It's Saturday today. A good day to finish up assignments and homework, then after that I plan to chill and eat ice cream or something. I plan my day in my head simply as I always do. It's currently 11am when I get all my notebooks and textbooks out to do some homework. I pull out my maths textbook to the page that I've marked and immediately dive into the questions.

I enjoy cirlce functions and calculus mostly, and almost every other topic in maths besides for regular functions. I absolutely hate those. Just when my pencil hit my notebook I hear my door shoot open. I'm hoping that it's Asher, so I turn around in excitement only to see Ling.

"Oh, it's just you." I sigh.

Ling's eyebrows shoot up in question. "Okay...I totally feel the love today."

"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that." I shoot her a sigh in apology. "I just thought it would be someone else."

"Who exactly would come in here at 11am besides Lohan, your parents and I?" She wonders.

"Asher maybe..." I trail off awkwardly and spin around in my chair towards my desk, facing away from her. Usually I would tell her immediately if something spontaneous happened to me, and she would do the same. In this case it's Asher kissing me yesterday afternoon. However, I hadn't told her yet even though we had spoken over the phone last night about a geography assignment. I purposefully forgot to mention it. I didn't want Ling to think that I'm crazy for letting my tormenter kiss me. I would prefer telling her in person.

"Uhm...Asher? As in your next door neighbor and your bully Asher?" She says. I can hear the confusion in her tone.

"Yes, what other Asher do I know?" I say snappily. I sigh immediately afterwards. I can't take my frustrations out on Ling. She's always so nice and never moody with me, even when she's feeling sad or mad.

"I'm sorry Ling. I'm just frustrated." I apologise.

She chuckles. "Did your mom deprive you of candy again? Because you do get hyperactive when you eat too much candy."

"Nooo." I whine, turning to face her again.

"Alright, then why the sad face? And why did you seem so excited when you that that I was Asher? Why would he barge into your room anyway? He hasn't stopped foot in here since before you guys even hit puberty. Just as you said."

"That's too much words for me, Ling. It's still early." I complain. "But I'll answer you anyway. So yesterday after school his mom asked me if I had any spare time to tutor him because he's at risk at failing, and to be honest I'm the smartest person at school."

"Uh..." She makes a funny face. "I think we'll have to establish who's the smartest again."

I ignore that.

"I agreed and then his mom and mine sent him up to my room to come and arrange a time schedule."

Her mouth forms an 'O'.

"He was being so mean to me but since I like him I made the stupid decision to kiss him on the lips-"

"Woah," she exclaims. "Pump the breaks. You kissed him?"

"Yes but only for like a split second. He then took it upon himself to kiss me again. Longer this time." I end off awkwardly. I left out the part where I was almost naked.

"Holy crab cakes! Rose, I thought that you were gonna lose your first kiss to someone who loves you back under the stars at night."

"I know but Ling, he's so irresistible. And so hot. Ugh." I groan, falling back into my chair.

"That doesn't change the fact that he's an asshole, Rose. Remember? Don't be one of those girls."

"One of those girls? Absolutely not!" I say in shock. I don't think he plans to kiss me again anyway. That was just in the heat of the moment.

"Okay, it's fine. It's not like it's gonna happen again right? Because if he does try that again you will be ready to kick him in the balls or slap him, despite how hot he is. Right, Rose?" She looks at me pointedly, placing her hands on her hips.

I gulp deeply.

"Yes, of course." I squeak out.

"You're lying. You're a liar, Rosalie Parks." She accuses.

"Okay, fine! I'll try to slap him." I promise.

"Awesome. Now that we have established that you're not one of those phony girls who fall to his feet, we can get on with our day."

I bite my lip in thought. Goodness, I am like one of those girls aren't I? Ohh, this is not good. This is so not good.

"Let's go out today." I say, standing up. It's time to exact mission number two of this year. Find myself a boyfriend. If I do, Asher won't try to kiss me again and I won't have to risk falling to his feet again like Ling had said, no matter how hot he is. This is perfect. All I have to do is go out and find myself someone suitable.

"Out? Out as in your porch out? Or your garden out?" Ling asks.

"No, silly." I chuckle. "Let's go for ice cream. Or we can go shopping. Or both. I haven't shopped in a long time."

"Look at me, I look like a can of sardines today." she says, motioning to herself.

I giggle. She doesn't look half bad. She's wearing black tights, a long and red thin jersey and black ankle boots.

"You looks awesome, Ling. As you always do. Now let me dress quick and we can go."

"Okay." She says hesitantly.

"You can wait in the car I just wanna dress quickly and force my mom to give me money." I say, before disappearing in my closet.

