FAKE

PART I: ASHLEY

III: birthday

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE!" Ashley's voice cuts through the brisk August air. I smile as I wake up and smash a fluffy pillow over my head.

"THANK YOU Ashley!" I scream back at her.

She stands at the doorway as I hear no feet so I take the pillow off and see her holding a cupcake.

"Where'd you get it?!"


"The cupcake shop from downtown. Drove 15 minutes just for it. Your favorite; blueberry marbled."
"You're the best, whoa."

I sit up and she walks over to my side and hands me the cupcake. I split it in half and hand her the other piece.

"This is so good," I smile as I savor every delicious bite of the chocolate mixed with vanilla cupcake and the juicy sweet blueberries.

I've always loved those cupcakes but I rarely go downtown at all so I never get them. My parents walk into my room and wish me a happy birthday but then run off to work. A normal day.

"Why are they always so busy?" Ashley asks me, as we sit on the porch of my dull blue house. The air brushing against our skin.

"Work I guess. I don't really talk to them not after my sister.."

"Yeah. How is she?"
"Good. I mean I don't talk to her but what I've heard about her, she's somewhere in Georgia with her boyfriend Justin. "

My sister decided to move out when she was 17. She moved out because she was fed up with my mom and dad because they never paid attention to us. I agree with her but I don't think I'd do that so soon. Where would I go? I don't know of any family that lives near here right now and they surely would just send me back to my parents calling my escape an overreaction. My parents were promoted in their new position as CEO's of some company that I honestly couldn't care less about. They get paid 'high amounts of money that they can't afford to be late by one second'. I have lost interest in even speaking with my parents. When my mom isn't working, she's fixing the house to make it look 'modern' and 'clean' all of which is useless because no one comes over and the only people that do are my friends and they don't care. I call my house the dull blue house because no one is actually ever home and it just casts a dull aura. The inside of the house is painted blue except my room is painted red. I chose red because it's a violent color full of emotion and anger. My parents didn't question why I asked for red, they're just robots. It pisses me off.

Sometimes I wish I was my sister.

"Clarissa left me her number before she left telling me to call her if I ever wanted to leave too." 
"Do you?"
I shrug, "I honestly don't think so. I have all my friends here and just because my parents are a bunch of workaholics doesn't mean I wish they didn't exist."

"I wish my parents didn't exist."

"What about your mom?" I ask, realizing the sudden switch in Ashley's voice.

"She's got a new boyfriend and won't shut up about him. He's a couple years older than her but she acts as if she's known him since she was born. I'm not so sure about him. I'm not so sure about any man for the matter."
"All men aren't monsters. All humans aren't monsters," I say calmly, to reassure her.

"Yeah but I just don't want another prick taking advantage of her like Tony did. Not this time."
Tony is Ashley's dad. After the domestic abuse scandal broke, he divorced Ashley's mom, Shanon, and packed his bags and left this town. Ashley hasn't spoken about her dad to me since the rumors started spreading around school. I figured she stopped talking about it because she didn't trust anyone anymore.