The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

|63|

Sam texted Ashley as she sat in the backseat with Nick. She'd hesitated before entering the car, but it had (thank goodness) turned on like it should and not broken down. Not as she'd opened the door, sat down, not even when they'd been leaving the parking lot. It took a few minutes, but eventually, she began to relax.

The text asked them to maybe film something to explain their side of the situation, assuming they hadn't already done that. Ashley denied and brought the topic up to the boys, who immediately agreed. It was not like they had anything better to do, anyway.

Matt stopped next to the road so that they could get one of Sam and Colby's cameras and set it up in the front of the car before he continued driving. When Ashley looked up, both Nick and Chris were looking at her.

"What?" she asked a little stupidly.

"Do you want to begin?" Nick asked.

"Oh, sure," she said. The girl closed her mouth again and started recalling yesterday's events. Which were a lot, now that she thought about it.

"A lot happened yesterday," she said slowly. "A lot of emotions, too. I don't know where to start." A chuckle accompanied her voice, and she ran a hand through her hair.

"Honestly, me neither," Nick said. "I was with Sam and Matt when we got Colby's text to check up on you, and then everything happened so quickly, like we walked out into the lobby, and then Colby was falling and you caught him and he was hurt, and the next second Matt and Sam had already driven off. I don't remember thinking a lot, so much happened."

"Wait, that's right. What were you doing with Matt and Sam?" Ashley asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to check if they were getting anything," he replied, avoiding her eyes. "You know, because the spirit box had been silent for so long."

She nodded. "It was really stressful in the end."

"Why didn't you go with Sam and Colby, though?" Chris asked. "Because of your head, I mean. Couldn't have hurt."

Ashley hesitated before taking a deep breath. "Didn't you see how the car broke down the second I touched the door?"

"I don't know, I wasn't paying that much attention."

"Wait, are you saying-" Nick began. His voice faded out, looking at her expectantly.

"I don't know. Honestly, right now it feels like I don't know anything – like I can't know anything."

"That's dramatic," Chris chuckled. She shrugged.

"Well, it's true, isn't it? We'll never know or be anything actually significant. Because life isn't the single most significant thing, since there's so much more. What we can do in our lifetimes is nothing compared to what else there could be."

The boys were silent for a few seconds, and Ashley almost regretted her words.

"I get what you mean," Matt eventually said. "It's scary – and true. But on the other hand, if you can't affect anything but your life, everything else doesn't really matter."

Ashley thought about it for a second, letting his words sink in. "It's still not a good feeling. Makes you feel insignificant."

"How are you insignificant when everything you'll consciously experience is you?"

"You don't know that," she protested, shaking her head. "Our lives could be literally nothing compared to everything else."

"So what?"

"What?"

"So what?" Matt repeated. "Does it matter?"

"Well, I guess not... It's just..." She trailed off, not knowing what to say. Meanwhile, Matt's words echoed in her head. So what?

"Even if your life doesn't matter in the big scheme – of which you still don't know for sure whether it exists in the first place, by the way – it's still yours," Matt said in a tone that indicated that he'd said what he wanted to say.

Ashley nodded and leaned her head back, a little dumbfounded.

"Okay, philosophers," Nick eventually spoke up. "Did you get your point across?"

She chuckled. "I think so."

"Great. So yesterday, after everything happened, we basically just went to bed since we were all exhausted." He glanced at Ashley, waiting for her to add something.

"Yeah, me too," she said. "I slept really badly, though."

"Really? You seemed so awake when we started packing."

"Honestly, that was just adrenaline and the excitement to get away."

Nick grinned. "I get that. But now we're gone, and I will not return. Goodbye forever." He said those last words while glancing over his shoulder. The hotel had been out of view for a good half hour now, but everyone knew what he meant.

The rest of the drive passed quietly. Not even five minutes after they stopped filming, Ashley's head slumped against her backrest, and she drifted away into a restless sleep. She didn't dream, but when she woke up as the car came to a stop, her heart was thumping restlessly, and her mouth was dry. Trying to swallow the feeling away, she opened the door and yawned.

Her eyes burned in the sunlight, but she narrowed them and tried to figure out their surroundings. Matt had parked in front of a motel, and Sam was currently helping Colby with his bags. Ashley felt a bad feeling settle in her gut when she saw the brunet holding crutches.

After being torn between rushing over to him for whatever reason and sitting back in the car to continue sleeping, she walked to the back of Matt's car and helped Nick take out hers, Sam's and Colby's stuff to transfer it to the other car.

Only when the triplet's stuff was in their car and the rest in Sam's did her eyes meet Colby's.

"You alright?" she asked casually.

"Yeah, well... I've been better," he said with a dry chuckle. "But I'm managing. Crutches are surprisingly difficult to use."

"Are you supposed to keep them?" she asked.

"No, we have to bring them back to the hospital today, before we leave the town. I just got them because Sam insisted."

Ashley laughed. "Are they helping, though?"

"Well, yeah. My hands hurt like hell, but at least I'm not limping around, holding on to every wall I can reach."

She chuckled again, and he grinned. "Yeah, I guess that's an advantage."

There was no need for an outro, so they said their goodbyes to the triplets, who'd be taking a different way back to LA for some reason Ashley hadn't caught. But she didn't ask – she preferred driving with only Sam and Colby anyway.