Amidst Crimson Kisses

Chapter Nineteen: Who Were As Forsaken

Asher's POV

I inhale the hypocrisy into my lungs as an oddity pierces the firmament, and lingers in Andre's clenched jaw. I watch the horizon shatter in a blaze of electricity, arousing the blood in my veins while my heart eclipses through a current elapsed in the wind as I hold the doorknob to the rooftop in my hand. What if everything Mateo said was true? David could be waiting on the other side of the door with a gun cocked at the center, ready to pull the trigger the moment he sees the fear in my eyes. But here I am still standing at the door, willing to die for a group of people I never loved, and a girl I'll always despise.

I take a deep breath, pulling the door open as the moonlight shines on a crowd enamored by a hypnotic guitar solo screeching in the night. The red neon lights scatter over the rooftop as New York's finest minds gyrate to the beat of the music. I step through a throng of girls grinding on each other as they gaze at a group of guys hypnotized by each movement their hips sway. One girl with light caramel skin raises her left leg above her head. She drops her leg instantly, falling to the ground with both her hands pushing against the pavement.

My footsteps halt as a wave of scarlet falls over Marley's skin, outlining the sharp curves in her mascara, and the contoured facets of her face. Her eyeliner traces underneath the bottom row of her eyelashes as I glare at the dress clinging to her hips. Andre looks through the crowd, analyzing the golden gowns draping from nearly every girl's hips and embracing their curves the same way it did Juliet's the night she drove over the bridge. The same gown I held in my hand, fantasizing about the worst night of my life has been replicated a hundred times over. And now as I stand on the rooftop of Rosewood Academy I realize the dress isn't the only reminder of Juliet.

"What the hell did you do?" Andre turns to Mateo, grabbing him by his shirt as he smirks at the crowd with a purple bruise resting underneath his left eye.

"I thought you dumbasses ran this school, but you haven't even asked the most important question. Why. . ." Mateo says, narrowing his eyes. "why would David Goulding, a man that craves family values waste his time looking for a killer instead of his own daughter? He still hasn't even talked to the police."

Andre takes a step forward, closing the gape between Mateo as a trail of dried up blood runs from his nostrils to his lower lip, clinging to Andre's knuckles. Somehow, I couldn't help thinking of all the times he had me corned against the wall with my blood on his hands, ready to strike again. He'd always tell me why he was kicking my ass but my mother's sins seemed to be the last reason he was willing to hurt me. I look at Mateo's furrowed eyebrows watching resilience rise from his eyes and I can no longer separate myself from him. I saw the way he walked with us, he closed his left eye in pain as he limped down the hallway but a look of somber never reached his eyes.

Andre reels his fist back while Mateo closes his eyes, mentally preparing for another blow. He opens them seconds later in surprise as he stares at my hand holding Andre's fist. "Asher, this bastard beat the crap out of me and when I begged them to stop he just looked the other way while my dad knocked me out." Andre whispers, breathing heavily.

"I know," I mutter, letting go his hand. "but I'm not Mateo. And Elijah may be your father, but you're nothing like him. Andre, we're better then this."

Andre glares at Mateo. "You're lucky I'm not my father." He says, walking further into the crowd with Charlie quietly following behind him.

Mateo glances at the crowd for a few seconds, watching Andre and Charlie disappear. "Look, you didn't hear this from me, but around the same time Juliet disappeared someone took four hundred million dollars out of David's bank account. The hacker sent a letter to David's secret location a few weeks ago, and it was the deed to a building. If them knowing his location wasn't bad enough they threatened to expose his drug empire, and all the skeletons they hid in the Scarlet Lounge."