Hidden; Asher Adams

Chapter 10

      "Lilian?" My door opened, revealing Coach Baker, aka, the man that just woke me up from my nap. "Yeah?" I said sitting up, yawning slightly. "Sorry I didn't mean to wake you. I just wanted to give you this." He said handing me an envelope.  I looked at him quizzingly before finding a heap of cash inside. I looked at him even more confused than before. "Allowance, Beverly can be expensive, and since you live here now I just want to make sure you are covered like the rest of my kids." He smiled. I looked at the man in shock and in awe. "Coach Baker, as sweet as this is, this is too much, I can't take this," I said trying to hand it back. "I insist, it's the least I can do." He said not taking it. "But I have a job, I don't want to just take your money." I frowned, I hated people paying for me. "Lilian, I promise it's problem ok? I just want you to have it." He said before turning to walk out. "Thank you so much." I said smiling sincerely at the man, before he walked out.

       Not long after I heard the front door slam. I walked downstairs to see I was alone, so I went place the envelope ontop his computer in his office. It was very sweet, but I feel bad taking it. When I put it down on the computer, his laptop turned on to show a Crenshaw banking account. "What the hell?" I said to myself. I didn't want to push, but that definitely left me curious.

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      Later that night it was time for Ashers party and I was dressed in a leopard print bodysuit that I had bought a while back, and a black skirt, which was secretly Layla's. I paired it with some yellow heels I had and straightened out my hair, adding a little bit of makeup to my face. I went into my nightstand drawer and moved my fathers old t-shirt to reveal my puff bar. I slipped it into my wallet and headed out to meet Jordan. "Ready?" He asked. I nodded and we walked out to the car. He was bringing me since Olivia wasn't here, I'm not sure where she is. Spencer is staying at home in Crenshaw, parties aren't really his thing.

       We arrived and immediately I poured myself a drink. I wasn't an alcoholic, but I had fun at parties. "Hey you." Layla greeted, wrapping her arms around me. "Hey Lay." I said sipping my drink. "That's my skirt." She deadpanned, slightly laughing. "Shh, nobody needs to know." I said putting a finger over her mouth. She looped her arm with mine and led me to the dance floor. I put my wallet and phone down next to hers, which was sitting near Asher at the poker table. I caught him giving me a once over before I decided to ignore it, smile, and wave. He waved back, then I turned around to go dance with Layla.

        So I've only been here for about an hour and a half, and let's just say, I am not sober. Who cares though, I was having the time of my life. I just finished dancing with JJ, who had left to get in on the dare chip action. Grabbing my wallet and my phone I slowly but surly made my way to the restroom, tripping a few times nonetheless. When I had finished using the bathroom, I whipped the puff bar from my purse and took a rather large hit. Bad idea. I'm not used to that yet so I started choking like an absolute idiot. I laughed at my self before carefully taking a few more hits, enjoying the quiet of the bathroom. While it wasn't silent, it definitely wasn't as loud as it was out there.

      I sat there for probably 20 minutes, and now I was starting to feel the effects of the puff as well. Way to go Paul, now you're cross faded. I put it away, safely back in my wallet before heading back out to the party. I felt above the damn world. "Yo you good?" I heard someone say laughing. I turned around to see Asher. "I am more than good." I replied, stumbling slightly. The alcohol was really starting to hit hard, and the puff bar didn't help. He laughed, never seeing the girl like this before, finding it cute, and somewhat entertaining. He was mad at himself for thinking the girl was cute, but he couldn't even stop it at this point. "Let's get you some water." He said walking off to find some. I saw Spencer and Olivia walk in the doors. "Heyyyyy Spence." I said throwing an arm around him and smiling at Olivia as if she was a puppy. The pair shared a look, before looking back at the clearly intoxicated girl. Spencer shook his head in disapproval, but laughed anyway, glad his sister was having fun. "Here you go." Asher said coming back with a bottle of water. "Thanks Ashy." The girl said hiccuping. He smiled softly at the nickname. Lily let go of Spencer and grabbed his arm instead, leading him back to the Poker table, wanting to watch him play. "I have never seen her this fucked up before." Spencer said laughing. Olivia smiled in response, giggling at the brunette, who was now attempting to sit on the dare chip table.

