Ashley awoke the next morning excited. Now she had more to look forward to than just an associate degree in art. She had Katelyn to look forward to as well. Yes, she was on a mission. Never had she felt quite like this before, she realized, as she smiled to herself. She couldn’t wait to see Katelyn and was rather glad to know it was the weekend. If it weren’t, she’d have to wait until the end of the day, and that would be hard.
Hold your horses, girl, she told herself. Maybe she’s not even interested in you, or maybe she’s going to be busy all day. She may not even be home today. For all you know, she could be spending the day with friends, or, for that matter, a lover.
She ground the sleep from her eyes and tossed her blanket aside. When she stepped into the hallway, she saw that everyone’s doors were closed except for Rose’s. She headed into the bathroom and washed up. When she was done, she went into the kitchen to fix herself a toasted bagel with cream cheese. She periodically glanced towards the doorway in the hopes of Katelyn entering the room.
She noticed the hum of the dryer, and then Dalene came through the kitchen to fetch her clothes from the dryer.
“Good morning,” said Ashley.
“Mmm,” Dalene muttered.
Have a shitty day, bitch, she thought, taking a seat at the table.
Dalene gathered her clothes into her laundry bag and carried them back to her room without a word or even a glance in Ashley’s direction.
Ashley ate at the table with her back towards the door when suddenly, she heard rustling sounds behind her.
Katelyn?
She spun around, then felt her shoulders slump slightly at the sight of Nicolette.
“Hi,” said Nicolette.
“Hello,” said Ashley as she finished her bagel and headed back to her room. There she plopped herself down on her bed, still in the sleep shirt that fell nearly to her knees, where she planned to listen for Katelyn.
But what will I say to her when I see her? she wondered to herself. That I’d like to spend the day with her if she really is gay and single because I think she’s hot?
Her door was suddenly thrown open, startling her into an upright position.
“Where is it?” demanded Dalene.
“Where is what?” Ashley asked with confusion.
“My big baggy green T-shirt with the blue flowers. I know you have it.”
“I don’t have anything of yours, Dalene,” Ashley said, rising from her bed, “and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t come barging in here…”
“Bullshit!” she screamed. “I know you have it, and you better give it back or else I’ll go through your things myself.”
“The hell you will!” Ashley yelled, becoming angry.
“Yeah?” challenged Dalene. “I ought to just slap the truth right out of you.”
“I don’t think so.”
Just then, Katelyn stepped out of her room and came down the hall towards where Ashley and Dalene stood. “What’s going on, folks?” she asked.
“None of your business,” snapped Dalene as she stepped into the hall to face Katelyn.
“It most certainly is my business if you intend to slap this poor girl around,” Katelyn told her. “I mean, really, Dalene. Don’t you think you should be picking on someone your own size?”
Katelyn was now right up in Dalene’s face in a challenging way that dared her to raise a hand to strike one of them. Although Katelyn was skinnier than the busty and slightly curvy Dalene, Katelyn was a good four inches or so taller.
Dalene stared at her with defiance. “I got ten bucks that says I can whip your ass.”
“I got more that says you can’t,” retorted Katelyn.
Dalene’s face turned crimson with fury as she roughly shoved Katelyn. Dalene appeared to be surprised that she hadn’t knocked Katelyn off her feet. Katelyn quietly held her ground as7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZVKZAUvURX
Dalene once again attempted to push her to the hallway floor. When that failed to work, she threw a punch that Katelyn abruptly caught in her fist as if she wore a catcher’s mitt and had caught a baseball instead.
Now Dalene’s anger was turning to sheer frustration and embarrassment. “Let go of me, you bitch, let go!”
“I’ll let go when you promise to leave Ashley alone,” Katelyn told her in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
“Okay, fine! I’ll never say another goddamn word to her again,” Dalene insisted desperately.
Katelyn released her hold on Dalene.
Dalene looked angrily from her to Ashley, then spun on her heel and into her room, slamming her door loudly behind her.
Katelyn then turned to Ashley. “You okay?”
Ashley nodded as her heartbeat returned to normal. “Yeah. You saved me again. Thanks.”
“No prob,” Katelyn said with a smile. She was both proud and pleased to be able to rescue7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YSoBklnum
Ashley, though she’d rather not have to do so in the first place.
“She’s losing it,” they heard Nicolette say.
Ashley and Katelyn turned to see Nicolette standing beside the kitchen doorway.
“Especially since her shirt’s right here.” Nicolette held it up. “It was on the floor wedged in between the washer and the dryer where she must have dropped it. I’ll go give it to her and tell her where I found it.”
“Okay,” said Katelyn, who then turned back to Ashley and peered down at her. “Want to come hang out with me for a while?”
Ashley smiled, nodded, and followed Katelyn to her room, admiring her long, well-muscled legs which were mostly exposed. Her sleep shirt only fell to her upper thighs.
They entered the room where Katelyn walked over to her bed, propped her pillow up against the wall, and sat down on the bed leaning against it with her knees drawn up. She told Ashley to sit wherever she’d like.
Ashley sat on the edge of the rather wide twin-size bed. Even the bed was larger than her narrow strip of a bed.
Katelyn folded her forearms across her thighs and asked, “Feeling better now?”
Ashley nodded.
Katelyn smiled gently. “So, Ashley?”
“Yeah?”
“You got a boyfriend or something?”
Ashley shook her head. She hesitated a moment, then said, “I’ve never actually been with a woman before, but I don’t have to have been to know that I’m gay.”
