Asher's POV

I walk down the hall to art, Hana not by my side. I must say it is kind of calm without her constantly laughing and talking. But I still would like for my best friend to be hanging out with me than ditching me for a boy.
I push up against the lockers, as I make my way to art when a body is slung into them a few inches from me. Their elbow collides into my cheek making pain shoot through my face and my muscles to tense. I curse as I grab my jaw and step away from the fight. People begin to cheer them on, their yells echoing through my ears making the pain much worse." Hey are you okay?" Someone asks, as the world slightly spins around me. I blink my eyes rapidly to get a good look at the fight. Come one Asher. You can't miss this.
I try to ignore the ache of my face, as I try to get a glimpse of the fight and stand on my tip toes to get a better look." Hey. Did he hit you?" They ask again and I blink away the blurry vision in my right eye and look over at them.
"Yeah." Is all I say to the boy in shaded glasses with dark hair and try to get a glimpse of the fight. My face is jerked away from the fight to the boy who talked and I hear a slight gasp before I'm pulled away from the crowd.
"Hey what are you doing? I need to watch the fight!"
"I'm taking you to the nurse. And how do you think you can possibly watch the fight with only one good eye?" He says and I squint at the familiarity of his voice. Where have I heard that voice from.
"With that good eye obviously. And I don't want to see the nurse. I want to see the two kings of the jungle fight for their territory!"
I hear a chuckle before I'm pulled into a cold room, and a door is shut behind me." Stay here." He orders and I'm left in the weird little room with two seats against the wall. A hand grabs a hold of mine before I'm took to a much colder room, that smells like Clorox and cardboard.
"What happened?" The lady asked and I recognize it as none other than our school nurse.
I open my mouth to speak but the boy I haven't quite got a look at, speaks." There was a fight in the hallway and one of the boys was thrown into her."
"A fight?" She asks incredulous and I look at her fully. Her red hair glows under the light of her office, which suits her bright green eyes and light complexion. I always wanted red hair. So what if people made fun of me and said I was soulless or the devils spawn. It's just be another thing to put on the popular kids lists of insults. She pauses before shaking her head and says,"Never mind. Right now I need to focus on you. Lay down and face the opposite direction of me."
I hop onto the little bed and do as instructed, with a pair of helping hands from mystery boy. I look away from her, making my right bruised eye easy to see for her. The figure in front of me sits in a chair and I realize it isn't that my vision is bad but he's just wearing all black. He scoots up to me and I freeze when I see who he is. His jaw sharply moves into his hair which is perfectly done in his signature messy look, while his icy blue eyes seem to find their way though his tinted shades and stare into mine. Sebastian Cole Devins. The schools bad boy. I glare at him and his stupid helpfulness. Fingers slightly touch the place I was hit at and I hold in a wince, as she adds pressure to it." Does this hurt?"
"Like a mother trucker." I say in gritted teeth and she takes her fingers off.
"I'll check your ears for any signs of bleeding but you seem to be fine.... Do you want me to call your parents just in case?"
"My moms at work..." And it's hard to tell where my dad is at the moment. He's my best choice right now though." My dad should be free though."
She nods and I avoid all contact with Cole as much as I can. I feel light warm up my ear before the little tool is stuck into my ear letting the nurse see closer into my ear." What's he doing? And Cole get some ice- it's in that freezer over there." He raises up, making his cologne fly everywhere including up my nostrils. This would be the part where I would say he smelt heavenly and I would admit how I've had a small crush on him, but that's not going to happen. I mean yes he smells good but I still wish he'd just get away....After he brings me the ice.
"I have no idea." I answer truthfully. I'm not going to lie and say he's at some imaginary office and when he answers the phone, music will be blasting and people grunting as they work out. And the gym is the most likely place he would be at.
"So you have no clue as to where your father may be?" I scowl at the wall, her judgmental words echoing through my head. I doubt even my father even knows where he's going to go when he wakes up in the morning, so how can I?
