Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen

Friday seemed to fly by despite Lila’s mind still being occupied in the background with the feeling of Asher’s kisses. She robotically took her notes and completed her exercises, earning confused looks from Grace and Elise in Modern History when she didn’t engage in their chatter, and approving looks from her various teachers. If those teachers knew what she was truly thinking about, they probably wouldn’t be so pleased.

Asher seemed fit to burst with alarming amounts of energy as he waited by her locker at lunchtime, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Whoa,” Lila chuckled, placing her things into her locker. “You seem excited about something.”

He immediately stopped his movements. “Excited… isn’t exactly the right word. More… like… I’ve got this whole bunch of anxious energy.”

“Anxious?”

“Well, yeah,” he said seriously, surveying the locker room briefly. “I spoke to the Headmaster,” he whispered close to her ear, sending a rush of goosebumps down her neck.

“O-Oh,” Lila uttered, stepping back slightly and bringing a hand to her neck in an effort to calm her down. “Right. That was supposed to happen today.”

“Yeah. We need to talk about it, but… not here in the locker room.”

Lila nodded, accepting the lunchbox he gave her. “Well, let’s not hang around here, then.”

He grabbed her free hand and they started to take their leave when they passed Elise and Isaac, who looked deep in conversation and definitely hadn’t noticed either of them. Lila smirked at Asher, gesturing to them, and he smiled back. It seemed that their lunches without Lila and Asher were having the desired effect.

“See you guys later,” Lila called, startling them both. They looked back at her with wide, almost panicked eyes and identical blushes gracing their faces.

“Bye,” Elise replied, glancing at Isaac before giving Lila and Asher a wave. They both waved back before departing through the locker room doors.

“They’re getting along well, aren’t they?” Lila grinned. “Maybe we don’t need to do anything at all.”

Asher laughed. “Maybe… but it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“That’s true. We can make certain that they’re on the right track, at least.”

They reached the same path that stumped Asher yesterday, though today he confidently strode towards the library, with Lila struggling to catch up.

“Library today?” she queried. He looked back down at her, his cheeks turning slightly pink.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Can’t really talk out in the open.”

Lila nodded in response, though she did feel slightly disappointed. It sounded like they wouldn’t be taking the opportunity to take advantage of the private space, given Asher’s comment about not being able to ‘talk’ out in the open.

They managed to find an empty meeting room, though Lila did notice that they were beginning to fill up far more quickly than usual. Her mind drifted back to Isaac’s insistence that they find a private place… If they needed a private spot for more private conversations, where else could they even go?

“Did you want it warmed up?”

Asher’s voice abruptly stopped her musings. She looked over at what he was holding, seeing that it was a Thai chicken basil stir fry.

“Only if you’re warming yours up,” she replied. “It’s okay if not, though.”

He stood up immediately, grabbing both their containers. “I’ll be right back,” he said softly, leaving without wasting any time.

Left to her own devices, Lila sat extraordinarily straight, her hands twisting in her lap. Obviously, talking about the plan for the Banker situation was of utmost importance… so she needed to keep herself in check. Yes, they were in a private space, but that didn’t mean she needed to kiss him. They had plenty of other things to do and talk about – including how they were going to alert her Dad to the potential link between the morphine ring at school and the missing analgesics from the hospital.

It was also still an assumption that it was Jason, and conversely his mother, bringing the drugs through the school. Yes, he was certainly connected to the ring, but would the Head Boy really put his standing with Forestglade College in jeopardy like that? Not that Lila knew either way how important his standing was to him, but he certainly wandered around the school acting like a bigshot. Which… of all the students, he certainly was, if only in title alone.

What they needed was some evidence… but what kind of evidence would be enough to bring to her Dad? Just throwing out the idea that Jason was bringing morphine into Forestglade College, and therefore his Mum was supplying it to him from the hospital, would pique his interest but… from where Lila stood, he’d need an inside person to prove it anyway – at least, regarding the connection to the school. Given how long the investigation had taken already, and there was no news of any arrests, Lila still wasn’t quite sure whether her Dad had narrowed down his culprit. Although, now that Asher was aware of her Dad’s investigation, he’d surely tell her if there were changes to the second-in-command-

“Sorry I took a while. Line was a bit long,” Asher’s voice brought her from her thoughts and she smiled up at him.

