Everlasting Shadows

Chapter 6- Asher

What just happened? 

One moment he was walking with Kai and the rest of his friends down the hallway, and then Kai suddenly disappeared. The next thing he saw, Kai was stumbling away from Morgan, nursing a bruised cheek from where she had punched him and she was getting yelled at by Mr. Trofy. The group of boys surrounding Asher burst out laughing and started making fun of how Kai just got bested by a girl. Asher wasn't listening anymore. He was watching Morgan and Claire walk down the hallway, intrigued by what caused her outburst. The bell rang, announcing the start of class.

The next class went by so slow for him. Asher had math class, which had always been easy for him, but for some reason he could not focus, causing him to be yelled at by Ms. Mitchell multiple times. The bell finally rang, which meant it was time for lunch. Asher intercepted Kai on his way to the cafeteria, asking if he was ok. Kai had said he was fine, but Asher knew him well enough to know that was a lie. He seemed pretty shaken up about what happened that morning.

Asher and Kai had been best friends since the second grade when Kai had dropped his lunch and Asher had volunteered to share his lunch with him. Kai was the only person who knew about what his father did to him. Asher had not told any of his other friends about his secret, not trusting them not to "accidentally" let it slip that his father is a huge alcoholic that beats him when he gets angry. Kai on the other hand? Asher trusted him with his life. To most people, Kai came across as an arrogant bastard, but once you got to know him, you saw that he was as big a softy as one could get.

Once they got to the cafeteria, Asher and Kai grabbed their food and went to sit down with the rest of the boys in their friend group. After about fifteen minutes of sitting there talking about Kai's exciting morning or about how boring their classes were, a loud screeching sound echoed through the cafeteria. Everyone in the room winced as the overhead speakers came on, making their principal, Ms. White's voice boom through the room. She told everyone to quiet down and listen to a few announcements she had to make, but most people were still having conversations, just in quieter voices. Ms. White began to speak, describing how poorly the new freshmen were behaving that year and how "as a community" they needed to do a better job of picking up after themselves. Ignoring the announcement, Jackson asked from across the table, "Who are you all bringing to the party this weekend?"

To his right, Max answered his question by saying, "I don't know yet. I was going to bring Ashley but Thomas already said he was bringing her."

"You bet I did! She is my girlfriend bro!" responded Thomas who was sitting next to Jackson. They all laughed and began daring each other to ask specific girls when Asher suddenly heard his name being spoken on the speaker. "Lastly", Ms. White says, "Asher Lee please report to my office after lunch."

Asher froze, as everyone in the cafeteria began staring at him and whispering. Asher racked his brain for some reason he would have to go to the principal's office. There were so many things he had done that could lead to him going there. He had been plenty of times before, but every single one of those times Asher had been there with his friends. As a group, they got in trouble a lot for pulling pranks and ditching school but never had he gone alone. Maybe, this was one of their pranks he thought. But one look at the curious faces around him answered Asher's question.

Everyone was still staring at him and before he could run out of the cafeteria, the bell rang. Asher silently thanked the bell for saving him from even more embarrassment. He was pretty popular, people would forget about the detention by tomorrow and some might even slap him on the back, but he would never live down running out of the cafeteria crying.

As he stood up, Asher abruptly reached into his backpack and felt for his pills. Crap. They were gone. Asher mentally retraced his steps, trying to remember when he had lost his pills. He subtly searched the lunch table and the floor, but they weren't there. Math and Chemistry were the two classes he had gone to that morning but in neither of those classes had he opened the pocket he always kept them in. That's when Asher remembered. The bathroom. He had taken two pills in the bathroom that morning and once the bell rang, he must have been in too much of a hurry to secure them in the pocket.

Kai was instantly next to Asher giving him a questioning look but Asher couldn't bring himself to answer. He only had one thought going through his head.

What am I going to do?