The girls were silent after recognizing the brunette in the picture. Lynn was confused.

“Do you know her or something?” she asked

“Um…” Spencer tried to find words but wasn’t really sure what to say. Ashley quickly came to the rescue.

“Yeah, we went out for a while” she said evenly.

“Oh…” Lynn joined the awkward silence.

“OK! Well I better go.” Spencer shot up. “We should get together and catch up more.” She said hugging her cousin goodbye.

“Well, the label is throwing a huge party tonight. That was one of the things I’m supposed to invite you too. It’s mandatory for you Ashley, and bringing a date is encouraged”

“Great, we’ll see you there” Spencer said and soon she was out the door,  leaving Ashley and the blonde in silence.

“This shouldn’t be awkward” Ashley offered “Jessica and I happened a while ago.”

“You’re right. No reason for awkwardness at all” they were both lying to themselves. “So lets go over schedules. I’m going to be your personal guide of sorts. Any questions you have, you can ask me. I’ll be on top of your tour dates and recording schedules.”

“Great” Ashley responded, now excited to be talking about work.

“Your first tour starts this summer, and recording starts this week.” She pulled out calendars and schedules from her bag. “Lucky for you, the studio is only about 20 minutes from here.”

“That’s great.” She took a look at the schedule, nodding in approval “Ok so tell me about this party.”

“The party is mandatory for new artist who signed with us, which means you have to make an appearance, and trust me you want to bring a date, otherwise you’ll be bored out of your mind.”

They both laughed. “I assume you’re bringing Jessica?”

“Yeah, sorry if it’s weird for you or anything” she said shyly

“Nope, not for me” she lied “I saw her last night actually”

“Really?” she said with some confusion “She told me she wasn’t feeling well”

Ashley felt guilty, thinking back to the conversation her and Jessica had. “O well, she was at the show, I don’t know, she might have been feeling sick”