Denise knocked on Ashley’s door a few hours later in attempts to talk to her again about what really happened. She knew Ashley well enough to know she had a very high threshold of tolerance when it came to controlling her emotions. There had to be more to the story then either girl was telling. She waited a moment and when there was no response she opened the door figuring Ashley was napping or in the bathroom. She looked around the baron room as she entered; Ashley was nowhere to be found. She quickly checked the bathroom and again came up empty handed. Nervousness and anger setting in she quickly checked the rest of the rooms in the small condo before returning to her bedroom.
She took a deep breath as she tried to maintain her composure before grabbing the phone off the nightstand and calling Jared.
“Ash…are you ok? What happened today?” he asked immediately picking up the phone.
“Jared, it’s Denise.” She sighed knowing the answer to the question she was going to ask immediately. “I’m guessing you haven’t heard from or seen Ashley since school this morning?”
“No, I’m just getting home from school…what’s going on?”
“I wish I knew. I was coming in here to try and talk to Ashley and she’s gone. I was hoping she was with you. She wouldn’t say much about the fight today, you wouldn’t happen to know anything would you?” she asked hopefully.
“There’s way more to what went on today then just a fight. I’ll try and call Ashley but if you don’t mind I’d like to stop by and give you the real story.”
“I would appreciate it greatly.” Denise said before hanging up with him.
No more then 20 minutes later Jared was at the door. Denise let him in and they sat in the kitchen as he explained what has been going on with the girls at school for the past few months and even everything that had happened to her at the beginning of last year with Derek spreading rumors about her. Denise was shocked that Ashley had hid all of this from her.
“So not only did they spread all these rumors, but last night Ashley started getting all these phone calls and I found this posted up at one of the lounges all the kids from school hang out at.” He pulled out the flyer from his back pocket and unfolded it showing it to Denise.
Denise stared down at the flyer, speechless. She couldn’t believe someone would stoop this low to try and hurt Ashley.
“When she got to school today there was a bunch all over her locker and inside. From what I heard they were just talking one minute and Ashley flipped out on her the next, but apparently Stephanie and Elaine have been bragging all day about being involved in everything.”
“Has anyone brought this to the dean? I mean these girls can’t get away with something like this. Not only are they ruining Ashley’s reputation but handing out her phone number like this Is an invasion of privacy. These girls need to be stopped before they take this any farther.”
“I wanted to talk to Ashley about it first and see what really happened and try and convince her to talk to you.” Adam sighed. “I tried calling her but her phone is still off and her mailbox is full.”
“Thank you so much. Please just keep an eye out for Ashley, I’m going to call around and try and find her but I know she would come to you first before she comes home.” Denise said sadly. She wished she had known what was going on at school because she would have put a stop to it before it got to this level.
Jared stood and hugged her goodbye before leaving. Denise had stayed calm in front of him, but once he as out the door she broke down. She grabbed the phone and called her son hoping he could help her.
“Alex?” Denise said as he picked up the phone.
“Mom what’s wrong?” he said hearing the shakiness in her voice.
“Ashley’s gone.”
“What do you mean she’s gone?” AJ asked confused.
“She’s not here, she left…I don’t know where or when but she’s gone.” Denise was now rambling, the stress obviously getting the best of her.
“Ok mom calm down. I’ll call some of her friends out here and see if anyone has heard from her.” AJ said trying to make her relax a little.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at her, I should have tried to find out what was going on.” She sighed trying to calm her self down.
“Mom what are you talking about? What’s going on?”
“Ashley got suspended today.”
“She what?” AJ said furiously.
“She got into a fight. I yelled at her, I told her it was her fault, but it wasn’t. These girls at school are so mean to her I don’t know why she wouldn’t tell me. I need to find her before something bad happens.”
“Mom I will find her ok? You stay home just incase she calls or comes back. I’ll find her, I promise.” AJ sighed and hung up the phone.
AJ sighed running his hands through his hair as he searched for the paper that contained Angel’s cell phone number on it. When he found it he grabbed his phone and dialed the number, hoping she would pick up.
“Angel, please tell me my sister is with you.” AJ said the second she picked up the phone.”
“Umm no I haven’t heard from her in a few days…why?” Angel asked confused.
“She got suspended today for fighting and now apparently she’s run away.” AJ was furious with her for putting Denise through all of this and he couldn’t wait to find her and let her have it.
“She did what?” Angel said in shock. She had never known Ashley to be the violent type.
“I’m going to kill this girl when I find her. Mom practically had a nervous breakdown on the phone with me…I don’t know what the hell has gotten into her lately. Do you have any idea who she could be with?”
