'a' is for amity

Ari wasn’t coming straight over to their apartment so Ashley was quick to take advantage of the opportunity to finally change out of her gym clothes and into something more comfortable. Not quite pyjamas – it wasn’t that low key of an evening – but a nice baggy jumper that managed to hang in such a way that it maintained a sense of style without demanding any discomfort. Ashley wasn’t San Francisco’s number one fashionista, but she did like to look good.

She did don her fluffy slippers, however. Those babies were glued to her feet once she was home and no amount of guest entertaining could change that.

Kicking her legs idly while Alice busied herself in the kitchen, Ashley glanced over every now and then through the window to see if she could spot their new acquaintance through one of the windows opposite. She was mostly looking out for a flash of that fabulous red jacket – she wasn’t sure her eyes could spot crooked smiles from here, even if it turned out that Ari did live startlingly close to them after all.

Alice’s words pulled her eyes away from the window. “That looks good,” she said offhandedly, gesturing to the array of food that Alice had started to produce. “And you know, I’m not too sure. I don’t know if street performers operate to schedules.”

She thought she caught a glimpse of a red jacket suddenly, and instantly waved wildly with both hands. “Come on over!!” she yelled futilely at the window, as though the girl had super hearing. Hopefully she’d get the gist, at least. “I think she’s on her way, I’m going to set up her bar area so she can teach me how to actually mix a drink,” she declared.

Alice was far more interested in the food in their kitchen than the drink, though she was pretty knowledgeable about classy, culinary things like wine, so Ashley figured it would be safe for her to enter the kitchen so long as she stuck to the drink side of things. She gathered some glasses, various bottles including the alcohol they’d bought from the shop with Ari, and began arranging it all on the breakfast bar.

“Oh Alice,” she mused dreamily, “I hope she can do bar tricks!”

The illusions were of course awesome, but surely the ex-bartending street performer would have something more physical up her sleeve as well. It was shaping up to be an entertaining night.

figure this out

Ashley’s eyes sparkled just a little as Cory insisted that she didn’t owe her an apology, a timid and teasing smile coming to the surface. She didn’t want Cory to be looking so sad any more – of course they needed to discuss things seriously, but that didn’t mean everything needed to be 100% intense. And right now, Cory needed to be brought up, not down.

“Hey you,” she said, as sternly as she could manage. “Let me apologise too! It’s not fair that you get to have all the fun of the blame.” Her grin strengthened a little as she tried to catch her friend’s eye, tilting her head and looking up to see if she could pry any kind of positive reaction from her.

Cory looked immensely relieved – almost insultingly so – when Ashley promised not to get Mama Nurse involved. As if she would drop Cory right into the middle of a conversation she very clearly wasn’t prepared for! Cory was struggling to tell her anything, let alone her own mum.

“You don’t have to worry about things like that with me, okay? I’m an excellent secret-keeper,” she boasted proudly. After all, she did share an apartment with the country’s most prominent superhero without the press having even a single clue about it. Ashley was fantastic at minding her own business and maintaining privacy – a little confession of homelessness? Completely safe with her.

It took a long time, or so it felt to Ashley, for Cory to put together a few quiet words about her living situation. Ashley tried her best not to look too shocked, but her eyes widened nonetheless at the idea of Cory being without a stable roof over her head for months. She felt terribly guilty when she thought of her own situation, but the thought of charity didn’t even come close to making it into an offer. She knew Cory better than to obviously be taking pity on her.

“That’s so…” Her turn to find words. “That’s a long time, Coryelle. I’m so sorry to hear that and I’m so sorry I haven’t been around while all of this has been going on. Let me apologise,” she added warningly, the slight teasing smile returning to her face momentarily. “That… that really sucks to hear. Do you have anywhere to stay while you’re looking for a new place?” She hated the idea of Cory having to sleep rough.

Again, she wasn’t about to offer explicit charity – but there was an implied sofa at Cory’s disposal should she need it.

Figure this Out

If there was guilt riddled on her own face, then it was nothing compared to the shamed, remorseful look on Cory’s. This was in spite of the fact that Cory was trying to play it cool and joke her way around the topic. Ashley was familiar with this tactic of hers and, unfortunately for her Cory, her concern was now outweighing her desire to keep the mood light. She wasn’t about to enable Cory in avoiding the subject when there was clearly something important here.