“No worries. Thanks for warming it.”

He passed her steaming stir fry to her and she scooped some onto her fork, blowing on it to cool it down. Asher glanced at her before looking sheepish.

“It’s probably still too hot,” he said, having not touched his own food. “I blasted the hell out of it.”

Lila laughed, placing her helping into her mouth. He was right – it was too hot. She frantically brought some air into her mouth before swallowing it down.

“Sorry.”

“Better warmed thoroughly than half-cold at the bottom,” Lila replied, pushing her container slightly away from her.

“I suppose so.”

Asher stretched his arms in front of him before leaning his head in his right hand, his elbow connected to the desk. They looked at each other for a moment, a small smile creeping on both of their faces.

“What’s up?” Lila asked lightly.

“Just… relishing the moment,” he replied candidly. “Looking at my girlfriend… makes me happy.”

Lila felt her cheeks flush and her smile widen. “Luckily… looking at my boyfriend makes me happy, too.”

He chuckled, reaching a hand out for hers. She gave it to him and he brought it to his lips, kissing her knuckles before gently letting it go again.

“Alright, well, I guess since we’re still waiting for our food to cool down, it’s time to get serious,” he sighed. He met her gaze and nodded, though it looked to be more for himself than her.

“So… like I said, I talked to the Headmaster,” he began with a grim expression. “I gave him a brief run down of the Banker situation. Just that there’s an entrepreneurial kid at school who’s activities have been supported by a huge variety of teachers. I kinda thought that he’d already know, but he seemed caught off guard, especially after I mentioned that multiple teachers knew about it. Because of that, he seemed more willing to talk in more depth about it. I made it clear that I wasn’t the Banker, and he said that he’d need to talk to the Banker in order to reach a final decision. So, we set up a meeting for Monday afternoon. It feels a bit up in the air, actually. I was feeling pretty confident before I walked in, but the more I think about his reaction, the more I feel like it could go either way.”

He took a sip of his water bottle and Lila smiled appreciatively at him.

“Thank you,” Lila said sincerely. “Seriously. It must’ve been nerve-wracking, talking to the teachers, and then the Headmaster. Especially by yourself.”

“I had Isaac for moral support,” Asher said bashfully. “But… it was scary, especially talking to some teachers. Some were really put out that I knew they were customers of the Banker, and others tried to flat out deny it. I kinda had to basically threaten that, if they didn’t go through with this, the Banker would need to shut down his operation. They signed pretty quick after that.”

“You’re amazing,” Lila replied genuinely. “I would’ve lost my nerve at the first sign of resistance, even though it’s for Daniel.”

Asher’s face turned pink and he pulled his food closer to him. “T-Thanks,” he stammered. “It wasn’t that amazing though.”

Lila grabbed both his hands, forcing him to look at her. “Asher, I’m serious.”

He looked uncertainly at her until their eyes met. He must’ve seen how resolute she looked as he hung his head briefly before nodding.

“I’ve just… kinda felt inadequate, with a lot of things. Especially this year,” he murmured before meeting her stare once more. “Thank you. I’m glad you think that. Better than the alternative.”

Lila stood up, responding to her overwhelming urge to kiss him. She climbed over the table just enough to reach him whilst avoiding their food, giving him a short but passionate kiss which he eagerly returned. She broke away, settling back into her chair with a satisfied grin.

“I reckon the food’s fine now,” she said, picking her fork back up.

“Huh?” Asher blinked, seeming dazed.

“Let’s eat, before it gets cold,” Lila replied, pushing his container towards him. He looked down at his food before obediently picking up his fork and digging in.

They ate in relative silence, before touching on other topics of conversation, none of which were related to the Banker, or themselves, really. Lila was still turning over her thoughts regarding the investigation into the morphine ring in the background of their idle chatter, though she did want to bring it up with Asher before lunch ended.

