perfect? - montgomery de la cruz

Abandonment

The sleepover was rough. Ashley and Sherri tried their best to make Jess forget about what happened.

Ashley had gotten 7 missed calls and 13 texts from Justin, who was wondering if she was mad at him.

She had also gotten some angry texts from Monty, that she had tried to ignore.

"Thank you so much, it means a lot", Jess said quietly while looking at the ground.

She was standing in Ashley's doorway with Sherri beside her.

"Anything for you, sweets", Ashley said and hugged both girls.

When Sherri and Jess had gone home, Ashley decided to meet up with Justin at the local cafe.

When she walked through the door to the cafe, she immediately saw the broken boy that was once the star of the basketball team.

He rose from his chair when he saw Ashley.

"Ashley!"

"What do you want?", she asked while sitting down.

"I wanted to talk to you... about everything that happened", he answered and started fidgeting with his hands.

"I don't know what to say Justin... you fucked up, you fucked up badly", she said and sighed.

"You've fucked up your relationship with Jess and you fucked up your friendship with the guys", she continued.

"I don't give a fuck about the guys, I do care about Jess though...", he said while taking a deep breath to calm himself down.

"I just want her to be happy and it's better if she's not with me", he added.

"What do you mean? You said before that you don't love her anymore but you're talking about her like you still do", Ashley asked and looked at him.

"I still care about her, I just don't love her... I think I'm in love with someone else", he said and met her gaze.

"Justin... we could never be together, Monty and literally everyone would chase us down", she sighed and put her hands on the table.

"We could go out of town", he said and looked out of the window.

"They would find us", Ashley stated and took his hand.

"You don't love him.", he said.

"I... I don't know", she answered and looked nervously on the table.

You never loved him. You could never love someone like Montgomery. You always swore that you did love him but I saw the way that you looked at Justin.

"I tried talking to Jess, you know", Justin said.

"Really?", she said surprised.

"Yeah, she told me that she wouldn't care if I killed myself so that's good", he replied and pulled his hand away.

"She's hurting, Justin. Just give her some time", Ashley added and thought about how Jess was feeling.

"I can't, I'm getting out of town", Justin declared as he rose from his chair.

Ashley also stood up and looked at him.

She walked up to him and gave him a tight hug.

"Come back, will you?", she whispered in his ear and then walked out of the coffee shop.

She walked out to the street and saw Clay with his bike that looked like it had been trough a lot.

She didn't feel like talking to the quiet boy so she walked away with her head held down.

"Ashley!"

Ashley turned around slowly and saw the small boy running up to her.

"She forgave you"

That was the only thing that Clay said before walking away again.

She turned around again just to see Monty and his "crew" marching up to her. It was actually Bryce's crew but Bryce usually let Monty take the lead when he was pissed.

She sighed and wondered why everyone wanted to talk to her today.

Monty looked very angry and she could basically see the rage in his eyes so she decided to run, which was probably a stupid decision but she wanted to see how far she could go before they caught up to her.

Ashley ran to the park and hid under the slide. She crouched and looked out for the boys.

She saw Bryce walking on the sand very close to her, he noticed that she was under the slide and walked up to her with a big smirk on his face.

"Please... don't", Ashley whispered to the overly confident boy.

He just kept on smirking, grabbed her arm and pulled her out of her hiding spot.

"Guys! Look who I found", he proudly announced as the other boys jogged up to him.

Ashley looked at the ground as Monty came closer.

He grabbed her hair and threw her onto the slide.

He then slammed her head against the slide two times.

Ashley couldn't think straight, the only thing that she could feel was pain.

"Next time you run, I'll kill you."

He helped her up from the slide and looked at her.

Her nose was bleeding and her head was bleeding after his sudden attack.

"You look like a mess", Monty said and scoffed.

He placed his arm around her shoulder and took her to his car while the other guys stayed.

"I'll come back in a few", he said and walked away.

She sat down in his Jeep and looked out of the window, ignoring Monty.

The ride to Ashley's home was quiet, well at least from her side.

"It's for your own good", he said and checked his phone while he was driving.

Ashley just shot him a very angry look since she didn't feel like getting hit again.

She couldn't believe how he was trying to blame her for what he did.

They got to Ashley's house and she walked out of the car, Monty grabbed her arm and leaned in for a kiss.

They kissed softly and she pulled away quickly. She almost ran into her home and walked upstairs.

She walked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her lip was burst open, her nose was bleeding and she had a gash in her forehead.

She was a mess. Ashley Bennett was officially a mess.