Awkward Charlie

It's Monday today. The next day after Sunday, where all the crazy events went down in my backyard. I haven't spoken to Ling and Lohan since yesterday, and I was excited to see them. We need to talk about the charity event as it is coming up soon. We barely have anything planned, and I'm really starting to worry now. Given all the assignments and homework plus the auction, I didn't realise when I agreed to take on the charity event that our teachers would swarm us with assignments and projects. I hope to get it done soon, and I'm excited to raise the money for those orphaned kids.

My dad decided to drop me off at school today since I was a bit late and the bus passed my house right before I could stop it.

"Here you are, kiddo." He says, after pulling up to my school's parking lot.

"Thanks, dad." I reach over the console and place a kiss on his cheek. I unfasten my seatbelt.

"See you later." He smiles.

"Bye!" I say cheerily before opening up the car door and getting out. I sling my bag over my shoulder and secure my straps comfortably. I wave before shutting the car door. When my dad drives away and out of the parking lot, my eyes scan the school grounds and it's bustling with students, given that it is ten minutes to eight when we would have to get to our homeroom classes.

I don't see my friends anywhere and none of them messaged me this morning, so I decided to head to my homeroom and spend the last ten minutes waiting for the teacher to show up. Ling, Lohan and I usually meet up in the mornings before we head to class, so it is weird not to see them.

I keep my head down with my hair shielding my face as I make my way to the school entrance. I look at the ground as I walk, something I always do when I don't have friends with me to make me feel a bit more confident. When I reach the entrance the sun is suddenly obscured from my vision when someone steps in front of me. I look up in confusion and my eyes meet Asher's.

"Rosie," he nods his head slightly.

"Good morning." I smiled, resisting the temptation of scanning his appearance. His hair looks wet today, and I have the feeling that he just got out of the shower.

"You look beautiful today." He says with a smirk. "Just as you do every other day."

My eyes widen and butterflies swarm in my tummy. "O-Okay. Thank you." I say unsurely, not sure if he was playing with me or not.

"Remember? Two compliments for the day if you tutor me." He says, holding up his hand in a number two gesture.

Realisation creeps into me. "Oh! Right." My cheeks heat up in a blush as if the gleaming sun isn't already burning me up as it is. Sue me for thinking he act meant it. "They have to be genuine though. You can't just suck random compliments out of your thumb that has nothing to do with me."

"So you're saying that beauty has nothing to do with you?" He raises a brow. I squint my eyes at the sun, having to look up at him. I take a few steps away from him and stand into the little shade the school gate was giving off. Asher follows my movements and stand in front of me again, slinging his school bag loosely over his one shoulder.

"No, all I mean is that you've called me ugly for so long. I have the right to think that you're lying." I point out, biting my lip. His eyes follow the movement and my lips immediately release my lip in embarrassment.

"Maybe. . ." He murmurs out softly, lifting up a hand and placing a gentle touch on my cheek. "Maybe I've been lying about you being ugly all this time."

"Then why would you say it?" I ask, my eyes narrowing.

He looks unsure, before his hand drops. "Second compliment; You smell good too, like vanilla and pineapple." He says, giving me a lasting stare before turning around and walking away.

He didn't answer my question.

"Wait, Asher." I call, rushing after his hasty footsteps. We enter the school building premises and I follow him into the main courtyard, grass hit the underneath of my school shoes.

"Yeah?" He asks, not stopping his haste.

"You didn't answer my question." I say in exasperation.

"I'm not obligated to answer your questions, Rosalie." I frown as he says my full name.

"Can you atleast explain to me why you're suddenly being so nice to me? It's weird and a bit scary."

He pauses his steps, and I watch his back before he slowly turns around. I notice how people walking by are looking at us, probably not used to seeing someone like him talk to someone like me. It was ironic how this was an elite 'private' school since people couldn't mind their own business.

"Did you forget how you threatened to stop tutoring me if I was rude to you?" He asks slowly.

"Yeah, but the you of before wouldn't have given a damn. You would have hired a new tutor if I made such rules to our agreement. It's weird because I'm not sure whether you're going to be civil with me, or hurt my feelings again." I pout.

