Ashes (Asher Adams-All American)

Chapter 1: Tired

Asher woke up to his alarm going off; he groaned pulling his exhausted body off the bed. It was still dark outside at 5:30. He quickly pulled on a pair of shorts and a hoodie. His dad was passed out on the couch. He almost laughed to himself at the scene; he took the remote and shut off the TV.

"Good morning, dad," he whispered.

He grabbed a protein shake and went out the door to his car to head to the gym. He walked into the dark weight room; a night shift janitor was just leaving.

"Mr. Adams, you are here early," the man looked at the boy.

"Grind can't stop," he smiled at him, "have a good day."

Asher got into his locker, staring at the case he put the steroids was lying in his bag. He promised Olivia he would stop; he knew how much it meant to her. He put them aside; he can do it. He's just as good with steroids as he was with, no matter what his dad told him. He jumped on the treadmill starting with a nice warmup. He was zoning out when he realized he ran three miles. He jumped off and started lifting. He struggled on the last set of his bench presses, and his mind thought of the drugs again. No, he can do it without it. He finished just in time for him to get ready before class. He took a shower, putting on jeans, a t-shirt, and a zip-up jacket. He walked upstairs to his locker where Olivia met him.

"Hey," Olivia wrapped her hands around his neck.

"Hey," Asher leaned against his locker,

"Are you okay?" she looked at him.

"Yes, I'm just tired, how about you?"

"Same," she smiled.

"Still can't sleep?"

"Not since the shooting."

"You should call me when you can't sleep," Asher looked at her brushing her hair out of her face.

"Thanks, Ash, but right now I think you need to get some sleep too."

"I'm fine, Liv," he chuckled.

Layla came over to talk to Liv about her new episode in her podcast, while Asher went off to class. He didn't have the heart to tell her his mom left again without even saying goodbye.
He went to class and sat down. He stared at the board ignoring the voices around him. He started tapping his leg, waiting for class to begin.

Jordan looked over at him, "you okay, man?"

"Yes, why?" Asher snapped at him.

"Sorry for my concern, you were staring at the board for five minutes while I was calling your name."

The teacher started to save him. He didn't even notice that he fell asleep when the next bell rang. Asher jumped out of his seat; Jordan looked over at him, before walking out.

"Asher," the teacher looked at him.

"I would like you to write a one-page summary on class today; you'll have to redo the readings since you slept the whole way through."

"Sorry," Asher mumbled, grabbing the work off of her.

He managed to stay awake during the rest of his classes until lunch. He should be hungry from skipping breakfast and leaving the protein shake untouched in his locker, but ever since stopping the steroids he just wasn't hungry. He avoided JJ trying to walk with him to lunch and grabbed his gym bag, planning on lifting for a little bit. He walked into the weight room.

"Asher, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in class?" Coach Baker came in early for the day.

"It's my lunch," he assured the man.