."

Ashley shook her head, muttering, "God, you're such a fuckin' prick."

"If you say so," the man spat out before stomping into the kitchen.

Corey appeared right then, from the hallway, and drew her eyebrows together. "What's his deal?"

"He's being a pussy, like usual."

"Ah, gotcha." Corey smiled, showing off her dimple. She lowered her head and fiddled with her iPod, choosing a playlist. "Well, I'm going out for a run." She glanced up at Ashley as she stuck her earphones in. "See you later."

"Oh, okay. See ya." Ashley watched her leave, then picked up the remote and flipped through the t.v. channels, not really searching for anything to watch, just surfing.

Lately, Corey had been... distant. They had told each other that there was no weirdness, tried to hang out together one on one, bond, get to know each other, but it always felt forced, as if they were trying to form a friendship, when neither really wanted one. Corey was nice, sweet, fun. A great girl. Ashley wanted to like her and she knew, if the situation was different, she probably would, but it just wasn't happening. Because of Spencer.

Ashley got off the couch and, coffee cup in hand, shuffled to her bedroom. Door closed behind her, she retrieved her cell from her purse and speed dialed Aiden. "Hey, it's Ash, what's up?"

"I'm preparing. My son, Jeremy, is having his first haircut today, and I'm going to be there to document this precious moment on film. Camera duty – it's part of the Dad role, you know. And I'm all for embracing that."

"Uh-huh," Ashley smiled. "Sherry roped you into it, huh?"

"Of course not, I volunteered."

"Riiight."

"Hey, is Corey there?"

"No, she just left to go on a run."

"Ah, damn. I need to talk to her sometime today."

"Why? What's up?"

"Nothing, just, well, I promised Spencer yesterday that I'd take her to pick up a rental car today, but I completely forgot about my plans with Jeremy and Sherry. So, I'm hoping Corey's available to replace me. Or, more fittingly, bail me out."

"Rental car?" Ashley's face scrunched up. "Why does Spencer need a rental car?"

"She was in an accident yesterday; messed her car up pretty bad."

"An accident?" Ashley's heartbeat quickened and she straightened, sitting on the edge of her bed, bare feet planted on the carpet flooring. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. She's fine. Just, you know, a little stressed out. Yesterday was a, uh, shitty day for her." The pleasant tone in Aiden's voice dropped before he added, "But you know that already."

"Um, what?"

"Oh c'mon, Ash, don't pretend like you have no clue what I'm talking about. Yesterday, your lunch with Spencer. You know, when you finally admitted what a coward you are? Four years too late, don't you think?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Aiden, you have no idea what you're talking about, so maybe you should shut the fu--"

"You killed your relationship with Spencer, because you were scared about the future and where you would fit in. But you couldn't admit that you were actually afraid of something, could you? No. Ashley Davies isn't supposed to be a little pussy. She's tougher than that. So, what did you do? You blamed the break-up on Spencer."

Ashley clenched her jaw. "That's not--"

"Do you know what that did to her? Huh? It wrecked her, Ash. She gave up on everything. That's why she didn't make it through her first year of pre-med. I know she's got you believing that she quit, that she didn't want it, that she was just doing it to make Paula happy, but she wanted it, Ash. She wanted to be a doctor. She wouldn't have moved away from you to pursue something that didn't mean shit to her.

"She loved you so much. Can you even say the same?"

"Are you fucking kidding me? Aiden, really? You, of all people, know how I felt about her."

"No, what I know is you lead people on, make them believe things that aren't true. I've been there, remember?"

Ashley fell back on the bed and covered her face with her hand. "You know what? I used to think there was no one else in the world who knew me better than you. Now, now I'm realizing you didn't know me at all." With that, she ended the call, threw the phone across the room, where it skidded across her desk top, knocking over whatever happened to be in its path. She felt her throat tighten and her eyes begin to water. "Fuck! Fuck you, Aiden!"

--