Ashley awoke the next morning even more excited than she had the day before. Her thoughts went immediately to Katelyn and all that they’d done together the night before. It was close to midnight when Ashley finally returned to her room with much reluctance, noting that Rose and Dalene were still out.
“I’m going to kill those bitches!” she heard Dalene scream.
Oh no, she thought, not again. Now, what did I do?
“Kill whom?” she heard Nicolette ask.
“Beth Ashton and Julia Drake.”
“Why?” she heard Rose ask shyly.
“Because they’re such assholes!”
The voices got further away as they headed into the kitchen, so Ashley was unable to make out everything that was being said. She rose, threw on her robe, then headed for the kitchen herself. Katelyn was seated at the table along with Rose and Nicolette. She smiled at Ashley when she saw her.
“Morning, hun,” she said.
“Good morning,” Ashley answered back.
Dalene continued, oblivious to her surroundings as she pulled a jar of peanut butter from one of the cabinets. “They’re just such lying, back-stabbing bitches! Beth had a party at her house last night, which she invited me to. Then when I got there, she changed her story and said she hadn’t invited me. So then when I said I’d leave, she said no, no, don’t do that. I have a guy I want you to meet, and believe me, he desperately wants to meet you, too. So I told her that if he was better in the sack than my boyfriend, I’d give him a try.”
Nicolette and Rose glanced at each other with slight amusement on their faces.
Katelyn looked up periodically from the magazine she was thumbing through and glanced at Dalene as if she were as pathetic and as immature as she sounded. At least she sounded that way to Ashley, who was quickly becoming rather embarrassed for her on top of sick of her tirades.
“So we go up to her parents’ room—her parents are out of town—and we talk a while, have some beers, smoke a little grass, then he comes onto me like a hurricane. At first, I was like, whoa, buddy! Don’t be so rough and so damn desperately eager. So then he chills enough to shuck our clothes, and we go to get it on. Next thing I know, Julia pops open the door and snaps pictures of him on top of me.”
Dalene finally finished smearing enough peanut butter on her toast.
“How awful that must’ve been!” Rose interjected while she could, sounding sympathetic, or at least trying to.
“Tell me about it!” Dalene screamed. “I chased after her to try to get the camera, but the fucking bitch locked herself in another room, and Beth demanded I get the hell out or else she’d call the cops, and I was like call the cops? You’re the ones who invited me here so you could play this sick joke on me! So the sick bitch insists I crashed her party and that I better leave, but as I told her, if I find out anyone’s seen those pictures, she’s minced meat.”
Dalene picked up her toast, turned around to lean back against the counter, then chomped into the toast as if she were just as angry at it.
The others sat in silence.
“You say it’s Beth Ashton and Julia Drake?” Rose finally asked.
“Yeah,” Dalene said with a nod. “The assholes live in the first house in row D with some mousy chick they call Gertie.”
“I’m surprised. They always seemed cool,” Rose added.
“Yeah right!” snapped Dalene. “Cool my ass.”
When Ashley decided she was too hungry to continue to stand around and listen to Dalene anymore, she went to the cabinet to pull a box of cereal from it. She had no sympathy for the girl. Not only did she accuse her of stealing her shirt, but she also never apologized for her false accusation once she’d learned that she had simply dropped the damn shirt in the utility area.
Dalene looked over at Ashley, now sensing her animosity. Taking her last bite of toast, she turned and left the room, leaving the others to roll their eyes behind her.
“She really brightens up a room just by leaving it,” Nicolette said.
Rose giggled while Ashley and Katelyn smiled knowingly.
After Ashley finished her cereal, she asked Katelyn if she was planning to use their established bathroom.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve already showered.”
Ashley then went to take her own shower. When she was done, she threw on a pair of jeans and a pink short-sleeved knit top. She then applied a touch of makeup and brushed out her long hair. When it was knot-free, she put it back in a braid and stepped out into the hall. Nicolette and Katelyn’s doors were now closed. She headed towards Katelyn’s room, glancing left along the way into the kitchen, then right into the living room. No one was present. She assumed Dalene and Rose had left the house, which would explain the bang she’d heard while in the shower. Dalene made it a regular practice to slam the door when she came and went.
When she approached Katelyn’s door, she rapped softly.
“Yeah?”
“It’s me, Katelyn.”
“Come on in.”
Ashley entered the room to find Katelyn sitting on her partially made bed propped up on a pillow, paperback in hand. She too wore jeans; only she had on a dark purple top to go with it. She was a turn-on even in casual clothes and not much makeup. Ashley admired the way she did her makeup. With her looks and coloring, the effect was stunning.
“Hi, sweetie. What’s up?” she asked with a bright white smile.
“Oh, not much. I was just wondering what you were doing today.”
Katelyn set her book aside, still holding a touch of that brilliant smile. “Why, I can be doing whatever you’d like me to be doing. Want to go out somewhere?”
“Sure, if you’re not busy.”
“I’m never busy on weekends.”
“You don’t feel the need to be alone after dealing with so many people all week?” Ashley asked.
Katelyn appeared to consider this, then said, “No, not as long as you’re the one I’m hanging out with.”
Ashley smiled while Katelyn got her sneakers on. “Where to, Miss?” she asked, now standing upright.
“You lead, I’ll follow.”
“Okay, why don’t you go grab your purse or anything else you don’t want to leave lying around here, then we’ll take off somewhere,” said Katelyn, stuffing a woman’s wallet into the pocket of the black suede fringed jacket she now had on.
God, she looks hot, thought Ashley. She looks tough, but not mean. Just what I apparently like in a woman. “Sure,” she said, temporarily checking her appreciation.
Yet Katelyn had caught the lustful look in Ashley’s eyes before she left the room. That was okay, for she was sure she had been thinking the same dirty thoughts as Ashley had, yet Katelyn needed more in a relationship than just sex.
