Aislynn's Story: Before the Scars

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday. I have been a bit on the busy side, and completely spaced out posting this!

Just a reminder, you can get the entire novella of Before the Scars for free. All you have to do is sign up for my reader's group! There are several ways you can do this. There is a signup link on my website, on my Facebook, or you can email me at harleyturner.author@gmail.com

I had to delete the ending to Aislynn's story because it included some major Scars Fade spoilers! Get the full book to see how it ends!

Aislynn

It was the first day of my freshman year. I didn’t mind school, but not being popular or even having friends made getting through the day difficult.

Band was the last class of the day, and easily my favorite. I started playing the flute in third grade, and I was good at it. All through junior high, I was the best. I was the one with all the solos. It was the one thing I was proud of.

Now I was in high school. I didn’t expect to be the best any more, but I knew I had to be better than the rest of the freshman.

That’s when the new girl walked in. I remembered Aurora from elementary school, but we weren’t exactly friends. She was easily the most popular girl in school. Her family was rich. Her mom threw the best birthday parties ever. At least that’s what I was told; I was never invited to them.

We started playing the flute at the same time, but Aurora had played piano before that. She was better than me. She was good at everything she did. She was pretty. She was athletic. She was good in school, and now she was good in band. She was also rich, but I think she would have been just as popular without money.

We were in fourth grade when her mom got sick. She stopped having her amazing parties. She quit the sports she played. She stopped showing up for band concerts.

I remember feeling sorry for her as I watched her group of friends move away from her. She looked so sad all the time, but because her friends wanted nothing to do with her, but because she knew she was going to lose her mom.

I couldn’t imagine losing my mom. I never knew my father, so mom was all I had. She was young when I was born, and her parents refused to help her. She started her own day care so she could make money while still being home with me.

Just before the end of our fourth grade year, Aurora stopped coming to school. No one knew what happened to her, but by the time she left, she had no friends that cared if she was gone.

Life moved on and eventually everyone forgot about Aurora.

She looked so different when she walked into the band room freshman year. She was still pretty, but her long auburn hair was gone. It was now cut short and hot pink.

“Hey,” she mumbled as she sat next to me and took her flute from its case. “We went to school together didn’t we? Before?”

I nodded. I didn’t know what to say. I heard her mom had died about a year ago, but I didn’t expect her to be back in school.

“Sorry, I don’t remember your name, but I do remember you weren’t a bitch when my mom got sick.”

Um, thanks? “Aislynn,” I told her. I didn’t expect her to remember me.

The band room was hot that day. It was late August, and this part of the school didn’t have air conditioning, yet Aurora sat there in long sleeve. A small tattoo on the inside of her wrist peeked out from the bottom of her sleeve.

“Did that hurt?” I asked.

“What?” Aurora’s face turned red and she immediately pulled the sleeve down further, as though she was trying to hide it.

“That tattoo. Did it hurt?” I asked again, pointing to her wrist.

“Oh, that,” she shouldn’t relieved to find out I was talking about the tattoo. “That one wasn’t bad.”

“You have more?”

Aurora shrugged. “Like three. Wait, no, four. Plus the pink ribbon for my mom, so that makes five.” She looked over at me. “Why, do you want one?”

“How did you—where? We’re too young.”

She chuckled and shrugged again. “I know a guy.”

It didn’t take long to realize that Aurora knew a lot of guys. There was always some hot senior waiting around for her after class. It was never the same guy for more than a week or so, but there was always someone.

“Can you take me to get a tattoo?” I asked her one day. It was the week before Homecoming, and my mom had given me money to buy a new dress, but I didn’t want to go to the dance. I wanted a tattoo.

I had put a lot of thought into it. I had to be able to hide it, because my mom would freak out. I mostly just wanted an excuse to hang out with Aurora.

“Sure. I’m actually going after school today. Want to come?”

I wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. I nodded though.

Getting tattoos together was the first time I had hung out with Aurora, but we became friends quickly after that.

“Hey Ash,” Aurora called to me in the hallways one day. We were sophomores now, and we were basically inseparable during the school day. “Question for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you a virgin?” she blurted out.

I couldn’t believe she would ask that in the middle of a crowded high school hallway. Of course I was, but I wasn’t going to admit that in front of the entire school.

“Do you want a boyfriend?” she asked, slightly quieter this time.

I did want a boyfriend. I had spent the last year watching Rory move from guy to guy. She insisted that she didn’t sleep with them all, but I knew she wasn’t a virgin.

Of course, I was still a virgin. My mom was around my age when she had me. I knew I didn’t want her life.

“We should double date sometime,” Rory went on.

“Who would I go with?” I had never had a boyfriend before.

