To be or not to be? (Book #1)

Chapter 18

When Ashley woke up the next morning, she was thankful that it was Saturday. She sighed, glad that she didn't have to go to school and deal with Tyler or Alex. She quickly showered and got dressed in old, flare jeans and a v-neck t shirt, putting fuzzy, warm socks on. She threw her wet hair up into a towel and decided to start on her homework, realizing that she had nothing else to do that day.

I'm single, and I don't want to hang out with the guy that I'm in love with, or the guy that's in love with me. Why do all my friends have to be in love with me? Except Maddie, of course.

Ashley sighed and sat in her desk chair, getting out her math homework that was causing her trouble. She stared at the problems for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to do them, then eventually gave up. She pulled out her English homework instead, something she was actually good at, and began writing her essay for the end of the semester. She hated that she was so good at certain things but extremely terrible at others, like math. Writing was easier to learn than math was, in her opinion. She sighed and stopped writing for a minute, quickly becoming bored with the homework that she had to do. She looked at her phone. Nothing. She checked her e-mail. Nothing.

 Did everyone die or did they all just forget about me??

Ashley sighed heavily, bored. She didn't want to do her homework, but she didn't want to sit around and do nothing, either. She glanced at the clock. It was 10:30. Maybe that's why nobody had started talking to her yet. They were probably all still sleeping. She got up, took the towel out of her hair and went downstairs to get something to eat. She was rummaging through the fridge when the doorbell rang. She yawned and closed the refrigerator door, and walking to the front door. She opened it to see Alex standing on the porch, smiling.

"Hey, I thought you'd be bored today, so I brought movies." He held up the movies in his hands and looked at her, still smiling, with his eyebrows raised. She smiled and sighed, opening the door wider and stepping aside so he could come in. He came in and she shut the door after he was inside.

"So, what do you want to watch first?" He asked her, looking at her sideways with a smile.

"First? How many did you bring?" Ashley asked. He grinned.

"Three. Two of them are your favorite kind, horror." He said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"I think you mean your favorite kind. I hate horror movies." Ashley said, glaring playfully at him. He chuckled.

"I know. But I figured if you didn't want to watch them we could just talk instead... Maybe about Tyler...?" He began, smiling, knowing that she would object.

"So which one do you want to watch first?" She asked, desperate to do anything except talk about Tyler.

"How about paranormal activity 2? Got any popcorn?" He asked mischievously. Ashley groaned.

"How can you stand those?" She asked, but went into the kitchen to find some popcorn to make for them.

About 15 minutes into the movie, Ashley was sitting on the couch, peering at the TV over the giant pillow on her lap. She was shielding herself in case the movie came to life in her living room. Alex had insisted on turning the lights off, so it was dark in the room, because of the gloomy outdoors. They sat at opposite ends of the loveseat, which wasn't a great distance. Alex was sitting normally, but Ashley was turned sideways and her feet were on the couch, her knees pulled up close to her chest, holding the pillow that protected her. She jumped at every little thing, and Alex chuckled at her quietly every time. All of a sudden, Ashley could tell a scary part was coming up, and she gasped, drawing her knees closer and hiding her face in the pillow. Alex groaned at her.