CHAPTER XX

BROOKE’S P.O.V

Asher shot a glare towards Nathan as we walked to living room. Max was walking in front and we were following.

Allie joined Nathan and being Nathan he is, he stole a kiss from her. Her eyes went wide as she looked ahead but luckily Max was busy walking and grunting. 

I just shook my head. Nathan Bolton was incorrigible. My eyes went to Asher who was still sending glares at his twin.

“I’m going to kill you for this.” He harsh-whispered.

“That’s only if you are going to survive Max.” I piped in and Asher gulped a little.

“Is it that bad?” he murmured and I nodded.

“Your brother is smarter than he looks and you’re dumber that he just proved.” I told him and he glared at me.

“Don’t blame me; I was just happy that you wanted to hang out.”

“Then why would I call Nate? I would have called you, right?” I stated and a look of recognition crossed his face.

“That fucker….” But before he could finish, Max said,

“You can seat if you want.”

All four of us settled down on couch and Max’s gaze scrutinized everything.

“So you are?”

“Umm… hello sir, I’m Nathan Bolton.”

“The one who scared my Allie bear with frogs.” Ryan’s voice came as he took a seat beside Max. Nathan gulped a little but soon he composed himself,

“It was just a stupid prank and we apologized.”

Max nodded his head. Then he turned to Asher and Ash let out a small groan.

“And you?”

“I apologized too.”

“I’m asking for name.” Max deadpanned.

Allie couldn’t help but giggle. She sobered up immediately but I couldn’t.

“Asher Bolton.”

“Okay. So I just wanted to tell you that if you ever hurt them, I will rip your heads off.” Max said sternly.

“Don’t worry. He is just kidding.” Ryan piped in, “he is a sweetheart.”

Max glared at Ryan but he just shrugged.

“Are we clear? I’m not kidding when it comes to them.” He pointed at us. A small tug formed in my chest but it was of a good feeling. A small smile graced Allie’s lips too and her eyes turned glassy in seconds.

“Aww… My babies.” Ryan cooed and hugged both of us from behind. We both just giggled.

After few more questions, we came out of home.

“Well, it wasn’t that bad.” Nathan sighed but before anyone could reply Ash shoved him away not before punching him in the face.

“Nathan.” Allie gasped and ran to him.

“What the fuck, dude?” Nate yelled at him.

“You deserved it for what you did.” Ash glared at him and then took my hand walking towards the car. We sat in front waiting for star crossed lovers.

“That was a mean punch.” I chuckled.

“He had it coming.” Ash shrugged.

We both looked at Allie and Nate. Nathan was pouting while Allie was nursing him. It was adorable to see them. She ran inside and came out with her bag and ice pack. Nate put it on his face and they walked towards car. Nate threw a glare at Ash before sliding into back seat.

“Ash, can you drop us at library?” Allie asked and he nodded.

“Where are we going then?” I asked.

“I don’t know either.” Ash grinned at me.

“Why don’t you go for long drive? Then you can pick us up from library.” Nathan suggested and Asher nodded,

“That’s a decent idea. What do you say, Brooklyn?”

“Don’t call me that.” I hit his arm but he just laughed it out.

Soon we dropped Allie and Nathan near library. They looked more than happy while skipping towards library, holding hands, whispering in each other’s ears. Seriously saying, they were goals. I mean sometimes I was jealous of the relationship they had.

I looked at Ash who was already looking at me. I furrowed my brow but he just shook his head smiling like an idiot. He reached forward pushing my hair away from my face. My breath hitched when his fingers trailed down my cheek.

“Ash?”

And suddenly like he came back to earth, he straightened up shaking his head.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.” He scratched his neck sheepishly. I just shrugged.

He started driving and soon we were at the edge of the town.
“I seriously don’t know where I’m going.” He chuckled.

“I know that. But is there any place you know where we can sit?”

“You want a peaceful place? Aaha! You might be lucky because I know a place.” He smiled like a small kid and turned around.