“I’m working on that. That’s why I’m asking. Do you want a boyfriend or just someone to hook up with?”

I could feel my ears turn red at her questions. “A boyfriend, I guess,” I said quietly.

“Okay, great. I thought that would be your answer. Anyway, I know this super sweet guy, and I know he’s single. He’s really cute, but I don’t think he’s ever had a girlfriend before. He’s a little bit older and just recently enlisted in the Army.” Rory pulled out her phone and began to scroll through pictures. She found one and held it out to me. “You interested?”

He was really cute. “Why aren’t you interested?” If Rory didn’t want him, there must be something wrong with him.

“Didn’t you hear me say he was sweet? I don’t do sweet,” she laughed. “No seriously, he is just more of a relationship guy, and that’s not what I’m looking for. I would only end up hurting him, and I don’t want to do that.”

I could tell that this guy was special to Rory. She didn’t want him getting hurt, and of course I was safe, but I couldn’t help but think she had feelings for him. I nodded. “I’ll give it a try,” I told her. “Boys don’t usually like me though.”

“I’ll set it up,” she said. “How about tomorrow at the mall?”

I stayed at Rory’s house that night, and we went through her closet looking for something for me to wear. I was excited and nervous at the same time.

When I saw him waiting for us at the food court that morning, my heart skipped a beat. He was even more gorgeous in person than he was in the picture she showed me.

“Liam, this is my friend Ash,” she introduced us. “I think you two would make a cute couple.”

A spark left Liam’s eyes. For a moment, he looked disappointed.

“Ashley?” he asked.

I hated when people called me Ashley. It’s not my fault I had an unusual name with a nickname that didn’t make sense.

“Aislynn,” I corrected him. “Or Ash.”

Rory left Liam and me alone in the food court. The more I got to know Liam, the more I realized I could definitely see myself in a relationship with him, even if it was only until Rory decided she wanted him.

He asked me out later that day, and I said yes. I couldn’t tell if he asked me because he liked me, or if he just did it for Rory.

Liam and I went on several double dates with Rory, but she was always with a different guy. I couldn’t quite figure out the look in Liam’s eyes every time she kissed another guy. Was he jealous?

There was no mistaking the look of anger in his eyes when Rory brought Erik out. Unlike most of her dates, she actually stayed with Erik. After a month, he moved into her house.

“I thought you didn’t do relationships,” I asked her at work one day.

Rory shrugged. “I’m sick of the casual dating thing. I want what you and Liam have.”

Liam and I had been together nearly two years, and he was a really great guy. I just couldn’t escape the feeling that it was Rory he really wanted.

I thought Erik was horrible for Rory, but I was afraid she would decide she wanted Liam if it didn’t work with Erik. I knew my relationship with Liam wouldn’t last, but I just wasn’t ready to give it up yet.

Then Rory started to come to school with bruises. She tried to hide them, but I could tell.

Two days before Rory married Erik, Liam broke up with me. It had caught me off guard. I thought I would have him until he ended up with Rory.

“Ash, I can’t do this anymore,” he told me.

“Liam, I already told you, I will be here waiting for you when you get back.” His unit was deploying. He would be gone an entire year.

“I don’t want you to. It’s not fair to you,” he said.

“I really don’t mind waiting.” I didn’t. Liam was the only guy that ever seemed interested in me, and even though I knew it wouldn’t last, I still wasn’t ready for it to end. Plus, as soon as Rory found out it was over, she would push me to move on to someone else.

“Ash, it’s not fair for me to be with you when I’m in love with someone else.”

“Is it Rory?”I had always suspected his feelings for her.

“What? How can you even ask that? She’s getting married in two days,” he reminded me, but technically never answered my question.

“If it’s not Rory, who is it?” Liam was always faithful to me. How would he have met someone else? Even though we were together for two years, we were both still virgins.

“I can’t tell you that Ash. You are a really great person. I would love it if we could still be friends. I just can’t be with you. I tried, but I can’t help how I feel.”

There it was. I was seventeen years old, a senior in high school, and my friend boyfriend was giving me the ‘let’s be friends’ speech.

It turns out being friends with Liam wasn’t much different that dating Liam. We emailed each other constantly while he was gone.

A week after his birthday, Liam admitted in an email that it was Rory he had been in love with, and he still was. He was worried about her, suspecting Erik was still abusing her.

I told Liam and Rory I never wanted to talk to either of them again. I didn’t care that Liam loved Rory. I had suspected it all along. The problem was that both of them lied to me about it.

I got over my anger pretty quick when Rory called me, in labor. I stood by her side while she was in the coma. I let Liam know what was going on.

I insisted that I was okay with the two of them together. It hurt, but I had always known it would happen.