I roll over, realizing Ashley is no longer next to me. I groan and sit up. We fell asleep entangled in each other last night.

In case you're wondering...no, nothing happened.

After our little confession we just spent the rest of the night talking.

It was amazing actually.

I'm not sure who fell asleep first, I just know that the tranquility of her arms around me made me feel so... safe.

Complete.

I grab my phone off the table and see I have a few text and a couple missed calls from my mom, Madison and Carmen.

'I called you bitch. Our plane lands in that God awful city at eight thirty. Don't be late hoe.' I chuckle and shake my head as I read her next text. 'You better not be hooking up with that Ashley chick. Why aren't you answering my text?' And the next. 'Oh so it's like that? Okay, I got you!' Uh oh, I'm in trouble. I smile as I text her back.

'I'm sorry, I fell asleep last night. I promise I won't be late getting you guys from the airport. Los Angeles is the best city on earth Mads! And don't you forget it.' I can already hear Madison going off in Spanish when she reads this text. You see I didn't even attempt to address that Ashley comment. I hit send and throw my phone back on the table. I'm not even gonna read what Carmen sent.

And I'll call my mom back after I've had a chance to wake up.

I'm sure she doesn't want anything anyways.

I sigh and fall back into the couch, remembering me and Ashley's conversation. The replaying of Ashley's words brings a smile to my face.

"Good morning." A raspy voice pulls me from my thoughts. I look up to see Ashley standing in front of me in different clothes, a smile on her face and a tray of food in her hands. This girl seriously has to be a morning person. It's only eight in the morning and she's already showered, dressed, and cooked me breakfast.

Aw.

She cooked me breakfast.

"Good morning." I reply and smile as she sets the tray of food down in front of me on the coffee table.

"I wasn't sure what you'd be in the mood for so I just um... kinda cooked everything we had." She says and nervously plays with her hands. I've never seen Ashley nervous.

Jealous...yes.

Angry...yes.

Nervous...no.

"Everything okay?" I ask, picking up a piece of bacon from the tray and eating it.

"Yeah." She nods, dropping her hands to her side.

"Ashley." I say simply, tilting my head and quirking a brow. I've known her long enough to know when something's wrong.

"Fine." She sighs, closing her eyes. This must be big. "I wanna take you somewhere." She says quickly before turning to walk about into the kitchen.

"Wait, that's it? You're acting like this right now because you wanna take me somewhere?" I ask, holding in a chuckle.

"Yes." She stops, turning back to me and nodding.

"Is that place like horrible or something?" I ask with a raised brow. I mean, what could have her flipping out like this.

"You can say that." She purses her lips, shrugging her shoulders and nodding.

I narrow my eyes at her. "Where is it?"

"Just...somewhere." She replies rubbing the back of her neck nervously before turning to leave again.

"Ashley, if you don't tell me where you're taking me, I'm not going." I stuff the last bit of bacon in my mouth before folding my arms across my chest.

"But I already told them I was coming." She says softly.

"Told who?" I ask confused.

She rolls her eyes and sighs. "My parents." She finally says. She scans my face for a reaction. I don't move a muscle though. Cause right now it seems as though Ashley wants me to meet her parents.

Her parents!

Okay yes I took her to meet mine but that's different.

Completely and totally different.

How you ask?

Well for starters we hadn't just told each other that we love one another the night before.

How about that!

And two... It's her parent's! Ashley hasn't told me a single thing about her parents. Hell, I didn't even know she had parents! Well I knew she had parent's but I didn't know she had...you get my point! Plus she said that she didn't get along with her parent's and now suddenly she wants to take me to meet them?

What the hell?

Anyway, her taking me to meet them feels wrong. Like really wrong. More wrong than professing our love for one another.

Just plain wrong!

"Spencer?" She questions, moving closer to me.

I swallow the lemon in my throat, lifting my gaze from the tray on the table to look at her. "Hmm?" I mumble out absent-mindedly.

"Are you okay?" She questions timidly.

"Yeah." I nod, looking away.

