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It had been three weeks since that night at the beach and Ashley had kept herself away from there not wanting to see Derek or any of his friends. She was starting school that coming Monday and she was nervous as to how things would be if she ran into him.

The past three weeks had been especially challenging on everyone. AJ went back out on tour with the boys and he was getting readjusted to the routine. Although things were better between the two Ashley still didn’t talk to him much, but she was trying. The second year anniversary of her mother’s death had just recently passed too. It was hard for Ashley to believe that two years had gone by so quickly. She had changed so much in the past two years, for better and for worse. Ashley knew her mom would have been disappointed by some of the decisions she had recently made, but she also knew that she would be proud of her for going after her dreams and accomplishing her goals.


Monday came around quicker then Ashley had expected. She groaned as her alarm clock sounded. She turned over and smacked the button shutting off the annoying buzzing noise. She stared at her ceiling for a few moments before sitting up and tossing off the covers. As she stood up she stretched and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She trudged sleepily over to her closet and grabbed the clothes she had set out already making her way to her bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.

When she was finished getting dressed she quickly did her hair and put on some makeup. She made her way to the kitchen and found Denise putting a plate of eggs down with some juice. She looked up and smiled as Ashley walked into the kitchen taking a seat at the table.

“I was just about to come make sure you were awake.” Denise said taking a seat across from her.

“I wanted to make sure I had time to straighten my hair.” She smiled taking a bite of her breakfast. “What time does the bus come?”

“In about 20 minutes.” Denise said as she checked the clock.

She watched Ashley as she ate her breakfast. She could see the apprehension on her face.

“You’ll be great.” Denise said trying to boost her confidence. “I’m sure you’ll make plenty of friends.”

“Yea.” Ashley smiled a little as she finished her juice. “I’m gonna go make sure I have everything in my bag. I have to get down to the gate soon.”

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Ashley walked threw the doors of Huntington Beach High School and took a deep breath looking around. This school was so much different from her other schools. Walking the halls here was almost like walking a runway during fashion week. She was glad that she decided to dress to impress. She grabbed her schedule from her pocket and quickly found her locker number. She knew it was on the ground floor but she hated wandering around new schools looking confused. She started out down the hall and was relieved to find her locker right away. The first bell sounded and she made her way to her homeroom class.

The day seemed to progress rather slowly. Each class was the same, receive your seat assignments get a short introduction of what they would be learning and then get your books. None of her classes seemed over challenging and most of her teachers seemed to be nice. Lunchtime came and went quickly and Ashley was glad. She had yet to meet anyone so she sat at a table outside in the courtyard alone wishing she had her friends from home there with her. She had managed to avoid seeing Derek most of the day. The one time she did see him he just pushed passed her laughing with his friends. She just wished the day would end so she could get home and rest.

The end of the school day had finally arrived and Ashley was relieved. She was happy that her academy classes didn’t start until the following week. She was putting away the last of her books when she heard someone clear their throat trying to get her attention. She turned around to be greeted by three blondes looking at her with fake smiles. She recognized one of them. It was Tiffany, the girl who kept glaring at her the night at the beach.

“Umm hi.” She said looking at them questionably. “Can I help you?”

“You’re Ashley, right?” Tiffany asked.

“Yea.” She saw the other girls looking her over and laughing. “Do you need something? I have to go catch my bus.”

“Just to warn you that you need to stay away from Derek.” She crossed her arms. “He’s mine and I don’t need any stupid little freshman trying to get in the way. Believe me you don’t want to get any further on my bad side.”

“You can have Derek, believe me I don’t want him.” Ashley laughed.

“That’s not what he said.” She pursed her lips at her.

“Well I haven’t even talked to him since that party so I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turned her attention away from them rolling her eyes as she finished gathering her things.

“I know you had sex with him that night.” She blurted out catching Ashley’s attention.

Ashley turned back around and looked at her like she was crazy.

“He told us all about it, how you practically begged him to have sex with you and how pathetic it was.”

Ashley fought back tears of anger and the urge to rip her head off as the two girls snickered behind Tiffany.

“We didn’t have sex.” She could feel her heart beating so fast from the anger it felt like it would explode out of her chest.

