Chapter Twenty-Eight


    Lila almost forgot her copy of Romeo and Juliet when she woke with a start on Wednesday morning, having slept through her first two alarms. Panicking, she took two stairs at a time as she rushed out the door, her hair still undone. The school bus was just coming up over the crest by her house when she desperately flagged it down.


    After tying her hair up haphazardly on the bus, Lila separated out what she needed to bring with her that morning so she could simply throw her bag into her locker and hurry off to English. She wasn’t technically late, but it sure felt like it when she flew past Ms Shard, who was just about to close the classroom door.


    “Morning!” Lila called as she scurried to her seat next to Asher, who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow.


    “You’re a bit later than usual. Is everything okay?” he murmured as Ms Shard started marking the roll.


    “Nah, yeah, all good,” Lila puffed, pulling out her copy of Romeo and Juliet and her laptop.


    “You seem… frazzled, at best.”


    “I just missed my alarms, that’s all.”


    “Was something keeping you up?”


    “No.”


    “You sure?”


    “What’s up with the interrogation?”


    Asher sat back in his seat, crossed his arms, and pensively looked at his desk.


    “You’re right,” he muttered finally. “Sorry. Just thought there was something wrong.”


    “All good,” Lila whispered back, looking at the PowerPoint presentation Ms Shard was now showing them regarding the history of Romeo and Juliet, “I just need to settle in. My whole routine is outta whack.”


    “Fair.”


    Every so often, as they listened to Ms Shard''s lecture, Asher’s eyes would light up. He whispered extra details to Lila, extending upon Ms Shard’s content with unbridled passion. His knowledge regarding Shakespeare, that time period, and contemporary interpretations of Shakespeare’s work was impressively vast, and Lila couldn’t help but be enthralled with his words. Listening to him speak, Lila thought he seemed thrilled to be delving into Romeo and Juliet, even if it wasn’t his favourite work of Shakespeare''s.


    Before Lila knew it, English was over and she was sitting in Bio again, next to a deflated Cecelia. Lucas seemed to be running behind.


    “Cecelia, is everything okay?” Lila asked. She didn’t want to channel Asher’s interrogatory vibe from that morning, but Cecelia was definitely off today as well.


    “Yeah,” Cecelia said sadly.


    “That’s so unconvincing.”


    Cecelia gave Lila a faint, sarcastic ‘ha’, but didn’t elaborate.


    “Well, if you need to chat, just let me know,” Lila said with an encouraging smile. Cecelia smiled back, but the appearance of a sweaty Lucas outside the Bio door dropped her smile immediately. He slinked into the classroom, somehow managing to avoid catching Mr Johnson’s attention, and sat down in his usual seat.


    “Hey,” he said to Lila and Cecelia, pulling out his Bio notebook.


    “Hey,” Lila replied. Cecelia remained tight-lipped. Lucas looked at her for a moment, before casting his eyes downward. The rest of the lesson progressed in a tense silence that Lila didn’t know how to shatter.


    With about five minutes left on the clock, Lucas finally asked, “Cecelia, did I do something wrong?”


    Cecelia audibly exhaled before turning to Lucas, her eyes seeming hard. “No, you didn’t,” she replied loftily.


    “It really feels like I did. Lila, you feel it too, right?”


    ‘Oh God, why did he throw me into this?’ Lila thought, searching desperately for a vague response that neither confirmed nor denied what Lucas had said.


    “U-Uh, well, um, I think we’re all just exhausted,” Lila stammered. “Y’know, end of term and all that.”


    “Yeah,” Cecelia interjected quietly. “I’m just worn out. Need some space.”


    “O-Oh,” Lucas said, his brow creasing slightly as if in contemplation. He nodded to himself, and upon being dismissed for morning tea, disappeared quickly.


    Lila and Cecelia roamed around campus, stopping briefly by the tuckshop, during morning tea. Grace and Elise eventually joined them before they departed for PC. Cecelia hadn’t said much today, either, but Lila could have sworn she had seen flashes of guilt on Cecelia’s face every so often. They followed this same journey at lunchtime, with Cecelia feeling more like a spirit casually haunting them than a part of their group. But, if she needed space, space was what Lila could give her. She didn’t press for any more details.


