Chapter Sixty-Eight

Lila was eating a bowl of milo cereal, half-awake, in the kitchen when a firm knock on the front door interrupted her. She glanced at the plastic clock hanging up on the wall – 10 o’clock, on the dot. Sighing, Lila stretched before crossing the hallway to open the door.

“Morning,” Asher said brightly. He held a large, white baking dish covered with alfoil, and a smaller baking dish also covered with alfoil. A backpack was slung over his shoulder, and he looked rather relaxed in his casual t-shirt and shorts.

“Aren’t you cold?” Lila asked, standing aside to let him in. He handed her the dishes, which felt much heavier than she’d expected, and took off his shoes.

“Nah,” he said nonchalantly. “But I do have a jumper in my bag in case I need it.”

Lila curiously carried the dishes to the kitchen and put them on the counter.

“They can both go in the fridge,” Asher said, opening said fridge for her. “I’ll need to come down a little bit before lunch to put that one in the oven, though. I also have rice in my backpack.”

“Sounds very mysterious,” Lila said playfully, extracting the containers of rice from his backpack. “Care to enlighten me?”

“I’m not going to get your hopes up and tell you what it is now. I made it myself, remember? Well, Gabriel supervised me. But it was mainly me.”

“Fine, fine,” Lila relented after packing everything away. She grabbed her bowl of cereal and spooned some in her mouth.

“Did I interrupt your breakfast?”

“A bit, yeah. But Daniel’s still out cold. Same with Clare. Mum and Dad are probably up, but just hanging out in their room.”

“Oh. I see.”

“You can sit down,” Lila gestured to a chair. He did so as she inhaled the rest of her milo and milk. She rinsed her bowl, and leant back on the sink, appraising Asher. He seemed cheery, but there was something about the darkness of his undereye circles that hinted that he was putting on airs.

“How’d you sleep?” Lila asked carefully, turning to the cupboard housing the cups and pulling out two for juice.

“Fine,” Asher mumbled. Lila nodded, not believing him in the slightest. If she had to guess, it was likely due to her Mum’s innocent comment about Tabitha.

“Do you wanna go upstairs?” she suggested quietly, packing away the juice.

“Yeah.”

Armed with their cups of juice, they trod up the stairs as softly as they could. No one opened their doors to see what was going on, so Lila thought it was pretty successful. She let Asher enter her room before her and hesitated, her heart pounding like a taiko drum in her chest. Should… she close the door?

“I finished this book, by the way,” Asher said conversationally, pulling out one of Lila’s books from his bag. She decided to partially close it – enough so that their voices wouldn’t carry as far, but also so passersby could easily see inside. It was a bit annoying to have such a rule, especially since it wasn’t as though Lila and Asher were dating, but there was no sense in breaking it. Daniel still needed help, and considering that Lila didn’t have to abide by many rules, not rocking the boat was the least she could do.

“Thanks,” Lila warmly replied, taking it from Asher’s hands and replacing it on her bookshelf. “Enjoyed the ending?”

“Nuh,” Asher snorted. “But that’s only because of the stupid cliffhanger. You don’t happen to have the sequel, do you?”

Lila squatted before her bookshelf and selected the sequel, waving it above her so he could take it. “Here.”

“Sick…” Asher said approvingly. He sat on Lila’s desk chair again, reading the blurb. Lila sat down on her bed, folding her legs underneath her. His eyes were moving so quickly down its back, Lila was convinced he would’ve absorbed nothing.

“You read really quick,” Lila commented.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. They took a group of us that seemed to have a good aptitude for speed reading classes in, like, Grade 5? 6 maybe? They taught us how to speed read, at least, and ever since then, I read a bit faster than most. I don’t actively try and speed read, though,” Asher said absently, turning the book over and looking at its cover.

“That’s impressive.”

“I could teach you.”

Lila met Asher’s eyes, which appeared to be gazing at her apprehensively.

“It does sound like an interesting skill to have,” Lila smiled. “Maybe after exams.”

