Ashley Returns To Zack

Meanwhile, in the short time since Ashley had left, Zack’s mind had traveled away from Ashley and his worries back to the vacation. He figured he’d go swimming in the lake with Chloe and Gavin in a few minutes and maybe after everyone could gather at the firepit for the night. Of course, his mind jumped over to Victoria and he couldn’t help but be a bit envious of Kurt’s luck, spending the trip with a cute blonde like Victoria was a gift. Though his main focus was on the thought of Kurt somehow getting into Victoria's pants over the trip, he couldn't deny that Kurt was serious competition already but rooming with her gave him all the edge on him.

Suddenly Zack heard the door burst open and immediately slam shut. He spun around and saw Ashley nearly shaking, her jaw was locked, eyes flared up and fists clenched, “Whoa Ash, are you alright?” Zack easily asked the girl while taking a tentative step towards her,

Ashley looked at Zack with her face beat red, “Am I alright? No! No, I’m not fucking alright!” She screamed out causing Zack to jump slightly, “Brandon comes up to me and asks, what did I do, he asked me what did he do Zack! Can you fucking imagine hearing that, that your cheating fuck of a boyfriend can understand why you're upset?! Fuck that and fuck him! I hate him!” Ashley shouted out, screaming out to the world more than Zack,

“Ash...hey, it's alright, it's okay," Zack softly said to the girl who's breathing was turning short and sharp, while her eyes started to well up once more,

Ashley reached out and roughly wiped her eyes, holding back her tears, “I’m sorry Zack, I know you don’t really care about all this.”

“I care, we're not best friends Ashley, but we're still friends," Zack instantly replied, "If you're hurting, then I care, I just...I don't know what to say about the situation,"

“Yeah, well consider yourself lucky, if you did know what to say you'd be an asshole,” Ashley muttered as she moved towards the bed and sat down. Ashley let out a long bitter exhale and hung her head, holding her face in her hands, trying to calm herself all over again,

Zack ran his fingers through his hair, internally arguing with himself for a moment, “Alright, that’s kinda a lie.” Zack said with a low sigh,

“What do you mean?” Ashley asked raising her head,

“Did you ever meet Lisa? She was my girlfriend last year.” Zack asked while moving over to the bed and sitting down next to her,

Ashley thought for a moment before shaking her head, “I think I saw you two together but no, I never met her.”

“Well, we broke up because….” Zack said while lowering his head, nearly in shame, “We broke up because I...it's not worth going into detail over but I wasn't faithful to her. I never cheated but...but I loved another girl while we were together and I couldn't stop feeling it. I told her, tried to talk to her about it and figure out some way to fix things, but at the end of the day, she left me over it,” Zack explained, holding back from mentioning Victoria's name,

“What?” Ashley asked with a short shake of her head,

“Yeah,” Zack nodded, “I know it's not the same thing as you and Brandon, but I basically did the same thing as he did, I broke her trust in me and that's something I've never been able to live down. I might as well have been cheating on her,"

Ashley turned away from him, stomaching the story, “Zack? Why are you telling me this?” She asked after a moment, her voice void of nearly any emotion,

“I just…” Zack replied thinking about how to phrase things, “I just wanted to let you know that I kinda get what’s going through your head. I know how angry you are but maybe...all I know is, after Lisa and I broke up, I had some moments of clarity. I could have changed and fixed things but she didn't want to give me that chance. I don't blame her for it but I wish she did, maybe...maybe you should give Brandon that chance?”

Ashley turned away from him again, thinking it over before her face tightened up, “No,” She said firmly, “Lisa acted too hasty with you, you deserved a chance to prove yourself because you hadn't really done anything wrong yet. Brandon...he decided to go to that party, he decided to drink, and then he decided to cheat. That was all his choice, so it’s all on him. I’m not giving him a free pass.” Zack nodded, he knew Ashley had every right to feel that way,

"I understand, Ash, and I won't argue against you," Zack nodded as he got to his feet and moved to his dresser, quickly digging around for his swim trunks,

“What are you doing now?” She asked now more calmly,

“Well, I was gonna give you a little space, maybe go out and swim for a little while,” Zack replied with a small shrug,

“Oh, hold on I’ll go with you,” Ashley said quickly as she jumped to her feet,

“You...want to come?” He asked with a raised brow,

“Absolutely, I’m not going to let Brandon ruin this trip for me.” She explained as she dug through her bag until she pulled out her bikini, “And what you told me...it doesn't make me hate you or anything. You were mature, you were honest with your feelings and,” Ashley thought for a moment before continuing, "And you didn't do anything wrong,"

“Thanks, Ash,” Zack said with a small smile, “Meet you downstairs.” Ashley flashed him a little thankful smile before she headed into their bathroom. Zack quickly changed into his swim trunks and headed upstairs, heading into the living room.

“Hey, Zack.” Chloe said with a wave, “What are you up too?”

“I guess I’m going swimming with Ashley,” He replied,

“You and Ashley?” She asked with a raised brow,

“Yeah…” Zack said as he scratched his head, “I don’t really know what I should do. The last thing I need is Brandon getting pissed off at me.”

Chloe put down her phone and thought a minute, “Don’t worry.” She said before turning to Gavin, “Gavin, get off your damn phone and grab your trunks.”

“Could we do that later, I’m kinda in the middle of something,” Gavin said pleading a bit as he continued to play on his phone,

Chloe rolled her eyes and got up snatching the phone from his hands, something she was all too used to having to do, "No, we're doing this now, go!" Chloe simply ordered,

“Why?” Gavin groaned back,

“We need to go swimming with Zack and Ashley so things don't look suspicious to Brandon, we need to help him,” Chloe retorted before looking to her friend and warmly smiling, “We got your back Zack, no worries.”

“You got in the middle of a love triangle one day into the trip, hell, actually one hour into this trip. You work quick man.” Gavin snickered causing Zack to frown, “Kidding, I’ll be out in a minute.” He said as he and Chloe headed up the stairs. Zack let out a little relieved sigh knowing that it wouldn’t just be him and Ashley, minutes later the four of them were walking out of the cabin and to the lake.

“So what’s the plan guys, we just swimming or we got something else we could do?” Ashley asked as she fixed her long dirty blonde hair into a bun,

“Anyone up for water frisbee, I'm actually good at this,” Gavin said as he held up an orange frisbee,

“Sounds fun, we should split into teams,” Chloe replied,

“I call Zack!” Ashley quickly called out as she grabbed onto his arm,

“O-okay.” Zack stammered out as he blushed a small amount, “So one team doesn’t catch the frisbee gets a point, let's go to eight.”

“Sounds good, you two are going down!” Gavin said before diving into the water,

“Yeah right, let’s do this Zack!” Ashley said with a scoff before following Gavin into the lake.

Zack peered over to Chloe who had an amused smirk on her face, “Looks like someone’s got a new best friend.” She said, unable to help herself from a little teasing,

Zack slowly shook his head, “This may be my last day alive if Brandon thinks I’m trying anything with her, he’ll kill me.”

“Oh relax she’s probably just being nice since you two are gonna be roommates, plus, I think she just needs a friend right now,” Chloe reassured him before entering the lake,

“Hopefully,” Zack muttered under his breath, then he dove into the water, swimming out to meet the others.