    Lila’s final class of the day was Study, which felt a bit pointless given she had nothing to study for. She made her way to her usual booth after signing in. It didn’t seem as though Asher had arrived just yet. Across the way, she saw Ayla sitting in her usual spot, looking intently at her laptop. When Lila had passed Ayla between classes, or otherwise found herself around Ayla’s vicinity, she had noticed a distinct lack of friendliness emanating from her. Whilst it was to be expected, given Piper was still on suspension, Lila was pleased to hear that there weren’t any rumours circulating about her and Asher getting together anymore. It seemed that Ayla, being the Gossip Queen that she was, wasn’t a revenge-seeking type. Or perhaps Lila was looking at it too deep?


    The only rumours that remained which were remotely connected to Lila were about what Asher had said to Piper and its aftermath, which seemed to get even more ridiculous and outlandish with each retelling. Some of what Lila had heard involved Asher allegedly telling Piper to go die in a hole, that he was supposedly marrying Holly, and that Piper was locked in a mental institute, among other things. Other rumours tried feebly to discredit Asher’s confrontation with Piper in general, however there had been too many witnesses for any of them to really take hold.


    Asher slid onto the bench in front of Lila, breaking her from her thoughts, a grin on his face.


    “Hey,” he said, opening up his laptop.


    “Hey,” Lila replied, looking down at her own. It had fallen asleep. “You sure you don’t want to join the Minecraft boys? Not like we’re actually studying anything,” she said, gesturing towards the section of the library where the rest of their Study class sat.


    Asher shook his head. “I mean, I play Minecraft, but they’re just so noisy. Kinda prefer having my own company to enjoy my Jebs. Uh, those are… rainbow sheep.”


    Lila laughed. “I sometimes mess around in Minecraft. Hate Creepers with a passion. But oddly I find them cute.”


    Asher looked at her in amazement, before launching into a discussion about the latest Minecraft updates, what he was currently saving his diamonds for, and his shenanigans in the Nether. He seemed like a giddy little kid, and they shared a few laughs and swapped a few stories before settling into a comfortable silence.


    “So, uh, I’ve actually been meaning to ask…” Asher said quietly after a few minutes.


    “Ask what?” Lila replied, glancing at him as she paused her YouTube video.


    “Well… I-I think you should meet Holly.”


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    “Ah,” Lila said, her heart dipping in her chest unexpectedly at the mention of Holly. “Why’s that?”


    Asher looked a bit embarrassed now as he closed his laptop lid, his face turning an interesting shade of red.


    “She… um, she’s still a bit upset by all the rumours,” he said awkwardly. “I told her they’re not true, and I told her the whole story about Piper. And while it’s improved, I think she’d just feel better overall if she could actually meet you.”


    “I see,” Lila replied softly.


    “It’s pretty important to me,” he said after a heavy pause, looking at Lila with intensity now. “I love her. I don’t want her to keep being upset, but… at the same time… I’ve been itching to keep looking into… well, you know what I mean. A-And I just need Holly to know that it’s all above board, y’know? Like, you don’t like me like that, and I don’t like you like that, but we’ve just got something that we need to work on still. And that… she doesn’t need to worry,” he explained, stumbling over his words occasionally. He finally looked away from Lila and she let out the beginning of a sigh before stopping herself.


    “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about her myself,” she said. “I don’t have any plans for the weekend just yet.”


    Asher’s face lit up. “I’ll see when she’s got time!”


    ‘I hope I’m not going to regret this…’ Lila thought as he tapped away on his phone.


    <hr>


    Thursday had completely passed Lila by. She was starting to get swept up in the excitement of her cohort gearing up for Easter holidays and semi-formal that she paid little to no attention to any of her classes. Cecelia was still hanging around Lila, Elise and Grace, and still subdued during Bio, but had started to come out of her shell by the time Friday lunch rolled around. The girls spent their last lunch of the term excitedly locking in plans to go dress shopping after Cecelia returned from Hamilton Island. While they were at it, they also planned some days to be spent hanging out at the movies, or at each other’s houses over the next two weeks.