"You're totally not." She comes over, kneeling down in front of me. "I knew I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry. You don't have to meet them if you don't want it's just that I told my mom I'd come by today a couple of days ago, but I didn't want our day to end so I just figured I'd bring you along with me but it's a bad idea." She nods her head. "I see now that it's a terrible idea and I'm sorry for even-"

"Ashley!" I cut her off, grabbing her face in my hands. She hasn't taken a breath yet. "Breathe." I tell her. She releases a breath and I smile. "It's fine." I assure her with a nod. "I would love to go with you to your parent's house." I smile trying to ease the tension.

"Really?" She questions shyly and I fight the urge to kiss her. She's so cute right now.

"Yes really." I tell her and she smiles.

"Okay. Well you should go get ready." She stands and turns to grab the tray of food from the table. I whine in disapproval. "I'm sure my mom will have a spread of food out when we get there." She rolls her eyes as she walks away.

"What should I wear?" I shout to her retreating figure.

"You look good in anything Spence!" She throws back to me.

I roll my eyes and smile at the brunette.

Oh My God...

I'm gonna meet Ashley's parents...

–

"You don't have to do this. I can turn around and take you home right now." Ashley tells me as we sit outside her parent's massive house. I can see her knuckles turning white as she grips the steering wheel, glancing back and forth from me to the house.

"Ashley, I've told you, it's fine." I smile.

She sighs and bangs her head on the steering wheel once. "Okay." She turns the car off and gets out, walking around to open the door for me.

"Hey, did you talk to Lexy today?" I ask her as we climb the stairs towards the house.

"Yeah, this morning." She nods. "She thinks she's coming in tonight, it could be tomorrow though. She's not sure."

"Did she mention anything else?" I question, wondering if she'd mentioned anything about taking me to the airport.

"No." She shakes her head, turning to look at me. "Why, was there something she was supposed to tell me?"

"It was nothing big, I just needed a ride to-"

"Yes." Ashley nods, cutting me off.

"But I haven't even told you where I needed to go yet." I turn, biting my lip.

"It doesn't matter." She shrugs. "I'd take you anywhere." I can't help the smile that appears at my lips. Ashley has this way of pretty much always saying the right things. We turn to face each other and I suddenly find myself backed into a wall. When did that wall get here? "You know that right?" She whispers, barely audible.

I gulp, "Know what?" I feign ignorance as she she takes her bottom lip between her teeth. She's killing me right now, literally killing me. I suppress a moan and I guess she can tell cause she smiles.

"That I would do anything...go anywhere for you." She leans forward and whispers in my ear. Her breath tickling my ear. I close my eyes and breathe her in. Getting a mixture of roses and gardenia's. There must be a flower bed around here somewhere.

"Ashley." I breathe out. I know she knows what I'm asking. I need to feel her lips on mine right now.

She pulls up from my ear, scanning my face as she leans forward towards my lips. "We're here." She says, inches from my lips, nodding towards the house.

Really?

When did that happen?

I really gotta start paying more attention to my surroundings.

I turn and look up, gasping at the sheer magnitude of the building in front of me. "Your parent's um..." I pause, turning to face her. "There something you wanna tell me?" I ask, quirking a brow.

"Nope." She purses her lips, shaking her head as she feigns ignorance. I stare her down, crossing my arms over my chest as I wait for an answer. "Okay, so my parent's kinda have money." She shrugs.

"Kinda-" I start.

"Come on." She chuckles, cutting me off as she pulls me into the house. "Mom, dad I'm here!" She shouts into the huge house, her voice echoing through the foyer. The shrill of a scream that came from the top of the stairs made me jump and Ashley rolls her eyes and shake her head. "Hi mom." Ashley sighs as the woman descends the stairs.

"Ashley, honey!" A tall, thin, dark-haired woman kisses Ashley on each cheek before turning to me with a smile and open arms. "Ah and you must be Lexy!" She says as she pulls me into a hug, pulling back and kissing both my cheeks as well.

Wait what?!

They've never met Lexy?

I stare at Ashley from the corner of my eye as she practically pulls her mom off me.

"No, mom this is Spencer." She tells her mom, looking down when I turn to face her. How could she have not told me that she's never brought Lexy here? What does this even mean? I thought she was in love with Lexy... if you're in love with someone, after eight months, wouldn't you have brought them to meet your parents by now?

"Spencer?" Ashley's mom backs up, confused.

Hi Ashley's mom, I'm Spencer. Lexy's best friend and Ashley's secret... lover.

