Grade11 crush | ✓

25

"Do one thing that scares you everyday and you won't be scared to face your fear anymore"

***

''Australia?'' I raised an eyebrow looking at the brochure Katie gave me. ''You want to move to Australia?''

She smiles, ''yeah, it looks nice, doesn't it?'' Aaron snatches the brochure from my hands and studies it. ''Just what I thought,''

''What?''

''It is nice,'' I deadpanned myself for scoring myself idiots of friends. Speaking of friends, here we have another one. The one who's quietly eating in his own little world and distracting himself with his salad. There's no doubt Asher is feeling weird about all of this but Aaron told me that he would come to his senses soon and to just give him some time.

I get that being friends is something he never expected I'd say, but because of what happened, this is all I can offer him. My friendship.

''It's so hot in here,'' Katie whines dragging up the sleeve of her white shirt. It's when I notice another bruise that had formed on her arm, and so did Aaron and Asher. Katie notices the stares that she received and it looked like she wasn't trying to show it to us, in fact – she forgot. ''I fell,''

''Again?'' Asher asks annoyed, tilting his head to the side.

''Yes, again Asher. Let's drop it,'' Katie replies sternly. I look at Asher but he looks away, Aaron sighs beside me and kicks the empty chair beside him in frustration.

Katie looks at Aaron worried, then she grabs her purse and gets up from her seat. ''I think I'm going to go,'' it's not long after she exits the door that Aaron follows her out. That leaves me and Asher alone at the café booth. I grab the straw that's floating in my drink and stir my lemonade around. ''Nice weather today, huh?''

Asher shakes his head, ''Crystal...''

''No, Asher.'' I brushed my palms together, ''My friendship is all I can offer you and if you can't accept it then I'm sorry,'' I explain. I wait for him to raise his chin, and eventually he does. I'm glad to see the smile is resting peacefully on his lips and his eyes shine, no trace of guilt or anger hidden in them. There were some of it there but he was getting really good at hiding it. ''Okay, let's do this,'' he breathes out.

''So what do you want to do, friend?'' I smile. Asher runs a hand through his hair and rise up to his feet. He takes a quick sip of his drink before walking out of the door. I quickly follow him out after paying for my drink and catch up with his long steps.

''Where are we going?'' I question squinting my eyebrows together. The sunglasses that I have on my head falls down to my eyes and protects me from the bright sun.

''We are going to the beach,''

''Why?''

''Don't question my actions, just follow them."I ignore the butterflies that develops in my stomach when his hand gently brushes mine when he walks away.

I would've lied big time if I told you that my feelings were completely erased, because they're not.

I'm scared to get hurt again.

That's why I did what I did.

And spending the day alone with Asher isn't going to be easy at all, and it doesn't make things better. The picture of him actually kissing another girl is still there and it flashes my thoughts every second.

Aaron must've taken his own car because the parking spot didn't have his car parked anywhere. The only cars there were Asher's car and a few other small cars. "Do you want me to drive?" I suggest.