“’Course,” Asher grinned, turning his attention back to the book. “Thanks for this.”

“No worries.”

Lila pressed her hands together in her lap as he continued to look at the book in his hands.

“Do you need your desk, by the way?” he asked suddenly, glancing at her.

“Nah, I’m good for now,” Lila replied, shaking her head to illustrate the point. She bit her bottom lip, her mind flying to Holly’s recent post on Instagram. She had been thinking about it on and off over the weekend. Had Asher seen it? If he hadn’t seen it, should she tell him about it?

Lila pulled out her phone, flicking to Insta and searching for Holly’s profile. The ultrasound photo was still up. She opened all the comments under the post, and the two comments regarding the ‘ex’ were there as well. Both had received around 10 likes or so. If there was something that Lila had learned from Piper’s gossiping last term, a good portion of Forestglade College students knew Holly – and even more knew about Holly now.

‘Even if Asher hasn’t seen this yet… he’ll hear about it next week,’ Lila thought with a deep sigh. If the commenters were talking about Asher, then Holly was clearly purporting that Asher was the father and had dumped her after getting her pregnant. Lila had heard a few comments here and there about Asher breaking up with Holly, but she wasn’t too sure whether it was well-known throughout their cohort that it had happened. The expression on Asher’s face when Lila had said that Elise and Grace found out Holly was pregnant was not easily forgotten, either. It would inevitably be ten times worse if the whole grade found out and thought it was Asher’s…

“I…” Lila started to say before finding that her throat was very dry. Asher looked up at her curiously.

“You?”

“I… was wondering,” Lila whispered after taking a sip of her juice. Asher placed the book on Lila’s desk and rolled the chair closer to Lila.

“Wondering what?” he asked, concern furrowing his brow. Lila gulped, her heart dipping in her chest as she realised how close he was to her. She looked away, hoping her blush wasn’t obvious.

“A-Are you… on Instagram?” she asked finally, taking a deep breath.

“I haven’t opened it for a while. Why?” Asher asked, pulling out his phone.

“I saw something before the debate,” Lila said in a low voice, looking up at Asher. “Something Holly posted.”

His face immediately paled. “What did you see?”

“I-It was an ultrasound picture. B-But that wasn’t all that I saw… it seems like… she’s been telling people it’s yours.”

Asher stood up, knocking the chair over. “What?” he spat, his eyes flashing. Lila wordlessly showed him her phone, which he forcefully took. A scowl etched itself onto his face and he gave the phone back to Lila, exhaling loudly. Lila was almost convinced that steam would come out of his ears.

“I wasn’t sure if I should tell you,” Lila added in a small voice as Asher began to pace, his breathing growing heavier with each step. “But I figured… after the whole Piper thing… basically everyone at school knows who Holly is. It’d… come back to you eventually.”

Asher stopped pacing, squeezing his eyelids shut tightly. “… Thanks for telling me,” he managed to say before pressing into his eyes with his hands.

“W-What’re you going to do?”

“Ignore them,” Asher said defiantly, throwing his right hand into his hair. “If I ignore them, they’ll go away.”

“We tried that.”

“I know. But Piper’s not at school anymore. So, they’ll go away now.”

“And if they don’t?”

“What’re you guys talkin’ about in here?” Daniel’s sleepy voice drifted through the open doorway as he shuffled in, rubbing his eyes.

“Nothing you need to know about,” Lila said gently. “Did we wake you?”

Daniel nodded. “Yeah. But it’s alright. Lemme just shower.”

Daniel shuffled away again, closing his door with a snap. Asher reset Lila’s chair and sat back down, a hand on his forehead.

“It’ll be fine,” he mumbled. “I’m a pro at ignoring rumours.”

“That’s not necessarily a good thing,” Lila pointed out.

“It’s a fortunate side effect,” Asher said humourlessly. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, with exams, hardly anyone is going to be in the mood to gossip.”