"No. Just like you had no idea where your three ex husbands were when they were banging your coworkers." A gasp is heard but it's drowned out by a deep chuckle that belongs to none other then the devil himself." Don't go running for the ball if you can't play the game." I tell her as I raise up from my laying position and grab the ice bag that Cole reaches out to me.
"So call your father then?" Her voice breaks at the end and I frown as she walks over to her table and picks up her phone." His number's in the file right?" I nod and she searches through her computer before punching it into the phone. Hopefully he actually brought that phone with him today. My father has a total of five phones, all of which are used for different reasons and are changed annually. He's a very wanted man, by who he really won't explain, and he has to make sure he doesn't let his information be learned that easily.
Guilt rolls on my stomach as I look down at my blue converse, and tightly hold the ice pack to my cheek. Things like that happen when I'm mad. I do things that I will later regret." I didn't know the nerd had a mouth on her."
I glare at him, letting all my hatred towards him show. He's friends with the very one who ruined Angela, and also is the very kind of boy I'm tired sick of seeing. Everywhere you go you see the same classification. Jocks, sluts, bad boys, good girls, nerds, geeks, and goths. It's tiring." Of course I do. All humans are usually born with one."
He smirks," So Angela wasn't lying. You really are a little sassy pants. I wonder if what else she told us is true."
My fists tighten at the mention of her and my teeth grind against each other, as I let out a long and even breath." I don't speak of her anymore. And please go. I don't need you here, in fact I didn't need you in the first place. All I wanted was to watch the fight but no. You had to ruin that with you freaking spoiled milk breath."
His eyebrows raise,"How do you know my breath stinks if you haven't been close enough to my face to find out?" He walks closer and I tilt back until my back is touching against the wall, leaving me trapped." I'd say my breath smells minty fresh. Not like spoiled milk. Would you like to get a closer inspection?"
His face leans closer into mine, making his breath fan my face. It does smell like mint gum but I'm not going to admit that. Normally the nerd would blush and stutter making the bad boy smirk and say something about him having an affect on her. But like I've said millions of times, I'm not normal." No go away. I swear I'll get you for sexual harassment if you don't step six steps back." I glance over at the nurse and meet her eyes with my begging ones, making her snap her fingers and point to the chair for Cole to sit in. He frowns before doing as told and sits in the chair, making my desired distance between us real. Much better.
The phone is put back down causing both of us to look up at the nurse as she writes out a note." Your father is on his way but he says it'll be around forty five minutes until he comes to pick you up. So just roam the halls or go to your next period."
I pause at the mention of next period. Should I roam the halls and chance Cole here to follow me or go to art and be ditched by my best friend. I glance over at him to see him smirking at me once again and come up with my choice. Being ditched
it is." I'll go to next period. And I'm sorry for what I said earlier."
She nods to herself and I grab my bag before walking out the door and head to the art room. The halls are quiet as I pass every corner and pass the very lockers that the fight was at. I frown at the dents made on it and the blood that streaks the white marble that the janitors haven't cleaned yet. One of the best fights, and I missed it. The memory of throwing punches and blocking punches with my dad fills my head as he would motivate me to keep going. It'll be pretty soon that I start to fight in the underground so just like him, but nothing as intense as him. He's one of the best street fighters in the country, which is the biggest reason why I have no idea where he is most of the time. He's always training, fighting, and preparing. His whole life is revolved around that ring that could send him to jail if the cops ever found out, that being the biggest reason why my mom and him split up. Sometimes they're together and sometimes they're not, I've just learned to say they're split up and not go into detail when people ask.
I stand in front of the wooden door that separates me from the art room. I can already feel the pain sting inside my chest as I imagine Hana ditching me and ruining the pact we had together, all while painting with her hands that were made for the brush." Just ignore it Asher."
The door opens showing the very man that assigned this project. He smiles and ushers me in," Oh thank goodness. We have a partner now for the new kid." Mr. Damsons is in his early fifties, which you could tell by meeting him. His black hair is mostly replaced with grey and white streaks, while laugh lines are carved deep into his pale skin which compliment the crowd feet that dance around his eyes. Even though he's getting older and has already had a hip replacement, he doesn't let that stop him from coming here everyday to see what new art protégées this school may have.
