Dying of the Light

(Asher)

For what should have been my first month at my new school, I moped around the house. My mom was worried, and I tried my best to put on a happy face for her. But what could I do? I had no friends to hang out with. I couldn’t shoot hoops anymore. There were only so many hours a day where doing schoolwork is acceptable. I was restless, and helpless.

What was there to do? It was a miserable way to live.

I guess that maybe that’s why Mom came into my room one day and told me sharply, “you’d better get your act together, Asher Cooper Rowe, because you’re going to school tomorrow,” in the no-nonsense voice that she used to use to make me eat my broccoli. I grinned, and she slammed the door.

She probably thought that I would resist more, and the smart part of me was telling me to, but I couldn’t take the monotony anymore. If I only had months to live, I wanted to do it right. Even if I couldn’t let myself get close to anyone, I could try living vicariously. Anything would be better than this.

So, I was going to school tomorrow. I raced around my room, acting like an excited little girl. Heck, I even set out my clothes for the next day. I went to bed early. A year ago, I would have silently mocked anyone dorky enough to act this way. But things were different now.

But once I was actually in school, sitting in class, all of the reasons I shouldn’t be there came rushing back, and I felt like someone had sucker punched me. Things were alright, at first. But then the bell had rung, and with it came two students, rushing into the room and falling all over each other. They were laughing so hard, I felt like I’d missed out on the joke of the century.

I wanted to laugh too, until I realized that I recognized one of them. A few minutes into class, I felt an icy glare and turned to see that it was him, Bennet Stevens. He must have recognized me, too. From the look on his face, I would have been better off if he hadn’t.

Lucky for me, the girl he’d ran into the room with got yelled at by the teacher for snoozing, which drew his attention away from me. Of course, it wasn’t long before I felt his glare again.

Needless to say, when the bell rang, I got out of that room as quickly as I could. But this school ran in a weird way- they had students eat lunch early in the morning. Apparently, a concerned parent had petitioned the school a couple of years ago, saying that the best way to combat students not eating breakfast was to let them eat something in the morning. We also got snack time in the afternoons, like kindergartners.

All of this would have been great, if I had any friends here. But I had no one. So I put my now little-used athletic skills to work, and got out of the room. The plan was to get to my car before anyone could notice me leaving. I could eat in there, away from people’s watching eyes.

Of course, that plan didn’t work out. Just as I was reaching the door, someone plowed into me. It was the girl who was friends with Bennet, who had slept in class. She sure wasn’t sleepy now. Her bright eyes were fixed on me, staring so intently that I wanted to back away. I was getting to be a wimp. Realizing that made me disgusted with myself, and certainly didn’t improve my mood.

“I’m so, so very sorry,” she said. She was studying me while she said it, but I could tell she was genuine. “Really, I am. I shouldn’t have been running in the hallways.”

I’d been away from girls for too long. She was a looker, but even so, she shouldn’t have had this effect on me. My stomach was twisting, my heart beating just fast enough for me to notice and be annoyed by it. “Sure,” I said quickly, backing away. I needed to get away from her, and quickly, before I got to be too temped to break my no-friends rule. Even if I did break it, I had a feeling that she would be off-limits because of Bennet. Curse him.

But I was just pathetic enough to desperately want to stay in her company. My only source of conversation for months had been my mother. Not that I didn’t love her, but I wanted more.

The girl, though, wouldn’t let me leave so easily. “I’m Molly Nicolson,” she told me, smiling the most dangerous smile I’d seen in my life. It was a smile that made a guy want things he couldn’t have.

I couldn’t look away at first, but I snapped out of it and managed to give her a twisted smile of my own. “I’m Asher Rowe. I’m… ah, new here.”

“Do you know Bennet Stevens?” she asked immediately, then put her hand to her mouth, seeming surprised at her own mouth.

I decided against answering. “I’ve got to get going,” I mumbled, brushing past her and getting the heck out of that school.