*Asher's pov*
What. The. Fuck. I couldn't even think of any words! Okay, let me roll back a bit.
After Hazel and I uh, held hands in that meadow, I realized how late it was and suggested we get back home. I drove us to our houses as we played music in the car like always.
But, I also realized something that night a few days ago. We held hands. That didn't sound like a big deal and it probably shouldn't have been, especially not to me. But it did for some crazy, unknown reason.
Maybe she had like, a condition where touching her made you tingle and feel all fuzzy inside. Or maybe I did! Nah, that probably wasn't it.
I just found it so weird that I could literally hook up with girls and not feel anything, but when I held hands with Hazel, I all of a sudden couldn't think straight.
Maybe I- nope. That wasn't it either. I could never like her like that. She was a nice girl, but that was all. It was probably just in the moment.
All these thoughts rolled around in my head as I copied down the math notes and payed absolutely no attention to Ms. Schrödinger.
"Mr. Grey, I'm sure whatever it is can be daydreamed about after class." She tapped on my shoulder with her ruler.
I went back to reality and mumbled,"Uh, yeah. Sorry, Ms. Schrödinger."
As she was about to continue speaking about the lesson, the bell rang signaling for lunch. She cursed and dropped into her desk chair.
As I entered the cafeteria, I walked over to the lunch table we'd been sitting at for the past like, two months.
I sat next to Liam and Honey. I was subconsciously avoiding Hazel. I needed to push away whatever that weird feeling was.
Hazel was sitting next to Anikah, but got up when she saw me sit down. Shit. I looked down at my lap when she sat down next to me.
She was about to say something until Violet came rushing to the table and saved me.
"Guys, you need to come see this!" She sounded panicked and frantic as she stormed off. The rest of us curiously followed.
Once we got to the lockers, we saw why Violet was so panicked. On what I guessed was Ivy's locker, stuck up a giant poster that said: I'm Ivy Jones and I like to wear slutty clothes and sleep with people's boyfriends! Right under the sentence was a picture of Ivy in a short miniskirt and crop top that some people might consider revealing. Either way, why was that anyone's business??
I looked over to see Ivy staring at the poster, obviously trying not to cry, before running off to the girls bathroom. We may not have known each other that well, but the guys and I were all starting to become friends with the girls which meant nobody messed with them.
I looked around and saw a crowd start to form and look at the poster. Eli and I ripped off the poster and threw it in a nearby trash can.
"Everyone, fuck off and mind your own goddamn business!" Eli yelled at the crowd as he ran after Ivy. I was going to follow until I realized he entered the girls' bathroom.
Oh? Eli didn't seem the least bit hesitant to follow after. The rest of the boys and I waited outside the bathroom with the girls.
*Eli's pov*
I ran into the bathroom after Ivy, not caring who was looking or that this was the girls' bathroom. Okay, so maybe I was a little worried that I'd accidentally see something I wasn't supposed to. But regardless, I went in.
I fucking swear, whoever did this is going to get it. Ivy wasn't a slut and everyone should stop thinking that! Besides, who are other people to just be judging girls like that?!
I knocked on the stall that had sniffles and stifled sobs on the other side.
"What do you want?" Ivy asked in a raspy voice.
"It's Eli." Once she heard my voice, she opened the stall and looked at me. Then she draped her arms over my shoulders as she cried into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and held her head.
"Hey, hey. You're okay." I said softly, trying to calm her.
"The whole school thinks I'm a slut!" She cried even harder as she choked through her words.
"It was only one poster and we ripped it down already." We were lucky that the person who did this was dumb enough to only put one poster up.
"But everyone saw it and they took pictures." She grew even quieter as she sniffled and I swear, at that moment, I just wanted to give her all I had, anything to make her happy again.
"Listen to me," I said as I put my hands on her head and lifted it up until we were looking at each other,"you are not a slut. The clothes you wear don't define the type of person you are and they can't call you a slut for that. If that were so, then so many celebrities, the ones that they look up to, would be considered sluts, too. But they're not. And they're idiots. They're jealous of you and they're putting other girls down to make themselves feel better. And for what? Nobody should put other people down for their own benefit. You are human and so are they. You both started the same way and you'll end the same way. Everything that comes in between is decided by you and it can be good or bad depending on the type of person you want to be. But at the end of the day, there's no reason to put others down, because we're all the exact same. We're all just tiny bags of flesh on a giant space rock in the middle of a never-ending universe."
She stared at me until her tears stopped and only left stains on her face. Then she started laughing. "Today was not the day for an existential crisis, Eli."
"There's my Cherry." I said as I pulled her closer to me.
"You really need to find a better nickname than that." I felt her laughter shake on my chest and everything felt better.
"Nah, Cherry's good." I laughed and kissed her.
*Asher's pov*
I got really impatient. "Ugh, let's just go in and check on her!"
"But Ash-" Ian was interrupted when I pushed the door open to find... Oh. My. God.
"What the...?" I said out loud as I stared at Eli and Ivy locking lips.
They turned and pushed each other away as they saw us all staring, dumbfounded.
"Ivy, you didn't tell me you and Eli were a thing!" Violet complained.
"Not any of us." Julia added.
"Why didn't you tell us?" We all asked.
"We wanted to keep it a secret, for a while at least. We just thought you guys might think it was weird if you knew." Ivy said as she played with the hem of her leather skirt.
"Are you kidding?" You guys are so cute!" Anikah yelped as she jumped up and down, waving Julia's arm around.
We all congratulated them until we realized we got off topic.
"Anyways, what happened? Why does it say you slept with someone's boyfriend?" Violet asked, careful not to make Ivy upset again.
