Chapter 8://: Study Date...Practice...Thing

D's POV

I smiled as we pulled into Asher's driveway. His house gave me a homey feeling just by looking at it. It wasn't anything like my house, but I still liked it.

"Here is my house," Asher grinned, getting out of the car. I got out and followed him up the driveway past little boxes of flowers in the windowsill and a little garden gnome. "This is so adorable," I bit my lip, preventing a small squeal. "Yeah," he chuckled. "More like embarrassing." I frowned and looked at him. "What do you mean? It looks like a home should look." He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but who in this town in their right mind puts a garden gnome on their lawn?"

"I've always wanted one," I shrugged, looking back at the pointy-headed, garden security guard. "Why?" I shook my head, blushing a little. "Nevermind. My reason is stupid. Let's just go inside." I walked past him to the front door. "You coming?" I noticed he had looked at the gnome again and nodded. "What? Oh, yeah. I'm coming."

                        • • • • • • • •

"If 4x+2=10, what is x?" I watched him write down the equation and start solving it. "Hey, do you mind if I get something to drink?" He shook his head. "My sister can get you a drink so I can solve this real quick. Robin!" He yelled. "My friend's comin' down! Get her somethin' to drink!"

I laughed, standing up. "That's fine, Asher. I can do it myself." I walked out of his room and down the stairs into the kitchen. Which cabinet are the cups in?

I spun around as the sliding glass door opened, a girl coming inside from the patio. She was easily the prettiest girl I'd ever seen with her dark black hair and blue eyes. I mean, our hair was the same, but my basic brown eyes were nothing compared to hers. "Oh," she frowned when she saw me. "Are you another one of Asher's girls?"

I frowned, arching an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" She shrugged. "I don't know. Asher just always brings random girls here. Or...he used to, anyway. He hasn't brought anyone over in a while since he started talking about this one girl."

I stepped forward a little, curious to find out who this girl was. I actually felt a little...jealous.

"I think her name was B? Or maybe it was G? I don't know." I grinned. "Was it D?" Her eyes lit up with realization as she nodded. "Yes! It was D!" She suddenly looked me up and down, taking in my appearance. "Hey, are you her?" I nodded and she laughed. "Ash talks about you all the time. Or at least he wrote it down on a bunch of sticky notes he had in his room."

I furrowed my eyebrows at her. "Asher didn't have any sticky notes in his room."

"Well, duh," she rolled her eyes with a smile. "Then you would know that he has sticky notes of your name all over his room. He took them down I think. Oh. That's why they were all in my room." She started turning around when I stopped her. "Wait, could you show me where the cups are? I came down here for something to drink."

She nodded, grabbing a cup from the cabinet literally right next to me. "Here you go," she handed it to me, full of ice. "Make yourself at home. We have all sorts of drinks." I turned to where she was pointing and saw they had all sorts of drinks in bottles from Coke to Lemonade. I've found paradise.

"Oh, I'm Robin, by the way," she smiled, getting herself a glass. She suddenly put it down as she got a call and lifted it to her ear. "Hello?"

She giggled, biting her lip. "Not much. Just at home." I saw a smile spread across her face as she listened to the person on the other line. "I'd love to. That sounds great. Okay, bye." She blushed. "Love you, too." She hung up and sighed dreamily, almost setting her phone down in her cup.

"Is that your boyfriend?" I smirked, crossing my arms. "Maybe," she giggled, her smile suddenly replaced with a look of worry. "Please don't tell Asher. He'll kill him, and he won't ever let me see him again."

I mentally rolled my eyes. He was one of those over-protective brothers. "I promise I won't." She smiled and flounced off to her room, her glass long forgotten as she started texting.

I started back up the stairs and stopped just outside Asher's door, watching him work the problems. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration while he rested his head on his hand. He slightly bit the top of his thumb, pulling his lip down a little. I took a moment to stare at his muscles through his t-shirt, silently thanking Tomy Hilfiger for their wonderful taste in tight shirts. Wait. What? No. Bad, D. Don't think that way.

I blushed as he suddenly spoke up, not looking at me. "You know, though I enjoy knowing you love to check me out, I kinda need help with these algebra problems." He turned to smirk at me—a smirk I wanted to slap off of his gorgeous face.

"I wasn't checking you out. I was...absorbing the look of your room." He chuckled. "Just get over here." He motioned me over and patted his lap, like I was supposed to sit there. Uh...no thank you. Instead, I just stood next to him, looking over his work. An audible huff could be heard from him and I couldn't help snickering a little. I turned scarlet as he wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his head against my hip. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you to finish checking how I did."

"Yeah, I know. I mean, why do you have your body parts touching my body parts?" He chuckled. "That sounds wrong, Princess."

Princess? I scrunched up my nose in disgust. Sure, that was a cute nickname—certainly better than boo—but I didn't really like it. I never really had. "Don't call me that." He frowned. "But I wanna come up with a cute nickname for you. Why can't I call you Princess?"

"Because, I just feel like that's something a dad calls his daughter," I shrugged. "Fine then. I'll go back to calling you baby doll." I could feel him smirking against my hip. "No."

"Baby."

"No."

"Shawty."