Wait a minute. Were they actually in a relationship?
Katelyn thought about it for a moment. Yeah, I guess we are, she finally concluded. If we can continue to get along this way and have great sex too, while we’re at it, then why not?
Katelyn glanced at herself in the mirror and grinned a silly grin, enthralled by the idea of Ashley being her girl.
Ashley exited her room just as Katelyn exited hers.
“So why did your mother wait till her mid-thirties to have you?” Ashley asked as they casually strode towards the strip mall while she studied their surroundings as well as Katelyn. It was a cool yet sunny day. Birds fluttered about. “Did she just want a life before you took it over?”
“No,” Katelyn said with a chuckle. “According to her, it took her that long to not only find a decent man but to find one who was willing to have kids, so that’s what took me and my sister Loretta so long to enter her life.”
A man slowly cruised by, checking them out as he passed.
“Pervert,” Ashley muttered.
Again Katelyn chuckled. “My, you’re an outspoken one.”
“You could say that. So just what is it with men being so afraid of responsibility anyway?”
“It isn’t just that. A lot of them don’t want the competition, you know? They want a woman’s undivided attention. As my mother always told me before she realized I was gay, Katelyn, if you want to marry and have kids, you better make darn sure that man really wants those kids because a man will tell a woman anything to get her to marry him. And this is coming from a woman who’s as straight as a ruler.”
“Regardless of the fact that I’ve always been attracted to women, I’d say most men are selfish, spoiled little wimps,” Ashley stated in a matter-of-fact tone of voice which Katelyn found amusing. She admired the open bluntness and the spunky energy this sweet little lady possessed.
“Do you want any someday?” Ashley asked her. “I mean, we are living in a time where women are encouraged to skip the family and go straight for the careers.”
Katelyn looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, if I never have any, and I probably won’t, it won’t be because of what the going lifestyle is, but because I choose not to have them. What about you?”
“Nah, I don’t think so. I’m a little selfish and spoiled.”
Katelyn laughed. “How’s that?”
“Well, the idea of regular 3 AM wake-up calls isn’t exactly appealing to me. Neither is having to pass up spontaneous outings.”
“Then I guess we’re a good match.”
Ashley turned her head sharply towards Katelyn. “Seriously?”
“I am if you are and if you don’t think we’re moving too fast,” Katelyn said with a smile.
“No, not at all. I’d love to be your girl,” Ashley said, smiling back.
“Good. Now that that’s settled, let’s decide where to go from here.”
Ashley stopped and looked at the neat row of stores. “Well, I didn’t have much of a breakfast.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHsI5bWVM55
Want to stop for a bite to eat at the coffee shop?”
“Sure, we can do that. Dalene lightened up my breakfast pretty well, too.”
They laughed and headed down to the coffee shop at the end of the strip.
Ashley looked around her as they walked. She studied the dozen or so people that were going in and out of the stores. “You know,” she began, “I look around me, and I wonder, could any of these people be the one who attacked me and killed that poor girl?”
Katelyn glanced about at the people as well and considered the idea. “Let’s hope not,” she said dubiously.
“Think it’s some student from your all-American dysfunctional family or an outsider or what?”
“Don’t know.”
They entered the pleasantly warm coffee shop. A heavyset African-American woman sat at the counter. She was the only one present, so it seemed. There were curlers still in her hair as if to suggest she was too lazy to pull them out when she’d gotten up this morning. Ashley thought she looked ridiculous.
Ashley and Katelyn took seats in a nearby booth. Not long afterward, a redheaded waitress snapping loudly on a piece of gum appeared from in back. “G’mornin’. What can I getcha?”
They decided on ham and cheese omelets. The waitress then gathered their menus and headed off to place the order with the cook, disappearing in back once again.
After a few minutes, the African-American woman called out to the waitress.
Nobody came.
“Hey,” she called again, growing impatient. “I asked for more coffee ages ago.”
The waitress still did not appear.
Ashley reached for some sugar for her coffee only to find the sugar dispenser was empty.
“Hey, I’m calling you. Are you deaf?” yelled the woman even louder.
Ashley’s ears rung painfully from the woman’s shouts. Then, noticing that the dispensers along the counter were full, she stood up and headed for one of them just as the huge woman stood up as well to reach over the counter for the coffeepot where Ashley stood. Suddenly, she was roughly shoved aside.
“Excuse you,” said the woman in an impatient, irritated tone of voice.
Ashley stared at her for a moment with both shock and disgust. Then, without warning yet with lightning speed, she shot out a clenched fist and boxed the woman square in the temple.
The large woman staggered a few steps and then went down with a mighty thud.
“No,” Ashley said. “Excuse you.”
Katelyn stood up, amazed at what she’d just seen. “Come on, let’s go,” she said, ushering Ashley out of the store. “If she gets up too soon, you never know if she may pull a gun on you, so let’s go!”
They managed to get a few yards out the door when the thunderous wave of cussing and threats began, prompting them to move faster. The woman was so big that she couldn’t run very fast anyway, and she was obviously still in pain, holding the side of her head as she continued to scream out a flurry of threats and profanity that hurt Ashley’s ears even with the fifty or so feet they now had between them.
The two didn’t stop to catch their breath until they entered the campus grounds.
Katelyn was the first to speak. “Ashley, I know that woman was a rude bitch, but why hit someone who isn’t trying to harm you?” She continued to breathe heavily, eyeing Ashley expectantly.
“You spend enough years down here at my height getting shoved around, and you just might react that way, too.”
Katelyn seemed to weigh Ashley’s words in her mind. Then she said, “Yeah, well, I guess I can’t say I wouldn’t want to pop someone in the head myself if they gave me such a rude push like that.”
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