Old Wounds

Heather breathed a sigh of relief as she, Ashley and Brandon headed back into town in Heather’s car. The cheer captain, of course, was driving, with her best friend and fellow cheerleader in the passenger seat, while Brandon occupied the back seat. She was simply glad that they’d managed to convince Brandon to come along, that his past relationship with Ashley and his new relationship with his own sister weren’t deal breakers when it came to proving Lisa’s innocence.

Fortunately, Ashley knew how to hold her tongue. She felt sick any time she thought of Brandon and Madison, naked and writhing and moaning and moving faster and faster until…she shook the thoughts out of her head. She had to focus. She couldn’t dwell on her disgust, because this wasn’t about Brandon and Madison, it was Ashley’s own relationship with her own sister. The same sister she was about to sell down the river, another fact that made her feel nauseous. But Hannah was guilty.

“Hey,” Brandon said, poking his head between the seats, holding out his phone in one hand, though given the dead battery it might as well have been a paper weight. “Remember I need to charge this?”

“That’s right. Ash, the car charger should be in the glove compartment,” Heather instructed as she glanced over at Brandon’s phone and the small charging port on the bottom, looking rapidly between it and the road. “Looks to be the same as mine, so it should work.”

“Here we go,” Ashley announced, feeding the cable from the pocket like a magician pulling a string of handkerchiefs from their pocket. She plugged it into the car and then reached for Brandon’s phone.

He felt her soft, warm hand graze his as he passed the device from his palm into hers. It felt just like he remembered, bringing back memories, two year’s worth, almost all of them good, right until the end. He could feel the rage building back up, bubbling and whistling like a boiling pot. His eyes, intense and quietly furious, locked with hers, widening in fear like a deer about to be hit by a truck. Swallowing hard, he pulled his hand away sharply.

Ashley scrambled to hold on to Brandon’s phone, the abrupt movement of his hand and the fact that it wasn't securely in her grasp sending it tumbling between her fingers. She caught it with both hands, and quietly turned back to the front of the car.

“Watch what you’re doing,” Heather warned Ashley as the petite blonde plugged the cable into the phone. “We need that to catch Hannah.”

Ashley just nodded, staring at the screen as it lit up, a small icon of a battery being filled with green telling her that the cable did indeed fit and the charging was successful. By the time they reached town, it would likely be near fully charged. That was, if they reached town. The look she just saw in her ex-boyfriend’s eyes told her that things were not smoothed over between them. But, of course, how could he move on? Everyone else had been at the cabin, getting distracted by bigger issues, but Brandon, he’d been out in the woods, with nothing to think about but how he was screwed over and nothing to distract him from the pain, except his sister.

She bit her lip. She had to stay out of his way. Interact with him as little as possible. She understood that they needed him for his to work. It was already her fault that Hannah had planted the **** on Lisa, she didn’t also want to be the one to blame for Brandon changing his mind and deciding he couldn’t work with the cheating bitch who screwed his best friend behind his back. And once, right in front of him, while he was blindfolded.

“So, um, what exactly is the plan here?” Brandon asked, his voice hard, rising suddenly and shocking Ashley out of her thoughts.

“We told you the plan,” Heather chuckled, looking up at Brandon through the rear-view mirror. “You use that app to listen in and record Hannah confess to planting the **** to frame Lisa, and we take it to the police. Hannah probably won’t know a thing until the cops come knocking at her door.”

“No, I know that.” Brandon frowned and scratched his head. “What I mean is, Hannah already confessed this morning. Won’t it seem a bit weird if Ashley goes back, trying to ask the same questions? Seems like she might get suspicious.”

Ashley’s face twitched. Was he trying to get her kicked off the mission? Was he so angry that he would vindictively push her out of this scheme when they were trying to trick her own sister? That was low, even for him, even considering what she did to him. If this were Madison in danger, she’d never dream of suggesting Brandon not get involved.

“That’s why I’m going to go with her,” Heather declared, surprising both of them.

“W-wait,” Ashley stammered, unsure of this plan. She was certain that Hannah would never do anything to her. They were sisters. By Hannah’s own admission, she’d done what she’d done to get **** for Ashley. But if Hannah’s actions towards Lisa had proven anything it was that Ashley had no idea what her sister was truly capable of, and if Heather was there, her sister would no doubt take that as a threat. “That’s not what we discussed.”

“No, but I thought about it earlier and Brandon’s right. You going in alone and asking all the same questions, it’s weird. Hannah will know something is up,” Heather explained, looking between Ashley and the road. “But if I go with you, we can play it off as me needing to hear it with my own ears. You said she did this for my father too, to get back at Carlos for causing him so much stress.”

“I dunno.” Ashley chewed the inside of her cheek as she considered the new plan. “I think Hannah will be more open and honest if it’s just me. It won’t arouse her suspicions if I’ve just come to talk it over once more, to try and get her to turn herself in again. That’d be fairly normal, right?”

“I agree, this is normal, but we don’t know Hannah’s mind right now,” Heather argued calmly. “We don’t know if she’s feeling paranoid or resentful or confident. And she knows you as well as you know her. She might think that if this were her, and she were coming back a second time, it would be to get a confession. But if I come along, I think it sounds like you told us, and I just don’t believe it.”

“I-” Ashley began.

“I think that’s the better plan too,” Brandon interrupted, casting the deciding vote. “Hannah won’t expect the two of you, so it might throw her off her game.”

Ashley huffed, folding her arms tightly over her chest. It wasn’t like she didn’t see the merits of Heather’s plan, but she could imagine this getting old fast if she was going to be constantly overruled because Brandon sided with Heather just to piss her off. She could try to keep arguing, and possibly wear Heather down into letting her go alone. Or maybe it was better just to let him have this win. Because, really, what was the harm in bringing Heather…