When I've managed to persuade my mom into giving me two months of allowance, I left the house with more than two hundred and fifty bucks and wearing one of my favourite pink sundresses. I topped it off with my nude sandals and sling bag. The dress ends two inches above my knees and it has a floral pattern with thick straps at the top. It is pretty enough to compliment my pale brown hair which is slightly curled and softly hanging from my shoulders. I pinned my bangs to the side with a butterfly clip and I put my eye contacts in and abandoned my glasses.

When I looked in the mirror, I looked pretty enough. Beautiful even. And I feel so much prettier now that Asher had called me adorable. I don't know if he really meant it but it boosted my self confidence up a few notches. I even decided to apply pink lipstick to my lips, eyeliner and some foundation to cover up my freckles. I see Ling standing against the car and scrolling through her phone. When she looks up her mouth drops open in surprise.

"Rose, you look stunning." She gushes. I can't help but blush. I feel different.

"Really? Are you sure?" I ask unsure.

"Absolutely. You look so pretty I'm so proud." She rushes forward to hug me. I giggle when I feel her arms fling around me.

I feel my lips etch up into a bright smile, but all too soon the smile is washed off my face when I see Asher and a red headed girl exiting his house. His hand is placed on her waist as he guides her towards his car. When Ling pulls away, she frowns when she sees my expression.

"What's wrong?" She asks. I don't answer and keep my eye trained on Asher and the girl. If looks could kill, the red headed bimbo would be six feat under the ground. Ling slowly turned to look where I am.

"Oh man, I'm sorry Rose." She says, sending me a sympathetic look. "Atleast now we can really agree to kick him in the balls anytime he decides to do something stupid like kiss you again."

I feel my heart drop. "Ling, I don't know what I should have expected really. For him to suddenly like me after one stupid kiss? This was a mistake. I'm going back inside and taking a shower. Maybe I can cry in their too. Atleast the water will hide my pathetic tears." I sigh sadly.

"Nope. You're not doing that. We're going out now and you're going to have fun. It's been a long time since you had fun."

"True." I shrug.

"Let's go, girl. Let's go find ourselves some boyfriends." She says in determination.

I can't help but giggle. "Boyfriends, plural? I only want one."

"See? That's the spirit. Now let's go."

I smile and follow her to her dark blue Honda. When I reach the front passenger seat I can't help but turn to look at Asher. To my shock he's staring right at me. I expect him to atleast smile after we kissed, or even wave, but he gives me a smirk instead. A freaking cunning, conniving and sexy smirk! Argh. I'm going to really shove him off a cliff one of these days. Without a word, I get in the car. I ignore the way the red headed bimbo is giving me these dirty looks.

I'm sorry to say, Mrs. Bimbo, but Asher really can't keep it in his pants so after you he's gonna move on to the next girl.

As heartbreaking at it is to say, it's true.

We arrive at the mall in less than 15 minutes. Ling and I raid almost all the clothing shops, finding designer clothing and accessories plus some new shoes and purchasing them all. I wasted all my pocket money of two months on clothes just to make me feel better about the whole Asher thing. I didn't worry though, given that I knew how to pursuade my dad into giving me a few extra bucks. My mom was a bit harder to pursuade.

When we enter another clothing store I feel a bit exhausted with all the shopping. I slump down onto one of the couches in the elegant shops, and watch Ling as she goes to the rails of clothing.

"I want to find you something sexy to wear, something so sexy it would knock Asher straight off his feat." She says in determination, assessing the clothes.

I sigh, feeling tired. "He's a lost cause. He doesn't like me and there's no way he would ever think of me like that. So that's okay, I don't need anymore clothes."

"In that case, we're not shopping to find impressive clothes for Asher. We're finding impressive clothes for any guy you meet. You need to start dating, Rose."

I let out a breath, already feeling bored with this conversation. We've had it multiple times, and I will continue telling her that no boy would ever be interested in me. I'm too boring for society, guys want girls with spunk and gumption and I'm not that girl. I also don't have legs to die for, which is all what guys want these days.

"Don't need to. Let's just go to the cafeteria and get a donut, I really need one right now."

"No, Fatty. We're finding us something sexy to wear."

"If anyone of us were fat, you'd be the fat one Ling." I state. As much as I ate, I didn't put on any extra weight.

"Look," Ling suddenly squeal. She pulls a white dress from the railing that looks way too small for both me and her, and brings it to her chest. She straightens it over her body and walks towards the body length mirror. "This dress is perfect, Rose. Not for me, but for you." She says, turning around and handing me the piece of material still on it's hanger.

I grab the hanger from her and assess the dress from top to bottom, all the way from the lace at the top to the sequence at the bottom. I guess you could call it pretty, but it wasn't my style. Besides, it's probably way out of my price range.

"I don't like it." I say with distaste, handing it back to her. She refuses to accept it and grabs my hand instead, ushering me to the conveniently close fitting rooms.

