Secrets in the Sand (#1 of the Secrets Novels)

Chapter Five

Ashley sighed, pulling the door to her house open as she pulled the ear buds out of her ears. She tossed her bag on the ground and grabbed the book she's been hooked on for a couple of days and flipped it open. Another dirty romance novel, even though she says she needs to stop, she can't help her addiction. "Ashley, can you just guess what those Ashe's are doing now!" Her mother Diana says in a protesting and disgusted tone. Ashley rolled her eyes as a reply before letting out along sigh.

"Let me guess, they're breathing." She replied sarcastically, throwing her hand around dramatically as she stared up at the ceiling from the couch. After her mother didn't reply for a while she tried to focus in on the words in her book again, but Diana started up again and it was too much with her mother right beside her, glaring out the window disapprovingly at the Ashe's.

"They are throwing their boys a First Day of school party! Who does that!?" She exclaims. Ashley rolls her eyes finding her mother completely ridiculous and stood up, heading for the edge of the stairs. She's being stupid again.

"Calm down mother. You might blow something." Ashley said focusing her eyes back on the book as her mother continued to complain about the Ashe's to a Mrs. Tolland who is sitting in a chair only nodding without replying. Ashley pushed her way up the stairs ignoring her mother as she called after Ashley.

"I hope you stay away from Brandon when you're at school!" Diana called to her. Ashley waved her mother's words off. She was so used to this demand that she barely even acknowledged when it was said. It just annoyed her that her mother could hate a whole family, even their kids. How could her mother be so blinded by hate? Brandon was good, obnoxious, but good.

When Diana continuously calls to her for acknowledgement. Ashley finally gives in. "You know I do!" she called back, almost cheering when her mother was a faint whisper away.

"Ashley, good your home. Can you go calm your mother down? She's on another Ashe rampage, which is understandable because those people are awful, but still." Ashley's father Nathan interjected as Ashley looked up from her book at her dad who was on a step latter, fixing a light bulb. Nathan was tall with brown hair and brown eyes, where Ashley got most of her features from really. The feminine part is obviously from her mother, but the color of Ashley's skin, hair, and eyes is all from her dad.

"No dad, I came up here to get away from her!" Ashley exaggerates. "Besides, you know I don't agree with half the things the woman says anyway. What's so wrong with throwing your kids a first day of school party anyway?" Ashley asked, throwing her hands around as her father shrugged, focusing on the light bulb. He wasn't very handy, though he tried to be.

"I don't know sweetheart, you know your mother. She gets out of hand sometimes. Besides, the way that Brandon boy has turned out, I can understand why she's so upset with the Ashe's raising ethics." Her father continued as Ashley rolled her eyes and walked past her father, letting her eyes fall back on her book.

"He's not that bad," She muttered out a bit too loudly. Her father looked at her now, taking a break from his current lightbulb situation.

"Excuse me? Are you talking to Brandon?" Her father demanded as she sighed heavily and closed her book to look at her father.

"It's kind of hard not to. We have five out of seven classes together, in which four of them we sit basically right next to each other. My locker is right beside his, AND literally, the senior class is about twenty eight kids!" Ashley explained as her father clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth the way he does when he's about lecture her.

"Ashley, your mother and I have warned you time and time again. That boy is no good for you to be associating with." Her father continued as Ashley rolled her eyes and turned away from him. He turned his focus back on the lightbulb.