“Is he still messaging you?”
Looking up from my phone, I glance at Briony and nod.
“He’s really not happy Lilah dumped his arse,” Kennedy tells her.
“Hmm, if he didn’t want her to dump him, he shouldn’t have agreed to go out with someone right in front of her,” Lana says.
Kennedy shrugs off her blazer and pulls her blouse from her chest while exaggeratedly gasping for air. “Exactly.”
The table we’ve secured in the quad today is shaded by a medium sized gum tree, but I reckon it’s still nearly forty degrees in the shade. Dawson plops down next to Lana, having finally made it through the lunch line at the cafeteria, his face red, sweat making his hair stick up in different directions. I touch the back of my neck, making sure my hair still covers it, protecting it from the sun.
Another message pops up on my phone, causing Mason to frown. “He is persistent, isn’t he?”
Before I can pick up my phone again to look at it, Kennedy covers the device so I can’t grab it.
“Forget that clown. He ruined dinner on Saturday, let’s not let him ruin lunch now.”
I sigh, knowing she’s right. Surprisingly, Luke hasn’t taken our breakup well and he wants another chance, or so his hundred messages since indicate. He’s become more persistent every day. Honestly, I think he’s just annoyed I was the one to break it off officially. I mean, I saw the photo of him and Nicole at the club. He’s clearly into her. Shouldn’t he be happy he can go back to his playboy ways?
“He’s a tosser,” Dawson says, taking one of Lana’s fries and stuffing it in his mouth before removing the pickles from his hamburger and handing them to her.
“Yup. Have you handed in the essay for English yet?” I ask Briony to stop any further conversation about Luke from taking place. Like Kennedy said, Luke ruined dinner on Saturday, no need to let him ruin anymore of my meals.
“No. Every time I think I’ve finished the damn thing, I realise I need to add more.”
“I know that feeling,” I say. “And I’m up to my ears in homework.”
Mason nods. “The year has barely started, and I can’t wait to be done with it already.”
“I have the essay for English, a test in Biology and Methods, a meet this Saturday, duet practices, and an oral presentation for German,” Lana adds.
All of us make noises of sympathy and agreement. For the past five years, it has been drummed into us just how important senior year is. Our entrance score into university is the result of this year’s work only. Meaning, we mess up this year, none of the results from our previous years matter. The pressure is enough to have even the most steadfast of us, like Mason, wilting under it.
“The duets concert is hurtling towards us too quickly,” Briony says. “It’s taking up all my headspace.”
“Is anyone remotely ready for it?” Kennedy asks.
“Nowhere near ready,” I admit.
Briony flips her dark brown hair over her shoulder and frowns at me. “How’s your song with Asher going?”
“It’s going – just not well. The hate that we set out to write about is there, it’s just… flat. The words feel completely one-dimensional.”
Asher and I have continued to rewrite our song this week. It is better, but we’re never going to win that showcase spot with our current duet.
“Well, that sounds as if the feeling isn’t there,” Mason muses.
“One would think that with you and Asher working together, you’d have a pretty strong hate song,” Briony says.
“Yeah.”
Except that my hatred of my stepbrother has started to wane significantly with our more recent interactions. Take this week for example. Asher has checked in on me regularly since I broke up with Luke, genuinely asking me how I’m doing before we start working on our song each day. I don’t think he’s just being polite, either. We’ve been at war for so long that it is beyond bizarre to have Asher ask how I am and care about the answer.
As so often happens with Asher, thoughts of him seem to conjure him and when I look across the quad, I see Asher strolling through the crowd with a burger and chips from a nearby takeaway store. He looks my way suddenly, and when he catches me watching him, he tilts his head ever so slightly in question. I offer up a small smile in response and expect him to keep moving. Instead, he changes course from the group of guys he normally hangs out with and heads straight for us.
I don’t have time to mention his impending arrival before he is standing beside me and ushering me to move along the seat. Asher hasn’t eaten lunch with us since Ethan and I split, and it’s my shock that stops me from asking what he is doing and makes me move over to allow room for him.
