Almost Lover

“Don’t you look happy?”
I jumped, nearly dropping the coffee mug I had in my hand, and turned around quickly. My mother was standing in the kitchen with a smile on her face. My heart was racing. I hadn’t heard her make an entrance. I didn’t even know that my parents had gotten home, but judging by her coat and blanket, they had just arrived. She was just smiling at me, and I rolled my eyes. I finally got my heart to calm down enough to sit down the mug correctly. I began to fix the coffee just how Stryker liked it as my mother watched me.
“I am happy,”
“Delayed much?”
“You scared me,” I laughed, shrugging. “What are you and dad doing home so early?”
She sighed, and sat down at the island in front of me.
“We’re not. I came home to sleep in our own bed. He is still at the office. I honestly want him to quit his job like I did.”
“How lovely, mom.” I rolled my eyes jokingly.
“We have more than enough money saved up, okay?” She laughed. “What are you making?”
“Just some coffee for me and Stryker,” I answered. “Why?”
“I dunno,” She shrugged. My mom stood up from her chair, and walked over to place a kiss on my cheek and ruffle my hair. “Baby, please no sex while I’m trying to sleep, yeah? I don’t want to have to tell you two to quiet it down,”
I felt my mouth open.
“How did….but…”
“You are rather marked up, and your hair speaks volumes.” She answered before patting my shoulder. “Goodnight, Ash.”
I sighed and watched my mom walk back into the hallway that led to my parents’ bedroom. It was kind of funny how she said goodnight, when in fact it was morning, but I wasn’t going to say anything to really correct her. I heard the door click shut, and I grabbed the two mugs. Stryker was still fast asleep when I got back up to my room. He was wrapped up in my sheets, looking all adorable. I laughed to myself before I moved toward him. I made sure to set the mugs down on my night stand before I crawled onto the bed.
I started to gently shake him, but nothing was really happening to wake him up. It’s funny how hard it is to actually wake up my boyfriend. I should be the one that takes forever, but no, it’s Stryker. He only stirred a little bit. I resulted in having to place small kisses all over his face until he groaned, and rolled over. I laughed at him before repeating the process until he turned back over, blue eyes staring up at me.
“What do you want?”
“Ouch,” I laughed. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“Asher…”
“Fine, I’m just going to drink my coffee by myself,”
“Ugh!” he groaned again before sitting up slowly. I passed a mug over to him, and he smiled at me lazily. I took my own mug, and we started to drink in silence. That was okay with me. He had just woken up, I wouldn’t be up for talking this early either. “Thank God that it’s the weekend,”
I laughed, and shook my head.
“This past week has been exhausting, don’t you think?”
“Yupp,” Stryker sighed heavily. “I’ve never been more sore or tired in my entire life.”
“Me either,” I laughed, taking another drink. “We leave for Spring Break soon,”
“I know,” Stryker laughed. “I’m really excited.”
“You don’t seem excited,” I commented.
My boyfriend rolled his eyes.
“It’s too early in the morning to be excited, Ash,” He sighed, sitting up some more.
“I suppose,”
“What are we going to do today?” He asked quickly.
“Uh…I…have nothing planned?” I furrowed my brows. “Why?”
“My mom wanted to do a little bonding-type stuff, is all.” Stryker shrugged.
“You can go with your mom, Stryker.”
“I won’t if you want to hang out,”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“I see you every single day, and we share the same bed. I believe that I can spare a day without you,”
Stryker laughed before leaning over to peck my lips.
“Good to know that you won’t die of boredom.”
“I won’t.” I promised, making that dark headed boy laugh.
“I guess that means that I should probably call my mom, and let her know that I can.”
“Yeah,” I nodded. I sat my cup to the side and grabbed my own phone. Stryker disappeared into the bathroom. I shook my head, and got to Taylor’s contact. I sent her a quick text message, to which the girl quickly replied. She was barely awake from the looks of it, so I decided that it would be better to try to get in touch with someone else. I wanted to call Izzy, really. It’s just that things haven’t exactly been okay with us, and everyone around us knows it.
I’m weak though, so I ended up texting my blonde former best friend. Izzy is usually morning person, so it puzzled me that she didn’t respond right away. I sighed heavily. I wish I knew what I could honestly do to make everything better. I’m at a loss. I thought that distancing me from her would do some good, and it has, except Izzy seemed to distance herself from me even more than I did to her. It still stings to know that she was willing to do that to me. We’ve been friends forever.
Stryker returned fully dressed, stuffing his phone in his pocket. He smiled over at me before he grabbed my favorite zip-up hoodie, and shoved it on. The boy looked tired, and slightly nervous. I watched him carefully as he continued to finish getting ready. He slipped on some of his converse, and when he finished he walked over toward him. Stryker smiled and bent down to give me another small kiss on the lips.
“I love you.” He stated. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
I smiled and nodded.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Love you too,”
The boy quickly disappeared from my room, and I felt back on my pillows. I was tired, and no one really was up this early in the morning. It was kind of annoying how early I managed to wake up today. Now all I want to do honestly is to go back to bed, but I couldn’t. I’m far too awake to do anything. Stryker just left, and I had a cup of coffee already in my system.
Working out would definitely be a good thing to do at a time like this. I sent a quick text message to Seth. I didn’t care if he responded or not. I got up out of my bed, and threw on my work-out clothes. I was finishing with my Nike laces when my phone beeped. I picked it up, seeing Seth’s excited text message, and rolled my eyes. At least I found something to do that didn’t revolve around my boyfriend. I’m not co-dependent on him. Sure, I like having him around, but I don’t exactly have to have him beside me at every second of the day.

