"So what do you need to tell Madison?" Ashley asks as we pull out of the schools parking lot.
"Well, you know how I went and had lunch with Aiden today. Um... well... he kinda told me that he has a thing for Madison." I tell her and her head shoots to me.
"What? Are you serious?" I nod my head. "And you're not like, mad about it?" She asks in a high pitch voice.
I giggle at her before answering, "No, why would I? I mean, yeah, some people would say that it's wrong for my ex boyfriend to have a crush on my best friend—but I think it's okay. I want them both to be happy, and if Madison likes Aiden, then I think they should definitely go for it." I finish with a shrug and my girlfriend smiles at me. "What?" I ask.
"You have an amazing heart, Spencer. And I really admire that about you." She says sweetly, reaching over and grabbing my hand. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
As we pulled into Ashley's driveway my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was my dad calling.
"You want me to stay out here with you, or you wanna be alone?" Ashley asks putting the car in park.
"I don't know. Alone I guess..." I tell her and she nods.
"If you need me, I'll be right inside, Spence."
"Thank you." I reply as she gets out the car. I take a deep breath and slide the accept button over on the screen to answer. "Hello?"
"Hey, Spencer." He says in a low voice.
"Hey, Arthur." I answer. Never once in my life have I called my dad by his first name, but honestly right now I don't even feel like he deserves to be called dad.
He sighs before asking, "How was school today?"
"Hell." I say simply.
"Things bad, huh?" Like really what is the point of this conversation? You called to make small talk with me when you haven't acted like a father most of my life?
"Is there something that you wanted?" I ask, becoming annoyed with this meaningless conversation.
"Well, um..." He starts, clearing his throat before continuing. "I wanted to talk to you about your mom, Spencer" He stops.
"What about her?" I say a little harsher than intended. But the very mention of her has changed my entire mood.
"Well, yesterday she was being irrational. I don't think she meant of what she said. I think she was just embarrassed and mad and things got a little out of hand. I don't think she-"
"Did she say this?" I cut him off.
"No, but-"
"Then I don't really want to hear it. She basically told me that she wish she never had me. That my love for Ashley is so wrong that she would disown me for it. What type of mother does and says those things?"
"Well, it's more complicated th-"
"That was a rhetorical question." I snap. "Look, I'm not coming back there, I don't want anything to do with this family anymore. Where were you yesterday when mom was basically tearing me down, piece by piece? Why didn't you speak up then? You were on her side."
"Spencer, you know your mother. When she gets something in her head there is no talking her down from it. I just wanted her to cool down before-"
"See that's the thing. You counsel kids all day about this very thing, you help them in ways that probably saves their lives. But when your own daughter needed saving, where were you?" I ask as the tears start to fall. "My whole life I've felt like I was the daughter you never wanted. Like you would have much rather had two sons, or just Glen. But the one time I really needed you, I forgot all that, and I hoped... no I believed that you—of all people, who have my back. But you didn't. And for that, I can't forgive you." I finish and he remains quiet for a moment before speaking.
"Spencer, I'm sorry that you feel like I haven't been there for you, and I have no excuse for how I acted yesterday. But I love you, you're my daughter." He says and I can tell that he's crying now too.
"Then you should've acted like it." I tell him before hanging up the phone. I hate to have it end like that. But honestly, right now, there's nothing he could say that would change how my mom treated me yesterday and how he didn't do anything to protect me. I wipe the falling tears from my face and gather myself before getting out of the car and going inside the house. Ashley is sitting at the bottom of the stairs playing with her hands, when I walk in she jumps up and rushes to my side.
"Are you okay?" She asks. She probably can tell I've been crying.
I shake my head. "There's nothing he can say to change what he did yesterday. He didn't take up for me once when my mom was saying all those things about us—about me. How can I forgive him?" I ask and she embraces me in a hug as I let the tears fall, once again.
"Shh.. It's okay, Spence. It's gonna be okay. You have me." She says rubbing circles in my back. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise." We make our way upstairs to her room and she lays me down on the bed, laying down beside me. Still trying to soothe my aching heart.
"I wanna forgive him." I blurt out suddenly. "But I can't." We're now laying on our sides on her bed, facing each other.
"I know, Spence. You feel like, as a father he wasn't there for you. He didn't protect you like a father should and right now it's hard for you to forget that. Just give it some time."
"He's never been there for me. Not ever. He's always let his work consume him. I don't even think he wanted me." I tell her and she shakes her head.
"I"m sure that's not true, Spencer. You're kinda hard not to love." She says with a small smile. This is the first time Ashley and I have ever really talked about my dad. "I know it might seem that way right now but look at it from his perspective for a second. He's torn between his wife and his daughter. Not to mention his religious beliefs. And no, I'm in no way, form or fashion on his side. I'm just saying..it's a lot for him to deal with probably." Ashley finishes and I can't help but smile at her.
"I love you." I say simply. She just has a way with words. She's knows exactly what to say and when to say it.
"I love you, too." She says and kisses my forehead. "Do you wanna take a nap before Madison gets here?" She asks me and I smirk.
"Really? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" I say raising an eyebrow.