He drops down beside me, offering me one of his hot chips. I’m pretty sure that he is completely unaware of the way everyone at the table is staring at him and that everyone has gone silent. Not that everyone at the table has had the same difficult relationship with Asher that I’ve had until recently. Mason and Dawson are pretty good friends with Asher, and I’m the only one Asher really gave a hard time. Still, we are not his group, and he’s spent years making his feelings about me well known.
Asher unwraps his burger and is about to take a bite out of the juicy and quite frankly delicious-smelling burger when he looks around the table and realises everyone is staring at him.
“What?”
Finally, my friends seem to snap out of their stupor and go back to eating. Everyone except Kennedy, anyway, who pinches one of Asher’s hot chips.
“Lilah was just telling us about your duet,” Kennedy tells him.
“Oh.” Asher raises an eyebrow at me. “Did you tell them that it sucks?”
Even though I agree with him whole-heartedly, I still inwardly wince at his choice of words.
“She says that it’s flat,” Mason explains.
“Well, that’s true,” Asher nods.
After that, the conversation goes around the table, everyone discussing how their duets are going.
And then lunch gets even weirder because when I look up, Ethan is making his way to our table with Ainsley beside him. Ethan has his usual hot pie with sauce and Ainsley has some sort of salad, both meals purchased from the cafeteria. As seniors, we’re allowed to leave campus for lunch, which Asher has today, but since none of the rest of us drive, we don’t want to spend our entire lunch break walking. Not in this heat, anyway.
“Is there room for us?” Ethan asks.
It isn’t as if Ethan has never sat with us. I mean, he used to sit with us all the time when he and I were dating. And he continued to sit with us after he and I broke up – his way of insisting we could still be friends, but this is the first time that he’s asked to sit with us while Ainsley is with him.
Considering the rules I gave Ethan earlier this year about us not spending time together when he’s with his girlfriend, I have no idea what he’s thinking. Perhaps after Saturday night, he believes the rule no longer applies. A month ago, I would have been upset by the assumption, but I’m over Ethan, and Ainsley is more of an annoyance than anything.
In fact, it’s actually kind of amusing to see her looking so pissy and put out. Just like Saturday night, Ainsley looks as if she’s sucked on a lemon or twenty. Seriously, if she doesn’t want to sit with us, she can go sit with the rest of the people that piss us off, like Davina Bishop.
Kennedy rolls her eyes at me but dutifully moves along so that Ethan and Ainsley can sit down beside her.
“We were just talking about the duets competition,” Dawson tells Ethan and Ainsley.
“But before that-” Kennedy begins.
She is cut off by the sound of a message coming through on my phone. Kennedy, Briony, Lana, and I all look at each other and groan.
“Luke’s still being a pain in the arse, then?” Asher asks, studying me.
His dark hair is messy, like he’s been running his hand through it, and his tie is loose, as though he’s been pulling on it. This close to him, I can’t help but notice how full his lips are, and how his dark eyes have flecks of gold in them. Probably because whenever he’s been this close to me before, it’s been to threaten or goad me.
“You know-” Kennedy starts again. “The best way to get him off your back would be to start dating someone else and then Instagram it. Get over someone by getting under someone,” Kennedy adds, waggling her eyebrows in the most exaggerated way possible.
“Your answer for everything is for Lilah to start dating somebody,” Ethan says darkly.
Kennedy smirks at Ethan’s response and Ainsley’s subsequent glare. She just loves making Ethan react to the idea of me dating and annoying Ainsley at the same time.
Asher rolls his eyes. “That’s a stupid idea.”
Kennedy stops smirking at Ethan and crosses her arms. “Why is it stupid?”
“I don’t know,” Asher sits back and crosses his arms, mimicking Kennedy. “Maybe because Lilah wants to focus on her music this year and not dating.”
“That doesn’t mean she has to sit at home like some spinster.”
“Why is she a spinster if she’s working on her goals?” Asher asks. “Isn’t that what you two harp on about all the time, with your vision boards and shit?”