"Fit it on. You're gonna look amazing, trust me. You have the right amount of curves which is basically no curves at all-"

"Hey!" I protest.

"-and you're the perfect height for it. Your butt isn't huge abut bigger than last year, and perky enough to stand out and make all the boys turn to look in your direction. Go on, go fit it on."

I groan heavily and trudge towards the fitting rooms. I give her a dry look in which she smiles back and waves me off. When I find a suitable fitting room that is furthest to the entrance of the rooms, I lock myself in it and slowly peel off my clothes, purposely taking long to make Ling wait. When I'm left in my underwear I pull the dress off of its hanger and unzip the short zip at the back, before slipping it on from the bottom. I see that it's an extra small size so it squeezes tightly up my body much to my own dismay. I groan when I slip my arms into the right arm sleeve that ends by my wrist. Great, it's a long sleeved dress. Just perfect.

With great difficulty I pull the zip up, then finally look in the mirror. I gasp in surprise and step back, not expecting what I saw. The dress fits me tightly but it is absolutely beautiful and the white of the dress really complements my pale brown hair. The sleeves of the dress is lace and so it the top part, leaving my stomach area slightly visible and you could detect the white bra that I'm wearing beneath. It travels all the way to a few inches just below mid-thigh, which is short but bearable. The bottom is sequenced and skin tight, and absolutely gorgeous. My brown hair is framing my face and hanging over one shoulder, making me, dare I say it, look beautiful.

I release the breath of surprise that I was holding in, noticing how my green eyes sparkled when I was feeling confident. The dress complimented my body and made me look less thin. My breasts were perfect for the cup size and stood out and my butt as well. I hear a knock on the door and snap out of my trace.

"Rose? What the earth is taking you so long?" I hear Ling ask. I open the door excitedly to show her the outcome of her choice of dress.

Her eyes widen and she squeals in excitement. "Rose oh my god, you look gorgeous;" She reaches out and squeezes me in a hug. I laugh and hug her back.

"Thank you." I can't help but feel excited.

"We are totally buying this dress, there's no way we're not. I won't allow it." She says sternly.

"But don't you think the top is too revealing. I mean you can see my bra."

"You can always wear a white vest underneath." She shrugs. "Get dressed so long while I look for a nice dress for me too."

I nod. She sends me a wink before I shut the door. I smile a goofy smile and look at myself one more time in the mirror before unzipping the dress. Maybe this way Asher would like me.

Somehow, someway I want him to see me in this dress. And then he can like me as much as I like him.

***

"Our dresses are gorgeous. I can't wait to show them off." Ling gushes when we get into her car after loading our bags on her back seats.

"Where would we show them off though? They aren't exactly school appropriate." I point out. She reverses out of the parking lot and we're onto the road in no time.

"They aren't? Then why does that Patricia and Penelope bitches always wear clothes similar to them on our casual wear days?"

"It seems normal for them because they're cheerleaders and popular. If nobodies like us suddenly show up to school one day wearing that they're going to think that we're attention seekers. Asher is going to hate me even more." I sigh and rest my elbow against the car door. I gaze out of the window and watch the city pass by us.

"Ugh, why do you even care what that asshole thinks. I swear, Rose, you have one screw lose up there." Ling sighs.

"I can't help how I feel." I whine. "And it's worst now that I've kissed him. Argh, I'm such a whore." I cringe.

"No you're not you idiot. You're a virgin and you haven't kissed anyone before him. You dress sometimes like a grandma and you don't go around seeking all the attention of the male population. You blush when two people kiss on a movie and close your eyes with your hands," she scoff, giving me a look. "You get uncomfortable everytime someone says sex and laugh like a little-"

I couldn't help but let out a small giggle.

"See? Exactly. As I was saying, you're far from a whore."

"It doesn't matter because Asher will always see me as his pesky little neighbor that he has hated for so long now." I say sadly.

"Ugh, who cares what he thinks?"

"I do!"

"Alright, fine. Since we skipped out on that donut you wanted do you wanna go to that ice cream shop nearby school?"

I immediately perk up at her offer.

"You mean Cookies And Cream? What are you waiting for? Let's go!" I chirp excitedly. It was my favorite ice cream shop that my parents used to bring me to after school some days. It was the days that they weren't so busy. The shop sold every desert you could think of, from chocolate pizza to ice cream donuts. I loved their cinnamon donuts with vanilla ice cream and a caramel drizzle over.

When we arrive I notice that the parking lot is filled, as it usually was on Saturday's. I grow nervous, hoping that there weren't that many people in the parlor. We get out of the car and after securely locking up walk towards the entrance. The air conditioning immediately hit me when I enter and I relish in the cool feeling, dreading the heat of outside. My eyes scan the area and I freeze when I see many familiar faces from school. This was usually the spot where teenagers hung out, and it was scary for someone who is insecure and socially awkward as myself. The fact that they're all teenagers make you immediately assume the worst, that they're going to judge you for every bit of thing you do.

