The History and Mystery of Chiron University

By KKftKK

Okay, so… since I’m from Australia, I’ve never actually watched SON, well, only the episode that I can get a hold of and everything. But of what I have seen, I really like the Spashley pairing, and I’ve read everything I can get my little hands on about them. So here I’ve written a Spashley story that’s AU. Most of them are my own characters, but Paula, Arthur, Clay and obviously Spencer and Ashley are in there, maybe more SON characters down the track. I’m not exactly sure what this story’s going to be about yet, but I have a rough idea. If you like, send me a review, I’d really appreciate all the support I can get on this one. And even some ideas if anything will fit with what I’ve written so far. It would be appreciated. Thanks. Enjoy.

Chapter One

Distance

The tension was thick in the room, and neither of the two occupants moved, neither of them said a word, or took a deep breath or closed their eyes longer than the standard blinking time. Neither of them looked away from the other, but neither wore a smile or a frown, or any expression at all really, they just sat there, staring at the other, like they were watching an interesting Television program.

The two king-single beds in the room were at least three meters apart, and each of the two occupants sat on their respective beds, facing the other with their feet rested neatly on the carpet below them. They’d been this way for what seemed like hours, but neither felt awkward or strange, they both just sat there, assessing the situation, not only for themselves, but also for the person sitting across from them.

The blonde was the first to speak after what seemed like hours and hours sitting in silence. The sky outside the room was starting to get dark as the sun settled away for another day, the sun that had been high in the sky when the two young women had started their staring match. “Why Ash. Why didn’t you tell me?”

The brunette on the other bed finally looked away, down at her feet. This was the first time all afternoon that she had looked away from the blonde, but she knew she couldn’t look at her while she answered her question, “Because, I wanted to be around you, I wanted us to be friends. I thought that if you knew, you’d hate me, that’s what everyone else in my life has done, why would you be any different?”

“Because it’s me Ash. I’m not your mother, I’m not your so-called ‘friends’ from LA, it’s me, Spencer. You can trust me.” She finished her sentence with a look towards Ashley that was supposed to tell her what she felt, why she reacted the way she did, but Ashley was still to busy looking at her shoes. “I’m sorry Ashley, I didn’t mean to react that way, I was just surprised. I didn’t know and… suddenly everything actually made sense and I… I just didn’t know how to react.”

“No, I’m sorry. It just happened, you were there and, all at once… I shouldn’t have, it’s my fault. I’m really sorry.”

“I know what happened Ash, I was there, and it was just as much my fault as yours. And anyway, it doesn’t have to be anyone’s fault, it happened, we can’t change it now, let’s just let it go.”

Ashley looked up once again and stood up, she moved from the spot on her bed to sit beside Spencer, facing one another, “No Spence… I didn’t mean; it just happened, it was spontaneous, I didn’t mean anything, I meant that it was spontaneous to happen then, not that it happened at all. I mean, to me, it meant something, and I know you felt it too.”

Spencer swallowed, “Of course I felt it. You kissed me, how could I not feel it.”

“Not the kiss Spence, I know you felt the kiss, hey, the whole dorm knows you felt the kiss. The emotion, I know you felt it, because I felt it too.”

Ashley smiled sweetly and Spencer swooned, all she wanted to do was curl up in those warm arms and look into those eyes, but she knew she couldn’t, it was too complicated. “I…I got to run.”

Ashley could only watch as Spencer pulled on her coat and fled from the room, slamming the door behind her. She could only listen as Spencer’s footsteps could be heard getting further and further away from her every second, she could only be saddened as she heard someone outside call out, “Looks like Davies struck-out,” and she could only be angered by the snicker that could only have come from her most hated fellow dorm member, Sherri Brunson.

Ashley Davies was always the odd one out. Before she moved to New York to go to Chiron University, she didn’t really have any friends back in her home town of LA. She had plenty of people she called friends, and back then, she really did consider them just that, but when she moved and became friends with Spencer Carlin, she found out what a real friend was, she didn’t have anyone like that back home.

