Alexia’s POV

All that pent up rage turned into confusion. 

“What?” I blubbered. 

“You heard me. You turned eighteen a couple months ago, making you a legal adult. Now get. Out. Of. My. House,” she repeated, enunciating each word. 

The confusion transformed into a flurry of emotions, one that left me paralyzed standing by the door. 

“But… why?” I managed to mutter, even though I knew exactly why. 

Giving me one last hard look, her arms remained folded as she said, “Be out within the hour.” Then she walked off, leaving me staring after her. 

“I-I can’t believe she did that,” I sputtered, breaking down. Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do? How much could I possibly take with me? What do I even need? “Am I supposed to live on the streets?” I wondered aloud, trying to wrap my mind around everything. 

On one hand, I wanted to beg for my mother’s forgiveness to let me stay in the house. But I knew that road would only lead to more misery, and it would be hell for me. 

On the other hand, I actually leave. Maybe I could stay with a friend for a while. My journey as being truly independent would begin. 

My mind made up, I trudged up to my room, soaking in as much of the house as I could. I knew for a fact that I would miss it all; from the cream carpets to the beige walls and white ceilings. 

I passed the kitchen, and happened to sneak a glance in, where I saw my dad sitting at the table, staring at a book. 

He had heard the entire thing, I was sure of it. There was no way he couldn’t have. 

A rush of anger flooded me at the thought of him not doing anything about it, and I desperately wanted to confront him for not helping me. I was his only daughter, and he was allowing his wife to kick  me out. 

I stood in the doorway, debating whether or not to talk to him, for about two minutes, and he never once turned the page of the book. Just proving that I was right; he had heard us. Yet did nothing. 

That’s what had me thinking that maybe I was better off leaving this place of selfish cowards, and so I continued on my way to the stairs.

I ran my hand along the wooden railing of the stairs, trying to memorize all the intricate patterns on the wood. 

Once in my room, I grabbed two duffel bags and took out all the clothes I thought I’d need. Which meant most of my closet, leaving behind most of my formal clothing. I doubt I would need it anyways. 

I also left some space for my laptop as well as toiletries.

After about twenty minutes, both bags were full, and I was ready to go. But I still hadn’t figured out where to go. 

Chewing on my bottom lip, I decided to scroll through my contacts, seeing if there was anyone I thought might be able to take me in for a little, until I had enough to afford a cheap room in a motel or went to live at the college dorms. 

My finger hovered over the name Colin Hottle for a while, my mind going back and forth. 

Then I shook my head, deciding that I wouldn’t call him. He would be a last resort; things were too awkward between us. 

My eyes widened as they landed on the perfect solution: Ashley. 

I immediately pressed the call button, pressing the phone to my ear as I listened to the dial tone. It took four rings before she picked up. 

“Hello? Alexia?” 

“Hey Ashley, I, uh, have a favor to ask of you,” I stammered, unsure whether or not to go through with it. But if I didn’t then I wouldn’t have any place to go. 

“Ask away,” she replied, sounding as cool as ever. 

Whereas on the other side, I was practically sweating bullets. “Uhm, I was wondering if I could, uh, stay with you for a while? Maybe like a few days? My parents and I had a bit of an.. argument and I need to get out of the house for a while.” I deliberately left out the fact that I had been kicked out, in fear of her asking more questions. Of course, the curiosity she would feel once she learned the truth would be inevitable, but I was too exhausted to relive that right now. 

There was silence on the other line for a few seconds, and my nerves just seemed to grow larger. I was about to say her name again, when she spoke. “Of course! My mom said it was fine, I’ll come by to pick you up, kay?” 

“Okay. Thank you so much Ashley,” I told her, gratitude thick in my voice. A sense of relief washed over me. Now I have a place to stay, if only for a few days. 

“Of course, I’ll always be there for when friends need me. Be there in ten.” Then she hung up, and I gathered up my stuff in my arms.

Looking around my familiar bedroom one last time, I briefly wondered if there would ever be a chance of me returning. Thinking that those chances were particularly slim, I closed my eyes, shaking my head. 