      A couple hours had passed by and the girl was now sitting on the curb, resting her head on Ashers shoulder. She was attempting to comfort the boy after JJ just crashed 'his fathers' car. She knew it was for the family that lived here, but would never rat him out. He was absolutely terrified, and had no idea what to do. Layla was nowhere to be found, so she decided to stay for him, knowing he needed a friend. She was still feeling the intoxication, but was much more sobered up now seeing as she stopped drinking hours ago and stuck to water instead. "I know that look." Spencer said coming out of nowhere. The pair lifted their heads to look at him, before lily rested her head back on Ashers shoulder, and re-closed her eyes. "What look?" Asher replied annoyed. "In my neighborhood, there's a look you see on a lot of the faces Desperation. It's easy to spot. It's a different look than fear." Spencer replied, sitting on the other side of his sister. "What makes you think I'm desperate?" Asher scoffed, trying to play it off. I sighed, knowing where this was going. "Come on, man. All day, something didn't feel right about this party. You ain't got no pictures of your family hanging anywhere in this house-" Spencer started but I interrupted. "Just drop it Spence." She said, not wanting her brother to pry into her friends life, but he just ignored her and kept going. "You always seem to be forgetting your wallet, and you let everybody else pay for this party. It ain't hard to spot somebody with no money, man. Look, I know you're in trouble, bro." He finished. "You don't know anything." Asher said tensing up and getting defensive. I sat up and glared daggers at Spencer, telling him silently to stop digging a hole into Ashers personal life, but once again, ignored. Except this time, it was a good thing he ignored me. "I know someone who can fix that." He said confidently.

        "Are these cars stolen?" Asher asked worried as we arrived at Big J's. He fixed up cars in Crenshaw, so we gave him a call and headed over. "Nah." Spencer said slightly lying. "I mean maybe." I spit out honestly. Asher looked terrified to say the least. "Yo, is that little Spencer James? And of course miss Lily." He said hugging both of us. "What's up big J?" Spencer laughed out. "Man, this better be good. You dragged me out of my bed at 3:00 in the morning." Big J said jokingly. "Look, I appreciate you, all right? This is Asher." Spence said pointing to the boy. "Let's see what you got" Big J said looking at the car.

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        "We have a serious problem." Bog J said revealing here the car should've been. No. No way. It was gone. I looked at Asher and he was already staring at me, looking if he was going to cry and punch a wall at the same time. I walked over to him and gave him a hug, knowing he needed it. Spencer now knew it wasn't their Porsche, so he was equally as sympathetic.

       "If the car's still in the neighborhood, Shawn probably heard about it." I pointed out, trying to figure out a way to help. "Nah, look I don't want this on him." Spencer said immediately hating the idea. "He's not who you think he is Spence. He got Coop a good job, and he looks after me." I said trying to reason with the boy.

       "What's up, Spence? Me and him go way back. We used to get into some trouble back in the day. I remember we played darts in my uncle's garage, tore that board up. And he picked up a football one day and never looked back. Suddenly, I was a bad influence. So when Coop called, I thought, nah. She must be playing. Spencer James don't need anybody's help. But here you are." Shawn said as he got out the car. He looked at me and threw an arm around my shoulders. "Sup Lil." He said before looking back to Spencer. "I know this is hard for you, but I'ma need you to say it, because we equals now. Say it. You need me." Shawn argued. I elbowed him in the side before rolling my eyes at him. "Knock it off Shawn." I said going to his car and tuning out the conversation. I opened the passenger door to see one of his group members. "Hey Lilian."the man said. I smiled in return. I would've normally said hey back, but I was on a mission. I opened up the console and reached in to grab the bag of dum dums. "Jackpot." I said to myself, digging into the bag to find a pina colada flavored sucker. Once I retrieved said item, I put the bag back and got out the car to rejoin the conversation. "Perfect timing, we was just about to leave." Shawn said looking at me. "Just you two?" I asked knowing him and Spence don't get along. "Yes." He fired back calmly. "Oh and you owe me more dum dums." He said as they got into the car. I shot him the middle finger in response before turning to face Asher. "Let's go shall we" I smiled.