Ever after?

If I die young

TW: Suicide mentions, mentions of rape 

Ashlyn, Gina, Kourtney and Lillian

"Ashlyn! Open this fucking door!"

Bang

Shit, Gina was upset.

Lillian and Kourtney raced downstairs to see what the commotion was. Downstairs, they were greeted by a frustrated Gina, no sign of Ashlyn or the boys, and a killed party mood.

"Gigi!" Kourtney called as she and Lillian rushed over to the bathroom door. "What on earth happened?"

"You don't know? Where have you both been these past few minutes?"

Kissing

We literally had our first kiss

"The music got very loud, so we went upstairs to cool off." Kourtney was so quick and clever with her excuses; it was another quality that Lillian admired.

Gina didn't seem to question the excuse one bit, and only just directed their attention to the locked bathroom door.

"We were all talking about general stuff and I don't know what caused it, but Carlos got really upset and started shouting. He was just so out of it that I didn't recognise him, he even pushed Seb away and told him to get lost. Big Red tried to calm him down, but he started accusing us of not caring about him even though we do."

"So why is Ash in the bathroom?" Lillian asked.

Gina sighed. "She thinks it's her fault for Carlos's outburst."

"It is my fault!"

"Ashlyn!" Kourtney knocked gently on the door. "It's not your fault! You did so much to try and lighten the mood."

"And it didn't work! Nothing will ever work! I'm a terrible person!"

God, this wasn't the Ashlyn that they knew. The girl they knew was a kindhearted feminist, who was always so calm and collected around situations like this. But the girl who was locked in the bathroom and blaming herself was not the Ashlyn Moon Caswell that they knew.

"Ashlyn, please don't say this!" Lillian called out. "You're such a strong person! You're a human being who has emotions, and it is perfectly okay to express them."

"No! It's my fault that Carlos still feels disgusting! I should have killed myself when I had the chance!"

Hold up.

Ashlyn wanted to...?

They needed to get into that bathroom, even if it involved breaking down the door.

"Ash... can you please talk to us?" Gina asked. "We love you so much, we don't want you to still be hurting."

"Gigi, I can't. I can't burden you with all my problems!"

"You're not burdening us, Ashlyn!" Kourtney called back. "We love you no matter what, and we hate seeing you like this."

"We really do Ash," Lillian added. "We care so much about you."

Click

~~~~

Seb, Ricky, EJ and Big Red

"Carlos!"

"Los!"

"Carlos, please come back!"

"Carlos! Come back!"

No matter how much they shouted, there was still no sign of Carlos anywhere. Seb was on the verge of tears, how could he just let Carlos run away? He was nowhere near a good boyfriend if he allowed this to happen. He already hid his eating disorder in the dark for so long, so this was definitely pushing him in an even worse light.