(Before convo with Lina)
Yeah, I didn't go to school again.
And after my dad found out I didn't get into Princeton, he stopped caring about my school.
Which is a fucking blessing.
I was talking to Xander and Jess yesterday and they told me about Lina's audition.
She messed up.
Because of me.
Fuck! And she worked so fucking hard on her audition.
"Do you wanna see the piece I'm gonna perform?" She asks while banging her pointe shoes on the floor.
"Hell yeah!" I laugh before taking a seat in one of the corners of the studio.
Most of Lina and I's dates this past month have been in this studio.
She has begun practicing her routine and she wants it to be "fucking perfect" (her words not mine).
She said she wouldn't show it to me until she was 100% confident with it.
I guess that day is today.
She's currently wearing a black long-sleeved leotard with a little pink skirt and matching pink pointe shoes, her hair is in a perfect slick bun.
She finally puts on her shoes and begins to walk around on the tips of her toes.
"Does that not hurt?" I ask.
"You get used to it." She shrugs.
I kinda want to try.
It looks fun.
"Do you wanna try?" She asks.
I swear she can read my mind sometimes.
"Yes!" I cheer before walking over to her.
She walks out of the room and comes back with a large pair of pointe shoes.
"Do I have to wear those?" I sigh.
"Unless you feel like breaking your toes, I recommend you wear them." She giggles.
I love her laugh.
I love her.
I sigh before putting them on.
"Ow! My fucking toes are squished."
"Yep, that's normal." She laughs.
"Alright, now what?" I ask.
She takes my hand and leads me to a bar next to the mirror.
"Grab the bar and stand on your tippy-toes." She instructs.
I grab onto the bar for dear life and try to stand on my tiptoes.
"Holy shit babe, how do you do this?"
"I've been doing this for over a decade babe." She laughs.
Jesus, ballerinas have definitely earned my respect.
I quickly take off the torture devices and chuck them across the floor.
"I wanna try something else."
"What?"
"Can I try to lift you?" I ask.
She laughs before instructing me on what to do.
When she starts running towards me, I manage to lift her up but then I lose my balance and end up falling and taking her down with me.
She lands on top of my chest and we both start laughing.
"Not bad Ash."
"I was incredible, excuse me."
"Oh, my bad." She rolls her eyes.
I quickly lean up and place my lips on hers.
This moment right here...fucking perfect.
There's no way she isn't going to Julliard.
I immediately called the school and got a hold of the dance department.
I do the best impression of my father and basically demand that they give her another audition.
Yes, I know it was an asshole move of me to threaten them but she deserves this spot.
I told them to keep this anonymous and to just tell her that the judges thought she deserved another audition.
After the call, I got a text from Madison saying that Lina was about to talk to her.
My heart immediately plummets to my ass and now I have to wait until their conversation.
I mean if she's talking to Madison, it probably means she'll want to talk to me as well.
Fuckity fuck.
After 20 minutes, I received another text.
Thinking it's Madison, I don't think twice about opening the message.
Except it's not from Madison, it's from Lina.
Can we talk?
I quickly replied.
Of course. When and where?
Charlie's bakery at 4?
Okay.
Well, here goes fucking nothing.
(After convo with Lina)
Well, that conversation definitely did not go how I wanted.
Like at all.
But, seeing her face light up after she got the call from Julliard definitely made it a little less shitty.
At least her future is set and stone.
As for me...I have no fucking clue.
When I get home, I immediately make my way to the handy dandy liquor cabinet and grab my best friend.
The tequila.
My sister and Jesse's sisters are all having a sleepover at their friend Nova's house so I don't have to worry about her finding me passed out.
My dad's in London for a meeting which leaves me here alone.
Thank god.
As I'm making my way upstairs with the alcohol, I couldn't help but stop at my dad's office again.
Why is he always here?
I mean how much work could he possibly have?
I look around to see if the security cameras are on and to my surprise, they're not.
I drunkenly stumble in, place the bottle on one of the tables and walk over to the other side of the desk.
Each of the cabinets is locked but I've picked the lock so many times.
I twist around a paper clip and shimmy it around until I hear a click.
I immediately come in contact with a shit ton of manila folders.
I start to skim through each of the folders but stop when I find the side of the drawer broken.
It wasn't like that before.
Out of curiosity, I reach over to the broken piece of wood and tug it causing a few more manila folders to fall out.
Why would he be hiding these?
I open one of the folders and skim through it.
The words "tampered with evidence" and "lawsuit" are what caught my eyes.
Holy shit!
Dad's getting sued?
I look over the other folders and they're all lawsuits.
Some of them say that my dad paid off witnesses so he would win his case.
Others say he tampered with evidence to blame the opposite party.
Jesus Christ.
How many secrets does this fucker have?
He's put innocent people in jail? Just to win a case?
What the fuck!
I continue reading over the files and find even more shady shit.
My dad's been involved with drug dealers?
I feel like I'm in fucking Narcos or something.
There was a letter from a woman cursing at my father and wishing him dead after he sent her innocent husband to jail.
There were envelopes full of money.
There were pictures of crime scenes before cops were even at the scene.
What kind of fucking lawyer is he?
The last thing truly haunted me.
It was a CD with a disturbing video from one of his trials.
In the video, the verdict had been announced and the man who was not being represented by my father had been found guilty.
The man's family started screaming and breaking down crying while my father and the man he was representing were just laughing amongst themselves.
The man started screaming at my father saying he had framed him.
That caused my father's smirk to drop.
No one believed the man though, he was just dragged out of the courtroom without being given the chance to say goodbye.
His wife and daughter were on the floor desperately begging their lawyer to do something.
My father dared to go up to the family and wish them his condolences with a smile.
A malicious smile.
The women lunged at him and almost tackled him to the floor.
She starts cursing at him in another language and that's when the video ends.
I know my father and I know when he's not being genuine.
He was lying on that tape.
He did something bad and no one even questioned him.
First mom and now innocent families?
He needs to be stopped.
----------Author's Note----------
Holy shit! Another reason to hate Asher's dad.
Are we surprised by any of this? No.
We expected it.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
-Pradabagg
Word Count: 1224