Ashley opened her eyes to find Spencer standing a few metres away, uncomfortable as ever. Ashley thought for a minute before standing up and walking closer to her.

"I didn’t know you worked here," Ashley said, her voice slightly shaky. Spencer nodded slightly before rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.

"Going on three years now," Spencer replied. They smiled at each other nervously. "I better get to the next class. I’ll see you at lunch."

"Bye." And just like that, Spencer Carlin was back in Ashley’s life. Just like high school. And Ashley didn’t know what to do.

"What I don’t understand is why you’re working here of all places," said Cate, another young teacher who Ashley

had met after her incident with Spencer. The two had clicked straight away and Ashley was already beginning to see Cate as her new confidant. "This place is a hole, and the pay is crap. You’re wasting your talent here."

"I don’t mind teaching kids though," Ashley explained as they walked into the large staffroom for lunch. "True, I never saw myself as a teacher but it’s just turned out that way, and I don’t mind it."

"Whatever. If I had your talent I’d be out of here in a flash," Cate murmured. "Lucky for me, I don’t."

"I’m sure you’ll live," Ashley replied, smiling at her new friends cynicism. The two sat at an empty table and continued their conversation. However, as soon as Ashley caught a glimpse of Spencer walking through the doors, she couldn’t help but stop mid-sentence.

"I’m guessing you know Spence," Cate said, her eyes widening with intrigue. Her eyebrows arched as Ashley’s face grew red at the comment. "Ok, I’m officially hooked. Spill."

"There’s nothing to tell," Ashley mumbled under her breath, focusing all her attention on the lunch in front of her. "I use to go to school with her, that’s all."

"You know, I’ve bumped into a number of people I use to go to school with," Cate told her, making Ashley look up at her expectantly. "And I didn’t look at one of them the way you looked at her. Not even my ex-boyfriend Greg… who I actually ran away from when I spotted him. But that’s  besides the point. Now tell."

"You don’t quit, do you?" Ashley grumbled under her breath before looking up at Cate. "We went out, years ago in high school and it didn’t exactly end well. I haven’t seen her for years until today. It’s just a little overwhelming."

"You guys dated? Wow I wouldn’t have picked Spencer as one to experiment," Cate exclaimed, shrugging at Ashley’s confused expression. "What? She’s the epitome of the ‘innocent American girl’ with the husband and the looks and everything."

"What did you say?" Ashley asked quietly, her eyes focused on Cate.

"I said she’s so straight-edge you wouldn’t have tho…"

"No. Did you say she has a husband?" Ashley said seriously, her voice slightly shaky. "Spencer’s married?"

"Yeah," Cate replied simply, frowning once she saw the panicked expression on Ashley’s face. "You didn’t know, did you?"

Tapping her foot anxiously on the tile floor, Ashley swept her hair out of her face once more and took another overly deep breath. After her conversation about Spencer, Ashley had quickly excused herself, almost bolting out of the staff room in order to find somewhere private to get a hold of herself. She had found that place in one of the cubicles in the school’s toilets, her hideaway so many years ago.

She can’t be married. She can’t be. The words swirled around in her head. There’s no way she could be married… especially not to some guy…

And yet that seemed to be exactly the case. Why wouldn’t it have been? They hadn’t spoken in eight years, why wouldn’t Spencer have moved on with her life?

Because I haven’t.

Ashley wanted to scream, or run, or both. But instead she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. At the sound of the bell, she grudgingly got up and walked back to her classroom, her mind still a complete blur.

—