After an hour or so we were near a cliff. It was surrounded by trees but it was beautiful.

“It’s beautiful.” I mumbled.

“It was mom-dad’s secret place. They used to come here when they were teenagers after that it became our picnic spot. Mom, dad, Nate and me, it is our family spot.” He had a giddy expression on his face like he was remembering something.

“And you showed it to me, why?” I asked curiously.

He turned towards me and smiled, “Because I trust you and you have grown on me.”

“Umm… ok” I didn’t know what to say so I just kept quiet and sat there taking all in the view in. it was mesmerizing.

“There is one more church outside the town. I will show you next time. It’s beautiful too.”

“Again your parents’ place?”

He laughed and nodded, “dad said they had their official first kiss there.”

A small smile tugged my lips, “That so sweet.”

“I know.”

Suddenly he turned towards me, “Brooke, I… I wanted to say something.”

“W… What?”

But he didn’t say anything just stared at me for sometime then suddenly leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine. My heart was on the verge of explosion.

But before anything happened, my phone rang and we jumped away from each other.

“Shit! I’m sorry. It’s just…” he ran his hand through his hair looking frustrated.

“It’s okay.” I looked at my phone and Janet’s name flashed.

“Why your mom is calling me?” I furrowed my brow in confusion and looked at Asher.

“Umm… how… how can I know? I… I mean I don’t know.” He stuttered and I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Answer it, Brooke.” He said.

I answered the call,

“Hey Brooke, how are you?” Janet’s cheery voice came.

“I’m good, Janet. Thank you.” I didn’t know what to say.

“Well, I just wanted to ask if you could join us for dinner.”

And I choked on my saliva, seriously. Everything that happened a day before came back. I shook my head, “Janet…”

But she cut me off, “I know you’re still angry and you should be. But it’s just a makeup dinner. I promise it’s just us and I called your foster parents, they said it’s alright and guess what they are joining too. So please? If you say yes then Allie won’t have any problem either.”

I was speechless. She didn’t leave any loophole. I just stared ahead.

“So? Brooke what do you say?” Janet’s hopeful voice came.

“Um… okay I guess.” I said and I heard a squeal from other end.

“That’s great. I’ll see you tonight. Take care.” And she hung up. I turned to Ash with narrowed eyes but he was smiling at me.

“See? That’s why I asked mom to call you.” He chuckled and I threw a small stone at him which hit him on forehead.

“Aww! Brooke, you are violent.”

“Shut up!” I huffed sighing loudly. In response he just chuckled and wrapped his hands around my shoulder.

“Let’s go. It has been three hours we left them. It will take another hour to reach there.”

“Yeah!” we walked towards his car.

The whole journey was silent but it was comfortable silence. Then we picked both Nate and Allie from library. Ash dropped us at home,

“Will see you later.” Ash said as I got out of his car. I nodded but couldn’t help but feel anxious with the whole thing.

I looked for Allie who was busy kissing her boyfriend goodbye. After a long time, they pulled back and she stepped down.

“Bye.” She shyly waved at them and we went inside.

It was five thirty in the evening and I went to see Allie but she was nowhere. I tried to call her but she didn’t answer. I was worried for her so I skipped downstairs looking for Ryan.

“Ry! Did you see Allie?”

“Yeah. She went out half hour ago. I asked her but she looked in hurry.”

“Oh!”

What happened that Allie didn’t even tell me? She never did this before. From last few days she looked anxious but I thought it was just school and all but something was wrong. Maybe she had talked to Nathan about it but I wasn’t sure because I knew her she wouldn’t. I had to talk to her about what was bothering her. I remember whenever she went to Bolton’s mansion, she would grow more anxious. She never looked Troy in the eye and we all noticed that. Even Janet and Troy asked me when we went there for first time. But maybe it was only because Allie’s social skills were not that great and she would become more nervous when it came to crowd or unknown people. I wanted her to open up to me at least so I decided to talk to her. I had to talk to her.