Although it was the Friday before they were formally proposing for Daniel’s business, if one could call it that, to be sanctioned activity within the school, diving too deep into the Grade 12s could prove to be dangerous. She would need to see how the Banker situation changed – and, in particular, the Grade 12s movements following the final decision by the Headmaster… Though, given what Daniel had said previously, if it wasn’t sanctioned, she could see him closing it down altogether. He had more than enough money to last him until some time after graduation after all, so he didn’t really need to keep it open.

“What’s up with all the sighing?” Asher asked curiously, scooping his last bite into his mouth.

“Was I sighing?”

“As though you were waiting for your husband to return from war.”

Lila snorted and caught sight of his cheeky grin. She sighed again, spearing a piece of chicken with her fork and waving it around gently, as though it would help organise her thoughts.

“I… still haven’t told Daniel about the morphine ring,” she said quietly, biting into her chicken.

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it? The less he knows, the better.”

“I agree, but… well, if the Banker gets sanctioned, then we have to start investigating the Grade 12s again.”

Asher looked surprised. “Why do you figure that?”

“Well, we’ve assumed that Jason and his Mum are the source of the morphine at school. But, truthfully, there’s probably more than a few kids connected to high-ranking people on the hospital’s payroll – people that you may not know about. It could be any number of them. We’ve just landed on Jason because it’s convenient. We don’t have any evidence – not any that could help my Dad with his investigation, anyway. And he’d really need an inside person to get that evidence tying the morphine to the hospital, and then connecting it to the person behind it all anyway. So… we need to start digging deeper, I think. Focus on their movements after it’s sanctioned or dismantled, whichever way it all goes down next week. I honestly doubt they’d stop once they’re cut off from Daniel’s funds altogether, if it’s profitable enough on its own, so we should be able to find something.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Asher slowly closed his lunchbox, his expression thoughtful. “I honestly forgot about all of that.”

It was Lila’s turn to look surprised. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. My head’s been full of other things.” He cleared his throat, his face a slight pinkish hue, before continuing on. “What you’ve said sounds reasonable, but I haven’t given it any thought. What sticks out to me, though, is that we haven’t really seen what they’re doing now, since the Square system’s been in operation.”

“That’s true.” Lila sighed once more. She wasn’t keen at all to get close to Livi and her group again, but… it wasn’t just for Daniel’s sake anymore, even though he was still in the firing line. It was also for the sake of her Dad, and Asher’s Dad. Plus, if morphine was as addictive as Theo mentioned, and potentially dangerous as Asher mentioned, way back when they first heard of it, then… there were probably many victims laying in its wake. Sure, there was morphine at Forestglade College, potentially supplied by the hospital – but were there other rings? Where?

Lila shook her head, trying to stop herself from tying herself into knots over this. She could only focus on what was immediately available to her now – which was figuring out the deal here, at school, and finding compelling enough evidence that her Dad could follow and perhaps use to take it down.

“So,” Asher said sharply, tapping his fingers on the table, “looks like we’re getting Uber Eats on Monday.”

Lila dropped her fork into her now empty container. “We don’t have to,” she said hurriedly. “We can do other things to figure out how it’s been-”

“No better way than being a customer.”

“But… you hate going there.”

Asher grinned at her, his eyes crinkling with mischievous happiness. “I did… before we started dating.”

“What’s us dating got to do with it?”

Asher ruffled his hair, leaning back on his chair as he seemed to consider his response. “Livi… did my head in, to be frank. But… that was because she seemed to pick up far too quickly that I liked you, a whole lot. I didn’t want to tell you at the time, since I thought you weren’t interested in me… plus I’d just broken up with Holly. I also didn’t want you to know in case it’d put you off from staying friends, and, y’know, investigating and all that with me. It was like she’d crawled into my brain and plunged a knife into it, twisting it with each insinuation. The way she’d bring other guys into it, and when she asked Isaac to rate you, among other things – she put me on edge. But now… there’s nothing she can say that’ll put me off. Since we’re together. There’s nothing you don’t know that she can dig into.”

He certainly looked far more optimistic, though Lila still had her doubts. Truthfully, Livi got on her nerves too… was there something that Livi could draw out and weaponise against her? Nothing was coming to mind… except… well, the depths and extent of her unsavoury desires regarding Asher. Sure, she’d mentioned that she wanted to do more than just kiss Asher, and he’d confessed the same to her, they hadn’t actually talked about what that ‘more’ was. But that kind of information wouldn’t be obvious enough for Livi to pick at, right?

