perfect? - montgomery de la cruz

She's a good kid.

The only thing Ashley wanted to do today was to stay inside but Monty had other plans. It was Bryce's funeral today and he needed her to be there for him even though he treated her like pure shit the night before.

The couple were sitting on the benches in the church, waiting for the ceremony to begin. She was sitting with Monty and the other football guys. They had decided that they were all going to wear their jerseys over their suits, to show respect or something.

She was wearing a black dress and she had spent almost an hour trying to hide the bruise on her cheek, the handprint on her neck was almost impossible to hide though so that was a problem.

"Jesus, Ashley. Why is your neck bruised?", Charlie asked with worry in his eyes, he was too caring, too pure to hang out with someone so broken like Monty.

She saw in the corner pf her eye that Monty glanced at her with a clenched jaw. "He's kinky.", she answered with a smile as Charlie gagged in response.

She saved the situation and dodged a very dangerous bullet.

Someone touched her shoulder and when she looked up, she could see that it was Justin. "Hey.", he smiled at her, she didn't answer but she gave him a smile in return. He sat down next to her and subtly squeezed her hand.

"Did you talk to Zach?", Charlie asked and looked at Monty.

"That asshole hated Bryce. I don't know why he's even talking.", he answered with a frown and looked over the crowd of people.

"Because he's the team captain.", Justin said as he kept his hand very close to Ashley's.

"Why are you even here? You weren't his friend in the end.", Monty questioned as quietly as he could, Ashley put a hand on his thigh to make him calm down. She was not allowing him to make a scene at a fucking funeral, that was too much even for him.

"Neither were you, man. But there was a time when we both loved him.", Justin said, she could hear the sadness in his voice.

"I didn't- I didn't love him...", Monty muttered as he looked down at his hands. Now Ashley finally knew the reason why he got so insecure whenever someone told him that he loved Bryce.

He did love Bryce. But not the way that everyone else thought.

"I need to go to the bathroom.", Ashley whispered as she rose from the bench and pushed her way past Justin. "Actually I need to go as well, I can walk with you.", he said as he also rose from the bench.

She glanced nervously at Monty but he wasn't paying attention, he was too sad over his dead best friend.

They walked out from the main hall of the church and went together up the stairs, away from the grieving crowd. They kind of just stood there, looking at each other in silence.

He brought his hand to her throat and gently touched the bruise. She didn't even flinch from his touch. She knew he would never hurt her. She felt safe with him.

"He's gonna fucking kill you one day.", Justin sighed loudly as Ashley shushed at him, the cops were eyeing them from the main floor.

"He's gonna kill you one day and I'll die knowing that you deserved better.", he continued, not caring about the police hearing them.

"It's fine..", she mumbled. She didn't want him to worry about her. He already had too much worry on his mind, he didn't need hers as well. She was scared of being burden.

"It's not fine, Ashley. It's absolutely not in any way fine.", he whispered and looked at her with sadness in his eyes. She rested her forehead on his and sighed, they stayed like that for a few second before he leaned in and kissed her softly.

"You're smudging my lipstick, silly.", she chuckled and removed lipstick from his lips with her thumb.

He smiled at her, grabbed her hand and walked down the stairs. They walked back to the benches and sat down. No one suspected a thing, they were all too busy with something else. Monty grabbed her hand tightly when Zach walked up to the stand and started talking.

Ashley got a glance of Chloe as well. Even though they hadn't been the best of friends, it would lie if she said that she didn't miss her at all.

The rest of the funeral went by in a blur. Zach talked in front of everyone and so did Bryce's mom but while she was talking, girls from Jessica's group in school started screaming. Mr. Walker became violent with one of the girls, grabbing her wrist tightly and screaming in her face. He was drunk on his own sons funeral.

Bryce was one of the worst people Ashley had ever met but not even he deserved to have people screaming about how bad of a person he was on his own damn funeral. It was disgusting and disrespectful.

Everyone was starting to leave the church, all of the people were in shock because of the protesters. Ashley held Monty's hand, just to support him. He was angry and sad which was not a very good mix.

"I have to go to fucking school.", he muttered and pulled away from her, a small kiss was planted on her cheek before he walked away. She had forgotten about that he was forced to do homework at school afterwards if he wanted to get into the college that he wanted to and a funeral was not an exception.

----------------------------------------------

Mr. Standall was standing in the interrogation room with the same officer that emptied Ashley's locker. They were looking at a video that was found on the Walker's security camera. The first video that they watched was when Clay confronted Bryce with a gun before Justin came and calmed him down, preventing him from doing something that he would later on regret.

The other footage that they watched was the video of when Ashley came to Bryce's house, drunk as fuck and with a gun. Threatening to kill both him and herself. The video did not look very good on Ashley's side...

"Shit...", the officer mumbled and closed his eyes to progress what he just saw.

"Ashley's a good kid. I knew her father before he died, he always wanted the best for his children. He wanted them to be safe.", Mr. Standall sighed as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Well, now he has a kid in jail and another kid that's looking very suspicious right now of first degree murder.", the officer scoffed.

"Call Clay Jensen and Ashley Bennett to the police station."

I have so much shit in school right now and I literally want to die hahahahaha

Saddest moment in this book?

Don't forget to comment and vote!

-elise