"Well, during the summer, I hooked up with Sheyla Donner's boyfriend, Logan Delgado, at a party while they were broken up. However, she claimed him as hers even when they weren't together. Yesterday, she somehow found out about our hookup and went crazy. She's been wanting to get back with him, apparently, but he won't take her shit anymore. She thinks it's my fault, though."
Once we all heard who did this, we all left the bathroom in search for her. Ivy went after us asking in panic,"Wait, what are you guys gonna do?!"
"Don't worry, we just wanna 'talk'. That's all." Violet said with an expression on her face that showed that they weren't just gonna 'talk'.
Once we found Sheyla... it wasn't very pretty.
"What do the slut and the slut's friends want?" Sheyla asked as she saw us all approach.
"Look, we're going to try to be civilized here. You had no right to do what you did and-" Violet was cut off by Sheyla.
"Look, I don't have anything to do with you. So leave. Go along with your slut, your nerd, your gays, your sensitive little snowflake, and you with your home life issues." Oh, she hit hard there. She was making fun of the girls. The boys and I grew furious and were about to do something about it until something else happened, instead.
Violet closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw," she cursed under her breath,"I didn't think I would actually end up doing this. But you deserve it."
"Do what?" Sheyla asked. She found out what she meant when Violet punched her right in the face and got on top of her as she fell. She kept swinging until I was sure Sheyla had broken her nose and gotten two black eyes.
The girls, the boys, and I all stood there in shock and watched everything happen.
Two teachers came and pulled Violet off of her. When they did, she lowered her blood-stained fists and calmed down. As she was escorted to the office, she glared at Sheyla and her two little 'friends'.
We left Sheyla on the floor and were asked by the teachers to take the rest of the day off. So, we went to a nearby park and just hung out.
"I can't help but wonder what they're gonna do to Violet. I hope nothing bad." Ivy sighed. Her best friend beat up her enemy and was getting punished for it. Must've sucked.
"I'm sure it won't be too bad after what Sheyla did. She deserved it." Julia answered.
We all just sat there and talked for a while longer before we saw Violet walking towards us. We all sprang up and approached her.
"What happened?!"
"Did they suspend you?!"
"Or expel you?!"
"Are you getting arrested?!"
The string of questions were flung out at her until she put her hands up and stopped them all.
"No, no, no, and no. School's too shit to care about that. I just got lunch detention tomorrow." She waved around her green slip and grinned at us.
"Justice served right." Eli grinned back.
We all laughed at how the school handled the fight. Then for the next while, everyone just played at the empty park as if we were young kids again. Ivy and Eli were hanging from the monkey bars. Liam and Violet were making castles in the sandpit. Connor and Honey took turns on the slide. Ian was trying not to throw up after many rounds on the merry-go-round.
I saw Hazel on the swings by herself and decided to finally approach her. So much had happened and I hadn't had the chance to really talk to her since Friday. Well, that was probably because I tried avoiding her. I decided to just get it over with.
I sat on the swing next to her and said,"Hey."
"Hey."
It was silent for a few seconds until I turned to her and asked,"Why are we acting like something bad happened? We're acting as if someone died or we got into a fight or something. None of that happened though, so why are we having such a hard time?"
"I-I don't know! I just don't know how to talk about it or deal with it." She looked conflicted.
"Hazel, you don't have to be scared." I was feeling brave, so I said,"Look, I'm pretty sure what happened means something to you, right?" I looked at her, hopeful that she would get where I was going. I didn't even know how I felt, but maybe hearing her might help me understand myself.
"Yeah, it did! You're actually a really good friend and I had a fun time. I never expected I could have such a fun night with you." She smiled at me.
Did you hear that? I was a great friend. I was a great friend. Nothing more than that to her, I guess. What did I expect though? I mean, not that I cared. I didn't like her like that either way. Well, at least now I knew that whatever it was that I felt didn't matter. I decided to just push it down and ignore it until it went away.
To clear all that away from my mind, I jumped off my swing and went behind her. "I'll help you swing higher." I smirked as I pushed her. She went soaring high and yelped as she held on to the handles of the swing. Don't worry, if she fell, I'd catch her. Luckily, she didn't.
"Asher, I'm gonna fall!" She screamed as if she were being murdered. Eventually, I felt bad and slowed down her swing. I stepped in front of her as her swing swayed back and forth slowly.
I stared into her warm, honey brown eyes. "W-what?" She stammered as she tried to look away.
I put my hand under her chin and lifted her head back up to look at me. I smiled as I replied,"You're a great friend, too." Then, I kissed her on the forehead. That was the best I could do to feel okay before suppressing my feelings.
I felt warm inside and I could've sworn I saw her looking flustered. But it was... Friendly.
I sat back down on the swing, and we watched our idiotic friends playing around. I felt a sense of happiness in this. Just being here at this park with all of my friends... and Hazel. I looked at her and admired the baby hairs falling out of her bun.
Her eyes met mine and we both laughed. I made a mental note to stop thinking about that stuff or else I wouldn't be able to forget about it.
At sunset, we all left back home. As Hazel and I sat in my car together, we said our goodbyes. When we were about to get out of the car, Hazel turned back to me. "Asher?"
"Hmm?"
She leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "Bye." She smiled as she clumsily walked to her front door and I stupidly swayed to mine. I closed the door behind me and I felt all weird inside. I wondered if she felt the same way. I dismissed the thought, though. Because we're friends. Just friends.
A/N: Welp. They friend zoned each other. :| Still cute, though. This chapter was a freaking rollercoaster but I guess that's just how this story goes.ð I hope you liked this chapter! Please keep reading and vote! Bye lovelies!!!â¤â¤â¤
---Your author, Gen