“Nice job, Ash. That could have been the dove of peace or something you just ran over,” Madison stated simply.

Ash looked down again at the bird. It seemed to have shifted positions, but of course it hadn’t.

“Mads, it wasn’t her fault, okay. How was she supposed to see the bird?”

“Um, hello, she almost killed me when she cut me off! Spencer, I could be that bird!”

Madison glared at Ashley, then glanced back at Spencer seeking support in her accusations. But, Spencer just stared at Ashley.

“Spence, she almost caused you to crash! I mean, shit, we were only supposed to go a few miles, now we are somewhere in Brazil, have to walk our bikes up like fifty miles, and are accomplices to a frickin’ homicide!”

Spencer heard Madison but wasn’t listening. She was watching Ashley’s reaction to the dead bird, Ashley’s eyes beginning to subtly cloud over. A prickly feeling ran up Spencer’s spine, having only seen Ashley cry a few times. And not even when she met Ashley at the hospital, where she informed Spencer she had fallen down into the creek bed and that’s how she broke her arm. It was also that day, as they lay next to each other on the hospital bed, Ashley’s arm in a cast, that Ash promised Spencer she would never lie to her again. The words never actually emerged from Ashley’s mouth, but they didn’t have to. Ashley had the ability to speak volumes with just her eyes, and nothing else. However, that’s if she wanted you to hear her. If not, they were dark, bottomless pits of tar, where one could plunge into, unable to free their body from the sticky, thick goo, which swallowed you up forever. Finding oneself lost in Ashley’s eyes was not always a pleasant trip.

“Madison, cut it out. It was an accident, okay?” Spencer’s tone was calm, but firm, not wanting to exacerbate the situation, however wanting Ashley to be completely aware that she was not siding with Madison.

Ashley glanced up at the sky, the sun slowly beginning to set. Her eyes began to sting from the layer of dirt and grime that covered her eyeballs. The leaf was still stuck to her shoelace. She bent down and yanked it off her lace and put it in her pocket, not wanting it to be left behind, alone with the bird and the darkness.