My eyes shot open. I rolled over in my bed, my face contorting in pain. "Why?" I mumbled, my voice hoarse.

A tear rolled down my face as I sat up. I was in my bedroom. A few weeks had passed since I had gone to my first party. It was early on a Monday morning, and I had just woken up from a bad dream. Most of my dreams were just reenactments of terrible events that had occurred in my life, and I hated it.

I sighed, rubbing my hands on my eyes as I sat up. Although I still had a few more hours of sleep, I knew I wouldn't get any rest with the memory of my mother's funeral so fresh in my mind. I climbed out of bed and shuffled down the hallway to the bathroom.

Stripping my pajamas off, I turned the showerhead on and stepped into the refreshing stream of water. I leaned against the wall as the water removed the sheen of sweat I had gathered whilst turning over in my sleep.

After my shower, I patted myself dry and climbed back into my sweatpants and teeshirt. Still not quite ready to succumb to sleep again, I padded down the hallway to the kitchen. After ransacking the fridge and not finding anything appetizing, I began to search through the cupboards. Still not seeing anything appealing, I groaned, opening up the freezer. I spotted a bag of pizza rolls and took them out.

Quickly scanning the instructions, I preheated the oven and poured some of the rolls out onto a baking tray. I hopped up onto the counter and turned on my phone while I waited for the oven to reach the needed temperature.

Without thinking, I clicked on the messages app and tapped on my conversation with Asher. The two of us had been talking before bed, and I scanned the texts over again with a small smile on my lips. He was so sweet and funny and always able to get me out of a bad mood.

When the oven beeped, signifying it had warmed up enough, I jumped. My thumb brushed the keyboard, sending a jumble of letters to Asher. My eyes widened and I quickly typed out an apology.

I set my phone down on the counter and slid the tray into the oven. As I stood up, my phone buzzed. With narrowed eyes, I looked over to see Asher had responded, saying that it was alright but asking why I was up.

Panicked, I typed and deleted and typed for an eternity before settling on saying that I was hungry - which I was.

While I waited for him to reply, I opened up the fridge and poured myself a glass of apple juice. Another buzz of my phone caused my heart to speed up, bubbling with excitement. Asher asked me what I was having, and when I told him, my screen lit up with a phone call.

I quickly pressed the green accept button. "No, you can't have my pizza rolls," I said flatly.

Asher's voice was filled with amusement as he joked, "Well, hello to you, too."

I rolled my eyes, squatting to look into the oven. "Hello, Asher."

"Hello, Lindsey," he mocked. "Now, what were you saying about pizza rolls?"

I scoffed. "Only that you aren't getting any."

Another voice erupted into laughter. "Did you hear that, Ash?" the feminine voice of his sister asked rhetorically. "You aren't getting any!"

I heard rustling and could only assume the two siblings were fighting. "Am I on speaker?" I questioned once the noise had settled down.

"Yeah," Asher answered. "Is that cool with you?"

"I don't mind," I told him. "What are you two up to?"

He cleared his throat. "Someone didn't do her bio project even though it's due in approximately..." He paused, probably checking the time, "oh, four hours."

I chuckled. "You're such a good brother."

More rustling occurred and Brooke's voice filled my ears. "He's got you completely fooled, Lindsey!" she exclaimed. "He's the worst! He eats all my food and teases me in front of my friends and leaves his underwear everywhere!"

"That is pretty awful," I said, humoring her.

"I know!" she whined.

Asher groaned. "Give me my phone back," he ordered.

Brooke cackled and I heard a loud bang.

"What was that?" I asked as Asher wailed in pain.

"She just hit me with her textbook!" he squeaked.

I tried to hold my fit of giggles in but ultimately failed. "Nice one, Brooke."

I heard another thud followed by her feminine voice screeching. "Ash!"

His deep laughter sent shivers up my spine. "I got my phone back," he informed.

"I think I figured out why it's taking the two of you so long to finish her project," I teased.

"We've never been the most productive pairing," he admitted.

"I can tell." The clock on the oven struck three, which meant my pizza rolls were almost ready. "I'm going to go, okay?"

After a little bit of shuffling, Asher responded. "Alright, I'll see you in a few hours,"

