Until I Met You

Chapter 12: Asher

Hello! Ahhh, that was such a fun chapter to write. It kind of flowed out of me and I'm excited to show you where this goes (and to kind of figure it out myself!). If you like it, comment. If you like it, VOTE! It encourages me to keep writing, and who knows, maybe I'll get another chapter up... tonight... tomorrow? We'll see ;) Hope you enjoy!

Everything happened so fast.

One moment, I was a nobody. The next thing I knew, I had been promoted and everyone seemed to know my name. Everyone in the gang that is.

I still have no idea who the leader was.

I can only imagine he does that for his protection. Better to know everybody else's names than to have everyone know yours in an operation like this.

Now I'm getting calls from unknown numbers asking for "favors". Not like I have a choice.

And to top it off, I keep waiting for Rose to gossip about what happened the other night. She was a curveball I hadn't been expecting, and I have absolutely no idea what to expect now either. Not to mention the fact that I spared that minor detail when I relayed the events of that night to the guys in charge.

Call me crazy, but I wasn't that much of a dick. I know what they do to witnesses and I didn't want to have any part in that.

"You ready for the party tonight?" David asks, throwing more beer into the cooler.

That's right. As if I don't have enough on my plate, my best friend somehow convinced me to not only attend a party tonight, but to throw one in my house while my mom is out of town for a culinary convention.

"As ready as I can be," I sigh, running my hands through my hair.

David looks me square in the eyes, looking rather unamused.

"Really," he states. "Is that why I'm doing all the work? This alcohol doesn't carry itself, you know."

He lifts a set of tequila and rum bottles onto the kitchen counter, pulling out a large punch bowl from the cabinet.

"Sorry, man. Just got a lot on my mind."

I go out onto the front porch and pull out a 24-pack of Corona, ripping the box and placing the cans into another one of the coolers. I hate Corona. This stuff tastes like piss and water combined, but it's cheap. And for a party like this, it works.

"Can you hand me the bag of ice?" I point to the bag nearest the fridge.

David picks it up and throws it to me.

I catch it easily.

As I dump the ice into the chest, I notice David staring at me out of the corner of my eye, more specifically at my arm.

"What's that on your arm?" he points.

"Tattoos?"

"Yeah, dude, the one on your bicep. It's new."

Oh, yeah. I pull up my sleeve, taking a look at the new tattoo sitting on my bicep. There's two lions, one slightly bigger than the other. They are sitting next to each other, and the smaller of the two is leaning on the other. I had waited a while to get this one because I wanted it to be perfect, and finding the right tattoo artist to do it took months. 

"Tribute," I pull down the sleeve, lifting up another bag of ice.

"For Jer."

David nods but doesn't say anything for a moment.

"That's a good one, man. I love it."

"Thanks."

We're silent for a minute but it's not awkward. I know we're both reminiscing about the past, about the trouble us Three Musketeers got into as kids, as teenagers. But unfortunately what was left of him now was only memories.