Ashley

The Wellsfield campus was beautiful in the mornings.

With its majestic Victorian-style buildings and tree lined pathways, the campus was charming at all times of the day, but there was something magical about it in the wee hours of dawn. It soothed my frayed nerves.

Heaving a sigh, I wrapped my hands around the steaming mug of coffee as I looked out the huge café window. A lone biker pedaled along the cobblestone path, but the campus was serenely still, a little early for the student rush.

Over the past week, my insomnia had returned stronger than ever. I had barely gotten a few hours of sleep at night. After going to therapy for years, I knew it was stress induced. It had started when my parents' marriage was going through a rough patch then reared its head during exam seasons.

Given that exams were months away and my parents' relationship was going great, I suspected this time it had something to do with my encounter with Shane and Juliette at Kris' party.

While I had tried my best not to let it affect me, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Constantly. The inevitable confrontation and humiliation that waited ahead of me swirled in my head until the walls started to close in and it became impossible to stay inside my room.

April and Nicole didn't know about Shane or my insomnia. If they saw me pacing the living room like a ghost in the middle of the night, they'd ask questions. They'd worry, try to stay up to give me company, coax me to share my problems with them and... I wasn't ready for that.

I wasn't ready to share my ugly past with them and watch them change their attitude towards me. Surely, they wouldn't want to be friends after they learned what I did. And then I would be alone again. I didn't want that. Not again.

So I kept the truth to myself for as long as I could.

I grabbed my bag and pulled out my headphones, connecting them to my laptop. Pressing play on my writing playlist, I opened the folder of my drafts and started typing away.

Time slipped away as I let the chords of the music tune out the background noise while I weaved the words coming from my heart. My writing was amateur and flawed and a hundred things wrong, but I loved how quiet my mind became when I started putting words together. It was therapeutic in ways I could never explain.

I got so lost in my world that I barely noticed the influx of customers in the café. Nor did I notice the familiar voices. Or see the people approaching my table until it was too late.

A harsh knock on the table startled me, and I instinctively shut my laptop. I looked up to see the two people I had been dreading running into.

Shane and Juliette.

"Hey," Juliette greeted, a small smile on her lips. "Mind if we sit down?"

Yes.

"No," I said, clearing my throat and averting my gaze.

"Thanks!" Juliette beamed.

Shane pulled out her chair before grabbing another from a nearby table to sit down himself. I didn't realize he had any gentlemanly qualities. He certainly didn't have them when we were dating.

Shane met my gaze once, his dark eyes flashing with such strong annoyance that it took me off guard. Even when we had broken up, he hadn't been so outwardly prickly with me. Not even when I had tried talking to him at the end of prom night.

What had changed?

Judging from the scowl on his face and the way he crossed his arms, I could tell he wasn't all that thrilled to be here. Juliette, on the other hand, looked extremely pleased. Her brown eyes almost sparkled with joy. It was a little unnerving.

"We were a little surprised to see you at the party last week," Juliette began, cutting straight to the point. "I was uh... wasn't expecting you here."

Shane scoffed, grumbling under his breath, "Just when I thought we were free of you."

What was his problem?

It wasn't like I was actively seeking them out. I wouldn't have even come to Wellsfield if it wasn't the only decent college I had applied to. Lovesick me wanted so badly to be with Shane that I'd blown up my chances of going to Ivy League for him. Shane knew that!

I glared at him but ignored his comment, facing Juliette again. "Likewise. Shane and I applied to Wellsfield together, if he's forgotten that already. But I didn't know you would be here too."

Juliette laughed a shallow laugh as she ran her fingers through her long, dark hair. "It was my second choice actually but since Shane was going here, I just followed."

They shot each other smiles and pain flared in my chest.

I knew what was happening. I didn't need to see it to know. He was holding her hand under the table, giving it a reassuring squeeze in show of silent support. Then he would place his hand on her thigh and keep it there. Because that's what he did. Not long ago he did that to me. Smiled like that for me.

And now he was doing that to my best friend. Correction—ex-best friend.

At one point, I was so in love with the idea of being in love with Shane that I didn't realize he might not feel the same for me. That I wasn't all that special and easily replaceable.

Maybe I was just unworthy of love.

I blinked and looked away, focusing on the sticker on my laptop instead. "Makes sense," I said.

An awkward silence stretched between us. I knew there was something else coming. There had to be. Juliette would never approach me if she didn't have it all planned out. I had been best friends with her for four years before our falling out. I knew the way her mind worked.

