Warning: mention of suicide in this chapter. It's the part where they find themselves alone, Asher and Althea, for the people who are sensitive about this subject and want to skip it.

'Every long lost dream led me to where you are

Others who broke my heart, they were like Northern stars

Pointing me on my way into your loving arms

This much I know is true

That God blessed the broken road

That led me straight to you.'

*ALTHEA'S POV*

November 10, 2016.

"Is it your boyfriend?"

The shock on Asher's face echoed perfectly the one happening inside my chest, the jump of my heart as abrupt as the fall of his grin.

Although he was was quicker to recover as Charlotte continued,

"It's for him you put your peachy lipstick?"

The cocky jock ran his tongue along his plump bottom, licking away any remains of orangey lipstick and pulling me out of my stupor at the same time.

"N-no, Asher is... a schoolmate. And Asher, this is Charlotte," I introduced, my tone sounding too formal between the narrow walls of the elementary school bathroom. Or maybe it was only because I still wasn't breathing, hanging on to the interaction between Charlotte and Asher, which surely wasn't the safest when one was wearing a curious frown and the other sporting an obvious smirk.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Charlotte! You don't ask questions like this to strangers," I scolded her gently, avoiding Asher's amused gaze.

The young girl beside me didn't though, not even minding that her lifted nose barely reached half of his tall figure. "He isn't a stranger. He's your schoolmate."

"She has a point. At this point, you can't call me a stranger anymore." Asher cocked an eyebrow, as if his tongue peeking out over his upper lip weren't enough to support his argument. "And no, I don't have a girlfriend... yet."

Yet, his penetrating gaze landed in mine, so clear and assured they could have resembled a crystal ball predicting the future.

Yet those things were only meant to deceive, just like players, which was what he was, wasn't he?

He'd never looked for a girlfriend, and mostly, I'd never looked to be one. Children's fairytales didn't exist in real life, and I shook my head at the sparkle in Charlotte's eyes as she glanced between Asher and me.

"Okay, let's take care of your dress. It's the reason why we're here, right?"

The reason why the twinkle of curiosity in her gaze appeared so bright with the remains of tears. The reason why we could hear faint chatters coming from the five teachers in the hallway. The reason why Asher was standing by the door with his reddened smirk, after having driven me here in a rush. The reason why Cody had called us, interrupting our... steamy daze, and it was for the best as I could still feel the burn from the tips of my fingers to my cheeks under his piercing gaze.

"Asher, can you give me my bag?" I stood up, holding out my hand to grab it and point at the door in a subtle hint for him to leave.

Maybe too subtle, as he closed the door and joined me and Charlotte, whom I lifted on one of the sinks.

"Whoa, what happened to this dress?"

"Apparently, she 'fell' and ripped it," I replied for the young girl, who was suddenly quiet, staring down at her swinging feet. At least, until Asher caught her attention again.

"Bullshit. You can't tear it like that with just a fall."

"He said a curse word!" Charlotte jumped, finding back her cheeky grin. "You gotta give one dollar."

"What?" Asher stared confused at her pointed finger.

Of course, he didn't understand. For him, 'bullshit' was nothing. Well, nothing in comparison with all the other curse words he pronounced, with all the other sinful things he did.

"It's forbidden to curse in many foster homes, and if you do, you have to give one dollar to the adults, like a forfeit," I explained, trying to hold down Charlotte's movements so I could see all the damage on her favorite bubblegum pink dress. "He doesn't have to do it because he's not in foster care."

"Actually, I have a dollar to give you, Peachy..."

Sliding his hand in his back pocket, he pulled out his wallet with a familiar crooked smile, which I'd already seen before... on my first week at Lotus Bay, when he'd found my nickname and had written his number on a dollar bill. I'd even felt this grin, when I'd paid for a kiss with the same dollar bill.

The same dollar bill he now took out of his wallet and put in my hand.

