A/N: I really want to finish this too. :D I really appreciate all the support, thanks everyone.
Behind dark aviators, blue eyes watched the petite girl sob beside her in the dark leather passenger seat. She had a hard time understanding the morning. Waking up to the... Teenager, god the thought still bothered her. It would have been nice to know before hand she was dealing with a child. She wouldn't have done anything, fucked up or not, but help the girl find her car, sleeping with her wouldn't have crossed her mind for the slightest second.
The slim cell phone in her tight jeans went off. She answered casually watching the girl begin to cry harder, a neatly waxed eye brow raised. "Hello?"
The voice on the other end stayed quiet for a couple of seconds. "Do I want to know?" Paige, her dear friend back in las Angelas, inquired with a strange mixture of curiosity and concern.
"I don't even want to know." She mumbled running a hand through her hair, moving her eyes to the empty space in the street where the girl's car should have been. "I'm babysitting."
The smile could be heard over the phone and she found her friend chuckling in her ear. The girl beside her shot her a dark angry look. "Don't quit your day job, Gabby." The name was spoken playfully, the blonde took the oppurtunity to mouth 'are you hungry?' to the the teenager now staring at her as if she had grown a second and third head.
"I wasn't planning on it. I'm going to get the kid a happy meal. I'll call you back later, Paigy." Exchanging quit goodbyes, she hung up keeping her eyes on the road.
"I'm dead." The brunette's tears started back up again and she couldn't take them anymore. They made her feel bad and uncomfortable, and she really didn't know what to make of them. She was used to dealing with grown ups, and was never put in a situation with someone as sensitive as... As... She never was good with names.
"I know this really good diner and I promise you the best breakfast in the world and your car back if you please stop crying."
"Y-you know who has my car?"
The girl's voice was so quiet and hopeful, she held up her hand briefly glancing at the cross around her neck. "I swear on Jesus' dead, reborn, and then dead again soul that I know where your car is at. Mommy and Daddy will never know you were out here, Darling. Pinky promise."
Despite the tears, the brunette couldn't help but smile smally, offered pinky. "You act like I'm 5."
"You cry like your 5." She shot back playfully, relieved to have settled the teenager's anxiety. The poll reading 'violaters will be towed' clued her in on where to find the vanished vehicle.
Pulling into the parking lot of the diner, she walked quietly next to Ashley as they entered the restaraunt. The place was busy, customers and waitresses buslted around full tables and booths. A smile turned her lips as she caught a tall red head's eye. "Get us a booth and make it two of whatever you order."
Walking away before the girl could question her actions, she followed the red haired waitress out a back door.
Ashley watched them walk out of the building and followed them with her eyes out the window. Gabbys jeep was illegally tinted, for obvious reasons she concluded watching them disappear into the back seat. "Table for one?" She met the kind eyes of an older woman and smiled.
"Two. My friend will be in in a minute." The woman whose name tag read 'Darlene' smiled again and brought her to an empty booth coming back for her drink and food orders. She did what she was told and ordered for two.
The empty seat across from her was soon filled. The evidence of what transpired in the blonde's jeep was smeared onto her lips. A pink shade that matched the red head's. It also stained the skin on her neck. "Do you just go around sleeping with people?" She couldn't keep the disgust out of her tone. "With... Girls?"
"I have friends all over." Sitting back, slender fingers wrapped around a cold glass of orange juice, bringing it up to her lips, blue eyes examined the young brunette carefully. She looked angry like she had done something wrong. "Is someone jealous?" The comment was playful almost sing song like.
Ashley looked down wanting to disappear. She did feel jealous, and she was mad and hurt. Even her body was sore from spending a night with the blonde, and she didn't care about her. She wasn't sure what she was thinking allowing this stranger to have her body. It was obvious that's all she wanted, kicking her out in the early morning, calling her a kid, fucking a waitress not too long after- The tears started again and they wouldn't stop. She felt embarrassed, used and stupid and this person across from her didn't give a fuck. Didn't even know her name.
She wanted to go home.
