Author's Note:

Anyone figure out what the surprise is? That's right! It is in fact... The rafts!

Nah, I'm just kidding. odunit and TheDWall, you are correct. Am I that predictable? I'm going to have to step up my game. However, it may not be quite the surprise you were hoping for...

So... It's time for angry Ashley to come out and play... Just a warning; I don't like to swear personally, but sometimes, anger gets to the best of us, and angry Ashley may or may not have a few expletives floating around within her stream of consciousness... Anyway, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination.


Chapter 6:

Well fuck me, I'm surprised alright. You couldn't write this shit if you tried. Maybe I should sell my story; turn it into a book, or a film...

"Ash? Aren't you going to say anything?" Casey's looking at me expectantly.

"Shit, sorry, I just... I'm shocked, umm... Casey, you never told me you had a girlfriend..."

"I know..." She's grinning. "Well, we've only been dating for about two months so it's early days, but... I figured since you were both going to be in the area, I'd invite these guys to the house so I could introduce you in person rather than just telling you over the phone. Anyway, I couldn't be sure of how you'd react, what with... well, you know..." Paige, Casey. Just say it. Paige. That must be why she brought up the Paige situation yesterday. Very smooth, Casey...

Spencer eyes me curiously at this. I scratch the back of my neck in discomfort and clear my throat.

"Yeah... I guess..." Spencer's still standing there, Ashley. Say something!

"Uh, I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Ashley." I hold my hand out for her to shake. As soon as she accepts it, I'm hit with that electricity again. Her nostrils flare as our eyes lock. She definitely felt that.

"Spencer. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." I nod. Our eyes stay locked for a good few seconds, but I'm soon pulled out of my daze by another large hand hovering in front of me.

"Hey, I'm Glen. How you doing?" He looks me up and down. Ugh, gross. I take his hand hesitantly.

"Fine thanks... I'm Ashley."

"Ashley, huh? Nice..." He nods slowly before wiggling his eyebrows. Okay, what the fuck? Spencer told me her brother is a total douche, but she failed to mention that he's also a creep. I'm already pissed off with her, and this does not help my mood at all...

I'm sort of sidelined when the rest of the family start greeting Spencer and Glen. Pam and Rob don't seem to have met them before, so I manage to slip out of the living room unnoticed as they're bombarded with questions, Brooke preoccupied with talking to the little blonde girl around her age who had previously been hiding behind Glen's leg. I head straight for my bedroom, slipping into a sports bra and track pants. I lace up my running shoes before sending Casey a quick text.

Away for a run. It's getting a bit crowded in there, so thought I'd get some air. I'll be back soon.

I make my way downstairs and out the front door, closing it gently behind me before I set off to clear my head.


What the actual fuck? I try to wrap my head around my current situation.

I'm angry. Very angry.

Who does she think she is just waltzing into the house like that? She's seeing my best friend, yet still insisted on asking me out. She had 'plans' today, did she? Pity she forgot to tell me that these 'plans' involved her girlfriend... It's bad enough that she even has a girlfriend in the first place, but what makes it worse is who the girlfriend actually is. Is this the 'nothing' that she wanted to tell me about? Ha, well that's some big, fat nothing, huh? I'd hate to find out that there's a 'something' she's yet to tell me about too.

I stop to pick up a small rock, and use all my strength as I lob it as far as I can in frustration. It soars through the air for a few seconds before disappearing with a splash through the surface of the lake I've managed to run to.

I flop down at the edge of the lake, my breathing laboured as I catch sight of my reflection.

"What are you looking at?" I run my hand across the surface vigorously, causing my reflection to become disfigured and fragmented before setting off back to the house again, pushing myself harder as I move at an increased pace.


By the time I reach the house, I'm done in. My heart is racing, my face beetroot as the sweat drips from me.

Just as I reach for the handle of the front door, it opens before me and Spencer steps out, almost bumping into me.

She puts both hands out to steady herself as she stumbles, accidentally placing them on each of my forearms as my hands automatically reach out to catch her. This does nothing to ease my heart rate.

"Oh, I'm sorry... Umm... I was just getting our stuff. Uh... The car..."

I watch in silence as she straightens up, wiping her hands on her jeans before side-stepping around me. Our eyes lock for a second before she ducks her head and makes her way to the car. My eyes follow her movement, straying to her perfect behind for just a few seconds before I catch myself on and make my way upstairs.

I go to my room and grab a change of clothes, deodorant, and a towel before heading to the bathroom. Casey's just coming out as I'm going in.

"Hey, Ash! Good run?"

"Yeah, it was alright, I guess... I stink though..." I try to keep it light, wrinkling my nose as I pull a face.

"Meh, you always stink..."

"Hey!" I slap her lightly across the arm.

"I'm just kidding! Hey, Dale and Chase are attempting to make burgers for lunch. Want me to keep you one for when you're done?"

"You know what... I was actually going to just head to my room for a while. I'm kind of tired after that run."

"No problem. Hey, it's probably for the best... I bet they'll taste like shit." I giggle at this. "Either that or we'll all suffer from food poisoning. Anyways, I'll let you get your shower. Later!"

As soon as Casey leaves, I lock the door and turn the water on, letting it heat up as I strip off.

When I'm in the shower soaping myself up, my thoughts drift to Casey. She has no clue. I can't tell her though... And I certainly can't pursue anything with Spencer. I couldn't do that to her; she's my best friend. I know they've only been together two months, but still...