"You still got it?" I blinked at the red digits, the semicolon, and the parenthesis forming an inimitable wink, exactly like the one he threw me.

"Yeah, Paxton said it wouldn't be valid for the donation, and he made me exchange it with another one."

And he'd kept it since then.

I wasn't sure what the jump of my heart was for as I stared at George Washington's crinkled face on the piece of paper, but it was surely surprise that Asher hadn't used it to buy some random things, like condoms for one of his many one-night-stands.

"I've been meaning to give it back to you since, but I get distracted when you're around."

"Um, thanks, I..." I got distracted too when he was around, and I'd almost forgotten about the needle in my other hand until Charlotte spoke up,

"It's okay if you can't fix it. Pink s'for babies anyway..."

"Wait, it is why you've damaged your dress?"

A simple look at Charlotte's glistening eyes, and I knew she was too precious to do something like that.

"Or did someone do this to you? You can tell me, Charlie. It's only me here, and..." My gaze slid to the tall guy beside me, expecting to find him on his phone or on his way to the door.

But his green gaze, appearing even sharper under creased eyebrows, was attentively following the conversation as he knelt down to be eye-level with Charlotte.

"Whoever bas—bad kid told you this, they clearly don't know anything about fashion because all the trendy people wear pink. I wear pink! I even have pink trunks. You should see me in them, Peachy."

I shook my head at his sideways glance. Even while trying to comfort a kid, he managed to throw flirty innuendos at me.

Yet what was even more unbelievable was that, after a few more words, he pulled a name out of Charlotte's pursed lips, and barely a few minutes after he'd left to talk to the headmistress, the strict woman, who'd looked ready to call the police when she'd first seen me, promised that no one would bully Charlotte again.

Could someone ever resist his charms?

I doubted it when we finally walked out of the elementary school, Charlotte and Cody waving us goodbye with grand gestures.

"Thank you for what you did for Charlotte."

"It's nothing. You're the one who made her a princess dress out of a torn rag." He smiled, the impressed sparkle in his gaze making me avert mine down, although there wasn't much to look at when he stepped in front of me, leaning down to open the car door. "Now, I understand why the children's fashion."

"Yeah, but you avoided her a lot of trouble, and this is much more important in real life." I offered him a small smile too, quickly getting in the car to avoid his piercing eyes—for barely 30 seconds before he joined me in the heated compartment.

"Do you think your guardians could get rid of one of you for something so little?" he asked, probably just trying to make small talk as he started the car.

Yet had we ever made small talk?

Since the day we'd met, the conversation had always swirled between a playful pull-and-tug, innuendos, and unequivocal propositions he'd laid to make his way until we didn't have to talk at all. However, here, we were treading an unfamiliar road, making me grip tightly onto my belt as I replied,

"They can for less than this, if they really want to."

"You've been moved to other foster families before?"

So this was where we were heading. Now, I glimpsed the path... leading straight to an abyss, and all my instincts were screaming for me to run away.

"Yeah, a few times. But I'm a special case... I was put in short-term foster care at first because I was waiting for adoption."

"But you didn't get adopted? Why?" He glanced over at me, almost running the red, though it wasn't for this that all my muscles stiffened.

"It's a long and boring story."

"Well, I've got time." He pushed—the question and me, closer to the abyss.

My head was already spinning with unwanted memories as I murmured, "I don't even know where to start."

"How about the beginning?"

Why did it sound so easy through his rosy half-smile as he restarted the car, his hand sliding from the gearshift to find mine? As if to encourage me to leap down the abyss, or maybe crash down with me.

It strangely helped, nonetheless, as I inhaled a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"My dad died suddenly when I was a little baby." I paused for an instant, waiting for the inevitable...

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I have no memory of him." Except for a picture I could trace out perfectly from his pale blue tuxedo to his blissful smile and his eyes, which had been the same shade as mine before the colors of the photo had washed away from the stone.

