Title: When She Cries
Book: II
Chapter: Sixteen
Chapter Title: Represent The Ashes
Rating: R.
Coupling: Ultimately: Me and Fin. All the way, babe.
Disclaimer: Aye, captain. I hold no deeds to Gilmore Girls. And
I don’t own matchbox twenty’s Angry. Oh,
last chapter- I do not own Atticus or Tyler. They’re Kait’s babies. Go read emotionless.
Author’s Note: To Ice Princess. One of my favorite reviewers. And to the
gg.org board, for inflating my ego to the point where I had to buy a bigger
house for it.
*
So scream you/Out from behind the bitter ache/
You're hangin' on the memory/You need most
You still want love/Love's ugly/
Smooth and delicate/But not without affection/Not
alone.
The dance floor wasn’t nearly as
crowded, as Ashley would have thought. Either the socialites of Hartford
weren’t much into dancing, or they just weren’t fans of the current song- I
Melt With You by The Mests. It was probably neither, because she had a strong
inkling the bar on the far left of the room was the reason for the
not-so-crowded dance floor. It was crowded enough that every once and so often
you brushed against someone who wasn’t your dance partner, but not crowded
enough to block her view of Devon, leaning against the wall, and talking to
Lola DuGrey, and two people who had been introduced to her as Lennon and
Harrison DeLuca. Apparently their parents made their money off a chain of
organic grocery stores, and they had a younger sister named Starr. Ashley had
been too afraid of the answer to ask if they had an older/younger brother, and
if so what his name was.
“I’m starting to feel inadequate,”
Zander’s voice jarred her attention back to him.
Ashley blinked. “What?”
“I’m dancing with you,” he pointed
out, “and all you can do is stare at Devon. Unless you’re seeing something you
like in Harrison DeLuca. But he was pretty much Devon’s replacement on the
football team after Dev graduated, so I wouldn’t be too shocked.”
“Shut up,” Ashley rolled her eyes.
“I’m just spacing out. And wondering whether or not the DeLuca’s have a fourth
child.”
Zander looked over at Lennon and
Harrison. “No, just three.”
“Thank God,” she muttered under her
breath.
He chuckled, “It’s the dog’s name.”
Zander shook his head, “No,
Lennon’s more of a Springsteen girl. Not a shocker, after all she dated
Mariano.” At Ashley’s slight look of confusion, he added, “Dallie. Not Devon.”
“Oh,” Ashley replied. Before she
could say anything else, someone knocked into her. “Sorry.”
“My fault,” came the airy reply.
Zander tilted his head to get a
better look at the perpetrator. “Spring. What’s the hurry?”
The girl, Spring- was it?, lifted
her cup to him and grinned. “You know how it is, Z, so many deadly sins, so
little time.” There was something about the white-blonde haired girl that
Ashley did not like.
“Well, the road to hell is paved with
speed traps,” he returned. “Slow down.”
“Wait,” Spring stopped in her journey
across the room. “Have you seen—”
Zander cut her off, “No.”
She shrugged, but her look of
interest at his behavior betrayed the indifference in the gesture. “Okay, then.”
He watched her walk away. Sometimes
he could fully understand the hatred Lola had for Spring Delaney.
*
Marguerite Giselle could feel eyes
on her from the moment she walked into the room. It was a different sort of
feeling than she was use to, attention because of what she looked like, that she
was use to. This was something different, this was something bad. Well screw
them, then. She found Lola, Devon, and Spring against the wall. Spring and
Devon stood, Lola sat. How typical.
“You just missed Len and Harrison,” Lola
informed her by way of greeting.
Marguerite shrugged, “I’ll catch
them later. Hey Dev.”
“Hey Marguerite,” Devon replied. It
was always difficult to tell who was hotter, Devon or Dallie. She had never been
able to decide, her gaze slid to her friend. Apparently, neither had Lola.
“Meggie,” Spring approached her. It
was probably too early in the conversation to slap her. That urge would have to
wait. “Seen Zander yet?”
She bit back a sigh. They were not
going down this road. “Not yet.”
“I was thinking you might be looking
for him.”
“Or maybe she knows how not to have
a co-dependent relationship,” Lola spoke up. Good Lola, earning points in
Meggie’s book tonight.
Spring took a moment to glare at
Lola before turning her attention back to Marguerite. “Well, are you?”
May as well get this portion of the
evening over with. “Sure.”
“He’s dancing over there,” Spring
gestured in the direction with two of her fingers. “With that blonde girl.”
