The Cliche Gone Wrong

Chapter Twenty-three

"Asha!" My dad gasps, frowning at her as his eyes furtively glance over to Bear who isn't paying any attention to us as he keeps playing on his DS. "Language!"

Asha doesn't even apologize; her eyes never sway from Shills. "Bedroom. Now."

For a split second I think she's talking to him, but then her glare shifts to me before she stomps down the hallway and trudges up the stairs to my room. I smile sheepishly at Shills before I follow her to my room. I walk slowly up the stairs and down the hallway, all the way to the room in the back right. Asha's seething on my bed, her furious eyes causing me to stop in the doorway.

"What the hell is he doing here?" She hisses, her knee jiggling up and down.

"Eating dinner," I say simply, trying to gauge the waters.

"Don't pull that shit!" She spits out, her hair flying over her shoulder as she jerks her head up. "You know exactly what I mean! Why the hell did you invite the guy who has given you nothing but grief for the past three months over to dinner at your fucking house?"

"Are you fucking stupid?" She stands up as she trembles in anger. "That asshole was the one who gave you the nickname Killer! How can you just pretend that everything is okay like he didn't do all that shit?"

"I thought Connor gave me that nickname?" I shake my head at her generalizations, finally butting in when she pauses to take a breath to get a word in. "But it's not like tha—"

"Then what's it like?" She interrupts, her breath returned. "God, Femi was right when she said something was up with you. What the hell happened, sis? How do you go from hating him one second to fucking him the nex—"

"Asha stop!" I exclaim. "I'm not fucking him! You honestly have no idea what's going on!"

She doesn't respond, looking at me expectantly as she waits for me to continue speaking. I take a deep breath, trying to figure out what the hell I should say.

"Shills is just...misunderstood." Asha laughs loudly and sarcastically, but doesn't interrupt otherwise, allowing me to continue after a second. "After spending some time with him I found out he isn't really like how he is at school."

She laughs loudly again; although this time she doesn't allow me continue. "Please tell me you don't honestly believe that."

I look away as I refuse to comment, my eyes drifting over the clutter throughout my small room. I start to question everything I've done over the past few days. Is this a big mistake? Am I being played? Is there something that I'm not seeing? Am I the one who's going crazy?

I try to wipe all of these doubts from my mind, knowing that there is nothing I can do about them at the moment. "If you're going to be like this all night you might as well just leave."

"Leave?" Asha scoffs, standing up from the bed with a devious smile as she pats my shoulder. "Sis, I ain't going nowhere. Someone has to stick around and protect you from yourself. "

I look back at her to see a gentle smile on her face. She abandons the pat on my shoulder to pull me into a warm hug, her head resting on my chest since she's more than a few inches shorter than me. I hug her back, my cheek tickled by her hair as I lean against the top of her head.

"Maybe this'll be fun." Asha pulls away and loops her arm though my mine as she proceeds to drag me out of my room and back down thehallway. "Maybe I'll be able to make Shills cry before the night is over."