Already Taken

Better Together

Chapter 18

"Ashley?" I look around for her as I wake up no longer in her arms.

"I'm right here, baby." She emerges from the bathroom.

"I thought you'd left me." I admit in a whisper focusing my eyes on the bed.

She's by my side instantly. She grabs my face to make me look at her. "I would never leave you, Spencer. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. I promise." She tells me then places a barely there kiss on my forehead. I let out a content sigh and smile.

"I love you so much." I tell her as we both lay back on the bed. I'm back in her arms with my head on her chest.

"I love you too, Spence." She whispers in my ear. "Madison's here." She says suddenly, running her hand up and down my arm.

I sit up and ask, "Really?"

"Yeah, she got here a little while ago while you were sleeping. She's wearing a mask." Ashley says and laughs. "She's downstairs. She said she'd wait down there until you woke up. You want me to get her now?" She asks me.

"Please." I tell her and she kisses my forehead again before leaving to go and retrieve Madison.

"Hey chica." Madison says as she enters Ashley's bedroom. I run to her and engulf her into a hug. Not caring about her being sick, or that I could get sick too. I've never been so happy to see my best friend in my life. "Somebody's happy to see me." She giggles as we pull back from the hug.

"I missed you Maddy. Things were so bad today." I tell her and I can feel the tears threatening.

"I know. Ashley semi-informed me of what went down." She says as we both take a seat on Ashley's bed. I just noticed that Ashley didn't come in behind Madison. I guess she's giving us time to talk. "I'm gonna fucking kill, Carmen." She spits out and I can see the anger in her eyes.

"No, Mads. Don't kill her." I try and laugh it off. You don't understand, Madison really would kill, Carmen. I can't have that. "She'll get what's coming to her. Just let karma take care of it." I say with a shrug. Thankful that the tears that were threatening to fall are now gone.

"How can you be so calm about this?" She asks confused. I shrug again. "How did Paula react?" She asks and this time I can't hold back the tears. She embraces me immediately. Somewhere in the middle of my tear fest Ashley came into the room.

"Spence, baby." Ashley's now kneeling in front me, trying to wipe my tears away. "Spencer, please stop crying." She begs, as Madison gets up and Ashley takes the place she was just in. She rubs circles in my back as Madison returns with tissues, handing them to Ashley. Ashley wipes away the tears and my runny nose. After crying for a while I finally calmed myself.

"Spencer, you don't have to, but do you wanna tell us what happened?" Madison asks as she takes a seat across from me and Ashley on a small couch.

I take a deep breath before starting, "I don't know how much you know, Maddy."

"You can just start from the beginning if you want, Spence." She tells me softly.

"Okay." I say taking another deep breath. "Well, I'm guessing Carmen followed me and Ashley to Fatburger today and took pictures of us kissing, then passed the pictures out all around school. I confronted her about it and she had no real reason for doing it besides the fact that she wanted to be an asshole and break up Ashley and I. When I got home my mom was waiting with a my dad, Glen, and a Priest."

"A Priest?" Madison shrieks with an 'are you freaking serious right now' look in her eyes.

"A Priest." I repeat then continue. "So, I get in the house and she immediately questions me about Ashley. I'm guessing someone from the school told their parents who called my mom and told her, I really don't know. All I know is, when I got home she knew and she was really pissed about it. She went off on this whole thing about the bible and how it's a sin and all that. And then the Priest tried to give me a speech. I told them that I was in love with Ashley." I pause and look at her, giving her a small smile. "And that they can't keep me from her." She grabs my hand and squeezes it. "Mom wasn't too pleased about that. So I got kicked out." I finish, hoping that the water works wouldn't start again.