"No! That's what Tyrone calls me." I rolled my eyes. "Fine. What about cupcake?" I shook my head. "How about Sinnamon?" I gave him a look. "You know, like cinnamon, but with an S."

"I'm not a stripper!" I glared. I couldn't help smiling a little as his hearty, warm laughter filled the room. "Fine, fine. I mean, I wish you were." I shot him another glare. "Not for everyone! I meant, just like for me, you know, I mean-." He cut himself off, a faint pink dusting his cheeks. "You know what? Never mind. Let's just get back to the homework."

I giggled. "Wow. Someone's really excited to stop embarrassing himself and get back to algebra."

"I'm not embarrassed," he grumbled, a cute pout forming on his face. "Liar. Your cheeks are so red!" He stuck his tongue out. "Are not!"

"They kind of are, big bro." I grinned as I turned around to face Robin who walked past the door quickly. "Hey! Hold up!" Asher yelled, getting up from his desk chair. "Yes?" She poked her head back in the door and smiled an anxious smile, like she wanted to leave quickly. "What are you wearing?"

"Clothes?" She sassed, raising an eyebrow. He shook his head. "Come here." She sighed, walking into the room to reveal a short—but not too short—pink skirt and a black top with some band name printed across the front. "What are you dressed like that for?" He demanded, tapping his foot impatiently. "I'm going to Amy's."

"Liar."

I bit my lip, pretending not to listen as the drama unfolded, but in reality, I was watching everything. What? It was right in front of me.

An audible ding was heard from her purse that made both of them tense up. "Who's texting you?" He narrowed his eyes at her and she did the same to him. "No one." He scoffed. "Well, it's clearly someone. Give me the phone."

"No. It's my phone."

"Give me the phone." She stood her ground, firmly shaking her head and holding her purse away from him. "Robin. I'm telling you one more time, dammi il telefono."

She groaned. "Fine." She glared at him as she unzipped her purse and yanked out her phone, slapping it into his hand. "There." He nodded at her and opened her phone, looking at her texts. "Who's Tadashi?" She blushed, her eyes shifting to me for a second and I nodded at her, proving I would keep my promise not to tell. "A friend."

Her phone dinged again.

"Oh, a friend. That's funny, see, 'cause he just sent this message that says, 'Hey, babe. I'm outside. Are you ready yet?'" He glared at her. "He just calls me that. He calls everyone that," she giggled nervously.

"I don't think so. So now I'm going to have to go outside and talk to your 'friend.'" I watched him push past her and jog down the stairs, her rushing after him to keep up in her heels. "Asher! Wait!"

Asher's POV

I opened the front door, a most likely angry look on my face as I made my way outside. I could hear Robin running behind me—well, as fast as she could move in heels—as she yelled my name. "Asher! Asher, stop!"

I had caught sight of some sort of scooter at the edge of the driveway, a guy sitting on it. I determinedly kept walking, ignoring my sister.

"Asher! Please, just stop! Let me explain!" I huffed, turning around. "What? Explain that you have a boyfriend? Is that what you want to-." My eyes widened as she shoved me down onto the grass and ran past me—which was pretty impressive, considering our height and strength difference—yelling at the guy. "Tadashi! Start the engine! Start it!"

"Robin Aria Johnson!" I furrowed my eyebrows as I heard the keys turn and start the ignition and saw Robin hop on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as they sped off.

I cursed under my breath as I stood up, wiping wet grass off of my pants. She is in so much trouble. I walked back inside, slamming the door behind me, and stomping my way up the stairs and back to my room. "I am going to kill her!" I slammed my bedroom door, frowning a little as D jumped in her seat. "Sorry," I muttered.

"It's okay," she smiled sympathetically. "I understand. I mean, not really since I have no siblings, but I–Oh, gosh, I'm rambling." I chuckled. "It's alright. It's just hard having to take care of her. My mom is always away and my dad-" I stopped myself, looking away. She must've noticed I had hit a brick wall in the conversation and I didn't want to continue because she continued for me. "I get it," she smiled. "I take care of my cousin sometimes."

I nodded and laughed bitterly. "I hope they don't give you as much hell as Robin gives me." She shrugged. "He doesn't really bother me. He's pretty cool, actually. His grades are a problem, though. That's what I always have to help him with. And, you know, good decisions."

"Maybe that's why you're so good with me," I mumbled to myself, smiling a little.

"What?" She raised an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side cutely. "Nothing," I shook my head, sitting back down. I frowned once I saw she didn't have anywhere to sit and scooted over a little so I was only on half of the seat. She smiled and sat on the other half, our shoulders and legs touching.

"Okay," she pulled the homework in front of her on the desk. "I noticed this problem is wrong." She looked around for something on the desk and grinned when she spotted it. "There you are." I tried to be nice and grab the pencil for her, but she beat me to it, and I ended up grabbing her hand instead. I don't know if it was just me, or if she felt it too, but I felt these tingles shoot up my arm and down my spine, making me shiver a little.

We pulled away sheepishly and I did the most natural thing a human being does—blink. But it brought on a feeling of realization. You know how everything always feels wrong, and then there's that one moment—just one—where everything feels right? I realized I'd found that moment and my brain could only think one thing; Holy crap. I think the world just turned the right way.