Lila held back from refuting this. Gossiping was almost exactly the favoured pastime of students during exam block to blow off steam. But if this was what Asher wanted to do… then Lila couldn’t argue.

“Sorry for bringing it up,” Lila sighed. “I know it’s still painful.”

“I’d rather you tell me than me getting thrown into it at school without warning,” Asher responded seriously. “Thanks. I hate it. But thanks.”

Asher picked up the book again and began leafing through the first couple of pages. He gripped the edges with trembling hands, but Lila decided to leave him alone for now. He needed time to process. Eventually, Daniel arrived to take Asher away and he put down the book, checking the time on his phone.

“I’ll come grab you at lunchtime,” he said softly to Lila.

“Thanks,” Lila smiled, moving over to her desk. “Can’t wait.”

He chuckled in response before leaving. Lila pulled out her study materials and was absorbed until Asher reappeared behind her a couple hours later. Lila’s mouth began to water as she realised that a familiar scent was emanating from the kitchen. She spun around in her chair to face him, her head tilted in confusion.

“Is that… adobo?”

He looked chuffed with himself as he grinned widely at her. “Perhaps.”

“That’s amazing!” Lila couldn’t hide her excitement as she bounded downstairs behind Asher.

“I had help from Gabriel, of course,” Asher laughed as they entered the kitchen. Lila’s Mum was busy dishing out the adobo into plates of steaming rice.

“You didn’t have to-” Asher said hurriedly, his voice on the verge of panic. Lila’s Mum shook her head.

“Everyone helps each other out,” she said simply, taking a deep sniff. “Besides, this smells too good to leave alone.”

Asher and Lila helped bring the plates to the dining room where Daniel, Clare and Lila’s Dad were eagerly waiting.

“You made this?” Clare asked incredulously as she poked at a sticky piece of chicken with her fork.

“I had help,” Asher said bashfully. “Please, dig in. And if it’s bad, you can blame Gabriel.”

Clare snorted especially loudly before shovelling some food into her mouth. Almost at once, everyone began complimenting Asher for the food. It had the right amount of tang balancing against sweet and savoury flavours.

“Mum doesn’t make adobo chicken often,” Clare said conversationally before turning to look at her Mum. “Why’s that?”

“I prefer making tocino,” Lila’s Mum said plainly. “But maybe I should make this more. It’s delicious.”

“What’s tocino?” Asher asked, swallowing. Lila and Clare gasped in horror.

“It’s Lila’s favourite,” Clare explained, whilst Lila tutted, shaking her head in disappointment at Asher.

“I’ll have to make it for dinner,” Lila’s Mum smiled. “It’s pork.”

“Mum makes it with pineapple juice,” Lila said enthusiastically, nearly bouncing out of her seat. “You’ll love it!”

Once lunch was over, Daniel led the way upstairs with Asher and Lila trailing behind.

“That was really good,” Daniel muttered once they reached the landing. “Thanks, Asher.”

“I’m glad you all liked it,” Asher replied with a grin. “I was kinda worried I’d messed it up.”

“I’m surprised you even knew what it was. Filipino food isn’t that widely available,” Daniel replied, opening the door to his room. Asher’s face turned pink as he glanced at Lila.

“I did some research,” he said, coughing slightly. “Anyway, back to the books.”

Daniel shut the door behind them and Lila retreated to her room. The fact that Asher had researched Filipino food and even made some for her family really touched her. If she didn’t have a crush on him before, she definitely would’ve after that. Lila was also certain that his efforts touched her Mum and Dad, too.

‘He’s such a great guy,’ Lila thought to herself as she settled back into her desk. ‘I don’t know why Holly threw him away like that…’ Without meaning to, Lila briefly wondered how much effort Asher would put in if they were to date, given the amount of effort he’d put in already with her family…

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Heart beating furiously in her chest, Lila threw herself into her work as a distraction. Fantasizing about something that wouldn’t happen would just get her hopes up.

