The sight that her blue eyes took in made her heart fall farther then she ever thought it could. Ashley was still dressed in her pajamas from last night: a pair of old red sweatpants and a mismatched orange sweatshirt way too big for her thin frame– Spencer suspected it was Aiden’s. Her hair was thrown up into a sloppy bun that was quickly beginning to come undone and then there was her face. Oh, god. Her face.

Spencer had seen her fair share of sadness, disappointment and upset in her life, especially being in a job where one move can make or break your entire career. She had seen grown men who didn’t even cry at the birth of their child collapse in sobs after one unfortunate phone call. She had been witness to the mental and emotional breakdown of a poor intern after an hour long degrading by her boss in which his screams regarding how it took ‘the brain capacity of a chimp to make coffee correctly’ echoed throughout the entire office.

However, all of these things couldn’t even begin to prepare her for Ashley at that very moment. Her eyes, which only a little bit ago had been lit up like flames were devoid of any light whatsoever. The bags underneath seemed to engulf them and only magnified their dullness. Wrinkles seemed to have magically appeared over the past hour, aging her years. She looked paler than Spencer had ever seen. The girl’s normally olive skin was reduced to a sickly off white, making every vein and imperfection stick out even more. Her hands covered each other and she was nervously fiddling with her bracelet, twisting it back and forth, back and forth.

Neither girl said a word.

Spencer set her coffee cup on the table in front of her, the sound of porcelain clanking against glass breaking up the silence of the moment. And man, if there was ever a situation where the term “deafening silence” would apply, it would be this one right here, right now.

The blonde sat back on the couch, moving as little as possible, and attempted to gather the courage to deliver the speech she had prepared earlier. Spencer waited, half praying for the other girl to speak and half wanting her to remain silent just a little bit longer – just enough so the blonde could get out what she needed to. Then, two distinctly different, equally nervous voices interrupted the room at exactly the same time, their words both vying for the other’s attention.