I cast a discreet glance at my watch, noting how I still had twenty more minutes for class. Usually, I would have stayed until the very last minute, but now I regretted not leaving sooner.

Maybe I could have avoided this stagnant conversation if I had just left early.

Juliette heaved an exaggerated sigh, drawing my attention back to her. "Look, I know this is awkward so let's just make things easier for all of us and get to the point, yeah?"

"Agreed," I said, crossing my arms and meeting her gaze head on. She needed to know that I wasn't going to cower in front of her. Whatever happened in high school... it was in the past. I'd had enough time to analyze all the details and I no longer blamed myself.

"Shane and I just want to put everything in the past and move on. We wanted to start over and with you being here..." she trailed off, her eyes giving me a once over that raised my hackles. "You can understand why that would cause problems."

I wanted to snap at her for even insinuating that I would try to get between Shane and her. Best friend or not, I still had the decency to abide by the girl code. Besides, no matter what my relationship was with Shane before, I would never go for a man that was taken.

"Well, it's great that I'm not interested in Shane then, isn't it?" I gave them both a saccharine smile, making sure my true emotions didn't show on my face. "I want to move on as much as you guys so I don't see what problem we could have here."

"Oh, quit it!" Shane yelled, leaning forward to get in my space. It was his usual tactic to intimidate people. I had seen it work on freshmen, his teammates from our high school hockey team and even his friends. I would be stupid to let it work on me.

So instead of backing down, I met his gaze head on.

"You are literally stalking us now, Ashley! That's low. Even for you," he snapped.

The bite in his words had me reeling back. "I... I'm not stalking you!"

Shane rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. As if I'm supposed to believe anything you say. For all I know, you still aren't over what happened and want to make our lives miserable like yours."

"Excuse me?" I scowled. "You have no right to speak to me like that! Whether you believe me or not, I couldn't care less about you. I have better things to do and way better people in my life to care for."

"Oh yeah? That's a little hard to believe," he sneered.

The fuck? He really thought my world stopped spinning after our breakup, didn't he?

While the betrayal still hurt and I still missed all the good memories I'd made with Shane, I couldn't look past all the times he had let me down. Abandoned me when I needed him to stand with me.

"I don't care what you—"

"Ashley!"

The sound of someone calling my name interrupted me mid-sentence and my head snapped up in that direction.

Like a ray of sunshine piercing through dense dark clouds, I watched Kris approach my table with a bright smile on his face. Despite my current circumstances, the jolly expression on his face curved my lips into a smile as well.

He raised his hand to wave and weaved his way through the morning rush of customers. That night when I was locked up in the storeroom with him, I didn't get the opportunity to look at him properly.

But now, in bright daylight? Kris wasn't just blessed with good looks. He was the most handsome man present in the café. He was literally turning heads left, right, and center.

Judging from the number of women eyeing Kris, I wasn't the only one privy to that fact. And when he came to stand beside my chair, all eyes turned to me.

"Lucky me, running into you here like this. I was gonna text April to get your number," Kris said, taking me by surprise.

"M-My number?"

"Yeah." He ran a hand through his damp hair as he cast a glance toward Shane and Juliette before meeting my gaze again. "We were a little occupied the other night to exchange numbers. I thought I would see if you were interested in meeting again."

When I stared at him blankly, Kris gestured inconspicuously toward Shane and Juliette with his eyes, and then it finally clicked. He was continuing our act from the other night.

But why? Did he realize who Shane and Juliette were? How was he that perceptive?

Under the heavy glare of my ex, I brushed those thoughts aside and pasted a sultry smile on my face as I stood up. I could ponder over those questions later. Kris was here to save me from this ambush, and I'd better take the opportunity to get out of here.

"I didn't think you'd want to meet up again. After all, you hockey boys have a reputation around here," I replied, knowing that Kris being on the hockey team would sting Shane.

"I'd be a fool to pass up an opportunity to go out with a pretty girl like you," Kris countered and tucked my hair behind my ear, grazing my cheek with his fingertips in the process. "Besides, I'd told you I would love to take you out for coffee. Or would you prefer a movie date?"

Oh, he was good. Really good.

"You are Kris Argent, aren't you? Eagles' starting defenseman?" Shane interjected, his eyes almost sparkling as he looked from me to Kris.

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. For someone claiming to have moved past high school, he sure acted the same. Shane always wanted to be among the popular kids. It had worked well in high school being friends with older kids and the captain of our school's hockey team. However, I doubted it would work in Wellsfield.