“I wish I did, she hasn’t called me or anything. I tried calling her last night but her phone was off and her voice mail was full.”
“She’s dead. I swear this girl is driving me to an early grave…when I find her…”
“Just take it easy on her AJ…she’s going through a hard time.” Angel said with a sigh wishing she could just tell him what was really going on with her friend.
“I’m done taking it easy on her. She crossed the line this time…first she goes out with that creep and now this…she needs a rude awakening and believe me I’ll give her one.” By now AJ was furious with her. The more he thought about all the things she had tried to get away with this past summer the angrier he got.
“Maybe she already got that rude awakening and you just haven’t found out about it yet.” Angel said knowing she couldn’t keep this a secret any longer. She knew it was the best thing for Ashley, even if she would hate her for it.
“What are you talking about?” AJ was confused at Angel’s obscure answers.
“Let’s just say she learned the hard way why no one wanted her to date Adam…” she struggled to find the best way to put it but gave up and just threw it out into the open. “He had sex with her….she didn’t want…”
“I’ve barely come to terms with the fact that my sister is having sex, I’m not exactly open to hearing about who she chooses to do it with.” He cut her off.
“No AJ you don’t get it…she said no.” Angel stressed again.
“That son of a bitch.” AJ said angrily feeling his blood begin to boil as he slammed the phone down.
Angel sighed as the line went dead, hoping she did the right thing.
As much as AJ wanted to find Adam and rip his head off he knew he had to find Ashley first and deal with Adam later.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ashley looked around the small, poorly lit back room of Club X. Although she had been there a once before she had never been downstairs. Adam took her hand and led her over to an empty couch.
“Sit. I’ll be right back with a surprise for you.” His mischievous grin worried her. It was never a good sign. She would have said something had it not been for the 3 shots of Jack Daniels she recently downed that were numbing her senses.
She watched as Adam walked further into the room and knocked on a door. It opened and he disappeared inside. He emerged a few minutes later with a small bag in his hand. From afar she thought it was weed and grinned in anticipation of a high, but as he got closer she noticed a white substance. He joined her on the couch kissing her roughly.
“This right here, baby, will take all of your problems away.” He waved the small bag in her face.
She swallowed the lump that began to form in her throat finally finding her words.
“Adam, is that coke?” she asked as he grinned setting up a line on the table in front of them. She watched as he snorted it then leaned back against the couch taking it in.
“Adam what the fuck! You know I wouldn’t touch that shit!” she yelled.
“Baby, relax. I know you had a bad day and I just wanted to make it all better.” He rubbed her thigh. “What’s the big deal? It’s just one time. You’re not gonna get hooked.”
“What’s the big deal?” she shoved his hand off her. “You know my brother was in rehab for that shit and you know I would never touch it.”
“Your brother was an alcoholic too and I just watched you down Jack like it was your job babe, so don’t play that card.” He was beginning to get frustrated and she could tell.
“That’s different!” she retorted, but knew she was lying to her self. The truth is if AJ ever found out about all of her social habits he would kill her. Especially after the year he just had. She was ashamed but she knew where to draw the line, and this was it.
“Yea baby, you keep telling your self that. What about the two joints you smoked with me on the way over, was that so different?” she scowled at him getting up from the couch.
“Fuck you. I’m leaving.” She started to walk away. Adam grabbed her wrist causing her to wince in pain. “Let go of me!”
He swung her around to face him.
“Listen bitch, I’m sick and tired of you playing these little games. If you can’t play hard ball with the big boys then you better just walk away now because believe me this ain’t the worst of it.”
She could feel the angry tears welling in her eyes but she fought them back, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of defeating her.
“I’m leaving.” She said once more pulling her wrist out of his grasp.
“Yea, we’ll see how long it takes for you to come crawling back.” He laughed as she slammed the door. As soon as she was out of sight of the club she broke down.
“What the fuck was I thinking calling him?” She mumbled to herself. Frustrated she let out a loud scream and kicked the closest thing.
“Fuck.” She winced as her foot pounded from its contact with the garbage can on the corner. She pulled out her phone noticing it was already 1 AM. She had no way home, Adam was her only ride. She looked in her wallet.
“5 bucks, that’ll get me far.” She knew she had no other choice, even though she would regret it. She hit the speed dial and waited for the answer.
“I need you to pick me up…no questions.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
a lot of revelations in this chapter and a lot more to come in the next one. More soon hopefully!
Chapter End Notes:
another phone call? I think you'll like who she calls better this time...but again who do you think she calls?
