Asher was quite surprised to smell fresh coffee when he ventured out of his room the next morning. He sleepily made his way down the stairs and then through the hallway and into the kitchen, where he could see his father’s travel bags piled up against the wall and as he turned his head he saw his father sitting at the kitchen counter, a cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.

Asher’s father was in his early forties, with light brown hair that was cut neatly around his head. His face was cleanly shaved, and he still wore a business suit as he sat at the kitchen counter. He looked up from his coffee when Asher entered the room, but he didn’t smile.  

‘There’s more coffee in the pot, if you want some,’ His father told him, nodding towards the coffee pot.

‘Hello to you too,’ Asher mumbled, walking over to the coffee pot and pouring himself a mug.

‘Well, I am not in a very good mood this morning,’ his father told him, shooting his son an accusing glance.

‘Why? What did I do now?’ Asher mumbled, taking a sip of the hot coffee.

‘When I got home this morning there was quite the interesting message on our machine…’

Oh god, Asher thought, what’s happened now? Did he find out about the party?

‘Mrs Beverly from next door called to say that she was quite upset at the amount of,’ he looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to remember what she had said exactly, ‘loud music and drunken and rambunctious behaviour displayed at a party the other night.’ 

The way that his father said party spelt out to Asher exactly why his father was in the bad mood.

‘About that…’ Asher tried to cover for himself, but it seemed that he was unable to concoct a reasonable excuse or explanation. The only thing that he could think of was that he had to have an emergency party… yeah dad, sorry but there was a beer pong related emergency.. yeah that would go down well. 

‘Asher, you know how I feel about parties when I am away,’ the disappointment in his father’s voice hit home for Asher. 

Asher looked down at his coffee mug, not saying anything.

‘You’re grounded for a week,’ his father concluded.

‘What?’ Asher gaped, ‘A week?’

‘Yes. School and home, for a week, that’s it.’

‘Dad! What about Danny! It’s my weekend to go to his!’ Asher exclaimed. He had promised to go to Danny’s on the weekend, and he really didn’t want to cancel. ‘Can Danny come over here?’

‘No,’ his father shook his head.

‘Dad! I won’t be able to see Danny for two weeks then!’  

‘Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you went behind my back and had a wild party,’ his father shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee. His father then turned his attention back to the paper in his hand, finishing the conversation.

Asher huffed, throwing his coffee cup down on the bench with a thump, and stomping back to his room. It wasn’t that he really blamed his father for being upset, he knew that he should have expected this, but the thought of not seeing Danny for so long was killing him.

He wished that he could just flop down onto his bed and stay there for an unimaginable amount of time, but he had school. He opened his closet and grabbed the sort of clothes that he usually wore to school, tight pants, v necked shirts, leather jackets. He threw them on before going into the bathroom and throwing some gel into his hair.

It was a lot of effort. It was arduous and took too much time, but it added to his image.

Asher walked past his father, who was still at the kitchen counter, and didn’t look at him. He just grabbed his keys off the table and walked out through the garage to his car. Having a sleek sports car didn’t really hurt his image either.

He drove to school, parking somewhat haphazardly in his usual space and enjoyed the looks he got as he got out of the car, sliding his shades on his face.

The people around him had mixed expressions. The girls were love struck, the smiles and hungry eyes letting Asher know that he must indeed look good this morning. They were leaning against their own cars, or standing with their friends, and it seemed like all of their eyes were on him.

The guys however, weren’t so much looking at Asher, but his car. The sleek, black monster had been a birthday present from his father a couple of months ago, and Asher had gotten pretty used to the admiring looks that always seemed to follow the black beast.

He locked his car with a click of a button and threw the car keys into his pocket, walking up towards the school.

‘Asher!’ someone called out, and he slowed down enough to allow for Leon to catch up to him.

‘Hey Leon,’ he nodded towards his friend who smiled back.

‘Gosh, I love your car,’ Leon said dreamily as he glanced back at where Asher’s car was parked.

Asher ignored him and continued walking. They made it to the main school building, and when they walked through the large double doors everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Every step was accompanied by a flirty smile from a cute girl leaning against her locker, each time he turned his head there was a football player there to slap him on the back with a smile. Leon and he walked through the centre of the corridor like they owned the place, and in their mind, they did.

They stopped at Leon’s locker first, and Asher leant up against the locker beside it, scrolling through his phone absentmindedly.

‘So,’ Leon told him behind the locker door which separated them, ‘I heard that you are going out with Maisy.’

Asher’s hand jumped out and shut the locker door with a large bang, narrowly missing Leon’s face. ‘What?’ he growled out harshly.

Leon looked at him with wide and confused eyes, ‘Woah dude, calm down.’

‘Who told you that?’ Asher asked, his mind filling with confusion. A one night stand was one thing, but a full blown relationship was a completely different matter.

