Chapter 18: 10|Call me maybe?-2

"Whoa! That was great! You both are my future wedding singers." Rose mocked. I glared at her and they just laughed harder. "What are you both doing here?" Asher muttered, clearly embarrassed. "Aiden had to leave for your dad's office so, he asked us to give Astrid a ride home as you were supposed to be on janitor duty. But, oh well." Alex smirked. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't sweat it!" I waved a dismissive hand. "I brought my skateboard, just in case." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Are you still upset with me?" "No, Alex. I am just saying because I am helping Asher here and it will be stupid if you drop me home now and then come back after an hour or two, to study." "We'll help too!" Rose piped in. I looked at her as if she lost her mind but apparently, she was serious as she hopped to Asher's side. "No, you don't have to-" "It's okay, Asher. We want to." Alex interjected. My brother nodded gingerly and gave a cute smile to Rose. I swear, I saw her cheeks tinge red. "Love seems to be in the air." Alex nudged me and whispered mockingly. I stifled a laughter and nodded while moping the floors along with him. "And I thought that only I noticed." "I notice everything, Astrid." Alex rolled his eyes and replied smugly. "Yeah. Yeah. Whatever." I waved him off casually. We spent the rest of the hour cleaning desks and floors while joking. I was completely exhausted by the end of it and needed nothing more than my bed but I knew, I still had a long day ahead. I admit that I judged Rose and Alex pretty quickly too. Alex pissed me off more times than I said hi to him but he was a nice guy. He was a polite jerk (if that makes sense) with special abilities to make me laugh. We shared common interests too so running out of topics was out of picture. Rose was a total sweetheart and even though I knew that she will unknowingly divide Asher's attention, I saw both of them as perfect for each other. I ship Rosher! By the time we were done, it was 5:40 pm already. I told Alex to get the tutoring over with and he agreed. Asher took Rose for a home tour and I invited Alex in my room like usual. He has been in my room frequently for last few weeks but still, every time he enters, he looks at everything in complete awe. This time his eyes landed on my mom's picture on my bedside table along with a family picture of four of us. "Your mum?" I nodded and gave him a sad smile. His eyes wandered around the frame for a while before he sighed and kept it back. "I miss my mum too, you know." he whispered. I knew how he was feeling. I have been through this feeling a lot and it absolutely sucks. I took a small step towards him and hugged him. He froze. "It's gonna be okay, Alex. I won't say that we are friends, but I can assure you that you've got me now. You've got all three of us now. You're not alone." He relaxed in my embrace and hugged me back gingerly. We stayed like that for a bit until Alex regained his normal breathing pace. I jutted my chin towards the chemistry binder on my desk as we broke apart. "Shall we?" "We shall." ~~~~ "Alex! I explained this 3 times! Where is your mind?" "Well I am sorry if I just came to know that my friend's sister shares her window with a boy!" I groaned. "Oh my god! Why is every male species under 100 yard radius, so overprotective of me?" "Because we care-" "And I care about my student's grade too! So focus Mr!" I pinched his earlobe hard. "Ow. Ow. Okay. No need to be violent!" he whined while rubbing his red ear. "Now concentrate. So, as I was saying, sodium is a highly combustible element and the addition of water can make it explode. When a drop of water added to a small piece of sodium in a flask filled with chlorine gas, the distinctive yellow colour of the light emitted is due to sodium's 'D lines' - this is often used in street lighting. This experiment produces a great deal of heat. When you combine sodium and chlorine, you get sodium chloride - common salt." I looked at Alex, expectantly. He stole a nervous glance in my direction and rubbed his neck. "O-okay?" I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "You know what, let's take a break." "I like the sound of It." he smiled sheepishly as I rolled my eyes. Together, we hopped downstairs to the kitchen only to find dad there. Asher and Rose were yelling at each other in game room. "Hey, dad!" dad looked back and smiled before stepping towards me. He pecked my head and hugged me briefly. "Hey, princess." He noticed Alex standing awkwardly at the doorframe and smiled. "I see, you kids sorted your differences out?" he teased as I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Great!" he clapped his hands. "Now get all of your butts down here, this calls for a celebration." Aiden entered and threw car keys in key bowl but flinched when Rose and Asher screamed loudly. "Geez! What are they doing?" I shrugged and shared a small knowing smile with Alex. "Am I missing something? I didn't knew Asher had a lady friend." Dad asked in confusion. I chuckled. "Asher! Rose! Get your butts down here!" I yelled. It got eerily quiet for a few seconds before I heard footsteps approaching downstairs. Rose froze under all our heated stares. "Um hi?" Dad chuckled. "Don't be scared, sweetie. Come join us for dinner. Call me Henry, by the way." Rose relaxed and introduced herself while Aiden, Alex and I busied ourselves in laughing at Asher's red face. Life is good