♥

After twenty minutes of boxing beside Seth with the big punching bags, we sat down for a rest. I was gulping down water, and he was slightly panting. It was nice to get out, and do something with a friend for a change. It felt like all I actually do is sit around, hang out with Stryker, or both. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to hang out with another dude. Seth’s a good friend, and we go way back. I’ve known him almost as long as I’ve known Stryker.
Seth picked up his water bottle when I sat mine down to take in some much needed liquid. I ran a hand through my sweaty hair, and huffed before leaning back into the wall. Seth copied my motions, setting his own water down.
“What’s got you so frazzled?”
“What do you mean?” I questioned, looking over at him.
“You look rather annoyed, Asher,” He laughed. “You were beating the hell out of that punching bag.”
“I’m just letting off some steam,” I laughed.
I wasn’t really annoyed with anything. I honestly didn’t know why I was hitting the punching bag so hard. I just was. I’m not mad at anyone, and my life is going pretty great at the moment. So why would I need to let off some steam? Seth seemed pretty convinced that I was lying. I could just tell by the way that he was studding my face was I spoke. He thought that something was honestly wrong. I have no idea where he got that idea from.
“Are you sure?” He questioned. “You looked tense.”
“I’m not,” I argued way too quickly. Even to my own ears, it sounded like I was definitely trying to hide something. Maybe I was? I have no idea. It wasn’t like my life is perfect, but I don’t have too much to worry about. Prom maybe, but that’s not exactly life changing.
“Is it Stryker?” He asked.
I furrowed my brows.
“What?”
“That’s the only explanation I can really come up with at the moment,” Seth sighed. “Are you guys fighting?”
“Quiet the opposite, actually,” I chuckled.
“Izzy?”
“Not really,” I shrugged. “She can do her own thing. It bothered me at first, I suppose. Now I’m actually used to her not being around me.”
“How about your parents?”
“No, they’re the same crazy people as always,” I shrugged.
Seth looked bewildered. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and that made me a little nervous. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of people trying to pick apart my brain, so it’s a little weird to have Seth sitting beside me. He didn’t seem to grasp the fact that nothing really was wrong with me. I was just in the mood to work out earlier, but that seemed to be going down more and more. I no longer wanted to lift some weights or go back to the punching bag. I much rather be at home doing nothing.
“Is it Stryker going away to college?”
I don’t know why, but something tugged inside of my chest. I felt oddly sick, to be honest. I didn’t even know that it was still bothering me until that moment. I guess it was written all over my face too, because Seth sighed. He understood exactly what was bothering me. Hell, I didn’t even know that it was bothering me until a minute or two ago. The silence only stayed like that for a few more moments as my brain tried to silence all of the stupid, doubting voices.
“Let’s get back to the bags,” I sighed.
Seth looked at me for a moment before nodding in agreement. We stood up from where we were sitting, and went right back to where we were before, punching at the punching bags. After we boxed some, we went back to the weights. After weights we did some cardio, and eventually finished. After we had our showers, we decided that grabbing some food wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
I suggested that we go get some McDonalds, and Seth made fun of me. I guess that fast food wasn’t exactly the best meal of sorts after working out. I didn’t care though. My body burns calories fast, and I did just finish working out. I’m not to worried about my body like Chad and most girls are. I’m just okay with myself. I work out whenever I get bored, and whenever someone else wants to join me at the gym. I try to at least go twice a week, but something that doesn’t happen. I usually only get to go to the gym once a week instead.
“I don’t care what anyone says…these fries are Heaven!” Seth practically moaned while eating them. “Why do such carbs and grease have to taste so damn good?”
“I have no idea,” I agreed, shoving my own wonderful amount into my mouth. “They taste amazing,”
“Fuck yeah, they do.” Seth muttered.
As soon as we finished our meal, we walked out of the popular establishment. Seth suggested that we just have some bro time, and walk down main-street. I wasn’t one to disagree, so we ended up walking up and down the sidewalk. We were walking past a coffee shop when I noticed something. I stopped to look inside, and Seth kept on walking. I moved a little closer to really get a better look.
I couldn’t really understand what was going on. One minute, Seth was talking wildly and I was laughing then the next I saw something that I definitely didn’t want to see. Seth questioned my insanity before looking exactly where I was. He grabbed my elbow to drag me away, and I followed. My feet willed to move without my permission until we were further and further away from the coffee shop. My heart was pounding inside of my chest. I really didn’t know what to believe.
“Maybe it wasn’t him?” Seth questioned once we were far enough away. “Maybe it was just someone that looked an awful lot like him. People do have others who look exactly like them out there, you know?”
I shook my head, and took him a shaky breath.
“That was definitely Stryker.” I stated. “That was my hoodie. I would know that ratty thing anywhere.”
“I’m sure that he told you where he was going, right?”
I shook my head again.
“He said that he had to meet up with his mom.”
“Maybe she was there too?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t know, Seth. It’s not like I can go in there,”
“You could…”
“But I’m not going to.” I huffed. “If he wants to tell me why he was getting close to some un-named girl, then he will. If it’s important to tell me, Stryker will.”
“I thought that Stryker told you everything?”
“Not lately, he hasn’t,” I sighed heavily. “Come on, let’s go back to my house and play some video games.”
Seth nodded, and wordlessly followed me. My mind was in far too much of a haze to really have a real conversation.