I reared backwards in my chair at Asher’s words. He couldn’t be serious? How many other boyfriends do you have? Immediately his hands came up, palms forward in a defensive position. Yet his face remained blank. And a blizzard raged in his eyes. “I’m not judging you, I swear,” he said, voice tight
I couldn’t breathe. Aimee knew who I was. Aimee knew I was pregnant. “Hey! Hey, it’s okay.” Aimee placed her hand on my shoulder. “Breathe with me, alright?” I did as she asked, following as she exaggerated each breath, in and out. In and out. Eventually, slowly, my panic subsided into moderate a
I felt embarrassed that Joseph was the father. If it had been Asher… It didn’t matter now. “Friends don’t pry,” Aimee said, giving me a soft smile. I was grateful to her. I wondered if, as a friend, she wouldn’t mind doing something else for me. “Say, Aimee. There’s this challenge tonight…” I wo
Asher drugged? That would explain the way his eyes couldn’t seem to hold focus, and why he could barely stand on his own. He didn’t just look weaker, he was weak. I doubted he could even throw a punch like this. Had something been in the water? Was that why he had smacked the bottle out of my hand
Suddenly I remembered a conversation in months past, when Asher had made me call an Academy Academic Advisor. That advisor had told me that the Academy supported students who solved their own problems. Would they even do anything if we told them Asher had been drugged? Or would they take it as a si
“You can do this, Asher!” I screamed as loud as I could. “I believe in you!” I wasn’t sure he’d be able to hear me over the jeers and shouts of the crowd. Yet his body seemed to perk at my support. He stood straighter and sturdier. Joseph’s face paled. His eyes widened in surprise. Then Asher pu
With the greatest secrecy, the team carried out their plans, and successfully brought Asher to his room without anyone else catching on. After they lowered his body onto his bed, they started to file out of the room. As they walked past me, they glanced at me with differing looks. Some concerned, s
“Cynthia, I…” I leaned in closer, hands pressed into the edge of his mattress. I’d do anything to hear what he was going to say, short of crawling into the bed of him. Because it sure seemed like he was about to reveal how he truly felt about me. Eyes closed, he opened his lips, as if to speak.