What's Done Cannot Be Undone

Ashley threw down her newspaper. She’d already read through a dozen Azure Rocks Nuggets and nothing. Carlos Rivera had featured plenty, but all of his arrests had been misdemeanours or petty criminals. Some with **** offences but none with the means or smarts to frame his daughter for possession. These were more the type of people who would sooner slash his tires and leave finger prints all over the car than think to sneak into a cabin for Spring Break and plant **** in Lisa’s things. Other than that, the only information of interest was that Robert Ravers had bought up some land around Silver Lakes Park again.

The petite, blonde cheerleader frowned and rubbed her head. She was beginning to second guess her theory. Best case scenario was that they would have to go back further to find someone that might, not only harbour this type of grudge, but also had the capability to follow through. Worst case, they were completely wasting their time. A disgruntled groan across the table told Ashley that her best friend wasn’t having much luck over on her side either. Her friend tossed a tenth paper onto the pile and sighed.

“Nothing?” Ashley asked, sympathetically.

“Less than,” Victoria rubbed her eyes, sore from reading. “Lisa’s dad seems to be good at his job; he always catches his man. But those men always seem as dumb as soup. No way any of them could have set this up.”

“I’ll admit, I’m beginning to have my doubts as well,” Ashley leaned on the table with her elbows and rested her chin in her hand. “Even if we find someone with the ability to do what we suspect, how did they get access to the cabin? How could they plant the ****?”

“Pay off the police officers?” Victoria suggested, lying back in the chair and looking up at the ceiling. “Lord knows there are enough dirty cops in the world.”

“Maybe, but I can’t shake this feeling that there’s something missing, something right in front of us.” Ashley shrugged and exhaled. “I think I just need to talk about something else for a while, give my mind a rest.”

“What do you want to talk about?” Victoria asked.

“How about what happened back there at the cabin?” Ashley asked, hesitantly. “I only caught the tail-end of it, but it seemed pretty rough and Gavin took it quite badly.”

“I don’t really want to discuss that,” Victoria replied stiffly.

“Okay, fair enough,” Ashley accepted quickly. “I just…it seems harsh to be angry with him and not me, or Kurt.”

“I dunno, chicks before dicks?” Victoria offered, glancing at her friend. “Besides, like I said, we’re even. You had sex with my boyfriend and I had sex with yours. We’re even…or at least by your logic, we should be. Isn’t that why you let Lisa have Zack?”

“Yeah, and look how that worked out,” Ashley laughed awkwardly. “If you’re thinking of evening the score with Gavin in some way, don’t. Trust me, it doesn’t work. It’s much better to forgive and forget than try to manage the situation yourself. Zack already forgave me, but I was so focused on being a good girlfriend after how I treated Brandon that I overreached in trying to fix my mistakes.”

“I have no intention of getting back at Gavin,” Victoria said honestly. That just wasn’t her style, and even the thought of it made her feel guilty and repulsed. “I just want to move on.”

“Oh? Move on to who?” Ashley teased. “Dustin, maybe?”

“Geez, Ash, you’re relentless,” Victoria laughed, holding a hand to her head as she blushed. “Do you ever think about how different things would have been if certain things didn’t happen?”

“You mean, like if I never cheated on Brandon?” Ashley pouted and frowned, thinking. “I guess we’d still be dating. I think for a long time we stayed together simply because it was comfortable. I’m not saying it wasn’t fun or that we hated each other, in fact we got on very well. But in the end, it started to feel like an everyday occurrence, like brushing your teeth, rather than something to get excited about. Honestly, I’m much happier in limbo with Zack than I was knowing exactly where I stood with Brandon.”

“I wish I’d never had sex,” Victoria replied sadly. “It’s ruined everything.”

“Sounds like you’ve just had some pretty bad sex,” Ashley joked.

“Ash…” Victoria groaned.

“Alright, alright. But, I mean, it was probably just the circumstances rather than the actual sex,” Ashley replied, calming down and growing serious. “Like first, you and Gavin were drinking and forgot to wear protection and the only other guy you’ve even slept with is…Zack? And he was ****.”

“If I never had sex with Gavin, I wouldn’t have gotten lost in that forest and he wouldn’t be off fucking half the cabin, or trying to,” Victoria growled, as much to herself as to Ashley. “Then maybe he wouldn’t have turned into some kind of jerk who thinks I’m so shallow and superficial that I could only be satisfied by a confident, masculine man.”

