Re: Freshmen Dorms

[Tiger-Lily]

Ashton scratched his ear, looking sheepish, so Seth smirked and mimicked Jake. "Whateva!" He turned and strutted to his room.

Ashton coughed, slightly awkward now that he and Lola were suddenly alone. "Aside from how stupidly that went," he commented dryly, "Wanna be my date to Seth's orgy-fest?"

[Guest]

"Sure, oh you'll meet my sister. She's decided to come to Seth's birthday, mostly cause of free presents. Anyway yes I'd like to be your date." Lola accepted his invitation quietly in case Jacob was still awake and could hear them.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Awesome," Ashton replied, raking his fingers through his hair as he looked away from her. "Now I'm going to attempt to not make this painfully awkward by giving a shitty excuse about homework because I suck at ending conversation."

[Guest]

Lola shook her head and smiled. Going to grab her purse and jacket, "See ya tomorrow Ashton." She said walking to their door and leaving the suite.


***

Ashlee had decided to go see Evelyn, she wanted to apologize to her for everything. She felt really bad, and also she wanted to make sure that Evelyn was okay. She arrived at her suite knocking on her door hoping that Evelyn was there.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn, how changed into a hoodie and sweats, glanced up from her laptop and walked out of her room, pas Nova snoozing on the couch, and pulled the door open. "Ye - Ash?" She blinked. "Uhh, hi."

[Guest]

"Hi, sorry I didn't call. Its just I wanted to talk to you, and... I didn't know if you were still mad at me. And well I came here to apologize. I shouldn't have said anything like I did on Monday, it wasn't my place. You're my best friend I should have defended you and kept my mouth shut. I really am sorry. Also I wanted to make sure you were okay, I ran into Carrie and she told me what happened and... sorry I'm rambling." Ashlee said shutting up looking at Evelyn.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn bit her lip and said shortly, "Come in?" She stood aside ot let Ashlee enter and closed the door behind her.

Evelyn turned, hands in the pockets of her hoodie. "You know what, I appreciated you calling me out because what I was doing was probably not the right thing to do. Btu you really should have had the sense to realize blurting it out in the middle of James' birthday dinner wouldn't end well. Why on earth would you do that when you'd just told me, several times, that you were absolving yourself of all responsibility?"

[Guest]

"I don't know... I mean. I felt bad. Its just you guys had said such hurtful things to each other and I found it unfair to him, to you. That you were both doing things to each other to hurt the other." Ashlee said sitting down on the couch.

She twirled a piece of her hair around her finger and went on."I mean. I wish you guys would just talk like normal people instead, or if you weren't going to get along at least agree to leave the other alone. I just don't want you getting hurt for what you're doing to Jake, because like it or not your feelings get involved.And even though I tried to keep myself out of it. I just couldn't. I didn't want you making a mistake. You're right it was wrong of me to call you out during James' dinner, in front of everyone. And for that I apologize I should have waited until after. When we were alone away from everyone else." Ashlee said looking up at Evelyn.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn looked away at the sleeping beagle, voice nonchalant. "Well, it doesn't matter now. We talked when I went to uh, get Nova, and decided to have no contact. I don't want anything to do with him, so it's done." She shrugged one shoulder, making the notion appear as cavalier as she could.

[Guest]

Ashlee's eyes widened up at Evelyn, not sure whether or not to believe if things had really been over between Evelyn and Jacob. Frankly because she had heard that so much between them it sort of had lost all meaning. But she didn't want to get on her bad side so she just nodded. "So, you figure out what you're wearing to Seth's birthday yet?"

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn was grateful for the subject change. Talking about or thinking about Jacob Salazar was as high up on her list as sorting laundry.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm just going with a skirt and a blouse since Seth said it had to be dressy. I have no doubt there'll be girls in bikinis and thongs wandering around. You?"

[Guest]

"I uh... I've kind of been racking my brain about that. I've been looking through my dresses, and all that stuff. And it just seems like stuff isn't right you know? Tried things on, and I just felt weird in them." Ashlee told Evelyn.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn sat down on a chair, frowning. "Why?"

[Guest]

"I felt like I looked.... slutty." Ashlee swallowed hard, ignoring how that made her want to cry.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn bit her lip hard, and then swallowed and said quietly, "You've never dressed slutty, Ashlee." She exhaled and added, "Look, what happened during James' dinner - that was horrible, it shouldn't have gone like that, I had no idea Luke would blurt that out. I'm sorry I didn't say anything. But I guess I was still pissed about the thing with Jake, earlier, and thought this was some kind of karma. But that wasn't right either." She ran a hand through her hair, standing.

"Look, I won't say what Luke said was entirely off the mark. Because you really have been acting different ever since we came here. And it has pissed me off several times in the past when I have to defend your actions to people like Alexis. And I can't defend you because I don't know why you've been acting like, like...Brittany!" she exclaimed, not sure how else to compare Ashlee's behaviour. "That - that girl in junior year with the creepy brother."

[Guest]

"I know... and its my fault the way I've been acting its just..." Ashlee bit down really hard on her lip and decided to tell Evelyn what she had told James.

"It was around the time I moved out with my brother it was just. You know.. I never told anyone this. Just James. Because it was when you and Luke left. And..." Ashlee paused rubbing her eye. "I always felt like back in high school between you, when you were more ice queen, and Tiff was the beauty queen and guys always wanted her. She was just such a flirt and stuff and...I lost Luke to her you know? And that was such a hard blow to me. Because all I ever was, was just nice. And I blamed myself. Thinking Luke got bored of me because I wasn't exciting like Tiffany."

