twenty-eight

                                    

                                          
"I just don't get it. Wouldn't we be more productive if we could just sleep longer?" I asked as I entered the classroom with Gill on Monday morning. We had bumped into each other when walking to school, and just continued our way together. 
                          
"Totally. Imagine all the stuff we would learn instead of just sleeping during lessons," she said. "Tutoring would die out." 
                          
I raised a brow, briefly thinking about her words. "I think that's a bit far, but yeah. We'd learn a lot more." 
                          
"Hey, look. Your boyfriend's already here," Gill said. I followed her gaze only to see Asher sitting at his desk, his attention locked on his phone. 
                          
"He's not my boyfriend," I said, rolling my eyes. "Since he still thinks I'm gonna abandon him and all." 
                          
Gill frowned as we went over to our desks. "Are you?" 
                          
"Of course not. I even promised Sam, and I'm sure she'd follow me home and rip off my balls if I ever did that," I replied. 
                          
She nodded. "Yup, and I'd be right next to her, filming it all for Twitter so you could never set a foot outside your house again." 
                          
"What are you talking about?" Asher said, suddenly appearing in front of us and sitting down on my desk. 
                          
"Good morning to you, too," I replied. "It's so nice to see your face. Really brightens my day." 
                          
He raised a brow at me. "That better not be sarcasm." 
                          
"Tyler's not gonna show up today," Gill said, looking up from her phone. "He's ill again." 
                          
"Yeah, he already texted me," Asher replied. Then he glanced at me. "The weather is getting bad again tomorrow, so I was thinking we should maybe make the most of it today and go for a walk?" 
                          
Gill's expression lit up. "Oh, yeah. My dad was telling me about this field with the most beautiful flowers. I have to pick one." 
                          
Asher scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, I was talking to Kiri. Just him and I." 
                          
I tried to fight back the upcoming urge to smile. "Are we gonna climb another hill?" 
                          
"Maybe. Why not." He shrugged. "So, you in?" 
                          
I copied his shrug even though I had already made my decision before he had even started speaking. "Yeah, why not." 
                          
"Is this gonna be a regular thing now?" Gill asked skeptically, glancing back and forth between us. "I don't like to be left out just so you can go on dates." 
                          
"It's not a date," I said, rolling my eyes. Jesus, and they said I was the dramatic one. 
                          
Asher glanced at me. "It's not?" 
                          
I froze, searching his face for a cue that he was kidding. He had to be kidding, right? Right?
                          
He just smiled and stood up, going back to his own desk when the teacher entered the classroom. I started after him while Gill next to me started to chuckle. 
                          
"Oh, you two are going to be the light of my life." 
                          
*
                          
It felt like the sun was burning my skin when I was trotting up a hill behind Asher later that day, sweating and panting for all the wrong reasons. 
                          
"Why are we doing this again?" I asked in annoyance. 
                          
"I thought it was cute," Asher replied with a shrug. "Maybe we should have picked another hill, though." 
                          
He briefly stopped to catch his breath, and I looked back to see how far we had already come. We had been walking for half an hour now, and the village seemed even smaller from up here – even though we weren't exactly far up. There were only hills out here, no real mountains.