As promised, dinner consisted of tocino, which Asher gobbled up with fervour.

“This is so good,” his eyes glittered with delight as he looked at Lila’s Mum. “Like, I think this is my new favourite.”

“Where did you find this boy, Lila?” Lila’s Mum said playfully, a hand to her cheek. “You’re very kind.”

“I’m very serious,” Asher nodded. “This is really good, Mrs Moloney.”

“Well, I’m curious what’s for dessert,” Lila’s Mum countered, looking at Asher with a warm smile.

“I made some leche flan,” Asher replied, taking a sip of water. “I hope you like it.”

“That’s my favourite,” Daniel declared incredulously, his fork dropping to his plate. “Did you know that?”

“I do now,” Asher laughed. “Hope it lives up to your expectations.”

After dinner, Lila went into the kitchen with her Mum to dish out pieces of leche flan to everyone.

“Lila, that boy is something else,” Lila’s Mum said in a low voice. “He’d make a great son-in-law.”

“Mum,” Lila groaned. “Nothing like that is happening, or will happen.”

Lila’s Mum pouted. “Why not?”

“He doesn’t want to,” Lila said quietly, watching a piece of flan jiggle on a dessert plate. Lila’s Mum tutted.

“That’s not true,” Lila’s Mum smiled affectionately at her. “The way he looks at you tells me he does.”

Lila pressed her lips together. “We’re best friends,” she finally forced out, collecting enough spoons for everyone. “That’s what you’re seeing.”

She didn’t wait for her Mum to answer as she carried plates of flan out to her family and Asher. Lila’s Mum soon followed, a cheeky smile on her face. The caramel flavour combined with the silkiness of the flan delighted everyone at the table, who complimented Asher again. He accepted the praise with a sheepish grin and helped bring the plates into the kitchen once everyone was finished. Lila spent some time washing the dishes Asher had brought, though he did try to push her out of the way so he could clean them to no avail, owing to her many years of practice at staying put when Daniel tried to push her.

“Are you finished with Daniel yet?” Lila queried after stacking the dishes on the drying rack.

“For today, yeah. Been a solid few hours,” Asher yawned, covering his mouth with his left hand.

“Are you sure you should come over tomorrow?” Lila asked, setting aside the dishtowel she was using to dry her hands.

“Have to,” Asher’s eyes narrowed at Lila, his hand falling limp at his side. “Found something.”

“You did?”

Asher nodded, glancing behind him. Lila could still hear the chatter of her parents and siblings in the dining room, though they would probably disperse soon.

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow. I’ll go into Daniel’s room,” Lila whispered. Asher agreed with another nod and they left the kitchen, climbing the stairs to the bedrooms. It seemed that Daniel had already beat them to as his door was closed.

“When’s Marlene coming?” Lila asked curiously once they reached her bedroom.

“In a little bit,” Asher sighed, looking down at his phone. He shut it off and rubbed his face with both hands. He seemed to have aged several years by that touch alone but turned his face to Lila, hands still clasped on either side of his face, and smiled.

“I can’t wait for this to be over,” he said simply. “I’ve been itching to go rummaging.”

“What do you reckon we’ll find?”

“Beats me,” Asher shrugged. “It’s been a while since Marlene put that guy in there.”

“Do… you think she’s figured out that we broke into the study again?”

“I’m pretty sure she knows, but she doesn’t know what we saw. If she knew we saw… that… she probably would’ve tried to talk to me about it. Or tried to make me think it wasn’t real, at least. Well, that’s what I would do. Or I’d just murder the person snooping around. She’s clearly not above that.”

Asher paused. The hallway outside Lila’s door creaked faintly. Lila immediately stuck her head out to check if someone was outside. Indeed, someone was – Clare. She’d almost opened the door to her room before she looked up at Lila.

“Hey,” Lila said tentatively. Had Clare heard? Clare’s warning to Lila that Lila shouldn’t do anything illegal reverberated through her mind as she waited for Clare to respond. Clare took out her earbuds, narrowing her eyes at Lila.