“Besides,” Asher added, adjusting his jumper so it wasn’t so bunched up on his torso, “she might be like how she was last time, before you slapped her.”

Lila raised an eyebrow. “Like, immediately before?”

“No… more like when I was showing her what to do. Silent, scowling, and subdued. She might be like that again next time we visit.”

“Daniel said that she’s been difficult since the changeover to Square, and he’s been fielding complaints about her. So, I wouldn’t hold your breath for a ‘silent, scowling, and subdued’ Livi.”

“I know. But one can hope.”

Lila smiled at him and began packing away her things. Study was next up and with lunch finishing soon, they’d need to head off in the next few minutes. Asher seemed to catch on to what she was doing and started packing up too.

“It’d be a bit late to put an order in now, but if we go during morning tea on Monday, we should secure something for lunch,” Asher noted, tucking his chair in. “What do you reckon you’d feel like?”

“Honestly? Gabriel’s cooking.”

Asher laughed, gently taking her hand in his. “Unfortunately, he’s not connected to Uber Eats. We don’t have to decide now, though.”

She followed him out of the library, switching the topic to something inane, given the heavy presence of other students surging towards the locker room at this time. They split off as usual, with Lila trying to figure out what she wanted to study today.

Just as she settled on her plan, she bumped into Isaac, who seemed to be in a hurry to leave this particular aisle.

“Oh,” Lila stated, stepping aside. “Hey Isaac. How was lunch?”

“Lunch? Great. Gotta go,” he called, hastily walking out of the aisle and towards where his locker was located.

Lila frowned. Isaac was usually one to chat, and it wasn’t as though they were running late for class. Did something happen between him and Elise?

Lila cast a glance around to see where Elise was. She was standing blankly in front of her locker, as though suffering from decision paralysis. Lila pressed her lips together, deciding to give Elise a minute to collect herself. She pulled out her laptop and other materials, making sure to also bring along her English things, before closing her locker and crossing over to Elise.

“Hey,” Lila smiled, jolting Elise.

“H-Hey,” Elise stammered, hurriedly grabbing a few things out of her locker before shutting it tightly. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much… but Isaac sure ran out of here like his ass was on fire. Did something happen at lunch?”

Elise sighed, shaking her head. “Not really… but, well, Grace didn’t join us. So it was just me and him… it made me really nervous. We hardly spoke a word. You know me, I have to be talking almost constantly… but today, nothing.”

“Hmm…” Lila mused, placing a hand on her hip contemplatively. “Sometimes it can be like that. You’re just not used to being entirely alone with him, since when you’re working, you’re with a whole bunch of people, and at lunch you’re usually with Grace, too.”

Elise’s eyes flickered to Lila before looking down at the books in her arms. “Guess not. A‑Anyway, I gotta go. See you later.”

“Bye,” Lila waved, watching Elise leave the locker room. She tried not to think too deeply about it, since she’d had times like that with Asher before they were dating. Though, in comparison to both Elise and Isaac, Lila and Asher were generally quieter people to begin with.

“Why’re you all the way down here?” Asher asked from behind Lila, causing her to jump slightly. She turned towards him, her heart beating a mile a minute. With a hand on her chest, she exhaled deeply before shaking her head.

“Sounds like there’s trouble in paradise for Mission Cupid,” Lila said reluctantly, starting on their journey back to the library.

“Really?”

“Yeah… I bumped into Isaac coming in here, but he was practically running away. Then, Elise seemed really distracted and she told me that she had lunch with just Isaac today. They didn’t speak a word, apparently, and I think that bothered her since she likes to talk.”

“That’s strange,” Asher pursed his lips, slipping his hand into hers. “Isaac seemed really upbeat and relaxed when I saw him just now. His usual goofy self. Not at all like someone who was in a rush.”

“Maybe he felt better after leaving the awkwardness behind with Elise. At least he took her to her locker, though. Gentlemanly of him.”

Asher grinned. “That’s Isaac for you. Gentleman at heart.”

Lila chuckled before noticing that Isaac had brushed past them without saying a word. By the time she registered this, he was already quite a few metres away – too far to talk to him, at least.