Then I flipped off the lights and walked back downstairs, where I peered into the kitchen to see my father still sitting there. 

I felt obligated to say something, so I simply said, “Bye Dad.” And nothing more. 

He never replied, just continued to stare at his book.

So I left, walking out the front door and into the cool summer air. I waited for Ashley, enjoying the sounds of crickets chirping and leaves rustling, thinking of how everything could seem so peaceful when everything was running rampant in my mind. 

To say I was freaking out internally would be a major understatement. I was too bewildered to even have a proper freak out. 

I decided to use my phone to distract myself before it really set in that I have no home. I no longer had parents. 

I had just about calmed down to the point of numbness when a car pulled into the driveway, and I looked up before grabbing my stuff and walking over.

“Thank you so much Ashley,” I told her as I climbed in after throwing my bags into the trunk.

“Of course. I completely understand about needing some space from parents, feel free to stay as long as you like, my mom said that it’s fine.” She pulled out of the driveway and started towards her house, and I nodded, smiling. 

“I shouldn’t be more than a few days at the very most,” I replied in a quiet voice. 

“I don’t mean to pry or be nosy, but what was the argument even about? I’ve never heard you once complain about your parents,” Ashley remarked in a thoughtful manner. 

My smile faded into a frown and I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Maybe when we get back to your house,” I murmured, and Ashley nodded in understanding. 

“Okay.” 

Everything was hushed for a while, the darkness gliding by as the car moved. Ashley turned into the driveway of a quaint two story home, the darkness hiding any unique features. 

Shutting off the engine, Ashley got out of the car after offering to help me with my things as she popped open the trunk. 

“No, I can manage, thanks,” was my natural response as I followed her out of the car.

Ashley snorted. “Nonsense. You’re my guest,” she reprimanded, grabbing one of the duffels. “Come on, this way. My mom has been dying to meet you since I told you that you wanted to stay over.” She tilted her head in the direction of her house, a subtle gesture for me to follow as she walked in. 

“Ma!” she yelled, her voice reverberating throughout the house. “Alexia’s here!” 

I heard the sound of pans or pots clattering, before a middle-aged woman came out, wiping her hands on a dish towel. 

She had brown hair, a slightly darker shade than Ashley’s, with the same colored eyes. 

“Hi! I’m Ashley’s mom, ” she greeted warmly, sticking out one of her hands. 

I gripped it tightly, a smile coming to my face. I was about to reply, when Ashley beat me to it. 

“Of course she knows you’re my mom, who else would you be?” Ashley says with a roll of her eyes. 

I paused, blinking in shock at Ashley. How could she even think of speaking to her mother that way? 

But instead of getting really mad and yelling at Ashley, her mom playfully threw the dish rag at her and said, “Oh shush you. I was introducing myself.” Her mother stuck her tongue out at Ashley after releasing my hand, and Ashley bent down to retrieve the rag before a smile managed to tug at her lips even though you could clearly tell she was trying to keep it tilted into a scowl. “Anyways,” her mom continued, turning back to me, “dinner should be ready in ten minutes, we’re having mac and cheese with broiled steak and a salad on the side. You’re not vegetarian or vegan, are you?” 

“No ma’am,” I answered politely. “What you’re making sounds delicious.” 

“Okay, good. Now Ash will show you to the guest room, and you can get settled in. I’ll call you down for dinner.” I nodded, the atmosphere of the house putting me in a good mood and placing a permanent smile on my face. I grabbed my things, and Ashely started up the stairs. “Oh! And don’t call me ma’am, it makes me feel old. You can call me Cheryl or Ms. Marcotta if you’re more comfortable with that,” she called after us. 

“Okay, thank you for letting me stay over Ms. Marcotta,” I replied, making sure I didn’t forget my manners. 

“Of course hun! Stay however long you like, it’s not often that Ash brings over someone as polite as you,” she commented, repeating exactly what Ashley had said in the car. 

“Thank you so much,” I said again, before going up the stairs where Ashley had disappeared to long ago. 

