I've seen you around – in hallways and up against lockers and you are crazy, this I know, but I don't think I've ever known love until I heard your voice.

You take my secrets and you take my hand, but darling… don't turn this trust to ash (Ash, Ashley, don't break me).

And you do it anyway.

*

I was witness to the cracks in your mirror and I was willing to mend those rifts, if you'd let me.

But you turn away just as I step up – blame your funerals and blame your jealousy and blame your battered broken heart – and I'd believe you… I'd forgive you… if you had not taken me down with you.

Women and children first. Lovers last.

And you do it anyway.

*

I don't want to hear what you have to say, waltzing in on the breeze and with the whole of our world left in pieces – don't want to see that pleading in your eyes and don't want to see the familiar curve of your lips and I don't want to remember why I loved you.

You didn't have to leave and you didn't have to run to the past and you didn't have to be this way.

But you are.

And you do it anyway.

*

Spencer isn't sure how many times she'll have to walk away from Ashley now.