Warning: Violent scenes ahead. Please skip if you cannot read those parts.

*

I entered my house with a wide smile on my face. Today was a really good day. Taylor was definitely a good guy. Thank goodness, I have him as my friend. Just a friend? Damn that stupid subconscious makes her appearance once again. 

Yes, Taylor is just my friend. For now. Sometimes I hate that my subconscious is part of me. Well you can't get rid of me any time soon, my subconscious replied cockily. Great, now you seem like Asher. Asher. I remember how everyone's face got rigid when they were talking about Asher. There was so much of bitterness. I need to know the truth. Whatever they just told me was just a camouflage. When Taylor and I are alone, I will have to ask him the truth. 

I decided to put those thoughts in the back of my mind and got dressed in more comfortable clothes. I did some dishes and cleaned the house. By the time I was done, it was already mid afternoon and my parents were back home. Thank God.

"Hey sweetie," my mom hugged me. I'm so happy to see them back home. They work so hard that I rarely see them.

"Hey mom. Hey dad." I hugged her back. "So, how was your dinner yesterday?" 

"Oh, it was great. We've been able to catch up." My mom happily said. "Well, I'm going to make dinner." 

Today's dinner included my favorite, roasted chicken, chips, salad and bread. "This is so good, mom." I moaned swallowing a piece of chicken. She is definitely one of the best cooks. 

"Thank you sweetie." My mom smiled. 

Once we were done with dinner, all of us sat together watching "The Notebook". Ryan Gosling was definitely a hottie. The movie reached its interval when I noticed my parents were getting really close to each other and were getting unbelievably cozy. I made as if I was really concentrating on the movie but at some point I just couldn't. I really didn't want to witness the making of another mini me. 

I slowly got up and fake yawned and bid them goodnight. They were so much into each other that none of them thought it was necessary to wish me goodnight. Wow, I have such good parents. Note the sarcasm. 

Not wanting to be the thirdwheel, I ran upstairs and jumped on my bed. I took my phone to check whether I missed something and noticed there was a message.

My stomach flipped when I saw who it was. I immediately unlocked my phone and read the text.

I had a great time with you today. Looking forward to our next meeting. T :)

OH MY GOD! He texted. If someone saw me right now, he would think I'm a lunatic who is smiling like an idiot at the screen of her phone. He had sent this text two hours ago. Damn. What should I do now? Reply him, you idiot!

With shaking hands, I started to type my reply. 

Me too. Thank you for inviting me. E.

I was debating on whether to add an x or not but then decided against it. Let's text like normal people. I press sent and to my surprise a few minutes later he replied back. Those stupid butterflies came back. 

Stop thanking me! What are you doing?  -T

What should I say, what am I doing? I can't say I'm going to bed. Who in their right mind says they are going to bed at nine?! I decided to tell him I was doing my homework. Yeah, that seemed a pretty decent reply. 

Doing homework. Nothing interesting. What about you?  -E

Once I pressed sent, I wore my pajamas and cuddled inside by lovely quilt, with my book, Until You on my lap. I read a few lines when my phone vibrated. I quickly unlocked it and read the content.

Taylor is soooooooo whippppppppppppppp

I tried to make out what was happening when I received another text.

I'm trying to kill Dylan. Want to help me out? *Devil face*  -T

I laughed at his response and understood what was happening. I quickly started to type my reply.

No, why would I help you to murder such an innocent looking boys? *Shocked face*. Angels like me don't help murderers like you Mr. Johnson. I suggest you look for someone else for the job :P  -E

I swear, Taylor was not losing no time to answer. A few seconds later his reply arrived.

Thanks for saving my ass Emberly! :D

Well, that definitely wasn't Taylor's reply. After a while his response arrived.

Wow, I have great friends -.-. You an angel? :0 Please clarify.  - T

I started typing my innocent looking face and soon our debate on me being an angel started. Our discussion lasted for a really long time that I fell asleep with my phone on my chest. 

Morning arrived way too soon. It felt as if I recently went to bed and now my alarm was blaring. I swear my alarm is jealous of my relationship with my bed. Reluctantly, I got up from my cozy bed and started to get ready. 

Since, I wasn't in the mood of wearing anything too extravagant, I settled for my casual pair of jeans and white t-shirt. I tied this nest into a nice pony tail and went downstairs. 

