toby: do you have a favorite ex boyfriend?
toby: was he your first ex boyfriend?
ashley: no, my current ex.
toby: why is he your favorite?
ashley: because he sacrificed the most for me.
ashley: he moved out to l.a. while his family lives in utah. there was one time that he was supposed to go to his niece's birthday party at... disneyland, i think. and he stayed at home with me because i ended up getting the flu that morning. he defended me on the hsm sets. i twisted my ankle once, and i couldn't walk on it, but our choreographer wanted me to try to finish the dance number. i kept saying that i couldn't, and jared got tired of it and said "she said she can't do it, so get off her back, she's crying, she's hurt, and she's tired, just leave her alone" and our choreographer said "everybody's tired, but no one else is crying about it" and he said "yeah well, no one else is hurt either". he was always defending me. he was like a body guard... -sniffs- he was amazing.
toby: i'm sorry. we don't have to talk about it. but basically, he was the best boyfriend you've ever had, other than the boyfriend you have now, right?
ashley: yeah, pretty much.
toby: can i ask you one more thing about him?
ashley: -smiles and nods- yeah. i do. a lot. but, i have a wonderful man in my life right now, so i don't think i'd ever go back if i could. if we weren't together, i'd probably consider it. i mean, not just to be back with him, just to, you know, have him in my life like i did before. we really don't see each other as much as we'd like, so it makes it even harder to stay friends with him.
toby: so, even if you and scott ever break up, you wouldn't care about really being together with jared, you'd just want him in your life like before? to hang out, stuff like that.
ashley: yeah. i mean, he has a girlfriend, so obviously i'm not gonna be hanging out with him a lot, because i know it'd probably be uncomfortable for her. i miss the goofing around and making jokes about each other. we were bad with calling each other names, we'd be fighting and calling each other names, and we'd come up with a new one and we'd just stop fighting and start laughing about it. but, the fighting, you know, the fighting is something i don't want back. so, being with him really wouldn't be for the best, even when we were together. we fought a lot towards the end, and we don't do that anymore. i mean, we don't even talk a lot, but still, you know? the fighting stopped. i hated the fighting.
toby: did it get really bad?
ashley: vocally, yeah. we weren't the-the abusive type of fighting, we just yelled and argued a lot. when i got mad, i'd like, hit a wall or something, and he'd throw something, but he never, ever threw anything at me, he never hit me, i never hit him. it wasn't like that. i mean, yeah, technically i guess you can say it got physical, but not with each other, you know?
toby: yeah, yeah, i get it. but, just think about what could have happened if you hadn't broken up, though, it could have gotten that far.
ashley: yeah... i'm glad it didn't, though. i've had abusive boyfriends in the past, and that's not something i want to go back to. if any man ever hits me, we're done. as a friend, as a couple, you know, anything. if my own father hit me, i'd never talk to him again.
toby: yeah. it's good that you get yourself out of that before it gets that far, though.
ashley: i was only sixteen and eighteen the times i did have abusive boyfriends, and i didn't know the signs. i look out for that. that's not why jared and i broke up though, we just didn't really have enough time together, and we were both working on our own things and the only time we did get to see each other was when we were at home, so we just felt like it was great while it lasted, but we couldn't keep going the way we were going.
toby: you were living together?
ashley: my house was being built at the time, so we were living with my parents.
toby: did your parents ever get freaked out about having two kids in their house that were in an intimate relationship?
ashley: not really, they were pretty respectable about it. i mean, we were too.
toby: you kept quiet, only got down when mom and dad were asleep?
ashley: -laughs- something like that.
toby: you just basically told everyone about your sex life. didn't we just talk about this earlier, about talking about your sex life?
ashley: i'm twenty-five. it's uncommon for a twenty-five-year-old to be a virgin. it's uncommon for there to be a thirteen-year-old virgin.
toby: that's a good one. that was bad.
