"Dear Diary: Heather told me she teaches people "real life." She said, real life sucks losers dry. You want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly. I said, so, you teach people how to spread their wings and fly? She said, yes. I said, you’re beautiful."

The Latter Days of Us

The thumping of feet pounded down the stairs and towards the kitchen area, matching the violent thumping of her heart. Ashley pressed her back farther into the couch, as if attempting to hide within the floral pattern upholstery. The sliding glass door jerked open, seconds later closing with a slam. Her eyes darted to the front foray, gauging the distance between the couch and the front door, imaging a giant red flashing “exit” sign above the frame.

Aiden had walked past her only seconds earlier, his head down, sunglasses shading his eyes. He hadn’t noticed her…on the couch, waiting, her hands at her sides, fingers gripping the material in a ball, tiny sweat beads lining her forehead. On impulse, she had almost called out to him, as if this moment had occurred before, in a past life, where Aiden was leaving and she beckoned him back, his head down, eyes shielded from view. Yet, this time it was different, the scene was harder, colder, void of emotion, almost as if the words that almost escaped her lips were performing some sort of mandatory duty, like the chiming of a clock on the hour.

“Ashley?”

Spencer’s voice came from the kitchen, full of worry, a definite question. Ash tensed, unclear if she should stand or sit, her mind frantic, having forgotten that Spencer would eventually see her, her pose now the main objective.

Spencer’s feet smacked the tile, rounding the corner to the living room. Empty pizza boxes still littered the floor, along with an empty vodka bottle and a few shards of jagged glass and wood chips. Dodger had cleaned up some of it.

Blonde hair whipped around the corner, Spencer’s face crumpling with worries, as if near tears, her lower lip in her mouth. Turning, she spied Ashley. Their eyes met and held, as Spencer stopped abruptly, as if smacking into an invisible wall that Ashley couldn’t see.