If the Story Aligns

Chapter 18-Terrifying Liaisons

Asher Reed

Roman, River, and I were all sitting in my room trying to figure what we should do tonight. One downside of a small town is the only thing ever to do is parties.

"What's Rhea up too tonight?" Roman asks with a smirk.

"Yo, what the fuck wait, why'd he say it like that? Am I missing something? I feel like I'm missing something." River questions.

"Well, lover boy over here walked into class late this morning with a certain Ms. Griffin." River looks like he's about to say something when Roman continues, "She was wearing his clothes." Rivers' face drops and he punches me in the shoulder.

"What the fuck? Bro? Bro? What the fuck? Explain."

"He's not going too. I already tried."

"Shove it up your ass, Rom-"

"Nothing happened guys, it was just pouring last night and my mom said she couldn't drive home on her bike in that weather."

"See Roman, he did tell us," River argues, "but wait, that doesn't explain why she was in your clothes."

"We went to the cliff." I whisper.

"Did I just hear you right?" Roman gasps.

"No fucking way." River adds. "You said you'd never bring another person there, Asher, you said it's too special and too important to be wasted on anyone."

"Yeah, what the fuck? Riv and I had to beg you for weeks to bring us there."

"Whatever." I mumble, I grab my phone deciding to text Rhea. When she walked out of class earlier I was so confused on why she left so abruptly, but when the bell rang I heard him saying goodbye to someone named Cooper on the phone. Who the fuck is Cooper?

Rhea texted me back and like 90% of the time she responded as her typical shut off Rhea attitude. She did say she was busy though, I'm wondering if that busy means going to the underground fighting ring. Maybe to go see Cooper. Maybe that's why she's been there, this Cooper guy. Is Cooper her boyfriend? That would explain why she runs off every time we kiss or get close. Fuck. Am I the other woman? I don't want to be a homewrecker, but I do want Rhea.

"Want to go watch some fighting?" I interrupt Roman and River's conversation.

"Fuck yeah." They both smile.

After 10 minutes of Roman and River arguing over who should drive eventually they decided from a game of rock, paper, scissor, resulting in Roman getting to drive.

River was smart and sent himself a pin of the location last time we were here, so we were able to get there pretty quickly.

Walking in we all realize it is much busier then the last time we were here, there had to be thousands of people. As if voicing my thoughts Roman turns to us and says, "Why the fuck are there so many people here?"

"Maybe it's just like a really important fight or something." River replies.

Answering our question the announcer introduces the fighters and says the new guy, the small one we saw fighting last time we were here, is up against the best fighter.

"Well, that explains it." Roman voices.

Both fighters walk into the ring and again I get the feeling that I know the smaller guy but I can't pin-point it.

"Does he look familiar to you?" I ask.

"No." They both respond looking at me strangely.

The announcer once again interrupts my thoughts, the match is starting. The smaller guy seems to look at me for a second. That's weird. The crowd gets significantly louder at this. The current best fighter, just learned he's named 'Champion', who the fuck names themself that? Well, Champion right now is the sole attacker, I don't know much about fighting but I'm pretty sure the other guy, 'Storm,' I think, should be fighting back, which he's not. He just keeps dodging them.