I apologise for this taking so long. I've had assessments for the past two weeks so it's been kind of hard finding any time to just sit and chill out.

Okay, so first things first. A load of you smart people picked up on the Taylor/Madison subplot hints I dropped last chapter. Most of you seemed up for the idea of a thing between those two. But as I said before I haven't really decided what I'm doing and everything is flexible so I'm gonna let you decide. Review and tell me if you want Madison/Taylor or not. Majority rules. Thanks, it would be a big help because I'm on the fence with that one.

Don't know if I like this chapter as much as the others. It was definitely much more difficult to write but I think with all these assessments I've been doing recently I'm losing a lot of motivation. I hope you enjoy it regardless.

Oh. My. God.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Christine! Christine! Christine!

Ah fuck it! It's not working!

Damn you Taylor! You and your stupid fucking ideas. This is what happens when I listen to you! Take her to the beach you said, get to know her better you said, find out if she rides the rainbow train you said. Well you said nothing about holding a towel in front of Spencer Carlin while she's changing into my spare fucking bikini did you? No you fucking well did not!

Yep, I am officially freaking out. You would be too if you were holding the thin piece of material that separated you from a naked Spencer Carlin.

Oh God.

Naked. Spencer. Carlin.

I actually think I'm going to die. But at least I'll die happy and horny right?

I'm so caught up in trying to refrain from tearing away the towel and ravishing Spencer up against my car in front of all these people in the parking lot that I don't realise that Spencer is talking to me.

"Ash? Ashley?"

"Yeah?"

At least that's what I meant to say. It came out as more of a grunt. I never realised how difficult it was to speak and drool at the same time.

"I'm done. You can take the towel away now." She says sweetly.

Oh God. I'm not entirely sure I want to remove the towel. Just looking at the soft skin of her shoulders, which are visible over the top of the towel, is enough to seriously turn me on.

"Ashley?"

"Er, yeah, sure."

I slowly lower the towel, averting my eyes and deliberately focusing on the man I can see through the chain link fence sitting on the beach. He's bald, about twenty two stone and is currently stuffing a massive hotdog into what I think is his mouth. It's hard to tell. The guy has like twenty chins.

Ew. Okay. Now I'm feeling slightly less horny than I was before.

Holy shit!

I make the mistake of looking back at Spencer. She's standing next to my car wringing her hands together in a cute, self-conscious manner, clad in my spare all black bikini.

Oh. My. God.

Spencer in a bikini has to be by far the hottest thing I have ever seen. If I wasn't still taking in the scorching image in front of me I would have thought that my eyes had literally turned to liquid and dripped onto the floor. That's how hot she looks right now.

And the fact that it's my bikini? Let's put it this way. Neither Christine nor Mr twenty chins can save me now. I'm way too far gone.

I probably should have seen this coming but I was completely blindsided by the idea of spending time with her. It didn't occur to me at the time that going to the beach would equal Spencer in two small pieces of material that barely cover her breasts and ass. How stupid am I?

"You okay Ashley?" Spencer asks me sweetly. "You're a little flushed."

No shit Spence. No shit.

"I'm good." I nod casually. "It's just hot out here."

"Tell me about it." Spencer replies as I grab a spare towel from the trunk where I keep my emergency beach kit and we begin to walk towards the sand. "It's so much warmer here than in Ohio."

"Do you miss it there?" I ask as our bare feet hit the warm sand.

"Sometimes." Spencer shrugs lightly as we find the perfect spot to lay our towels. "I miss my Grandma the most." Spencer's face lights up as she says this and I can't help but crack a smile at her obvious adoration for her grandmother. The girl is just too cute. "And my old friends. But I think I'm well on the way to making some even better ones."

She flashes me a grin and my stomach swoops. I'm starting to wonder if that's ever gonna stop happening.

I reply to her comment with an easy smile and sit down on my towel before laying back. I can feel Spencer doing the same next to me, my breath hitching when her elbow briefly bumps mine.