    After lunch, Lila made her way to Study, eager for the start of the school holidays. This afternoon, both of her classes were with Asher, with English proceeding immediately after Study. They hadn’t spoken much in English yesterday as Ms Shard had decided to put on a contemporary movie inspired by Romeo and Juliet as a teaser for next term. Given their allocated time for classes, they’d finish the rest of the movie today.


    Asher was already in their usual booth in the library, watching something on YouTube. Lila signed in and sat across from him. Ayla wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but Lila had noticed that there was a suspicious number of students missing today, most likely not bothering to come in for the last day of term.


    Asher looked up at Lila as she sat down, and his face broke into a grin.


    “So, I spoke to Holly,” he said, lowering his laptop screen. “She has a late shift at Maccas tomorrow from 6, but she said she’d be down to have lunch before then.”


    “T-Tomorrow?” Lila stuttered.


    “Does tomorrow not work for you?” Asher asked, a very slight frown creasing his forehead.


    “I-It does,” Lila said hesitantly, pressing her hands together in her lap. “I just didn’t think we’d be meeting so soon, for some reason... I wasn’t lying when I said I had nothing on this weekend.”


    “Oh,” Asher replied, leaning against the back of the booth as he grabbed his phone. “I can see if she’s available on Sunday instead?”


    “No, tomorrow’s fine,” Lila said firmly, shaking her head. “Where are we going?”


    “Let’s see…” Asher trailed off, looking through his phone. “There’s a café in the shopping centre that just opened up – Café Vines. Can you make it there?”


    Lila swallowed as she opened her Maps app. It looked like she could get there by bus.


    “Yeah,” Lila replied, slipping her phone back into her pocket. “I guess I’ll see you guys there.”


    “Great!” Asher replied brightly. Lila connected her earphones to her laptop and began watching YouTube videos to pass the time. She couldn’t focus on any of them in particular, though she couldn’t think why. Was she nervous about meeting Holly? What if Holly met Lila and decided that Asher shouldn’t hang out with Lila anymore? Did that mean they had to abandon the investigation? Surely Asher wouldn’t…


    ‘But he did, though,’ a voice Lila hardly recognised as her own whispered intrusively in her mind. ‘When the rumours started getting to Holly, he stopped you from helping him with the investigation… and besides… he’d said so early on that he wanted to respect his relationship with Holly… and if she thinks he’s not doing that, then surely he’d drop you, not just the investigation…’


    Lila inhaled deeply in an effort to calm her increasingly jittery body. She didn’t want Asher to be alone again, investigating his Mum’s disappearance in, potentially, the middle of the hornet’s nest. And now that he had more free time, she knew for a fact that he would be obsessing about it to unhealthy levels again, sacrificing his own self-care and self-worth.


    ‘Plus, he’s too damn stubborn to get help from anyone else,’ Lila thought with an edge of bitterness. Without telling it to, her mind conjured up small snippets of Lila’s time playing Jenga with Asher. She didn’t want to miss out on any more memories with him –


    ‘Dummy,’ the intrusive voice purred. ‘You’re not there to make memories with him. You’re there to crack the case. You don’t need to bask in the shadow of these irrelevant, joyful memories. Unless you’re willing to confront yourself.’


    Lila frowned. What did that mean? Confront herself? About what?


    “…la?”


    Lila looked up to see who was speaking to her. Asher was already packed up and standing, staring down at her in concern. She blinked rapidly at him in confusion.


    “We’ve got English now,” he said, looking bemused. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for a minute or so.”


    “S-Sorry,” Lila replied, immediately getting up and hastily packing her things away. “I got lost in my thoughts.”


    “I can send you a dollar if you give me your bank details,” Asher smirked. For a moment, Lila couldn’t make sense of what Asher was saying. Then, she recalled her joke about accepting bank transfers in exchange for her thoughts. Was he asking her to tell him what she was thinking about? A small smile flickered across her face, but she quickly dropped it.


    ‘Like hell I’ll tell him,’ Lila thought to herself, the heat in her cheeks rising. She wordlessly finished packing up. Asher chuckled and shook his head, leaning against her side of the booth as he waited.


    “Let’s go finish off that movie,” he said, “then I can bore you with all the parallels and historical inaccuracies I’ve found.”


    “They don’t bore me,” Lila said quickly, still not looking at Asher’s face. He was silent for a moment but stopped leaning against the booth.


