10

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

"You know what my favourite thing about Friday's are?" Bella's cheery voice rang out, as she placed her purple water bottle on the lunch table. It was our first day eating back in the cafeteria, after spending all week in the courtyard on our lunch breaks.

"If you don't say our movie nights together, I'm going to tell your mom where you really were on Monday night." Isla responded in a deadly tone.

"Good thing that was exactly what I was going to say." Bella replied with a wink.

"How's that going, anyways?" I asked, Bella had finally went out with Jake, which apparently went well enough that she spent the night at his place. She told her mom we were having a sleepover at my house.

Bella's face scrunched up. "Honestly I think it was a one and done."

"Wait, why? You were just gushing about him on Wednesday?" I asked her, remembering her saying how well the night went.

"I know, I know. It was fun but since then it's just been boring. All he talks about is football." Bella said as she took a bite of her salad.

"Yeah, well, that's what you get when you sleep with the football team, Bells." Isla teased, peering down at her phone.

"You make it sound like I've slept with the whole team. It's only been two." Bella defended herself.

I raised my eyebrow, "three."

"Peter doesn't count, Indie." Bella replied hastily.

"And why is that?" Isla asked her.

"I didn't finish." Bella muttered, rolling her eyes.

I laughed, bringing a hand up to clutch my open mouth. "I don't think that's how it works, Bells."

Bella cocked her head at me, staring me down. "Virgins don't get to tell me what counts." Isla cackled at that.

"Leave the virgin alone, Bella. It's admirable." Isla said through her giggles, turning to rest her hand on my arm, her voice turning faux sweet. "I think it's very admirable, Indie."

"Why the fuck am I friends with you two, again?" I groaned, feeling the blush on my cheeks.

"Because you're obsessed with us." Isla hummed out, to which I just rolled my eyes. "Face it, till death do us part."

"Shit, Isla. We have to go. We have to go set our project up before our presentation." Bella muttered as she glanced at the time on her phone.

My eyes narrowed as I eyed my two best friends. "You're leaving? You're going to make me sit here alone?" The panic was evident in my voice.

"Calm down Indie, you'll be fine without us for fifteen minutes." Isla said as she started to gather her things.

"Will I, though?" I whined at them. They just snickered at me before leaving me all alone and walking out of the cafeteria.

"Some friends they are." I whispered to myself, pulling out a copy of my favourite book, The Cay. I had read it for English class in my freshman year, and had read it many times since then. I had recently started it from the beginning again, so I continued where I left off and soon became lost in the plot.

"Indie Adams." I glanced up to see Asher sitting in the seat across from me.

"Asher..." I trailed off, not remembering his last name. He tilted his head to the side, not offering his last name, narrowing his eyes at me. I clenched my jaw down as I tried to remember it.

"Asher Trayton!" I finally exclaimed, feeling proud of myself.

Asher chuckled, "Trenton, but I'll give you an A for effort."

I bit down on my lip, before smiling at him. "I was pretty close though."

"Hence the A for effort, Indie. Keep up." Asher rolled his eyes.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Asher Trenton?" I eyed him suspiciously.

Asher drummed his fingers on the table. "I just wanted to check in. How's the photography project coming?"

"You couldn't get that information from Chase?" I asked him, confused. Asher was one of those people that was hard to get a read on.

"I mean, I could but he's busy. He's super busy, lately. You know how it is." Asher continued. "So how's it going?"

"Um, it's going fine. We haven't worked on it since Monday night, besides class." I answered, shrugging at him.

"Right. How was Monday night?" He asked.

"It was fine. I think. Why? Did Chase say something?" I frowned thinking I said something to offend him.

"He relayed the events to me, in great detail. Yes." Asher said as he was still eyeing me.

"Okay. So why are you asking?" I had no idea what was going on.

"What do you think of Chase?" Asher pressed his palms together and pointed them at me.

"What do I think of Chase? He's fine. Why?" It was my turn to eye him now.

"Elaborate." Asher ordered.

I had to let out a laugh at his weird behaviour. "Elaborate? Okay. Hmm. He's nice, well nice-ish, sometimes now. He was a bit of a dick to me when we first started, I don't think he liked me much." I frowned at the memory of our first encounter. "He's pretty shy..."

Asher cut me off. "Shy? You said he's shy?" His tone was surprised.

"Um yeah. Except when he's talking about photography. Otherwise I would say he's a shy person." I sipped my water.

"Interesting. Interesting." Asher muttered. "Well, see you." He abruptly stood and walked away without a second glance.

I was left in pure confusion.

***

"So, I had an interesting experience with Asher today." I told Chase, as we were sitting in Photography class together, working on ideas for the project.

Chase's head snapped up from the paper he was writing on. "What do you mean?"

I sat back in my chair, stretching my arms over my head, noticing Chase's eyes snap down to my exposed midriff before finding my gaze again. "He was asking me about the project, about you."

Chase groaned and looked back to his paper, muttering something under his breath that I didn't catch.

"Anything I should know? You're not in the middle of psychotic break, and I should be monitoring you for signs of abnormal behaviour?" I teased at him.

"Uh- no. Nope." Chase stammered out, still looking at his paper. "Asher is just a weird guy. You should stay away from him."

I giggled. "You're not serious." I stated.

He looked back up at me, before smiling. "No, I'm not serious."

"He seems like a nice guy." I said.

"Uh- yeah. He's okay." His eyes scanned my face. "You into him?"