"Thanks for agreeing to come out with me today. I don't know what I would have done if I'd had to sit through double Math." I tell her, putting my unnecessarily large sunglasses on and closing my eyes.

"I'm sure you would have survived." Spencer says lightly and I'm almost certain she just rolled her eyes. "And just so you know, if my Mom finds out about this I'm totally blaming you."

"Deal."

It's not like it will do me much harm. The woman clearly hates me already.

"I didn't know you had it in you Carlin." I continued, gesturing around slightly. "I didn't take you for a rebel."

"There's a lot you don't know about me Davies."

Wow. I never knew how hot my last name could sound until this very moment.

I turn so that I'm lying on my side and pull my sunglasses down my nose so that I can survey her properly. She's wearing a slightly smug smile; I'd almost go as far as to call it coy.

"Like what?" I raise my eyebrows challengingly and can't stop my eyes as they decide take a detour down the length of her amazing body.

"What would you like to know?" She replies and now her smile is undeniably coy and my heart is beating unexplainably fast.

I push my sunglasses back onto my face and flip over onto my back, unable to stop the stupid grin that spreads across my lips.

"Everything."

"Okay...favourite animal?"

"Lame question Carlin."

"Shut up and answer it Davies."

"Fine. Unicorn."

"Er, Ash? That's not a real animal."

"Sssh! They might hear you."

Spencer and I are currently sitting in a quaint little diner in downtown L.A, drinking coffee, eating muffins and playing twenty questions.

I'm acting like a complete fool but it's totally worth it as Spencer lets out a giggle and holds her stomach. I feel a strange sense of accomplishment at making her laugh this much.

"I'm pretty sure that things that don't exist can't hear us Ash." She says with a small, adorable snort.

Yep. You better believe it. When it comes to Spencer Carlin, even snorting is cute.

"You won't be saying that when my unicorn friends attack you with their horns for bad mouthing them." I tell her in a matter of fact tone to which she merely rolls her eyes and takes another bite of her granola muffin.

I know right? Granola. If Spencer Carlin has one flaw, it comes in the shape of small, yeast-free, way too healthy to be normal cake.

And I take cake very seriously.

"I can't believe you eat that shit." I say for what is probably the millionth time in half an hour. Spencer sighs and rolls her eyes but the small smile tugging at the very corner of her lips tells me she's not really annoyed.

"Ashley, will you please stop abusing my muffin." She replies, clutching it to her like it's some kind of prized possession. Either that or she thinks I'm gonna steal it from her and start stamping on it at any minute. Which now that I think about it isn't a bad idea at all.

"That's not even a real muffin." I tell her, taking a huge, rather unladylike bite of my own blueberry one. "It's like a cereal bar pretending to be a muffin."

At least that's what it was meant to sound like. It actually ended up coming out more like 'Ef ike a cewal bar battening ta be a buffin'.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't a great idea to talk to the girl you like with a mouth full of muffin. I mentally store that away for future reference.

Spencer cocks her eyebrow and shakes her head at me but I know that she's secretly amused by my antics. She can't fool me.

I swallow my muffin without choking to death, which is no mean feat may I add, and continue my train of thought.

"And I hate it when things pretend to be something they're not."

I say this in a light tone, childishly glaring at the half eaten granola shit opposite me but for some reason the smile seems to drop from her face.

Shit. I didn't mean it. I love granola muffins really.

"Hey Ash?"

The anxious tone to her voice indicates that our muffin conversation is all but over.

"Yeah Spence?"

"How did you know you were gay?"

Whoa! Where the fuck did that come from? Way to blindside a girl.

Spencer notices the shocked expression on my face because really it's not hard to miss. My eyes are the size of plates and my jaw has gone so slack you could probably fit an African elephant in my mouth with room to spare for a couple of small zebras.

"Sorry." She begins to backtrack hurriedly. "I didn't mean to ask such a personal question, I mean, I was just curious, you don't have to -."

"It's okay." I finally manage to close my mouth and help the poor girl out. "You just took me by surprise is all."

