Three's a Crowd

Ashley was in the lounge when Raven and Brian came rushing through the front door, the redhead immediately running up the stairs without so much as a ‘hello’ to her best friend. The brunette watched her go in confusion before looking at Brian, hoping that he could shed some light on the situation.

“What’s with Rae?” She questioned, her brow furrowed. “Because she didn’t even acknowledge my existence then and that rarely happens…”

Brian looked back at her, a frown on his lips and sadness in his dark eyes; “Her dad’s sick, Ash…”

Ashley immediately felt like she’d been punched in the gut as she stared back at the dark-haired guitarist; “Sick?”

“It’s pretty bad…” Brian nodded, letting out a heavy sigh as his gaze drifted up the stairs to where he knew his girlfriend would be packing a bag for her trip home. “She needs to go home….” He looked back at the brunette standing beside him. “I’m going to go with her… She’s in no state to drive…”

Ashley nodded, her mind numb as she watched her best friend’s boyfriend move towards the stairs and then her brain started processing again and she knew that she needed to go be with her friend.

“Brian?” She spoke up, Brian turning to look back at her.

“Yeah?”

“Just give me a couple of minutes with her, okay?”

Brian glanced up the stairs, the look on his face telling Ashley that he was desperate to go up and give Raven the comfort she so desperately needed right now and she reached out a hand, placing it on his arm.

“She’ll be fine, I just need to find out what’s going on…” The brunette assured him, Brian nodding as he looked back at her and moved away from the stairs.
“I’ll wait in the lounge….” He told her, Ashley offering him a grateful smile as he walked into the lounge and threw himself down onto the settee.

Ashley made her way up towards Brian and Raven’s room, stopping by the doorway and watching the redhead toss clothes into a large black suitcase.

“Rae?”

Raven looked back at her, opening her mouth to say something but then shook her head and bit her lip as she turned away continuing to pack hers and Brian’s belongings into the suitcase. The brunette walked into the room and over to her friend, stopping her by placing a hand on her arm.

“Raven, what is it? What's wrong?” Ashley asked, her eyes searching her best friends face. She saw a tear fall from behind the redhead's brown eyes and roll down her cheek as she stepped in front of her, her hands resting on the tops of her arms. “Rae….”

“My, um… My Dad has, uh… My Dad has…” Raven tried to get the words to come out of her mouth but her chest had become so tight it was near impossible for her to breathe. “I have to go home… He needs me…”

“Okay, what do you need me to do?” Ashley wanted to know, offering her best friend her help and support. “Do you need me to come with you? Because I can do that, I can catch up on classes no problem…”

Rae shook her head; “No, you should stay here. Brian’s going to come with me. I'll need you to tell my lecturer that I've gone away for a few days, see if they'll give you my class notes…”

“Okay, I'll do that…” Ashley nodded her head in agreement, Rae going back to packing the suitcase. The brunette stood awkwardly, watching her best friend helplessly as Rae continued to stuff as much clothing into the case as possible before zipping it up and pulling it off the bed.

Brian entered the bedroom then and without a word to either of the girls took the suitcase out of his girlfriend’s hands and placed a soft kiss onto her forehead before carrying the luggage down the stairs.

“He said he was going to wait in the lounge…” Ashley remarked in a bid to lighten the atmosphere and to her relief she saw a small smile creep onto her best friend’s lips.

“He’s impatient,” Raven replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders, glancing around the bedroom as if to be checking that she had packed everything she needed for her trip home.

“Rae?” Ashley captured her friend’s attention again, the redhead turning to look at her.

“You want to know how bad it is, right?” Raven asked, already knowing what was on the brunette’s mind and Ashley nodded. “It’s pretty bad, Ash… Like, really, really bad…”

Ashley frowned at her best friend’s words, shaking her head; “I’m sorry to hear that, Rae…”

The two friends stood awkwardly in the bedroom, a silence suddenly falling over them as neither of them knew what to say to the other. Rae picked Tigger up from his spot on the bed and tucked him under her arm, letting out a sigh that threatened to break Ashley’s heart as she moved towards the door.