Meggie gave them a cursory glance. “Fuck
you, Spring. Nobody’s caring.”
She wasn’t sure, but she may have
heard Lola snort back a laugh.
Spring huffed. “If you want to lose
him this late in the game…” She let her voice trail off as she walked away.
“Come here,” Lola patted her lap,
and Meggie sat down on it.
“Ashley’s just a friend of mine,”
Devon offered, by way of explanation.
Meggie leaned against the arm of
Lola’s chair. “It’s nothing.” Though it appeared as though the middle Mariano
child hadn’t heard her, because he was staring at the couple. “Or maybe there’s
something I should know.”
“Devon’s feeling green,” Lola
explained, and she pushed gently on Meggie’s lower back.
Meggie got the clue and stood up. “Really?”
“What?” Devon seemed to be suddenly
clued back into their conversation. He looked back over at Zander and Ashley, who
were heading their way.
“Don’t worry,” Lola told him, “It’s
over your head.”
*
Another gorgeous blonde, Devon
Mariano, was next to Lola, and another gorgeous frickin’ blonde. Ashley could
not believe it. The girl was tall, almost as tall as Lola from the looks of it,
though it was hard to compare since Lola was sitting down while the other was
standing. She had that honey kind of blonde hair, and breasts. If Ashley had
those kind of breasts, she’d be toppled over for the rest of her life. She had
to wonder if one could hate a person on that mere fact.
“Well, happy birthday there,” the
gorgeous blonde greeted what obviously had to be Zander. It was his birthday,
after all.
Zander arched an eyebrow, “Is that
all I get, Marguerite?”
Marguerite. Right. Leave it up to
the gorgeous blonde to have an equally gorgeous name. How much did Ashley want
to bet that Marguerite had a gorgeous last name that couldn’t be twisted into
sounding like ‘lice’?
“Oh, don’t worry, there’s plenty
more for you,” Marguerite replied, with a flipping of her golden locks. “Later.”
“How original of you,” Lola told her
dryly.
“Jealous, Lolly?” Zander questioned
her, in an amused tone.
“Positively verdant.”
It was amazing how comfortable you could feel around someone until
you were around their friends. Because Ashley was feeling rather out of place
now, and Zander must have picked up on it because he said, “Meggie, this is my
friend from childhood, Ashley. Ash, this is Marguerite Giselle.”
So she was right, an absolutely
gorgeous last name to go with it. “Hi.”
Marguerite studied her for a brief
moment, “Pleasure.” Right, like she meant it.
Devon’s gaze shifted from Zander to
Ashley again. “Lo, come with me.”
“No,” she automatically replied. “I’m
not getting involved in this.”
“Involved in what?” Devon asked her.
Lola stood up. “Well lets see,
Ashley, as fun as this must have been for you. Zander’s got a girlfriend. They’ve
been dating for the past three years.”
“Excuse me,” Ashley spoke up. She
was sick of this. Honest-to-God sick of this. Sick of being dragged to snobbish
parties by a guy that made Dawson look like the most astute person ever, and
then being abandoned to a pack of bitches. “Can someone please explain what
that has to do with anything? Devon asks Lola to go off somewhere. Gee, I
wonder what they’re going to do. I’m so stupid and naďve, I must not know.”
Zander bit his lip, “Um, Ash...”
She waved him off; no she needed to
get this off her chest before she murdered anyone and everyone in her sight. “No,
really. I mean Lola’s only a slut, and Devon’s only male after all. Never mind all
that whining he did last year about how besotted his poor, younger brother is
with her.” Ashley let out a short, harsh laugh, and turned to Lola. “Something
you know everything about, don’t you?”
Lola shrugged, “It’s irrelevant.”
“Right, never look too close at Lola
DuGrey’s feelings, you may learn that she’s not actually human after all,” Ashley
paused to take a breath. “And that’s exactly what I am sick and tired of. I don’t
want to be in this world where all there is lies and deceits, and betrayals.
Yet everyone acts like everyone is fine. Yet you’re all sharpening your blades,
when others aren’t looking. Which is pointless because everyone knows. However
when it comes to genuine emotion no one sees anything in front of them.” She
may have growled, Ashley wasn’t sure, but she stamped away all the same.
“What was that about?” Devon asked
to no one in particular.
“You being a dumbass,” Lola told him,
with a roll of her eyes. “Ashley has a crush on you. Now go off into some
corner and work it out.” With that Lola turned on her heel and disappeared into
the throng of people, not bothering to check to see if he followed her advice
or not.