“What?” Clare asked, somewhat aggressively.

“Just saying ‘hey’,” Lila replied defensively.

“Oh. Hey. I’m just about to start getting ready for work. Do you actually need something, or are you hanging around waiting for me to show up just to say nothing at all?”

“Nah, just wanted to say ‘hey’. Don’t need anything,” Lila smiled reassuringly at Clare before retreating into her room.

“She had her earphones in,” Lila explained to a tense Asher. His muscles instantly relaxed.

“Righto. I kinda wish you could close this door,” he lamented. “Then we wouldn’t have to worry about eavesdroppers.”

“Same here,” Lila responded with a twinge of disappointment. Of course, Asher would only want the door to be closed to prevent eavesdropping. He gave her a sideways glance before clearing his throat.

“You know, I’ve noticed that you’ve been a bit… different over the past few days,” he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Did something happen?”

“N-No,” Lila lied, looking down at her twisting hands. Realising she had a crush on the guy mere metres from her would obviously count as ‘something happening’, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. “Just stressed about exams.”

“Ah,” Asher’s lips tightened into a grimace. “Understandable. Sorry if I’ve been disturbing your study.”

Lila shook her head. “Nah, I’ve been keeping on top of it pretty well this term.”

“Good.”

They hung out in Lila’s room, speaking occasionally about videos they saw on their feeds, or theories as to what would be on their shared exams next week, taking care not to mention anything related to the Banker. It was comfortable – cosy. A companionship that didn’t require them to be constantly doing something or talking. Asher went home shortly after, with Lila opening the door for him again with a sunny smile.

“See you tomorrow, Asher,” Lila said, giving him a wave as he dragged his feet towards Marlene’s car. He turned around to reciprocate the wave before disappearing into the depths of the car.

----------------------------------------

Lunchtime after exams the next morning couldn’t come soon enough. Grace, Elise, Isaac, and Asher were waiting for Lila as she put her Japanese materials into her locker.

“Why are language exams so hard?” Elise whined once Lila was ready to go. Asher silently handed Lila a lunchbox, which she gratefully accepted. They all made their way to the library complaining about exam questions that they’d encountered that day.

But, though the exams were the biggest topic around by far, Lila heard snippets here and there of people mentioning ‘Asher’ and ‘Holly’. She could never catch enough detail until, at one point, Lila stopped walking with the group to sidle towards some voices. One of them had said “Asher” before the group descended into giggles. The owners of said voices were hidden behind a free-standing screen within the library’s top floor, which had been segregated into various blocks for exam week.

Lila glanced at the backs of her friends who had seemingly found an empty meeting room and continued to listen.

“… apparently, Holly is seeing another guy.”

“What? No way!”

“Yeah, she needs a father for her baby after Asher left her.”

“Crazy. I can’t believe the Dux just dropped his pregnant girlfriend like that.”

“Honestly, that’s the worst kinda guy. After that whole love confession in the locker room for Holly?”

“He should step up and be a dad. After all, it’s his fault that Holly’s dropped out of Cheer.”

“Get some integrity.”

The voices, which Lila thought belonged to a group of girls, burst into cackles.

“I felt bad for him, with the whole Piper thing,” one of the voices continued. “But after what he did to Holly? He should’ve been expelled, not Piper.”

“Poor Holly. She’s so nice. I met her after Nationals last year and she even said I did such a good job with my stunts. She told me which one she liked the most, too, but I’ve forgotten what that was now.”

“Lila? You coming?” Elise’s concerned voice broke Lila’s concentration, and she turned to Elise with a carefree smile.

“Yeah, just thought I dropped something. Coming.”

----------------------------------------

Daniel sat with Asher and Lila that afternoon, unlike the previous bus rides home. Well, he sat behind them, his crossed arms leaning on the top edge of the backrest, head between theirs.

