Bubble Gum Kisses

**Kapittel 35**

***Vanessa***

**"For old time's sake, "** I said, folding my hand into a fist.

My blood began curdling and blasting wildly in my veins like water boiled in intense heat. A tsunami of thoughts began to splash in my mind. How dare he mention that? For old-time's sake? What was he implying? That we should dine together for the sake of our memories back in middle school? Do a toast for the unpleasant things that happened back then? To recap the anguish and pain that we both inflicted on each other? Didn't he hate me? Then why was he bothering me now? Was it also for old times' sake? Did he want to remind me of the things that happened before?

I considered discussing things with him before, but after our encounter in the grocery store and seeing what he had become, I immediately crossed out that consideration. Right now would have been the perfect time for us to talk about what happened and call a closure, but Friso was being an ass, worse than what he had become before. I don't think he'd be open to doing such a thing with me since he loathes me.

I couldn't let him mention the old times like it was some fond memory when it was not. Acting on furious impulse, I lifted my arm and did the last thing I thought I could ever do in my entire life. I punched Friso square in the face. "Oof-!” I heard him grunt along with the audible gasp of the crowd.

I didn't waste any more time, I grabbed my bag and pulled Asher with me, running off to God knows where.

The breeze blew against me as soon as we left the cafeteria, sending my hair flailing in the air with some of the strands stuck on my face and the corners of my mouth, especially my bangs. But I couldn't care less. I ran and ran and ran like everything didn't matter like what happened earlier was meaningless. I followed where my feet told me to go.

Opening my mouth as I gasped for air, the realization struck me hard in the head. What in the world did I just do? Did I just punch Friso in the face? Why did I do that? God, I'm out of my mind! I'm too affected by the provocations he had been doing to me lately. "Vanessa..."

But wasn't I just some bitch to him? Why was giving me all the unnecessary attention? I thought he didn't want me around anymore, but why was he sticking around? Wait, he was the first one to approach me today too. I guess he wanted to put me in a tough spot since I was currently in his territory.

"Vanessa..."

Just as always, he was being capricious! Angelene was right, he was an ass. But maybe I was too. I thought I was mature back then, but I was just another immature, hormonal teenager. But what about now? I'm already 18, but I have thoughts the same as I had back when I was an 8th grader. I should have been more patient, I shouldn't ha- "Vanessa!"

I instantly stopped in my tracks when I heard Asher yell my name. Like me, he was panting as well while resting a palm on one knee. I looked at his tired face and saw that it was damped with sweat. He was pretty sparged with his sweat that even his hair was dripping droplets off.

"Oh..." I looked further down and realized that I grasping his wrist tightly. "I'm sorry!" I released him. I was catching my breath as well, my knees were hurting like I ran a marathon with no proper warm-up. Gosh, I was too preoccupied with my thoughts that I ran aimlessly and wasted my energy on nonsense!

"I should take note... to never get on your bad side," he said while panting, wiping his sweaty forehead.

"Haha..." I laughed nervously. "Sorry about that." He wouldn't have a bad impression of me because of this, would he?

"Where... are we?" I asked, looking around and realizing that I was in an unfamiliar place.

It was a wide pasture about more than a hundred yards long. From afar, I could see a wide football pitch surrounded by a track with wide bleachers resting on each side. We were standing by the trees surrounding the track field on the left side. In the track's front end was a field a bit smaller than the football pitch, probably the soccer field since there were goals on each end and there were a few students playing soccer. I looked around and only several students were present, and most of them were playing frisbee or soccer. This was probably a school field, but this looked more like a sports complex.

I tucked a handful of hair behind my ear as the wind blew past us strongly, rendering leaves to fall and descend to the ground in small twirls.

"It's the field," he answered, looking like he finally caught his breath. "We can have a picnic here as long as we have a blanket and we clean up the mess after hanging out. Since the faculty will scold us if we don't have any."

"I see," I replied while looking around. It was a pretty wide area, though it would be better to hang around at a time like this if we just stay under the trees for shade. "So..." he trailed off, looking around. "What do we do now?" he asked cluelessly.

"Hang on, I think my phone's ringing," I said, feeling my phone vibrate in my bag and hearing my small ringtone emanating from it. I hastily took out my phone and answered it without reading who was actually calling. "Girl, what did I just hear about a pretty blonde knocking down THE Friso de Vries before running off with a handsome dark-haired boy?!" it was the first thing I heard from Georgia as soon as I pressed the phone to my ear. "First it was Lazarus, then it was Asher, and now Friso?" she spoke faster and faster the more words came out of her mouth. "I should have predicted that sooner!" she exclaimed and began ranting about us leaving her alone and having her take care of things by herself.

Meanwhile, Asher stood close to me and leaned his head closely, listening to Georgia letting out her frustration with her words. I could smell the scent of his light cologne, a mixture of vanilla and mint. It was calming and sweet that all the adrenaline and cortisol rushing in my blood had gone.

"I'm sorry for leaving you so suddenly, Georgia," I apologized when she was out of breath from all the ranting.

"Where are you?" she straightforwardly asked. Wow, that was a quick move on, I thought as Asher leaned away and sat on a nearby tree trunk with his bag beside him.

"The field," I answered, slowly sitting beside Asher.

"Stay there, I'm heading there right now," she said and hung up. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at my screen blankly, thinking about how long it'd take her to get here.

"What'd she say?" I heard Asher ask.

"She said she's coming."

"I hope she brings at least scraps of our lunch," he said, putting both of his hands behind his head, and leaning behind the trunk.

I winced at his remark, getting reminded about what happened earlier. We both stayed silent in our respective spots. Asher seemed he was taking a nap while I watched my schoolmates play. The wind blew against us cooly with ease, spreading the gossamer scent emanating from him. Seconds, minutes, and moments passed slowly. As time slips away like a river stream, tension was building in the atmosphere and it was difficult for me to breathe. The grass brushing against my leg felt more uncomfortable the longer I sat on the lush ground. I looked at him, relaxingly taking a nap beside me.

I knew he would be wondering why I'd do such a thing, but why wasn't he asking me? He should be asking, right? Wait, why am I having thoughts like these? Am I being paranoid? Gosh, maybe I am.

Nevertheless, I'm kind of glad that he wasn't asking me questions about what happened earlier. But maybe he was considering my feelings? He could be wondering but chose either not to care or he didn't want to bother my feelings. Especially after such a heated encounter. Asher seems like the perceptive guy anyway, or was he?

"Don't fuss about it," he said which sent a chill down my spine. He sounded serenely sleepy with his voice like he was just woken up from a nap. "You seem agitated over what happened, so I'm not gonna ask," he added. "Thank you..." I uttered in a small voice. "I thought you were napping. But how did you know what I was thinking? Are you a psychic?" I asked, trying to change the subject to ease the uncomfortable atmosphere between us. "Let's say that I am."

"The truth, please."

"Your back is rigid like you're sitting on guard," he said, his voice getting was getting clearer and clearer as if he was no longer sleepy."And even though we haven't known each other deeply, I notice that you have a habit of spacing out when you're in deep thought, and considering what just happened."

"You're pretty observant," I commented, running my hand on the cleanly cut carpet of grass. I turned my head to look at him and saw the corner of his lip raised into a small smile before he spoke: "I'll take that as a compliment." "Heeey!"

**

Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my works, future works, and endless frustrations on Twitter: https://twitter.org/RiosMorpheus**