After I reached the top, I looked around in confusion, wondering where I should go. Just as I was about to go towards the left, Ashley stepped out of a room on the right. “This is your room,” she called, beckoning me in. She retreated back into the room, and I carried the duffle in. 

The first thing I saw when I entered was white; everywhere. The only thing that wasn’t quite white was the carpet, which was more of an off-white. 

Other than that, everything was the color of snow, from the walls to the sheets on the bed, even the bed frame. 

“Wow, it’s so.. white in here,” I mumbled absentmindedly my eyes still looking around. 

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to convince my mom we should paint it, but she just keeps telling me that white is a gender neutral color.” Ashely gave me a ‘what can you do’ shrug. 

“She has a point,” I chuckled, thinking of how right Ms. Marcotta was. Not many people would hate the color white. 

“Yeah, but it’s so… bright.” Ashley scrunched up her nose as she said that, and I couldn’t deny that either. 

“It’s probably even brighter when the sun’s out,” I laughed, just imagining the room lighting up like a fluorescent light bulb due to all the light bouncing off the white surfaces. 

Ashley shook her head, snickering. “You don’t know the half of it. I’m pretty sure this room would be capable of blinding people,” she joked. “But I convinced my mom to get some nice, black, thick curtains to block out the light in the morning so you can sleep,” Ashley said, grinning, as she gestured to them. 

“Thanks. Glad to know I won’t be blinded,” I replied as my lips pulled up into a wide grin. 

“Ash! Alexia! Dinner’s done!” Her mom’s voice floated to us, soon accompanied by an aroma that had my mouth watering. 

I should be ashamed to admit that it smelled much better than anything my mom had ever made, but I’m not. 

My stomach rumbled just as Ashley called back, “Coming!” Then she turned to me, eyes sparkling with amusement. “So I guess you must be hungry,” she observed.

“A little,” I mumbled. I was actually famished; I had skipped both breakfast and lunch in order to study for my finals. However, I didn’t want to make it seem like that because it’d be rude if I ate too much of their food. 

“So let’s go eat! Race you down!” Ashley declared loudly moments before sprinting out of the room. 

I was left there, slightly surprised at her actions. 

She was allowed to run in the house? She could yell? She could talk back to her parents, admittedly in a playful sort of banter, without getting punished? 

I quizzically followed, habit forcing me to walk instead of run as Ashley had just done. 

“What took you so long, slow poke?” Ashley spoke around a full mouth, in an un-lady like manner. Ashley was already seated at the dinner table, her plate full of delectable looking foods as she shoveled it into her mouth. 

I shrugged as I took my seat, my stomach now making continuous grumbles at all the heavenly smells. 

I watched Ashley eat out of the corner of my eye as her mom continued to bustle around the kitchen, and soon a plate was placed in front of me. 

“There you go, hun. I hope that’s enough, but if you want more there’s plenty for seconds.” She gave me a kind smile, before going around to get a plate for herself. 

I couldn’t help but compare this to my family, and how we were so.. different. I was always taught not to snort, not to run inside, to use my inside voice, not to talk back even in a playful manner, to wait for everyone to be seated before eating, and to not talk with my mouth full. 

Yet here was Ashley, doing the opposite of all that, and her mom was okay with it. In fact, it seemed normal here. 

“Are you going to eat Alexia? You don’t want the food to get too cold.” Ms. Marcotta sat down, and took a bite out of her own plate of food.

“Hmm? Oh yeah, of course.” I felt a lot better once everyone was at the table, and now I could quiet my stomach with food. 

We all ate in relative silence, and I was too busy savoring each morsel to strike up a conversation. 

“The food was really superb Ms. Marcotta,” I said once we had all finished. The plate that she had given me was nearly double of what I ate at home, and I was surprised that Ashley still maintained her slim figure despite having eaten much more than I had. “Probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had,” I added as an afterthought, and I truly meant it. 

“Oh stop,” Ms. Marcotta said, but she was grinning with a slight blush coming on. She stood up. “You two can run along, I’ll clean up here.” She picked up both hers and my plates, carrying them to the sink. 