"Rosie, as long as you're tutoring me, we will be on civil terms. Do you understand?" He asks as if I'm stupid.

"Yeah, okay." I nod, my hands clenching the straps of my backpack. I look down at the ground, not knowing what else to say. Moments pass and I notice a shadow in front of me again, a figure blocking the sun.

I look up at Asher. "Hmm?"

"How are you feeling after yesterday?" He asks.

"I'm good. My headache is gone and so is my nausea. It was a twenty-four hour tummy bug." I explain, telling him my mother's diagnosis.

I fell asleep while resting my head on Asher's shoulder yesterday, and when I woke up the next morning I was safely tucked in my bed.

"Good." He smiles slightly, his hand lifting up and ruffling my hair. Joy fills me at the playful gesture. I roll on the heels of my feet, nearly bouncing from excitement.

"Was I heavy?" I blurt out. "I assume it was you who carried me to my room. Was I heavy?" I repeat the question.

He chuckles. "So heavy I nearly collapsed.

I swallow loudly, blinking repeatedly.

"I'm kidding, you idiot. You basically weigh nothing. You were light as a feather. Which is weird considering all the junk food you consume." His eyes give me a once over and a shiver roll down me.

I grin. "Thank you. . . For showing care."

He scratches the back of his head, looking a little bit awkward. I'm curious to know what he's about to say, when suddenly we're interrupted by a voice calling my name.

I turn my head to see Charlie heading towards us, a huge smile on his face.

"Charlie." I grin in excitement. When he reaches me I outstretch my arms and give him a hug. He returns the hug and buries his head into my neck. Let's just say, we've become such close friends over a few days. We have so much in common and our birthdays are six days apart. We're the same age but he's six days older than I am. We share a passion for all things science and we both don't like his step-sister very much. I call that grounds for common place.

A throat is loudly cleared and I pull away from Charlie. I turn to see Asher staring at us in surprise. His eyes turn hard immediately.

"Hey, Rosie. How are you?" Charlie asks, completely ignoring Asher's presence. Either he didn't realise Asher and I were talking or he chose to ignore him.

"Rosie. . ." Asher mumbles in distain.

"I'm good thank you, what about you?" I ask in excitement.

"Just perfect. Can I walk you to your homeroom?"

"Excuse me? But who the fuck are you?" Asher asks bluntly, causing me to cringe at his lack of bedside manners.

"I'm sorry?" Charlie asks in confusion.

"Rosie and I were clearly having a conversation when you butted in so rudely and completely forgot to introduce yourself." Asher says in annoyance, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Second hand embarrassment comes over me. Charlie's face turns a twinge of red.

"Dude, I'm sorry I didn't realise you were talking to her. I'm Charlie." He holds a hand out for Asher to take, but Asher completely ignores him and grabs my arm instead, pulling me away from where Charlie is standing. My eyes widen and I send Charlie an apologetic glance. He looks awkward and embarrassed at the same time.

"Let go," I protest. "You're so mean to Charlie. Go apologise." I stomp my foot like a child.

"He's the rude one. Who the fuck is he anyway? Calling you Rosie and putting his grubby hands all over you. What the fuck?" He heaves out in once breath.

I'm completing flushed. "Asher, were you, dare I say, jealous?" I decide to tease him.

"Oh him?" He scoffs at the idea. "Of fucking course not. I'm just worried for you that some strange dickhead is touching you."

"He's not a stranger." I pull my arm from his grasp. "He's my friend and a transfer student, just like your friend Katherine."

"Friend is quite a loose term, she's my hookup and that's it." He mumbles.

"That's none of my business. I'll see you later." I say, and without a word I turn to walk away from him. Three steps later I'm once again halted in my steps when Asher grabs onto my backpack. "What do you want?" I ask in annoyance.

I feel bad for leaving Charlie standing there in embarrassment, after Asher was rude to him. Asher was such an ass and couldn't give two cares in the world about respecting other people or there feelings.

"Where are you going?" He asks.

"What kind of question is that? I'm going to homeroom, since it's in like three minutes." I say hastily.

