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Almost Lover

Well, I'd Never Want To See You Unhappy

“Why are you so…glum?” Izzy asked me at lunch. We were the first ones to sit down at our lunch table, and I haven’t really spoken to her at all today. I mostly ignored everyone, and was stuck in my own little world. I really did have a lot to think over, and my brain just didn’t seem to want to quit.
“I’m fine, Iz.” I replied, resting my head on my hand. I don’t know if I’m fine. I thought that I would be if Stryker was going to act this way. In fact, I planned on him acting like this, but I didn’t think it would actually hurt. I was pissed at him to say the least. I thought that maybe he would have the respect to break it off with Kaylie, like I did with Dylan, but he didn’t. Stryker can’t let go of this whole thing. He actually had the nerve to be all over her when Izzy and I got to school this morning. I wanted to punch him.
“Are you sure? You look a little sick,” She pouted, reaching her hand over to feel the back of my head. “You’re fine up top.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I rolled my eyes and leaned off of the table. I slouched in the chair while the guys finally joined us at the table. Stryker was solo, which really made me happy. I don’t know what might happen if he wasn’t. I wouldn’t have nice words to say, that’s for sure.
“Whoa, what’s wrong with you?” Seth asked, sitting down beside me and Chad on the other. “You look like you might hit a wall.”
“In all honesty, I might.” I shrugged. “Depends on how bad people piss me off.”
“What happened?” Chad asked.
Izzy rolled her eyes.
“You won’t get anything out of him. He’s being a little bitch.”
“Awe…is Asher not getting any?” Taylor playfully joked.
“I broke it off with Dylan, thank you very much.” I nearly snapped. “And yes, that might be a part of my attitude,”
“You seriously broke it off with Dylan?” Izzy asked me, looking shocked. “You’re joking right? That kid was so freaking cute.”
“No, I’m not joking Iz. I seriously did break it off with Dylan. I honestly was just in it for the sex anyway.”
“You’re a whore,” Stryker joked.
I sent him a death glare, which shut him up pretty quickly.
“Why did you break it off?” Taylor wondered.
“I thought things with this other guy were going to work out. Turns out that he’s just a fucking douche bag,” I shrugged. “He’s…stupid.”
“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think? I mean, we haven’t met the guy, but he couldn’t have been that bad.” Stryker stated awkwardly.
“Wow. You’re taking up for him. Wonderful,”
“Someone’s gotta do it,” He shrugged. “Maybe you should try talking to him again.”
“I doubt that will do any good. I’ll probably end up murdering him.”
Seth gave me a strange look.
“What the fuck man?”
“He really pissed me off, okay?” I shrugged. “Let’s not talk about this anymore,”
Stryker rolled his eyes, and the other guys nodded.
“So what do you guys have planned for later?”
“Chilling,” Chad shrugged. “I’m helping Taylor with homework,”
“I’ve got work,” Seth huffed.
“I’m going to take a fucking nap,” I stated.
“I’m going to do homework,” Izzy smiled. “What about you, Stryker?”
“I’ve got a date with Kaylie,”
“Are you serious?”
Stryker rolled his eyes.
“Yes, Asher. I’m fucking serious. If I wasn’t going out with Kaylie, I wouldn’t have said that I’m going out with her. Is that really such a problem?”
“Maybe it is.” I stated, crossing my arms.
“You’re acting like a little bitch!”
“And you’re acting like a fucking prick!” I yelled back. Everyone at our lunch table, and even some surrounding lunch tables became dead silent. “You know how I feel about Kaylie. I don’t think that you should be playing with that girl’s heart anymore than you already have.”
“Says you! You’re the one who was fucking someone!”
“He felt the same way that I did! When I broke it off, he just shrugged.”
“It’s the same concept, Asher!”
I clenched my teeth. I wanted nothing more than to tackle Stryker and punch his pretty face in.
