When Ashley heard Jerry hurry to the table she knew she had to do some damage control.

"Oh how clumsy of me. I'm terribly sorry," she said handing him some napkins. It took all her self control to cling to the concerned look and not laugh in his face as he continued to glare at her.

"Let's go," Logan said pulling Jim by the arm. Was he concerned she was going to cause a bigger scene?

Their gazes clashed. He was nervous but unapologetic. Asshole. They both knew she hadn't slept around, for pity's sake he knew she had never been with anyone but he had been silent and had allowed his friends to go to town on her.

It was clearly his way of getting back at her. He knew how important her job was and he had sought her out here to make things difficult for her. This only added to the sense of foreboding for school tomorrow.

"Clean it up," Jerry barked at her when Logan dragged a still furious Jim out the diner followed by the other two guys.

She enjoyed every moment of cleaning up the mess knowing Jim was walking around in wet jeans. Honestly he had deserved it. Guys couldn't go around saying the stuff he had without consequences. Even knowing she might have made a bigger enemy out of him did nothing to ruin her mood.

She finished the rest of her shift and pocketed her tips. All the money she earned she saved. She was hoping to be able to leave home to get away from her parents once she graduated.

They weren't bad people, they just weren't good together.

When she got back home her parents were yelling so loud she could hear them as she pulled up in the driveway. She switched off her car but didn't get out. Just once she wanted to come to some peace and quiet not a two way yelling war zone.

She was contemplating what she was going to do when her phone rang. It was Sally.

"Hey," she answered.

"How's it going?" her friend asked.

"I just finished a shift at the diner." She didn't want to tell her she didn't want to go in her house because her parents were fighting again.

Her friends knew she was working as much as she could to make enough money to move out on her own. They believed her drive to break away from her parents was due to her need to be independent.

It was difficult to remember a time when her parents weren't at each other's throats. She never invited her friends to her house for fear of how her parents would act. It had always been less stressful to visit by their houses. She was envious of their home lives which are calm unlike hers.

"I just wanted to check on you," Sally said.

"Why?" She pretended the rumour hadn't concerned her as much as it had her friend.

"The whole rumour thing...you know."

"I'm fine." She refused to admit she was worried as well.

When people saw her as "Miss perfect" they would revel in her being brought down.

She doubted it would do any damage to Maddox. With a reputation like his it would only strengthen with the idea that he had made the good girl cheat.

It sucked that she was the one who was going to be hitter harder by the repercussions than he was. The thought of him made her think of when he had told her a boyfriend wouldn't have stopped him.

Her continued silence told Ashley she didn't believe she wasn't affected by the rumour.

Thinking back to what had happened with Jim at the diner just made her feel more defeated.

"I may have made things a little worse," Ashley mumbled.

"What did you do?" her friend murmured the question.

"It was his fault." Jim asked for it. If he hadn't said the things he had she wouldn't have been forced in retaliating.

"Did you do something to Logan?"

"Nope. It was Jim," she sighed.

"What did you do?" Sally asked again.

"Ugh... he was saying stuff to me." She didn't really want to repeat what he had said.

"Like what kind of stuff." Her friend persevered. She wasn't going to stop until Ashley told her what happened.

"Like how he wants to bed me." Just the thought of Jim trying to paw at her made her sick to her stomach. It was just gross.

There was silence again and Ashley waited, staring her house still listening to her parents continue to fight. She could hear doors slamming.

"It's that stupid rumour," Sally finally announced. "That's the only explanation."

"You think so?" That anxious feeling in the pit of Ashley's stomach grew. This wasn't a good sign. Would more guys try to proposition her because they believed she was an easy?

"So what did you do the asshole?" Her playful reference to Jim made Ashley smile.

"I tipped his drink into his lap." Her smile widened. Jerry had been so mad but it had been worth it, so worth it.

Her friend giggled. "I wish I could have seen it."

"It was priceless." She hoped it taught him a lesson. He wasn't a nice guy. She had never liked him at all, she had only put up with him because he had been a friend of Logan's.

"Was Logan there?" Sally asked when her giggling subsided.

She swallowed. "Yeah."

"And he let Jim get away with saying that stuff to you?" She sounded surprised.

"Yep."

"I thought he was better than that."

"I hurt him." Her shoulders slumped.

"Yeah but that doesn't give him an excuse to standby and let that happen to you."

Ashley sighed. "I don't want to talk about Logan." She didn't want to have anything to do with him ever again. He had done nothing to stop his friends unforgivable behaviour. It had really tanked her opinion of him. Maybe for the first time she had witnessed his true colours. He belonged firmly in her past.

"Have you spoken to Maddox?" Sally's question was unexpected and took her by surprise.

"No...why would I speak to him?" She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"I thought you might have called him to tell him about the rumour."

She frowned. He'd had a hand in putting her in the situation but she couldn't totally lay the blame on him. She had to take some responsibility herself. If she had just been honest with Logan in the beginning and not tried to force something that was never going to work she could have saved herself a lot of guilt and hassle.

"I'm sure he'll hear about it at some stage."

There was a good chance he'd already heard it.

"You think he's going to be mad about it?" There was trepidation in Sally's voice.

"I don't think so." She shrugged. There was no reason for him to get upset. If anything it would only cement his already rebellious reputation.

It was the girls who usually came away from this type of a rumour with a tainted reputation. It led her back to who would have started the rumour in the first place. It was clear the intention of the person who had started it was to make her look like the bad person in the breakup with Logan and possibly gain sympathy for him. The person who would gain the most from it would be Logan but she couldn't believe he would stoop that low.

But the Logan she had known before wouldn't have stayed quiet while his obnoxious friend had say sexually suggestive things that weren't welcome. Maybe she didn't know him at all.

***********

When Ashley arrived at school on Monday she was nervous as she got out her car. Diane and Sally were waiting by the entrance so she wouldn't have to face people on her own. She slammed the door shut and slung her bag over her shoulder while she looked around cautiously. A few people were looking in her direction and whispering. It was starting already. Her stomach sank. What had she expected?

"Hey you," Sally said giving her an encouraging hug when she reached her friends.

"Hey," Ashley replied.

"You ready to face this?" Diane asked.

She nodded. She didn't have a choice.

From then on it only got worse. Any hope that it hadn't spread through the entire school evaporated when people stared at them when they walked down the hallways and whispered and pointed behind her back. The looks she got were of disgust. She had been judged and juried without any defense. She couldn't explain the truth to every single student and there was no way to know if they would even believe her.