"Aww, shame on you. This little precious thing is too pretty to make cry like this."
Perplexed blue eyes narrowed at the waitress as she set the plates down. "Do you really feel that comment was helpful?" Darlene gave her a stern stare and shook her head walking away from the table. She rolled her own eyes focusing on the brunette. "I didn't mean to upset you again. If I hurt your feelings in any way shape or form I really am sorry." Wet brown eyes looked up at her. "Look, our breakfast is smiling up at us." She grinned at the pancake faces. "And another positive, we have blueberry, strawberry and maple syrup. Life is good."
"I just want to go home." Taking the fork, she mostly moved food around her plate. There was no appetite, just deep regret and fear.
They ate silently and neither of them spoke on the way to the car impound. Ashley stayed mostly inside of her head feeling stupid and ashamed. The process was quick ending in Gabby giving the front desk attendant money.
The car was pulled to the front of the building. "Is this it?" Ashley nodded as the attendant gave his goodbyes handing her the keys.
"Thanks for everything." She told the blonde feeling more awkward than anything. The way her eyes avoided hers went along very well with the thick tension surrounding them.
The brunette's tone wasn't thankful, it was more bitter and 'I hate you go die' would have fit like the perfect puzzle piece. "No problem." There wasn't anything left to say. She had found the yellow brick road, made her feel like the evil witch, and was on her way home. Mission accomplished."Have a good day." She turned back to her jeep and slipped inside watching the curly haired girl drive away. "What a day." Was her first thought, and 'I need a drink.' Was her second.
With on eye closed and her head tilted at just the right angle, she managed to operate a vehicle, after visiting most of the bars from New Orleans to Magnolia Mississippi, driving drunk wasn't so hard. A huge sigh of relief escaped her as she pulled up to her childhood home.
The property hadn't changed much. It was still your typical big white country home with a wrap around porch, plenty of trees, and lots of people. A frown shaped her lips. On top of being completely drunk, she would have to meet and speak with people she would surely know. Magnolia wasnt very big, chances were nobody but her left and everyone else was at her mother's house celebrating.
She never came back after leaving. Her and her mother skyped and the older blonde hated hearing about her life since leaving Magnolia. She left a very religeous house hold to follow her dreams of becoming successful and famous. Being the high functioning alcoholic that she was, she walked straight and acted pretty damn sober.
"My baby!" She smiled as her mother came running toward her from the backyard. The house didn't have a fence anywhere, all three acres were open making it easy for the blonde to spot her getting out of the black jeep. "Oh I've missed you so much!" Hundreds of kisses were planted all over her face, bringing a big drunk smile to her face.
"I missed you too, Mom." The older blonde brought her to arms length looking her up and down.
"You've gotten so big, and your accent is completely gone." She spoke in playful amazement. "What happened to my country baby?"
"Bad for business. I didn't want to be the Dolly Parton of the porn industry." The look on her mother's face was absolutely priceless. She enjoyed bringing the subject up, loved seeing her mother's speechless expression.
"I still love you my baby. I don't care too much for the other you, but I love you dearly my Darling." A gentle pat to the face followed the sentimental words, and she rolled her eyes behind dark sun glasses.
"Love you too."
Her mother chuckled, blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen her mother so happy. "It always kills you to say that. I thought I had raised a loving baby. When you were two I couldn't get-"
The sound of glass shattering made two blonde heads abruptly turn. Standing not too far, on the porch, was a very familiar young lady standing in a bikini swim suit, staring as if she had just seen the ghost of mother Theresa herself.
The blonde wore the same expression, and she was beginning to feel what it was like to be completely and utterly speechless. Not even the alcohol could calm her inner panic and confusion. "Oh I'm so glad you came out here!" Her mother urged her frozen body closer to the obviously frozen brunette. "Spencer you will never guess who this young lady is!"
"I don't want to know." The older blonde chuckled heartily at her non joke. There was very little funny about the situation.