"My mom never recovered, though. From as far as I can remember, I've never seen her smile, never seen her wearing anything else than black, never seen her doing anything else than mourning. We were going to the cemetery every single day, no matter the weather, and we stayed there for hours."

The words flowed out more easily than I'd expected, the memories playing like a faraway movie, which reflected in Asher's eyes, the jade so vibrant, so different from the gloomy scene.

"She would sit in front of his grave and just stare emptily, sometimes crying or mumbling some things I've never understood, and I... I just wandered through the alleys in the hope of finding someone to play with me.

"I remember wishing so much I could go to the playground with the other kids."

Why was I even telling him that?

I'd never admitted it to anyone, and I was straying from his question. Yet it was like the mindless shapes his thumb was drawing on the top of my hand: it wasn't going anywhere, but it felt right as I continued,

"Until one day, she didn't pick me up after school. At first, I was so happy I could stay at the after-school care with my classmates."

I could still see myself at the top of the slide, the split-second before going down, although that carefreeness appeared so blurry.

"But then, all of their parents went to pick them up, and I... stayed on the stone steps until the police arrived and... announced my mom had killed herself."

"Peachy—"

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault, nor anyone's," I cut him off, sounding harsher than intended, or was it only the contrast with how soft the touch of his finger was on my hand?

"She chose to abandon me, knowing I only had her."

Even after all this time, my voice still cracked with these words, and although the lump in my throat was easier to swallow, the taste it left behind was more bitter.

"So I was sent to foster care while waiting for adoption. But do you know many people who would want a child who draws rows and rows of graves?"

His lips opened with a shallow breath, but I didn't wait for an answer. The fact that I was here was here, replying to his question was saying it all.

"I was only five. I didn't know. I just liked to draw, and I was portraying what was familiar."

So familiar... I could still feel that heavy emptiness like it was part of me.

"It took me a few years to start drawing dresses. But the older you get, the harder it is to get adopted. Added to the fact I'm black, and I have a family history of depression and suicide, which are scientifically proven to be hereditary in 50% of cases. That's why I'm still in foster care," I concluded with a shrug, taking in how much I'd talked as I licked my dry lips and glanced at the immobile driveway through the windshield.

"And that's why you didn't want to step into the cemetery..."

"Yes, I've sworn myself I would never walk there again... never wear black, never be sad... never abandon the people who need me." Never be like her. "Even if technically, I don't have anyone who really needs me."

"No, it's not true." His eyebrows lowered slowly, creasing in a familiar movement that made me avert my eyes. "You have me."

'You have me.' Three little words, barely above a whisper, yet they rattled loudly through my ribcage, shaking the precarious balance I'd managed to maintain until now, and I could already feel it all buckling as I moved my head from left to right.

"You don't need me. If I wasn't here, your world wouldn't crumble like..." Like the one of the lost little girl on those school steps. He had no idea about this overwhelming emptiness spreading from the chest up the throat, the nose... and every part of you. "Keep your pity."

It was the main reason why I never told my story because every time I did, I was taken back to those cold steps and the look of pity in the policeman's eyes as he'd knelt down in front of me and said—

"Althea. Look at me, please." Asher cupped my cheeks, stopping the frantic movements of my head and forcing me to look at him.

Well, through the blur searing my eyes, I couldn't see much, and I intended to keep it that way: to not glimpse that look of pity in his green gaze, to not let out a tear.

"It's not pity. You're the strongest person I know. You're determined, ambitious, talented, funny, sweet, really, really hot, and so fucking strong. I already thought that before, and even more now."

His fingers carefully slid under the bottom of my glasses, gently caressing the burning skin there, which I realized was to wipe off the tear trickling down as my vision cleared, and I finally caught the look in his pale eyes, one I'd never seen before.

It wasn't pity. On the contrary, it was dazzling like pride, ardent like desire, unwavering like assurance, yet so much uncertainty danced along the specks of gold and depths of jade.