"Yeah mom, Spencer." Ashley says, not bothering to explain exactly who I am. I mean how does she explain that really?

"Well hello there Spencer!" Ashley's mom says pulling me into another hug. I see we've got another huger here. Maybe her and my mom can become friends and just hug each other all the time. Maybe then they wouldn't hug other people so much. "I'm Christine Davies, but you can just call me Teenie." She says and Ashley contorts her face in a mixture of disgust and embarrassment.

"No mom, she will not call you Teenie." She shakes her head, rolling her eyes. A tall, thin, dark-haired man appears from the kitchen. I'm assuming he's Ashley's dad because my goodness if she isn't the spitting image of him. "Dad." Ashley breathes out a sigh of relief as she pulls me toward the man.

"Hey sweetheart." He says lovingly, kissing her on the forehead.

"And you must be-"

"No." Ashley shakes her head, cutting him off quickly. "This is Spencer." She tells him and he nods, pulling off a piece of his orange and eating it.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Spencer. I'm Raife, Christine's better half." He smiles at me.

"Funny dear." Ashley's mom chuckles as she walks past her husband, kissing him on the cheek.

"Nice to meet you sir." I offer up my hand but he glances at it, shaking his head before pulling me into a hug.

Great.

More hugging.

Ashley mouth's an 'I'm sorry' to me as her dad finally lets me go.

"There's food in the kitchen if you guys are hungry." He thumbs in the direction he just came from. "She hired a caterer." He adds, shaking his head.

"Thanks dad." Ashley gives her dad another kiss on the cheek before pulling me into the kitchen. "I'm sorry about them." She leans and whispers in my ear. I pull away from her, furious at the fact she never told me one very important detail... the little fact that she's never even brought Lexy, her girlfriend! To meet her parents.

"How could you not have told me you never brought Lexy here?" I question.

"I don't know." She shrugs. "It's not a big deal, Spencer. It's just...not everyone can handle my parents and I didn't want to-"

"To what, Ashley? Nothing you say right now can excuse the fact that you-"

"Are you girls hungry?" Christine interrupts us. I run my fingers through my hair and hold in a sigh, trying not to show how upset I am.

"Yes ma'am." I smile and nod.

"Well there's plenty to eat so dig in." She says gesturing to the massive spread of food across the huge kitchen table.

"Thank you." I smile and she nods and walks away.

"Spence you're not mad right?" Ashley asks once her mother leaves the kitchen.

I turn to her and scoff. "Mad? No." I shake my head. "I'm not mad at the fact that you brought me to your parent's house to meet your parent's even though you haven't even brought your girlfriend, my best friend..." I half shout. "To meet them. Why would I possibly be upset about that?" I ask sarcastically, not even bothering to wait for a reply. I turn and walk towards the layout, checking to see what I want. This has to be the most food I've ever seen in my life at one time.

It'd take a small army to eat this.

Who did Ashley's mom think Ashley was bringing over? A two ton trucker?

"Spencer." Ashley says, coming up behind me as I pile food on to my plate. There's a couple of severs standing around, I'm guessing in case we want anything other than what's laid out for us. Which is pretty much impossible since every type of breakfast slash brunch food known to man is sitting on this table right now. "Spencer don't ignore me." She pleads. But I'm not giving in. I just wanna eat my food and get this day over with. "Spencer seriously, you can't ignore me all day." She says matter-of-factly.

Okay then...watch me.

–

"So Spencer are you in school?" Christine asks as we lounge around the pool. After breakfast we came outside, since it's such a nice day, and we've just been laying around. Ashley has continued to try to talk to me and I've continued to ignore her.

"Yes ma'am." I nod, splashing my feet around in the water. Christine's is on a beach chair to my left, Ashley is in the pool leaning on the wall next to me and Raife is sitting at the table reading today's newspaper. "I go to Tisch." I tell her.

"Well that's wonderful. Did you know that Ashley got in there." She says and I jerk my head around to look at Ashley, who just shrugs. "She sure did." Christine continues. "But she decided to defer for a year to pursue a career in music. Much like her father that girl." I wonder if Ashley would have come to Tisch, would any of this be happening right now? Would she have started dating Lexy? Would we have found each other sooner? Would we be together right now in an uncomplicated fashion? So many questions.

