"Are you sure the couch is okay?"
"It's fine."
"I think you should take my bed and I'll take the couch."
"Ashton...."
"There's a TV in my room, there's no cable but there's Netflix."
"Ashton, the couch is fine." I said firmly, pulling the Christmas themed, hand knit, hole filled blanket he'd found over my lap.
Sighing in defeat he ran his fingertips through his hair.
Picking up on the awkward atmosphere which choked the air, Ashton's pit-bull Daisy raised her head and licked my hand lazily.
"She's another reason they'd never let me have him." Ashton muttered, staring down at the dark.
"Why?" I questioned, scratching beneath her wrinkled chin, "She wouldn't hurt a fly."
"She's a pit." He replied, "They'll judge and assume. It's bullshit really. I can't even take her to the park."
"That's not fair."
Ashton chuckled to himself, "Life's not fair."
Wincing, I looked down.
"When I found out Dorothy was going to have Sam I was so.... Mad." He whispered, "It wasn't a person in there, it was a mistake and I... I didn't want anything to do with it."
"But you're the one who told her not to get an abortion." I said slowly.
"I didn't want him." He repeated, "I also didn't want to take medicine as a kid, or wear my seatbelt."
"You knew you didn't have a choice?" I questioned.
He nodded, "I hated the very idea of that kid until the moment I held him. It's such a weird feeling looking down at a tiny person and knowing that... that it's yours, that you created it and named it. That you have to raise it and one day it will be holding a tiny person of its own. It didn't seem real. I didn't want to blink I thought I'd wake up."
"Why didn't Dorothy feel that?" I asked.
Sighing, Ashton shrugged, "I was going to marry her.... If she wanted, it seemed like the right thing to do. We were friends, I figured it's not ideal to marry your best friend in a shot gun wedding but there are worse ways to go about things but then she..."
"Left." I finished for him.
"Ripped my heart out." He amended.
"Is then when you..."
Trailing off I glanced down at Ashton's wrists which were hidden beneath the sleeves of his sweatshirt.
"Pretty pathetic huh?" he laughed to himself, as if the situation was remotely funny.
"No." I said carefully, "People are like glass if you drop them, they break."
Nodding to himself, his mind clearly in another place, Ashton reached out and stroked the top of Daisy's head.
"We have to find her." I said firmly for what felt like the thousandth time that night.
"I don't know where to even begin to look." He muttered.
"You must have some idea." I pressed, "She never mentioned anywhere, sent you anything from anywhere? What about her other friends would they know?"
Cocking his head to the side, Ashton closed his eyes, thinking.
"Her boyfriend." He said carefully after a moment, his features twisting at the word boyfriend as if the very thought of Dorothy with someone else disgusted him, "He has a sister."
"Who?" I demanded excitedly, "Where? Do you know how to get a hold of her?"
"I know she lives around here but I don't know where." He sighed, "I don't even know her last name."
"What do you know about her?" I asked.
"She's weird." He muttered, "Dropped out of school, has blue hair her name was like Haley no... Marry? No..uh...Faith? Hope?"
My heart dropping I looked up at Ashton, "Grace?"
"Yes!" he cried, snapping his fingers, "Grace, do you know her?"
"Unfortunately."
"Do you know where to find her?"
"Unfortunately."
"Great! Where? We can go there tonight and then we can leave first thing tomorrow for Dort..."
"We can't go tonight." I muttered, "We can't even go tomorrow, we have to wait until Saturday at noon."
"What? Why?" he demanded seeming disappointed.
"Visitation hours." I replied.
"Visitation hours? For what? Where is she?"
Flopping my head back on the back of the couch I let a long sigh escape my lips before answering, "Jail."
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