•••
All throughout his fourth period class, Asa’s mind was running at a thousand miles per minute.
He wasn’t much of an overthinker; he’d never been one. Asa had always been the act-now-suffer-the-consequences-later kind of guy. Now, though, all he could do was overanalyse every possible scenario that Carson’s threat could lead to. And it scared Asa, because he’d never felt this way before. If he was half as smart as he usually was, Asa would shrug off Carson’s words and label it as nothing more than an empty threat.
But Asa wasn’t feeling so smart right now. What was logic and reason in light of the girl he loved being used to get back at him?
“I’m not talking to a wall, Mr San Román,” the teacher’s words fell on his ears, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Asa’s eyes widened as he tuned back into his surroundings and registered the fact that every single head in the classroom—except for Hunter’s, of course—was turned towards him.
“Um…” Asa looked past all the amused students and turned his attention to the teacher. “I—I’m sorry, was there a question? I didn’t catch it.”
The teacher muttered something under his breath and shook his head to himself before turning back to the board. “Don’t zone out during class again. I need each and every one of you to focus.”
Asa nodded hastily even though the gesture couldn’t be seen with the teacher’s back now turned to him. “Sorry,” he called out, ignoring the mortified burn creeping up the back of his neck.
The teacher continued with the lesson and all the students shifted their focus back to the task which was given to them. Asa released a breath of relief.
There was a soft tap on his shoulder from his left, and he tilted his head to meet Wyatt’s inquisitive eyes.
“Everything all right?” he mouthed.
Asa started nodding about to falsely reassure him, when he stopped and decided to just let Wyatt know that no, everything was not all right. It was about time Asa started letting someone else in anyway. So he shook his head and gestured with his hand that he’d talk to Wyatt later.
The unabashed honesty from Asa seemed to surprise the other boy, but he just nodded and offered Asa a thumbs-up.
Fifteen minutes later, once the bell rang, Asa found himself walking down the hallway with Wyatt at his side.
“So,” Wyatt started. “What’s up?”
Asa’s mouth curved into a wry smile. “Want me to answer that literally?”
“You could try.” Wyatt shot him a sideways glance. “But I’d have to punch you.” And then, he grinned.
“Yeah,” Asa muttered distractedly. “Wouldn’t want that now.”
“All right, seriously,” Wyatt said, the amusement beginning to fade from his usually cheery voice. “What’s going on?”
“It’s lunch now, right?” Asa nodded towards the school’s main doors. “Let’s head out.”
Wyatt raised a brow. “Don’t want to spend it with Carmen?” He sounded confused.
“Dude, it’s one lunch period. It’s not like I can’t be away from her for thirty whole minutes.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Shut up.”
The light banter between the two lasted ’till the moment they were seated at a table by the window of some fast-food place.
“So, Carson’s back,” Wyatt announced, grabbing the ketchup dispenser and squirting some onto his plate of potato wedges.
Asa’s eyes met his and narrowed in suspicion. “How’d you know I wanted to talk about him?”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “Do I look like I was born yesterday?” He dipped a wedge into the sauce and chewed off the upper half of it.
“You act like it sometimes,” Asa deadpanned, snatching the other half of the potato wedge and tossing it into his mouth.
Wyatt snorted and leant back in his chair, raising his brow as he regarded Asa. “Stop beating around the bush and tell me what happened.”
Asa mumbled something under his breath and picked up his fork, playing around with the lasagna on his plate. “He blames me for not being allowed into the meet.”
“When has he ever owned up to his own mistakes? Of course he was going to find someone else to pin his loss on.”
“I’m not worried about him blaming me,” Asa explained. “I just can’t help but think about what he’s going to do because he blames me.”
This time, Wyatt frowned. “He didn’t explicitly tell you he was going to do something to you, did he?”
Asa shook his head. “Not to me. He did say that he could get to me another way, though. And then he mentioned Carmen.
Realisation flickered through Wyatt’s eyes, and he chuckled lightly under his breath, which only confused Asa. “So why are you worried?”
Asa blinked, staring at Wyatt as if he’d sprouted another head within the blink of an eye. “What do you mean why I’m worried?” he repeated, wanting to smack his friend on the head. “It’s pretty self-explanatory.”
“Yes.” Wyatt nodded slowly. “He threatened the girl you care about. But why are you worried?
A string of curses left Asa’s mouth in one single breath, impatience flaring up in him. “Maybe because I’d like to put a stop to this whole thing once and for all?” he snapped, unable to understand how Wyatt didn’t find the seriousness in all of this.
Wyatt sighed and looked at Asa like he was dealing with a five-year-old. “Did you ever stop to think that’s what Carson probably wants? For you to make the first move?”
“I don’t care if I’m giving him the upper hand by letting him provoke me into doing something stupid. I’m not standing by as he takes a swing at Carmen just to knock me off.”
“You mean, if he’s going to do that.”
Asa shook his head again, more frantically this time. “You weren’t there, man. He meant whatever he said.”
“No, Asa, it was an empty threat,” Wyatt said firmly. “Just deconstruct