“Did Isaac say hi to you just now?” Lila asked, gesturing towards where Isaac’s retreating back was disappearing to in the distance.

Asher shook his head, looking rather perplexed. “Maybe he didn’t notice us. Thinking about other things, probably? I know he’s got Engineering now, which I dunno how intensive that is. He complains about it a lot though, so maybe he’s concerned about his latest assignment?”

Lila narrowed her eyes. Asher knew Isaac best, so his judgement was probably correct. It just felt rather odd that he would’ve missed an opportunity to tease them – or rather Lila specifically, by calling Lila ‘Asher’s girlfriend’ – or at the very least say hi.

She put it out of her mind for now. Lila suspected that it was most likely nothing for her to be concerned about, anyway. He truly could have missed them by being deep in his own thoughts. Lila could relate to that pretty heavily, at least.

They signed in to their Study lesson before setting themselves up in their usual booth. Again, there was no Ayla. Should she talk to Asher about it again? It wasn’t as though Ayla would be in counselling for two weeks straight… right?

She wasn’t exactly sure why it was bothering her so much… though perhaps a small part of her still felt guilty. Guilty about the fact that she was one of the last people to see Piper alive – and seen that something was incredibly wrong about her appearance – and hadn’t done anything to stop her from being murdered. Which, if Ayla was away from school because her close friend had been murdered, then… Lila was partially to blame.

Of course, it was a silly notion. Logically, Lila knew that. She had no way of knowing Piper would be murdered shortly after, so it wasn’t as though she just abandoned Piper to her killer… but a small part of her wondered if she hadn’t run off with Asher into Gabriel’s car that day, would Piper be alive now? And conversely, would Ayla be attending school, enjoying her high school life with her friends, like Lila was?

“Something on your mind again?” Asher queried, looking over his laptop at her.

Lila gave a heavy sigh, gently closing the lid of her laptop. “You could say that… it’s silly, but… I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Asher gave her a quizzical look, though a faint blush gradually coloured his cheeks. Lila herself felt a flush rising on her face – after all, those words last accompanied Asher’s confession that he couldn’t stop thinking about how kissing Lila felt – but pressed on.

“A-About why Ayla’s still not at school.”

“Oh,” Asher lowered his laptop lid, a flash of what looked to be disappointment crossing through his eyes. “Still?”

Lila sighed again, bringing her head into her hands and leaning her elbows atop the desk. “I feel responsible, in a way, if she’s away because Piper died.”

Asher blinked rapidly, as though trying to process what she’d said in time to his blinking. “Go on,” he eventually said.

“Asher… don’t you feel a bit guilty, too?” she whispered, staring directly at her laptop. He was silent for a few moments before he pushed aside both their laptops. He caressed her hands and she lowered them onto the table, allowing him to hold them.

“I do,” he said in a low voice. “I wasn’t interested in what she wanted to say at the time. But I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t considered a few ‘what ifs’ since her death. No matter what she was doing to me, she didn’t deserve to be murdered like that at all. And… if we’d talked to her, maybe whoever killed her would’ve missed her at the shops, or she would’ve told us something important – maybe even that she was going to be murdered. If she’d said something like that, we could’ve called the police or something. But… it didn’t go like that. It’s hard not to feel guilty, when we were the last people to see her alive – besides her killer. Not that I liked her in any capacity, she was freaky as all hell. Like I said before though, she didn’t deserve to die like that.”

Lila nodded, tears welling in her eyes. It definitely lined up with what she was thinking. Suddenly, the oppressive weight of the feeling that she was alone in all of her complicated emotions arising from Piper’s murder was lifted from her shoulders.

“The biggest thing that I’ve learned from my Mum’s disappearance is that the ‘what ifs’ aren’t helpful. It’s hard when I’m forever falling into that trap, but gradually, as time goes on, I’ve realised that it’s useless. I know that you’re worried about Ayla, but it’s not as though you can do anything about it now, and you couldn’t have done anything about it in the past. All you can do is hope that she’s okay, and, if you’re feeling up for it, checking in on her when she comes back – which I’m sure she will. We would’ve heard that she wasn’t coming back by now, after all,” he smiled encouragingly at Lila. “It’s easier said than done, I know. I’m not perfect at it, and you can always come and talk to me, to help ease your mind. I’ll support you.”