“I'll call you when I get there, give you a heads up on what's happening….” Rae said, breaking the stillness of the bedroom as she made she stepped out into the hallway.

“I hope everything’s okay, Rae…” Ashley followed her friend, the redhead grabbing a few essentials out of the bathroom before they continued on their way down the stairs. “And don't worry about class or anything, okay? I'll get it all sorted for you…” Ashley assured her as they walked to the open front door where Brian was waiting for them on the porch.

“Thanks Ash…” Raven offered her best friend a smile, Brian stepping towards her and wrapping a protective arm around her waist.

“Hey Bonnie, you ready to hit the road?” He asked, Raven nodding as she looked up at him. He brushed his lips against her forehead. “I put the case in your car, figured you’d want to take your own Baby more than my one…”

“Thank you…” Raven smiled at him, Brian pressing a kiss to her head once more before taking Tigger and the bathroom essentials out of her hands. “I’ll be in the car…”

Raven nodded, watching him go before turning to Ashley who immediately pulled her into a hug.

“Drive safe, okay? And give my love to your dad and Brandon…” The brunette told her. “And remember that I am only a phone call away if you need me for anything… And I mean, anything, Rae…Even if it’s three in the morning and all you want to do is talk nonsense, I’m here for you, okay?”

Rae pulled back from her friend, nodding her head; “Okay. Thanks Ash… I'll talk to you soon…”

Ashley stood in the doorway, watching as Raven walked down the porch steps and made her way over to her 4x4 where Brian ushered the redhead around to the passenger side before climbing in behind the wheel and slowly pulling the vehicle out of the driveway. The brunette sighed grimly, her heart already aching with the news of Mr Matthews being ill. She waited until her friend’s car was no longer in her sight before walking back into the house, closing the door behind her and heading up to her bedroom intent on being alone to gather her thoughts.

Matt wandered out of his bedroom just as Ashley passed him in the hallway, the hazel eyed singer frowning as soon as he noticed how sad the brunette looked. He watched as she disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her and rubbed at the back of his neck as he debated whether or not he should go and see what was wrong with her. He hated that it was so awkward between them, that she never seemed to smile as much as she used to when they were together but most of all he hated that she had seemed upset about something and instead of turning to him for comfort the way she had done in the past, she had locked herself away in her room. Letting out a breath, he decided to go and at least try to talk to her.

He walked towards her room, tapping lightly on the door and waiting for her to answer.

“Come in,” Ashley called out to him, her voice wavering as if she was trying to hide the fact that she was crying and Matt opened the door, offering Ashley a smile as he entered the room pushing the door shut behind him.

“Hey Ash…” He greeted her, a little unsure of how things were going to go between them and Ashley rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head.

“What do you want, Matt?” She asked, Matt walking over to where she was sitting on the bed and joining her.

“You seemed upset about something,” He said, Ashley turning to look at him. “I just wanted to see if you were okay…”

Ashley wiped at her eyes with the sleeves of her hoodie as she tried to hide the tears that were threatening to expose her; “I’m fine…”

Matt raised an eyebrow at her, studying her face and knowing that there was something she wasn’t telling him; “You’re not… Something’s wrong, Ash. What is it?”

“Raven's dad is dying,” She whispered, Matt's gaze softening at the brunette's words.

"Oh...I'm sorry Ash," He apologized, immediately reaching out and taking her hand in his.

Ashley stared down at their entwined fingers, her heartbeat increasing at the touch of Matt’s skin against hers; “I just… I don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t think there’s anything you can do, Ash,” Matt spoke in a smooth, comforting tone. “Just be there when Rae needs you to be there and help her deal with it. Has she gone home?”

Ashley nodded, her gaze still focused on the way Matt’s fingers seemed to fit perfectly between the spaces of her own; “Brian’s took her… She needed me to stay here…”

“And what about you? What do you need?” Matt asked, trying to catch her gaze and Ashley looked up at him sadly.