Once again, my parents were off to work. I took an apple from the fruit bowl and headed for school.

After fifteen minutes, I reached hell. I was walking towards my locker when I saw Mr Racer making out with the school slut Melanie. Immediately the image of them screwing came into my mind which resulted in me making a disgusted face. It was as if Asher knew I was here because he drew his mouth from Melanie and looked staright towards me, right at my disgusted face and smirked. I rolled my eyes at him and walked right to my lockers where Taylor and his friends were waiting for me. 

From behind me, I heard Melanie shouting for Asher but apparently he walked away from her. Once I reached locker, Dylan hugged me and thanked me for seemingly saving him from Taylor's bash yesterday. I laughed at their silliness. 

"Well, hello, Miss I'm-an-angel," Taylor greeted me mockingly. I playfully slapped his arm.

"Hey, I am an angel." I fluttered my eyelashes at him. 

"Oh yeah? Angels don't slap their friends." Taylor dramatically rubbed his apparently hurt arm which resulted in me slapping him again.  "Ow! Calm down, woman!" 

I smirked at him and walked towards the class. Today, we had class with Mrs. Schwimmer. Oh God. That will be a long long class. 

I quickly took my seat next to the window and Taylor sat next to me. 

"You better not disturb me, I don't want another detention," I warned him before he sat down. When I first met Taylor, I thought he was a quiet boy but as time went by, I came to know that he was extremely annoying, in the best way possible. 

"Aye aye, Captain." Taylor replied, taking his seat. 

Soon, Mrs Schwimmer entered the class with a scowl on her face. Well that was not a new thing.

"It's as if she's suffering from constipation and she can't get rid of it." Taylor murmured in my ear making me stifle a laugh. 

"Shut up." I mouthed at him. Mrs. Schwimmer started her class while I tried to concentrate in whatever she was saying. Keyword: tried. All because a fool next to me was trying all his best to distract me with his jokes. 

Suddenly, the door banged and the devil himself entered the class with his followers. His eyes immediately snapped to mine and his face formed dangerous glare making me swallow hard. 

"How lovely for you to grace your presence here, Mr Colton. May I know the reason of your lateness?" Mrs Schwimmer sarcastically questioned.

"No, you may not. Now move on with your stupid call, you fat cow." Asher spat at her but his fierce and impassive gaze was still on me. Mrs Schwimmer was shocked by his answer while the other kids gasped.

"I can give you a detention for this misconduct Mr Colton." Mrs Schwimmer tried sound authoritative but failed miserably. 

"So, who's stopping you?" Asher confidently replied. That guy does not really have manners but his answer seemed to shut Mrs Schwimmer up.

"Just take a seat, Mr Colton." She gave up arguing with her. 

Asher immediately took confident strides to his seat with Ryan and all the other boys behind him. Ryan winked at me and I smiled at him. 

There were many available seats in the class, but Asher being Asher chose to sit right behind me. Great! Just great!

Mrs Schwimmer continued with her class and nudged my arm, drawing my attention to him.

"Doesn't she look like a buffalo from behind?" Taylor whispered making me giggle uncontrollably. Mrs Schwimmer snapped her eyes towards me which made me fake cough to cover my giggle. 

I put my forefinger to my lips signalling him to keep quiet. After a while, Taylor started poking his pencil in my arm.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke. 

"Stop it!" I glared at him. 

"I'm bored." He replied pouting making me shake my head at him.

"Miss Stinson and Mr Johnson, do you want a detention?" Mrs Schwimmer crossed her arms staring angrily at us. 

"No, ma'am, we're--" Thank God, the bell rang. Taylor and I quickly took our stuff and got out of the class. 

By the time we reached outside, we were laughing uncontrollably. 

"Oh my god, did you see her face? She looked like she was a pressure cooker and was about to burst." Taylor said making me laugh even more. I couldn't even form a proper sentence because I was laughing so hard. Other students were looking at us as if we were mad. "I need to go and meet my coach. Will you be okay by yourself?" Taylor asked once he was done laughing. I nodded at him and made my way to my locker. 

I was about to reach my locker, when I felt someone, not so gently pulled my hair and harshly pushed me against the locker making me wince.