"And if I asked if your guardians could get rid of one of you, it was for Charlotte and Cody, yeah, but mostly, it was for you. Since Cody said that, I can't stop thinking about it, and I don't want to imagine you not being around anymore."

"It's barely been 30 minutes since he said that, and one month we know each other." I reminded him and my heart, as both seemed to go off the rails.

"Yeah, and it's barely been 20 minutes since Charlotte asked if I was your boyfriend, but I can already tell you I really liked the sound of it."

"You don't know anything about being a boyfriend and relationships."

As if this word hadn't triggered an even bigger leap of my heart through his lips than the first time through Charlotte's curious smile, I tried a dry, unaffected chuckle, though it echoed too much like a sob in the small inches between us.

"You like the idea of winning me and the second I give you what you want, you'll go back to your player ways, and I..."

What would I do?

"I don't want relationships. I've seen all the pain they can bring." I quickly shook my head, well, the best I could as he was still cupping my cheeks intently.

"Okay, I don't have any experience at relationships, but I've seen my parents, who've been married for more than 20 years." He leaned in closer, enough for me to recognize the look in his clear eyes.

It was madness, and I jumped away from his touch, as if it could have been contagious, which would have explained why my heart rate was running unstable as he continued,

"My mom left her family and country out of love for my dad, and they've been disgustingly happy and in love since then."

"Well, glad you've witnessed the best of love, but I saw the worst, and I don't want any of that."

"Peachy." His tone softened with a sigh, as if coming back down to a moment of lucidity, or at least, remembering everything I'd just told him. "You said it. Your mom had a mental disease, but you're not her. Do you plan on staying alone for the rest of your life?"

Yes, it had been the plan. I hadn't even planned to have a date, two, three... touching a man, or confessing so much about my past, and now, here I was.

"I don't want something that brings so much pain and trouble. I'm sorry. Find someone else to have your first girlfriend experiment. I'm sure you'll have plenty of girls volunteering." I closed my eyes, not sure if it was to avoid his ardent gaze or the image of the intense jade shades shining for another girl.

Anyway, they opened even wider at the desperate edge of his voice as he replied,

"I don't want someone else. I... Listen, I know what you've been through is horrible, and I'd give everything for you to not go through all that pain. But if you think about it, we wouldn't be right here, right now..." His voice softened with each word, yet not the pace of my heart as he carefully grabbed my chin to dive his gaze into mine.

"Without all of this, without your parents' love and my parents' too, and that, I think it's a good thing about love."

Was it?

I'd never seen it that way, and this new perspective was dizzying. If I'd thought going back through my childhood memories had been a scary fall down an abyss, it had been nothing in comparison to this instant.

Here, I couldn't glimpse the bottom, only an infinite of pale green pulling me in more and more, and while my heart was ready to jump out of my chest at any second, the pressure clutching at my ribcage rang like a warning siren through my head, my instincts to run awakening one by one.

"No... I can't..." I fumbled to unclick my belt, the strap of fabric clearly of no help for this kind of free fall. "I have to go."

"Althea, wait." His hand tugged on mine, trying to pull me back, and I didn't know if it was because of how firm his grip was or how shaky my fingers were, but the effort tore through all my muscles to get out of this car and run.

Thankfully, he didn't chase me, or I would have had no chance.

I could barely cross two streets before stopping to try to catch my choked gasps, and the oxygen only reached my lungs because of the voice in the back of my mind whispering softly,

Pull in the air. Push out the tensions...

So... a lot happened in this chapter. What do you think? 👀

Do you understand Althea better now? And did you guess her past before with the hints I've left along the story? If so, raise your hand 🙋🏼‍♀️!

But most importantly, the most shocking part: Asher asking to be her boyfriend? 😲😲 Did you expect this? It was an abrupt U-turn, like everything about him! 😅

We already know what will happen, but can you guess how he will convince her to be his girlfriend? 🤔

Leave your suppositions in the comments, and vote ⭐ if you're excited for what's to come!