REKINDLED || Completed

14

🌸🌸🌸
Fourteen
🌸🌸🌸

A NEW BEGINNING.

It was hard to believe it was.

Everything looked the same, Asher couldn't sleep long enough. It wasn't the nightmares that kept her awake but the thought that she was cared for.

She was important to someone, it was hard to believe that!

Everything Harry had said that night, she could not get herself to think anything else.

As she stared at her reflection in the grimy convenience mirror, her thoughts refused to settle. They swirled chaotically in her mind, impossible to grasp. And yet, beneath all the noise, there was an unfamiliar comfort—a sense that, for once, she mattered. It was the most fulfilling feeling she had ever known.

She studied her swollen eyes and freckled face until they blurred into meaninglessness. Then, with a quiet sigh, she turned away and stepped outside.

She froze.

Against the wall opposite, someone was waiting.

He lifted his head, and a small, knowing smile touched his lips.

"Finally."

Everest.

He straightened off the wall, his arms folding across his chest in that effortless way that made his muscles stand out. She swallowed, suddenly uneasy. After what had happened last time, she wasn’t sure how to face him. She had planned to meet him, to make things right—for the project, at least. But it had all seemed so much easier in her head.

"Everest," she murmured, her voice tight with nerves.

His smile widened, just slightly. "She finally says my name."

"Look—"

"No," he cut in, shaking his head. "Don’t try to fix things."

Her brows drew together. What?

"You were right. I was being dumb," he admitted. "And I kinda realized."

She pursed her lips, unsure how to respond.

"Let’s just finish this project," he continued, pulling out his phone. "So I can know if I’m getting that scholarship or not. You probably have something you need from this too."

He wasn’t wrong.

She nodded.

"Perfect." He tapped at his screen. "What’s your number?"

For a second, her mind blanked.

Oh. Phone number. Right.

"It’s +1—"

"Got it." He saved it and looked up.

She hesitated. "I didn’t mean to humiliate you that day."

His lips curled in amusement. "Oh, trust me. That was nothing."

And with that, he turned and walked away.

Asher barely had time to process before her phone buzzed.

Harry: Called you an hour ago. You good?

A small smile touched her lips as she typed back a positive reply.

---

Later that evening, a new number flashed on her screen. She already knew who it was.

Wednesday.

Her lips pressed into a thin line. He really needed to stop calling her that. But that wasn’t the most important thing.