“Thanks Ma,” Ashley chirped before giving her mom a peck on the cheek. Then Ashley grabbed my wrist and proceeded to tug me out of the kitchen, despite the fact that I felt guilty about not helping to clean. “Come on, let’s hang out in my room.” 

Dragging me upstairs, Ashley this time took a left into what I could only assume was her room. 

When we entered, the first thing I noticed where the electric blue walls, with black stripes going around the edges like a border. Then I saw her black bed frame with a dark purple blanket and pink pillows fluffed up on her bed. 

On the floor were two pink beanbags, situated in front of a TV which was hooked up to an Xbox. Then there was a black desk against one of the corners, papers scattered across it. 

Ashley let go of my wrist and plopped down onto her bed, cross-legged. Then she patted the blanket across from her, and I sat down, albeit somewhat reluctantly. I knew what was coming. 

“Your room is really nice,” I told her, trying to stall. 

She knew my plan, and intervened before I could distract her. 

“Nope, it’s not going to work. Now spill. What happened?”

“It’s kind of a long story…” I blurted awkwardly, fingers playing with the sparse loose threads on her dark purple blanket. 

“Alexia, we theoretically have all summer.” Ashley cocked a brow, her eyes boring into me. 

“Okay, fine,” I murmured, and she leaned forward towards me in anticipation. “Well, it has to do with Lee and you know we were engaged?” She nodded eagerly. “Well, we decided to take a break a few months ago and date other people to really test if getting married was what we wanted.”

“But you didn’t date anyone else, at least not that I heard of. Right?” She pointed out, sounding slightly confused. 

I nodded. “Right. I decided to just focus on my studies during this break, and make sure I ended high school with flying colors.” 

“Okay, so what happened? Have you seen Lee?” 

I nodded. “Yeah, he came to talk to me after school. We decided to break it off.” I saw Ashley’s face light up, but I held up a hand before she decided to speak. “No, this doesn’t mean I will go back to Colin. I don’t know if I can after what I did to him, and after what he did to me. Anyway,” I continued, “Lee talked about this girl that he was now dating, and he really looked like he was in love with her. It was actually quite sweet.” I smiled at the memory, remembering the excited way he talked about her. 

“Then what?” Ashley’s voice broke me from my thoughts. 

“Then I went home,” I spat bitterly, my eyes travelling back up to look at her. 

I could practically see the puzzle pieces fitting together in her head, the wheels turning and clinking together. 

I saw it click and her eyes widened. 

“Your parents.. they didn’t like the fact that you broke of the wedding or something right? Wasn’t Lee this rich CEO in training or something?” Her forehead was slightly creased in concentration from trying to remember that one conversation she had with him months back. 

I nodded. “Yup. It wasn’t even my parents, it was mainly my mother. She was furious about it, but all she could talk about was how she wouldn’t be rich. She never cared for Lee, only his money.” I could feel the infuriation starting to grow and fester beneath my skin. 

“Really?” Ashley gaped at me, and I struggled to keep the enmity down as I nodded. “Wow,” she whistled, “that’s hardcore bitch right there.” 

I gave another nod, not even protesting that Ashley had just insulted my mother. It was only a few hours ago that I had called her that. 

“She never cared for me, she just wanted a trophy daughter. A daughter with perfect everything so that it could help her little image she had concocted,” I grit out. “… and that’s why she kicked me out of the house,” I finished, my voice filled with quiet anger. 

“I can’t b—wait, WHAT?!” Ashley exclaimed once she heard the last part of my sentence. “She kicked you out?” 

I nodded, embarrassed at the lie I had told her earlier. “Yeah. I didn’t leave of my own accord, I was forced out.” Now the anger was seeping away, replaced by something like sadness and shame. 

“Why would she do that?!” 

“Because technically I’m a legal adult now, and it’s her house. I was angry that she only cared about money, so I called her a.. a…” Now I couldn’t even choke out the word, there was no driving force behind it. 

“A what?” 

“A… the b-word,” I finally sputtered, giving up on trying to say it. I didn’t like swearing, I rarely did it. 

