________________________________________

I HATE YOU
:: xxii. | elephant in the room

It was another book club meeting but this one was at the Professor's house. Ashely just got to the front door with a smile on her face before knocking. She was excited and she's never been to a teacher's house before so everything was new for her, also considering she's a freshman in college now.

As soon as professor Clark opened the door, the bright smile quickly faded. She wanted to seem as nonchalant as possible. She didn't want to make a big deal of being at his house or any teacher's house.

Ashely gave him a light smile as she complimented his home, "Very big, yet cozy."

He lightly chuckled, "Very poetic."

She shrugged, "What was I supposed to say?"

The professor just looked at her and shook his head with a light chuckle. That earned a light chuckle from Ashely as well. As the two were engaged in a bit of laughing, Professor Clark's doorbell rang.

His smile was still on his face when he answered the door to let the rest of the students in. Ashely had only been at the school for a couple weeks now but there was just something about her that Professor Clark was just so infatuated with — maybe it was how intellectual she was or how she manages to keep a positive attitude all the time. He wasn't sure, but he was happy she was around.

Everyone gathered in the living room as they all pulled out the book that they read. The professor pulled up a chair and sat with the group.

"So how did we all like this book?" He looked around, "Why don't we go around."

As the first student began to speak about their experience and thoughts of the book, some guy leaned over and whispered in Ashely's ear.

"Professor's kind of cute, huh?"

Ashely didn't say anything, she just ignored him. Which resulted the guy leaning back over and whisper something else in her ear, "Saw you two chatting."

Ashely leaned over, "He's our professor and I have a girlfriend."

He rose his brows glancing at her, "I call dibs."

Ashely didn't understand why that guy thought for some reason that she even cared a little bit. She will admit though, Professor Clark is charming and good looking but other than that, there's no way.

• • •

"Clean teens? Now, that's a new one." Brooke mentioned to Rachel as the two walked by the table in the courtyard while laughing with one another.

Brooke and Peyton had another falling out over the summer, which resulted into Rachel and Brooke spending so much more time with one another. Ever since Ashely left, Rachel had been getting into more trouble than usual.

If anything, her badgirl side was just a coverup of how she was really feeling and that's probably hatred and anger. She misses her girlfriend but Ashely didn't even consider staying. The blonde just left — she left Rachel, Chad, and all her friends. For Rachel it left like Ashely was getting so caught up in her college life that tree hill was now just a distant memory. Kind of like how Ashely felt when Rachel left.

As the two girls were making their way into the school, they bumped into a boy.

"Oh —! My bad." The guy walked in between Brooke and Rachel.

Brooke turned around with a smile, her gaze following the tanned boy. By the look on her face, Rachel knew exactly what Brooke was thinking.

"Brooke, please don't." Rachel pleaded but the burnette ignored her.

Brooke flaunt her way over to the guy with Rachel dragging her feet behind. Brooke stood in front of him with a smile. It was clear she already liked this guy quite a lot.

He looked up at Brooke, "Oh hey, it's bump girl."

Brooke smile faded once she saw the shirt he was wearing, "You're clean teens?"

He looked down at his shirt, "Yeah, it was a decision to make."

Brooke noticed someone passing out clean teen shirts out, so she grabbed one from that person's hands, "Yeah me too."

Rachel rolled her eyes at her friend's stupid attempt to get a boy's attention. She turned on her heels and continued to head into the building. She had other things to worry about than dealing with Brooke's possible boy dramas.

She walked to her locker and then stood there for a moment, thinking. She'd been waiting for a possible message since yesterday and Ashely yet hadn't got back to her. She didn't want to be one of the those girlfriends and she told Ashely that in long distance relationships, trust really needs to go both ways. She's not saying the doesn't trust her, but she's just worried.

Her girlfriend all alone out there in a city that she knows nothing about — that's scary, at least for Rachel.

As she shut her locker, she looked over at Chad who shockingly seemed fine because his other half wasn't around anymore. Rachel approached him with her arms gripped around her books.

"You seem really fine for a boy whose sister just left the state." She titled her head.

"Good morning to you too." Chad commented as he opened up his locker, "Let's be real here rach, she'll come back during the holidays. It's not like she'll be gone forever."

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Whatever." She headed off in the direction of her first class, feeling loss and just completely wanting to be there with Ashely because she doesn't want to be anywhere else.

• • •

After the book club, Ashely headed back to her housing apartment and as soon as she opens the door, she finds Nicole doing homework on the couch. It was nothing alarming really but the blonde still ignored her as she made her way to her room. She shut the door behind her and exhaustedly plopped on her bed. As her eyes began to close and she could finally sleep from a long day, her door was burst open.

"So you're just going to walk pass me and not say anything? That's rude." Nicole spoke with her arms crossed over her chest as she stood in the doorway.

Ashely groaned sitting up, "I'm trying to sleep. Anyway, why does it matter? We've hated each other since middle school."

"You're right, I did hate you." Nicole put her arms down, "But I was only trying to hide what I was really feeling."

"What?"

"I was a mean person that you hated but Rachel was a bitch and you liked her? That makes no sense." Nicole continued to rammer on.

Ashely scooted to the edge of her bed, "Rachel might've been a bitch but she was only nice to me. You were rude to everyone and I got it the worst."

Nicole approached the blonde and sat next to her, "That's how deep my feelings ran for you."

"So let me get this straight, you were a bitch to Rachel because she had me and you were worst to me because you had feelings?" Nicole nodded in response and Ashely just burst out laughing with a scoff, "What about the rest of the school? What did they do?"

Nicole completely ignored her questions. She went and stroked a strain of Ashely's hair, "You know, I always liked your blonde hair."

Ashely pushed Nicole's arm away, "Don't touch me."

Nicole stood up and made her way to the door, "That's fine. You'll come around eventually."

Ashely's eyes darted at Nicole, "I doubt it."

Nicole lightly shrugged, "We'll see."

Once Nicole left back to the living room, Ashely quickly got up and closed her door as well as locked it. She immediately got back on her bed and grabbed her phone, calling the one person she knew could help.

Rachel answered on the first ring. At first it was how are you, how's your day, did you see my text then Ashely dropped the bomb. She told Rachel what Nicole and her talked about and just like herself, Rachel didn't believe a damn thing. Especially about the part where Nicole said that she was only a bitch to Ashely because she had feelings.

The two carried on from there, talking and giggling. They missed each other and that call was exactly what Rachel needed.

a/n:
y'all ain't ready for
the last act ((;

PLSSS COMMENT
UR FEEDBACK OF
THIS CHAPTER OR
THOUGHTS