COSMOS | Complete

CHAPTER 32: ASHER

"Your dad and Heidi, huh?" Chloe and I are in my backyard, bumping a volleyball to each other. Chloe used to play a lot back in Manhattan, but the closest I've come to a volleyball is getting hit in the head in gym – multiple times. There's probably some big bruise under all my hair, but if that were the case, my entire body would just be a permanent collection of cuts and scrapes. To say I wasn't raised for sports is an understatement.

"Yeah. They're happy together." I smile at the thought, accidentally missing the ball entirely. Chloe chokes out a laugh, and I roll my eyes, scrambling after it.

"Things are getting pretty serious, actually," I muse.

Chloe lets out a breathy sigh. "Your dad and Heidi deserve it. I can't imagine a better couple – besides me and Chris, of course."

She exaggeratedly winks as I tap the ball to her. She easily hits it back. I close my fists around each other, bumping the ball back. However, my trajectory is completely off course, and the volleyball ends up in a tree in my neighbor's yard.

Chloe dies of laughter as I stare up at the white rubber nestled between the branches, shaking my head. "Asher!" She screams, rolling around. "You said you couldn't play volleyball, but I didn't think you were that bad!"

Unable resist, I let out a chuckle myself. "I'm pretty surprised with myself too." In the back of my mind, however, I was expecting it sooner or later.

Chloe reels to a stop in the grass, gasping. "Imagine your neighbors face the next morning ..." I swat her shoulder and lay down next to her. "Oh, stop it. I think it's a nice decoration, actually."

For what seems like the rest of the afternoon, we laugh in the grass, squinting against the sunlight and making snow angels in the lawn. Chloe challenges me to races down the hill and weaves flower crowns out of dandelions. She holds up a crown to me, announcing that she'll gift it to Becca Jarvis – "A weed tiara for a pest queen."

By the time we come back inside, it's dark and the sun has already set. We take her ten dandelion crowns and hang them in the Volleyball Tree, hopefully adequate payment for our neighbor's new ornament.

"Weed done a good job," Chloe had said, standing back to admire our work. "Your neighbor will go ballistic."

I snorted, following her back into the house. "Do you even know what that means?"

"Not volley well."

"What?"

"Volley – very."

"That's a stretch."

Chloe giggled. "Yeah."

And now, we are standing in the living room, and there's a candle on every coffee table in the house. There are rose petals sprinkled on the couches and the floor, and Chloe insists on leaping onto the carpet where she won't step on any of the precious petals. The house smells like warm vanilla with a hint of spice, and there's the trickle of pianos quietly coming from the surround-sound speakers.

"Chris's handiwork?" I ask, jumping onto a spot on the carpet next to her. Whoever did this knows that the rugs are Heidi's favorite parts of the house, and while she loves roses, any flattened flowers on the carpets would make her irate.

Chloe shakes her head, thoughtful. "I don't think so. My favorite flowers are daisies, which I told him on the first day I met him."

"Of course," I snort.

She whips towards me, blonde curls bouncing. Her green eyes are mischievous, and I know what she's asking without her even saying a word.

"Definitely not," I say. "We're friends."