Fuck, the Uber driver canceled the ride. As the night dragged on from the after-party, the lobby got emptier. Misty ghostly fog rolled in under the lobby doors. It was well past the last call. As the chilly night stretched on the idea of calling my brother for more help wasn't something I wanted. But I was fucked. If I gaze hard enough at the phone screen, maybe conjure up a ride.

"Boo," I'm off the bench. I believe in the killer, and when someone gives me a hint, I get the fuck out of there. Smirking Asher Kells in front of me. Remember to breathe. I wasn't having a repeat of this morning.

"Asher Kells," I said back. His smirk slides from his face a little.

"Asher, teammate, just Asher. Besides, I'm just a regular guy." He corrected me and after thinking about it for a second, he was right. I was saying Asher Kells like you say a hot guy's name in high school like it's a name brand. Apart from that, I felt a little ashamed at how right he was.

In his leather jacket with band buttons and patches worn on to it. Jeans, and a t-shirt he could pass for a guy who was coming out of his favorite band's concert. He looked again my age and the music mogul corporate rockstar was totally absent. Even the after hour rockstar surrounded by models and his agent wasn't present either. He was just Asher, not Rock Star Asher Kells lead singer of the Kells. And everyone has a right to be a human being, right? But one thing that didn't leave him were those blue-gold-green hazel eyes that looked more like a nebula. I admit the obvious to myself there was something in them that made me think of nebulas. Something I wanted to learn about. So, teammate Asher, it was, deal.

My eyes slide off Asher to the man behind him going up and higher. He was huge, huge like Zoey's big brother Noah is huge. Noah's 6'7 and the black man was taller. He was the type of guy who should be playing professional football, but thicker. His dark skin tone contrasted with his tattooed and dyed white buzzed at the side high top haircut. It made him into an updated version of Mr. T, and I was a little intimidated. I held my hand out to him and he looked taken back at the hand.

"Sabali Lora, nice to meet you." I said.

"Rux, just Rux," his big hand took mine with a bemused grin on his face. "I'm the bodyguard, you don't need to greet me." That was a little odd in itself. I mean, ya he's a huge shadow at Asher's back but not greeting him seemed a bit weird. The little boy's smirk was back on Asher's face. As mischievous as any little boy in one of my music lessons. I know the expression all too well. Yeah, just a regular guy maybe.

We were stuck in a holding pattern, with no one filling the dead space after my greeting. But I had a feeling with Asher's smile he was having fun, not filling in more words and simply looking at me. I tried my hardest not to be a fish out of water and simply open and close my mouth and be a full creepier. This is why I'm Wheelz and looking back, my college friends did have me pegged correctly. It wasn't cruelty. Sometimes reality is you are a music nerd. It is what it is.

Rux seemed to be the nice guy and he picked up the conversation that was giving Asher a smirkfest. "I can take you back to the Arena after I get off work. It's less than twenty minutes." How long was he and Asher standing behind me for him to read that my scheduled ride was canceled? Rux told me he was getting off soon, right. We talked, but the smirk that was on Asher's face was disappearing during the conversation. I like Rux. He reminded me of my older brother's steady type of guy. Maybe Asher Kells the rockstar wasn't used to not being the center of attention. I couldn't figure out what was bothering him and why he wasn't talking in the conversation as well. The double doors of the hotel open and close. White nearly viscous fog rolled through the doors, following after the guy in the crew t-shirt. My teeth chatter with the wave of cold.

Asher took off his jacket and wrapped it around me. Smoky spice and something else, something I couldn't put my finger on envelopes me. It was an addicting scent. His inky tattooed hand fixes the collar and lining. The rough fingers lingered for a second across my chocolate skin. The contrast of his creamy ink-covered finger against my darkness was striking. Little buzzes of electricity zinged through me at his slight touch. In that second, it felt like time was slowing down. My mind was using every CPU cycle it had on his fingertip. It was just the tip of his finger that brushes into the shallow dip of my collarbone. But my shivers followed his touch, in the same way, a snake dances to the Bein flute. The world shrank to the two of us. I was stunned. Remember to breathe B, BREATHE DAMN IT! He's just being nice, don't Wheelz out.

I was more than a little shocked and when our eyes met; I wasn't ready for it. Thankfully, this time I had a plan. Yes, I really am Wheelz, true to form. The remember to breathe plan worked. I took lungfuls of spicy Asher and made it through.

"Rux, we can share a ride instead," Asher tells the large man beside him. The wicked smirk that went with the statement was new. It was deadly. Panty dropping deadly but it could have been something he used a lot. A good example is a handshake or a kind smile. Making more of it wouldn't be worth it. Asher and I talked while Rux shook his head with a smile. Rux points to the van, drawing my sharp gaze off Asher for a moment.

My jaw dropped. The van was a stranger danger van. All black but extremely well cared for. If the black van had white spray paint saying free candy, I wouldn't have been surprised. Both men smiled at my reaction to the van.

"One of my pride and joy is a 1973 Ford Econoline SuperVan," Asher said with a big, sexy smile. One? So, he's a car guy? Learn something about him. He kept talking, "me and my.." Brother, the word hung in the air painfully unsaid. He didn't finish the sentence, his smile fading from his face but returning when he finished. "The van took us to more cities when we were starting out than most people see in their entire life." I thought he was going to run his hand across the van like a lover. Ya, stranger danger, the kind of stranger danger your momma tells you not to fuck with. Rux slides open the door for us, but the inside looks as slick and nice as the outside. All black leather interior and when you looked up a double sunroof. Rux tells me he'll get Asher's luggage from the hotel, leaving me alone with Asher.

The van was like a mouth of a cave with all that black leather. Step inside of the stranger danger, full free candy. My mother told me to run away from stranger danger. Instead, I'm almost skipping to get inside. Where's your self-preservation, Wheelz? I giggle at my own joke.

Asher places his hand on my lower back as I step up into the van and lead me in. For a guy with tattoos and bad boy Stranger danger van owner vibes, he's really polite. Asher slides in next to me and opens the roof of the Van. Then steps up and open the sunroof with the stars above us.

My head settles back on the headrest in the back of the van. Then my hand wanders into my bag as my finger itches to put everything into a journal. I took out my journal with purple, dark tan, and brown polka dots. On the bound cover, a solid brown wraps around the spine. Flying and gliding through the polka dot was my personal hand-drawn bird. I put on everything. Asher might have guessed, but he was right with birdy even though no one really called me that before. I always drew a doodle bird of myself and my brother. Then for Zoey, I drew a doodled sailing rabbit and for Noah; the rabbit had a sailor's cap. He's always been sailing ship mad, just like his dad, who was a retired navy vet when he was alive. Plus, he builds ships, so it was an easy decision. I didn't bring all my colors because I really wanted to draw the nebula and pop some lyrics in there, but I waited. I wrote down my day and my pen was moving faster than my mind could keep up with. The words were as free flow and without a filter as ever. It was a weird day but as I got close to the Asher part, my pen stopped. Warm breath on the back of my neck.

That mischievous little boy smirk was on Asher's face. My pen stops moving and sluggish thoughts connect. I don't know why, but I believed he would get out of the van or he was going to go with Rux. I don't know why, but I didn't think he would have hung out in the stranger danger van. Those hazel nebulas were on me and my gaze drops to the journal paper then back up to Asher. Shit.

A/n: One of a few super posts more coming like I said last part.