The Boy Next Door

Chapter Twenty-One

"What for Ashley?" Mum said in a disturbingly calm tone, tapping her foot with her arms crossed.

"Shouting at you, sneaking out and drinking."

"Right," she nodded, and Dad grunted and stood up, making me wince.

"How about going to a house surrounded by intoxicated hooligans and drinking way too much with no adult supervision," he snapped, looking down at me, worried, not angry. Genuinely worried, guilt-tripping me instantly.

"Dad, I'm sorry I am. I was upset."

"Upset!" he paused, "I was upset when I got a phone call from Oliver's parents in the early hours of the morning saying you had passed out at a party."

"Huh? What? Olly's?"

"And they weren't best pleased about being woken up either, and neither was Olly. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"I, er."

"Ashley," Mum said. Her deep brown eyes looked cautiously at me, and I watched them gloss over. "What you did last night was careless. From the second you left this house, you put yourself in danger. Anything could have happened to you, anything. Didn't you think?"

"No, I didn't." I put my hands in my pockets. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to be a normal sixteen-year-old and go to a party, and you never let me out."

"We know, and that's why, from now on, we may loosen the reins a little," Mum said, looking at me, then to Dad, who looked wry.

I let out a are you joking kind of laugh and said, "What's going on? Why aren't you screaming at me and grounding me?"

"Sit down, Ashley," Mum insisted, pulling the desk chair out, stopping the pacing I had unknowingly started to do. I looked at her curiously and sat, nervously scratching the nail polish from my nails. "We want you to be safe, and we want to know where you are, what you're doing and who you are with," she said. "Last night kind of put us in our place."

I listened with my eyes glued to them, dumbfounded, questioning who had cloned my overprotective parents and what they had done with them.

"When we were your age, we were doing things I don't even want to imagine you doing, alcohol, drugs, parties, sex." I cringed as revulsion cascaded over me at the thought of my parents having sex.

"I knew karma would come back and bite us in the ass," Dad added, shaking his head as he gazed around my room. "Can you not put ideas in her head."

"Let's face it; those ideas are already there," Mum said, looking to me, then to Dad and sighed. "Look at her. Sneaking out, hungover, and with a boyfriend."

"Olly," I blurted out. "I need to see him and apologise. We argued, and we haven't spoken since. I only went to that party, thinking that's where he would be. Oh, I'm so stupid; I bet he hates me." I started to cry and hung my head in my palms, and Mum moved closer.

"I wish he was there; then I could blame him for this," Dad muttered as he left the room.

Mum lifted my head and moved my hands aside, wiping my tears. "Ignore your dad; he's upset; he will come round."

I nodded with a sniffle, "Why aren't you angry with me?"

"Trust me, I am, but you need to learn from your mistakes, and I can see you have; I can smell it from here."

"Sorry," I sighed with a reluctant smile. "Can I go next door and apologise before you ground me indefinitely?"

"You're not grounded, and you can in a bit, you need paracetamols, food and fluids in you first," Mum said, rubbing my back.