The music, blasting from the speakers, was to loud to hear the girl's cries. The beating of the base over powered her screams of pain. Everyone around her was having too great of a time to even notice what she was doing. They were all dancing in groups, and the sound of their laughs echoed around the room.
Flashes of white, green, blue, and red were dancing around the entire room. People were so close together they couldn't be told apart. A wave of fog found its way across the room to where she was, curled up on the floor in a corner, as she smashed the back of her head against the wall. She did this over and over again, as hard as she could, while the memories of just being in that same corner came flooding back to her. Her cheeks and chin were warm and wet with the tears that seemed to stream down endlessly.
I can't take this. Get me out of here!
Her whole body shook as she screamed again and she could feel her heart beating faster as the tempo of the music increased. By now the fog had passed again. Looking out into the wave of people she saw someone walking in her direction. Her tears blinded her from seeing who it was. She wiped them away on the sleeve of her sweater and looked back up to see the shadowed figure of a guy standing before her.
As the boy looked down upon her face she realized that it was Max. He opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, then decided against it as he sat down in front of her. His mesmorizing eyes watched her, filled with both anger and sadness. They looked like puddles of light blue crystal filled with the suns golden rays. Memories of long, almost endless nights of gazing into those piercing light blue eyes filled her thoughts and she gasped when they became to much to bare; to much to breath.
"What are you doing Ash?" he finally asked, his eyes never once leaving her face.
"Max, I-I was just... Why do you-?" She felt a tear slowly fall as she stumbled on the words she wanted. There was so many things she wanted to say. Instead she sighed and lowered her own crystal blue eyes to the floor.
"Ash," his voice was a whisper, but she still managed to hear him. He opened his mouth and spoke again, a little louder this time. "Ashley, look at me." he pleaded with her.
As much as she wanted to look, she knew she couldn't. More tears would fall if she did. Instead, she shook her head and looked over at the big screen wall that played music videos.
Another wave of fog flooded the dance floor as the heavy beat of the base pounded throughout the room and filled her mind with confusion. The smell of peppermint and chocolate filled Ashley's nose as another tear fell. She closed her eyes and exhaled.
"Ash. Look at me, now." Max took her by her chin and jerked her head towards his, almost in anger. She opened her eyes, and was shocked to see tears slowly sliding down his face. She clenched and unclenched her fingers a few times to feel the crunch and stretch of her knuckles before slowly reaching up towards his now gentle face to wipe away his tears. She let out mixture of a laugh and a cry as he mirrored her movements.
"Okay Max, I'm looking. What do you want?" she made this remark to him, trying her hardest not to sound snappy.
"Ashley, what do you think you're doing to yourself?" Max asked her, dropping his hand from her face.
Snappy. she decided to herself. Then she jerked herself upright and let the last of her tears fall away. "Oh Max, I'm not doing anything. I'm just trying to forget anything that has to do with you. Don't you worry about me, we're over. Remember?" She turned her head and started to stand herself up, she needed to get herself some fresh air. The peppermint and chocolate fog rolled by once more and started to make her feel woozy.
Ashley managed to get herself across the room with her hand pressed on the door when a cold hand grabbed her firmly by the wrist. Ashley anticipated to be pulled backwards from previous experience, but when her body was pushed through the door she let out a small yelp of surprise.
Next thing she knew her back was pushed against the hard rock wall and her eyes were being covered by the hand that was just around her wrist. The person pushed themself up against Ashley and put their face right next to hers so they were breathing in her ear, sending shivers running down her spine.
"Let me go Max." she growled at the figure standing before her, taking a guess at who was holding her against the cold, hard wall and blinding her. She tried to push her weight against this person to get them away, but she couldn't move. When she inhaled she smelt the fog from inside strongly in front of her on the body, and something else that she couldn't place. "You-you're not Max, are you? Whatever, just let me go." she growled more intensly.
The voice that spoke back to her was calm and feminine, proving to her that this person wasn't Max. "Let's go for a walk Ash." the girl said. A weight was released from Ashley as the girl walked away, and it took her a moment to see anything in fron of her. When her vision was stable again, and she was seeing more than just shapes, she saw a short, thin girl with blonde hair that dropped to the middle of her back. She was already walking away from Ashley on a gravel road. Ashley had to jog to catch up to her.
Once Ashley caught up with the blondie, the girl spun around and made Ashley stop short. This girl was Deirdre, someone with a sickly high pain tolerance, and a temper that you would be better off not messing with. Her light, ocean blue eyes glared into Ashleys' own eyes.
"Hey," Ashley said to Deirdre. "What's this walk for?" she questioned cautiously. Deirdre and Ashley never really got along, and a walk like this with rage in her eyes could not mean anything good. Then she saw the swift flick of Deirdres' eyes move, almost unnoticeable. So Ashley spun around, hitting Max in the face with her long, milk chocolate hair.
"Ow." his expression was blank, tone emotionless. He went to stand so he was in between Deirdre and Ashley, forming a triangle out of the three bodies. Moments p assed in silence before anone spoke.
Ashley spoke first, "Well Dre, what did you want? We're out for our walk, come on. Lay it on me." Silence.
Then, Crack! Ashleys' face was thrust sideways and her cheek registered nothing but pain. When she turned her face back she saw Deirdres' hand raised. Ashley fought back hot tears, not wanting to show any weakness. Instead she proceded to bite her lip to hold back any sniffles or whimpers. She bit her lip so hard that when she eazed up off her lip she tasted liquid metal and salt; she tasted blood.
"Sweetheart you best be more respectful to me than that." the words Dre spoke were cold. Then her face turned soft, and she reached her hand forward and pressed her fingers to the trail of blood leaving Ashleys' bottom lip.
"What do you want? I'm listening." Ashley stood her ground, remaining calm. After all, she didn't want to get hit again.
