“I’m alright,” I tried to assure her. “Just a bad dream.”

“Ash, I know you don’t like to talk about it,” she paused thinking of how to go about this. She thought if she said the wrong thing I would break. Maybe that was true… “But maybe it would help,” she spoke sitting down next to me on the bed and running her fingers through my hair absentmindedly. I think she was doing it almost to help herself, but it was helping calm me too. I loved feeling this close to Spencer. I longed for these moments when I could feel her smooth skin and take in her smell. All of it seemed to familiar, so peaceful. But it also always reminded me of how far away I was from her. She was too good for me, and innocence I could never corrupt.

“I don’t know Spence,” I exhaled holding a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. “It’s, it’s hard to explain.”

“I know,” she cooed, still stroking my hair. I didn’t deserve this girl. She was too good for me. “Just try Ash.”

“Spencer,” I sighed sitting up, even though it meant deserting her touch. “I, I don’t know if I can. I can’t lose you Spencer.” It was all I could manage to say.

“What if you showed me?” she suggested lacing her fingers through mine, immediately sending warmth through my body.

“What do you mean?” I asked hesitantly.

“Try and figure it out Ash, and when you do, I’ll be here waiting for you,” she stated before getting up and going downstairs, leaving me to wonder what she meant.

School was absolute hell to say the least. Some stared, others pointed, and Madison kept her distance at all costs. Well, at least it seems the swelling hadn’t gone down last night. She looked like a squirrel hiding at least a dozen acorns in her cheeks, or was that how she just normally looked…