"You do know that we have the same homeroom, right? I can walk you there." He suggest, coming to stand in front of me, blocking my view of Charlie awkwardly standing there.

"Actually. . ." I trail off. "I'm gonna walk with Charlie. See you later." I smile brightly before side stepping him and walking towards where Charlie is standing. I don't dare look at Asher, knowing that he is probably annoyed with me for some absolutely unknown reason. He never want to associate with me at school, and now suddenly he wants to walk me to homeroom period? He was being weird and it didn't seem like it was just all part of the fact that I was tutoring him in maths.

Was Asher being. . . Jealous?

Obviously not. What would he care with who I was hanging out with? Clearly I am being delusional.

I grab Charlie's hand and pull him with me towards the entrance of the school. He doesn't say anything until we're on our way to our registration period. When completely sure Asher can't see us anymore over the busy hallways, I release a relieved sigh.

"Wow, did that guy wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or something?" Charlie asks.

"No, someone just pissed in his fruit loops." I giggle cussing Charlie to laugh. "But seriously, that is his everyday behaviour."

"And you have a crush on him?" He asks.

My hands clench the straps of my backpack. I suddenly remember that when we met, I told Charlie all about my crush on Asher. There was no denying it now.

"Uh. . . Yeah. But it's only because I grew up next door to him. Our parents are best friends."

His lips formed an 'O' shape. "That's. . ."

"Unfortunate?" I suggest.

"I mean, I was going to say understandable." He chuckles. We reach the classroom and enter inside. I notice the classroom half full and our teacher sitting at her desk. The room is fairly loud as students chatter to their friends.

"How was your weekend?" I ask.

"Pretty ordinary. All I did was homework." He answers. "What about yours?"

"Mine was eventful." I answer, remembering the events that took place yesterday. I had fun with Asher and his friends, who were surprisingly not so bad and good enough company. Except for Katherine, who I'm sure hates me.

He's about to say something when Ling and Lohan interrupts us by sitting down in the seats in front of us. They turn around and greet. We can't talk any further as the class begin to pile up and the teacher shushes us. I smile as today is a good start.

Asher walks in lastly with Brandon besides him, and they sit in the front row of seats, clearly ready to leave the moment the bell sounds. I keep staring at the side of Asher's head, recalling our encounter of this morning. Maybe this year will be a good start after all, with Asher being nice to me for starters. His head suddenly turn to my direction. I feel caught and like I'm in trouble, but instead of looking away I smile.

His expression remains stoic and he seems to scoff before he turns he head away. I frown as his behaviour. One thing I knew for sure was that it have something to do with Charlie.

Was he really jealous? But why? Maybe it has something to do with wanting to walk with Charlie to homeroom instead of him. He could never give two cares in the world before with who I spoke to, so why ever he was acting like this was a mystery to me.

*

The day is finally over, and I bid goodbye to my friends. I spent lunch with my friends and Charlie as a new addition to our group. I learned more about him the more we spoke, and I found that he is pretty interesting. His mom wanted a divorce with his dad when he was sixteen, and just last year his father remarried Katherine's mother. His dad is a lawyer, and his step-mother is a council member. He is turning eighteen in December, just like I am.

I depart ways with Ling and Lohan after school. They offer to drop me home, but I decline instead, seeing the bus. I can't wait to get a car, and then learn how to drive. I take quick strides towards the bus, not wanting to get a bad seat in the back.

"Rosie." I hear a voice call. I turn around to see Asher motioning me over with his hand. I'm confused and send him a confused look. I give the filling bus a glance, before rushing over towards Asher.

"What? The bus is about to leave." I say in a rush.

"No it's not." He points out. I notice Brandon leaning against Asher's car, looking at his phone. When he notices me, he looks up and smile.

"Hey, Rose." He greets.

I'm unsure whether I can be on civil terms with him or not, but then I decide that he didn't really do anything wrong to me, so I shrug.

"Hi, Brandon." I smile awkwardly. It was weird talking to Asher's friends. I wonder where Jayden and Carson are.

"Do you want a lift home?" Asher asks casually.

