The Sketchbook

Chapter One

Ashley's POV

Chapter One:

I stared at the city below me. Cars and taxis zoomed past the busy streets and buildings. This was our place. We would come up here all the time. Or at least we used to.

I picked the sketchbook up from the ledge of the building. I held it tightly against my ,chest. It was all I had left of him. A mere memory of him. Of us.

I felt a small tear escape my eye. I quickly wiped it away. Now wasn't the time for crying. I took a deep breath and walked forward, trying to get a better look at everything below me.

The building I was on top of was at least seven stories high. Maybe even more. I never really thought of the height. I would always think of the beautiful view that was present on the rooftop.

No one really understood me except for him. Everyone thought I was a slut. A liar. Not that I blamed them though.

No one except him knew the true story. The true reasons for my actions. Now it's your turn to know though. Here's my story. No lies. Just the truth. The whole truth.

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I carried my lunch tray to my usual seat. The table was quickly filling with the people I called my "friends".

I set my tray down on the table and looked around the busy lunchroom.

"Where's Harry?" I asked aloud while sitting down in my usual seat.

"The library. Apparently he is studying with Jessica," Lauren said. She made sure to add air quotes with her fingers around the word studying.

I rolled my eyes at her. Lauren was always the over exaggerator in our group. "Quit underestimating my boyfriend," I snapped at her.

Lauren raised her hands as if giving up. She turned to the blue eyed blonde boy sitting next to her. "Nye-Nye will you come get something to drink with me?"

Gross. Like everyone else, I couldn't stand Lauren and Niall's cutesy baby talk. Absolutely horrid. Don't even get me started on their PDA. They were two of the many people who were on my hate list. Almost everyone at this school was on my hate list.

I wasn't from here. I've moved twelve times in my life. Yes, twelve. I lived with my mother. She wasn't a very good mother either. Then again, I wasn't a very good daughter.

We would argue constantly. You're probably thinking to yourself, what teenage daughter doesn't argue with her mother. Well, we didn't just argue. We would yell, curse at each other, throw things. We had a pretty dysfunctional family in my opinion.

My dad died when I was a few months old, so I never really knew him. My mom and I were constantly moving. She would always claim it was to find a better place for me to grow up at. I knew better than that. My mother would go through boyfriend after boyfriend, searching for a new one town after town. Basically, the only reason we moved so much was so she could find a new boyfriend.

For every town we moved to, I had a different personality. I've been a no-friend nerd in one town, to a popular cheerleader in the next town. I've been almost everything you could probably think of. I decided at this school, I would be popular. And so I was.

I had been at this school for about five months so far. I had a pretty good reputation in my opinion. No one messed with me. Almost every guy wanted me. I was dating the school's star athlete. Everything sounds perfect, right?

Wrong. Everything wasn't perfect. My life was a constant lie, trying to cover up who I was so I could be something i'm not. I was used to that though. Me and Harry? Our relationship wasn't all that great either. Harry had a tendency of sleeping around, even while he was still dating me. The only reason I was still with him was to help my reputation. So know you're probably wondering why Harry was still with me. Well, every guy at school knew I was hard to get. And Harry getting to say he gets to date and shag with the most popular and wanted girl in school? Well, that also helped his ego. So, I guess you could say Harry and I dating basically helped each other's social reputation.

I looked around the lunch table. There was Liam, Louis, Josh and Niall. Next to them were their girlfriends Danielle, El, Courtney, and Lauren. Then there was me. Alone. There was no telling what people were thinking about me now.

I quickly lost my appetite. No one could see me like this. I quickly stood up and grabbed my tray. I had to leave.

"Where are you off to?" El asked.

"My locker. I forgot something in there," I quickly lied before rushing out of the cafeteria. I threw my tray of food in the trash before opening the doors and walking into the empty hallway.

I stood in front of my locker, staring at myself in my mirror. I primped my makeup and hair. I combed my fingers through my straight blonde hair. "You look great. No one noticed a thing," I quickly told myself out loud. I couldn't let this whole Harry thing get to my head. I had better things to worry about.

"What are you doing out here?" A familiar voice asked. A pair of warm arms quickly wrapped around my waist.

"I thought you were studying," I replied before turning to face him.

"I missed you too much," He whispered in my ear before kissing me.

I rolled my eyes at him before pushing him away gently. "Harry please," I smiled at him.

"Do you want to go somewhere to get lunch or something," Harry asked.

"I'm not really hungry," I answered.

"Well we could always do something else," he smirked at me.

"Not now," I turned around and shut my locker.

He sighed and grabbed my hand. "Will you at least come over tonight?"

"I'll try," I kissed his cheek and walked away.

Me going to Harry's house wasn't that big of a deal to me. I would go there all the time. My mom knew I was going somewhere, but she never could find out where. That's part of the reason why we never got along.

Honestly, I never liked my mother. I still don't like her to this day. What was there to like? She was a bitter woman who took all her anger out of everyone else. That's probably why she couldn't keep a boyfriend.

I looked at the clock in the hallway. There was still twenty minutes left for our lunch break. I wasn't about to go back into that cafeteria. I shrugged an headed towards the front door. Skipping the rest of my classes for the day sounded really good to me.