And now, she may have just ruined the best thing to ever happen to her.

The thing that was upsetting her the most, it wasn’t the rejection; she’d been rejected before. It was the fact that she knew that Spencer felt the same way she did, she knew those feeling were mutual. The only thing that was holding Spencer back was her mother, and Ashley knew it.

Spencer had gone straight from her room to her favorite hideout spot. She didn’t want to be too hidden. Deep in the back of her mind, she wanted Ashley to chase her; to prove to her that those feelings they were both feeling weren’t going away. But closer to the surface, she wanted to be alone, she wanted to think, to figure out what she was going to do, how she was going to deal with this latest development.

Ashley was right, there were emotions, there were feelings, and if she were honest with herself, the only feelings and most of her thoughts over the past seven months were all connected to Ashley, she was the center of Spencer’s world, everything she did had something to do with the brunette, even her dreams were overrun with images and fantasy’s of the girl. But up until that night, she didn’t know Ashley felt the same way, she didn’t even know that Ashley was an out and proud lesbian, well, she was out and proud in LA anyway.

Knowing that Ashley had feelings there too, it just made things more complicated. Having feelings for another girl was one thing, having a relationship with one, that was a whole different ball game. If she were dating someone, she knew she’d have to tell her family, and this was one thing that she didn’t think her family would accept, not only was her mother a serious religious freak, but she thought Spencer was too. She could hear her mother’s voice screaming at her through the phone after she’d let slip that she was going to a party and not staying in, being celibate and doing her homework. The thought was enough to make her shiver, she didn’t really want to image her reaction to Spencer telling her that she was gay, and not only dating a girl, but living in the same room with her.

Spencer quivered, she knew she couldn’t handle that, telling her mother was completely out of the question.

When Ashley had kissed her in the middle of the study room just after class that afternoon, at first, she just sat there, lost in the emotions. When she realized what was happening, she had kissed back, with all that she had, trying to show Ashley how she felt. But when she pulled back and the world rushed back, she heard the cheers and jeers around them and noticed that everyone had seen what had just happened between them, and she just couldn’t take it. So she just ran to her room, Ashley following close behind.

Ashley had just stared at her tear stained face when she entered the room, walked over and wiped the tears away, looked into her eyes and then just backed to her bed, not taking her eyes off Spencer’s face, Spencer looking right back.

Life was different now, for the both of them, things had changed in their relationship, and neither of them knew if it was a good thing or a bad thing that they had suddenly had this change between them.

Spencer was just lying there, staring up at the sky, her hands resting on her stomach and thinking deeply. The stream beside her was flowing slowly and the sound of the water moving was soothing to her, it was calming her.

The heat from the kiss she shared with Ashley was still with her, the feeling of Ashley’s lips on hers was… amazing. Her stomach felt like giant butterflies were flying around inside her, deliberately brushing their wings on the inside of her skin. Just the thought of Ashley sent tingles up her spine and made her heart flutter. There was just something about the girl that made her… need, plain and simple.

But the need she felt wasn’t a need of flesh on flesh, nor was it a need of pure physical contact; it was just a need, a want, to be near the girl, to be in her presence, to see her smile, to be there for her when she cried. It was a need of attention and respect and loyalty, of all the things friends and partners and lovers needed, and more importantly, wanted, from each other.

And Spencer wanted all that, she wanted to be with Ashley, and she wanted Ashley to want to be with her.

The room was getting darker and darker by the minute as the sky outside turned from the orange color of sun set, to the dark blue of night. The full moon was rising higher in the sky and its light reflected from the sun was shining down to the earth, providing a beautiful silhouette across the grounds of Chiron University.

Ashley gazed out the window, her eyes looking up at the sky as the stars became visible. She always looked to the heavens when she was worried about something, especially when it came to her love life, or lack there of.