“How’d your exams go?” Asher asked him, half-turned in his seat. The bus pulled away from the bus station as Daniel sighed.

“About as good as I could get,” he said, an edge of hopelessness to his voice. “With the extra stuff I’ve been doing, I hadn’t really been able to keep up with schoolwork. The past few days have been good, but I don’t think they’ll get me over the line.”

“Shit, sorry I couldn’t get this done quick-”

“You didn’t know,” Daniel cut Asher off firmly, nudging him. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll get my act together for next term.”

“Right,” Asher mumbled, turning to face the front of the bus. Lila could see from her sideways glance at him that he had his brow furrowed. Daniel sat back in his chair in time for the bus to launch the students backwards over a particularly bumpy hill. They didn’t speak for the rest of the bus ride, with Daniel leading the way home this time.

“Apparently, I’m joining you guys today,” Lila said conversationally once they were inside, setting her shoes by the rest.

“God, do you have to?” Daniel replied dramatically. Lila bumped him with her hip and headed into the kitchen to sort out juice for everyone. Clare was eating a cereal bar absentmindedly in the kitchen when Lila walked in.

“What’s up, spacey?” Lila asked cheerfully, pouring Clare a glass as well. She swallowed roughly.

“Just thinking about whether or not I have to repeat one of my classes,” Clare replied, accepting the cup of juice.

“Is it a bad thing if you do? I mean, besides the obvious.”

“Means I have to pay for it twice, but I’m blessed with HECS.”

“What’s that?”

“Uh, kinda like a loan we get since we’re citizens. We only need to pay for our degrees when we start earning over a certain amount.”

“I see,” Lila said thoughtfully, closing the fridge. “Y’know, I’d never given it any thought. How you’ve been paying for your degree, I mean.”

Clare snorted. “We’re lucky here, that we don’t have to think about it.”

“Would you rather pay for it upfront?”

“Even with all the bills in my bra, I don’t think I could,” Clare joked, taking a sip of her juice.

“Careful, Daniel’s home,” Lila pointed out quietly.

Clare sighed. “Thanks. He’s too young to know.”

“Agreed. Anyway, I’m going upstairs. Are you heading out tonight?”

Clare shook her head. “Mondays are pretty dead, especially during exam week. Gabriel said I’m pretty close to drawing a crowd based on my name alone, but I’m not there yet. Plus, even though I’m thinking that I might have to repeat a class, I’d rather not forego study and throw it in the bin altogether.”

“I believe in you, sis,” Lila smiled comfortingly, grabbing all three glasses. “You’ll be fine.”

“Thanks. I hope your exams are going well, too.”

“Eh, more or less,” Lila grinned widely at Clare before leaving the kitchen and gingerly heading upstairs. She knocked on Daniel’s door with her knee and this time Asher opened it, taking the cups from Lila’s hands and setting them down on the desk.

“I was just about to check where you were,” Asher said gently, sitting down in Daniel’s chair. Daniel was standing next to the desk and scowling at a notebook clutched tightly in his hands.

“What’s got you in a bad mood?” Lila asked as she sat on Daniel’s neatly made bed. It was the only ‘neat’ part of his room today.

“Asher prewarned me that something’s not right,” Daniel seethed, slapping the notebook back down on his desk.

“Bit of an intense reaction for something small, surely,” Lila said curiously, leaning backwards on her hands.

“If you reckon 2.5k going missing from the rotation regularly is something small, sure,” Daniel said through gritted teeth, bringing a hand to his forehead. “Asher, explain please.”

Asher looked incredibly grave as he spun around in Daniel’s chair to face Lila.

“Look, your maths is right. Always has been, surprisingly – even with all the hand calculations. You’re very thorough. But… every now and then, the numbers commencing for that week don’t match the previous week’s numbers, and therefore don’t add up to what they’re supposed to when you look at everything as a whole. Then, the money randomly comes back so the books balance out. Whatever’s going on, it’s being cleverly hidden. If we go by the last two weeks alone, there’s about 1k outstanding. But, like Daniel said, usually 2.5k appears to go missing regularly.”

