May Maple stared at the place where Ash sprinted off until the meaning behind his words sunk in. All the taunts, the insults, everything had gotten to him. There was nothing she could do to fix it. But what did he mean when he said 'them'…?
The one thought that processed in her mind made her turn around. Call it a sixth sense, a hunch, a feeling, whatever, but somehow she just knew that she'd get an answer. And she did.
Lo and behold, from around the corner Gary and Drew appeared, seemingly chasing after somebody, who May could only assume to be Ash.
As they came to stand in front of the girl with smug looks on their faces, she shot the two of them an angry glare unlike any that had come from her before. The difference being that it was fueled by pure outrage.
"Something wrong, dear?" Drew asked while flashing a smile, showing his pearly-white teeth.
May kept her expression up, not faltering in the least. "Yes, there is Drew, Gary." She growled with her teeth clenched. Turning so her back faced them, she said sharply, "Don't follow me, understand?" The two boys frantically nodded their agreement after realizing that they did something bad in the eyes of the teenager, and they weren't willing to face her wrath.
With that, she strolled away in the direction that Ash had walked in, towards the library.
May found Ash at a table reading a book. Getting closer to him, she heard him talking to himself. "I can't believe this actually got published…"
"Huh? What did?" She asked in mild confusion. She had noticed that book sometime before when she was snooping through her brother's room once, but had thought nothing of it at the time. Now though, she could see the title of the book, called Dreams and Reality. She stared at it before glancing back at Ash as he turned his head to look into the girl's sapphire-blue eyes.
"This book…I wrote it. I get so bored sometimes when I'm in my room since there's nothing to do. This was one of the ways I got rid of my boredom. What are you here for, anyway?"
May was surprised at the abrupt change of topic, and took a minute to process the question. What was she here for? To apologize.
"I wanted to tell you that I'm really sorry for the ways I acted before. I guess I just want to get you know you before I can really judge…"
Ash sighed. "If it were anything else, then I'd accept, but…when you talk about that, no one can just come back and expect to be forgiven that easily… When that happened, I learned to accept the truth, but it's still hard sometimes. And then people who not only make fun of that but also come and claim that I made up a grand lie for attention just make my life even harder. Here's a question. Don't answer right away, take some time to think about this. Considering what I said, do you really think that I would be able to lie about that? Without feeling any sort of guilt? Do you?"
May was silent. Now that the situation had been put into perspective, she was finding herself to be incredibly stupid. What was she thinking?
No, now that she thought about it, she couldn't imagine anyone just going about saying that. The thought made her sick.
"I guess you're right…" She admitted quietly. "I don't know what I was thinking that day…" She buried her face in her hands, not able to look at the one person she was apologizing to. May felt so much guilt well up inside of her at that moment. She knew the reason as to why that was, as well.
She had to let it all out. Somehow. So she cried, tears flowing down her cheeks like a river out of her puffy and red eyes.
When she stopped minutes later, having no more tears left to shed, she caught a slight smile of appreciation on Ash's face.
"Thanks May. At least I know you're truly sorry for what you did, unlike the others." He seemed conflicted for a moment, but then decided on something. "This may sound stupid, but after the last period is over, would you like to come back with me and help out some? You'd probably enjoy yourself, given that there's a few kids who would most likely want to play a game with you…"
As May looked at Ash, a faint blush rose on her cheeks until she thought of something. If what he said was true, and his parents really were dead – which May was now more sure than ever that he was speaking the truth – then wouldn't that mean that he was living in…
Realization shone on her face, and May thought about her options. Go to an orphanage with Ash, or go home and stay with her parents and brother in a mansion.
It was obvious which one she chose.
A/N: Okay, another update! Thanks for reading and please review and tell me what you liked in the chapter and/or what I can do to make it better.
It helps a lot when others criticize my work and give advice since it helps me better improve as a writer.