"There is no way that he is better looking than Calvin," Elijah protested.

"Justin is way better than Calvin, the only reason you're protesting so hard is cause you have this weird fetish for blonde-headed, blue-eyed twinks," Emily spat back.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Scarlet who's better looking, her dumbass caveman like Justin or my beautiful blue-eyed Calvin?" Elijah asked.

"Yeah Scarlet, who's better?" Emily asked, venom coating each word she said.

As for me, I just sat there at our usual lunch table, staring at them while I ate my chicken strip.

For all who's wondering, Elijah is bisexual, but he tends to swing towards boys more than girls. Emily is straight, but she's completely supportive of her brother, so it wasn't uncommon for me to have to be the tiebreaker in one of their little who's hotter competitions.

"Honestly?"

They stared at me, shaking their head yes as they waited for me to answer.

"I'd have to go with Calvin."

"What!" Emily shouted.

"Hah, I told you," Elijah joyously said.

"How could you pick Calvin?"

"Emily, sweetie. Have you not met Justin? He is a total pig," I stated.

"But he's so gorgeous," Emily gushed, as she stared over at him, and his little group of preppy friends.

Which included my ex, Travis.

"So is that the only reason you chose Calvin?" Elijah questioned.

"Nope. I sit next to him in art class, and he is absolutely adorable. That and I've got to support my fellow twinks." Elijah laughed, while Emily just shook her head.

"Hun I don't think 5'6 is that short."

"With girls no, but with boys, it is," I protested.

Growing up amongst three elder brothers, that are in the 6-foot area was rough. I hit 5'6 in 8th grade, and my body decided that it was just done.

"She's not wrong you know," Elijah said, backing me up.

"That's so stupid, like why does it matter how tall you are, I've known plenty of short guys and they were just as much of a pig as taller guys," Emily stated, chugging down the remainder of her diet soda, before belching.

"Wow, so sexy," I said, my voice full of sarcasm.

Emily playfully winks at me, before saying.

"Just for you baby."

At this point, Elijah is just staring at her like she's the dumbest person in the world. And don't get me wrong, I love her, she's my best friend, but sometimes this girl acted just like that.

"You're going to die alone, you know that," Elijah stated.

"No, I won't. Why, don't you see all of these guys just lined up to be with me." Emily moves her hands in the air, gesturing towards her non-existent suitors.

"I take back my earlier statement," Elijah said as the bell rang, telling everyone that lunch was now over. "You're not going to die alone, Emily. You want to know why?"

"Why?" Emily asked, giving him a skeptical look.

"Because you'll have all of your cats to keep you company."

Elijah and I started laughing, as he tried to dodge Emily's flying fist. Emily and Elijah were still bickering back and forth as we exited the lunchroom.

"Bye guys," I said waving at them before taking off to my next class.

"Bye Scarlet," they yelled after me as I rounded the corner.

I had barely made it around the corner when I had bumped into something, well more like someone.

Losing my balance, I close my eyes, preparing myself to hit the hard floor.

But that never came, I opened my eyes, only to meet face to face with someone's chest.

A pair of strong arms were wrapped around my waist, keeping me from landing on my bottom.

Looking up, I see a shocked Asher staring down at me.

"Oh, uh, hi Asher." I manage to say.

"Uh, hi Scarlet," he said, before helping to steady me.

Asher Jones was one of Travis's friends, we had gotten pretty close as friends before he left in the middle of the semester.

No one knew where he went, but if you believed in rumors, then he's been in prison, or he knocked up one of the cheerleaders and had to quit school so he could get a job to support his new family.

Or my favorite one. He came out of the closet and ran away with his secret lover, who was twenty years older than him.

"Wait, Asher?" I asked, finally realizing that it was really him standing before me.

His eyes softened before he chuckled at my shocked expression.

"I've been getting that a lot today," he said, before pulling me into a quick, friendly hug.

"Where the hell have you been Asher?" I asked, hugging him back before pulling away.

"Family issues."

"Family issues that caused you to be out of school for almost a month?"

"My grandma wasn't doing so well, so we had to go all the way up to North Dakota to help take care of her."

"Is she doing better now?"

"Yeah, she's doing better. Honestly, I don't even know why I was there, every time I'd try to help, my mom or dad would yell at me for not doing something right. I mainly just sat on my ass the whole time, well that and I got to spend some time with Nana."

"If they didn't need your help then why couldn't you have just stayed here? At least that way you wouldn't have gotten so behind in school."

"Well, um, you see." I looked up to see Asher rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes met mine as he released an awkward laugh.

"What did you do?"

"The last time my parents trusted to leave me alone, was last year. They had to go out of town for this work thing, and well, let's just say that I may or may not have thrown a party and trashed the house."