“Where does it go?” Lila asked in a small voice, her eyes fixated on Asher.

“Well, my best guess is that it seems to be siphoned out through employee wages, and Uber Eats service fees. It looks like whoever’s doing it is also taking advantage of rounding by a whole bunch. It also seems like it’s been going on since the beginning of these notebooks.”

“It must be Livi,” Daniel groaned into his hands. “I was so stupid to trust her.”

“Well, hang on,” Lila said quickly. “We need a bit more information. Sure, something fishy is going on, and she usually does the books, but this is hardly a secure method where changes can be tracked. Someone else could be getting a hold of the notebooks.”

“You’re overexplaining,” Asher said grimly. “Going by the law of parsimony, it has to be Livi.”

“At the very least,” Lila said firmly, glancing at Daniel, who still had his face in his hands, “it means that someone in Livi’s group is dodgy. And quite literally everyone is dodgy, frankly.”

“Livi’s the dodgiest,” Asher countered, a flash of anger crossing his face.

“Sure,” Lila conceded. “But – and this is a big but – she might not be working alone. I know you don’t like her, but we really don’t have enough information to conclude anything.”

Asher breathed heavily, closing his eyes. “You’re right,” he admitted. “Now that I’ve figured it out, though, I might need to work on this for a bit longer. At least, until Sunday at this point. I might even need more time, but I hope to be out of your hair sooner rather than later.”

“Go for your life,” Daniel sighed, flopping down next to Lila.

“Has anything changed? With Livi and her group, I mean,” Lila asked, looking at Daniel. He shrugged.

“Asher told me to keep going as I have been, so I’m still holed up doing hand calculations during lunch, though I don’t have to do so much after school. I don’t really have time to chat with them.”

“How did they even get involved in this?” Lila asked quietly.

“I… had a crush on Livi,” Daniel whispered, his face suddenly bright pink. “A-And when this started, she came to me for a loan. I think it was like $150. And when she paid it back, she offered to work for me to do the books. She thought it would take off, and I was excited to spend more time with her. I said yes instantly. Pretty quick, though, she was surrounded by her Grade 12 buddies at lunch, and we got way too busy to talk about anything other than the Banker stuff.”

Lila pursed her lips. It definitely smelled like Livi had an ulterior motive from the beginning. Particularly since Livi was in Grade 12 and Daniel was in Grade 9. That age gap alone made Lila uncomfortable.

Asher caught Lila’s eye, and she motioned for him to speak.

“We’ll need to investigate the whole group,” Asher announced. “I’d already done some digging, and I think you did too, Lila, but now we have a direction to investigate in.”

“Agreed,” Lila nodded. “Daniel, you don’t need to do anything for that. Just act like everything is fine and normal and dandy. Try not to make them suspicious. At least, I want to find out why this has been happening. It just feels way too off to just be plain embezzlement, especially since the money comes back.”

“That’s bothered me the most about all this,” Asher added thoughtfully. “The money coming back. So it’s a temporary loan? But why not ask for a proper loan? And why is the amount so large?”

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Asher checked his phone.

“I’ve gotta get cracking on this,” Asher said, swivelling back around to Daniel’s desk. “If I want this to be done in a reasonable timeframe.”

“I mean, why don’t you stop until exams are over?” Lila suggested, getting up.

“Yeah,” Daniel piped up. “You’ve done a lot already. Surely you can give it a rest. It’s not like it’s very urgent anyway. It can wait a bit.”

“I won’t be able to come over tomorrow,” Asher said, his head low to the desk. “And, like I said, I’m more than fine for exams. Don’t worry about me.”

“Asher,” Lila said pointedly, touching his shoulder. It was quite warm and more muscular than she’d expected. He jumped, staring up at her. “Please don’t be obsessive over this. You’re prone to doing that.”

“Am not,” Asher said petulantly, turning his attention back to the notebooks. “I just… gotta solve this.”

