Two weeks had passes since that night with Adam and Ashley still hadn’t told anyone what really happened. Denise had been monitoring her every move since then, making sure to drop her off and pick her up from her summer program classes so she couldn’t get into any trouble on the way. Ashley hated being watched like a hawk. She wasn’t allowed to talk to or see any of her friends and at the moment she was happy about that. Her and Angel hadn’t settled their differences about her lying about the date and Jared was constantly questioning her about everything that happened when he tried to talk to her.
As much as Denise hated to keep under such close surveillance she just couldn’t trust her anymore.
“Ashley, come eat lunch.” Denise called out to her.
“I’m not hungry.” Ashley grumbled, making her way into the kitchen.
“You have to eat something. You skipped dinner last night and you slept through breakfast. It’s not healthy to skip meals like that, you can get sick.”
Ashley rolled her eyes and took a bite of the sandwich that Denise had made.
“There, I ate something.”
“I meant the whole thing.” Denise looked at her sternly.
“I’m not hungry, why should I be forced to eat?” she rolled her eyes taking one more bite. Her stomach growled, but the taste of food was making her nauseous.
“Ashley you need to eat.” Denise sat down at the table crossing her arms sternly. “I’m going to sit here with you until you finish your lunch.”
“I’m not a little baby, I can eat without supervision.” Ashley said angrily.
“Watch your tone.” Denise warned her.
“Or what? You’ll ground me some more?” she rolled her eyes.
“I am sick and tired of this little attitude of yours. Finish your lunch and go to your room.”
Ashley huffed in frustration and took two more bites of her sand which before standing up. “I ate enough.” With out giving Denise a chance to respond she turned on her heels and walked back to her room slamming the door.
Denise sighed as Ashley stormed off towards her room. She didn’t know what to do anymore. Ashley had barely eaten anything in days and she could hear her up at night crying. As much as she tried to talk to her Ashley wouldn’t open up. She was worried that she was loosing too much weight and she kept herself hidden underneath baggy sweats. She needed someone to talk to her, someone who could get her to open up because she obviously was getting nowhere. She picked up the phone and browsed through the address book finding the number she was looking for.
She rubbed her temples, her headache from frustration growing stronger as she listened to the phone ring.
“Hello?” Angel said picking up the phone.
“Hello Angel, this is Denise.”
“Oh hi…” Angel said confused as to why she was calling her.
“I know you probably weren’t expecting a call from me, but I need a favor.”
“Sure, anything for you.” Angel said cheerily.
“I know Ashley’s grounded, but I think talking to someone might help her to get out of this depression she’s in.” Denise sighed. “I’m just worried about her and it would mean a lot if you could help me out. I know she’ll open up to you.”
“Of course, I’ll try. I just don’t know how much help I’ll be. We really haven’t been on the best of terms recently. I don’t know how much she’ll want to talk to me.” Angel confided.
“It won’t hurt to try. I can see that she needs someone to talk to.”
“I can come tomorrow afternoon, if that’s ok.”
“Perfect. Thank you so much.” Denise said before hanging up the phone.
Denise sighed hoping that talking to Angel might brighten Ashley’s spirits and get her back
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Angel smiled as Denise opened the front door the following afternoon.
“Angel, it’s so good to see you.” Denise greeted her with a hug, letting her in.
“It’s been too long.” Angel smiled back and followed Denise into the living room.
“I really appreciate you coming here to talk to her. She won’t open up to me about what’s really wrong. She hasn’t been eating or sleeping much and she refuses to talk to anyone.”
Angel could hear the sadness in Denise’s voice and she just hoped that she could get through to her friend.
“I have to run out and do some grocery shopping, Ashley is in her room. I’ll be back in about an hour.” Denise informed before heading back towards the door. “Thank you again for helping me out.”
“It’s no problem.” Angel smiled and waved as Denise left. Taking a deep breath she made her way towards Ashley’s room.
Angel knocked on the bedroom door and peaked her head into the room. She saw Ashley lying on her bed, staring at the wall. Although she was still mad at her she was missing her best friend and glad that Denise had asked her to come talk to her.
“Ash?” she asked walking into the room and towards the bed.
“What are you doing here?” Ashley turned over, surprised to see Angel.
“Your mom called, she’s worried about you. What’s going on?” she asked taking a seat on the bed as Ashley sat up.
“Nothing.” Ashley groaned. “I told her I was fine. God forbid I’m not hungry a few times she jumps to conclusions.”
“It’s not just that. She said you just lock yourself in here all day you’re always crying and you won’t talk to anyone.”
“I’m grounded, what else am I supposed to do?” she rolled her eyes. “I’m fine, honest.”
Angel studied her face and could tell there was more to it then she was letting on.
“Fine.” Angel said dropping it for now. “That’s not all I came here for. I know that we’ve been kind of rocky recently, but I miss you. I want to put all this arguing behind us and get beck to being best friends.”
“What’s the point?” Ashley said bluntly, catching Angel off guard. “I’m grounded for the rest of life anyway. Might as well get used to not seeing me around.”
“Ash…what’s up with you?” Angel looked at her concerned. This was not her usual upbeat personality.
“Nothing!” Ashley yelled, now becoming aggravated with her questioning. “Why won’t anyone believe me? I’m fine!”
“I know you too well to know when something isn’t right. Why won’t you just tell me?”
“Everything is fucking peachy. Just go back to living your little perfect life and just forget about everything, ok?”
“Look, I know you’re mad at me for not accepting you going out with Adam, but if that’s what it will take for us to be friends again then I’ll deal with it.” Angel sighed, trying to get through to her.
“Forget about Adam.” Ashley mumbled pulling her knees up to her chest.
“Ash, you’re really worrying me. Please tell me what’s going on.” Angel pleaded.
Ashley took a moment trying to fight back tears that were threatening to fall. She wanted to tell Angel what was going on, she just didn’t know how.
“I just wish I would have listened to you, that’s all.” Ashley wiped her eyes quick as tears built up.
“What happened on your date?” Angel raised a brow worry becoming apparent on her face.
“Everything was great at first. We went to dinner then spent some time at his house. He brought me to a club and had to do some work there so he left me with these two girls who were kind of bitchy but the club was ok so I didn’t care. We kept doing shots and were dancing for a little.” She stopped taking a deep breath trying to control her emotions.
“Then?” Angel could tell by the look on her face that the rest of the story went downhill.
“Then we took a cab back to his house because we were both really drunk. We started to hook up.”
“Please tell me you didn’t have sex with him.”
Ashley darted her eyes away from Angel. Her response was enough, Angel sighed deeply taking Ashley’s hand into hers, trying to get her to look at her.
“Ash…”
“I didn’t want to.” She finally looked up at her, letting the tears flow freely.
“What do you mean you didn’t want to?”
“I said no, I told him I didn’t want to, that things were moving to fast, but he said that he could see how bad I wanted him.”
“Ash…”Angel pulled her into a hug struggling to find the right words. “You have to tell someone. What he did was wrong…it was rape.”
“No!” she pulled from the hug and looked Angel in the eyes. “You can’t tell anyone Angel. You have to promise me.” She grabbed her hand, her tear filled eyes pleading with her best friend to keep her secret.
Angel took a deep breath and just nodded in agreement.
Author's Chapter Notes:
thanks to everyone who has left feed back so far. I'm trying to get as much writing done as I can but I've had a lot of work due lately so it's been slowing me up. Thanks for sticking with me!
Chapter End Notes:
I know you're all waiting for shit 2 hit the fan with Adam and AJ and don't worry I won't disappoint just give it some time (not too much i wont drag it out)