“You don’t know that. Chloe might still have gotten horny and thrown herself at Gavin,” Ashley noted. “But, I think the bigger issue here is you not getting fucked again. I think you just need a good experience with a guy who wants to fuck you and knows its you. Then, trust me, you’ll see that sex is great.”

“I know sex feels good,” Victoria clarified, thinking of Zack’s fat cock buried deep in her tight, wet snatch. “I…I just wish things could have been different. Like imagine if Zack hadn’t gotten lost looking for you that night and never got hit by Carlos Rivera’s car. He never would have met Lisa and brought her back to the cabin and you wouldn’t have used her as a tool in your relationship.”

“There were already cracks there, Lisa just pried them open further. There’s no point looking into the past to fix the future. Whatever happened, happened. I might wish that Zack had never ended up at Lisa’s cabin but…” Ashley stopped mid-sentence and looked to the map on the wall.

“Ash?” Victoria called, worried. “What’s wrong?”

“Quick, go through all the papers and call out the land that Robert Ravers bought over the past year. There’s usually a small snippet about it in the property section,” Ashley said, turning to her friend with wide eyes and grabbing a marker from the table.

Victoria did as her best friend asked, able to read through the papers hastily with ease when she knew what she was looking for. As she called out the land names, Ashley found them on the map and marked the section on the glass with the marker, knowing that it would easily wipe off. It still took several minutes but when it was finished, both girls gasped.

Ashley took a step back, mouth agape, as her eyes darted back and forth, trying to find some discrepancy that would make her wrong. If this was the truth, she didn’t want to be right. On the other side of the table, Victoria furrowed her brow, squinting at the map, in the same state of disbelief. Neither girl reacted when Victoria’s father entered, carrying two coffee cups.

“Victoria, why has Ashley drawn on our map of Azure Rocks?” He asked, setting one cup down in front of his daughter.

“Dad, those are all the properties that Robert Ravers has bought over the past year,” Victoria explained. “All of them around Silver Lakes Park.”

“And this land here,” Ashley said, indicating towards a small, unmarked section. “belongs to Carlos Rivera.”

“Did you know about this?” Victoria demanded of her father, as he passed the second coffee cup to Ashley. “Was this what you didn’t want to mention in the hall way?”

Her father frowned but nodded all the same. “It’s been something we’ve been investigating. So far it all seems above board, but we don’t know what Robert is planning to do with the land. Though, yes, the rumours are that Carlos Rivera is refusing to sell, which has put Robert in a tight spot with his shareholders, since they don’t want to commit to the final product until Robert has the land to do it. Though, Carlos Rivera isn’t the only one, but the other few pieces of land are owned by companies who are likely only holding out for a higher pay out.”

“It had to be Heather’s dad. He had the means and motive. He was at the cabin last night, and he takes Vicodin for his knee, so he planted some of his pills on Lisa and called in the tip this morning. It was a warning shot to Carlos Rivera,” Ashley hypothesised excitedly. “Perhaps if Carlos agreed to sell, Robert might even be able to make the charge go away. Who knows who he has in his pocket?”

“I guess neither of you have heard,” Richard Walker said solemnly, looking between the two blonde girls. “That may not be possible anymore. Lisa was formally arrested for possession just before I came in here.”

“Damn,” Ashley growled, “I was hoping they might let her off because she had no knowledge of the ****.”

“That’s a difficult thing to prove,” Richard replied, scratching his chin. “If it were someone else’s bag, maybe she could get away with saying she didn’t know the **** were in there, but if she admitted to it being her bag, and there’s no evidence of anyone planting the ****, the police will feel that that they will have a secure enough platform to arrest. For a first offence like this though, she’ll likely get away with a fine, but it depends on the harshness of the judge. She may also be required to join a **** program.”

“Shit, we need to do something,” Ashley said, hopping from foot to foot. “We need to get Robert to confess.”

“Hold up, this could be dangerous, and I don’t want either of you girls getting hurt,” Richard stressed, standing as Ashley rushed around to his daughter’s side. “And you may be interfering with a police investigation.”

“We can tell his daughter, Heather. If anyone can get the truth from Robert, it’ll be her,” Ashley replied as she helped Victoria to her feet and offered her the crutch. “Shit, first, we gotta find Kurt. Where the hell did he go?”