Go Out On A Limb

Chapter 1

It's summer break, August. There's the taste of anticipation and excitement in the air as the blue waves crash onto the soft sands and the schools empty out. The streets get busier everyday with tourists and with next to no space on the beach everyone is topping up their tan and soaking up the weeks of freedom to come. Most teens in California are out planning parties and beach trips with friends. But Ashley Hanes is doing the complete opposite. He's leaving.
Leaving the hype and the gloriously tanned. The State of "perfection" where fitting in is the key thing for all who live there. Being toned, slim, fit.
He was tired of it. Had been since the day he got there. Yet that didn't mean he necessarily wanted to leave. It was a comfortable irritation like a younger sibling's daily pranks. California was home after all. He had friends here that he would miss. Jamie was one.

Jamie Jones had been Ash's best friend since he could remember. As he looked down at her now he almost wanted to take her with him. She was more like a sister than his friend. Her straight bleach blonde hair almost made it believable too. Her eyes were hazel and shone in the summer sunlight like pools of honey perfectly matching to her fair and sweet personality. Although her image resembled that of a fairy tale pixie she took care of herself when it came down to it and was renowned for several punch ups throughout school. It was often Ash who had had to pull her out of it. She scared him a little which he liked. Unlike the other pretentious bimbos that dominated the state, Jamie had a back bone and was the most human person he knew.

Ashley swooped her up in his arms and gave her one final squeeze.
"I'll miss you J-J." He mumbled into her coconut scented hair.
She gave him a sad smile and patted his shoulder before turning him towards his mother.
He didn't want to leave her for she looked so tiny so small. How would she be okay on her own? They'd always been together. All he wanted was for her to stay. But Margot Scott's job wanted her to move to London. He remembered how she had asked him to go with her.
Leaving California was hard. Leaving America altogether would be even worse.
His dad had left her when his mom fell pregnant with Ashley and wanted nothing to do with his son.
Ashley had always had a hate for his dad but at the same time he wanted to meet him. Know what he was like. What his mom had seen in him. Was he like him at all? He prayed not.
He had asked to stay with his dad while Margot headed to London but she had firmly refused. Yet he bore the name. His mum had insisted on not only staying to tradition but raising Ashley to be everything his Father wasn't and ridding of the tarnish his father had left on the family name. But the ache to know still lingered, and every time he asked was met with the same response.

"Ashley. He made it quite clear he did not want to see you." She growled as she scrubbed viciously at the pot she washing in the sink, or tidying things at a rate of knots. Margot tidied when she was mad it stopped her from completely losing with her son for the most part.
"But mom I just think it would be good to meet him-"
"Ashley Joshua Hanes, you are not going to see your father!" She would scold.
Her words would hit him hard every time. Even when he knew it was coming. Margo rarely yelled. She was a soft caring delicate woman. But Ashley new she was strong underneath. She always had been.
Those days he would see the cracks show through. The damage that his father had left on her. And although he knew it should make him want to never know his father it would make him curious. the hatred was there alright as well but his father was a faceless man in his mind. one that Ash wanted so desperately to place an image to. Then maybe everything would feel whole?
She would then have sighed and turned back to the sink and braced her hands on the counter, or placed down the pans or the jar of sugar and run an exhausted hand through her wiry hair.
"I just... I just wanna meet him. Know who he was and what he was like." he would plead.
It broke Margot she knew how much he'd missed having a dad around. she wondered if it was the reason he mixed with girls more at school because of the lack of male interaction?
"I know. But it's too dangerous." She would caress his cheek and smooth back his dark blonde hair. He was younger then. but still the resemblance to his father was uncanny and only grew stronger over time.