"It's Ashley, Darling." She spoke in a way that was supposed to make her feel excited and happy to see the teenager. It didn't work. Every now and then, she'd sometimes wonder what it would be like to faint. She was sure the pre fainting sympthoms were there.
"You're Spencer?" Ashley asked looking confused and kind of horrified. When no answer was given Paula decided to speak for her all of a sudden shy daughter. "Yes, dear. Hasn't my baby grown?" She laughed joyously near her ear. Spencer was finding it hard to keep up. Memories flooded her mind and she all of a sudden felt very sick. "This is your old baby sitter, Spencer. She took very good care of you when you were-"
"I'm very drunk," Pale, and in a very fucked up episode of the twilight zone, she spoke hastily just wanting to walk away for a few seconds, hours, years- Needing time to process everything. "And I'm going to go be sick in the toilet now." Not waiting for a response she walked past everyone looking in her direction, zeroing in on a large bottle of wine sitting in the kitchen.
Grabbing the merlot, she walked into the bathroom with no plans of reemerging.
Ever.
"Do you think I'll ever like the dark?"
Not looking up from the sketch pad in her arms, she reached up for the light switch. "Just count the stars, purple paper eater." The ceiling lit up with what seemed like hundreds of bright glowing stars in the darkness.
"I don't eat paper anymore, Spencer!" The child corrected giggling from across the room. "I stopped at 3!"
"I never had a problem with your paper eating." She closed the sketchbook. "Now we'd have a problem if you were sniffing glue." Placing the book down on the desk, she stood up. Spending hours sketching different big cities was becoming an obsession. Leaving the small Mississippi town was her biggest obsession, she wasn't sure where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do, but she planned on figuring it all out.
Soon.
"Before you fall asleep from counting all the stars, and I want you to tell me exactly how many there are in the morning, I have something I've been meaning to talk to you about."
"I don't eat paper anymore." She whined and in the darkness she tousled her curly hair. "Or sniff glue."
"I know. Ive never bought you a stick of glue and I never will." The blonde reached into the night stand and pulled out a flash light. "There once was a town of bloody zombies who had just-"
"No scary stories Spencer!" The teenager laughed removing the light from under her chin. Shining the light on her little buddy, the 5 year old sat up from a sea of pillows and began making funny shadow puppets on the wall. A pang of sadness hit her out of nowhere, it was so strange how they bonded over the years. She had known the girl with the crazy curls for all of her young life. Her mother and her took care of her often, whenever her father and mother toured all over as world famous Christian rock stars.
"I'm going to quit school." The young girl's shadow puppets died as Spencer threw the light aside, all jokes set along with it. "And I'm going to leave here, soon." There was enough light for her to see the confusion. "But you're going to be starting school soon, after this summer and you'll make lots of new friends-"
"I don't want new friends." The brunette leaped into her lap wrapping her tiny arms around her neck. "I just want you to be my friend. I don't want you to leave. Everyone leaves... It's not fair!"
"We'll always be friends, best friends." She never cried but for some reason she really wanted to. The kid was not making the conversation easy. "Ashley ill visit all the time and I'll call everyday. You'll always see me, always. So much that you'll get sick of my face."
The brunette giggled. "Promise?"
"Double, triple, quadruple, promise. I'll visit so much you'll have to beg me to leave because ill be atrociously annoying."
"What if I wanted to come visit you?"
"That's fine too. I'll send a post card with my address so you can come visit me anytime you want."
"Scooby doo?" She asked excitedly.
The teenager chuckled. "Wouldn't you rather some cool iconic landmark? Like the Eiffel tower?"
"You can't live In Paris!" The little girl abrupted In loud laughter. "You don't eat frogs!"
"But I eat snails." She urged the little girl back into bed, tucking her In.
"Gross!"
"Remember count all the stars and keep your eyes open for aliens." She tousled her curly hair once more before getting off the bed. "I'll leave both our doors open and keep the hallway light on in case you decide to sleep walk and find paper to eat."
"I don't eat paper anymore!"
Spencer chuckled. "Night kiddet."
"Night Spencer!"