If the Story Aligns

Chapter 20-Lacking Realizations

Asher Reed

"Asher." She says. God, how could she be so fucking careless? "Ash." I turn to look at her and see she's standing up. She was just stabbed and someone was trying to kill her but she's standing up trying to argue with me.

"Why the fuck are you up? You're fucking hurt!" I say frustrated but before I can continue she kisses me. I kiss back for a few moments, savoring how her lips feel before I come to my senses. I push her away slightly and look into her big green eyes, "No, Rhea you don't get to do that." I breathe, "You can't just kiss me to try and avoid talking about this. Trust me, I want to kiss you. I really want to fucking kiss you," I say thinking back to how turned on I was while she was fighting. "but this is how we got into this situation. You not talking to me."

She looks at me in shock and backs away slowly. She stares at me with a loss of words. "I'm sorry." She mumbles.

"Look Rhea, I really like you I do, but we can't just keep going through this cycle of you pushing me away then pulling me back." I sigh.

"I know, Ash, I'm so sorry," tears well up in her eyes, "I just- I'm scared."

"Rhea," I say, stepping towards her, grabbing her face with my hands, "It's okay. It's okay to be scared, I know you've been hurt before, but I would never hurt you intentionally. I promise you."

Before she can say anything, Cooper and River walk back in, both looking a little messy. Rhea seems to notice this too and shoots Cooper a look.

"How you feeling, Rhe?" Cooper question.

"Quite dandy, not like I just got stabbed in the leg or anything." She snaps.

"There's my Rhea." Cooper says messing with her hair, she whispers something to him before he chuckles and walks back to River's side.

"So, first of all, give me my money." She says, "Second of all, I'm leaving, please tell me one of you drove my bike back here."

"Yeah, Roman drove it back after the fight." River says, "You should've seen him on that thing it was so fucking funny."

"Rhea, you can't drive your bike right now, you can barely walk." I say.

"Honestly, I agree with the dipshit." Cooper adds. Dipshit? What the fuck, he must dislike me as much as I dislike him. For some reason I can't just willingly like Rhea's ex.

"You're fucking kidding me, right?"

"Nope, Darling, but I can drive you wherever you want to go."

"Just give me my fucking money." She ignores me and directs her demand towards Cooper.

He grabs a huge envelope from his pocket and hands it to Rhea, she smiles to herself in a pride sort of way.

"Take me home?" She questions me. "River, will you have Roman drop off my bike at my place?

"He's kind of busy right now." He says scratching his head. Busy my ass, he's at a party right now probably drinking and fucking random girls, he didn't want to stay home and "babysit Rhea all weekend."

"I'll just take you to my house Rhea, then we can drive back here once you feel better."

She groans and then thinks for a bit and says, "No, you'll just stay with me until I can get my bike." I roll my eyes but agree anyways. Yay, bossy Rhea is back. She hits Cooper on the way out and thanks River for letting her stay before we make our way to my car.

I am about to start driving until I realize I don't exactly know where she lives.

"Where do you live?" She sighs, annoyed, but types her address into my phone.

After about a ten minute drive we pull up to a shitty little place. "Nice place" I say sarcastically.

"Haha, very funny." She mumbles.

We walk inside and the first thing I notice is how empty it is, she has a punching bag and a few weights but other than that there's just boxes and a singular couch. As she walks towards what I'm assuming is her room I realize the rest of her place looks basically the same. For how small it is I'm surprised it's so empty, she gestures for me to sit on her bed and she walks into the bathroom leaving the door open.

I lay back on her bed watching her as she grabs all sorts of medical shit, she takes off the pants she's wearing so she can get a better look at the stab wound. Cooper already stitched it up but I guess that's not good enough for Rhea. She looks at her wound and grimaces, grabbing some sort of cream, she rubs it along the wound. Then she takes off her hoodie leaving her in only a sports bra and underwear, she then grabs a different cream and puts it along her bigger cuts, and open wounds, which there's a lot. Finally she grabs a third cream and rubs it on the darkest bruises scattered across her body. I look away, realizing I'm staring at her in her underwear.

"Ash?" She questions, walking out while throwing just her hoodie on over her head.

Yes, Darling?" I reply.

"Why do you like me? I'm nothing special."

Why do I like her? There's millions of reasons, before her, my life was just basketball and family. I never did anything, I never tried anything, I never felt anything. She makes me feel. "You're special to me. Rhea," I say as I walk over to her and wrap my arms around her, "you're so fucking special to me." She looks into my eyes pleading a silent thank you as she returns the hug I was giving her.

"Will you sleep with me?" She asks, gesturing to the bed.

"I always will." I kiss her forehead, I take off my shirt as she hands me the pair of shorts she borrowed the other day. I quickly use her bathroom and change, Rhea's already laying in the bed when I come back. As I get in the bed, she pulls me towards her so my arms are wrapped around her, meaning instead of the bossy Rhea we had moments ago we now get vulnerable Rhea.

"Goodnight." She doesn't respond, already drifting off to sleep so I pull her closer and as I'm about to pass out I hear her mumble so quietly I almost didn't hear, "You make me want to live." Before I can ask her what she means, I hear light snores coming from her.

. . .

A/N: Hi! So this is my first time doing an author's note, usually I just write the chapter and post it. I've been getting more reads lately though so I just wanted to say hi and thank you everyone for reading my book. I reallllllyyyy appreciate it, I've always hoped to become an author and get a bunch of people to read my work but I never thought I was actually decent enough for people to enjoy it. It seems I'm kinda sorta doing something right though.

If you have any suggestions or questions about my book, I'm always open to feedback and conversation. I love and appreciate you all, thank you so much.