I starting laughing, my eyebrows shooting up. "Am I into Asher?" Chase nodded, watching me intently. "Oh. You're serious?" Chase just nodded again. "No, I'm not into Asher. I barely know him. Besides, I don't think he's quite my type."

He seemed to accept my answer, turning back towards his work.

***

"You know, they really went 0-100 on these movies," I began, taking a handful of popcorn from the bowl in front of me. "They start off as simple street racers, and now they're secret government agents who save the world from what are basically human supervillains. I mean it's totally unrealistic."

"Not to mention the whole jumping cars out of planes thing." Isla agreed, her head resting on my lap. We were having our weekly movie night ritual, as always.

"Right, but how hot is Vin?" Bella muttered from the other couch, her eyes stuck on the screen.

"Do you think Vin Diesel as a person is hot though, or is Dominic Toretto the hot one?" I asked, lost in the thought.

Bella shot me a dirty look. "They're the same person, idiot."

"No, I see what Indie's saying. It's the persona his character plays that's hot. Vin by himself? No thanks." Isla agreed with me.

I glanced at my phone which had started vibrating on the coffee table in front of me, confused when Chase's name flashed across the screen. I leaned forward and answered it.

"Chase?" I answered.

"Asher actually."

"Asher? Is Chase okay?" I can't think of another reason why Asher would be calling me from Chase's phone.

"Oh yes. He's perfect actually. I am calling to invite you to a party."

"Party?" I repeated.

Isla's face perked up like she was a dog that just heard her owner say 'walk'.

"Yes, a party." Asher confirmed. "You know, to return the favour from last weekend. Bring the girls, since you're no doubt with them."

I mentally ran down the list of parties we had been invited to tonight. "Who's party? Hunter's? Gabriella's? Matt's?"

"None of the above, sweetheart. This party is quite underground." Asher answered.

"Underground?" Bella's face perked up this time. Bella was such a trendsetter, hearing anything described as underground was like hitting the goldmine.

"Listen, I don't have time to play parrot, Indie. I just sent you a pin of my location." His voice then became distant, like he had pulled the phone away from his face. "What bro? No, I'm just calling my mom. My phone died. Okay, bye mom." He hung up.

I pulled my phone down, bewildered, looking at Bella and Isla.

"What was that?" Bella asked.

"That was Asher, inviting us to a party. Which he described as 'underground.'" I glanced at the pin he sent me, noticing it wasn't far from where Chase lived. "On the outskirts of town."

"Well, that's mysterious." Isla said. I glanced between their faces.

"So?"

We dug through my closet, unsure what the dress code is to this so called underground party. Bella was taking the lead, flicking through the hung up garments.

"Try this." She threw a piece of fabric at me. "With this." She threw me a jacket.

"Yes, sergeant." I gave her a sarcastic salut and went to change in my bathroom. She had chosen a classic little black dress, with lace trim. I pulled it on, and added the oversized white denim jacket she paired with it. I looked in the mirror, amazed at how easily Bella can pull a perfect outfit together in just minutes. I straightened my hair, styling it into a high ponytail before pulling a few strands out to frame my face. I walked back into my room, noting that Bella had pulled outfits for the both of them as well.

"Aren't you glad we're all the same size?" Bella said as she admired herself in my mirror.

"I want those back, Bella. You too, Isla." I muttered, remembering the last time that they wore my clothes to a party. I had to hunt the items back from their own closets.

"Now sit, so I can do both of your faces." Bella ordered. She was certainly bossy tonight.

***

"You sure this is the place?" Isla muttered from the passenger seat, as we were creeping along a winding, dark road. The houses had stopped popping up a few minutes ago, and we were surrounded only by trees now.

"Oh, look." Bella said, leaning forward and pointing to a dirt turn off. "Do you think Asher lured us here to kill us?"

"Definitely possible." I said as I pulled off the main road, thankful I was driving my Range Rover and not my mom's Mercedes convertible like Isla suggested. My anxiety eased as the road led to a small makeshift parking lot that housed 10 or so parked cars. I pulled into a space, and shut the car off, looking around.

"What now?" Isla asked warily. I brought my arms up in a shrug.

"Call Chase." Bella said.

"I don't think Chase was the one who invited us. Asher pretended like he was talking to his mom." I muttered.

"So we're crashing?" Isla wiggled her brows, her expression dripping in amusement, her mouth forming into a sly grin.

"Oh, we're definitely crashing." I confirmed.

"Call Chase and ask for Asher." Bella ordered, "I'll do it." She leapt forward and grabbed my phone from the centre console, she tapped on it and then put it on speaker.

Ring, ring, ring. "Indie?" Chase's surprised voice answered.

"It's Bella, actually. Sorry to bug you Chase, I need to talk to Asher. I need, uh, movie advice."

"Movie advice?" Chase repeated.

"Yes, Chase, movie advice. Is he there or not?"

"Uh yeah. One second. Hey! Yo Asher." He yelled, "It's Bella. She wants movie advice." Asher's voice came through the phone now. "Oh yeah, bro I was telling her about this movie I saw last year. I'm just going to take this over here." He was silent for a couple minutes. "Okay, go."

I spoke now, "Asher, where the fuck are we? We're in some weird parking lot."

"Oh. Good. Okay, hang tight. I'll be there soon." Beep.

"This is the weirdest night of my life, and it hasn't even started." Isla said.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net