Chapter 3 3- The Ride Back Home

Even when Asher was like a storm that was unpredictable and dangerous, he was also unavoidable. The moment he stopped at my table, looked straight into my eyes, and asked me to come with him was exactly the moment I had everyone's attention. 

The entire cafeteria went silent when he stopped behind our table. But they buzzed back to life when we left the cafeteria. Gossips and rumours are high schoolers' favorite snack, after all. And even when I didn't like the idea of him ordering me around, I followed him to avoid making a scene in the cafeteria with hundreds of students watching. 

"What do you want?" I asked him as soon as we walked away from the crowd in the silence and privacy of the cafeteria backyard. 

He turned around to face me. For the first time in the past forty hours, I was standing so close to him. With barely two steps in between. Up this close, he looked taller than I had imagined him to be. The smell of his sweat was masked by his cologne, but the sweat beads glistened on his face in the sun. 

"Mom called me now. Since you have no ride back home, you'll be coming with me. I want you at the school gate at three in the afternoon, sharp. Any later than three and I'll leave you right here." He said, and I almost laughed at the audacity of the boy standing in front of me. 

"I came to school alone this morning, Callahan." I said, for the very first time addressing him. "So, if I can manage coming here alone, I can manage going back home too." 

Asher looked at me, his eyebrows shooting up at my words. And suddenly his lips curled up in an obnoxious smirk. He leaned back against the pillar, crossing his arms against his chest, never once wavering his gaze away from me. 

"You could go home alone for all I care, Scarlett Monroe." A shiver ran down my spine when he said my name. The coldness in his tone and the venom in his voice made the hair on the back of my neck stand. 

"Then get—"

"But it's my mother who will be worried because it will rain soon. And the last thing I want is for my mother to worry for you. So, let's make things easier for both of us and quit being stubborn." He said, and my eyes narrowed in irritation. 

I opened my mouth to speak, to ask him to fuck himself, but listening to somebody else was a rare word in Callahan's dictionary. Once he was done announcing his decision, he unfolded his arms, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and walked away as if he hadn't just ordered me like I was his pet. 

I stared at his retreating figure with only one thought running in my head— I really despise the mere presence of Asher Callahan. 

^^^

"You know, Scar, there are seven wonders in this world. But nobody knows that there's eighth wonder too." Nora whispered as the teacher in front of us taught us about electromagnetic waves. 

"Wait really?" I asked her, scrunching my eyebrows at the new information I just received. 

"Yes. Your stepbrother— Asher Callahan." 

I gave her a bored look before noting down the equation from the whiteboard, making Nora shake her head in defense. 

"No, I am serious. Your brother—"

"Stepbrother." I corrected her and she looked at me deadpanned. 

"Your stepbrother is the most famous person here. He's well known in the state. He has bagged several trophies and awards for being one of the best hockey players around.  Our school has even posted his photo everywhere to publicize themselves. But nobody really knows about him. They know of him— yes. But do they know him? Barely. God, none of us knew he was raised by a single mother until now. The mysteries of Asher Callahan are no less talk of the town." She said, and I looked at her with no answer. 

"Not everybody loves making them life public, Nora. Maybe he's one of them." I said, and she shrugged her shoulders, stretching her limbs in the chair, making the professor glare at us, but she just yawned, unbothered. 

"I can barely stomach anything. I will never understand people like him then. I vomit gossips more than I consume them." She joked and a chuckle escaped my mouth. 

And that must be the last straw for our professor because the next thing we heard was him. 

"Detention after school for you two." 

^^^

I had originally planned to go home alone. Then Asher told me that Alyssa wanted us to come home together. So I thought again. I thought hard and decided that I would indeed go home by myself. The last thing I wanted was to share a small space with the boy I had grown to despise in the last forty-three hours. 

But then gossiping with Nora costed me a detention after the school, so technically the criteria of reaching the school gate at three in the afternoon became invalid. The detention was boring. We were asked to study for an hour as the teacher there scrolled through his instagram and laughed out loud everytime he saw something funny. 

It was thirty minutes past three in the afternoon when we were allowed to go back. Nora's father had come to pick her up. Despite her and her father's repeated requests on dropping me home, I insisted on going back alone.

As expected, there was no sight of Asher or his vehicle when I started walking home. Plugging the wired earphones in my phone, I started walking home. But only ten minutes into walking, the clouds started roaring on my head. And soon the soft breeze accompanied cold raindrops. 

I looked up at the gray clouds and cursed my fate. Only if I hadn't managed to earn a detention for myself, I would've reached home before it started raining. 

When no other option looked sane enough than running home so I don't drench in rain for too long, the sound of rain became loud but it no longer drenched me. A black umbrella shielded me from the raging rain, making me turn around. 

And the person standing in front of me with the umbrella was the last person I was expecting there. With an umbrella. Protecting me from the rain.