Future as Bright as Halogen

By Friday Ashlee was worried.

She generally was not the type of person to over think and worry, she was in the gossip magazines too much for this trait to form a regular part of her, but when it came to her friends Ashlee sometimes acted rather erratically.

“Pete I’ve hardly heard anything from her,” Ashlee announced on Friday morning as Pete bounced Bronx on his knees during breakfast.

“She’s probably just burning everything that reminds her of Chase and is making a voodoo doll of him, you know what she’s like,” Pete said gently before pulling faces at Bronx to amuse him.

Ashlee said nothing as she began to chew on her nails. Yes she knew Macy but what she also knew was that Macy had been solely dedicated to Chase for three years, and that the blow he had delivered to her would be a hard one to deal with.

“Still not heard from your friend?” Gabe asked as he too came into the dinging room to claim his breakfast.

Pete had looked up at Gabe sharply over the top of Bronx’s little head and he narrowed his eyes at his best friend. Gabe had taken a little too much interest in Macy’s situation and the girl herself for it all to be kosher enough for Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz the third, however the state of Bronx’s diaper didn’t allow him to dwell on these thoughts much longer.

“I’m going to see her,’ Ashlee said determinedly and made to grab the keys of her car but Gabe got there before she did. She looked at him critically with her blue eyes as she watched him search for an excuse to accompany her.

“I’ll drive you and be your body guard,’ he said quickly, realizing just how lame this excuse sounded as Ashlee raised her perfectly groomed eyebrows at him. “You know you’re going to get followed by crazy people with cameras the minute you set foot out of the gate.”

Ashlee looked up at Gabe with amusement written all over her face and a thousand things she wanted to say, but she just nodded as she slipped into some black flips flops and walked over to kiss Pete and Bronx goodbye.

Pete watched Gabe follow Ashlee out and once the two had left he looked down at his tiny son.

“I’m not letting you date until you’re at least 21, you got that?”

Fifteen minutes, and two reckless Gabe Saporta style u-turns as a means of escaping paparazzi cars later, Ashlee was hammering on Macy’s flat door as Gabe looked on.

“Macy it’s Ashlee open up!”

“Maybe she’s not in,” Gabe suggested, feeling slightly dejected at the thought.

“She is, I asked the concierge, she hasn’t left the apartment block since she got back from mine. That was five days ago. Macy open the goddamn door we know you’re in there!”

After a couple moments of waiting they heard the soft pat of feet behind the door, which was slowly opened as Macy cautiously stuck her head out.

“Christ you look terrible,” was Ashlee’s blunt and honest answer as she pushed the door fully open despite the weak objections Macy tried to vocalize.

Ashlee stormed into the apartment like a hurricane and looked around sharply. It was the typical broken heart scene that greeted her. The TV was paused on an episode of True Blood, two duvets were snaking their way about the sofa, chocolate wrappers were scattered on the cream carpet, long ice cream spoons were balanced precariously on bottles of wine and tissues were floating around the room located in central spots like the sofa, kitchen and the hallway to the bedroom.

Ashlee then turned her gaze onto Macy, and her demeanour changed from critically aware of the state of the apartment to worried concern.

Macy was stood in front of Ashlee and Gabe rather awkwardly, cursing herself silently for being found in another embarrassing situation by Gabe. She was wearing a ratty pair of flannel pyjama bottoms and a large US marine’s shirt that belonged to her brother. Her long hair was mussed up and matted in the back. Dark circles were around her eyes, which were slightly blood shot. As Ashlee looked past Macy she saw that Macy had disconnected the phone and that the answer machine was flashing. There was a slight smell of burning floating around, confirming what Pete had said about Macy potentially burning everything that reminded her of Chase.

“Shower. Now,” Ashlee said as she pointed to the bathroom.

Macy dared not argue as Ashlee steered her towards said room, leaving Gabe standing in the living room unsure of what to do but Ashlee returned seconds later with a huge pile of clothes in her arms that were screaming to be washed.

Whilst Macy washed off her heartache and self pitying emotions, Ashlee and Gabe acted as the clean up crew. Bottles of wine were packed up for recycling, the ice cream that had melted into sauce was washed down the drain, clothes were putting the washing machine and the carpet was hovered to get rid of the crisps that had hailed down upon it.

Macy had taken a couple of days off work so her work schedule had not come into conflict with her minor Bridget Jones mirroring, and so Ashlee assumed that the sole reason why the answer machine was blinking would be Chase.

After about twenty minutes Macy appear with damp hair, dressed in loose dark blue jeans and a grey v-necked t-shirt. It was a far cry from her usual stylish outfits and it really reflected her current mood. Ashlee held back a sigh before announcing that they were going out shopping.

Despite initial protests Macy was glad to get out of her apartment, it helped that she was not alone – she had Ashlee and Gabe to push her along. Even though her enthusiasm was limited Gabe and Ashlee made up for this. Gabe ended up with a new pair of Nike’s and Ashlee with several dresses and hairbands. Macy bought a simple red t-shirt dress from American Apparel to keep her two companions happy, but after a while their smiles and laughs were contagious and by the end of the afternoon Macy was possible to make them even more happier by gracing them with the first real smile in a week.

After that day Macy slowly but surely got her life back into shape.

She stopped buying ice cream and deleted the Discovery Channel on her TV guide so there would be no way of her catching a re-run of ‘Extreme Survival With Chase Savage’. She threw herself into her work and seemed to be rushing from one function to another, but somehow she still managed to make an appearance for dinner with at the Wentz’s. Her old social self soon began to slowly rebuild itself, but there was still a certain sadness about her.

“What would you do if I were to ask Macy out on a date?’ Gabe had asked Ashlee the minute Pete had left the house to take Bronx to the park, four days after their clean up crew moment at Macy’s.

Ashlee put down the parenting magazine she had been flicking through and looked at Gabe steadily with her clear blue eyes.

“I’d tell you to give her some time, she’s been through a lot. What she needs right now is a friend Gabe. Be patient.”

So Gabe vowed that’s what he would do, he would be patient.