Halo

Chapter 1

Asher Jones did not know how to be nice. Not to girlfriends. Not to kids. Not even to a puppy. Asher Jones was a jerk with a capital J. That was why I avoided him at all costs. He was mean, but he looked like an angel. How could someone be an angel and a demon at the same time? How could he have the looks of something God-like and yet act like Satan's right-hand-man? It was almost as if his mother was an angel and his father was a demon.

Asher Jones had a face I could stare at for years. His big eyes were charcoal gray framed by thick, dark eyelashes. The angles of his jaw and cheekbones were sharp like he'd been cut from stone. His full lips rarely smiled, and when they did, they were only smirking. He was sadistic. Smiling at pain. Laughing at misery.

His body–damn, his body–I could stare at even longer than his face. Growing up in the same school, I knew for a fact he played a lot of sports. The more the merrier. More chances to hurt someone. Let out some anger. He stuck to football a lot in our high school years, though he played baseball in the spring and summer. Not much of a basketball fan. Same for tennis and the like. Less chances to hurt someone. He was a good runner. Fast. He ran around town. Same course every other day.

My demise began in my college-level chemistry class. Another lab. Another lab partner. I dreaded my time as the teacher called out the pairs. I cringed when I was paired with Asher. He looked confused, as if he didn't know I even existed, let alone existed in his chemistry class. We didn't talk much. Got straight to work. Asher smiled a lot which was an oddity in itself. I wondered what was going on in his head. Somehow I knew it couldn't be good.

One of my friends gave me a pat on the back as consolation as we hurried out of class. I knew he was glad it wasn't him paired with the sadist. I would be too. We were quiet as we walked on through the loud hallways to second period. I had Latin. Not with Asher, thank God.

Course, just because he wasn't in the room doesn't mean he wasn't in my head. I couldn't stop thinking about him. Everything about him. I wasn't paying attention when the teacher called on me. Talk about embarrassment. I ran out of that class when it was over.

But the entire day, Asher freaking Jones haunted my every thought. Good thoughts. Happy, cute, romantic-like thoughts. Bad thoughts. Inappropriate thoughts. I couldn't make myself listen to the lunchtime chatter of my best friends. Too busy thinking about Asher taking me to dinner. It was annoying. It was weird. It was downright unprecedented and pretty damn unwelcome.

The day wasn't over soon enough. I nearly wrecked on the drive home. Didn't hear my mother ask how my day was. Forgot to take my younger sisters to cross-country practice. Asher Jones was driving me insane. I decided this needed to end. First of all, he was in a relationship with a sophomore that had the entire cheerleading squad under her command. Blond, scrawny, and a cheerleader? I couldn't compete with that. Did I even want to compete with that?

I hopped in the shower after dinner. Straight to bed. Did my homework in study hall somehow. My strange brain gave me a partial break. Then came the nightmares. They were either really good nightmares or really bad good dreams. Too much of both to have a name. About Asher. Of course. Why wouldn't they be?

Every time I closed my eyes, he was there. So I didn't sleep. Tossed. Turned. Tossed again. Turned again. Sat up. Lied down. Walked around the silent house.

A knock on the door. My imagination. Or so I thought. I heard it again. Then again. More urgent with each rap, though nobody else in the house heard. I made sure the chain was bolted on the door before unlocking it and opening it.

"Hi," his voice was too fresh in my head. How the hell did Asher Jones know where I lived? My tired brain didn't ponder it. "Can we talk?"

"It's three in the morning. Make it quick."