“You mean bitch?” 

I nodded. “Yeah. That one.” 

“And she kicked you out for it,” Ashley deadpanned, her voice a mixture between no emotion and disbelief. My head moved of its own accord. “Wow.” 

“Yeah,” I whispered, suddenly feeling sad once more. It had just hit me that I truly had nowhere to go, and that the people who raised me didn’t want me anymore. 

They stopped caring about me, and even though I told myself I shouldn’t care, that I didn’t do anything wrong, I couldn’t help but feel like the lowest of the low. 

“All those memories growing up, all the time we spent together, gone. They don’t even care about me anymore, they don’t love me.” It hit me like a blue whale, a crushing pressure placed on my head. I got that feeling when everything is crystal clear, but you don’t want it to be, and you try to muddle it to make it hurt less. Yet it didn’t help, it still hurt like hell, and I could feel myself spinning out of control. My life spinning out of control, slipping away, and I didn’t know how to fix it. This was the one problem I couldn’t solve, the one that I didn’t study for. 

“I never thought that my parents would be so disappointed in me that they wouldn’t want me anymore. I thought they would love me forever, isn’t that what parents are supposed to do? I thought they did love me… so why did they kick me out? Why did my dad just sit by and let her kick me out? Kick me out of my only home, the only place I’ve ever been and felt safe in. I-I don’t understand.” I was babbling my thoughts, unable to stop the trickle of thoughts that slowly became a swelling river that rushed through. 

“Oh my god, Alex.” Ashley moved into hug me, and it was only when I felt her shirt grow wet where my face met the fabric I realized that I was crying. 

Feeling the tears soak her shirt just made me cry harder; knowing that my parents had so much effect on me, even though I really shouldn’t have expected anything less. I’ve spent my entire life with these people; they showered me with love and affection. 

Then it was all suddenly gone, and I was left with nothing but cold, empty space. A void, if you will. 

Ashley rocked me back and forth, comforting me with soothing words and stroking my hair as I shook violently in her embrace. 

I couldn’t stop it; that rushing river was bursting out of my mind and through my body in the form of salty droplets dripping from my eyes. 

It took nearly ten minutes for me to gather the strength to pull away, to lift my hand to catch as many tears as I could so they wouldn’t ruin her blanket. 

“I-I’m so sorry Ash,” I murmured in a hoarse voice, glancing down through red eyes at the tear stairs I left all over her bed and all over her shirt. 

“Don’t you dare apologize Alexia, you just went through some tough shit. And never forget that I’m here for you. Okay?” She placed her hands on my shoulders, and looked into my bleary eyes. 

I whimpered a small okay, sniffling slightly. 

I felt so weak and I hated it. I hated that they could make me feel this way, feel worse than I ever had before. 

“I got it!” Ashley exclaimed, snapping her fingers. “You know what we’ll do?” She was now smiling at me, eyes bigger and brighter. I shrugged in response, not trusting my voice to speak without cracking, or worse. 

“We are going to go to a party my friend. And you are going to get drunk, and have the time of your life and forget about your shitty parents.” 

Her grin got bigger, and I could only gape at her.

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i feel like i should be scolding Ashley for suggesting that Alexia just go out and get drunk, but at the same time i'm like 'eh, whatever. alexia needs to have a good time' . 

now, that DOES NOT MEAN I CONDONE UNDERAGE DRINKING. I repeat, DON'T DRINK IF YOU ARE UNDERAGE. 

i am firmly against it, and advise everyone who is underage to not drink. respect the law people, it's there for a reason. 

this is a fictional book with fictional people. keep that in mind. 

now, who wants to join in my rant on how much they hate alexia's parents, especially her mom? 

and ashley's mom [they're divorced - something i don't and won't really get into] is so nice omf. it honestly was so nice to see how other households might run based on what she witnissed at ashley's house. it kind of makes her realize how strict her household was. 

and i guess you could say ashley's household kind of resembles mine XD it gets pretty crazy here ._. 

and this is probably my longest author note and longest chapter. woww