“Really?” Katelyn said, still smiling.
“Really. That okay?”
Katelyn chuckled. “Yeah, I think so. Especially since my ex had the same parts we do.”
Ashley smiled. So Katelyn really was gay.
“They say the first breakup hurts the worst, but I’m rather glad to be rid of her, to tell you the truth.”
“Was it that bad?”
Katelyn looked thoughtful. “Well, I wouldn’t say it was necessarily bad, but it wasn’t going anywhere either. You ever been with a guy?”
“Yeah, I dated a guy,” Ashley said, “though we didn’t do much. You been with any?”
Katelyn shook her head. “No, I pretty much always knew what I wanted, so that’s what I focused on.”
“Is your family okay with it?”
“Yeah, they are. I think they knew I was gay long before I did. Parents sense these things, I guess. So, are you sure it’s what you want?”
Ashley looked at Katelyn, admiring her eyes of warm chocolate, and dared to say, “If I met a girl as nice and as good-looking as you are, I’d be sure for sure.”
Katelyn smiled. “Aw, how sweet.”
“Do you not like guys?” Ashley asked. “I mean, I know you’re attracted to women, but what do you think of guys in general?”
Katelyn shrugged. “I don’t know. Guys are just guys, I guess. How ‘bout you?”
“Honestly?”
Katelyn nodded.
“They’re jerks.”
The two laughed heartily.
“At least most of them are, anyway,” Ashley added.
They laughed some more, then went on to talk about things in general such as their hobbies and goals in life, along with what teachers they liked and disliked. Ashley learned that Katelyn hoped to become a prosecutor around the same time Ashley went home to paint all kinds of paintings that would hopefully sell at local galleries, and maybe, if all went really well, she’d branch out from there.
“I considered international law at first,” said Katelyn, “then I said, nah.”
“What about being a defense attorney?”
“No way. Defend people who are more than likely guilty as charged? I don’t think so. I don’t think I could live with myself if I helped to secure a killer’s freedom.”
Not long afterward, Katelyn asked to see any sketches Ashley had, so they headed for her room.
“Wow, you’re good!” said Katelyn with a smile of amazement and delight.
“Thanks,” Ashley said, filled with her own amazement and delight over the fact that this sexy, friendly, intelligent girl seemed to like her.
“I like this one with the little girl and boy playing with the kittens,” Katelyn said before placing the sketchbook down to study a framed photograph. “That’s one very beautiful girl in this picture.”
“That’s me, silly,” Ashley giggled.
“I know. I’m just teasing, though it’s the truth. Who are the people with you, your parents?”
Ashley nodded just as there was a knock on the door. She stepped over to the door and opened it.
It was Nicolette. “Did you hear the news?” she asked.
“No, what’s up?” asked Ashley.
“I still can’t believe it,” Nicolette said with shock. “A girl was murdered in one of the houses here on campus.”
“Oh, my God!” exclaimed Ashley.
“You’re kidding?” said Katelyn at almost the same time.
But they could see just how serious Nicolette truly was.
“So what happened, and who was it?” Katelyn asked.
“I don’t know who it was. All they would tell me was that she was a freshman and that she was alone when it happened. She was strangled, I guess, from what I heard, but it didn’t appear as if anyone had broken into her house.”
“She must’ve known her attacker,” said Katelyn, “or at least trusted whoever it was enough to let them in.”
“Where did this happen?” asked Ashley.
“On the other side,” said Nicolette.
“The other side?” asked Ashley, confused.
“You know how our house is on the southeast side of the campus?”
Ashley nodded.
“It happened on the northeast side. There are ten rows of houses with ten houses in each row. Ours is in the tenth row, row J, and the murdered girl lived in the first, row A.”
“And they don’t have a clue as to who could’ve done it?” Katelyn asked.
“Nope.”
“That’s pretty scary,” Ashley said with dismay written all over her face. “When they talk about crime in the big city, you don’t think of a college campus. You think of rundown neighborhoods filled with gangs and hood rats.”
“Crime isn’t only an inner-city thing, that’s for sure,” said Katelyn.
The trio heard the sound of a door being opened further down the hall, and Nicolette, who was in the doorway, glanced in that direction.
“Did you say someone was killed?” asked Dalene.
Nicolette nodded. “I’ll tell you about it in a sec.” Then she turned back to Ashley and Katelyn.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB3cLR2mWRm
“I’ll see you both later. Sorry I had to ruin your day, and it’s not even lunchtime yet.”
“Yeah, well, just be careful,” Katelyn told her before she went off to talk to Dalene.
Ashley closed her door and glanced at Katelyn. The jovial atmosphere that had filled the room not so long ago was now replaced with anxiety.
“This really sucks, huh?” said Katelyn.
Ashley nodded. “I wonder if my being attacked at the Chinese restaurant has any connection to this.”
“I was wondering the same thing.”
“I do not want to have to tell my aunt about this, Katelyn. All she’ll do is worry.”
“But hun, she’s bound to find out. Murder’s big news, I’m afraid, especially on a college campus.”
“I suppose you’re right. I guess I better call to let her know I’m okay just in case she knows about it already.”
“Okay,” said Katelyn, following Ashley out of her room. “I’ll be in my room if you need me. Just please promise you’ll be careful if you go out, Ashley.”
“Oh, I will. You can rest assured on that one.”
Ashley phoned her aunt, who was understandably concerned and promised to be extra careful and not go out after dark, especially alone.
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