Way back when Ashley first realized that she was a lesbian, there had been someone there for her throughout everything. The first girl Ashley had ever told that she might be a lesbian, was once her best friend when she was thirteen, a pretty blonde by the name of Jardena Silverstone. Jardena was two years above Ashley in junior high, and when Ashley arrived, they became instant friends, despite the age difference. Jardena had told her that whenever she need to think about something, she always looked at the stars, hoping that all the people from her past were all looking down on her, willing her to do the right thing with her life. At the time, Ashley had thought it was cheesy, and that there was no way that looking at the stars could help her connect with the people who had left her behind. That was until almost six months after Ashley came out to Jardena, and the older blonde had been found on the side of the expressway early in the morning, wearing nothing but a towel, and not moving an inch. Ashley was one of the first people told that there ad been an accident, and she went straight to the hospital, meeting up with Jardena’s parents in the waiting room. She could remember when the doctor in the long, white lab coat, had approached them, it seemed to happen in slow motion, and in that moment, she knew that Jardena too, had left her behind.

Ever since that day, Ashley always looked to her old friend for advice, staring up at the stars, sometimes even speaking, praying that the blonde could hear her. That night was one of those times.

“She just so amazing. When I first met her, the first thought that ran through my head was, ‘She is the hottest, sweetest looking girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.’ And I still think that, she is as innocent and sweet as she looks, but there’s a depth to her, something that I’ve never seen in somebody before. I’m drawn to her Jay, she’s all I think about, and now, I’ve probably even messed up my chance to even be her friend. I didn’t mean to kiss her; I really didn’t, it just happened, just like it did with you and that girl… Anna, remember, just before the accident, that day when you took me to the mall and you saw her over at the food court, and you just couldn’t resist going to talk to her. She looked like she was going to faint when you leaned in to her, it was the most humorous expression I’ve ever seen on a girls face. But you knew she wanted it just as much as you did, and I know that Spencer wants me, I just know she does Jay,” Ashley sighed to herself and pushed herself more onto the cushions that were surrounding her, trying to get more comfortable on the cushioned window seat. “It’s her mother,” she said simply, running her fingers through her hair, “She’s a bigot, a really religious woman, and Spence is scared of her. I can tell there is more to the story that she isn’t telling me, but once, I heard her having a conversation wit her mother over the phone, and I knew that Spence had told her something she obviously didn’t want to hear, because I could hear her mother screaming from the other end of the line, and when she hung up, the look on Spencer’s face almost broke my heart. She was looking towards the window, and there was a completely blank expression there, one that just didn’t suit her, one that I hope to never see again. The only way could help her was bundle her up in a blanket and just hold her, while she tried so hard not to cry. She must have done something to Spence, to get that reaction out of her. I’ve seen Spence have many confrontations, and she never backs down until her opponent sees her point, but when she’s talking to her mom, it’s like all the fight just goes out of her, and she’s just not Spencer anymore. That thought scares me.”

With a deep breath, Ashley tried to remember back to that night when she just held Spencer in her arms after a fight with her mother. They’d decided to push their beds together so they could watch a movie on the new TV and DVD player that Ashley had decided to spoil Spencer with. They were having a pillow fight after Ashley had accidentally pushed the leg of Spencer’s bed into Spencer’s toe. They were chasing each other around the room, each with a pillow, changing directions every few seconds and swinging wildly with the feathered mass, when Spencer’s cell on her bedside table began to ring loudly. Laughing, Spencer walked over and without even checking the display screen, flipped open the phone and giggled into the mouth piece, saying a short ‘Hello,’ as she did. Spencer’s expression changed almost instantly, and her giggles evaporated. ‘Mom,’ was the only word she said, and Ashley could hear yelling coming from the other end of the line, screaming almost. Spencer’s eyes filled with tears and slipped down her cheeks, but she just stood there, she just took whatever her mother was saying to her, and that was something that Ashley had never seen Spencer do before that moment, giving up just wasn’t the blonde’s style. With a whispered, ‘Okay,’ Spencer had just slapped the phone shut and angrily through it across the room, suddenly breaking into tears and falling to her knees, sobbing.

