Ashley

Max's POV

Mom and Dad literally made me stay home from school. They called and told them I "needed a day of rest", and would be "back on Thursday". I protested; I wanted to go. I needed to get away from my parents, away from my house. So I grabbed my car keys and drove away. I stopped when I saw Ronnie, sitting on a small patch of grass by a tree. I parked and got out. I ran to him. "Ronnie! What are you doing here?" I asked.

He looked at the ground and shrugged. He set down the notebook he had been writing in and looked back up at me. "Do they...do they know?"

I nodded. "My parents called the school."

"Do they miss her?" he raised an eyebrow.

I bit my lip. "Well, they ran a special thing in the school newspaper. Sent us a copy. Says, In memory of Ashley Marina Green 10/3/1979-10/3/1994 or something like that. Has a picture of her underneath. But other than that, I don't really know. I...uh, I didn't go to school. My parents insisted. But I needed to get out, so, that's why I'm here. why aren't you in school?"

He shrugged. "Didn't feel like going back. And now that you told me that...well, where's the motivation any more? Every morning, I really looked forward to seeing her. Now...there's nothing to look forward to."

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry. It's really different not having her around the house..." I trailed off.

He looked back at the ground. "Yeah. Well, bye, I guess."

"Bye." And that was all. I thought about what Ronnie had said as I drove around some more. "There's nothing to look forward to." Did he like Ashley that much? I mean, sure, I missed her. But he was really taking it hard. I hoped he got better soon.