I looked at the culprit and saw Melanie looking murderously at me. Shit, what did I do to her now?

"You ugly bitch," She brutally punched me in my stomach making me grab it painfully, "what do you think of yourself, huh?" Another punch. The other students were watching me with pity while some were completely neutral about what was happening. Her minions were smirking evilly at me. 

"What are you talking about?" I managed to say.

"Aww, she's behaving as if she doesn't know a shit!" Melanie said in a fake kid voice and she threw her hand forward, harshly whipping it across my face making tears sting in my eyes. Damn, I'm such a weak girl that I can't even defend myself. "I saw you throwing yourself at Asher the other day. Don't behave as if you didn't do anything, you slut! And I know you're even sleeping with Taylor." One more slap. This girl is imagining things!

"I didn't do anything, Melanie. I swear." I said trying to control my sobs. "And Taylor is just my friend."

"Of course! But you stay way from Asher. He's mine." She ruthlessly said and slammed my head against the locker making a loud bang. 

"MELANIE!" I heard someone shout. I painfully turned to look at the person when I saw Asher taking long strides towards us looking as furious as ever, with Ryan, Oliver, Caleb, Nicholas and Matt behind him. By the time he was next to me, he looked as if he was going to explode. I admit, I've never been so happy to see him before. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Asher asked in a dangerously quiet tone making me shake in fear. He was definitely scaring me with his tone right now. Melanie seemed to notice think and she started to back off from me a little.

"Nothing, baby. I was only explaining this slut not to take what's mine." She replied in a fake sweet tone making me want to gag. 

"The only slut here is you, Melanie and no one else." If I was in a stable position I would have made a reaction out of what he said but right now all I wanted was to sleep. "I suggest you get the fuck away from Emberly and I'm not yours. Get out before I kill you." Asher harshly barked at her making her wince at his words. Even the five boys were glaring at Melanie.

Melanie fearfully nodded at him and immediately walked away from us. 

"Thanks." I told Asher tears filling my eyes but I refused to cry. Never had I thought that out of so many people Asher would stand up to me. I tried to move from my locker but winced at every movements I made.

"Where do you think you're going?" Asher snapped at me making me look at his angry eyes.

"Class?" It came out more like a question. Asher narrowed his eyes at me. He was about to answer but I heard Taylor call me from behind.

"Princess!" Taylor ran to me and took me in his arms making Asher even more furious than he was before. Right now he looked like he was about to explode. I quickly got out of Taylor's arms and rested back on the lockers. 

"What did you call her?" Asher growled at Taylor.

"None of your business, Colton." Taylor replied, his mood no longer playful. "We need to take her to the nurse right now." Taylor urgently said. Nurse? No way!

"No, I'm fine. Let's go to class." I tried to move but Asher immediately pulled me to him and carefully wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I relaxed a little bit under him. 

"You're going to the nurse right now." Asher said, with no room for further discussions. "And I'm taking you." He said keeping his eyes on Taylor. 

"Emberly is my friend. I need to take care of her." Taylor argued coming close to Asher. 

"Oh yeah? So you mean to say that I should leave her alone with you so that you can continue to flirt with her?" Asher furiously said.

"Only you can think like that Colton." Taylor said irritated. Both of them were arguing as if I was not even there. 

"Guys stop it! I'm fine. Let's just go to class." I tried to get away from Asher but he had a firm grip on me. 

"No." Asher firmly said. 

"Fine." Taylor sighed. "Go with him, Princess. I'll check on you later." Taylor smiled at me but I could notice it was a pained smile. It's good that Taylor decided to go because Asher would never have let me gone with him without putting a fight. 

"Good riddance." Asher said making Taylor glare at him. 

I was about to say something but my head started spinning and I could see dark spots surrounding me. After a few seconds, I felt my body going limp and someone picking me up, preventing me to fall.

All I heard was a faint sound of "shit," before I was dragged into darkness.

****************************************************************

Chapter 12 updated,

I hope you liked it. 

Please note that I'm strictly against bullying but I had to write this for the sake of this chapter. 

Please comment, vote and share.

Follow me on twitter: Ina_f23

Follow me on instagram: Ina_f23 (DM saying you're from Wattpad so that I can follow back.)

Love you all

Ina