A/N Here's another update for you guys. I appreciate your thoughts on both Spencer's and Ashley's actions. It's always interesting for me to hear other people's points of view on the way the characters are acting. So thanks :)

If I get the chance, there will be another update ready to go on Christmas Day. Reading and reviewing makes me do this :)

Chapter 6

Over the next couple of weeks Spencer and Ashley had fallen into a sort of pattern.

Spencer would be as rude and sarcastic to Ashley as much as possible. In turn, Ashley bit her tongue without responding to the many attacks launched at her.

And that was making Spencer mad.

She wanted to get a rise out of Ashley more than anything, even though she couldn't care less about the brunette, or so she said. The fact that her comments were met with indifference was not acceptable.

She clearly had to up her game.

Ashley was taking calming breaths as she waited for Spencer to arrive. This was the first time they were working on their project outside of class. Whenever she had to go to Home Ec or even think about working with Spencer, she was overcome with anxiety. It had been a horrible two weeks, and she was reaching a breaking point. She was constantly on edge around the blonde. Plus, the verbal barbs that Spencer launched at her had been progressively harder to take.

At first Ashley had brushed them off, but it was getting more difficult to do as time wore on. It wasn't just dealing with Spencer that had Ashley bothered. Madison was giving her just as hard a time. She was constantly making comments, not just about her partner situation, but also about how amazing it was to work so closely with Aiden. It wasn't that Ashley was jealous. What bothered her most was that Madison was taking such glee in her situation. And there wasn't really anyone that Ashley could talk to about what was going. Couple that with her mom being a nightmare at home and it led to one very unhappy girl.

"Sorry I'm late," Spencer said when she arrived at the library, not sounding sorry at all. "I got a little distracted with, you know, other pressing matters." It didn't take a genius to figure out what the blonde was implying. "Of course, you know, I take my marriage seriously so there's nothing for you to worry about."

"Why would I even care about that?" Ashley asked coldly. Because she didn't care. She didn't care one little bit if Spencer was seeing someone. Why would it bother her? They weren't friends, they were barely talking to one another and she had a boyfriend. "We're here to work, not to talk about your love life."

Spencer laughed smugly. "I never said you did care. I just wanted to apologize for being so thoughtless and rude as to let a pretty girl be the reason for me being so inconsiderate."

Ashley's blood was boiling. Why did it seem like lately everyone was doing their very best to get under her skin. It was infuriating. "Are you quite done yet? I don't have much time and we have stuff to do."

"Oops, my bad, I forgot about how much my 'lifestyle' is offensive to you," Spencer said, ignoring Ashley's plea for them to focus on what they needed to get done. "This project must be so hard on you and your morality."

"Look, I get that you're angry with—"

"I'm not angry with you, Ashley," Spencer cut in. "I couldn't care less about anything to you do, actually. I was merely surmising that seeing as you have a problem with people who are gay, this project would be hard on you"

Ashley's hand was clenched into a fist. It was getting hard not to lose control. "I don't have any kind of issue—"

"Let me save you the trouble of denying your homophobia."

"I'm not homophobic!" Ashley yelled.

Just then, the school's librarian came around the corner to give both girls a very stern look. "Be quiet or you're going to have to leave."

"I don't understand why you're denying this," Spencer whispered when they were alone again. She was not going to drop anything. "We both know how you feel about us gays."

Ashley couldn't take it anymore. She'd had enough0. But she wasn't about to cause a scene either. So instead of giving Spencer what she wanted, she put her things in her school bag and left the library.

But Spencer wasn't going to let her go that easily. She followed the brunette out the door and down the deserted hallway. Most people had already left school for the day. "Truth hurts?"

"Leave me alone," Ashley replied as she continued to walk away.

"Oh, you know all about that, don't you?" Spencer fired back bitterly. After going years without talking or even so much as looking at Ashley, these were not things that could be held back.

Ashley stopped dead in her tracks before whirling around to face a very angry looking Spencer. "And what exactly do you mean by that?"

Spencer leaned against a nearby locker, her smirk ever present. "Come on, Ash, let's not play any games right now. I'm merely stating facts and you're getting yourself all worked up over nothing."

"I am not getting worked up!" Ashley exclaimed furiously. She hated that Spencer was getting to her. She hated feeling so out of control. And most of all, she hated how hilarious the blonde found this situation.

She tried to walk away, but Spencer was too quick for her. She swiftly moved passed the brunette so she was blocking the exit. "Going somewhere? I don't think we're done here."

"Move!" Ashley ordered, fighting back tears.

"I guess you're not so tough without Madison here to do your dirty work," Spencer said. She was delighting in how upset Ashley looked. She couldn't believe she'd spent all this time ignoring the brunette's existence when she could have been having this much fun. "Guess you can dish things out, but can't take it."

"I said move," Ashley repeated, her voice cracking.

Although she felt a bit guilty about how she was behaving, Spencer refused to believe she was really doing anything wrong. It wasn't her fault that Ashley wouldn't ever own up to her own wrongdoing. But without really considering why, she stepped aside to let the brunette pass.

Ashley bolted from the hallway without looking back. She ran for her car and drove quickly all the way home, ignoring the plans she had to meet Madison at the mall. It wasn't until she was in the safety of her room that she allowed the tears she had been fighting back to fall.

"Don't you think you're being a little hard on her?" Sean commented the next day at lunch. He'd been listening to Spencer replay her conversation with Ashley.

Spencer looked at her friend in disbelief, "Uh, no. How can you ask that with all the shit I've had to take from her?"

"Well, in fairness, it's Madison that makes all the comments at you, not Ashley."

"Are you even being serious right now?" Spencer asked, hotly. Why on earth was Sean defending Ashley? "How can you even say that to me after everything I have to put up with?"