My eyes roam over the class room until I find Xavier, who's awkwardly standing at a distance from Hana and Daniel. I watch as they giggle with each other and accidentally touch each other. I squint my eyes and put on a forced smile as I go to the empty table with different painting products on it, Xavier soon to follow behind. I make a note not to get as friendly and as close to him as I was earlier. Even if we share the bet we're still not going to be friends. Hana's frustrating enough as it is. "The key word is soul." He says disinterestedly and sits down on one of the stools. Someone isn't a fan of art.
Well this should be easy. All I have to do is paint an eye. Considering the eyes are the key to the soul. I grab a couple of paintbrushes and the watercolor kit before I begin to sketch of my painting. It's just going to be blue eyes, eyebrows, and cheekbones. Tan blue and black. Maybe green. I glance up at Xavier to see him just watching me as I work, clearly not wanting to help. I just draw the outline of the eyes and the line of the cheekbones before wetting my brushes and begin to carefully paint the only canvas we have. The black paint spreads wildly and I huff out a breath as it goes against what I want it to. A hand takes away my brush and just begins to make more of the leaks, my heart begins to hammer in my chest bit goes back down when I realize he's fixing it by making it look more messy." Now she's just had a rough night out." Is all he mumbles before handing me the brush again and goes back to watching. I pause before following the way he had the eyes, but have it a little different so they don't look exactly alike. When finished I look at it as a smile appears on my face. Somehow this depressing and messy painting looks better than the "perfect" one I had in mind. Because let's face it, we're not perfect. Meaning our souls aren't either. And this painting shows the truth of the souls, how we're all broken at one point. Just hardly missing the point of becoming beyond repair.
"When'd you get the bruise?" A familiar voice says behind me and I glance back to see its Hana. I begin to respond but remember the bet between me and Xavier. And to think he just about won. He glances over at me and his eyes stop at the nasty bruise that has probably formed on my cheek and frowns.
I ignore her and throw all my dirty paint brushes into the bucket filled with water before getting damp paper towels and getting most of the paint off my hands. I feel Xavier's eyes follow me, probably waiting for me to crack." Did you see where I put those pencils?" I ask him as I move things to find them. I wouldn't really care if they were school ones but these were mine and a present from my dad.
"No." And he begins to search with me, as Hana stands there awkwardly. Now she knows how I feel when she with sweet precious Daniel. I move out painting and smile when I find them underneath the canvas. I feel Hans gaze on it before she says,"I though we were supposed to draw souls?"
I still ignore her and take a seat in the stool beside Xavier before signing my signature on it, making it half sloppy but still pretty. Xavier does the same. I loon between our signatures and find that's his is way prettier than mine. I'm jelly.
"Why aren't you answering? Did you lose your voice?"
The class phone rings and I get off my stool, grab my bags and start to walk to the door. No doubt it's my father signing me out. I stop at Hana's station, with her following, and tell Daniel," Will you drive Hana home today? I won't be able to."
He nods questioningly and I put on a fake smile for him." Hey what do you want to do with this?" Xavier asks as he holds out our painting.
"Ummm... You keep it. Mr.Damson still has to grade it and inspect it, and I'm leaving right now."
"Does it have to do with that bruise? Are the cheerleaders messing with you again? And why aren't you answering me but talking to the boys?"
Daniel frowns and asks," Does it? You leaving having to do with that new look your rocking?"
I roll my eyes before saying,"Yes. During the battle between the J's, one was thrown into me and he elbowed me in the face. Cole took me to the nurse and she called my father."
I hear a gasp and see Hana staring at me wide eyed." The Sebastian Cole Devins? As in hot bad boy who you just so happen to hate?"
"Asher! Your being checked out!" Mr. Damson yells out causing everyone to look my way as I go to the door.
"Hope you feel better with that bruise of yours. And I love the painting by the way."

I flash a smile," Thank you Mr.Damson."
"No problem kid." He opens the door for me and let's me out before shutting the door behind me. Here goes the journey of the hospital.