Everlasting Shadows

Chapter 4- Asher

Chemistry Honors, room 312, Mr. Trofy. God, he hated Mr. Trofy. Last year, Asher had him for Earth Science and Mr. Trophy made his life even more of a living hell than it already was.

The hallway's mood suddenly shifted, pulling Asher out of his thoughts. Kai, his best friend, also noticing the shift, stopped explaining something about how his ex-girlfriend, Sophie, was going to the annual party this weekend. Asher had zoned out three minutes ago. 

They looked down the hallway to see what the commotion was and noticed a girl he had never seen before standing with Claire Thomas as every other girl in the Sophomore class stared at her. "Who is she?" said Kai, startling Asher.

"I don't know, probably the new girl," he responded.

"Well whoever she is, she's hot," Kai said, drooling.

She was, Asher thought as he looked a little closer at her. She had wavy brown hair that stopped right below her shoulder blades, and when he took a few steps closer after she started laughing at something Claire had said, he saw that she had high cheekbones that showed off her beautiful smile. Oh crap, this is not going to end well for me.

"Ash! Snap out of it! You are ogling, and I gotta say it's not a good look on you." Asher's cheeks turned bright red at Kai's statement, and he mumbled an apology.

Desperately wanting to escape this conversation, Asher decided to grab his books from his locker. Shoving his books in his backpack and shrugging it on, Asher felt a severe pain shoot down his back. Not now, please not now. 

He rushed to the bathroom, making sure nobody was in there before he pulled out the pills from his bag and forced one of them down.

Suddenly, the bell rang, echoing through the hallway. Crap, I'm gonna be late on my first day of school! Mr. Trofy is going to kill me.

Asher threw open the bathroom door and sprinted down the hallway, ignoring the pain in his back. As he turned a corner, he saw the new girl right in front of him, but he had too much momentum to stop. 

Crashing into her, they both toppled to the hard floor. Mortified, Asher quickly stood up, wincing at the lingering pain in his back. He reached his hand down to help the girl up, but she just stared at his outstretched hand and rolled her eyes, getting up on her own.

"I'm so sorry. I am late for class and I didn't see you there."

The girl just laughed at his apology and said, "You're fine. I have also found myself late to class, as you can see, but I don't seem to know where I'm going."

Not wanting to leave her, lost, in the middle of the hallway Asher asked the new girl, "What class do you have? I can show you where to find it." It turns out that the girl had Chemistry class with him, so they walked to room 312 together. 

"You're new, right? I haven't seen you before and Copperton isn't the largest of towns as you have probably seen," Asher asked, trying to purge the silence.

"Yes! I moved here last week from Colorado with my parents and little sister. My name is Morgan. Morgan Hill. What about you? Do you have a name?" she responded but he didn't hear the last two questions. He was too focused on her name.

Morgan, what a pretty name. No, stop that, she won't like you back and even if she does, she doesn't know the real you. Once she sees your darkness, she will just run. However, he couldn't help himself.

They rounded another corner, their shadows following in their wake, and he looked at Morgan, just to find her staring at him. Waiting for something. He was racking his brain to remember what she had asked when all the thoughts drained out of his brain as she looked into her eyes. They were beautiful. She had emerald green eyes with an outer ring of copper that matched her hair. But there was a haunted look buried deep in her eyes. Something he only saw when he looked in the mirror. What happened to her? Who put those shadows in her eyes?

Her face revealed nothing.

That's when he remembered she asked for his name. "Oh, uh, cool! Um, my name is Asher." He mentally slapped himself. Why couldn't he handle talking to this girl?

She nodded her head in response to his answer. Asher then saw her eyes snap down to his leg, where he had a slight limp as a result of the pain radiating from his back. His limp must have started after the fall, he thought, as he hadn't noticed it before. Concern clear on her face, Morgan asked, "Are you alright? You are limping. Was it because of our collision? Oh God, I'm so sorry, I really need to watch where I'm going. Asher cut off her rambling  with a slight laugh, saying, "I'm ok! I just injured my leg during my soccer last weekend, nothing to worry about." 

It looked like Morgan was going to say something else, but quickly shut her mouth. Asher really didn't want to discuss this. It brought up memories he didn't want to relive, especially right now, in the middle of the hallway next to a beautiful girl. He knew Morgan could tell Asher didn't want to talk about it because a look of understanding crossed her face. What had she been through?

The haunted look in her eyes. The way he felt she understood what battling invisible battles felt like. Asher was beginning to think that Morgan might have the same darkness inside of her as he found in himself and when he looked over his shoulder, he got his answer.

For their shadows were the same shade of grey.

A/N

Should I continue writing this story?