Lila gave him a small smile. “Thank you. I’m glad I talked to you about it. Especially since… I don’t think anyone else would really get it.”

He rubbed the back of her hands tenderly. “I’m glad you talked to me, too.”

They looked at each other for just a moment longer before he checked the time on his phone.

“Did you want to talk about anything else?” His voice was kind, though she could tell, with his furtive glance at his laptop, that he wanted to get back to studying. She shook her head.

“No,” she smiled, taking her hands back and pulling her laptop towards her. “Happy to continue studying.”

He looked sheepish as he pulled his laptop towards himself. “You noticed that I wanted to study, huh? We don’t have to, really.”

Lila shook her head. “I don’t have anything else, honestly.”

“Alright.”

They worked in total silence for the rest of Study, and English commanded their undivided attention, too. Finally, the day was over and Asher suggested walking Lila to the bus station again once they neared the locker room.

“I don’t mind,” she smiled, leaning her head against his arm. “I do feel like you shouldn’t keep George waiting, though.”

“I… may have told him yesterday that we’re dating,” he replied, his tone somewhat bashful. “He was pretty happy about it. Told me that he expected me to walk you to the bus station after school from now on.”

Lila chuckled. “What a gentleman.”

“George is a bit like that,” Asher grinned. “I’ll just grab my stuff.”

By the time Lila had closed her locker, Asher was standing beside her, his posture rather carefree and relaxed.

“Ready for the game tomorrow?” he asked as they walked together to the bus station, hand-in-hand again.

“As ready as I’ll ever be against St Peters,” Lila replied with a shudder. “I don’t think we’ll win, but I’ll certainly try.”

“I wish I could cheer you on,” Asher lamented, swinging her arm slightly.

“Same here,” Lila murmured. “Give ‘em hell for me, yeah?”

“Not like I can do much as the Goalie,” he laughed. “But I’ll pass the message on.”

“Good.”

They idled their way to the bus station, chatting away about nothing in particular. Today, it was Mr Singh on hat duty, and he gave them both a stern nod as they passed.

“Do all the teachers know about us or something?” Lila queried once they were a fair distance away from Mr Singh.

“Not sure. Do you think teachers gossip about their students?”

“I probably would. What else is even going on for people who practically live at school?”

Asher snorted, the timing of which made it seem as though he’d summoned her bus. As it groaned to a halt, he looked disappointed by this turn of events.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said softly, letting go of her hand. Lila glanced behind his shoulder at Mr Singh, who was busy writing up a notice for a hatless student Lila didn’t recognise. Heart pounding in her chest, Lila clutched his blazer, pulling him forward enough for her to kiss him goodbye.

He held her shoulders as he returned the kiss, but broke away quickly.

“You’re getting bold,” he muttered, the surprise plain in his expression.

“I can’t help it,” Lila replied truthfully. He bent his head towards hers again when Daniel’s voice just about bellowed towards them.

“Oi! Get on the damn bus, it’s leaving!”

They both jumped. It seemed neither of them had noticed that Daniel was at the bus station. Lila looked wildly towards the source of his voice and saw him hanging out of the front doors of the bus, grinning mischievously at them.

“He’s an ass,” Lila grumbled, reluctantly letting go of Asher, who swiftly passed her bags to her. “See you tomorrow.”

“Get home safe,” Asher replied, a goofy-looking smile on his face.

“You to-”

“Come on, dude! The bus is literally driving away!” Daniel urged, his volume loud enough to startle some nesting birds in the trees lining the station. He dramatically gestured at Lila to hurry it up.

“Alright, alright, damn,” she called back.

Of course, the bus was absolutely stationary as Lila hopped on, glancing at Asher one last time. Daniel looked incredibly smug at having had the opportunity to embarrass her as he toddled off to his snickering friends towards the back of the bus. But, instead of feeling embarrassed, Lila felt the budding warmth of happiness spreading from her heart to the tips of her fingers, her own goofy-looking smile on her face. She could hardly wait to see Asher again tomorrow.