Sean didn't get a chance to defend himself, because they were interrupted by the arrival of Madison.

"Hello, Ellen."

"Really?" Spencer replied with an eye roll. "That's the best you can come up with? I mean it's the twenty-first century, Madison. Get some new material." She stood up so she was face to face with the other girl. "Of course that would require you to have functioning brain cells and we both know that isn't possible."

Madison gritted her teeth, "Whatever, Carlin."

"Ooh, good response." Spencer said sarcastically.

"Look, I have better things to do than waste my time speaking to trash like yourself," Madison replied. "I came here for a reason."

Spencer folded her arms across her chest, her eyes never leaving Madison's. "Do tell, I must know."

"It's about, Ashley," Madison gave Sean a look like he should leave, but he wasn't about to abandon his friend. "I don't know what you've done to her, but she's been acting weird the last few days and I want you to stop."

"Oh, I'm so touched," Spencer clutched her chest, "You care that much about Ashley that you've actually lowered yourself to my level and are speaking with me. It's almost enough to make me cry."

"I'm not joking around," Madison said. Although she was sort of there out of concern for Ashley, the visit was more about finding a reason to give Spencer a hard time.

"I can see you're very serious," Spencer responded. "Now turn yourself around and get back to whatever it is you do between animal sacrifices."

Madison took a few steps forward so she was right in front of the blonde. Nobody disrespected her.
"Whatever made you sick in the head, I don't want you spreading that to my friends. You're lucky that anyone even tolerates your existence, let alone glorifies what you have chosen to do with your life."

From the quad, Ashley could see Madison and Spencer going at it, but she didn't have any idea why they were arguing. She had spent her lunch hour with her headphones on, ignoring everything else around her. Dread did not even cover what she was feeling about having to face Spencer today, but she was trying not to think about that too much. Unfortunately she wasn't able to really stop now that she saw what was happening.

"The day I give a fuck what you think, will be a cold day in hell." Spencer wasn't going to be pushed around.

Madison moved really close to the blonde. "You act all tough, but we both know the truth, don't we. I mean, if I had to walk around living your life, I'd probably have slit my wrists by now. You're a loser. Always have been, always will be."

Sean wanted to step in, but the last time he tried that, things didn't end well.

"Your mother can't stand you. Who could blame her, having such a disappointment for a kid." Madison was laughing, as was Sherry. "God knows what is wrong with your dad—"

"Shut up!" Spencer shouted. Madison was hitting way too close to home for her liking.

"I mean, everyone at the school, hates you," Madison continued, undeterred by the angry, almost violent expression on Spencer's face. "Actually, I'm wrong, you're too much of a nobody for anyone to hate you." She pointed her finger right at the blonde, "I don't care what you do with your own miserable existence, but if do anything to corrupt Ashley or try and convert her, you will regret it."

If it was anyone else saying this to her, Spencer would have laughed. She sounded like kind of wannabe mobster. But the blonde found nothing about the situation funny. She hated to think what Ashley was telling Madison about what they had been doing together, which wasn't even anything besides work. What kind of lies was she spreading? Not that it should have mattered because Ashley was nothing to her.

Absolutely nothing.

As much as Spencer had pushed Ashley to her breaking point over the last couple of weeks, the blonde had spent years being tormented by Madison. Sure, she mostly brushed it off and pretended like she wasn't bothered by such hateful words, but the fact that Ashley would tell Madison that Spencer was trying to turn her gay was painful.

Ashley had a sinking feeling in her stomach as she watched the scene between Madison and Spencer play out. She didn't need to be over there to know that whatever was going on was not good. She didn't understand why Madison found it necessary to harass Spencer as much as she did. Ashley hated when that happened. What she hated more was that she let it happen.

Sure, she wasn't the one saying the words to Spencer. But wasn't she complicit by never standing up and telling Madison to stop? Didn't that make her worse for it? Even with all the angry and hurtful things that Spencer had said to her over the last little while, she couldn't stand by now and keep quiet. She'd done enough of that already.

With a big sigh and butterflies in her stomach, she took her stuff and started to make her way over to a scene she wanted no part of.

"For someone who has a big mouth a lot, you're awfully quiet," Madison taunted the upset looking blonde. "Not so tough now, are you?"

Spencer opened her mouth to respond, but out of the corner of her eye she caught Ashley walking towards them. She couldn't handle that now. She just couldn't. So she took off.

With Madison's snickering laughter ringing in her ear.

Ashley stopped walking towards Madison when she saw what happened. She changed courses and decided to follow Spencer instead, but she was too late. She couldn't find where the blonde had gone, no matter how hard she tried.

When Spencer didn't show up for Home Ec, Ashley began to really worry. It wasn't the first time Spencer hadn't shown up to one of their shared classes, but it was the first time Ashley allowed herself to acknowledge the fact that cared. She knew she shouldn't; she knew she really had no right.

But she couldn't stop herself.

That's why instead of meeting Madison after school, she was driving to Spencer's house. It was a place she knew how to get to with her eyes closed. It was also a place she hadn't been to in years.

From the outside, it looked like the same place she'd spent countless hours at as a kid. Inside, though, she knew it couldn't be more different than she remembered. There were a lot of rumors she'd heard about Spencer since they had stopped being friends. But Ashley had ignored those rumors so that she could disregard the guilt she felt over what she had done.

Or what she hadn't done more specifically.

Her desire to fit in had outweighed her loyalty and promises that had been made. It shouldn't have been that way. But that didn't change the facts.

Ashley pulled into Spencer's driveway feeling more nervous than she could remember. This was a terrible idea, she told herself. And yet there she stood on the doorstep, having just rung the bell.

There was no going back on her decision now.