I smiled. "Later, Ash."

~~~~~

No matter how many times nightmares had interrupted my sleep, I would never get used to surviving off of less than eight hours of sleep. As I trudged through my high school's hallways, a travel coffee mug in hand, the expression on my face backed up that statement.

"Wow," a familiar deep voice drawled. "You look happy."

I looked to my right to see that Asher had joined my side as I walked to our English class.

I grunted. "Not in the mood."

He nudged my arm, making a little of my coffee bubble out onto the lid. I quickly slurped it up, shooting him a dirty glare. He raised his arms in surrender and I sighed.

"Are you always this energetic or is something up?" I questioned bitterly.

He laughed lightly, wiping his palms on his hands. "Um, nothing's up. I'm just happy, I guess."

I quirked an eyebrow but let it go, my mind drifting to more important things aside from my friend's unusually jittery behavior. The two of us walked side by side down the halls and I did my best to avoid our peer's unnerving stares.

Asher was a popular and attractive guy. Everyone knew him and almost every girl had a crush on him, yet he hadn't had a girlfriend in over three years. The fact that he had befriended some weird loner girl - also known as me - and was parading around the halls with her was too much for the feeble minds of our peers.

As we arrived at our English class, Asher held the door open for me to enter first. I smiled sheepishly and ducked my head, rushing over to our seats. He sauntered in behind me, raising a hand to wave at a few kids he knew that were already here as well.

I grabbed a pencil from my bag and set it on the table. Sipping some more of my coffee to stay sane, I looked over at my deskmate from the corner of my eye. 

Asher's dark hair was slightly ruffled from his hands running through it - perhaps with nerves, perhaps just a habit - and landed on his forehead. The sides were cropped short but the top was long and fluffy. His eyes were bright and vibrant, the different shades of blue intertwining to make a shade similar to the ocean. He had a chiseled face, a sharp jawline, and a lean figure. He was dressed in a plain white tee-shirt and black jeans with a pair of classic black and white hightop Converse on his feet.

The turning of his head in my direction made me jump, trying to move my line of vision so I didn't look like I was staring at him. I read the clock on the wall three times over before sliding my gaze back over to Asher, who was still looking at me with a tiny smile on his lips and mischief in his eyes.

"What's up?" I asked casually, noting the drastic change of pitch in my voice and clearing my throat.

Asher shook his head. "Nothing," he said, brushing it off.

I looked around the room, noticing that it had filled up almost all the way.

"Actually," Asher spoke up, "I was wondering if - "

Just as he was about to ask me his question, the bell rang and Mr. Lyons walked into the room. "Quiet, everyone!" the teacher announced.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, annoyed by the unfortunate timing, and turned my attention to the front of the room. Once Mr. Lyons had done attendance and gave us our assignment - silent reading of the assigned chapters in our class book and then some questions to answer on the text - I looked over at Asher.

He was biting his lower lip as he flipped through his paperback. Feeling my gaze, he turned to face me.

"What were you going to say?" I mouthed.

He opened his mouth for a second before closing it and shaking his head. "Later," he whispered faintly.

I nodded, trying to focus on my reading instead of what was on Asher's mind. It didn't work.

~~~~~

"So," I said, setting down my tray on the lunch table across from Asher's, "what were you going to ask me during English?"

His blue eyes darted around the cafeteria. Christopher hadn't come to school, so it was just the two of us sitting at the lunch table. 

"I have a proposition," Asher announced after a moment.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Okay..." I said hesitantly. "Go for it."

He clasped his hands together and rested them on the table. "Remember the night of Henry's party, before all the drama happened, how we were talking about our lack of love lives?"

I nodded. "Yeah, you like short blondes that are nice and funny," I summed up teasingly.

He rolled his eyes. "Exactly. I told you all about my standards and how every girl had failed to meet them but couldn't quite understand that. No matter how many times I try to tell them, everyone here can't seem to wrap their minds around the fact that I'm not interested in anyone here."

"It's because you're too nice about it," I interrupted, "but continue."

"Well, I was thinking that if I finally got a girlfriend, the flirting would come to an end."

I froze. Was he really...

Asher held his hands up in defense. "Hear me out, okay, Linds? What if we fake dated? You would be my girlfriend; I would be your boyfriend. The hormonal girls would finally lay off me because I'd be taken, and if they don't stop, you can play jealous girlfriend and force them to back off."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why would I want to do that?"

He sent me a boyish grin. "Because we're friends?"

Thinking over what Asher had said to me, I realized that I didn't mind helping him out. He was my closest friend, after all. The one aspect of his plan that threw me off was the fact that we'd be dating. Even though he attached the word fake to the front of it, we would still be dating. I'd be hanging off of his arm as we walked through the school. I wasn't sure if I could handle that. There would be so many eyes on me, even more so than there already were. Plus, there was a small chance that romantic feelings would evolve. Although I'd never had a crush, let alone a boyfriend, would spending so much time with such an attractive guy cause me to fall for him?

I looked into my lap. If there was one thing I feared, it was being left in the dust after building up a relationship, may it be romantic or platonic. I spent fourteen years of my life with my mother and now she was gone. What if I fell for Asher but he thought of me as just a friend? He already had mentioned his insane standards, and there was no way I could meet them. What if I began to crave his affection and he wasn't there anymore?

On the other hand, what if something amazing came out of this? Maybe we wouldn't fall in love but just grow closer as friends. I had never really had a close friend before. Already, in the few weeks I had known him, Asher had brought me more joy than I had ever experienced in my entire seventeen years of living. Hanging around him more often would only result in more good times, right?

I sighed. "Okay, I'll do it."

Asher's eyes lit up. "Really?"

I nodded. "Do you want to work details out? Like what if someone asks when we started dating? Is this you asking me out?"

He smirked. "Don't you worry about it, Lindsey."

Frowning, I took a bite of my sandwich, wondering if I had just made the best decision of my life or the worst one.