Raindrops began falling, making the mood even more gloomy, but that didn't stop Alex from trying to change Ashley's mind.
"Your mother? What did she do?" Alex asked, since Ashley seems to not know that Alex met and knows her mother, He pretended he doesn't know Mary.
Ashley kept staring around quietly. They were sitting on the back side of the building roof. They both looked at the empty sports yards, they were empty since it was almost lunchtime and none plays at that time.
"My Mom is a prostitute...I was bullied because my mom was a prostitute" After a long silence, Ashley muttered, making Alex so confused.
"..." Alex was dumbfounded and couldn't speak. He was sure that Mary was definitely not a prostitute. What stunned him was who told Ashley such a thing.
"Who told you such a thing??" Uttered Alex, with a frown. He wasn't expecting to hear such a thing, he was certain that Mary was a decent, hard-working woman, and she didn't even have sex in 18 years.
"My grandmother told me... I mean my mother's grandmother, I met her a couple of times in the park when I was in middle school. She told me that my mom work as a prostitute until she got accidentally pregnant with me, and that's the reason I don't know my father. I hate her, she even caused the death of her parents..." Ashley expressed with a shallow, low voice. If it was not for Alex's enhanced sense, he was sure he won't hear a thing.
Mary told him that her grandmother despised her for what she had done, but he never guessed that she hated her to the point of lying to her middle school daughter about such things.
Ashley took several minutes to collect her thoughts silently. Also, Alex was having a hard time processing what Ashley said. He couldn't believe that someone could say that.
'That explains why she hates her mother' Liza explained.
'I don't really know how could she lie to her granddaughter' Alex uttered with irritation and anger. He got pissed off my Mary's granny,
'Lies destroy lives, They're a dangerous weapon' Liza voiced again.
The rain started getting heavy, but neither of them cared about or got up from there, they just sat quietly before Ashley broke the silence again.
"Sadly on that day, some of my classmates that used to harass me, you can call them bullies, heard the conversation between me and my grandmother and recorded it… I'm sure you could tell the rest of the story..." Ashley's voice become more and more sluggish, as if a robot was talking with him.
It didn't take a long time before Ashley returned to her talk.
"My life turned upside down. I was getting bullied before, but after the recording got spread around my school. It became an everyday routine for me, and it became even more terrible because they began using violence, " Ashley dangled her legs and stared down as if she was glaring at an endless void.
"I was bullied all my middle school years, and even my high school years, since I went to the same school as my bullies. Unfortunately, The same thing is going on now, I met some of my former classmates here…" Ashley finally showed her face to Alex, making him overwhelmed, she looked exactly like her mother. A beautiful face with brown hair coupled with beautiful honey-like eyes.
But that wasn't what made him stunned, a big swollen bruise was under her right eye, along with some cuts on her cheeks. She was being vigorously bullied.
'That explains again why she always tries her best to hide her face' Liza said with an awkward tone, even though she didn't really care about Ashley, she had some empathy for her.
Ashley went gloomier and despondent as she silently sat on the roof wall beside Alex while looking at him with her lifeless eyes. Cold, small raindrops dropped on them. Looking at her in that state, he got pissed off, but didn't know what to do.
'Hug her. She needs a hug' Liza suggested to Alex after she saw him striving to find a way to comfort the girl.
Alex was hesitant to do that since he was dealing with a suicidal depressed girl, plus he was still a stranger to her, so any reckless action might get things worse.
Having nothing else to do to comfort Ashley, he couldn't help but to risk it, it was still the best way to relieve her despite being dangerous. He moved his left arm and wrapped it around Ashley, then slowly pulled her closed to him, making her head rest on his chest.
Ashley was startled by Alex hugging her abruptly, but she didn't move or react recklessly, she just laid her head on his chest as she felt a warmth she never knew before.
"I know your mom, she wasn't a prostitute, she is a hard-working woman, I'm sure you can see that by yourself, plus have you ever seen her with a man? I'm afraid that you were just told the inaccurate version of the story" Alex held her head and began rubbing it with his hand. He could see Ashley's tears falling on his pants and getting mixed with the raindrops.
"She always did her best for you, she never gave up on you…" Alex added, trying to change her mind about her mother and giving her a chance.
Ashley began crying, but she still held herself back, since Alex was still a stranger, and she was still cautious. Despite that, She was feeling a lot better as Alex caressed her head.
After a few minutes, Ashley stopped sobbing but maintained her head on Alex's chest, he was still caressing her head since he can feel that she liked it.
"You should have a talk with your mom, I'm sure she will tell you everything... As for the bullies, I will take care of them, since I love beating them up"
Ashley wiped her tears with her fingers, while gently passing her fingers on her bruises.
'Can you create some band-aids?' Alex asked Liza and shove his hand in his hoodie pocket.
'Okay, I will enhance them with magic so her injuries heal quickly!' Liza happily asserted, and soon Alex felt some objects in his hand.
Alex pulled the regular adhesive plasters and lifted her head off his chest carefully and gently placed them on Ashley's bruises. She was quite confused about why Alex was carrying many plasters in his pocket, but couldn't question it.
After covering all her bruises and injuries on her face, Alex tapped on her shoulder and jumped off the wall and into the roof, then brought his hand forward to Ashley.
"You still need to hear your mom's real story and I still have some bullies to crush, so we don't have time to suicide today" Alex beamed at Ashley as he offered her his hand.
Her honey-like eyes were slowly regaining some life on them while cold rain fell on her head, but she didn't seem to care about it as she nodded her head and jump at Alex…