Alex sniffled, then looked away from her friend, seemingly trying to find something to focus her attention on as she spoke.
"You know how I told you about my dad and mom fighting a lot lately right?" she asked.
"Yes," Ashley replied simply, waiting intently for more.
"Well..last night he and my mom got into it real bad, worse than before and…they're get- getting, getting a-, a divorce," Alex said looking at the brunette's face more than she had in the last few minutes, and making eye contact.
The other girl gritted her teeth and bit her lower lip as she stared into a pair of beautiful green eyes, trying to think of what to say because any conversation about the D word was never easy.
"Babe, I'm sorry. I know this is hard. I've went through it myself so I definitely have an idea what you're goin through," Ashley replied, resting her hands on both sides of the other girl's shoulders.
"She's such a bitch. I told my Dad that he should've divorced her a long time ago. I don't care about that, I just can't believe what she did…" Alex commented, crossing her arms and wiping the remnants of her tears away.
"What did she do?" the brown-eyed girl asked, not sure if she really wanted to know how much worse the story really got.
"She cheated on him! The bitch slept with his best friend. What kinda shit is that? Now she thinks she's pregnant and she doesn't know who the father is…fuck my life dude seriously!" Alex said, shaking her head and starting to replace the tears with pure anger.
Wow…no kidding fuck…the brunette said to herself before thinking of a better response.
"Ok, that does put an extra spin on things, but I promise you're gonna make it through…One step at a time and I'm here for you. First things first though, you gotta make it through practice," Ashley said with a smile. "You think you got 30 minutes worth of venting you can do with that?"
Alex's lips tweaked at the corners, forming a weak start of a smile. "I guess…As long as you throw another one of your huge parties this weekend because I am in desperate need of pussy, weed, and alcohol."
The brunette busted out laughing as she held the door to the gym open for her teammate.
"Oh yeah, you're back," she said, slapping Alex on the ass as the two returned to practice with renewed energy and the air cleared between them.
***
After practice wrapped, Ashley wasted no time getting out of the parking lot and heading home.
When she arrived, to her surprise her mom was there waiting.
"Hey honey, how was practice?" Miss Davies asked, walking through the foyer.
"Fine, I guess," she replied shortly, closing the front door behind her and walking upstairs.
"That's good. Hey Ash, what do you think about dinner tonight? Out or in?" her mom asked, leaving the previous portion of their conversation at that.
"In, make it Chinese," the brunette replied, going into her bedroom and closing the door behind her.
"Hm…Chinese food it is," Miss Davies said out loud before turning to go call for delivery.
When the food got there, Ashley's mom called her downstairs.
As she grabbed her food and turned to return to her room, her mom said, "Uh huh, sweetie lets eat dinner downstairs tonight in the dining room. It's been so long since we sat down together and talked."
The brunette sighed and mumbled. "Fine."
The mother and daughter assembled in the dining room and sat down on opposite ends from each other at the long and narrow table.
As they begin to eat their food, it was painfully obvious that dinner would involve less talking and more eating.
After about two minutes of silence, Miss Davies finally asked, "So Ashley, how's basketball been going?"
"Good, got a new teammate," Ashley replied. "How's work?"
"Good, got a new project," her mother said. "What's your teammate like? You like her?"
"Yeah, she's ok. Her name's Spencer," the daughter said. "Where's the project at this time?"
"It's in NYC. I leave Friday morning and I don't come back until late Sunday night," Miss Davies said, and then took a sip of wine.
"Sweet, works out great because I was going to ask about throwing a party Friday night but if you're not going to be here, even better. Problem solved," Ashley said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"Oh I see, well great. Glad that worked out," the mom said.
"Yeah, me too," Ashley said, taking her last bite of food and smiling a generic smile.
After another minute of awkward silence, Miss Davies said, "Well, its been nice catching up, I'm gonna go start a load of dishes and go get my travel plans set."
"Yeah, it was. I'm gonna go watch the game and type my paper," Ashley replied as both women stood up, put their dishes in the dishwasher, and went their separate ways inside of the oversized mansion they called home.