Intertwined

Chapter 12

Someone is screaming bloody murder. It takes me a moment to realize that I'm the one doing it. There's a figure standing at the end of my bed, staring at me as I have been sleeping.

"Easy tiger," Asher's dry chuckle fills the room.

"What are you doing here?" I snap, grasping at my heart racing in my chest.

"Wow what's with the attitude?" he chuckles again, holding his hands up in front of him defensively. I scowl at him, earning me another chuckle. "Fine, I'll look past it," he says, as if he's doing me a favor.

I roll my eyes, before repeating my question from earlier: "What are you doing here?"

"Cutting right to the chase, huh?" he smiles smugly. "What happened to common courtesy?" he jokes.

"A creep broke into my bedroom and the idea vanished," I tell him dryly, earning me another smug smile. I expect to hear another obnoxious comment, but he keeps silent, much to my surprise.

His eyes travel around my room again, briefly and barely noticing anything, before they find mine again. The bright grey color is evident, even with distance between us. They stare into mine, saying everything and nothing at the same time, and I want to scream, because of the intensity of his stare.

"Can I sit?" he asks when the weight of the silence between us becomes too heavy to bare. I nod, expecting him to take a seat on the edge of my bed, but instead I watch him drop to the floor and disappear behind my bed. I move to lay on my stomach to better see him.

"What are you doing?" I ask perplexed.

"Sitting," he shrugs and tilts his head back against the bed to make eye contact with me again.

"Why don't you just sit on the bed?"

He shrugs. "I don't want to intrude on your privacy," he confesses and I'm unable to hold back the laughter that rolls off my lips.

"You don't want to intrude on my privacy, yet you keep breaking into my bedroom?" I ask between breaths, when my laughter dies down.

"Pretty much," he chuckles, seemingly having realized the absurdity of his own words. As his laughter dies down silence falls upon us and I turn my eyes from Asher's to focus on a lose thread in my comforter. Not having his intimidating eyes bore into mine makes being around him a whole lot easier.

"Why are you here?" I ask again after I lose interest in the lose thread.

"Honestly?" he asks and I glance up at him again, only to be met with a pair of intensive grey eyes watching me. I'm taking aback by the question. Would he lie to me?

"Yes please," I swallow.

Asher nods contemplating and shifts his eyes to the wall opposite of us. He bends his legs and rests his arms on his knees, taking his sweet time before having to answer my question. Then his eyes meet mine again and words I never expected to hear falls from his lips, "I came to see you."

I swallow. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to," he shrugs.

"But you just saw me?" It comes out more as a question than a statement; I'm too confused to make sense of anything. It seems to be a reoccurring thing with Asher around.

"I know," he sighs, his hands reaching up to rake through his hair. He seems to be doing that a lot lately. "It's fucking confusing," he exclaims and I cringe at his use of foul language. "Sorry," he apologizes quietly, quickly realizing his mistake.

"It's okay." My voice comes out soft and quiet. It's a complete contrast to the whirlwind of emotions inside of me. We still haven't discussed what happened last time he was in my bedroom, not to mention his confession from earlier. Even the thought of it, is too much, too heavy; everything about Asher seems to have gotten that way fast - too fast at that.

A week ago I would have never dreamed that Asher Hayes would be sitting on the floor of my bedroom. I had never spoken to him, never even dared to meet those beautiful eyes of his with my own. And now, a week into detention and three months from graduation, I find myself getting sucked into the force of nature that is Asher and I have no form of control over it.

"I need to ask you something," he says, breaking my train of jumbled thoughts. I keep silent and he seems to take that as his cue to continue. "Do you remember the last time I was here?" There it is; the question none of us had been brave enough to ask up until now. My eyes flicker from his to the lose thread and back, at the mentioning of that night.

"That depends on what you're referring to," I mumble shyly, not wanting to admit to having been obsessing over it since the moment he climbed out the window.

"You know what I'm talking about," he murmurs, his voice low and raspy.

I pull my bottom lip between my teeth and drop my gaze to the comforter again. "I thought you had forgotten," I admit shyly.

"Why?" he asks, perplexed, shifting so that he's no longer sitting with his back against the bed, but instead facing me. "Why would you think that?" he repeats, elaborating the question, when I don't reply.

My cheeks are burning when I finally meet his eyes with mine again. "Because I'm not as experienced," I whisper embarrassed.

His eyes flickers between mine, as if searching for something within the depths of them. "I don't care," he blurts, deepening my blush.

"Earlier, at the creek," I start to say, but he cuts me off just like he did earlier.

"It's okay, don't mention it." I'm about to protest; I want him to know how I feel, but something in his demeanor tells me that if I keep pushing the subject he won't stay for long, and now that I have him here, with me, again, I want to do anything to make the moment last. So I stay silent, earning me an appreciating nod from Asher.

"Can I stay?" he asks, softly. I nod, but stay quiet; I'm too tired to talk, surprisingly enough considering my nap. With drowsy movements I offer him a pillow from my bed, well knowing that he won't give up the spot on the floor in favor of the empty space on my bed.

I hear him move around on the floor, seemingly looking for the most comfortable way to lie, before he settles down. The sound of his deep breaths fills the silence in the bedroom and before I know of it I'm drifting off to the sound of them.