All I could do was just stand there and stare at him. He laughed at my 'Are you serious' look before continuing.

"Yeah, it didn't go too well."

"Let me guess, Travis also had something to do with it?"

That's one thing that Trevor and I used to argue about when we were still together. He loves to party, so I'd get dragged to these parties with him, only to be stuck sitting there, watching him down one drink after another.

"Maybe, maybe not."

I shook my head, as I smiled. This was one thing I loved about Asher, I felt like I could be myself with him. It's how I felt with Emily and Elijah, I felt like I could just show them my true self, and that they'd welcome me with open arms.

"Speaking of Travis. Where is he? Aren't you two usually tied at the hip?"

My body tensed at the question. He didn't know we broke up, which means he probably doesn't know about me either.

"Scarlet, you ok?" Asher's face wore a concerned expression.

I guess he could tell that his question had bothered me.

"We broke up."

Asher's face went from concerned to shocked.

"Really? You guys, but you guys were like the 'It' couple. What happened?"

Sighing, I looked up at him. That familiar feeling of dread and panic filled me.

"Well, I guess it's better that it comes from me than from someone else."

He quirked his brow at me, waiting for me to explain.

"I'm transgender."

Asher's eyes widened at my statement, clearly shocked.

"I had planned on telling Travis, I hadn't planned on keeping something that serious from him, but before I could someone had beat me to it, and in the process telling the whole school. After I was outed everyone turned their backs on me, except for Emily and Elijah, and now you're probably going to do the same."

I kept my head low, not wanting to see that disgusted look on his face. The same look that everyone had given me when they found out. Tears stung my eyes, causing my vision to blur.

Great, now I'm going to cry. I released a shaky breath, as tears began to fall down my face. I turned away from him, needing to go somewhere, somewhere where no one could see my little breakdown.

But before I could take even a single step, a hand grabbed ahold of my upper arm, turning me around, before strong arms wrapped around me.

At this point 5th period had already started, the hallways were empty, leaving just Asher and myself.

His arms tightened around me, cradling me to him, as I broke out into uncontrollable sobs.

"I'm not going anywhere Scar," Asher whispered into my ear.

I wrapped my arms around him, holding on tightly to him as I tried to catch my breath.

I felt so embarrassed, pathetic even. I was standing in the middle of the hallway, crying my eyes out. Hearing Asher say the nickname that he gave me, made matters worse.

I pulled away from him, wiping my eyes, grateful for the fact that I had only put on concealer this morning.

"You d-don't hate me? You're not disgusted by me?"

Just for a single second, Asher's eyes flashed with anger, before quickly turning sad.

"Why would I hate you, or be disgusted? I would never hate you for being who you are, as long as you're happy then that's all that matters," Asher stated, cupping my face in between his large, calloused hands.

Taking a step closer, he placed a soft, delicate kiss on my forehead. My cheeks reddened as he pulled away, using his thumbs to wipe away the remainder of my tears.

He smiled, before pulling me into a bone-crushing hug, causing my breath to leave me.

"A-Asher, I c-can't breathe," I managed to wheeze out.

Asher quickly pulled away from me, giving me an apologetic smile.

"S-Sorry about that."

Asher's face had become red, and he wouldn't make eye contact with me.

Was he embarrassed?

The bell rang, signaling for everyone to go to their next class.

"Are you feeling better?"

"I am, I'm embarrassed I was just crying, but I feel better."

"You shouldn't feel embarrassed just for being human," Asher stated.

The halls began to fill with students, who were hurriedly making their way either to the bathrooms or their next class.

"Thank you, Ash."

Asher smiled at me before we said our goodbyes. I quickly turned away from him, trying to get to my next class before the bell rang.

The last thing I needed was to be late especially since the teacher hated me so much.

Why? I have no idea, ever since I started at this school, he has had something against me.

I hurriedly entered the classroom, getting a look from Mr. Charles before going to my seat.

I pulled out my supplies, as I waited for class to start.

I thought back to the events that happened only moments ago. I've known Asher for almost a year now, and I've never known him to be so affectionate.

Did he have feelings for me?

No, that's insane. He was just being a good friend, that's all.

Sighing, I opened my notebook and began to doodle. I was probably just overthinking things like I normally did.

But what if Asher already knew about everything, and was just pretending to be nice to me. My body tensed at that thought.

Geez, Scarlet. What's wrong with you? Thinking something like that. Asher was a good friend, I could trust him, he wasn't like Travis and everyone else.

"I would never hate you Scar."

My cheeks reddened as his words kept replaying in my head. A small smile made its way to my face, as I kept thinking back on earlier.

What if he did like me? Would that be such a bad thing?