My boards aren’t shit, but I don’t feel like Asher is trying to pick a fight with me. In all honesty, it actually seems like he’s defending me – or defending my decision not to date.
Kennedy, however, looks like she is ready to reach across the wooden table and strangle Asher. Asher glares back at her and doesn’t look any more ready to back down than Kennedy does.
“I don’t want to be a spinster,” I tell Kennedy, who shoots Asher a smug look. “But Asher is right. This year is about music for me.”
“See?” Asher grins triumphantly.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t date,” Kennedy says huffily.
“I know, and if the opportunity presents itself, then I’ll grab it. I just mean I’m prioritising other things. We’re all having to knuckle down and study.”
“But what about the weekends?” Kennedy asks. “Surely you have time to go out on a Saturday or Sunday?”
“Not this Saturday,” I say. “I’m working.”
“You’ve got a shift?” Lana asks.
“I do.”
I haven’t been getting many shifts at the cinema recently, and after breaking up with Luke I worried I wouldn’t be on the schedule anytime soon. Fortunately, he hasn’t shift-blocked me. Maybe that’s because he’s still hoping to change my mind about our breakup. I’m so looking forward to having that conversation on Saturday.
“How late are you finishing? Will Caitlin freak out?” Ethan asks, reminding me of Mum and Jessie’s reaction the last time I took a late shift.
“Um, yeah,” I say. “I don’t get off till midnight.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m still figuring that out.”
“I’ll pick you up,” Asher says.
His words surprise me so much that I stare at him.
I know he offered me a ride home from dinner on Saturday, so maybe this offer shouldn’t seem like it’s come completely out of left field, and I know that he’s thawed out towards me somewhat, but this is still a crazy offer.
And I’m not the only one who is surprised. When I mutter, “Okay, thank you,” to Asher, Ethan narrows his gaze at his brother.
Asher shrugs in response. “What?”
“Nothing,” Ethan mutters.
“Maybe they are getting it on.” Ainsley says smugly, looking at Ethan. “Just as I predicted, now that you’re out of the picture, she’s moving on to your brother.”
My stomach drops and embarrassment creeps up my chest and neck before exploding in my cheeks. I’m getting ready to tell her to shut the hell up when Ethan glares at Asher and me.
“Asher would never think about going there,” Ethan says firmly. “We’re brothers. It’s a fucking rule, isn’t it?”
There is so much force behind the words that we all stare at Ethan. My heart begins racing as the silence stretches, the tension between the two brothers growing thicker and heavier, sending my adrenaline through the roof. I’m having flashbacks to the multiple times I witnessed these two brothers arguing about me. Though, last time it was Ethan answering to Asher over his decision to spend time with me. This feels like some weird, bizarre alternate reality.
“Right?” Ethan says again, even more forcefully than the last time.
“Chill out,” Asher says finally. “Maddie and I are good. Awesome, in fact. I offered Lilah a ride home because she needed one.”
“And that’s all?” Ethan asks, still looking less than impressed or convinced.
“Yes! Fuck, you’re the one who told me to embrace her as family.”
“I know, but-“
“No buts,” Asher snaps. “You don’t get to be pissed off when I take your advice. She’s my stepsister and you want to get into Dad’s good graces so we can have this party, don’t you?”
Ethan just stares at him.
“Right?” Asher says, more forcefully, mimicking the exact way that Ethan has just spoken to him.
“Yes.”
“So pull your head out of your arse,” Asher says to his brother. “Me offering Lilah a ride is no big fucking deal, so don’t act like it is.”
There is a moment of tense silence and then Kennedy asks Asher, “You and Maddie, that’s like your longest relationship ever, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he says.
“Thought so.”
My phone goes off again and I’m still riding the adrenaline high as Asher looks at me and grunts, “If that’s Luke, I’d be happy to tell him to fuck off.”
In his current mood, I don’t doubt it. “Thanks, but I’ve got this.”
“Do you?” Asher’s expression is a mix of concern and irritation. “He’s harassing you, Lilah.”
It is starting to border on that.
“I’ll handle it,” I repeat.
“If you don’t, I will,” he mutters, causing my stomach to dip at the protective nature of his comment.