Especially when Cory was failing so miserably at hiding that fact from her expression.

So Ashley didn’t laugh at Cory’s joke. It wasn’t funny – not right now. Maybe if things worked out okay she’d tease her for it later, but right now it was a rather transparent attempt to avoid talking about something that was obviously serious, and so instead her eyebrows pulled together into a worried frown. The other girl hung her head, the humourless silence suffocating in its enormity.

Whatever it was, Cory didn’t seem to think it was Ashley’s fault. She shook her head as a few words tumbled from her, still avoiding eye contact. Then… an apology. No excuses, no explanations, but the word “sorry” hung in the air anyway.

Ashley blew air through her nose forcefully, feeling a sudden rise of frustration. Clearly Cory had something on her mind and a reason why she was taking the blame for her absence, but she was being so cagey and avoidant – maybe hoping Ashley would let her move on from it after all.

She wouldn’t.

“I forgive you, of course I forgive you, but are you… Aren’t you going to tell me why it’s been so hard to meet with you?” she demanded, her voice a little shaky as it raised ever so slightly. Ashley took a second to compose herself before continuing. “Look, you’re not the first person I care about to try and lock themselves out of my life, okay? And it’s like, I don’t know, maybe I give off this impression that I’m too fragile to deal with other people’s problems when the going gets tough, or something. Maybe I’m the last person people want in a crisis.”

She shrugged her shoulders, trying to calm herself.

“It’s… You know… It’s fine if you don’t want me around any more. Things change. But you’ve been ghosting me, Coryelle, and you won’t even tell me why. That’s not fair. Just, please…?” Ashley trailed off – unable to finish her sentence. It was her turn now to stare at the ground, her eyes fixed on the dandelion that had been crushed under Cory’s shoe.

Figure This Out

Ashley hung onto all the pauses in an embarrassing desperation – determined to reel Cory back in as a friend. Ashley wasn’t the type to lose the ones she was closest too; all of her friends were incredibly loyal, in part because of her own insistent loyalty. Not only was Cory great fun to work with as a musician, but she was just all round good company. Low maintenance, like Alice, with a pretty whacky, good-natured sense of humour that made her effortless to hang out with. Ashley was as extraverted as they come but sometimes she craved something a little more low key from her friendships, and Cory certainly delivered on that. As such, there was no way she was letting her go easily.

“I… I’m so glad it’s you!” she said happily, doing her best to push past the awkwardness in Cory’s tone.

Something came up. The emptiness of it ate at her slightly. She’d half-convinced herself that Cory really did have a full, elaborate and perfectly justified excuse, but here she was with “something”. Still… the words were heavy with guilt. Even over the phone, Ashley could sense that something wasn’t right.

“That’s okay,” she said softly. “These things happen.” Her own response was deliberately vague, but not unkindly so.

Maybe Cory would open up more in person.

More silence for Ashley to cling to, to hold back from speaking over even though she had a million things she could say, and then Cory surprised her entirely.

“Right now?” Ashley panicked, reaching into her pocket for her phone to load up Maps before realising that it was still pressed firmly to her ear. “Oh, I was uh… I was just at your apartment. I’m down the street a little, there’s that park nearby – I could go grab a bench to wait on, if that works?”

Even as she said it – a little hesitantly – she strode towards the park with a strange determination. This time, Cory was definitely going to be here. She was sure of it. That roar of the engine was like a song to her heart.

Help Me

“No, no, no, she needs to look much more natural. Try this foundation instead.”

Ashley – or rather, McKenna Chase – sat obediently in front of the mirror while the make-up team argued over which product needed to be generously applied to her face in order to make her look the most natural. It was ironic. Ashley understood the process of course; she needed to look natural on camera, but not shiny or washed out by the lights. Still, she couldn’t help but feel like their efforts were on the edge of transforming her face into a completely unrecognisably new one, which would definitely defeat the purpose of a publicity run.

“If it helps, I usually use that one,” she said, pointing.

It didn’t, apparently – it just added a third option for them to argue over. Eventually they settled on a choice, swiftly and skilfully working their way through the rest of the process before moving onto her hair. Fortunately, Ashley’s hair didn’t take too long and the elegant waves were hairsprayed into submission in no time.