“I just need someone to hold me and tell me it's all going to be okay and that it's not the end of the world,” She confessed, feeling the tears slip out of her eyes as she tried to blink them away.

“Come here then,” Matt coaxed her towards him and Ashley nearly fell into his arms as she cried.

She shook with sobs as he held her close to his chest, his fingers gently stroking through her hair. The brunette felt like she was losing a parent of her own, knowing that Rae was probably beside herself as well but having Matt there felt like everything was starting to feel right again even if it was all falling apart around her.

“It's gonna be okay, Ash. It's not the end of the world,” Matt reassured her, gently running his hand up and down along her spine trying to comfort her.

“I don't understand...Why Joaquin? Of all the people in the world, why did it have to be him?” Ashley demanded to know, feeling Matt shrug.

“When someone who's close to us is dying... we never want it to happen. That's why it's so hard to accept, Ash. I'm sorry...” He murmured, wrapping his arms around her tighter.

“Thanks, Matty," She choked out, her face buried in the fabric of his t-shirt and Matt smiled at the sound of her nickname for him.

“You don’t need to thank me, Ash,” Matt whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her hair and Ashley felt a faint smile tug at the corners of her lips. “I’m always here for you, you know that…”

Ashley raised her head to look at him, Matt’s hazel gaze immediately matching her own; “Do I?”

“I hope that you do,” He said, the dimples appearing in his cheeks as he smiled at her and Ashley couldn’t help but smile back at him. “There, that’s better…”

“What?” Ashley asked, her brow furrowing in confusion and Matt wiped her stray tears away with the pad of his thumb before pulling her towards him in a hug once more.

“You’re smiling again…” He replied, his lips resting against the top of her head as he spoke. “I’ve missed that smile…”

“I’ve missed you…” Ashley whispered, relaxing into his grasp and her breathing evening out as her crying stopped. “And I’m really glad that you’re here…”

The rain had come out of nowhere, almost as if the weather was picking up on Raven's emotions as Brian drove her home to San Francisco. The windscreen wipers swept away the tiny raindrops as they battered her windscreen, the soothing sounds of the radio doing nothing to quell the ache in her heart.

The redhead bit her bottom lip and inhaled deeply, she knew that she had to make this journey. As much as it killed her to admit it, this was probably going to be her last chance to say goodbye to the man who had always been so much more than a father to her. He was her best friend, her protector, her hero. It was a hard truth to accept, the fact that her father was losing a battle with cancer. He had always seemed so invincible to her and now she was realizing that her daddy was just like everybody else… Human and a prisoner of his own mortality.

As she kept her gaze focused firmly on the road ahead, and one hand in the safety of Brian’s as he drove, her mind regressed back to simpler times. Back to the time when mistakes could be fixed with `do-over's', a pinky promise meant the world to you and the worst thing you could catch from a boy was `cooties'.

She saw a little girl of about five or six years old, auburn hair pulled into two neat bunches at the top of her head, climbing onto her father's lap. The youngster settled herself against the older man's strong frame, her head falling to his chest as his tattooed arms wrapped around her protectively. His fingers curled the ends of her auburn hair as she looked up at him with those big brown eyes she had inherited off her mother.

“When I get to be a grown-up, daddy, will you still be my bestest friend?” The little girl asked, her tiny fingers tracing the outline of the pattern on his dark t-shirt.

“No matter how big you get, sweetheart, I'll always be here for you…” The man pressed a kiss to the child's forehead as she giggled and buried her head into his chest, her fingers finding the ends of his long black hair. “You'll always be the princess of my kingdom…”

“Does that mean you’re a king, daddy?” The little girl grinned so wide you could see the spaces where her baby teeth had fell out to make way for adult ones.

“I don’t need to be the king of the world so long as I’m you’re hero…” The man replied, his daughter clinging to him.

“Always and forever, daddy…”

The man chuckled softly, lowering his head to rest on top of hers; “Forever and ever and ever…”

Raven swallowed hard and shook the image of her younger self out of her head as a tear rolled down her face. Her forever was over….