"Don't you have football practice?" I ask in confusion, glancing at my wrist watch. I'm tried and hungry I want to go home, so I can't complain by the thought of Asher taking me home instead of having to get on the bus.

"No, we can't wear ourselves out since we have a game tomorrow. Do you want that ride or not?"

I purse my lips before nodding. "Okay, thank you." I usually will never trust that he simply wants to give me a ride, but given that he was being 'nice' to me because of our tutoring agreement, I trust he won't do anything stupid.

Asher presses the alarm button to his car, and the doors beep open. I'm about to open the back seat when he stops me. "No, you sit in front. Brandon can take the back."

I stifle a laugh when Brandon's jaw hands open. I'm unsure whether Asher is joking or not, so I slowly walk towards the front passenger seat, every now and then glancing at Asher for approval. He says nothing and instead gets the drivers seat. I take that as my go to get inside.

Brandon scoff and sits in the back, leaning between the front seats. I pull my seatbelt over me and push it into the safety.

"Seatbelt, Asher?" I ask, noticing how he ignores the car's beeping warning to put his seatbelt on and instead harshly puts the sound off manually.

"I'm good." He says.

I don't want to argue with him, and sigh instead. I hate when people think that seatbelts are unnecessary. I think that they're ignorant

When on the road, Asher turns up the radio slightly, till it's softly playing in the background. I'm grateful that our houses are not far from here, given that I don't want to be stuck in a car with Asher and Brandon in awkward silence. Or what I thought to be awkward silence.

"Are you staying for the game tomorrow, Rose?" Brandon asks, his voice sounding close to my eyes. I turn in my seat a bit so that I can see him. My hands are nervously fidgeting with one another.

"Uhm, I don't think so. I never stay for the games." I admit sheepishly.

"Seriously? Where did your school spirit go?" He asks in disbelief.

"I just have homework to do." I reason.

"We all have homework. You should come and support us. Maybe if you're there Asher won't suck so much." He teases.

"Fuck you. I'm the best you assholes got." Asher turns in his seat and shoves Brandon backwards. I giggle at their encounter.

Brandon laughs. "Second best after me, you mean. And Rose, you should really come."

"I don't have anyone to go with." I admit in embarrassment. I never once thought the day will come when I would be casually holding conversation with Brandon in Asher's car.

"What do you mean? School kids are everywhere." 

"Yeah, but they all go with their friends. Ling and Lohan don't like the games, so I stay away too." I only recently became friends with Becca, and I never saw her at all today so I'm not sure where I stand with her. She have her own group of friends and I'm probably her last priority.

"Why are you friends with those. . . Nerds?"

"I've known them for long and just because I suddenly wish to go to the games, I can't expect them to want to too." I explain, feeling a bit bad that I didn't correct him when he called them nerds.

"So, you do want to come?" He asks lightly.

"Yes, but I won't."

"Oh, come on. We all know that you're not really this boring little nerd you pretend to be, you have proved that yesterday. You're stopping yourself from having fun by being with those friends of yours."

I frown and turn away, paying attention to outside the window. I notice we're nearing my neighborhood. I can't face Brandon when his words hold some truth to it. Yes, I am socially awkward and nervous around strangers, but that doesn't mean that I always want to be hidden in the shadows behind my books and not experience fun in my last year of highschool.

I yearned for fun.

"Okay." I nodding, inhaling deeply. "I'll go."

Brandon laughed in victory. "That's the school spirit."

I bite my lip and glance over at Asher, to see him intensely focusing on the road. He looks as if he's paying no mind to our conversation, but I know that he is.

"But one condition," I pipe up. I don't know what possessed me to say what I'm about to say next.

"You have to let me wear your jersey with your number."

Brandon laughs hard, clearly not believing his ears. Neither could I.

"I think the fuck not." Asher says, causing me to laugh with Brandon.

I don't know what his problem is, but Asher seems jealous a lot lately when it comes to other males.

Either that or I'm delusional.

**

Q's:
Do you prefer Asher when he's not being an ass? Or so you still dislike him from his previous behavior?

Here are some more images of how I see the characters:

Asher

Rosie

Brandon