Ashley had always been there when Spencer need her, like the time that Spencer had taken a verbal beating from the dorm bitch, Sherri Brunson. Spencer had yelled and screamed in her own defense as Sherri told her that Ashley wasn’t the best person to be friends with, and that if she remained on good terms with the brunette, Ashley would corrupt her into things she didn’t even want to think about. Eventually storming away from the red-headed bitch, frustration radiating off her, she stormed into her room that she shared with Ashley and kicked the desk chair so hard that it flew into the nearest wall and created a small, golf-ball-sized-hole in the plaster. Ashley had instantly told her that she needed to calm down and brought her a glass of water, rubbing her back until her breathing returned to normal.

Spencer smiled as she thought about all that the brunette had done for her in the relatively short time that they’d known each other. Even from the first time that they’d met, Ashley had been there for her, showing her around so she could see everything that she should’ve seen had she been present at the orientation, three days before Spencer had arrived at the school. When they discovered that they took all the same classes, Ashley had even told her that the only reason she was taking the two hard courses was so that she could get her own mother off her back about school and an education. Spencer had always thought that Ashley had always been open with her, she was even open about her confusing and depressing child-hood, but there was always that one thing that Ashley kept from her, that one thing that wasn’t revealed to her until that night, until Ashley’s lips had pressed against hers.

Spencer had always thought of Ashley as Anya from the show Buffy, open about everything, with absolutely no secrets. Whenever Spencer had asked her a question about her past, she had come straight back with an answer, an answer that seemed to come straight from her heart and always completely sincere. But looking back now, Spencer knew that there had to have been some times when Ashley had not told her the entire truth. Like when Spencer asked about the distance that there was between Ashley’s mother and Ashley herself. Ashley replied that they were just too different to get along, ‘She’s chalk, I’m cheese, we just don’t go together. Notice that I made myself the tasty one,’ she’d told Spencer with a smile one night over Chinese, ‘There are things that we just don’t agree on, for example, she believes that plain rice is better than fried rice… I don’t agree,’ Spencer had laughed at her strangeness as Ashley held up her chop sticks that held some fried rice at it’s end, ‘She’s just weird.’ Spencer thought now, that being gay must have somehow put distance between the two. The look that Ashley wore whenever her mother was mentioned was one that held much more hatred than one held for someone who she just didn’t have anything in common with; the scars ran deeper than that.

With a long deep sigh, Ashley finally looked away from the stars that were shining bright in the sky and stood up, heading towards Spencer’s bed. On the bedside table sat a photo frame that Ashley had brought Spencer for Christmas. Inside was a large picture that had been taken on the day itself. Ashley had been tickling Spencer, straddling her waist, a huge grin on her face as Spencer was struggling to get away from her, tossing and turning, but still laughing so much that she was crying. At the time they had both been wearing those paper hats that come out of the Christmas crackers, and each of them had on a black hoodie with S&A embroidered on its back. A friend of theirs, Thomas Dancer that lived just down the hall from them, had snapped the shot at the exact moment that Spencer had managed to push Ashley off her and onto the floor beside her, her head resting on Ashley’s shoulder, both of them laughing together.

Ashley smiled at the memory, thinking back on all the good times they’d had together, all the times that they’d been there for each other and with each other. It was a friendship that Ashley knew she’d never forget, no matter what happened between them, whether they stayed friends, got together or just stopped associating all together.

The scrap book that Spencer had been making ever since she started at Chiron University was sitting beside her bed, hidden from Ashley’s view. Nearly every page inside it contained memories that in some way were connected to the brunette. The first page was a picture taken by Ashley of the view of she campus grounds from their window. Even the words written underneath, ‘Chiron University: Freshman year “Our View”,’ was written by Ashley in a fancy handwriting that had impressed Spencer from the first time she saw it.

‘You should be an artist or a sign writer or something. Your handwriting is amazing,’ Spencer had said as she watched Ashley easily printing the words under the picture. Ashley had just smiled at her, ‘Not really the sitting around and just writing stuff type. The only thing that I’m good at expressing is emotion, that’s why I want to be a song writer, a singer too if I can.’ That was the conversation that lead to Ashley revealing who her father was, ‘It’s not as great as you’d think. He’s never around to see me, that’s the worst part. He missed out on all the important things in my life; he’s missed the last three Christmas’s and my Birthday for the past two years. Sometimes I wish he wasn’t a famous rock star.’