"Come on Rose, don't worry. We'll just order and be on our merry way." Ling says assuringly, grabbing my hand and leading my to the front counter. We stand in a line of about five people and I breathe nervously, noticing how many eyes turn in our direction. It's probably nothing. They are probably also thinking that they know us from somewhere.

When we get to the front of the line I fail to notice the presence of a certain someone behind me.

"What may I get you?" The friendly counter lady asks Ling and I.

When I get a wiff of a very familiar cologne, I freeze up and the hairs on my back raise. Ling gives her usual order of blueberry cheesecake ice cream before the lady looks towards me expectantly. I don't answer, not being able to find my voice in my frozen state.

"She'll have the medium cinnamon donut with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and a caramel drizzle."

Ling turns around and stares in shock at the person behind me. I could understand why Asher would know my order. Our parents took us here all the time when we were little and I would always order the same thing, not wanting to try anything new and risk missing out on my usual and favourite. I never thought he ever took note when we sat opposite eachother in the cute little booths, but he had. And he remembered after so long. I melt on the spot. These small things were the reason I was slowly falling deeper in love with him.

"And you?" The lady ask Asher from behind me.

"I'm not with them but-"

"I want strawberry ice cream pleeeasse." A high pitched voice comes from behind Asher. The girl with red hair that I saw with him this morning steps out from behind him, and flashes us all a blinding and fake smile. I was to cringe but I'm still too frozen to say anything. Ling awkwardly hands the casher a few dollar bills and mumble a 'keep the change' when the lady hands her our slip. Ling takes my hand and pull me away from Asher and the red head bimbo. I sigh in relieve when we go to stand out of their view, towards the counter on the other side that would have our prepared order.

I still haven't even gotten a good look at Asher, and I'm so glad that I didn't. I couldn't stand to look at him with that girl. He brought her to our family spot! I couldn't stand to look at him.

"Gosh, what a fake bitch?" Ling says, leaning against the cool Mable counter.

I chuckle. She knew how to lighten up my spirit. We never usually judge people like that based on their appearance, but Ling was just trying to make me feel better.

"And the red hair? It's totally dyed. By the way, how did Asher get your usual order that accurate?" She asks, peering at me curiously.

"We used to come here with our family when we were little. Both Mr and Mrs Dunhill are so pleasant. And Arielle is most adorable and well mannered. I don't know where he comes from." I sigh, still feeling the jealously of him and that girl burning in my stomach. I feel the need to kick that red head off a cliff.

Oh God. What is wrong with me? Please forgive me for my evil thoughts.

"Ignore him."

"I can't." I say miserably. "He can't just kiss me and then act like it never happened. That is unacceptable!"

"I never acted like it didn't happen." A deep voice drawls from behind me. "I just never got the time of day to act like it did happen."

I spin around to see him, and step towards Ling when I notice that he's too close. I don't see the red head anywhere.

"You're just a jerk, Asher." I say. "Don't kiss me again."

He scoffed. "I don't plan to. I don't wanna risk all the germs."

I immediately become defensive and cross my arms over my chest. "You mean you don't wanna risk passing on all the germs you got from that red head and all the other million girls you've went out with."

"I don't 'go out' with girls." He rolls his eyes. "I fuck them. Hard. And I've ranged from ugly to average to hot as hell. I've fucked them all besides you. It just shows that you're a special kind of ugly."

My heart drops.

"No matter how much makeup you think you can wear, I've seen you at your ugliest moments."

"You're lying. Yesterday you called me adorable." I point out, already feeling my heart rate speed up.

"I was lying." He chuckled evilly. "You're not adorable. Your fucking hideous, Rosie. Now stop staring death holes into my hookup and get the hell out. No one wants you here."

I breathe heavily as tears wet my eyes.

"Back off, you big headed bitch." I hear Ling snarl. I look at her in surprise. "You act as if you own shit but you don't. You're a good for nothing asshole who is insecure about life, that's why you feel the need to bully Rose to make yourself feel better. But it's getting old now. Go drown your sorrows in beer and take your crap out on someone else, Rose doesn't deserve this and she has done nothing to make you hate her so much."

When Ling ends off, we're all engulfed in shock. This is the first time that my friend have ever told him off like that.

She sighs. "You like her, but you hide behind your nasty insults to hide your feelings. Just give up already."

Asher is clenching his jaw and fists so hard, I'm afraid something would break. He glares so hard at Ling I'm afraid for her safety, but surprisingly he just grabs the bimbos strawberry ice cream off the counter behind us and walk away, not sparing me a second glance.

***

Ugh I hope this isn't boring.

Asher is a big meanie.