chapter eight
(not edited)

I FEEL LIKE AS SOON AS I stop trying to think about something, it always comes back to me like a boomerang.

For the rest of the weekend, I just stayed at home and tried to focus on myself for once without any distractions, and it worked out pretty well. Until I came to school on Monday and remembered that Mason was still upset with me - hence the reason why he didn't come up to kiss me this morning - and Julia was still a bitch. Well, I'm trying to convince myself that she's a bitch.

Even thinking about May Parker came back to me. She started texting me again all throughout class and it made me smile. She proved my theory (of her not liking me) incorrect and that made me even more happy.

I was responding to one of her texts while I was walking to my next class, just as I happened to bump into somebody and my phone dropped to the floor. My heart started racing and I bent down to pick it up, luckily to find that the screen was still perfectly fine.

"Oh, shit." Someone said above me. "Is your phone okay?"

I stood up and looked into the eyes of Kyle - one of the guys from May's party.

"Kyle?" I smiled.

"Oh, hey! Oh, my God." He chuckled as well and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Ashley, right? From May's party?"

"That's me." I shoved my phone into my back pocket. "I didn't know you went to school here."

"Yeah, well I could say the same to you." He smiled. "What grade are you in?"

"I'm a sophomore." I replied. "What about you?"

"Junior." He said as he smirked. That makes a lot of sense, due to the fact that we don't have any classes together and I've never seen him around before. Maybe Mason knows him; he's a junior as well.

"Do you know Mason?" I asked. "Mason Baylor?"

"The name sounds familiar." He nodded. "Is that the guy on the soccer team?"

I nodded my head, "yep. That's him."

"Yeah, I have a few classes with him. How do you know him?" He asked. The hallway started to get empty and I was suddenly worried about being late for class.

"He's my boyfriend." I answered.

His eyes widened so big that they could've popped out of his skull.

"Oh, shit." He chuckled. My heart began to race and I began to wonder what was going on in his head. Was he going to judge me as well? "That's great, sorry, I didn't mean to react like that. It's just - never mind. I'll see you later, yeah? Don't want to be late to class."

"Okay, see ya." I said half heartedly as we departed and began to head to our next class.

What was that all about?

     Suddenly, my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my back pocket and saw the caller ID belonging to the one and only, May Parker. I checked the time and saw that I only had two minutes to get to class, so I answered it as I rushed down the hall.

     "Hello?"

     "Ashley," she said, "I'm gonna need you to do me a favor."

     "Okay, like what?" I said, approaching my classroom. I stood outside the door so my math teacher wouldn't catch me with my phone out in his class.

     "Olivia is having this crazy party this weekend - it's her birthday party - and I need you to come with me."

     "Uh, okay." I said. "Why me?"

     "Because." She moaned, "my ex is going to be there and I really don't want to go through it alone."

     "What about Georgia Rae?" I asked, "or Lulu, or Olivia, or-"

     "Ashley, do I need to tell you again?" She soothed. "Don't doubt yourself. You're a good person, you just have to start believing that."

     My face flushed as I took a deep breath.

     "May, I have to go to class..."

     "What class?" She asked softly. I felt like exploding because her voice was so soothing.

     "Algebra two." I cleared my throat and tried to calm my heart rate down by taking deep breaths.

     "Skip it." She said. I could feel the smirk in her voice. "Let's go do something way cooler than algebra two. Which, in reality, math isn't a hard subject to beat."

     "What are you talking about?" The bell was going to ring any second now and I was still standing outside the door.

     "Just - forget what I said, but you need to live a little, Ashley." She whispered. "Let's do something! Anything!"

     "Like what?"

     The bell rang and my math teacher started walking over to shut the door, so I let my mind take over my body as I sprinted towards the bathrooms.

     "Was that the school bell?" She asked. She must've heard it.

     "Yeah, and it's kind of your fault that I'm not in class right now." I said, running into a bathroom stall and locking the door behind me.

     "Well, in that case, let's do something!" She squealed.

     I could feel my face warm up as my entire body seemed to swirl around, causing me to become dizzy.

     "Okay." I spoke softly as I regained my breath. "Let's do something."

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"Isn't this fun?" May smiled. We were currently walking around downtown with nothing to do. I was feeling really nervous - what if I missed something really important in class? What if there's homework? I don't know anybody in that class, how am I supposed to know if I have homework? "Quit worrying." She rolled her eyes.

"Sorry." I muttered softly as I tucked some hair behind my ear.

     "You don't have to apologize." She looked at the side of my head. I turned to face her as my breath caught in my throat. Her blonde hair was down and tangled and her right cheek showcased her cute little dimple. Her eyes were sparkling; almost as if the ocean was reflecting in her eyes at all times.

