(ON HOLD) Spellbound (BxB)

Chapter 13 | Lightning

The worst part of loving Jackal Riley came every afternoon when the soccer team suited up at the same time as the baseball team. Occasionally, Asher would glance up through his bangs while he tied his shoes on the bench, watching Jackal's shirtless back, slim and muscled as he changed into his baseball uniform. He looked away before Jackal ever shrugged his slacks off, but sometimes he felt Jackal's eyes when he wasn't looking. Sometimes he caught his reflection in a mirror locker, glancing over when Asher too shed his uniform. Sometimes Asher changed in the toilet stall to avoid his eyes. Sometimes he didn't.

Two weeks had passed since Logan's death, and though Aspen was still stuck a tiny shit machine in a little metal cage that often moved between Asher and Jackal's dorm, things were beginning to feel relatively normal again. Asher had noticed muscles when he looked in the mirror that weren't there before. The little pudge of fat on his stomach had flattened and his arms grew dense from the grueling training exercises Coach had unleashed on the team. He couldn't understand how he was growing larger when he felt weaker than ever before. He scarcely ate, but for the sweets at counseling, and his illness had been masked by daily treatments of flower water and mushroom tea, which Jackal collected weekly from his greenhouse.

Perhaps, the most uncomfortable aspect of it all was the way they never spoke of the night in the forest. Often, Asher convinced himself it was a dream. But everything had been a dream since he met Jackal, and he assumed things would only get more dreamy from here on. For some reason, that was enough to convince him that things wouldn't get worse. But they did.

The first soccer match of the season was in less than a week, and Coach had started ordering a mile-run before practice. Asher was thankful for another bout of rain, and though he hated racing through a muddy forest trail, the run had been orchestrated around the baseball field, which meant catching a glimpse of Jackal while he was stepping up to bat. Sometimes he would jog backwards to see the ball crack against the bat. Watch the mist explode from the leather. Watch Jackal's hips twist and his cleats slide as he dropped his bat to round the bases.

Something felt different today. Wrong. At some point, Asher stopped running. His head whirled and his skin prickled, and he hit the ground, soaked in wet grass. Voices pooled around him, but he couldn't keep his eyes from roving, dizzy and reeling from left to right. They settled on a window above the gym—a hallway, where students could overlook the recreational sports fields on one side and the courtyard on the other. Someone stood there, and though they were a distant figure, Asher could make out the fine lines of a black suit with its hands folded behind his back. Watching. Watching everything.

Then, a shock to his cheek. "Ash."

It took Asher a moment to focus on the figures above him. Coach's scruffy beard and slight frown, Jackal's baseball cap, spilling shadows onto his face. Coach said something that sounded like infirmary, and Jackal responded with a much firmer, No.

There was a hard, silent exchange between them, then Coach reached out and pulled Jackal in close by the bicep, spitting a series of furious words into his ear. Jackal's expression sunk, but he said nothing—at least until a ringing filled Asher's ears that surpassed every sound that existed outside of his own skin. He laid there, clutching at his ears while the rain hit his face, trying to explain to the others that he couldn't hear. That it was so loud, it hurt. And eventually, Jackal tore his hand from his ear and whispered something into it—something Asher couldn't hear, but could feel against his skin. Then he was gone.

When he awoke, he was being pulled from Jackal's car, slung over the shoulder of someone much larger. He could see sand—footprints tracked behind them. Jackal was following along, shedding his cleats and the shirt of his baseball uniform. Then he was set into the sand where he slumped back into a soft chest and gentle arms. "That's it. That's it," Courtney was saying behind him.