Spencer knew from that moment that Ashley had parental issues, but it wasn’t until a few weeks later that she had asked about them, asked why they were never there for her. ‘Mom is just a bitch, she never wanted to be around me, and I’ve always known that she never wanted me. But dad does love me, I know by the way he looks at me that he really wants to be there with me, but he’s just always so busy, touring and everything. It’s just… every time I get close to someone, they leave, my best friend when I was thirteen, she left, I know it wasn’t her fault, she couldn’t help it, but she left me. It’s hard for me to get close to someone, because when I do, they… well... leave.’ Spencer had pulled the upset girl and held her close, running fingers through her hair and trying to soothe her as she cried, ‘I’m not going anywhere Ash,’ she whispered, pulling the girl closer, ‘That’s a promise.’

Spencer had no intention of ever leaving the girl in any sense of the word, and this was no different. Just because she was scared, just because she freaked out, that didn’t mean that she was going to abandon the girl who meant so much to her.

She knew there was a connection between them, a connection that ran deeper than just friendship, they were even deeper than the feelings one held for their closest and most trusted friend. Spencer felt safe around Ashley, she knew that if there was anything she needed or wanted, Ashley would always be there for her, and she knew that she would do the same thing for Ashley if she ever asked her for a favor.

Spencer meant more to Ashley than she let on to even herself. What everyone around them saw was a loving friend that would do anything to protect her friend from harm. Everyone could see someone that would trust their friend with their life and a friend that would trust them just as much in return. And Ashley was all those things to Spencer. Sometimes in her head she’d try to deny that she had more feelings for Spencer beyond friendship, especially in the beginning.

When she left LA to go to university, she knew she had the chance of a life time to get away from all the criticism, all the hatred that she’d put up with back home. She thought that maybe she could just start over; make new friends, a new life for herself. She even at one point thought that she could change herself; change who she was, who she really was, a lesbian. As soon as she met Spencer, she knew there was no way that she wasn’t gay, after just one look at the girl, she was attracted to her. It didn’t take long for her to start denying that, denying that she felt more than friendship towards the blonde, even though deep down she knew she liked the blonde, she liked her a lot.

When she came to terms with her feelings, she also had to come to terms with the fact that Spencer was straight, a man loving, innocent, straight girl from Ohio. That’s when the signs started. Sometimes, Ashley would wake up and see Spencer lying in her own bed, three meters away, looking over at Ashley as she slept, a smile on her face. Once she even saw Spencer’s eyes widen and change to a slightly darker shade of blue when Ashley pulled off her soaking wet shirt one day after they had to run through the pouring rain to get from her car to the dorm.

Every time she saw a hint like this, she got a slight tingle in her stomach, a tingle that didn’t go away for hours. That night in the study room, she felt that tingle again when she noticed Spencer staring at her instead of writing the essay that they had both neglected for the past few weeks. So Ashley decided to finally do something about it, so when she got the chance, the rest of the world just melted away, and there was only Spencer, Spencer and her glossy pink lips.

The streams magic didn’t seem to be working for her like it usually did. As she listened to the water slowly passing by her, she kept coming back to the same problem, her mother.

Paula Carlin was the only person that could intimidate Spencer Carlin. She was the only woman that Spencer didn’t have the guts to stand up to, the only woman that Spencer was scared to show her beliefs to.

Back in Ohio, just before she finished her senior year, Spencer met a guy named Jason at one of the cheerleading parties her best friend, Emile had insisted she go to. Half drunk, Spencer had found him slightly attractive, and when he asked her to dance, she accepted. As the night went on, Spencer drank more and more, and this guy, Jason, became more and more attractive to her. In the end, she ended up in the back of his expensive SUV. They slept together, and Spence woke up the next morning, wondering what the hell had happened. When the memories came back to her, she was scared and didn’t know what to do, so she went to talk to her mother.