“You can take a break,” Lila urged. “It’s fine.”

“I’ll forget what I’m doing if it’s too long,” Asher murmured in response. “Please, I’m fine. I can handle this. I’m the Dux, after all. You can count on me.”

Lila simply sighed, exchanging a look with Daniel, who shrugged again.

“Fine,” Lila said softly. “But any sign of trouble and I’m not inviting you over until you’ve calmed down.”

“Deal,” Asher muttered absently, leaning in even closer to the notebooks. Lila retreated to her room, and the remainder of Monday passed as it had been the last few times Asher was over, with a hearty family dinner and a few minutes of hanging out with Asher in her room afterwards.

Though she’d admonished Asher for not taking a break, Lila couldn’t help but feel grateful that he was still coming over. It was nice, seeing him outside of school. The feeling of her stomach fluttering and heart soaring due to Asher’s even simple actions in private, such as asking her about her book collection, was rapidly becoming addictive.

A fleeting thought crossed her mind, though, as Asher replaced yet another book he’d borrowed onto her shelf. The rumours she’d heard, about Asher dusting his hands of his girlfriend and baby – should she tell him?

She carefully watched as he rapidly became absorbed in another book, his eyes darting down this book’s blurb. With exams and his work on the Banker’s books, Asher had way too much on his plate to be entertaining rumours. If he hadn’t heard them, then perhaps she better leave well enough alone. He needed all the focus he could muster to get through this week.

“Staring at me again?” Asher smirked, lowering the book to his lap. “Am I that handsome?”

“S-Sorry,” Lila averted her gaze, a blush rising on her neck and cheeks. “I was just thinking.”

“Thinking? That’s dangerous,” Asher said playfully, before narrowing his eyes. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

“I-”

“I’m just teasing,” Asher interrupted Lila hurriedly, his own cheeks tinged with pink. “I don’t wanna know.”

Lila bit her lip, a million things she wanted to say fighting with her consciousness to be let out – some of them including a confession, right then and there.

‘Not happening,’ she chastised herself, her blush deepening to a rich red. ‘Definitely not happening ever.’

Asher’s phone buzzed and he took it out of his pocket.

“Marlene’s here,” he said somewhat dejectedly, getting up from her bedroom floor. “I can take this one, yeah?”

“Huh? O-Oh. Yeah,” Lila said distractedly, standing up slowly as well. “Knock yourself out.”

“I’ll put that on my to-do list,” Asher grinned at her. “Knock… myself… out. Maybe I’ll finally get some rest.”

“You’re not resting?” Lila asked sharply, crossing her arms. Asher looked guilty, his mouth pressed together tightly.

“I’m… resting,” Asher said eventually, scratching his chin and looking at his non-existent wristwatch. “Look at the time, gotta go!”

Asher picked up his school bags and left Lila’s room, knocking on Daniel and Clare’s doors to say goodbye before Lila could blink. He hurried down the stairs, two at a time, and called out a quick “Goodbye, Mr and Mrs Moloney!”.

Lila followed after him, bounding down the stairs as well, and caught him just as he was fiddling with the lock on the door, his shoes on already.

“You don’t need to run away from me,” Lila admonished quietly, unlocking the door with ease. “But I am disappointed if you’re not getting the rest you need for this exam period. I’m sure you don’t want your grades to drop.”

“They won’t drop,” Asher said, seeming resigned to his fate in having this conversation. “My assignments have taken me far beyond the Proxime Accessit already for this term. Part of the reason why I’m so confident in taking on Daniel’s stuff.”

Lila paused her movements, looking into Asher’s eyes. They seemed earnest enough, but now that they were so close to each other in the doorway, Lila could see the circles under them had darkened from the last time she’d inspected them.

“Alright,” Lila said in a low voice. “I trust you.”

“Thanks,” Asher beamed at her, hoisting his school bags higher on his shoulder. “See you tomorrow!”

“See you then.”