“Guys!” Taylor yelled. “If you’re going to fucking fight, take it outside!”
“Whatever. I’m not hungry.” Stryker stated, standing up from the table. He slammed his chair into the table before walking out of the cafeteria. I rolled my eyes at the childish behavior, but my own hasn’t been the most mature today either.
“Prick,” I mumbled, shaking my head. I caught Seth’s stare, and furrowed my brows. “What?”
“Whatever the fuck that was, go fix it.” He stated. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that mad at you before.”
“He’s making me mad,” I shrugged.
“Ash, suck it up and go talk to your best friend.” Izzy said to me before nodding her head toward the exit. It took me minute before I decided to stand up and follow him out of the cafeteria. I looked to each side of the buildings, but he wasn’t there. I laughed, and started toward the back of the building where I knew he would smoke when he really needed to. I turned the corner, and he was sitting in the grass with a cigarette.
“Scoot over, asshole.”
Stryker looked up at me, and shook his head. Even if he might have been objecting, he moved over so that I could sit down beside him.
“What was that in there?”
“I was being a jealous prick,” I sighed, taking the cigarette from his fingers, and placing it to my lips.
“You never used to get jealous.” He stated, taking the cigarette back.
“That was before…” I trailed off. I looked down at Stryker’s right hand on his lap. I picked up his hand, and easily slipped my hand into his own. “…this…started.”
Stryker sighed and leaned his head back against the wall.
“I told Kaylie I’m gay.”
“You did? When?” I nearly laughed. “That girl talks about fucking everything to everyone.”
“I told her this morning. She kind of caught on…”
I scoffed.
“How? She’s…I don’t know how to describe Kaylie.”
“She’s smarter than she looks.” He shook his head. “I didn’t really have to tell her straight up. She caught on to your jealousy. She told me that I look at you in this way…”
I punched his leg with my free hand.
“Awe, you look at me.”
“Stop making this ever more embarrassing!” He complained.
I laughed, and looked straight forward.
“Why are you actually going out with Kaylie?”
“She’s my cover-up.”
“Your cover-up?” I questioned.
“She’s…she’s going to pretend that she’s my girlfriend.” I groaned.
“You really like digging your grave deeper, don’t you?”
“Man, seriously. This is a confusing time, okay?” Stryker stressed. “Surely you know that.”
“I don't want you to ever be unhappy, Stryk. You're my best friend."
"I know."
"Okay, so it’s obvious that I’m jealous, right?”
“Yeah…”
“And you look at me a certain way…”
“Yeah…” He repeated.
“We hold hands…”
“Yes…”
“And when I do this,” I stopped talking. I leaned over, and pressed my lips to his lightly. I pulled away and looked down at our hands. “When I do that, you get chill bumps…”
“Get to your point, Asher.”
I smiled slightly.
“I want us to be together, Stryker. You know that.”
“Yeah…”
“I just want you to…dammit. This is freaking weird.” I chuckled before taking a breath. “I want to be with you.” I looked at him, but he didn’t say anything to me. He just looked at me, like he was searching for something. He turned back frontward, and took another breath of smoke. He put out the cigarette, and looked down at our hands. The silence was seriously killing me. I don’t ask people out, but that pressure plus the pressure from him being my best friend didn’t help. “Stryk, you have to say something. I’m putting all my cards out on the table.”
“Do you actually want to be with me or do you want to fuck and leave. You’re notorious for that.”
“So are you,” I fired back. “Neither of us have the best track records, I get that.”
“I don’t want you to get bored with me,” He admitted, looking back at me finally.
“Stryker, don’t you think if I would get bored with you that it would have already happened by now?”
“Probably,” He shrugged. “Where does this leave us?”
I shrugged.
“We can talk about this somewhere more private if you want too.”
“Just meet me at my house later. I have detention again.”
I furrowed my brows.
“When did you get detention again?”
“I haven’t…yet. There’s no telling how many I might get before the day ends.”
