perfect? - montgomery de la cruz

We gotta talk.

"Wouldn't it be better for everyone if we just told the truth? We hurt people, and it's time to come clean. If we don't all confess to what we did, I'm going to tell everyone the truth at the senior share campfire.", Clay read aloud from his computer to Justin and Ashley.

"I mean, this is insane.", Clay said as he kept on staring at his screen. Justin let out a big sigh as he scratched the back of his head and placed himself behind Ashley with his arms wrapped around her waist.

"I didn't write this, you have to believe me.", Clay pleaded, offended that his brother even as much as thought about him being the one who sent the email. "I do believe you. It's just... it came from your account.", Justin hesitated, cautious of Clay's emotions.

"I know that you want to say that it's Diego and his goons but not even they are that stupid, I mean, going after you right after the suspension. It doesn't make sense.", Ashley reasoned.

"Then who was it?"

"No idea."

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The second Ashley stepped out of the bus, she wanted to turn around and go home again. She hated camping. Most of all, she hated hanging out with people from school.

Ashley was sleeping in the same tent as Jessica, she politely declined the offer to sleep with Justin and Clay since Clay threatened that he would actually open up the tent so everyone could see what the couple were doing in the dark.

She was looking around the campsite for her best friend when Diego stood in front her, making her bump into his chest.

"What do you want?", she sighed loudly as she watched the other football guys step closer to her. "No need to get defensive, we just wanna have a chat.", he smirked at her.

"Really? About what?", she asked with raised eyebrows. "We just wanted to say that you should watch your back, you never know what's gonna happen.", Luke said with a small smirk playing on his lips.

"Is that a threat?", she scoffed as she looked at the amount of fragile masculinity around her.  "That depends. Are you feeling threatened?", Diego asked.

"Really?", she repeated, "The fact that you guys think that you have anything on me is pretty funny.", she said and pushed through the boys.

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All the students were sitting around the campfire, the awkward tension making Ashley want to run right into the forest.

"Who do you trust most in your life and why?", Mrs. Jensen asked as she looked around at the students, waiting for an answer.

After a few moments of silence, Diego finally spoke up.

"I, um, I always trust my boys to have my back.", he began. "And... I... I trusted Monty, always.".

Ashley let out a quiet sigh as she felt the football guys's looks on her, she responded by resting her head on Justin's shoulder.

For some reason, they all blamed her for Monty's death. They thought that it was her fault since she broke up with him, but the truth was that he would've gone to jail either way so it didn't even matter if she had broken up with him or not.

"He was the one that got me to play. Freshmen year, I um..., remember telling him, 'Dominicans don't play football.", a small wave of laughter broke through the piercing silence.

"But he wouldn't take that. He taught me pride, he taught me what it was to trust someone, and... I miss him."

Ashley had a hard time containing her anger when she saw how small Tyler looked. Justin felt it so he grabbed her hands to calm her down, whispering sweet nothings into her ear and stroking the bridge of her nose.