“Hot blonde, must be for you, Ash.”  I smiled shyly at her and entered the house for the second time today.  Ashley came bounding around the corner wearing the same thing she wore at dinner.

“Damn…”  Her voice was breathy and even huskier than before.  “Spencer.”

“Ash, you’re drooling.”  Ashley wiped her chin and blushed a little.  “I’m Kyla, Ashley’s sister.  I’m going to take a wild guess, you must be Spencer.  Sorry I couldn’t make it to your dinner tonight; I was in the city with my boyfriend.”  I could see the family resemblance.  They both looked like their mother, Christine.

“No problem.”

“Come on in you have to meet the others.”  She led me to the living room.  “Chelsea Lewis,” Kyla pointed to a cute brown-skinned girl with short curly black hair.  “And Madison Duarte, we had to bring her.” She was a scowling Latina.

After I was properly introduced we left the house, walking to whatever our destination would be tonight.  We went down the same long dirt road Ben and I drove up here on.  I was trying to figure out what could possibly be within walking distance of this place.  Earlier today it seemed nearly deserted. 

As I was having my inner monologue about the road, I noticed someone was missing.  Chelsea and Kyla led the way talking noisily about something; Madison was behind them listening to her iPod; obviously I was here but I couldn’t find Ashley.  Trying to find her all I saw were trees and the other three people with us until I turned around.  Ashley was far behind the group with her hands stuffed in her pockets.  I stopped to let her catch up.

We were walking side by side but neither of us said anything.  I wasn’t sure what was wrong with her.

“You look nice.”  She didn’t look at me when she said that.

“Thanks, you do too.”

“Thanks.”  Okay so this is awkward.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Are you mad at me?”  Her tone made her sound almost afraid of my answer.

“Not really, I wish it wasn’t my bed but-“

“I don’t mean about what happened in your room.”  That was the first time she had looked at me since we left her house.

“Then what do you mean?”

“Are you mad at me for having a boyfriend?”  She was staring at her shoes again.

“Huh?”  I didn’t really understand what she meant.

 “Nevermind.”

“Dammit Ashley! Look at me!”  I was starting to get frustrated.  Chelsea and Kyla stopped talking and snapped their heads around to us.

“I’m sorry.”

“I haven’t even been here a full day and you’re making my life more complicated than it was back home!”  I had lowered my voice but my tone remained the same.

“I’m sorry.”

“And stop saying you’re sorry.”  I had calmed down a little but not completely.  Chelsea and Kyla weren’t looking at us anymore but I could tell they were still listening.  “Hey guys, I think I’m just going to go back.  It’s been a long day and I just want to sleep.”  Chelsea turned back around to face me.

“We understand.  Can you find your way back?”  We were still on the same dirt road.

“Yeah I think so.  If I get lost I’ll just call Ben.”  She nodded and everyone, Madison included, said bye except for Ashley who was still staring at her shoes.

When I got back to the house I ran into Glen on my way up the stairs.  He asked me why I was back so early, I just kind of grunted.  Before we went our separate ways he gave me a knowing look that also seemed to say ‘I told you so’.

Lying on the coach in my room opposite the bed, I thought two things before I fell asleep.  The first was “I should have listened to Glen” and the second was “I hope tomorrow is a lot better than today.”