“You really need to stop getting so many of those.”
“I can’t help it! Trouble follows me!” He stated, throwing his hands up, along with my own that he had clutched in his grasp. “We better get going,”
“Yeah…we wouldn’t want to get into trouble.” I rolled my eyes.



“Asher?”
“Yeah, mom?” I called back to her. I had just gotten home from school when my mother’s voice filled the house.
“Honey, can you come here for a minute?”
“Sure,” I answered before I dropped my bag on the ground, and I walked toward the living room. My mom was sitting on the couch, and she patted the stop next to her. “What?”
“Come have a seat, and talk to me,”
“About what?” I laughed, but I sat down anyway. “Why aren’t you at work?”
“I quit, but that’s besides the point,” She rolled her eyes. I shook my head at her, but she didn’t pay attention. “I just want to know what’s going on in your life…”
“What do you mean?” I laughed at her.
She smiled.
“I mean are you getting the right grades, exercising everyday, dating anyone new…”
“So you sat me down to pry into my love life?”
“Exactly. Glad that we’re on the same page,” My mom replied. “So, do you have anyone new in your life?”
“Not really,” I shrugged. Stryker isn’t exactly new to my life, just a certain portion of it. “Well, kind of but not really.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…this guy that I’ve got my eye one isn’t exactly as comfortable with his sexuality as I am with mine. It’s kind of complicated.”
My mom pouted and wrapped her arm around my shoulders.
“Honey, you have to be patient with him, obviously. It can’t be easy.”
I nodded my head.
“I know, mom. It just feels like I’m being strung along. Do you know what that feels like?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Of course I do, Asher. I was a innocent girl once.”
I laughed.
“He’s not a girl though. He’s just…kind of…acting like one,”
“Why do you think it’s so weird for him?” She asked.
My mom is a curious woman. She always wants to know what’s going in my life. For the most part, I’m pretty honest with her. I tell her almost everything, because I have nothing to hide. Most teenagers don’t understand my relationships with my parents, but I’m glad that I have the relationship I do. To most, my mom would seem pushy or nosey. She’s really not. She just wants to be a part of my life because she works so much. She was the second person I came out to when I was twelve, a year after I told Stryker.
“I can’t really say,” I replied.
“Why not?”
“I just can’t right now, mom.” I sighed. “I’ll tell you when I can, okay?”
She gave me the ‘mom’ look.
“Alright, but you better tell me Asher Daniel Blake.” She warned.
“I promised you that I will,” I shook my head. “What do you mean that you quit your job?”
My mom laughed.
“That’s right. Your mother realized that she finally, really, wanted to do with her life, and she did it.”
“That’s great and all, but could she stop talking about herself in third person?”
She nodded.
“I just didn’t want to be stuck in a law firm anymore. It wasn’t what I want to do.”
“What happened when you quit?”
“Well, I said ‘I’m out, bitches’, and I walked off.” She shrugged.
“Mom!”
“Oh, Asher, I put my two weeks notice in two weeks ago. Today was my last day anyway.” She grinned. “I did have fun with that one though.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“I think I’m going to be a stay at home mom for a while,” She answered. “I think I’m going to do something else afterwards. What are you doing?”
“Right now or after high school?” I laughed.
“Either or,” She smiled.
“After this talk I’m going to hang out with Stryker. I have no idea what I’m going to do after high school,”
She gave me a stern look.
“I’m glad that you’re spending time with your best friend. However, get on that college thing, man! You gotta do something.”
I laughed at my mom.
“I will, I promise.”
“Good, now go to Stryker. That boy is attached to you, for only God knows why.” She stated, getting up to leave.
“HEY!” I yelled, almost laughing.
I really love my mom.
♠ ♠ ♠
New chapter!
Here's some more characters that I don't have put up.
Chad
Seth
Taylor
Izzy
Kaylie
I've also added these pictures to the summary. <3

xoxo Rae