It's about Ashley's latest problems

Meanwhile, Ashley and Hannah had walked to the dock by the lake. The older of the two siblings wondered about what her younger sister wanted to talk, her serious expression beginning to worry Hannah.

“So,” She prompted as they stepped onto the wooden surface. “What’s the matter, Ash?”

Ashley remained silent for a few more moments, staring at the calm waters of Silver Lake, before she turned to face her elder sister. “I’m in deep shit, Han.”

Hannah frowned. “What?” She asked, truly worried by now. “Did something happen?”

Her little sister stalled again, so Hannah took one step closer to her and placed a hand on the other girl’s arm. “Ashley, look at me,” She said. “I can’t help if you don’t me what’s happening.”

Ashley sighed. “Ok,” She agreed, and then she proceeded to bare her soul to her older sister, the only person in the world she trusted more than her best friends, Victoria and Heather. She told her everything, from her growing addiction to sex to her newfound kink of watching people and be watched. “Now I’ve beginning to think that something is wrong with me, ‘cause I’ve been losing interest in sex with Brandon and wondering what it’d be like to fuck other guys, but at the same time I don’t want to,” She said, her eyes misting up as her voice failed mid-speech. “Because I love him so much that it hurts to even think about something like this.”

“Wow, Ashley,” Hannah said after a couple of seconds. “Your love life got weirder than mine.”

“I’m serious, Hannah!” Ashley whined. “You’re the only one who can help me make some sense of this!”

“Sorry,” The older blonde apologized, sheepishly. “Look, I’m no specialist, but I’ll try to help you here, okay?” She asked and Ashley nodded. “Great. It seems to me, from what you’ve told me, that the source of all these problems is Brandon.”

Ashley rubbed her left eye with the back of her hand. “Han, I know you always thought I shouldn’t have committed myself to Brandon so early, but,”

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, Ashley, forget what I said before about it,” Hannah interrupted. “You love Brandon and you want to spend the rest of your life with him, that’s great, but you guys got together way too early, hell, you were sixteen!”

Seeing that Ashley remained mute, Hannah continued talking. “I’m not saying that it happens to every girl, but when you date the same guy for your entire dating life, you’re bound to wonder if other guys feel the same as him or you start thinking like me.”

Ashley raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by ‘thinking like me’?” She asked. “Did something like that happen to you too?”

“Listen, I’m gonna tell you a story that I never told anyone and you can’t tell it to anyone as well, got it?” Hannah asked and Ashley nodded. “Not even Taylor, she doesn’t know it too.”

Now that made Ashley curious, and a little honored that Hannah was willing to confide in her something that she hasn’t told even her best friend.

“Okay, remember my senior year, when I started dating my friend Peter?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah, I’ve always wondered why you broke up with him, he was a nice guy.”

“Well, what happened is that I basically saw myself in your situation, little sis,” Hannah revealed, with a small smile. “I fell hard for him, he was such a nice guy, as you said. And that was the problem, I began to wonder if I really should be with him or out there, finding out what I truly liked. But, much like you and Brandon, I didn’t want to hurt him.”

Ashley was shocked, she couldn’t ever have imagined that Hannah had experienced a situation so alike to hers. That made her sense a growing feeling of closeness to her elder sister, the younger blonde could say she admired Hannah even more now.

“So, I took a gamble,” Hannah resumed her tale. “I broke up with Peter, vowing to get all those feelings of doubt out of my system. I figured that if it was meant to be, we’d be together again someday,” She said, a fond smile finding its way to her lips. “Of course, life has its way of running things.”

“What happened?” Ashley asked, curious.

“I got over him,” Hannah smiled. “After I dated and had sex with a few guys at college, my feelings for Peter turned out to be just a young crush, I can safely say that nothing more will ever happen between Peter and me.”

Ashley frowned. “Now you’re scaring me,” She said. “What if I ask Brandon for some time and then forget all about him with the first guy I happen to have sex with?”

Hannah chuckled. “Don’t worry, Ash, I can see you love him, it probably wouldn’t happen,” She tried to reassure her younger sibling. “Note that I’m not telling you to go and break up with Brandon, I just told you what worked for me. Only you can decide what’s best in your case.”

Ashley nodded and smiled. “Thanks, Han, I knew I could count on you to help me.” She then hugged her older sister.

Hannah returned her smile, planting a kiss on the top of her sister’s head. “Anytime, Ash, I’m glad I could be of help on such a giant problem like that,” She said. “It’s my job as your big sis, you know?”

Just as they broke the hug and smiled at each other, Taylor walked up to them.

“Everything’s okay?” The blue-eyed brunette asked with a raised eyebrow. “Things seem a little emotional here.”

Hannah grinned at her best friend. “Ashley just needed some advice and I think I got it covered.”

“Good, good,” Taylor said. “Look, have you told her to come to our cabin later?”

“Shit, I forgot!” Hannah replied, turning back to her sister. “Ash, we’re gonna do something at our cabin later, if you want to come,” She said. “Although, I understand if you don’t, considering what you were telling me.”

Ashley smiled. “Let’s see what happens, I’ll try to go.”

“Awesome,” Hannah hugged her again. “Now we have to go, cabin’s not going to fix itself, you know?”

“Okay, bye then.” Ashley waved as Hannah and Taylor returned the gesture and started on the way back to the cabin they were staying across the lake.