"Sorry." She whispers almost inaudibly and I have to fight the urge to 'Aww' as she ducks her head, a small blush gracing her cheeks.

"Don't worry about it." I flash her an infamous Ashley Davies smile and am proud when her cheeks flush even further. Oh yeah baby, I've still got it.

I mull over her question for a minute because to be perfectly honest couldn't think of a specific time or moment when I realised I was gay. It just sort of happened gradually over time.

"I guess I just knew." I shrug, taking a small sip of my lukewarm coffee. "Although I guess the first time I noticed something was up was when my Barbie's started to find themselves in rather compromising positions."

I waggle my eyebrows suggestively at the blonde across from me and she snorts adorably into her sad excuse for a muffin.

"I remember when I used to play with Barbies." Spencer reminisces with a smile. "It's a shame I don't still have them. I donated them all to charity when I was about seven."

"Er, yeah, me too." I tell her quickly and search for a change of subject before she discovers what I spent the entire weekend doing. "Anyway, about the gay thing...I pretty much knew when I first kissed a girl. It was so much better than kissing a boy."

Spencer opens her mouth and I swear to god that she was about to say 'I know' but she quickly snaps it shut again.

"How did your family react?" She asks suddenly.

"My Dad was fine with it." I shrug. "My Mom hates me anyway so it didn't really make much of a difference."

Spencer looks at me sympathetically for a moment and I look away. If there's one thing I can't stand, its pity.

"What about Taylor's family? Were they okay with it?"

"I think so." I shrug again, because it's never been something Taylor and I have particularly discussed. "Although I remember her telling me that her Aunt was pissed because she had this whole elaborate plan for Taylor to marry her eldest son."

"But wouldn't that make him Taylor's cousin?" Spencer looks incredulous. And Spencer Carlin makes incredulousness look hot.

"Yeah, I suppose." I've obviously been hanging around with Taylor way too much because that's the third time I've shrugged in the space of two minutes. "British people are weird."

"Were you and Taylor ever...?" Spencer starts just as I finish my muffin, which I promptly begin to choke on.

"What?" I half-choke, half-laugh out. "Me and Tay? No way. Never."

"Not even a little?"

"Nope." I shake my head, briefly wondering why she's pushing this so much. "I mean we sort of considered it at the very beginning but we were never more than friends."

Spencer seems satisfied with that answer as she leans back in her chair and finishes her muffin in silence, a thoughtful expression adorning her pretty face.

"Why are you so interested anyway?" I can't help but question because normally straight girls aren't too keen to know all about my flaming homosexuality.

"Just curious." She replies a bit too quickly and there's something in her voice that tells me there's more to that statement than she's letting on.

I pass it off as my overactive imagination and we fall into a comfortable silence. That's another thing I love about hanging out with Spencer, she's not one of those girls that has to fill every possible moment with pointless conversation.

A little while later, I signal for the waitress to bring the bill and after a two minute argument over who was paying, which I won, we're clambering back into my Porsche.

I once again notice Spencer glancing around appreciatively at the Italian leather interior and grin at her.

"You like my baby?"

And that didn't sound at all stupid.

"Yeah. How can you afford a car like this?"

Damn it. I'd amazingly managed to avoid bringing up the fact that I'm shit rich all day. Normally when I'm trying to get a girl to have sex with me my opening sentence goes something like this 'Hey, I'm Ashley. I'm a millionaire. Wanna fuck? Did I mention that I'm a millionaire?' but with Spencer I get the impression that money is more likely to intimidate than impress her.

And soon enough I'll be getting a shitload more money because at the moment I'm living off my trust fund. My actual inheritance doesn't kick in until I'm eighteen.

"Er, I have quite a lot of money." I tell her lamely. "My Dad was a millionaire."

"Was?"

Shit. That was also something I'd managed to avoid telling her. I had stealthily asked strategic questions about her family to keep her distracted so that she wouldn't ask about mine.

"He died about a year and a half ago. In a car accident." I decide to tell her because she's gonna find out sooner or later anyway.

