I smiled. That was adorable. “He loves you,” I said, speaking of Rian in present tense.
Ash snickered and shook his head before he whispered. “Don’t do that, Karla.”
“Do what?”
“Make my heart beat that fast for you.”
Wait...
Did Ash’s heart beat fast at the thought of me the same way my heart beat fast for him? Did he sometimes feel butterflies, too?
Before I could ask him about it, the lunch bell rang, andwe were on our way to our next class period. Ash walked me to my class, even though I knew he’d be late for his next one.
“See you at the end of the day,” he swore.
“Yeah, see you,” I replied.
Oh boy.There goes my heart, acting like a wild beast again.
Before he left, he said, “Karla?”
“Yes?”
“I wish I could tell Rian about you.”
I smiled. “I wish I could tell my mom about you, too.”
17Ash
One Friday afternoon, I rode my bike over to Karla’s house to hang out. She’d left school early the day before, and I wasn’t sure why. All she told me was that Ellie gave her a “mental health” day and that instead of going to school, Karla, Ellie, and Lorelai watched movies all day. I liked that Karla had Ellie. Ellie seemed to truly care about Karla and Lorelai. Some people just cared about the paychecks. Ellie cared about the humans.
Each day that passed, I wanted to know more and more of Karla’s favorite things. Somehow, her favorite things slowly began to become a few of my favorite things, too. I couldn’t eat a Reese’s Cup without thinking of her anymore, which in turn made it my favorite candy, too.
I didn’t eat the chocolate edge off the candy first, though. I wasn’t a monster, after all.
As I stood on her front porch, about to knock on the door, it flew open, and I found Mr.East standing there.
A fluttering sensation danced along my spine as I stared into his eyes. They were so cold and stern. I could tell Mr.East wasn’t one to put up with people’s crap, that was for sure. So in that moment, with my hand still raised in the air to ring the doorbell, I froze, hoping that I did not smell like bullshit.
“Ashish,” Mr.East stated.
I cleared my throat and smiled as I wrapped my hands around the straps of my backpack. “You can call me Ash, Mr.East.”
“Hmm,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “Ashish will do.”
“Sure, yeah, whatever you think works.” The best way I knew to handle conflict was to try to deflect it with humor. “Maybe I can call you Greyson. So we can be on a first-name basis.”
“I think Mr.East will be sufficient,” he dryly replied.
“Right, yes, of course.” I gulped. “Thank you, Mr.East.”
He didn’t reply, but he also didn’t move to the side to allow me in.
I took one step closer to the door. “Uh, can I come in?” I questioned.
“That depends.”
“Depends? On what?”