"Spencer Carlin, lately your mind has been living in the gutter." She tells me, laughing. "If I wanted to have sex I would have asked you if you wanted to watch a movie." She says wiggling her eyebrows. I giggle at her antics. "I really just mean take a nap. I know that you've been through a lot today and I figured that you were probably tired."
"Mmhmm. I'm sure that's what you meant." I say and we both giggle. "Thank you baby. You're so thoughtful." I give her a quick kiss.
"I know." She shrugs and smiles. We cuddle up and I quickly drift off to sleep in her arms.
"Ahem." Someone clears their throat waking up me and Ashley. I open my eyes to see Madison standing over us with a smile playing at her lips.
"Madison?" I question, sleepily. I'm not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me or not.
"After sex nap?" She asks, quirking an eyebrow.
I untangle myself from Ashley as her body shakes with laughter from Madison's crazy assumptions.
"No." I say sitting up. "Actually, we went straight to sleep. No sex, unfortunately." I tell her and she makes a disgusted face.
"Too much info, chica." She says taking a seat on the bed. "Juan let me in."
"I'm gonna go downstairs and ask Emilio to fix us something for dinner." Ashley says getting up from the bed. "Madison you gonna stay?"
"I can't, my mom and I are going to dinner." Ashley nods before exiting the room. "So, what did you wanna talk to me about, Spence?"
"Well," I start, removing the covers from my body and scooting closer to her. "You know how I talked to Aiden at lunch today?" I asks and she nods. "Well, we didn't just talk about me." I pause. I don't know why this is so hard for me to say. It's not like I'm telling her that I'm in love with her.
"Spence, you're really starting to creep me out here. What happened, what did Aiden say to you?" She asks, worry written all over her face.
"He-told-me-that-he-wanted-to-take-you-out." I rush out all in one breath.
"Um, what the hell was that?" She asks, contorting her face in confusion. "I speak English and Spanish, Spence. Not whatever the hell that was."
"At lunch... um... well... Aiden might have sorta told me that um..."
"Spencer Carlin, if you don't spit that shit out right now!" Madison says in a warning tone.
"Ugh!" I groan out. "Fine. He told me that he wanted to ask you out." I say finally and her breath hitches. I guess she wasn't expecting that. Then again, neither was I when he told me.
"He said what?" She asks, obviously in disbelief.
"He told me that he wanted to ask you out but he wanted to make sure it was okay with me first." I pause. "Which it totally is, Mads. If you like him, you're more than wel-"
"Um, yeah... not happening, Spence." She tells me, standing up from the bed.
"What? Why not?"
"Hmm... let's see: he's your ex, he's my best guy friend, he's a jock, oh and did I forget to mention he's your ex!" She practically yells and I laugh at her.
"Madison, it's fine." I try and reason with her but she's just going off in Spanish. "Madison!" I say gripping her shoulders, spinning her around to face me. "First of all, calm down. Second of all it's fine, I want you to go out with him."
"What are you, my pimp now? Are you whoring me out for monetary gain, Spencer?" Madison asks me seriously, quirking an eyebrow waiting for my response.
"No, Madison." I giggle at her. "I am not whoring you out for monetary gain." I pause and rack my brain. "Although, I could use some money so- Ow." I yell as Madison cuts my sentence short by punching me in the arm.
"I will not be anyone's whore." She tells me and I laugh.
"Except Mr. Fitz's." I say wiggling my eyebrows and smirking.
"Touché." She says and sits back down on the bed.
"So are you gonna go out with him or what, Mads?" She shrugs. "He really seems to like you, I think it would be good for the both of you." I tell her and she looks at me.
"You think it'll be good for me to go out with your ex?" She asks as I sit back down on the bed.
"My ex, who just so happens to be a guy you've known forever. It' fine, Madison. I promise. I have Ashley." I tell her and she nods.
"I don't know, Spence. It might be a little weird."
"Well, how about you actually go out with him first then decide if it's weird or not." I try and reason with her.
"Uuuuugh!" She groans, throwing her head back. "Fine." She huffs out.
"Yay!" I exclaim, clapping my hands together like a little kid.
"Anything to get you to shut up about it." She jokes bumping shoulders with me. She takes out her phone to check the time. "Shit! I need to go before Rosalinda kills me. You know how she is about being on time."
"Yeah." I laugh thinking about Mrs. Duarte. "I'll see you at school tomorrow." I say as we hug. She nods and smiles before leaving the room. I flop back down on Ashley's bed, smiling at myself for possibly hooking up two of my good friends. They both definitely deserve happiness.
"I just saw Madison hightailing it out of here. Everything went okay?" Ashley asks, walking into the room.
"Yeah, her mom is a Nazi when it comes to being on time for things so she had to hurry and get home to meet her for dinner." I tell her as she comes as lays down next to me on the bed.
"Oh, okay. So she was okay with what you told her?"
"Um, not so much at first, but she agreed to at least go out with Aiden once." I tell her as she snuggles closer to me.
"That's good." She kisses my cheek. "Emilio is gonna make us some Beef Wellingtons, but they won't be done for like an hour or so." She gets up and straddles me. "So I was thinking that maybe we couldwatch a movie." She leans down and whispers seductively in my ear.
"I thought you'd never ask." I whisper as I pull her into a kiss.
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Next update will be Monday. :)