     She cleared her throat and broke the gaze as she looked forward. I gulped and looked at the ground.

     "So..." I began as I cleared my throat, "what're we gonna do?" I looked up from my feet and looked at the street ahead of us.

     "I've got an idea." She said suddenly before she started running down the sidewalk. I followed her, instinctively, as we ran across the streets and through alleys. It all seemed like a huge shortcut that was unnecessary but yet necessary.

     We found ourselves in the city grocery store that many college students shop at since it's so close to the dorms. May still hasn't said a word since we began to run, but I kept quiet as I followed her through the aisles.

     "Regular lemonade or pink lemonade?" She called over her shoulder. We were standing right in front of all the juice.

     "Uh..." I hesitated. I'm never one to usually make my own decisions. "Whatever you want."

     May sighed as she turned around and opened up her huge brown eyes. My stomach swirled.

     "I'm asking what you want." She soothed. I felt my knees go weak.

     "Um..." I looked away from her brown eyes and stared at the juice so I wouldn't blush or do anything stupid. "Pink." I settled on the answer.

     "Good choice." She smirked as she picked up the jug and began walking towards the cash register.

     I was ready to walk into the lane and pay for the jug, but she just held it up in the air and the cashier guy nodded his head. We continued to walk past the cash registers.

     I wanted to ask her what was going on, but before I was able to she navigated us through a crowd of people and pressed the 'Up' button on the elevator.

     "That was my brother." She explained as she turned to me. "Whenever I come here on my own and get something, he just pays for it during his shift and I pay him back later."

     "Oh." I nodded my head and stared at the doors to the elevator.

     "It's too much work to wait in a line and follow the rules, you know?" She said. The elevator opened and we both walked inside. She stuck a key into a slot as the doors closed and suddenly we were going up. She slowly turned to me and I forced myself to look into her big brown eyes.

     Don't blush, don't do anything stupid, you're in love with Mason, don't be weird-

     "You're about to see my most favorite place in the world." She said. The way her entire face lit up was magical.

     I smiled at her.

I couldn't help but think that we just met. Why is she taking me to her favorite place? Isn't that something that you should save for someone that you're close to? How is she able to trust me so easily?

     The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the rooftop of the city grocery store. She pulled the key out of the elevator and we both stepped onto the flat, hot, concrete roof.

     There was a thick blanket in the middle with a few beer bottles tossed around and I could see a few splatters of bird poop. There was even a big blue cooler beside the blanket that I assumed had some sort of food or drinks inside. The whole roof was about a fourth the size of a football field (I only know that comparison because my dad is a sports fanatic) yet it felt so big and spacious. As I followed her out onto the roof, I could hear the busy streets below us, but I could also hear a faint sound of the ocean nearby and that made me smile. It was peaceful and closed in and private all at once.

     "Do you like it?" She asked as she stood in front of me. I looked down from the sky and smiled at the her.

     "This is amazing." I smiled and spun around in a circle to see anything that I missed. There was a speaker right next to the elevator that we came out of and there were a few more beer bottles and cans scattered here and there. I didn't realize I was walking so far backwards until I bumped into May and we both fell to the ground.

     "Oh, God!" I exclaimed as I sat up and climbed off of her. I turned around to see her erupting into a fit of giggles which made me smile as well. I could feel my cheeks turning hot and red extremely fast.

     "Jeez, Ashley." She laughed, "first I'm the clumsy one - you know, spilling milk all over you - and now you're the one falling on top of me." She wiped underneath her eyes and reached over to grab the jug of pink lemonade. "Good thing this didn't burst, or else I'd have to pay my brother double."

     I laughed softly as I brushed off my shirt and pants and stood up as I made my way over to the blanket she was sitting on top of. I sat down next to her and crossed my legs.

     "My brother just had a party up here, so I'm hoping there's still some good stuff left." She said as she opened the blue cooler and shuffled through it. "Ah-ha!" She smiled as she pulled out a bottle of vodka.

     "Now, Ashley," she took two red solo cups out of a plastic bag and started opening the pink lemonade. "This is how you ditch school the real way." She smirked at me as she mixed lemonade with vodka and then handed me the cup. "Cheers, Ashley James." She held her cup in the air.

     I smirked.

     "Cheers." I responded and tapped my plastic cup with hers.

     So far, this felt way better than Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I just got back from the very last vacation of the summer! We went to a cabin (even though it was creepy), and it was so fun!

Dedication to @onederstruck- for making the lovely cover above <3

I'll see you guys next week!