Ashlee sniffed feeling tears in her eyes. "I know I shouldn't blame Luke for what I did, because I thought that maybe if I started acting more like Tiffany did or whoever... that he would notice me again. Because I never stopped liking him. That if I was a certain way, that I would seem exciting and different. And... I didn't want to tell you this because you were going through your own thing with James and you needed me to be there for you. So I was, and I told myself. "I have to be there for Ev, she needs me." So I just kind of pushed my feelings for Lucas off to the side. Like why ruin a good thing? He was my friend again, and things weren't awkward. And James started noticing because you guys were gone and I sort of broke and told him." Ashlee stopped to draw in a shaky breath, she hadn't noticed that tears were streaming her face.

"All I wanted was for the guy I like to notice me, but I went too far, and I became a girl I never wanted to be and I hate myself so much for it. And now Luke thinks I'm trashy, and my parents probably think the same thing. And you do too. And I made James promise not to say anything. It was just, I felt tired of being passed over." Ashlee finished.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn was listening wide-eyed. She didn't realize she was holding her breath until Ashlee finished talking.

She'd never have thought Ashlee was going through that. She had maybe had an inkling that Ashlee was a little jealous of Luke and Alexis going out, but not that she would bother to do all of this to get Luke to notice her again.

Ashlee usually didn't need to do much to get a guy to notice her. She was just loud and fun without trying.

Evelyn had had no idea, caught up as she was in all her drama with James and Jake and Alexis that she'd been neglecting Ashlee, simply because Ashlee was good at hiding anything she felt.

Evelyn struggled to find words to say something. God, she sucked at consolations! She'd had some practice with Alexis' breakdowns, but still...

Oh, come on, do something! This girl listened to you bitch about both James and...that other Asshole. You can come up with something to say! she told herself firmly.

Evelyn bit her lip and walked over to Ashlee, silently wrapping her arms around the shorter girl and pulling her into a hug. She rested her head on top of Ashlee's and rocked her slightly like she'd done Alexis. "Hey, hey, you're entitled to cry for once, Ash. It's always you being the shoulder to lean on. It's my turn now."

[Guest]

Ashlee cried for a few moments, in Evelyn's arms like she had in with James, that past summer. She hadn't realized all of this was sort of building on top of everything. After a couple of minutes Ashlee had pulled away from Evelyn wiping her eyes.

"Thank you Ev, I'm sorry I didn't tell you all of this. It was just I thought I could have handled it on my own. But, I'm gonna be fine. I know I don't wanna be who I was these last few months and stuff. I just wanna be me again." Ashlee sniffled, taking in a deep breath to calm herself down. She hated crying.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn reached over and grabbed a tissue off the box on the tbale, handing it to Ashlee. "You know what, I honestly don't think all of this was an improvement, because frankly, even in Ash Creek, you were loud and fun without having to resort to drastic measures. And guys liked you. Remember Dorian in senior year?" She stifled a slight grin.

"A lot of guys liked you, so you know it can't be because you were boring. What happened with Luke and Tiff was just accidental. Honestly, it was just a fluke and I should tell you that when Tiff visited here and hung with Luke, he told me after she'd left that he liked the memory of what she was better than who she really was. Said he was naive in highschool for falling for a flashy girl like her. Tiff is lots of fun but she and Luke were never all that compatible. He doesn't really do divas, since I guess being around James fills his diva quotient enough already."

[Guest]

"Dorian..." Ashlee remembered him. He had a motorcycle and besides Damien was another bad boyish type. But she got bored of him quickly.

She laughed at the diva part. James was a pretty big diva. "She kind of was a diva? But I shouldn't have tried to get him to notice me like that or anything. I mean clearly he's over whatever we had. And I guess I was stupid into thinking that maybe there was still something there and trying to recover it. If he wants to be friends, I won't push for a relationship then. Because honestly, Luke is one of the best friends I've had next to you of course." Ashlee said wiping her eyes with the tissue, then blowing her nose a bit.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Oh, thank you for adding that last part," Evelyn quipped. "I almost thought Luke was now your gay best friend."

[Guest]

"No... that's James." Ashlee snickered.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn had to stifle a laugh. "Speaking of Dorko, I saw him earlier this morning when I went running. Uh, right before Dumb and Dumber came along and I booked it." She frowned. "But Seth was talking to him and now I'm nervous because Seth is an annoyance, no offense to you but you married a moron - then again, so did I." She shrugged, shaking her head. "Anyways, what're you wearing tomorrow to your ex-hubby's birthday?"

[Guest]

"Well there was one thing I decided on. Actually it was my first choice. Its pretty neon, green and yellow. Its a skirt and tank top. I'm gonna have a shrug, cardigan whatever thing over it. I figured, I can be less trashy. Doesn't mean my clothes can't be as loud! I wanna glow." Ashlee stated confidently, and almost literally as she thought back on her outfit.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Plus, Seth would divorce you all over again if you turned up in black and brown," Evleyn added, figuring Peter Pan would be keeping an eye out for Tinkerbell.

She frowned and sat down on the chair again. "Seriously, though, I wish that asshole was as understanding as you about the friendship thing. Although I have my doubts about Luke, seeing as he hasn't really seriously dated since you guys broke up."

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