We started to watch the L Word in addition to the OC.  I still to this day have never been more turned on by a sex scene in a TV show or movie than I was by that show.  I declared that I would go gay for any of the characters.  These are really beautiful women we are talking about!  I had always been open with my sex life though, so admitting this was easy for me to do.  After all of this “education” if you will, even though I had never been with another woman, I was pretty damn sure that I wanted to.

Spencer and I stayed close friends as we both experienced several more relationships with men who were never quite right.  We lived together that summer on campus, and the next semester as well.  Though we got busy with school and work, and we no longer had time for nights of the L Word and the OC, we still made time every few weeks to spend time together.  I loved spending time with just her, sans the rest of our group of friends.  My connection with her was a unique one, and it was never the same with tag-along friends.  She was the only person I could be vulnerable with.  She had seen me cry a few times, and she was the only person with whom I could divulge my deepest emotions.  If it was more than just her I was spending time with, I had to be tough Ashley, the one who never let things get to her and didn’t give a fuck what anyone else thought.  Sometimes tough Ashley could be exhausting.

The reason we didn’t room together all of Sophomore year was because I had decided to study abroad second semester.  I wanted to see the world, and maybe I wanted to discover myself as much as I wanted to discover the things that a foreign country would offer.

The weekend before finals week, we had a big outing with our group of 10 girl friends.  We went out to dinner and exchanged secret santa presents.  The end of the evening found us at a themed party – Glitter and Glitz.  Spencer wore spandex shorts over fishnets and a black tank top with a tap-style zip up jacket covered in sequins.  I was sporting dark skinny jeans with a satin red tank top and matching red pumps.  We split up at the party, and wondered around, drinking and mingling with everyone there.  Eventually we found ourselves back in the kitchen together taking shots of some unknown alcohol – brandy I think? We both knew it was probably the last time we were going to be together until I returned from my study abroad, and we were both pretty drunk.