When Paula heard what had happened, she was angrier that Spencer had ever seen her before. ‘You had pre-marital sex with some guy that you didn’t even know, Spencer. Of course I’m angry,’ she’d yelled, standing up and walking out of the room, away from her daughter. Ever since then, Paula treated her daughter as if she were someone who had betrayed her personally, and every time after that, she forbid Spencer from going to another party. When Spencer had moved away, she thought she could get away from her mother’s distrust of her, but it didn’t work out that way.

Spencer’s life had gotten easier when she moved away to go to university, but she still got those phone calls every so often, ones when her mother would yell at her for all her problem causing and all her mistakes. Like the time she had answered the phone laughing and her mother had sighed angrily and said, ‘Are you fooling around again Spencer. God will punish you.’

Ashley had noticed the change in Spencer whenever she talked to her mother; she’d even asked if she wanted to talk about it once or twice while she was holding Spencer while she cried over the most recent argument, but Spencer always refused to speak about it, afraid Ashley too would judge her about her mistake. Deep down, Spencer knew that Ashley wouldn’t do that to her, she knew that the feeling Ashley felt for her were unconditional, even those feelings of friendship, they’d never go away, no matter what Spencer did, and Spencer knew that her feelings for Ashley too, were around to stay.

A smile made it’s way to her lips as she realized that no matter what anyone thought of her, she knew she wanted to be with Ashley, it’s what she’d wanted from the first moment that she’d set eyes on her room mate. She wanted more than just friendship; she even wanted more than to be ‘girlfriends.’ Spencer wanted what she thought she’d never experience, what she’d always wanted, but never thought she’d have, especially from another girl. She wanted love.

Her decision finally made, Spencer stood from her resting spot in the grass and wiped the stray, green blades from her denim skirt. With one last look at the stream, she started to head back to the dorm rooms, taking the long way through the university gardens so she could think about what she was going to say to Ashley.

Ashley sat with the photo from Spencer’s bedside table in her hands. Tears were coming form her eyes, smudging her mascara as it ran down her cheeks. She didn’t know what to do. Should she go after Spencer, explain her feelings, tell her everything, explain herself, or should she wait for Spencer to come back, let her finish sorting out her feelings, let her have her space.

It was a hard decision. Did Spencer want space, did she want to be alone with her thoughts, or did she want to be chased after, want to be… wanted? In the past, Ashley had discovered that there are many different sides to woman, many different shades of grey and many different layers, there is the type of girl that likes to be completely independent in their relationships, the ones that like to think on their own., have their own opinions, those who hate it when their partner opens the door for them or allows them to enter a room first out of respect. Then there is the type that is completely independent on their partner, the one that can’t exit a car without their partner opening the door for them, the type that needs to be chased and smothered by their partner to feel like they’re wanted. Ashley come to see those two stereo types as the black and white of women, but then there were all those shades in the middle, some that liked a mix of both on different occasions, there were those who only liked to lean on their respective other when times were tough or they needed some help with one thing or another. Then there was the type that only wanted to be on their own when they felt like it or were trying to get a point across, or were being stubborn. The problem was, Ashley didn’t know what type Spencer was, and that upset her. In friendship, she knew exactly when Spencer needed her or needed to be alone, but when it came to their ‘relationship’ Ashley didn’t know what to do, and she wanted to, more than anything.

It took her a few minutes of just crying for her to realize that their relationship didn’t need to be different from their friendship, and she should do what she would have done had they had a fight before all this happened, she should go after her.

Standing up, Ashley placed the photo frame down on her bed and looked around the room trying to think where Spencer might be. It didn’t take long for the thought to hit her; she knew exactly where Spencer would be. With a smile, Ashley grabbed her coat off the hook and opened the door, taking off towards the stream she’d shown Spencer on their second week at Chiron.

