When it came to parties, Ash and Caleb set the standards. Then they went on to break them.

Their mansion was easily twice as large as the Wayne's and behind it was an Olympic sized swimming pool with a grill at the side and a tennis court a little to the side. It is quite easy to make and break standards when your bedroom is someone else's house and your allowance is someone's parent's salary.

Tonight, to celebrate their victory, Ash did just that. She broke the standard.

While Caleb was not the party animal Ash tended to be, he had a keen attention to detail Ash lacked and always ended up roped into the planning by his own perfectionism.

Ash had thrown herself into the party planning to distract herself from the fact that she was more than a little disappointed that Hailey couldn't make it to the party.

They had been together after the match and Hailey talked nonstop about how her first football game was, complete with a lot of gesturing and exclamations. Ash had smiled through the display, flattered by the image Hailey painted of her on the field. But their meeting had been cut short by a call from home and they had parted ways.

At the party, the booze overflowed as did the burgers and hotdogs and dance floor was full of soccer guys and girls and their dates. The pool was full of wet bodies who were tired of dancing or drinking and the poolside where Caleb preferred to stay with Emily in his lap, was occupied by the others who favored munching on barbecued chicken with liquor on the side or inhaling from a hookah pipe.

Ash was drunk, which was no big surprise. She was no lightweight but she could not say no to a keg stand contest when one soccer boy or the other challenged her, especially since she was yet to lose one.

She was one of those in the living room turned dance floor, swaying wildly and completely out of tune to music she could no longer hear. Her crop top and faded jeans were still wet from an unplanned but ceremonial dip in the pool courtesy of the soccer girls-a tradition set by the girls meant to honor the MVP and present the boys with a show.

When the room started to spin out of focus, Ash found her way to the backyard, stumbling towards Caleb who watched her progress with mild amusement.

She tried to wipe the smile off his face with a rude 'shut up!' but it came out in such a ridiculous slur it had the opposite effect.

Maddie appeared at her side to help her the rest of the way. Unfortunately she was only slightly less drunk and they both ended up falling over, laughing. With a guttural scream of 'dog pile!', Kira was upon them, bringing several girls with her. Two seconds later, Ash was at the bottom of a heap of female bodies, confused as to which way was up.

When the girls eventually dispersed and they were finally able to rein in their drunken antics-mostly-, they settled down on the grass for a game of truth or dare, an empty liquor bottle between them. It was fortunate that no one else was leaving that night-Ariana and Briana had been picked up earlier by their parents-because no one, save for Caleb, was sober and even he was already pink around the ears.

Chad had to chew and swallow a handful of grass which gave Ash a hint of satisfaction. Kira licked Tiana's neck from her collar bone up to her ear-with unmistakable eagerness too-. Emily made out with Caleb for a minute-while Ash went off to go puke in the bushes for unrelated reasons. Maddie did a drunken cartwheel-it was not pretty. Dani stripped to his shorts and jumped in the pool for a round. Caleb had to sing the school anthem-but that attempt to humiliate him had the girls fawning over his singing voice and clapping rapturously when he was done. Ethan was sent to go get Tiana another beer from the cooler-she was not very imaginative when it came to dares.

On truths, Adrian admitted to spray painting Principal Grundy's Mercedes last semester, Kira listed her biggest girl crushes: Ash, Maddie, Tiana, a girl in her History class and the school counselor; and Debbie announced her fear of balloons.

Several people opted to drink instead of speaking their truths or performing their dares like Brandy when she was asked to kiss any one of them and Rick when he was asked to name his crush.

Ash survived two rounds, first dared to take off two items of clothing, opting for her top and her shoes; her tits and tats on partial display, and second asked to mention her teacher crush which was not much of a secret: Olivia Amplebum. Finally she was dared to down three shots of vodka into her already intoxicated system at which point Caleb intervened in his glorious big-brotherliness and took her up to her room and away from the liquor and the stupid choices.

He expected Ash to crash instantly when he turned off the light and shut the door. He was wrong. There was still a great number of stupid things to be done. Or at the very least, said.

Eyes partially closed, she reached for her phone, searched a number and started to type.

*****

Hailey liked math. To her it was simple. There were definite rules to it. It was familiar. Unchanging. Relaxing. Which was why she was on her bed voluntarily solving problems from the activities section of her textbook on a weekend night.

Dinner was an hour ago and her parents had turned in for the night. Her younger brother Derek was most likely still awake, on his Xbox playing Assassins Creed. He had asked her to join him on an online multi-player game when study hour was over.

Hailey and Derek had a good relationship despite their busy schedules-her with school work and him with his sports. They both loved games and while she didn't understand it, she attended his important lacrosse games. He was a jock but he never made fun of her apparently peculiar love for homework as Cait usually did. He came to her for help which involved her walking him through the process not just solving it for him-also unlike Cait.

Derek also had no problem with her sexuality; the first in her family to notice and indicate his approval, and they talked about girls with her offering advice from the point of view of one and him opening her eyes to new things only boys knew about her gender. He was three years younger but surprisingly knowledgeable. While he did not usually apply his intelligence to his studies as she did, high intelligence definitely ran in the family.

A message popped in on Messenger as Hailey was computing figures on her phone's calculator. She was going to ignore it to prevent disruptions to her study time but when she saw the name of the sender, she shared the benediction on study time and rolled over to devote her attention to the phone.

She opened the message and squinted in confusion, checking the name of the sender again. It still said Ash with a black heart emoji next to it as she had saved it.