As I finish rinsing the shower gel off, I move on to the shampoo. I close my eyes as I step underneath the shower's spray. All I can see is her, and my anger returns. Her, with the beautiful blue eyes and silky blonde hair. Her, with the angelic features and that cute little head tilt. Her with the fabulous figure, and excellent taste in music, and of course, her, with that perfect fucking ass...

Do you know what the worst thing is? Even though I'm angry with her, I can't help but project some of that anger towards Casey, and she's done nothing wrong! It's not the same kind of anger though... It's the jealous type. You know the one, where even though they're oblivious to your disposition in the situation, you can't help but envy them for having something you want. It's like when you were a kid and that spoilt brat from down the street came home one day wearing the latest trend; those fucking sneakers that lit up when you stamped or jumped in them... Everyone wanted them, but no matter how much you begged your mom for them, you never got them. Yeah, it's that kind of anger.

Spencer's no pair of light up sneakers. She did a pretty good job of lighting up my world last night though. That was before I found out that Casey had already beaten me to the trend...

I wonder what it'd be like with a pair of Spencers... Maybe then we could share... Then again, I'd probably still want to keep them all for myself. I bet that'd be fun...

I finish rinsing the shampoo out of my hair and get out of the shower, towelling my body off before using the towel to wrap up my hair. As I'm standing there in my bra after pulling my jeans up, I hear a knock at the door.

"I'll be out in a minute..." I unwrap my hair, using the towel to dry it off to some extent.

"It's me, Spencer... Can I come in?" I pause what I'm doing.

"Uh... I'm kind of busy right now."

"Please?"

I sigh.

"Give me a minute..."

I finish off towelling my hair before spraying my deodorant and pulling on my vest. There's a click as I unlock the door and Spencer walks in, re-locking the door as she leans back against it, looking at me.

"Hi."

"Hi." I mimic her.

"Can we talk?" She wants to talk? What, right now?

"You want to talk?"

"Yeah, I just –"

"Okay, let's talk..." I feel the anger rising within me again. "A girlfriend, Spencer? Really? And Casey at that!" I make my way over to the frosted window, where I just stand there gazing at it as if I can see the view outside clearly as I clench my jaw. I can't look at her right now...

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you knew each other; I was going to tell you..." She starts to move towards me. "Honestly, I –"

I turn to her then, interrupting whatever it was she was going to say.

"Oh, you were going to tell me, were you? Tell me, just how did you imagine it would play out? Oh, hey, Ashley, nice to see you again. Oh, by the way, I have a girlfriend. You might know her; she's otherwise known as your best friend!" I pause as she looks down at the ground, tears threatening to fall. "Great plan, Spence. Really great..." I avert my gaze back to the window, letting silence take over, before Spencer speaks up in a small voice.

"I really was going to tell you... I was going to come here today and break it off with Casey before meeting you tomorrow; that's what I wanted to tell you. Truthfully, I've been thinking of calling it off for about a week now. Casey and I... We just don't click... " I shake my head at this.

"No. No, you can't break up with Casey."

"Why not? We haven't even been together two months..."

"Because, Spencer. She's my best friend, God! Way to make things awkward; She would flip!" I clench my eyes shut as I bring a hand to my face and squeeze them in frustration. "This is so messed up..."

I join Spencer in staring at the ground, my eyebrows furrowed in thought as I look up at her before speaking again.

"You kissed me." She looks up then, making eye contact as she shakes her head at me.

"You kissed me."

"You initiated it."

"I'm sorry..." She hangs her head. "I'm sorry for not telling you." She raises her head then, eyes locking with mine as she continues. "But honestly? I'm not sorry about the kiss. Don't deny it; you felt something there. You felt it as soon as you handed over that CD... And you felt it again downstairs. When something feels that right, how could it not be? Casey... Well, she doesn't feel right. I let it go for a while, hoping that in time, some sort of feelings would develop... But then I met you."

She steps forward then, never breaking eye contact, only stopping when we're centimetres apart, her eyes daring me to make a move. I won't do it.

I stare back at her, our eyes locked in a silent duel as we push for the other to break contact first.

We're both startled by a firm knock on the bathroom door, jumping apart at the sound of Casey's voice.

"Spence? Is that you in there?"

"Uh, yeah..."

"You okay?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine! I just uh... I just need to freshen up a bit... I'll be down soon."

"Okay... Be quick though, yeah? Glen told us about the fair you guys drove past the other day; we're thinking of taking the kids there for the day. We're packing the cars now."

"Sure, I'll be right down..."

"Cool. Hey, could you let Ash know on your way down? I think she's in her room."

"Yeah, no problem..."

We wait in silence until we hear Casey reaching the bottom of the stairs.

"Shit." I hold my head in my hands. What am I going to do? "Wait... You said you were just visiting your uncle... You're heading home soon, right?" she looks sheepish as she replies.

"Actually... We were visiting my uncle, but seeing as Casey's aunt and uncle have this house that's nearby, Glen and I had arranged to come here and spend some time with them. Obviously since bumping into you yesterday, I'd planned on breaking up with her, maybe spending some more time at my uncle's before heading home, but since you won't let me, I'm going to have to stick it out, aren't I?" Oh, don't you pin this all on me, missy; I've done nothing wrong...

"Well how long are you staying for?"

"The same amount of time as them." You have got to be kidding me...

Usually, we'd spend about a fortnight at the house, but this year, we'd decided to stretch it out for a month to make up for lost time the previous year. The house is already pretty cramped with the ten of us, but by the sounds of it, things are about to get a lot more cosy... Well, fuck.