Another nurse approached her and led her away, not bothering to say a word. Many nurses knew the Carlins and were overly fond of Paula’s daughter Spencer. They had to help Ashley and her girlfriend, it was part of their job, but they didn’t have to be nice about it. Their loyalty to the Carlins certainly ran deeper than their interest for a rock star celebrity.

So here Ashley was, in her room, in her bed, staring into nothingness. She had been living her life to the fullest, enjoying each day. Her father had always said, “Carpe Diem” and that’s what she had done, in the form of parties, sex, and drugs, and now, within mere seconds, her life had changed. She couldn’t even process the idea of being a part of someone’s death. She couldn’t imagine bringing that kind of pain to another family. What she had been able to gather from the quiet talk of her nurses when they thought that she was sleeping was that the young woman was 23, her age, was the daughter of Dr. Paula Carlin, and was one of the nicest people they’d met. She had just graduated from UCLA and was searching for a law school to attend. The woman also had sustained a great amount of injuries, including two broken legs as well as some bruising on her brain. There had been more injuries, but the brunette didn’t know what they were. All she knew was that when the blonde woke up from her medically induced coma, the bruising on her brain could have a tremendous affect on her memory.

“Wow, what a way to ruin a person’s future,” Ashley thought to herself. As bad as it sounded, the brunette yearned for a few lines of coke. She would do anything to get that numb and high feeling to help her forget about the hell that she had caused. She wanted to escape the pain, to escape the guilt. But of course being in a hospital limited her accessibility to any form of drugs not prescribed by a doctor.

The door to Ashley’s room opened, but the brunette didn’t flinch. Her eyes remained concentrated on the wall across from her bed. She was too deep in her thoughts to bother with company.