"Your dad's a musician?" I turn back to Ashley and asks. When her lips curl up into a smile I slap my head and realize I just talked to her.

"He was the lead singer in Purple Venom." She tells me, looking satisfied with herself.

"Holy crap, my dad loves Purple Venom." I practically squeal. I hear Raife chuckle behind me.

"I'll sign something for him later then."

"Oh no." I shake my head. "You don't have to-"

"I insist." He cuts me off with a smile.

"Thank you." I return the smile then look back to Ashley. "I'm still not talking to you." I whisper harshly to her.

"Are you there for music, Spencer?" Christine asks, breaking Ashley and I's staring match.

"Photography, actually." I whip my head back around to face Christine.

"She's amazing mom, you should see the pictures she took of me and the band. They're freaking amazing."

"Language honey." Christine chides her daughter.

"Mom I said freaking! Gosh!" Ashley shakes her head and dips her head under the water. "I'm nineteen for goodness sake." She says when her head pops back up. I take this opportunity to dip it back under. When she comes back up she splashes me. I gasp cause I mean, what the fuck? She's in the water and I was clearly only trying to get my feet wet.

"Freaking is still a bad word." We hear Christine say as we splash each other.

"Just leave them alone, Christine." Raife tells his wife. "This is why she never visits." He adds. Ashley and I continue to splash each other with water, acting like a couple of twelve year olds.

"Ashley Francesca called." Ms. Davies says. Whomever Francesca is, it causes Ashley's whole mood to change. She stops splashing me and gets out the water.

"I already told you mom, I'm not doing it." She says rolling her eyes as she grabs a towel from the shelf.

"But I don't understand why honey." Christine presses her daughter for an answer.

"Because I don't want to." Ashley says, almost snapping. She makes sure to keep her tone respectful though.

"Christine don't start this." Raife tells his wife, pulling his paper down from his face to look at her.

"I'm only asking our daughter a question Raife, is that a crime?"

"When you know she doesn't want to talk about it, yeah." He nods. I'm so confused at what's going on here. Who's Francesca and why does the mention of her name make Ashley upset?

"Well I'm just trying to figure out what's going on in our daughters mind, Raife. We barely ever see her and-"

"Do you ever wonder why that is?" Raife snaps, cutting off his wife. I feel like this is a conversation that should be just between family. I pull myself out of the water, watching as Ashley practically stomps her way into the house. I grab a towel off the shelf, intending to follow Ashley when Christine stops me.

"Spencer darling." She calls to me.

"Yes?" I ask, hoping she wouldn't put me in the middle of anything.

"If you were purchased a loft at the Ritz Carlton with your own staff, would you turn it down?" She asks and I seriously don't know what to say. As Spencer Carlin, probably not. But as Ashley Davies... who knows her reasons.

I shake my head as I shrug my shoulders. "I really don't-"

"Christine leave the poor girl out of this, she probably already thinks we have issues." Raife tells his wife. I give him an appreciative smile.

"Don't all families..." I add before turning and heading towards the house. I hear Raife and Christine continuing the conversation. "Hey." I find Ashley in the kitchen, sitting on a stool drinking an Orange Juice.

"I'm sorry I brought you here, I don't know what I was thinking." She says, rolling her eyes.

"It's cool." I wave her off, taking a seat next to her. "Your families really not that bad." I tell her with a smile.

She turns and raises a brow at me. "You haven't met my brother or sister yet. They're in Paris." She shakes her head and sighs. "You ready to go?"

I shrug. "I guess."

"Could you tell my mom and dad that Spencer and I are gone?" She asks one of the maids. The young girl nods and quickly scurries off. "Let's go before my mom comes back." She says grabbing my hand and practically dragging me to the car. Once we're inside she waste no time, cranking it up and pulling off.

"Is this why you never brought Lexy here? You didn't want to see what your family was like?" I ask, turning to face her.

"I don't know." She shrugs, keeping her eyes on the road. "I guess that probably was one of the reasons."

"There's more?" I question.

"Do you really want to get into this right now?" She asks, turning slightly to look at me.

"I guess not." I smile. She's probably been through enough questioning for one day. "Ashley."

"Hmm?" She replies, glancing back between me and the road.