‘Bethany texted me this morning,’ Leon shrugged, obviously not understanding why Asher thought that it was such a big deal. ‘What? Did you want to tell me yourself?’

‘I am not dating Maisy,’ he told Leon simply.

‘You aren’t?’ Leon asked.

‘No. One night stand only. That was it,’ Asher tried to explain, he didn’t need rumours going around that he was dating someone. It always worked to his advantage that he was a serial dater, never really dating people for long periods of time. It meant that he didn’t need to bring dates to parties or pretend to be into someone when he wasn’t. He didn’t want to cheat on Danny. He wasn’t willing to do that.

‘You should probably tell Beth that,’ Leon advised before sarcastically asking, ‘Is it safe to open my locker now, or am I in danger of grievous bodily harm?’

Asher rolled his eyes and opened the locker for Leon, ‘You’re safe.’

Leon laughed and grabbed the books he needed. Then the two of them made their way towards Asher’s locker, stopping and talking to a few people along the way.

They had just made it to Asher’s locker when the bell for first period rang, and Leon sent Asher an apologetic glance, ‘I have to get to math, I have the worst teacher.’

Asher nodded understandably, ‘Go, I’ll see you at break.’

Leon smiled and basically ran in the direction of his class, leaving Asher alone in the rapidly emptying hallway. He had just gotten the locker door open when he heard footsteps coming up next to them. They weren’t just any footsteps, they were high heels. He knew instantly who it was, seeing as there weren’t many girls who actually wore heels to school.

‘Maisy,’ he greeted somewhat harshly, not bothering to turn around and greet her properly.

‘That isn’t any way to treat your girlfriend,’ she huffed sarcastically, coming to a stop next to Asher.

‘Well it’s a good thing you aren’t my girlfriend then,’ Asher knew that he was being awfully blunt, but he didn’t really feel like being overly kind to the person spreading shit about him, even if it wasn’t the worst rumour that could have been spread.

Asher turned to look at her, and Maisy looked like she wasn’t at all fazed. She still had that all too fake smile on her face. ‘Oh Honey, you have no idea.’

Asher opened his mouth to speak but suddenly three blonde girls were walking up to them, stopping right next to Maisy. The girls were familiar to Asher, he had seen them at the party the other night, and many times before. The three of them seemed to follow Maisy around like little puppy dogs. The three girls were complete bimbo’s, all wearing the same school inappropriate clothing as their leader, Maisy wore. Asher decided that they were now going to be called the three blonde bimbo’s.

The three girls smiled at Asher with flirty grins on their faces, but when Maisy shot them warning glances they stopped suddenly.

‘Let’s go girls,’ Maisy almost commanded of the three bimbo’s and they turned to leave.

‘This conversation isn’t over,’ Asher interjected, and Maisy just smiled that all too fake smile before leading the three blondes down the hall.

Asher huffed, he had hoped to sort this stuff out with Maisy now, before it got any further, but his chance was gone now. He grabbed a notebook from his locker.

He had English first period with Bethany, so at least he could stop one source of the rumours. The hallways were completely empty now, and the only sound was of his footsteps as he walked past the masses of lockers and closed doors.

He thought about how he should handle this situation as he walked down the hallway. He figured that he could just tell Maisy to stop telling people that they were dating, but that might not work. He did, however, have some blackmail material against her. Bethany was a hub of gossip and she had told him in secrecy that Maisy’s father was being investigated for fraud. Her entire fortune may be out the window soon. He realised that maybe she was trying to raise her popularity as much as possible to stop any other talk of her family. Maisy was always the spoilt rich girl with designer heels and if that stopped then maybe she figured being the girlfriend of the football captain might allow people to oversee that.

His thoughts were cut short when he reached his classroom, and thankfully the door was still open so he walked into the room. The classroom was quite large, a big teacher’s desk at the front and about twenty smaller desks in rows behind it. Three large windows were placed along the wall and they revealed a beautiful view of the city around them. Bethany was sitting in the back row, the seat next to her empty.

‘Nice of you to join us Mr Harris,’ the teacher, a man in his late forties muttered as he wrote on the white board.

Asher didn’t say anything, he didn’t need to add a detention to his list of worries at the moment. He walked around the desks, a couple of people saying hello to him as he passed them. He sent them slight smiles as he passed, but didn’t really speak until he sat down next to Bethany.

Bethany’s blonde hair was in a high ponytail and she wore a simple light blue dress. He looked down and saw that she was texting under the table, and he hoped that whatever she was saying wasn’t about her.

‘Hey Beth,’ he greeted her, opening his note book on the table, even though he wasn’t planning on writing much.

‘Hey,’ Beth greeted, her eyes not lifting from her phone, ‘You were late.’

