Ashley Purdy's Girl **In Editing**

Chapter 12

*The next day, Ashley's P.O.V.*

I woke up on my couch, beer bottles surrounding me. I groaned as I sat up, my headache killing me then I remembered what happened last night as I looked to the 4 large holes in my wall. I went after Jess because she went out with Ben. I hit her twice. Fuck. I can't believe I did that. I lost it. I was a totally different person....Then she went over and spent the night with...Ugh. Ben. And I came back here and got totally shit-face and passed out on my couch.

I stood slowly, my back cracking as I straightened up, and shuffled to my kitchen to find even more emptied bottles and find my aspirin. Once I found it, I dumped 2 in my hand and got a glass of water, then went to work cleaning up my house.

In the middle of it, my phone started ringing and I looked at the ID. Ben. What did he want?

"Hello?" I said, answering my phone.

"Hey....Umm, it's still early and Jess is still asleep, would you want to umm...Come get her, I don't think she'll go back to your house on her own free will..." Ben said quietly, pausing every few seconds.

"Yea, I'll be over in a minute." I said, hanging up and heading out the door.

Once at Ben's house, before I could even knock the door opened. I stepped into his house and he disappeared upstairs, then came back a moment later with a sleeping Jess in his arms. He handed her off to me and I smiled, nodding my head, then turned and walked out of his house and back to mine.

Once inside my house I climbed the steps and walked to Jess's room and set her in her bed. I turned and left, but when I tried shutting the door, I remembered that it wouldn't stay closed...Or close at all. I had kicked it open, breaking the lock on it, in my oblivion to get Jess. I sighed as I closed it as much as I could and mentally added that to my list to fix it...

I walked down stairs and looked around at the 1/2 clean house and sighed as I started back to work on it.

*Jess's P.O.V.*

I woke up, the bright light shining through the window. My face was throbbing and hurt like a bitch. What happened last night? Oh yea. I went out with Ben against Ashley's wishes or whatever, then when I got home, he came after me and I jumped out my window and ran to Ben's house where I spent the night....I slowly sat up, looking around.

This wasn't Ben's room. This was mine. At Ashley's house. Did I dream all of that? I slowly got off my bed and the first thing I saw was my door. It was kicked in. Broken. Splintered wood spread across the floor. I looked in my mirror as I walked to it to get clothes to get dressed. I chose a pair of holy jeans and a black shirt with a broken, bleeding heart on it.

When I looked up, my face fell. I didn't dream it. 1/2 my face was bruised to prove it. Tears sprang to my eyes as I put a hand up to my face, but immediately withdrew it, for when I touched it, a sharp burst of pain shot through my face. I couldn't believe he had done this to me. I sighed as I headed towards my bathroom and shut the door, locking it and starting the shower.

As I waited for it to warm up, I stripped, leaving my clothes in a pile on the floor and grabbing a towel. I put the towel on top of my clean clothes, then stepped into the shower, the warm water washing over my body and washing away some of the memories.

By the time I had stepped out, the water had gone cold and I realized I had spent more time in the shower than I had wanted to. About an extra 15 minutes. I usually take about 20 minutes in the shower. It takes around 35-40 minutes for the water to run cold. Oh well, it felt good and I needed that.

I quickly dried my body, then got dressed and wrapped my hair up in the towel, then applied eyeliner which was the only thing Ashley would buy me makeup-wise. He wouldn't buy me foundation or lipstick/lipgloss and he wouldn't buy me mascara either. And it's not like I could just go out and get my own makeup. I didn't have a car and there's no way in hell I would borrow Ashley's, not that he would let me.

Once I was satisfied with my makeup, I brushed my teeth. When I was done with that, I put on some bracelets to hide the almost-healed scars from about a week ago, when I cut....Ashley took my blade and I don't know what he did with it, but all I knew it was my only blade and it was gone....

Once I had my bracelets on, I took my hair down and took out the blow drier. Ashley got rid of my straightener too and he wouldn't buy me another one either, and he hid his...So now I was stuck with this wavy train wreck I call hair.

Ashley also wouldn't let me dye my hair back to the blonde color I had it. My natural, dirty blonde color was showing through and I hated it. I wish he let me have more freedom than he did. I sighed as I put my blow drier back and brushed out my hair. I looked at myself in the full-length mirror on the back of the door, then sighed as I quietly unlocked the door and tip-toed out, only to find Ashley sitting on my bed, texting.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw him. When he saw me, he stood coming towards me. The only thing I saw of him was his oblivion and his fist flying at my face. I backed up a step, keeping my eyes on him the whole time, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"Jess." He said quietly, but even that scared me. That's how he started last night. Talking quietly to me, except this time he had a different tone. It was soft and full of remorse. Last night was harsh, trying to contain anger. I was still lost for words as he took another step towards me, getting closer.

I side-stepped him skillfully, moving back across the room, towards my closet.

"Jess, please talk to me. Please don't avoid me." He said, still following me, coming closer again. I looked away from him, my bruise showing, but my hair falling over my face covering it up again.

"Jess....I'm sorry about last night. I don't know what I was thinking. I lost it." He said, taking another step closer. I side-stepped him again, stepping on a piece of broken door and wincing as I felt a large splinter enter my bare foot. I moved off of the piece of wood, but when I stepped down again, pain shot through my foot from the splinter and I flinched again, putting more weight on my right foot than my left as Ashley still came closer.

"Jessica. Please talk to me. I'm not going to hurt you anymore. I don't want to hurt you. I'm an ass. I didn't mean what I did...I don't mean what I say, but I don't want you getting hurt. I'm just trying to protect you...I-I love you Jessica." Ashley said. My head snapped up at the word 'love'.

"Wh-What did you say?" I asked quietly.

"I said I love you." He said louder. I looked at him. In that moment, I realized. He was telling the truth, not just saying that to get me to forgive him. He was truly sorry. He did truly love me.

In that moment.

I realized

I loved him too.