Chapter 3 - three and a half seconds too long

    Pollux rushes over to the second-floor window and finds his junior waiting by the sidewalk.

    Aster stands up from her chair and follows after her brother, "Is he outside?"

    "Yep. I mean I knew he was gonna come along, but I didn't know it was today."

    She approaches her brother and stands beside him, brushing aside the curtain blocking her view, expecting nothing but another boy whose name she'll forget about an hour from now but she was instead met by a hard pound in her chest the moment she laid eyes on him. She sees a boy, preoccupied with his phone. He had short golden brown hair, carelessly tied up from the top of his head, he was wearing a baggy sweatshirt, had his backpack hanging from one side, and there was something on his mouth that she couldn't quite make out. 'Is that a cigarette? Ugh, more importantly, what the hell was that.' She thought.

    "Hold on a sec." Pollux typed 'i see u' on his phone and the boy immediately looked up to the window and greeted them with a big wave and a wide grin.

    Pollux waved back while Aster tried her best not to care and walk back to the dining room, "He's seriously waaay too happy at 5:00 am." She grimaced.

    "Well then, perhaps you can learn a thing or two from him, honey," Grace smirked, wiping a bead of sweat from her hairline.

    "Yeah sis, you're seriously waaay too grumpy at 5:00 am" Pollux added.

    She rolls her eyes, "Whatever, I'm getting my stuff." As she went upstairs to grab her bag, her mind wandered back to the golden-haired boy waiting for them right now across the street. She places a hand on her chest and lets out a sigh. 

    'What was that? That's never happened before. It's like my organs all collectively decided to jump and scare the living hell out of me. Sh*t, Am I having heart problems?”

    She shakes her head and growls, 'Whatever it was, that guy's bad news for sure. Best to avoid him.'

    She slings her bag in one arm and rummages through her table to find her favorite pen that Xav gave her three years ago. She grabs a sticky pad and doodles squiggly lines on it to test the ink. 

    "Ugh, seriously?" She twists the base of the pen and swiftly refills it.

    "Aster, 5 seconds and I'm really leaving you behind!" Pollux shouted from the living room.

    "Fine! Just go!" She snarls, quickly changing keychains before rushing towards the door.

    She was met by Pollux who had just finished tying up his shoes, "I'd have left you if I weren't such a great brother."

    She rolls her eyes and slips into her penny loafer shoes.

    When they crossed the street, a tiptoeing boy greeted them with the flashiest smile she's ever seen, cherry lollipop sticking out of his mouth, "Gooood morning, captain! Gooood morning, ma- oh."

    Aster has no words for what she felt when their eyes first met. All the noises of the world became muffled, incoherent static, slowly fading into nothingness. Her surroundings gradually became blurry until all she could see was the insufferable golden-haired boy.

    It was electric. It was a rush of heat wave slowly making its way up from her chest, to the tips of her ears and to her head, effectively shutting down her every thought in mere seconds. A tingling sensation that coursed through every vein in her body, making her fingertips stretch out, toes curl and body shiver under the gaze of the morning sun. She couldn't move, she couldn't speak, she couldn't think. It was as if she's lost all control of her senses, like someone, or something who's been lying dormant from within her has taken over, commanding her body to do things she didn't intend to. 

    All she could see, hear and smell was him. He was her everything for three and a half seconds.

    Three and a half seconds too long.

    When she was brought back to reality, she was mere inches away from his face, she could smell lemon zest shampoo from his hair and cherry mint from his mouth. Some people smell good too but not this good, there's something different about his scent that she can't quite put a finger on.

    "You're preffy" The boy mumbled, innocently sucking on his lollipop.

    Her eyes widened and she instinctively shoved him away, perhaps a bit too forceful, at least enough to make him shriek in pain and clutch on his ribs.

    "OW! WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?" He yelped.

    "YOU."

    "THE HELL DID I DO?"

    "Listen, if you want to live to see another day, stay away from me." She gives him a light punch on the rib, "Oof, what-"

    "Got it?" She cuts him off. She doesn't know why he has that kind of effect on her but she hates it.

    "Nuh-uh, not until you tell me what I did, cause if I recall, you were the one who was just inches away from stealing my first kiss!" He huffs and crosses his arms.

    "No, I wasn't!" She was simultaneously flustered and frustrated, it's driving her insane.

    "Yeah, you were. Y'know I thought I wouldn't mind losing my first kiss to a pretty girl like you but on second thought, I'd want to kiss someone less grumpy." He grinned.

    "Say kiss one more time, and you can kiss your limbs goodbye." She growled.

    "Oh yeah?" Khai takes a step closer to Aster and looks down on her teasingly, "I'd like to see you try."

    "Heeey, easy there." Pollux nervously chuckles and sets Aster aside, "Hey, what's up with you today?" He was scared for the naive boy, unaware of the fact that her threats were far from empty.

    "I don't know but I don't like that guy." She scowled.

    "Well too bad for you because he's walking with us every day from now on." Pollux sighed, 'This isn't going to end well.'

    "w h a t ?" He's never seen Aster's eyes so wide. He raises his hands up in defence, 'Should I make a run for it?'

    "Ahaha, well he doesn't live far from here and he says he has a lot to ask about soccer so I told him he could walk with us to school together and ask away..." He says through a sorry smile, scratching his head.

    "And you didn't ask me." She gave him a menacing stare, "w h y ?"

    He gulped, "W-well I didn't think you'd mind, and besides, I need to build a good rep now that I'm captain!" He heaved, "You don't have to converse with him if you don't wanna, just please let the guy stay. Besides, it is true that he hasn't done anything wrong." He gave her a pleading look.

    Her brows furrowed, "One wrong move and I'm sending him to the moon."

    Pollux nods, "Deal."

    "Sooo, do I get a say in this or-" Khai interjected.

    "Nope." They replied in unison.

    "Gotcha."