The long, green grass was soft underneath her feet, and she missed its texture as she stepped onto the white pebble walk way that lead to the concrete steps leading up to their dormitory. She was still walking slowly, going over the words she’d planned to say in her head. She took the stairs one at a time and then pushed open the heavy wooden door. The carpet inside made her smile, its brightness seeming to warm her insides. Butterflies in her stomach grew as she looked at the stairs leading to the second floor, and her room… Ashley’s room.

Breathing deeply, she willed herself towards them, this time walking as fast as she could. She silent preyed that Ashley would still be awake, giving the lateness of the hour. Spencer was even surprised when she looked at her watch on the way back up the building, seeing that she’d spent more than four hours down at the stream.

Looking at the brass number on the door made her heart race and she just stood there, once more going over the words she was about to say. With another deep breath, she turned the handle of the door and pushed it open. “Ash, I’m back,” she said softly, looking towards Ashley’s bed. To her surprise, Ashley was nowhere to be found. Checking the bathroom, Spencer walked over to Ashley’s bed and sat down on it; picking up the object that was sitting on it, a photo frame that’s usual position was on her bedside table.

With a sad sigh, Spencer maneuvered herself so she was lying on Ashley’s bed, Ashley’s favorite teddy bear in her arms, the teddy bear that Spencer had brought Ashley for Christmas.

Looking at the photo in the frame made her smile, thinking back to the day, and gazing specifically at the hoodies that they wore, a present from their friend, Amy Raymond, a senior psychology student that often helped them decipher their cryptic homework.

At the time, the hoodies had been a joke, a sort of expensive gag gift from their Australian friend, something to try and make them realize that they had become a unit, neither went anywhere without the other. But eventually, the gifts became very close to the girls hearts, proving to each of them and everyone just how much they meant to each other. Deep inside, Spencer felt a slight jolt in her stomach and a flutter in her chest every time she saw Ashley pull on the garment. It was a good feeling.

Breathing in the scent that was uniquely Ashley, Spencer let her body sink deep into Ashley’s pillows, getting comfortable. With the thought of the brunette on her mind, not worrying that Ashley was going to see her curled up in her own bed, Spencer let her eyes drift close as sleep overtook her.

Ashley had almost run down to the stream, bypassing the Garden which was easier on the eye, and opting for the quickest way down behind the tallest trees surrounding the campus, through the science building.

The doors to the building were always left unlocked at night, but the rooms themselves were always secured, especially in the science block, to protect all the dangerous chemicals that any predator might think about swiping. The tiles inside squeaked under her feet as the rubber of her Heelys rubbed against their smooth surface. The high pitched noise echoed around the building, but Ashley didn’t stop to see if anyone was around to hear it, she just continued on her journey.

When she got outside once again, she was hit with a cold blast of air and cursed herself for thinking to bring an outside jacket, but still wearing her short denim skirt. Mentally hitting herself, she continued down the bank to where tall fir trees hid the location of the stream.

Her heart beat increasing; Ashley didn’t stop as she ducked under low hung branches and into the small clearing. There was a large river stone on the other side of the stream and a few stones sticking out from the water to step across the opposite side. There was grass right up the edge of the stream, which suddenly stopped in a dead line, and tiny pebbles stuck in the rock hard ground below it, took over. The crystal clear water of the stream ran over the pebbles and parted to pass by the stones that stuck slightly out it’s top.

There was a smaller river stone on the university side of the stream and a small fir tree growing beside it, the tree that Ashley and Spencer had put there Christmas decorations on for there private little Christmas in the snow. Ashley smiled at the memory and looked around, now looking for Spencer. “Spencer?” she asked as she looked around, preying that she hadn’t gone looking for the blonde in the wrong place.

Then she noticed a spot in the beautiful green grass where all the blades had been pushed into the ground, like someone had been lying there. Ashley knew it had been Spencer. “Spencer?” she asked again, wondering if the girl was, for some reason, hiding form her. “Spence, if you’re here, please answer me.”

When there was no reply, Ashley knew that Spencer wasn’t there; she knew there was no way that Spencer would ignore a plea from her with that tone of desperation in her voice. Deciding that Spencer must have decided to go back up to the dorm room, Ashley turned and ran, knowing that if she didn’t Spencer would be asleep by the time she got back, thinking the worst because she wasn’t there.