“Okay, you’re done. There’s still a while ’til we go live so… uh, yeah…”

The most boring part of the entertainment industry: waiting around. When young Ashley McKenna-Chase had dreamed of stardom, she certainly hadn’t realised how much time she’d spend waiting around for others to be ready. Apparently the industry was just too chaotic to align anyone’s schedules perfectly.

So she wandered around the studio, casually playing with a little vocal warm-up as she walked with no particular purpose or direction. In the distance, Ashley could hear people shouting, sounding a little frantic, but what caught her attention instead was the sound that followed – a faint, but distinct, stomach rumble from the corner.

She giggled, stopping herself abruptly in case she embarrassed the stomach’s owner.

“Hello? Is there someone here?” She drew closer to the corner, now able to make out the form of a young woman dressed head-to-toe in dark fabric blending perfectly into the shadows. A Hero? “Woah, hey, are you okay?”

Figure This Out

Feeling a little like a broken record, Ashley was contemplating just how busy her life had become. Had it always been this busy? Her diary seemed permanently full. Not only full, but constantly shifting as new commitments came up to be squeezed into place. They were on a mini-break from touring at the moment but somehow Ashley still had very few moments to rest. Maybe she needed to stop saying yes to absolutely every suggestion her manager threw at her.

At least the tour break meant she was spending more time at the apartment with Alice, when their hectic schedules happened to align, which was definitely a nice change. She was an extraverted person by nature, and so was definitely well-suited to the revolving door of smiling celebrity faces that came with her job, but it made a nice change to just relax with a familiar face and make the same old stupid in-jokes.

There was another familiar face who she’d been trying to make stupid in-jokes with lately but she’d been even more difficult to get a hold of.

When she’d first established that she had a few weeks off from playing shows, Ashley had insisted she and Cory have a get-together. They’d grown closer after the whole incident with Dana, when Ashley caught a glimpse of Cory’s closely guarded inner softness, and had seen each other when they could for more jam sessions and the occasional Mario Kart tournament catered by Cory’s surprisingly excellent baking skills. The frequency had dropped off while McKenna Chase had been entertaining crowds all around the country but this break had seemed the perfect opportunity to catch up again.

Except, the first time they had tried, Cory never showed up.

Ashley put it down to a schedule clash, or maybe a last-minute emergency… or maybe forgetfulness. Either way, she hadn’t held it against Cory. She’d spent her time at the coffee shop catching up on some life admin so at least it hadn’t been a waste. She’d texted to rearrange – she was free the next Monday, miraculously – without even asking for any excuses and thought that was it.

Except, Cory never showed up.

Ashley could take a few excuses at this point but something didn’t seem right. Maybe the one time was understandable but she hadn’t thought Cory was the type to flake on her twice in a row in such quick succession. Again, she tried to rearrange, but she was sceptical this time. It felt like Cory was intentionally ghosting her at this point. Maybe she should just give up.

So she sat, waiting, contemplating how busy her life was, before standing suddenly. “Screw this,” she muttered to herself, dialling Cory’s number. It was time to figure out what was going on.

Three failed calls later, Ashley still hadn’t given up. Over the time she’d known Cory, she’d managed to meet her mother-and-BFF, Hannah, who was absolutely lovely. So lovely that she’d given Ashley her number so that she could call her if she ever needed her.

Hannah picked up. “Hey, so sorry to bother you,” Ashley said sweetly, managing to mask the concern in her voice. Best not to worry Hannah as much as she could possibly help it. “I was just wondering if you’d seen Coryelle lately?”

Apparently, she was pretty sure Cory had just been vegging out last night playing Zelda. She didn’t seem to think Cory was overly busy or consumed by any demanding projects right now. Not wanting to press it too far, Ashley thanked her quickly and hung up. Okay, now she was a little offended. Had Cory really just decided that they weren’t friends any more?

A taxi later and a very determined Ash was now waiting outside Cory’s apartment, banging rather firmly on the door. “Okay, time to wrap up the Zelda-thon! I-”

The door opened.

Ashley frowned. “Uh, hey. Is Coryelle here?”

“Who?”

The frown deepened. Apologising quickly, Ashley walked away from the apartment, phone in hand. All the furnishings had been wrong, that dude had definitely been wrong. She was sure that was the right building. She dialled Cory’s number once more and grit her teeth, beginning to wonder if the girl had just disappeared off the face of the Earth entirely.

What was her deal?