Page 44 (1/2)

My breath hitches I've never skipped class I’ve always been that good girl that was et the scholarship Even though my dad‘s a lawyer and we live in a nice house, we’re not rolling in the dough He put hih school and accumulated a lot of debt in the process We’re not poor, but we’re not St Anastasia’s rich, which is why I go to the school that’s so then”

People skip school all the tiht?

Asher takes my hand and leads me out a door I never knew existed We round the back of the athletics building and so lot My car is four rows over and down a little ways, but Asher‘s bike is right here, waiting for us, as if he knew he’d be skipping class today

"Here" He hands me his helmet

"I don’t wanna take the bike," I tell hiaze up to his face "It's loud and we could get caught"

Asher shakes his head, a lazy sht"

"But what if we do?" Will it go on my permanent record? Will I loseoff the flow of air

"Breathe, baby It's fine" Asher pullsand rubs my back I closeI can hear his heart racing inside his chest It's beating almost as fast as mine

"No one will knoe're gone," he insists "But if it makes you feel better, we can take your car"

Asher lets o and puts the helmet back on his handlebars if I were hiht steal it, but most people around here don’t mess with Asher for one reason or another

"We'd better get going Mom's shift starts at ten and it’s a twenty-minute ride”

&nb

sp; I let Asher drive my car across the tracks to the side of towninto He pulls into a trailer park that’s a gravel road, so bumpy my head hits the side of theas he tries to swerve to avoid a pothole I don't re this bad the last time I was here

"You okay?" Asher grimaces as I rub the sore spot with my palm

My head throbs but overall I'm fine, and I tell him as much