The trip back up to the dorm building took much more time than the one on the way down, despite the fact that she was running. Of course, this was in someway attributed to the fact that the trip back was uphill, a much more difficult task, but it was due, in the most part, to the fact that she ran into a friend of hers, Sara, on the trip back, and couldn’t resist telling her everything that was going on.

Sara had grown up in LA, just like Ashley, she’d even seen Ashley one time at one of the local teens bars, one of the rare times that Ashley had been performing with her father. When they met officially at orientation, Ashley had said she’d seen her around LA and they had become almost instant friends.

“Ashley, what are you running to?” Sara had asked as she emerged from behind the science block, her girlfriend, Lauren right behind her. “Are you okay, did something happen?”

Ashley closed her eyes and once again imagined Spencer’s lips on hers, “Did something happen… well, yeah. I kissed Spencer.”

Sara turned to her girlfriend with an almost smug smile on her face, “You owe me like… fifty bucks. It took less than the school year. I’m so the clear winner.”

Lauren gaped at her, “No way. You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t. I don’t have a spare fifty buck to just hand out. You’re joking right?” her expression was almost comical, and Ashley would’ve laughed, had she not been so shocked that someone had a wager out on them.

“How… did you know I was gay?” Ashley asked, not really thinking much into it, except the fact that someone knew and didn’t tell everyone.

“I’m from LA, remember. Everyone knew that Raife Davies daughter was gay, plus… hello… lesbian, have you ever heard of a gaydar?”

Ashley grinned, “Oh right. Well, anyway, I kissed Spencer, and she ran off, so I went to talk to her, we talked a little and she ran off again, but I know that she wants me just as much as I want her. So I went looking for her, but I missed her, now I’m going back to the room before she freaks out that I’m not there. The last time I wasn’t there when she got back from Amy’s place once, she left, like, ten messages on my phone, freaking out about, asking me if I was dead in a gutter somewhere. I mean… if I was, did she think I was going to come back just to tell her yes?”

Sara just shook her head at her other friends strangeness. “That’s Spencer. Never doing the logical thing in a crisis.”

Lauren laughed, trying hard not to, but she just couldn’t help it.

“Sorry, but I’ve really got to go. I want to talk to her tonight, and she’ll be sleeping soon, if she isn’t already. I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow.”

As she took off again, Ashley could hear Lauren and Sara giggling at her actions and she heard Lauren say, “There so sleeping together tonight.”

A smile found its way onto Ashley’s lips as she heard this, knowing full well that they were probably going to be sleeping in the same bed, even if they weren’t going to be doing anything in it. They had slept in the same bed before of course, they were best friends after all.

Ashley didn’t stop again until she reached their room, and she burst through the door, breathing heavily from her run. “Spence?” she asked, this time not expecting an answer as she saw Spencer sleeping on her bed, her blue teddy bear, Spunky, wrapped in Spencer’s embrace and the photo that Ashley had left behind resting next to her head on the pillow.

Ashley smiled at the sight. Spencer sleeping was a sight that could make anyone smile. Walking over, Ashley took the photo and placed it back in it’s rightful place on Spencer’s bedside table and then sat beside Spencer, brushing some hair out of her face.

Spencer stirred, smiling at the touch, “Ash,” she whispered, her voice sleepy.

“Hey. You’re in my bed,” she said with a smile, “Where am I supposed to be sleeping?”

Spencer just closed her eyes and raised her hand to rest on the arm that Ashley had resting on her neck, “With me,” she said softly, “Where else.”

With a smile, Ashley hoped over the other side of the small bed and placed a hand over Spencer’s stomach, “There’s no where else Spence,” she said quietly into Spencer’s ear.

Sleep came easily for both of them, and Ashley subconsciously pulled her closer and Spencer snuggled into her body.

It was going to be an interesting morning.

Thanks for reading. Should I go on? Yay or nay? Please let me know.

KKftKK.