My Best Friend

Chpt 26: Back again.

Ashley's POV

The music was blasting from the speakers.

This place was so crowded. It's going to be impossible to find them.

I walked right in front of a speaker.

My God. I think I'm officially deaf.

I spotted a familiar mop of red hair from the crowd and sighed in relief.

I walked right up her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and screamed.

Boy, that was the loudest, most piercing scream I had ever heard.

Now I'm officially deaf.

Two more screams came after that.

The music was turned down a little now.

In no time, I had my three best friends squeezing the life out of me.

They finally pulled away.

“Ashley, we missed you!”

I laughed. "I missed you guys too."

"What are you doing here?" Kayla asked.

"I couldn't miss my best friend's birthday, now could I?"

She squealed and jumped up and down.

"Ashley!"

I spun around and saw three guys running up to me.

They ran and hugged me, knocking me off my feet. Thank God they had their hands wrapped around me holding me.

I laughed and they pulled away.

"Hey guys." I smiled at them.

"Thank God you're back Ashley, if I had to hear these guys whine about how they missed you one more time, I swear." Lance said, gesturing to the girls and Justin and Brandon.

"What are you talking about, man?" Brandon said. "You were the one who was whining everyday."

Lance punched Brandon in the arm and that made us laugh hard.

We're doing a lot of laughing tonight, I see.

My eyes wandered around and landed on Shane.

He made his way over to me and a smile crept up on my face.

He tightly wrapped his arms around me and laughed.

"Ashley. God, I missed you so much." he said.

Hearing his voice melted my heart.

"I missed you too Shane."

A throat cleared behind us and we pulled apart and turned around.

Shane's eyes went wide. I looked at the others and they were wearing the same expression as him.

"Hey." A girl greeted.

"Hey, what are you, uh, what are you doing here?" Shane asked, looking extremely nervous.

"Didn't you get my text? I told you I'd be here soon." 

"Oh." Was Shane's only response.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" she asked him.

He opened his mouth like he was about to say something but no words came out.

She chuckled and shook her head.

Okay. Who is this girl?

She extended her out to me. “Hi, I’m Melissa." she said. "I’m Shane’s girlfriend.”

Well, that answers my question then.

Shane was looking at me in horror. The guys and girls were too.

Gosh. They’re acting like I’m going to kill the girl or something.

Knife or gun ?

I'm totally kidding.

Maybe.

I turned back to Melissa. I took her hand and shook it and plastered a ridiculously sweet smile on my face.

“Hi, I’m Ashley. I’m Shane’s... friend.”