‘Yeah, I was talking to Maisy at my locker,’ he admitted.

‘Oohh,’ that got Bethany’s attention. She locked her phone and lifted her gaze to meet Asher’s.

‘Not like that,’ Asher corrected her thinking.

‘What do you mean? Aren’t you guys like dating now? I know you said it was just a one time thing on Sunday but she told me that you guys are like actually dating now!’ 

Asher rolled his eyes and huffed. Why was Maisy doing this?

‘What?’ Bethany asked, looking confused.

‘I. am. Not. Dating. Maisy.’ He told her slowly, saying every word clearly. He had to be quiet to make sure that the teacher wouldn’t hear them, but he drew out every word so that she knew how serious he was being.

‘What?’

‘I’m not dating her.’

‘That does sort of make sense,’ Bethany nodded, ‘I have never seen you in a relationship, you just aren’t the type.’

‘Yeah,’ Asher lied.

‘Then why did she tell me that you two were together?’ Bethany asked, and the betrayal from her friend that she felt was in her face, ‘I can’t believe that she would lie like that.’

‘I know right,’ Asher agreed.

Asher looked forwards and noticed that the teacher was looking at them, so he muttered, ‘We should probably get back to class work.’

‘Yeah,’ Bethany said, but within a few moments she was texting under the table. Asher almost laughed at her predictability.

Asher’s morning classes flew by and before he knew it he was walking to the cafeteria with Leon who he had ran into in the hallway. He looked around, his gaze falling on one table close to him. Three people sat there, heads down and eyes averted. They weren't alone, in other tables around them were other people with the same looks on their faces. They were people that Asher didn't know the names of. He had watched them get rejected from the football team, he had seen them become the unwilling victims of practical jokes, he had seen their suffering and yet he didn't know their names. They didn't fit into the standards expected by those higher up the highschool food chain and so here they were. They were without a place, without respect. The jocks teased them and the cheerleaders walked all over them. Molly was always especially harsh on people who weren't pretty, who weren't as perfect as her. Asher pitied them, but most of all, he feared becoming them.

Asher averted his eyes and the two of them stopped by the football players tables on the way to their own. Most of their friends sat at the two tables in the corner, and it was known as the jocks and cheerleaders table because of the people who sat there. Asher sat at the table sometimes, usually once a week, but most of the time he and his close friends sat at their own, more quiet table a few over.

He and Leon stopped at the two tables and one of the guys who they played football with smiled at them, ‘You two gracing us with your presence today?’

Asher laughed, ‘Nope, just stopped by so you can see what you’re missing.’

The guy chuckled and turned back to his food. Asher looked over and saw that Leon had gone and sat down at the other table, where most of the cheerleaders seemed to reside today. He was going to abandon him until he realised that even though the three blonde girls were there, Maisy was not.

He walked over and immediately the girls started fawning over him, begging him to sit with them and talk to them. He just sent them flirty smiles and ignored their pleas, that was until one of the girls looked at him and said, ‘You and Maisy make such a cute couple! You guys will be crowned prom king and queen for sure!’

That caused Asher to want to throw up, so he tugged on Leon’s arm in a plea for them to go to their own table. Leon thankfully complied and they both walked over to their usual table.

Bethany and Chad were already at the table. Bethany was on Chad’s lap, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist as they talked. Their lunches were forgotten on the table. The love birds didn’t even realise that their friends had joined them at the table until Leon coughed under his breath.

‘Oh, hey guys,’ Chad smiled at them.

Asher looked around the cafeteria, hoping to spot Maisy. He needed to sort all of this stuff out with her.

‘Beth told me about what Maisy’s been saying,’ Chad told Asher, bringing his gaze up to meet his, ‘It was a real dick move of her, like if she wants a boyfriend she should just go out and get one, not lie.’

Leon nodded, ‘Yeah, I agree, the entire school now thinks that you two are an item, and it’s going to take a while before the truth spreads.’  

‘You really need to talk to her, sort all of this out,’ Chad advised and Bethany nodded as he spoke.

‘Chad is right, you need to talk to her before she tells more people.’

Asher agreed wholeheartedly, he needed to stop this rumour, ‘Yeah, I just don’t know where she is.’

‘There she is,’ Bethany pointed over his shoulder and Asher turned his head. Maisy was just about to sit down next to the three blonde bimbo’s.

‘I’ll be back,’ Asher told them, getting up from his chair. He was going to sort all of this out right now, and if he had to, he would use the information that he had on her father against her. Even though the thought of doing that to someone made a sick feeling flow into his gut, he knew that he needed to do it if he had to.

He wasn’t about to just pretend to date someone, not when he had Danny. There were a lot of lines that Asher was willing to cross, and he had crossed many, but this wasn’t one of them.

Remember to vote and comment!