He hadn't even been recruited to play for the team. Clearly, that didn't stop Shane from trying.

Kris let out a chuckle. "Yeah. That's me."

"I watched your game the other day. You were awesome out there." Shane stood up too and extended his hand to Kris. "I'm Shane, by the way."

"Thanks," Kris said, but didn't bother shaking Shane's hand. Instead, he turned to face me again. "So, coffee? Unless you are busy and would like to meet again some other time?"

"Oh, no. I'm—"

I didn't get to finish as Juliette butted in. "How do you guys know each other?" she asked, clearly more intrigued by my acquaintance with Kris.

"It's a long story," I replied, shooting a smile in Kris' direction who smiled back at me. Between us, it would always be like an inside joke, but I knew how it looked on the outside.

Knowing Juliette and Shane, their minds would jump to only one conclusion. That we were dating.

It was wrong of me to use Kris like that. However, in that moment, I wanted them to believe that there was something between Kris and me. Believe that I had moved on with someone better than Shane. It was twisted and sick, but it also felt like the only way I would look less pathetic in front of them.

"Wouldn't be surprised to learn Ashley came onto you. She has a weird obsession with athletes. I'd be careful if I were you." Shane shot me a smug look.

Kris laughed. "That would've been great, actually. I guess I'll need a different kind of luck to have her come onto me."

My cheeks flamed, despite knowing all of this was an act. Maybe Kris was secretly an acting major.

"I play hockey too, you know. Was the captain of my high school team, actually," Shane said, bringing the topic back to himself when his previous tactic didn't work.

There he goes.

Now Shane would try his hardest to impress Kris with stories that were half-truths at best. I used to ignore whenever he did that before, preferring to just smile and nod instead of disagreeing with him. But I was too pissed to do that now.

And I would be a bad friend if I let Shane waste Kris's time as well.

"Too bad he didn't get picked to play for Wellsfield," I quipped, earning a withering glare from Shane.

"Oh." Kris offered him a pitiful smile, but I knew that would just hurt Shane's ego more. He hated feeling like he was below others. And hockey was an especially sore spot. I was playing with fire here, but I couldn't help enjoying the look on his face. He deserved this and much more after what he did to me.

Ignoring him, I turned to Kris. "You're heading for your class?"

Kris turned to me and nodded. "Yeah. I just got done with morning practice and thought to grab some coffee. I'll wait for you and then walk you to your class if you'd like?"

I beamed at him. "I'd love that! Actually, I was done here. Let me just pack up real quick."

While I hastily packed my stuff, Shane tried his best to keep talking to Kris. However, Juliette kept her gaze glued to me. It raised my hackles for some reason.

"Done!" I announced, slinging my bag over my shoulder. I took a step toward Kris and linked our arms to drive my point home.

He shot me a smile before turning back to Shane. "It was nice meeting you. See you around."

With that, we set off toward the exit. I could feel Shane and Juliette's gazes following us until we walked out the door. Kris didn't pull away or ask questions the entire time and I was grateful for it.

"Thank you so much for that," I said, letting go of him as soon as we had put a good amount of distance between us and the café. "How did you even know I was stuck there?"

He shrugged. "You looked troubled when I got there and it's only fair I help you out after you helped me out the other day. I assume that was your ex and ex-best friend?"

"Yeah. I wasn't expecting to run into them here," I said, averting my gaze to my feet. "But I guess it's good that it's over with."

He gently touched my arm, making me look up at him. "You okay?"

I wasn't actually, but the kind look on his face immediately put me at ease. I nodded. "I'm okay."

He flashed me his radiant smile again. "Good. But I guess we'll have to look for another café. I still owe you that coffee."

"No you don't," I said, shaking my head as my lips tilted up into a smile as well. "Not after you helped back there. We are even now."

"Hmm, is that so?" Kris pretended to think, tapping his finger on his lips and everything. I knew he was doing it to cheer me up and I was so very grateful for it. "Nah! I owe you a coffee at the very least for not pressing charges against the hockey team."

"Kris, you really don't have—"

"You are with her?"

I winced at the high-pitched voice and turned to see a very angry blonde woman. Her eyes flashed with rage as she stomped towards us.

When I looked at Kris, his face was blank while his jaw ticked, all playfulness from before wiped clean.

Oh no.

It seemed like we'd dodged one ex to run directly into another.