When it comes to family, Asher can be overprotective and loyal to a fault. He hated me because he always saw me as a threat to his family. Does he still feel that way? It doesn’t seem like it, but I can’t tell if I’m reading things correctly or not.
I ask Asher, “Are you sure you don’t mind picking me up?”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I did.”
“It won’t interfere with a date with Maddie?”
“Nah, it’ll be fine.”
I nod and he nudges my shoulder with his, surprising me with how he’s deliberately moving into my personal space and touching me casually, something he’s never done before. “Don’t worry about what Ethan says, okay? We’re working on this song and our parents are married, so we had to get along at some point.”
Relieved the tension between the two brothers seems to have passed and Asher hasn’t retracted his offer to give me a ride, I smirk at him. “Is that what this is? Us getting along. Is that why hell is freezing over?”
He pulls a face. “Funny.”
I snicker at his reaction and then turn my attention to what Kennedy is saying, the rest of lunch passing by in the blink of an eye.
When the bell goes, I realise that I’ve spent almost an entire lunch period – or the equivalent of an entire lunch period – getting along with Asher. When we hung out in the music studio on Saturday night, we had a good time, or at least I had a good time. No wonder the two of us are having trouble writing a hate song.
As I make my way to class, I think about what Asher said to Ethan:
“You’re the one who told me to embrace her as family. You don’t get to be pissed off when I take your advice. She’s my stepsister and you want to get into Dad’s good graces so we can have this party, don’t you?”
Is Asher’s recent change in attitude all for his brother and the sake of this party Ethan wants? Does Asher still believe that my mum and I are gold-diggers? And if he does, and he’s just managed to bury his hate, will he ever actually get over it? Will he ever see us differently?
See me differently?
Why does the idea he might not make me feel like someone just whacked me in the stomach with a bass guitar?
A/N: Thanks for reading and supporting this story! I hope you have an awesome weekend.
Here is an excerpt from the next part of Kiss Me, Break My Heart <3
Kiss Me Break My Heart: Part. 10 Excerpt
Jace
“Cassie is here,” Declan announces.
“Finally,” I mutter, my gaze cutting straight through the crowd, to the back gate that has just opened.
My mouth feels as dry as if I’ve been hoovering the desert with my mouth when I see her enter the party wearing a short sparkly silver dress that hugs the curves of her body.
“Wow,” Declan says, echoing my thoughts.
Cassie waves at a few of the people around her before she spots us sitting around the bonfire and makes a beeline for us.
“Hey,” she says when she gets to us, leaning over the back of Logan’s chair to give him a hug from behind and a kiss on the cheek. “How’s the birthday boy?”
Standing, Logan hugs her. “Better now that you’re here. You look hot as fuck, Cass.”
Logan isn’t wrong. Cassie was always a pretty girl, but as a woman, she’s stunning. Her long-highlighted hair hangs to her waist, and the dress pushes up her breasts and makes her tanned and toned legs look a mile long. Any other woman I know would pair high heels with that dress, but Cassie is wearing a pair of sparkly sneakers that just make me want to smile. She’s a seductive mix of competent woman, tomboy and beautiful female. Every guy at the party, my mates included, is admiring her, and the stupid pride I feel that she’s ours is ridiculous. Well, not ours or mine, but-
“Hey Jace, good to see you.”
I force a smile that hopefully doesn’t look like a scowl as Thom thrusts his hand forward.
Fucking Thom.
Reluctantly, I shake his hand. Declan and Logan seem to think my feelings about the guy are irrational, but I know my best friend, and he’s not the right guy for her. Not that I know what her type is. She never really dated anyone in high school, and I’ve never seen her with a boyfriend before.
You’re her type. She never dated because she liked you.
Coming soon to Vocal!
Omg you posted a little preview of Jace and Cassie. 🥺 Thank you, they’re my absolute faves. Just love love love reading their story. ❤️
This turn in Ashers’ behaviour is so interesting. I’m curious to find out what he’s up to. Also, Lilah reminds me of a cute, determined puppy 🐶