"That sucks."

I send her a small smile because I'm glad she didn't say 'I'm sorry'. I know it's the natural response and all but I hate it when people apologise for things that are completely out of their control. I got so tired of hearing people say that phrase to me over and over again when most of them didn't even know my Dad at all.

We sit in comfortable silence for the rest of the journey back to Spencer's house, exchanging the odd glance now and then that makes my stomach clench and my palms sweat.

I think that blueberry muffin must be repeating on me or something.

"Told you that you should have gone with the granola." Spencer giggles.

What?

Oh shit. I said that out loud didn't I? For fucks sake Ashley! Stop doing that!

I stick my tongue out at her laughing form as we pull up against the kerb. As we exit the car I see Taylor and who I think is one of Spencer's brothers on the Carlin's driveway playing basketball.

"Hey guys!" Taylor grins dopily at us from under her backwards baseball cap and I snort at her appearance. She's dressed in fluorescent yellow basketball shorts, a pair of black and red high tops and a green Celtics jersey that clashes horribly with the aforementioned shorts.

"What's up Tay?" I glare at her as she points between me and Spencer and gives me a not so subtle thumbs up.

"Just schooling Glen here on how to play ball." She replies, still wearing that stupid smirk as she looks between Spencer and I.

"Whatever." Glen throws the ball at her and she catches it deftly before turning back to us.

"Come on Ash." She cocks her head to the left. "Come back to mine and I'll make you some dinner. You can tell me all about your day."

"Sure." I turn to say goodbye to Spencer who's standing quietly beside me. "I had a really good time today."

I really mean it too. Spencer's not just a pretty face; she's also just so happens to be excellent company. Once I got over my partially brain dead state of seeing her in a bikini that is.

"Me too." Spencer replies sincerely and we stand there awkwardly for a moment.

"We should skip again some time." I tell her because I can't think of much else to say.

"I don't know about that." She smiles. "I think that's enough rebellion for at least a year for me."

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you were a little goodie two-shoes." I tease her and she hits me lightly on the arm.

"I am not." She protests with a pout that I will admit makes my knees a little weak. "I'm just not a complete rebel like you."

I really shouldn't be proud of that fact but I totally am.

"But maybe we could hang out this weekend?"

"Yeah?" I grin stupidly at her suggestion and she nods her head. "Okay then. I'll call you."

And for once in my life I'm not lying. Because unlike the last hundred girls I said that exact same phrase to I know for a fact that I will be calling Spencer.

"Cool."

We both stand there slightly awkwardly before Spencer surprises me by leaning in and wrapping her arms around my waist in a warm hug.

Fuck. A. Monkey.

Spencer Carlin is hugging me!

I quickly wrap my arms around her back, savouring the feel of her body pressed up against me.

I'm hugging Spencer Carlin!

After holding on for as long as I possibly could without bordering on the seriously inappropriate I reluctantly let go, unable to contain the huge smile from spreading across my face, nose crinkle and all.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see Taylor and Glen saying goodbye. And by goodbye I mean a weird fist-bump, man-hug combo that they think looks cool.

"I'll probably see you sometime this weekend then." I tell Spencer as I turn to follow Taylor towards her house my legs slightly jellified by the fact that I just got to touch Spencer for a prolonged period of time.

God, I'm such a pussy.

Is it sad that I desperately want to do some kind of happy dance right now?

I follow Taylor into her house and close the door behind me. When I look up, Taylor is standing opposite me with a huge smirk on her slightly sweaty face.

"Let's see it then." Is all she says, her smirk now almost reaching from ear to ear.

"What?" I ask, because once again I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about.

"Just do the damn happy dance Ash."

Thanks for reading!

Shout-out to newest reviewers: Spikkels8, Son of Sam, , cutieflip27, Queenred12 and thismustbetheplace. Thanks a million.

And ages ago I think someone asked me if I play call of duty. The answer to that is yes, yes I do. After all, what kind of Xbox owner doesn't play COD? That would just be a crime against nature.