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1382 Words
"Are you actually serious about what you shouted in the cafeteria earlier?"
The gentle breeze rustling beneath the old banyan tree at the absolute furthest corner of the school grounds muffled the tremor in my voice. I stood leaning against the rough tree trunk, letting the bark dig into my back—a small physical pain to distract me from the deeper ache slicing through my chest. In front of me, Barrett stood with one hand resting against the trunk, trapping me in a narrow space that held only the rich aroma of his tobacco and the damp trace of rain clinging to his leather jacket.
Barrett didn't answer right away. Instead, he stared at me with an intensity that made me want to run away, yet at the exact same time, made me feel... seen. For the very first time, I didn't feel like a transparent shadow.
"Why? Do you think I'm just looking for a reason to pick a fight with that Toad Prince?" Barrett countered, his voice low and raspy. He pulled out a cigarette but stopped himself from lighting it when he saw me cough slightly. He simply tucked it behind his ear instead—a small gesture that, for some reason, felt deeply respectful.
"Everyone thinks so, Barrett," I looked up, staring into his wild eyes that I could never fully read. "They think you just want to trample on Asher's pride by claiming something he tossed into the trash. I... I don't want to be used as a tool for your revenge."
Barrett brought his face closer, leaving a gap of mere centimeters between us. I could see the reflection of my dull face in his dark eyes. "I don't need a tool to destroy someone like Asher, Aria. I have my fists for that. What I said earlier... it wasn't a bluff."
I took a deep breath, trying to summon the remnants of courage that had been buried for years beneath the Maheswari family’s dominance. "I want to marry you, Barrett."
Barrett’s movements froze. His eyes widened slightly, completely caught off guard that I would utter those words so bluntly. However, I wasn't finished.
"But not now. Not the Aria who stands before you today," I continued, my voice growing steadier, colder. I squeezed the edge of my uniform skirt until my knuckles turned stark white. "I want a successful husband. I want a smart man, one who holds more power than just brute muscles. I want someone who can make my family choke on their shame for looking down on me for over a decade. I want all of them—Papa, Mama, Aileen, and even Asher—to look up one day just to catch our shadows."
I locked my gaze onto him, challenging every single ounce of his resolve. "Can you do it? Can you become the man I just described? Or are you only capable of being a school delinquent whose future ends behind prison bars?"
Silence engulfed us. Only the scraping sound of the banyan leaves filled the air like a whispered secret. I knew my demand was insane. Asking a delinquent who skipped classes and picked street fights to become a successful tycoon was an absolute impossibility in the eyes of the world. But I was exhausted from being a victim. If I had to hand my future over to someone, I wanted that person to be the sharpest blade.
Barrett stared at me for a long time, as if measuring the weight of the raw wounds hidden behind my words. Suddenly, a smirk curled on his lips. It wasn't his usual fierce, predatory grin, but a lopsided smile that looked incredibly handsome and full of unyielding determination.
"Are you asking me to become a minister? Or a CEO who can buy out your father's entire company?" Barrett let out a short laugh, a sound that resonated deeply and masculinely in my ears. He straightened his posture, looking out toward the grand school building in the distance. "I'll do it, Aria. I never took school seriously because I thought this world had no place for someone like me. But if you're asking me to be the ladder for you to climb to the very top... I will be the sturdiest ladder that ever existed."
He looked back down at me, this time with an entirely new spark in his eyes. "Starting tomorrow, I won't skip a single class. I'll sit right behind you, listening to all those snooze-worthy lectures from the teachers, and I'll make sure my brain is sharp enough to drag you out of that living hell."
"Promise?" I whispered, barely able to believe what I was hearing.
"A thug's promise is worth infinitely more than a politician's, Aria," Barrett extended his rough pinky finger toward me. "You have me now. And I will build a future that makes all of them bow at your feet."
I hooked my pinky finger around his large one. It felt remarkably warm. For the first time in my life, I felt a tangible glimmer of hope. I no longer cared whether this was love or simply an alliance between two outcasts. All I knew was that beneath this tree, a brand-new destiny was being written in the ink of pure defiance.
*
(ASHER'S POV)
I stood entirely frozen behind the brick wall that separated the back grounds from the banyan garden. My fists, clenched tightly at my sides, were shaking violently. I didn't know why my feet had dragged me here. I was supposed to be in the classroom, comforting Aileen who was supposedly 'traumatized' from the cafeteria incident.
But every single word that had just escaped Aria’s mouth... every sentence she uttered in that wounded yet fiercely powerful tone, slammed into my chest harder than any physical blow from Barrett ever could.
"I want a successful husband... who can make my family choke on their shame..."
Her voice no longer sounded like the weak, pathetic Aria I always saw weeping in the corner of the back cottage. That voice... it reminded me of little "Ai," who had once promised to become a great designer to wipe away my tears. Her determined tone, the way she laid down her terms for Barrett... it all felt so profoundly familiar, yet at the same time, miles away.
Why did my chest feel so painfully tight for no apparent reason?
I stared blankly at the wall in front of me. This pain... it wasn't anger over Aria hanging out with a criminal. It was something else entirely. It felt as if I had just lost something irreplaceable, something that was meant to belong to me, but that I had carelessly thrown into the dumpster with my own hands.
"Asher? Are you out there?"
Aileen’s voice called out from the distance, but I didn't budge. I remained rooted to the spot, listening to Barrett's low, relaxed laughter on the other side of the wall. The laughter of a man who had just been given the 'conditions' to become better for the sake of a girl I always called trash.
I pressed a hand against my chest, right where my heart was beating in a agonizing rhythm. I loved Aileen. I was entirely certain Aileen was the "Ai" I had been searching for. But why, upon hearing Aria planning her future with another man, did it feel as though my entire world had just shattered into worthless pieces?
I drew a shallow breath with immense difficulty, trying to force away the suffocating tightness. I had to leave before they spotted me. Yet, the image of Aria looking up at Barrett with a spark of genuine hope beneath that banyan tree continued to haunt my mind. A spark she had never once shown me, not even in the most peaceful moments of our time together.
I turned around with heavy, hollow steps, walking away from the wall. Inside my head, Aria’s voice continued to echo, stripping away all of my hypocrisy and forcing me to realize the one truth I feared most: Perhaps, the very girl I looked down on most was the only person who held the true key to my locked heart. And now, that key was firmly in the hands of another man.
- Writer
