Asher King's life has revolved around putting up an involuntary mask to hide his true self. With successful parents boasting about his 'pretend' success, Asher feels as though the life he is living was never his to begin with, and a home of happines...
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It took me a lot longer to get ready than I'd like to admit. I wanted to look absolutely perfect because I know Ash will.
I look down at my shoes to make sure they are still polished to perfection. I run my hands down my black slacks as if there are wrinkles on them. I adjust the collar of my black blazer before checking if the cuff links are in place. I straighten up my tie, even though it probably already looked fine. I pull up my phone camera to ensure that my hair looks fine. I'm going with my messy natural hair, but I actually attempted to make it look somewhat nice.
When I finally gather up the courage, I lightly knock on the door. It takes a couple of seconds for the door to open, and when it does, I'm face-to-face with one of the best guardians in the world.
"Well, don't you clean up nicely," Oliver teases, opening the door and gesturing me inside.
"Thanks, Ollie." I smile when he rolls his eyes at the nickname.
I walk through the door and don't see Asher anywhere in sight.
"The kid's still getting ready. He was freaking out earlier because he couldn't find his tie," Oliver chuckles.
"How long has he been in his room?" I question.
"Well over three hours."
Holy crap...and I thought I took a long time to get ready.
"Should I go check on him?" I ask, fiddling with the small box in my hand that has his boutinerre.
"Don't worry, I got it," Oliver assures. "He would kill me if I let you see him before he was ready."
"Okay," I chuckle.
"Help yourself to anything," he offers as he disappears into the back hallway.
I walk over to the fridge, searching for something to drink. I stop when I see all of the pictures of Asher held onto the refrigerator by little red magnets. And it's not like it's pictures from recent times, but even some when he was a toddler. Not only that, but there's another small boy I've never seen before—one that looks like the spitting image of Oliver.
Asher told me briefly how Oliver lost his son to leukemia. I can't imagine what it's like for a parent to lose their child. He must have gone through years and years of grieving. However, it looks like this whole time Asher was always his son just as much as his biological one was. Oliver found just as much peace and safety in Asher as Ash had for him.
I can't stop the smile from spreading across my face as I look at all the cute young pictures of my boyfriend. There's one where he is probably about five years old and has the biggest smile on a swing. There's another with a juice box in his hand and a sly smile showing off his missing tooth. There's even one where he is cuddled under a blanket with a small poetry book in his hands.
At the beginning of the year, there's no way he would've smiled as big as he has in all these pictures. Too many things tainted his life and made it hard for him to survive. Now—
