Ashley turned to me.  "So, I guess  we are spending the weekend here huh?"

            I shrugged my shoulders, "Well we did go shopping.  There’s enough clothes in your car for a few weekends."

            Ashley laughed, before reaching out and turning the knob on one of the two doors on this floor.  I realized this was Ashley’s room, if not by the large ASHLEY printed in purple in old English script along the back wall, then by the mere presence of Ashley in the room.  Everything about this room screamed out Ashley’s name; from the dark color scheme, to the plethora of different guitars that hung from her walls.  What wasn’t covered with a guitar was covered with numerous photos in frames of Ashley and other people.  Some I recognized.  Most I didn’t.  But I did noticed that none of the photos had her mother in them and that suddenly made me sad, but I moved on quickly, trying to see if I recognized any of the people in the photos.  Most were pretty clean cut; nothing like the photos that the paparazzi had taken in all those tabloids.

            "Those are usually taken before we get wasted," Ashley said, as if she could read my mind, "Being drunk and still trying to take pictures doesn’t quite work, so we let the photogs handle that."

            I nodded and continued to look at the pictures.  I was just about done, until I noticed something in one of the pictures off in a corner of the room.  Ashley was at Crowbar, a lesbian bar in Ohio.  I could tell by the décor behind the coach that Ashley was sitting on.  She was surrounded by girls, as she was in most of the pictures, but as I took a closer look at the girls sitting on the couch, I noticed Rachel sitting right to the left of Ashley with her arms around Ashley’s neck as she stuck her tongue out, preparing to lick the side of Ashley’s face.  Ashley looked bored, as if these things happened all the time and she held up a shot glass and a cocky grin. 

            I wasn’t sure why, but I suddenly felt bothered by the picture.  Sure, I knew what happened, but seeing the photo made everything real.  Ashley was really in Ohio sometime ago.  And she really did have Rachel.  And though she didn’t know that Rachel had a girlfriend, something told me that, that Ashley wouldn’t have cared either way.  I wondered if this was the same Ashley that was standing in the room with me.