But why was she texting her in Spanish?

Ash: Oye, gafas! ¿qué pasa??!!!

She opened Google Translate on her phone and pasted the message. The translation came back,

Ash: Hey, glasses! What's popping??!!!

Hailey blinked at the message, slightly confused. Was it just because this was the first time Ash was messaging her that she sounded strange?

Me: Hey Ash. Everything alright?

A few seconds later, a reply came through.

Ash: Peachy. I miss you.

She had barely translated it when another message entered.

Ash: Oh and those cute freckles. I really wish you were here.

In the dim light of her phone's screen, Hailey's smile was high voltage.

Me: I miss you too. Aren't you having fun?

Ash: Fun is overrated. I think I want to cuddle. Caleb is with Emily and she doesn't like to share. Even though he was my brother first. I mean I got dibs!

Me: Wait. Are you drunk?

Ash: I'm not admitting anything. I want my lawyer!

Ash: Oh, and my cuddle.

Me: Oh my God, you are!

Ash: Either that or my room is really spinning.

Ash: Or am I spinning?

Ash: Wait, did you know the moon is still made of mouldy white cheese, yes. No, you cannot eat it!

Me: What in God's name did you drink?

Ash: I can tell you it came in a bottle. That's all I remember. Lol.

Me: Oh my God!

Ash: Not so loud! Shhh!

Ash: So tell me, what are you wearing?

Me: Lol. You're not in your right mind. Go to bed, Ash.

Ash: Meanie!

Ash: Do you wanna know what I'm wearing?

Hailey's thumbs hovered over the screen. She did want to especially with the chances that Ash being herself would most likely be wearing no more than a smile. Still it felt like she would be taking advantage of Ash's drunkenness.

Before she could decide, another message came through.

Ash: I bet you do.

The typing indication showed, then a picture appeared. Then another. Then two more.

All attempts to swallow the lump in her throat proved futile. Those could not be what Hailey thought they were. Could they?

Tentatively she tapped on the first picture.

It was of Ash; fully clothed-surprisingly to Hailey's disappointment-, frozen in the middle of an energetic gyration, her arms high above her head and her feet off the ground. She was wearing a black crop top that showed off her cute little belly button which seemed to be glinting back at the camera, indicative of a piercing. It also showed off the beautiful body ink that took up most of her arms and shoulders.

The second pic had her on some random guy's back, mouth agape in a scream, legs parallel to the ground and arms still in the air.

In the third picture, she was still in the air, this time carried by about six of the soccer girls, and they were outside. The building behind them was beautiful judging from the fraction of it that made it into the picture.

In the fourth picture, Ash was caught mid-plummet, the blue of the large swimming pool awaiting her below, shimmering in the camera flash.

Finally a video came in with Ash taking up the screen, making faces as her one visible piercing grey eye-the other mostly hidden behind a curtain of hair-gazed into the front camera. She seemed sober which meant this was made at the early hours of the party. She looked incredibly stunning up close with her dark eyeliner and dark red lipstick, her eyes twinkling excitedly as a smile played on the corner of her lips but didn't quite form. She winked and blew a kiss and the video ended.

Ash: Good thing I made that before I went and drowned in booze. I can barely control my fingers right now. Plus I look like an unhinged ex-girlfriend. Very unsexy.

She had made the video for her. It took a moment for Hailey to move past that fact.

Me: I'd still want to see you.

Ash: You say that now...

Ash: Boo!

A picture followed the message. It was a selfie of Ash in all her drunken glory, obviously taken with the aid of a flashlight. Hailey found that breathing was suddenly no longer an unconscious effort.

Taking up most of her phone screen was Ash's face. Her make up was slightly ruined and her eyes were squinted as if surprised by the bright light. Somehow she still managed to look beautiful. Different yes, but beautiful. Nothing at all like an unhinged ex if she ever saw one.

But that was not all the picture showed. For some reason, Ash's top was missing from the picture. In its place was a rather revealing black Victoria Secret brassiere. Her rather voluptuous breasts-creamy white and flawless save for a cute little birthmark on the left side-seemed eager to jump out of their restraints and right at Hailey, and Hailey was just as eager to receive them, swallowing yet another lump in her throat. Not at all unsexy.

She moved her fingers to type but for once her brain was not cooperating. All she could concentrate on was the picture before her and the resulting heat pooling below her stomach the longer she stared.

She put her finger to the keypad eventually but Ash logged off at the same time. Before Hailey could kick herself for her hesitation, her screen lit up accompanied by Imagine Dragons' Believer. Ash was calling.

Not to be caught hesitating again, Hailey received immediately.

"Hey, Ash."

On the other end, Ash inhaled deeply and sighed dramatically.

"Say my name again," she whispered. Her voice was low and thick.

Hailey laughed, rolling her eyes. She could not however ignore the way her heart jumped a beat at her voice.

"Hey Ash."

"Hello, Hailey. I hope it's not too late to be calling you. I had to hear your voice."

Another jump.

"Oh?"

"Is that an 'it's too late, you shouldn't be calling' oh or a 'no it's not too late, I'm glad you called' oh?"

"Definitely the second one."

"Well g-good." She yawned softly and resumed speaking. Except she was no longer speaking in English.

Hailey turned on the call recorder and continued to listened, unable to discern the words. Maybe she would find a way to translate later-it was fortunate that Ash did not seem to notice that the conversation was one-sided-, but for now she was content listening to Ash sleepily drawl on with a heavy Spanish accent that was just as incredibly sexy as the rest of her.