I shouldn't love you

CHAPTER SIX

Jenna

"Hey, you guys, you've been gone for a really long time." 

I turn my head to see my sister behind us, and while I expect to see anger in her eyes I see relief. 

"I was worried that something happened." She says stepping closer to us, Asher has since put me down and I am no longer in his arms. I'm looking at my sister unsure of what to say to her. 

"Did you get your ice creams?" she continues on, I don't know if she notices that she is the only one participating in this conversation. 

Finally, Asher answers, "Yeah the shack was full, so we had to wait a while." He says. 

"Oh no, were you alright? Jenna doesn't like crowded places." She says the last part to Asher. She comes closer and touches my arms and rubs me up and down. 

By this point, I've found my voice and say, "Yeah Asher was there so it wasn't bad." I say smiling to reassure her.

"That's good." I see a genuine smile on her face that has been missing a while now since her separation from Thomas. 

When we get back to the others Stephanie tells me that she's going to sit by the water for a while and I tell her that I will join her, but I want to throw away my empty ice cream cup. 

Once my sister has headed down to the beach and I get back from the bin, I pass by Asher and he grabs my hand which prompts me to stop. "Can you put sunscreen on my back? I want to head out to the water." I don't have a rude bone in my body, so I agree albeit reluctantly. 

I tell him to lie down on the towels that we had set up on the ground when we got here. I get to work on his back and notice a scar on his shoulder blade and I focus more on that spot unconsciously. I think he knows that's the spot I'm on now because he speaks, 

"I was 10 years old. We had a tree house at home and some of the screws were loose as it was old, but I didn't know that. So, I went up, and my brother Jack came running after me and told me to get down, but I couldn't hear him clearly because he was hysterical and wasn't articulating well. When I finally heard what he was saying, as soon as my foot touched the first step from the top the whole thing came tumbling down. I dislocated my shoulder and broke my leg. That's where the scar came from."

My breath hitches because that is so sad. I can just imagine a 10-year-old Asher under the mess of planks, confused and scared. 

"I'm sorry," I say because that's the only thing that I can think to say. 

"It hurt for a while but overriding that was the excitement that I had crutches at school and that literally made me the coolest guy. My mom really loved that I never complained about going to school during those days." He says, and I smile at that. 

"I'm sure every parent would love that." I laugh lightly.

Shortly after, I notice that Stephanie has come back before I could join her. In my mind, I'm thinking, how much time did I spend rubbing Asher's back? "

You're back already. I was just about to come to you." I say to my sister. 

She looks lighter for some reason. "That's okay. I was only there for a short while anyways, I was hoping to catch you before you made your way down there for nothing." 

Okay, at least I wasn't here for longer than I thought. Out of guilt, I explain the situation that she just walked into. 

"I was just helping Asher out since you were down there," I say, and she waves a hand at me, the universal sign for don't worry about it.