“Oh give me a break.” Tiffany rolled her eyes. “Everyone saw you all over him that night and then you two just go off together…”

“I did not have sex with him. I barely knew him!” Ashley defended herself.

“You made your poor choices don’t try and cover them up now. Everyone already knows you’re a little skank.”

Ashley glared at her, eyes filled with tears.

“Oh what are you gonna cry now?” Tiffany mocked her laughing as Ashley fought to hold back her tears.

“You’re asshole of a friend is a liar.” She slammed her locker and walked away from them.

Ashley couldn’t bear to be around people at the moment, not those same people who were all thinking the same thing about her. She never thought he would go that far and now she didn’t know what to do. She started the mile walk home giving herself some time to think things threw.

When she walked through the front door of the condo about 20 minutes later she wanted nothing more then to go straight to her room and cry. She had no idea what to do. No one even knew about that night on the beach, except for AJ.

She passed by the living room where Denise was sitting, reading a book, trying to go unnoticed, with no luck.

“How was your first day of school?” Denise asked looking up from her book.

“Fine.” Ashley said and kept walking.

“Did you make any friends?” Denise called to her.

“No.” she said simply before shutting her door hoping Denise wouldn’t push the matter further. After a moment, when there was no knock on the door she knew she was in the clear. Throwing her bag into the corner of the room she plopped down on her bed and finally let the tears fall. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. She already felt bad enough for being that stupid that night and now she had to deal with this when she didn’t do anything to begin with.

After about twenty minutes of crying Ashley finally decided she had to talk to someone. She went to her bad and grabbed her phone. Sitting back on her bed she hit the speed dial and waited for someone to pick up,

“Hey Ashley.” Said the voice from the other side, although it wasn’t who she expected.

“Oh hey Marcus…where’s Alex?” she asked.

“He’s actually in an interview with the boys right now.” Marcus informed her. “It just started so they’ll be at least another hour.”

“Oh ok.” She sighed. “Can you just tell him I called please…and it’s kind of important.”

“No problem, I’ll be sure to tell him. Bye hun.” Marcus said as he hung up.

Ashley sighed and tossed her phone to the other side of the bed.


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AJ walked out the door of the studio with Brian and Nick close behind him. They had just finished a long interview and AJ was tense. It was one of his first interviews since getting out of rehab and he still wasn’t fully comfortable with talking about everything that went on with him.

“Hey man. You did a good job in there. Sorry they were so tough, we told them to be limited on that stuff.” Brian said as they walked back into the conference room where their belongings were.

“It’s all good man. I have to get used to it I guess.” He shrugged as Marcus walked over.
“Yo man, your sister called about an hour ago…she said it was important.” He told him handing him the cell phone.

“She started school today, probably just wanted to tell me how it was.” He sighed putting the phone in his pocket. He really wasn’t up for a first day of school recap.

“I dunno man, she sounded kind of upset.” He informed him.

“I’ll try and give her a call later. I need to wind down from that interview.” He said walking towards the elevator to head back to the hotel.

“Just make sure you do.” Marcus said.

“I know, I know.” He sighed.


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“Ashley, dinner.” Denise called to her.

Ashley sighed and pulled herself out of bed. It had been four hours since she had called AJ and he still hadn’t called her back. She went into the bathroom and threw some water on her face trying to clear up the blotchiness and redness from the crying.

She walked into the kitchen and took a seat as Denise placed a plate in front of her. She stared down at the chicken and pasta on her plate not really feeling like eating.

“So how was school?” Denise asked taking a seat.

“It was ok.” She mumbled pushing around the pasta with her fork.

“Are all your teachers nice?” Denise looked at her noting something was wrong.

“Yea.” She took a bite seeing Denise watching her. “I’m just tired, not really in the mood to talk about it.”

“That’s fine.” Denise sighed. “Just finish your dinner and try to get to bed early tonight.”

“I will.”

She quickly ate her dinner and put her plate in the sink. She said good night to Denise and made her way back to her room to check her phone. Still no calls.

“Maybe Marcus just forgot to tell him.” She said to herself as she dialed his number again. After a few rings she got his voice mail.

“Hey Alex…it’s just me. I tried calling earlier but you were busy. I thought maybe Marcus forgot to tell you since I haven’t heard back from you. Please call me back I really need to talk.”