A single droplet of water hanging on to the ends of a lock of his drenched hair slipped off and fell on the back of his neck, before continuing to trail down his back in an excruciatingly slow manner. It took its time as it made its descent, taunting Carmen and tempting her twitching fingers. She eventually reached out and pressed her thumb to his cool and slightly damp skin, wiping away the drop of water like she was smudging the outlines of one of her sketches.
She felt him tense under her touch, his back going completely rigid before she felt his muscles loosen up slowly and relax once again.
“I really am sorry, Asa,” she murmured, her thumb drawing circles on his back, the way he’d done just moments ago on the back of her palm.
“It’s honestly not a big deal, Carmen,” he told her softly. “I keep telling you that.”
“Yes, but…” She’d felt awful when Isla had snapped at her and tried pushing her away. Knowing that’s how she must have made Asa, of all people, feel wouldn’t stop eating away at her.
“But?” He turned his head to the side, glancing at her over his shoulder.
“I guess I just didn’t want to be yet another person who let you down,” she confessed, lifting a shoulder in a partial shrug.
This time Asa turned around completely to face her, and it didn’t do her lungs and every other organ in her body any favours when he stepped closer, and took her chin in his hands.
“You could never let me down, Carmen,” he told her seriously, gazing at her with an intensity that was so profound, she felt it pour into her and fill that void in her a little bit. “You only ever keep lifting me up, time and time again.”
She waited for that void to drain out the emotion that was filling her up and making herself feel less fractured in her core. But the emptiness didn’t come. It didn’t come. And it may have been only a small fraction of that void which had been filled, but it was more whole than she’d ever felt in her seventeen years of existence.
And if that didn’t speak volumes, she didn’t know what did.
Asa was smiling at her with something different in his eyes this time; there was more tenderness there, but also comfort. Like the internal struggle she’d seen him go through in the parking lot the other day wasn’t present anymore. As if that war which had been raging on within his soul was finally put to rest.
They say “eyes are the windows to one’s soul”, and something in Asa’s coffee ones told Carmen that he’d found peace somewhere.
“Hey.” He tapped her chin as if to shake her out of her thoughts. “Five minutes ’till the bell rings and our spare is over. I’m gonna head towards the lockers to get changed, okay?”
She nodded, her lips lifting into a small smile. “See you later, then?”
“Of course.” He grinned, stepping away and grabbing his sports bag from the floor. “You aren’t getting rid of me that easy.” He threw over his shoulder, as he walked away.
Carmen just smiled and shook her head.
He wasn’t getting rid of her that easily either.
•••
It was lunch period, and Carmen was just stuffing her History textbook in her locker when a huge shadow fell over her.
She didn’t bother fighting off the smile, recognising the tall frame of Asa almost immediately. Shutting her locker door, she turned around only to have her body freeze and the smile drop from her face when her eyes landed on Hunter instead.
She’d forgotten how much Hunter resembled Asa in both height and build.
But the similarities ended right there like a page that was brutally ripped off a book, as if a force had wanted to put an immediate stop right at that particular point.
Hunter’s ocean blue eyes didn’t hold the warmth that Asa’s coffee-hued ones did. Hunter’s towering height and strong physique overpowered and intimidated, whereas Asa’s exact same build protected and defended instead.
Hunter may easily be considered one of the most attractive boys that walked down this school’s hallways, and even though the same could be said for Asa, the latter had a beautiful soul and that triumphed over any other physical factors.
Hunter Donoghue didn’t hold a candle to Asa San Román.
And here was Carmen, related by blood to one and losing her heart to the other.
“No hi?” Hunter asked, his lips pulling up into a lazy smirk.
Carmen couldn’t help but recall the way Asa had smirked at her the same way in the swimming complex of the school when he’d caught her blushing at his bare chest. The gesture had been teasing—playful even. But watching Hunter pour malice into it made her realise how one single gesture can radiate different meanings when the people behind them held such contrasting intentions in their hearts.
“I don’t understand,” Carmen said, pulling her eyebrows together. “You never used to acknowledge me in school. Why now?”
Hunter cocked his head to the side, not taking that calculating gaze off her or even dropping that nerve-wrecking smirk. “Because,” he drawled, leaning his side on the locker next to hers.
“Because?”
Hunter didn’t answer her question and just shrugged in a nonchalant manner as if he could lounge by her locker all day. “So, where’s our resident saviour?”
“His name is Asa,” Carmen said slowly, the corners of her mouth twisting downwards in distaste.
“Yes yes,” Hunter murmured. “Your precious
