Saturday is a typical British day due to the grey, cloudy and chilly weather, but I don't mind, Autumn has always been my favourite season; it's so cosy and the trees are so beautiful when they change colour and the leaves start to fall.
It's ten in the morning, and Saffi's playing tennis with Aimee. They invited me along, but I wanted to stay and finish 'The Light We Lost'. I'm only two chapters away from finishing and know I can't leave it so close to the end.
It's only been around forty five minutes since the girls had left when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" I call, not wanting to get out of my cosy position on the window bench under a fluffy blanket. The door opens slowly, and Asher pops his head in smiling at me and looks around the room.
"Is Saf here? I need to ask her something."
My heart beats faster. I can't get the conversation I had with her out of my head, "No, she's playing tennis with Aimee. Everything alright?"
"Yeah yeah, can I come in?"
"Sure."
He steps into the room and I position myself to sit up straight on the bench, "just want to ask her something about our economics work." He starts to walk over to me, "you look cosy; have you moved from that position at all this morning?" he stops when he reaches me and looks down smiling. I look back at him and try to concentrate on how he looks at me but I don't notice anything out of the ordinary.
"Hardly," I smile back, snuggling down again into the blanket, "I couldn't even bring myself to go and make a hot chocolate. You can sit down if you want," I nod towards the opposite end of the bench, and he does so, propping his elbow on his bent knee to rest his head on his fist and looks out of the window. "It's beautiful out there," I half-whisper, looking over the school gardens surrounded by orange trees.
"It is, isn't it."
We sit looking at it in silence for a few seconds, taking in the view.
"Do you want to go out for a walk in it?" He asks without turning his head.
"Yeah, that would be really nice. Let me just change into something warmer,"
"Ok, I'll meet you by the front door in ten minutes?"
"Yeah, sounds good." He gets up and walks out of the room, leaving me to change out of my joggers and hoodie and into my black high-waisted jeans, light grey hoodie and black and white checkered fleece jacket as I know it will be chilly. I pop on some white trainers, grab my phone and head downstairs, to where Asher is waiting by the big double oak doors.
"You look nice and cosy," he says, looking me up and down and smiling. Again, I don't see anything? Surely Saffi was just winding me up? Yeah sure he flirts with me but I just put that down to his natural behaviour.
We head out into the chilly autumn air and start walking into the forest surrounding the school.
"So Lorrie said you've been in boarding school since you were six," I've been wondering about this for a while and want to talk to him about it, "how come you were so young?" I look at Asher after a few seconds of silence. He looks uncomfortable, as if he's wondering whether to answer or not. "I'm sorry. Don't feel you have to answer; it was a rather personal question," I feel stupid for not thinking before I speak; just last night, Saffi said he was hurt before. I wish I'd never said anything.
"No, it's ok... I've only ever told Saffi about this, not even Nick. I've kind of tried to forget about it," I am such an idiot. What a great start to a walk in the forest. "But I feel like I can tell you," he smiles, but I can tell it's forced.
"Please don't feel you need to if you don't want to," I don't return his smile but give him a sorry look.
He looks at his feet, focusing hard on where he's walking. "My dad died when I was five, leaving my mum, my brother, and me. My brother was quite a bit older than me, 12 years. Anyway, that same year my brother got into an accident whilst out riding his motorbike and passed away soon after, which lead my mother to completely break down, as you can probably understand. She never got out of bed and spent most of the day crying. In the end, she sent me to the boarding school I was in before coming here since she could no longer look after me properly. I also believe she didn't want anything to happen to me, she probably decided I was better off without her. I tried writing and texting her, but she doesn't reply, and during the school holidays, I had to either stay at the school or crash at Maddie's place because she's cut me off completely. I haven't seen or heard from her since she dropped me off here. I don't know where she is, how she's doing, or whether she's still alive..." He trails off, and I stop walking, at a loss for words. How can someone like this, so sweet and friendly have such an unfortunate past? I feel like I could cry. He stops walking and looks over his shoulder at me, I can see his tears welling up from here...
Before I can stop myself, I walk up to him and wrap my arms around his neck.
"I'm so sorry, Asher," I whisper, placing my head on his chest. I feel his arms close around my waist, resting his head on mine.
"Hey, hey, don't worry about it. Honestly, it feels good to talk about it again. I've been keeping it in the back of my mind for so long, I feel like I was about to burst at any second," he gives short, shaky laugh.
"You're so strong for talking about it," I draw my head back to look up at him,
"I don't feel as if it's the right time to let go of it yet," he gives me a weak smile.
"You don't need to let go of it at all if you don't want to but if you do then take as much time as you need, even if it's years from now, the best thing to do is to work it all out on your own schedule, and I'll be here for you if you need me," I place my head back on his chest and feel him pull me in tighter.
"Thank you, Miyah, it means a lot it really does."
We stand there for a few minutes in silence, just allowing ourselves to be there for each other. I feel his arms around my waist, his hands resting gently on my back. I feel so safe and content in his embrace and I'm hoping he feels the same.
He draws his head back after a minute or two, moving his hands to the couverture of my waist, "Do you want to continue the walk?"
"Only if you do, but if you want to head back, I completely understand,"
"Nah, the fresh air is helping," he looks up at the trees and closes his eyes, breathing in deeply, "and so is this," he looks down again into my eyes and squeezes my waist gently. Immediately butterflies erupt in my stomach, and I quickly look down before he can see me blush. "Let's just stay here for a few more minutes," he whispers before pulling me in tight again.
YOU ARE READING
Lost and Found
Romance"I wasn't looking for anything when I met you, I wasn't planning on falling for someone so soon. But then I met you. And that was it... I found you and I found myself slowly wanting to spend time with you. It was simple. It was easy. And I think tha...
