Ashley craned her steering wheel rightward, pulling into the small apartment parking lot. Moving gingerly so as to avoid any of the neighbor's wayward kids, she gently and smoothly pulled her red Pontiac into her mom's reserved parking space. With a small sigh, she clicked off the ignition and gathered up her purse from the passenger seat next to her, reaching up to brush a strand of long blond hair from out of her face.
She opened the car door and swung her legs out onto the concrete, the muggy summer air blasting over her bare legs. Days like this made Ashley for short athletic shorts, which she was wearing right now, not to mention a soft white tank top. She had "summer girl" written all over her.
Standing out of the car and reaching up to stretch for a moment, she shut the car door behind her with melancholy and walked around to the trunk, hefting out a large duffel bag - a remnant of her failed weekend plans. She made her way toward her apartment door, flip-flops echoing loudly against the complex wall.
It was too bad. It was Friday, and Ashley was supposed to be 3 hours away in Platteville right now for a weekend visiting with her dad. Unfortunately, although not unsurprisingly, she'd received a fateful phone call from him when she was a mere hour outside of the city: DUI. The drunk-ass had been picked up for drunk-driving yet again. She turned around on the spot and drove two hours all the way back home, cussing under her breath all the way. She loved her dad but wished he could just get it together, for God's sake. The older Ashley got, the more she understood why her mom had divorced him when Ash was 10 years old. It's harder to see this kind of stuff when you're a kid.
Pattering her way up the front steps, she noticed her mom's car in the other parking spot next to the building. So, she was still at home in the apartment that she and her mom shared together.
Ashley furrowed her brow for a moment. Didn't her mom say she was going out to visit some of her girlfriends in the next town over for the evening? Her mom had already left by the time Ash was leaving. Why did she come back?
Ashley made a shrugging expression to herself. Didn't really matter. Just curious, was all.
Walking in through the apartment foyer, Ash made her way to Apt. 2. Rifling through her purse momentarily, she withdrew a small silver key and quietly unlocked the door, opening it slightly and slipping through like a cat through a fence.
Finding herself in the entrance hall, she slipped off her sandals and left them by the door, the cool floor tile feeling pleasant against her bare feet. Padding softly into the living room, she slowly laid her purse down on the side table as she arched her back in a slight stretch, looking around quizzically. Where was her mom at? Bathroom, maybe? It was rare to not find her mom watching TV, reading on the couch, or puttering around in the kitchen.
Feeling slightly hungry after her 4 hour-long misadventure, Ash turned toward the kitchen with a bag of Bugles in mind for a snack. But as she made her way to the kitchen, suddenly... a noise.
Ashley froze, her tiptoes on her back foot barely touching the ground mid-step. She'd heard something. It sounded like... a voice? Ashley furrowed her bow slightly and listened hard.
For a few moments, silence. Then...
"Ahhhh-oh!"
Ashley's eyes opened wide. From down the hallway by the bedrooms had sounded a definite voice - her mom's. It was unlike any noise that Ash had ever heard her mom make. What the hell was going on? And was that coming from the bedroom area? Could it be coming from outside instead?
Heart pounding slightly at the uncertainty of what she just heard, Ashley slowly crept toward the hallway, straining her ears for the slightest sign of any din. As she listened, she thought she heard... something. She wasn't sure what. Some kind of rustling? She stood at the hallway entrance with her ear trained towards the rooms at the end.
"...Ohhhhhh..."
Ashley froze. It was definitely her mom.. But what was going on here?
"...Eeeahhh... Aw yeah, girl..."
Shocking Ashley to her core, a second voice sounded - a deep, strained voice. Not one she recognized. And it sounded like a man.
Ash's mouth fell open suddenly. Her heart pounding went into double-overdrive. An idea of what she might be hearing was starting to dawn on her. But no, it couldn't be... could it? Would her mom really do that?
Moving gingerly down the hallway, soft carpet under her feet, Ashley crept up next to her mom's bedroom door. From here, a lot of noise was audible - rustling, creaking, and heaving breaths. Ashley, from some of her own experience, could recognize the breath: an almost musical heave dripping with pleasure.
Ashley was shaking by now. This was an unprecedented situation.