Perspective

27- Tara

"Asher asked me out," Tara brags.

My ears perk up at the mention of Asher.

"We're going out on Friday night. He's going to pick me up and take me to dinner," Tara continues. "It's going to be so much fun."

I feel my blood boil as she talks to her friends.

What the fuck is happening? Asher literally just told me that he doesn't do the whole dating thing, so why did he ask her out? Why is he going on a date?

I glance over at Tara.

She's gorgeous, no wonder Asher asked her out. She has shoulder length shiny brown hair and light hazel colored eyes. Her nose is small and cute. Her skin is even and blemish free.

I'm not even close to her level of beauty.

I tune her out and go back to finishing up my worksheet.

The bell rings and I head to my locker before lunch.

"Hey, Chase," Asher greets me as I open my locker.

"Hi," I say, curtly, closing my locker with a loud bang.

I can feel Asher flinch behind me.

The two of us walk in silence and join  the rest of our group at the table outside.

We end up sort of splitting off into our own two groups during lunch.

"Here, I'll take the trash," I tell Jess and Aspen, standing up.

"Thanks, C." Jess says as I gather their trash too.

I nod and walk over to the trash can to toss away the wrappers.

I see the back of Evan's head and I start to turn away, but he catches sight of me.

"Chase!" He sounds happy. "Wait!"

I stop and ponder my options. There's a lot of people and it's at schools so there's no way he would say or do anything weird. Plus, I'm pretty sure he's sober now.

"I just wanted to say—"

Holy shit, he's going to apologize. I've been waiting for so long.

"Your ass looks so good in those jeans. I can't wait to...."

"Hey! Fuck off," Asher's deep voice snaps. "I told you before, but I'm going to say it again. Don't mess with her."

Evan looks at me with a disgusting smile. "White man's—"

Asher nearly lunges forward, but my arm shoots out to hold him back. Evan looks at me with a smirk before walking away.

"Chase, what the fuck?" Asher asks.

I move my arm and shrug, brushing past him and heading inside. 

"CHASE! WAIT!" Asher calls. 

I freeze in front of my locker. He catches up to me and takes my hands in his own. 

"What's wrong?" He questions. 

I pull my hands away and shove them into the pockets of my jacket. "Nothing."

"Don't lie. Tell me what's bothering you."

"Why'd you lie?" I blurt out. 

"What?"

"Why'd you lie?"

"About what?"

"You said that you're not ready to date, but you asked Tara out."

"I didn't ask her out on a date. I asked her to meet up on Friday night so we can finish our project."

"But she said that you were going to pick her up and get dinner."

"Huh. Well, I'm not. We're going to meet up at Starbucks and finish our assignment."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Please tell me that's not why you've been giving me the cold-shoulder."

I look down at the floor and let out a nervous chuckle. 

Asher's loud laugh echos through the hallway as he pushes my head up with his finger. 

"Just so you know...you don't ever need to be jealous," He kisses my cheek and steps back. "I'll see you in class."

"Where are you going?" I ask. 

"Gotta talk to Coach about the game tonight. You're coming right?"

"Wouldn't miss it," I assure him.

He smiles. "I'll look for you."

He gives me a wave before going off to the direction of the gym. 

I lean back against my locker and replay what just happened. 

God, what is Asher doing to me. 

•••

How was 2018 literally the longest, but also the shortest year ever?

Thanks for reading :)

~M