The Hooded Figure

THIRTY THREE

Jamie was at school today, but I avoided him until school ended. I'm currently kneading pizza dough, staring off into space. "Hello?" I heard from right beside me. I jumped back, removing my hands from the dough.

"Oh, Ash, you scared me." I put a hand to my heart as if to regulate the beating. He didn't say anything, his amber eyes twinkled as he smirked at me though. He walked behind me and pulled out some ingredients.

"Who's on delivery today?" I asked, wondering why he was lingering around the kitchen, not that I minded. He'd be a nice distraction from my thoughts.

"My dad," he replied casually, plopping a hunk of dough beside mine. He picked up his dough and started twirling it around his finger like in the movies. Then, he threw it into the air while it was spinning and caught it in both his hands, putting it back down on the counter lightly.

"Woah," I whispered, gaping for a moment. I snapped out of it when Asher chuckled and put sauce on. He then started sprinkling cheese on his pizza. I was in the middle of putting some pepperoni on mine when I paused. I looked up at him for a moment, just examining his face, when he looked down at me.

"You're pretty cute, you know that?" He asked rhetorically, ruffling my hair over the hair net. I shined away from his touch, but blushed. Asher kept smiling confidently without a trace of bashfulness and I quickly returned to my work.

I finished my pizza in silence and put it in the oven. Even though Ash started after me, he finished before me. Being the son of the owner, I'm sure he's a pro.

It was fairly desolate and hardly any orders were coming in so I leaned against the counter, just about ready to pull out my phone, but Asher broke the silence.

"Why are you working here?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the counter opposite me.

"What?" I said, blinking and trying to process the question. I was tired and I couldn't understand basic things at the moment.

"Why are you working here?" He repeated, looking down at me with a neutral expression but there was an amused glint in his eye.

"Oh, um, I need to save for university. I want to get into the sciences and I want to get out of this town," I admitted, thinking over my words as I said them. I've never really come to terms with the fact that I truly wanted to leave. I've always just said that the good universities are far away. I guess Asher was just easy to talk to. His dad asked me nearly the same question when he was interviewing me, I guess Ash wasn't there. "Why are you working here?" I asked, looking up at him with a playful eyebrow raised.

"Didn't you already ask me this?" He questioned, smirking down at me. I shrugged.

"Refresh me then."

He sighed slightly, moving beside me as an order came through. It was just a pepperoni pizza so I watched him work. "My parents own this place, I have to."

Sounds like a bullshit answer to me.

"What?" Asher asked, looking down at me with a boyish smirk on his face. The same one he wore when he'd seen me in my lazy-day attire.

"Oh my gosh, did I say that out loud?" I questioned, covering my mouth and smiling beneath my hand. Asher didn't answer, but I knew I had. He just kept smirking at me. "I'm sorry, but... it's your choice, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but I can't leave them. They're... familia," he said with a small smile. He seemed to be remembering something, but I didn't ask.

"Still, you can always come back. Why don't you try other things? You're nineteen, why don't you apply somewhere? What do you want to be?" I bombarded, asking three questions at once. I smiled sheepishly and added, "sorry."

Asher didn't seem to acknowledge it as he rolled the dough. He was looking off into space. I was about to bring him back to reality, but he said, "I used to want to be a doctor."

My eyes darted up at him, tilting my head curiously. For a moment, I imagined him in a lab coat and a surgeon's mask, but the image didn't stick. All I could see was the hair net and the apron.

"What happened?" I inquired, reaching for the sauce to put it on the pizza. I hadn't realized he was reaching for it too and his hand wrapped around mine. I jumped back as he shocked me and we both chuckled a bit. I let him put the sauce on and waited for his reply.

"Nothing important. I'd rather not think about it. What about you? What are you going to study?" He changed the topic. I noticed that he tried to bring he conversation back to me in order to take the spotlight off himself, but if that's what he wanted, I wouldn't push it.

"I want to go into sciences. Medicine most likely." I left the details out because suddenly, Asher didn't seem like he was in the mood to talk. Plus, I'm pretty sure we've been over this before. Therefore, I stopped talking and I stood there while he worked in silence. It was therapeutic to watch him work, how easily he manipulated he dough, but I was still wondering what was wrong. I figured some day I'd find out, but until then, I'd leave it alone.

The rest of my shift passed agonizingly slowly and when it was over, Asher was no where to be found. I sighed and took off my apron, hanging it on a hook and throwing my hair net and gloves into the garbage. As I was walking to my car, I caught Asher walking to his car, his face deep in concentration as he walked. He entered his car and drove away as I stood at my car door, looking like an idiot. With confusion written all over my face, I got into my car and sat there for a moment, thinking, what a week.

• Author's Note •

I finished this an hour ago and I was going to wait until Friday to post, but I like reading your guys' reactions and comments. There are upsides and downfalls to regular updates, but at least you won't have to deal with my monthly writer's laziness anymore.

For once I've actually thought over the plot (a little) instead of just improvising the entire thing like I usually do (in case that wasn't obvious).

Lots of love, Nat 💕