Chapter 75

Aimee’s eyes were red from crying. She carried a full tissue box under her arm, with several tissues bunched into her hands.

When Brent saw her, he tossed his megaphone aside, rushed toward her, and dropped onto his knees at her feet.

“Aimee,” he said, begging. “I’m so sorry for the way I treated you. For the things I let happen. I should have been there. I should have been better.”

He sobbed, loudly. Aimee tilted her box of tissues toward him and he accepted a few.

“Every terrible thing that happened to you was all my fault. I should have stood by you. God, I wish I could go back in time.”

“You were cruel,” Aimee said. “Last night, even, you…”

“I know. I’m sorry. Forgive me! Please!” He threw himself prone before her. “Forgive me, ghost baby!”

Aimee tilted her head, confused. “Ghost… baby…?”

I rubbed a hand along the side of my face, hiding from Asher’s curious look my direction. I really hoped he took Brent’s words as the ramblings of someone delirious with regret, and didn’t look further beyond that.

Asher was smart, though. He likely suspected.

Whether or not he would question me about it, though, I wasn’t sure.

Behind me, the girls began to snicker. “Was he always this pathetic?”

“We gave Aimee such a hard time, but…” Another girl said. “If this was the father, no wonder she kept everything a secret.”

A third laughed. “Can you imagine? What happened was tragic, sure, but… can we really fault her for not wanting to be attached to his whimpering mess?”

“If I’d known he was like this before, I would have driven her to the hospital myself.”

“Maybe we should apologize, too.”

“Yeah, okay.”

The three girls pressed forward to the front of the crowd. Then the not-so-gently shoved Brent to the side to speak to Aimee.

I wasn’t totally sure that they fully grasped the weight of their prior actions, especially with the majority of their apology spent insulting Brent.

But as they spoke, Aimee looked more and more relieved. So I supposed it was enough.

“You should come out of your room more often,” one of the girls said.

“Yeah,” said another. “We’ll help you find a guy who isn’t such a mess.”

“Okay,” Aimee said, half-hiding a smile behind her tissue.

This situation wasn’t perfectly resolved. Ideally, Aimee would stand on her own, tell these girls to shove it, and kick Brent straight to the curb. But… life was a ride sometimes, and it at least seemed like Aimee wanted back on.

Through a break in the crowd, Aimee looked my way and caught sight of me.

I couldn’t help myself, I waved.

Aimee looked confused for a moment, but eventually nodded in reply.

Asher slung his arm over my shoulder, ready to lead me back through the crowd. “Breakfast?”

I nodded, my stomach rumbling. My body need fuel to help fully restore my energy.

Asher guided me safely through the people to the outskirts of the courtyard. There, unfortunately, we saw Elena, and she saw us.

She stood among her entourage of both men and women, each hanging on her every word.

“Well, well,” she said, smirk sharp as a dagger. “Here comes Cynthia and one of her reverse-harem.”

Asher stilled. His fingers tightened on my shoulder.

“Tell me, Cynthia,” Elena pressed. “I always forget. Which boyfriend is he? Number two or three. There are so many, I forget.”

A low growl escaped Asher’s throat.

Worried his wolf might push to the surface to defend me, I quickly told him. “She’s not worth it, Asher. Let’s just go.”

“I’d watch my back if I were you, Asher,” Elena called to him. “You aren’t around all the time. You don’t see what she gets up to without you.”

“She gets something up, for sure,” one of her entourage snickered. A few others laughed.

Asher’s hands formed fists.

I pressed against his side. “I want to go.”

Her rumors were so outrageous. She only thought I had so many partners because Joseph had gotten mad when he found out I’d spend seven minutes in the closet with Asher during the competition trip. But Joseph and I weren’t exclusive!

Elena didn’t know that, or didn’t care to know.

No, her rumors were ridiculous, and I didn’t even want to waste the brainpower it exhausted to listen to her.

“Seriously though, Cynthia,” Elena said, smile slipping. “You already have Asher and Joseph fighting over you. Stop being such a slut with the others.”

“Do not call her that,” Asher snapped.

“Breakfast, Asher, remember?” I said.

Elena shook her head at him. “Poor protective Asher doesn’t know about the others, does he?” She huffed. “Pity.”

To me, she said, “You can’t keep getting away with this, Cynthia. Me and the rest of the cheerleading squad have had enough.”

I immediately straightened. Were these the rumors Nicole was talking about, after all?

Yet before I could ask, Elena turned from me, returning to her entourage. She said something to them that I couldn’t hear, and they all laughed.

I was willing to bet it was at my expense.

Finally, I managed to get Asher moving again. Yet we’d only managed a few yards down the sidewalk, before he stopped again, turning to me.

Looking at me with his emotionless mask firmly in place, he opened his mouth like he had something to say. Quickly, he closed it again. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Breakfast?” I prompted.

“Right,” he said.

Together we went to have breakfast at my favorite café. Yet he stayed quiet the entire time. Even when I attempted to make small talk about the weather or what had just happened with Aimee, he’d reply with single word, mono-syllable answers.

“Nice weather today,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“The food’s good here.”

“Agreed.”

“I hope Aimee shows up at the midterm on Monday.”

“Hm.”

Asher wasn’t the most receptive small talker, but even this felt like a new level of standoffishness. Lately, he’d at least indulged me a little.

An ominous feeling began hovering over me, pressing down on me like a thick fog. Was he still mad about my reaction to the challenge? He had to know I wasn’t actually going to miss it.

“I heard the challenge is on Monday night,” I said, testing the waters. “I should be able to make it.”

“Good.”

No. That didn’t seem to be what was bothering him.

Maybe he was still thinking about what Brent had said, about the ghost baby? But if he was, wouldn’t he just ask me? It seemed unlikely he would keep that to himself if it was bothering him enough to make him give such curt replies.

… He couldn’t still be upset about Elena’s rumors, could he?

It felt ridiculous to even consider. Obviously Elena had been full of it. I didn’t even have one boyfriend, let alone more than that!

I went out with Joseph sometimes, but he himself had said it wasn’t exclusive. And I crushed on Asher with my entire heart, but he’d made it clear we would never be romantically together.

I couldn’t believe that Asher would fall for such outlandish lies.

Yet…

“Asher,” I said.

He looked up at me from the uneaten bagel on his plate. His eyes were an ice storm, chilling me to the bone.

“About what Elena said…” I hedged, really hoping I was wrong about this. I struggled to say the words out loud, afraid my bad feeling was correct.

He watched me, waiting. When I couldn’t find the right words to ask what I wanted, he spoke instead.

“Cynthia. How many other boyfriends do you have?”