    “Even better,” he said finally with another chuckle. “A willing victim to my pontifications. We gotta get there quick before you change your mind and tell me to piss off with my thoughts.”


    Lila frowned, slinging her bookbag over her shoulder.


    “You don’t speak very highly of your interests,” she said, giving him a piercing look.


    “Huh,” Asher said in seemingly genuine surprise. “I guess not.”


    “I’m ready to see for myself the value of your thoughts,” Lila said, flashing him a grin and setting off in the direction of English. It took him a moment, but he followed her at a half-jog.


    The rest of the movie evidently captured Asher’s attention, as he didn’t end up talking to her much throughout. On occasions that he did in a low whisper, Lila warmly received his commentary. It almost felt as though she was getting a two-for-one class, sitting next to the Dux.


    The movie finished about ten minutes before class ended. Immediately, Lila’s classmates began pestering Ms Shard about leaving early.


    “Everyone, calm down,” Ms Shard called sternly above the noise. “While I’d like to go home too, I need to keep my eyes on all of you until the clock strikes 3.20pm. I don’t care what you do for these next ten minutes, except that it is in this classroom and befitting of the College’s expectations of you.”


    The room immediately burst into conversation and shrill laughter as Lila’s classmates begrudgingly remained seated. It almost felt that they were competing with each other to make as much noise as possible in rebellion. Asher turned to Lila somewhat lazily.


    “What’s your plan for the holidays?” he asked.


    “I’ve got a few things on, but not much really,” Lila replied. “What about you?”


    “Well, I’m not doing much either,” he sighed. “Holly’s family are going away over Easter.”


    “You’re not going?” Lila asked, surprised. Asher shook his head.


    “They don’t have room for me, apparently,” he said. “But that’s alright.”


    “What do you normally do over Easter?” Lila asked.


    “Well, Gabriel usually cooks a small Easter Sunday lunch. It’s not his usual day, but he gets a bit lonely for Easter. Marlene helps him with the cooking, too, but no one else comes by since the rest of my family live in other states and countries. They usually save up to come over for Christmas, though.”


    “Sounds wholesome,” Lila grinned.


    “Hey, maybe you could come?”


    ‘As a replacement for Holly?’ a thought intrusively crossed her mind. Lila shook her head, as if to dispel it. What was up with her today?


    “I have my own family thing,” Lila said awkwardly, looking down at her desk.


    “Oh, sorry,” Asher said hurriedly. “Of course. I just… thought it’d be a bit lonely this year, since Gabriel’s cooking for only four…”


    Lila bit her bottom lip, feeling slightly guilty. Knowing that Gabriel felt that way about Easter made Lila’s heart ache. He was too sweet for his efforts to be shared with only a small handful…


    “… I could probably come by if you want to do Easter dinner,” Lila said quietly.


    Asher’s eyes lit up as he said, “I can check if we can do dinner.”


    Lila slightly regretted the suggestion, but it was too late to back out as Asher eagerly typed away on his phone. Why did she say that? If tomorrow didn’t go well, she doubted that she’d be welcome for Easter Sunday…


    “Alright everyone, we’ve got about 30 seconds left,” Ms Shard half-shouted over the noise of the class. Everyone immediately stood up and made to move before Ms Shard stopped them with a stern, “I’m not above giving you detention on the last day!”


    The students reluctantly sat down again as Ms Shard continued to speak.


    “Please be safe over the school holidays. Enjoy Easter, if you participate, and come back well-rested and eager to learn. You may go.”


    Several students cheered as everyone leapt up and flooded out of the classroom. Lila and Asher fell into a synchronised step as they headed off to the locker room. They started talking about their co-curriculars for next term, with Lila wondering if she’d be in her usual midfielder position for hockey, and Asher pondering whether he wanted to relinquish his usual position as goalie for soccer to try something new. By the time they reached locker room entrance, it seemed as though Asher didn’t want to go to his locker.


    “I should get going,” Lila said finally, edging slowly towards her locker. Asher nodded, but his eyes seemed downcast and he didn’t move.


    “See you tomorrow,” Lila added awkwardly.


    “Y-Yeah,” Asher replied, giving her a small smile. “See you tomorrow. 12, yeah?”


    “I’ll be there.”