High school. A place of dreams, nightmares, heartbreak, and frustration. You have your highs and lows, but what most people think they’ll find, their happily ever after, never really happens. I truly never thought that it would happen to me with the one person I thought I hated more than anyone in the world: Caleb Steele. If you had asked 15-year-old Aster who they would marry, it would be a lovely man who sold flowers, read to children, and respected the fact that I was not only non-binary but genderfluid, accepting this when I was nine and no longer felt comfortable being a boy. Caleb Steele fit none of these parameters. He was incredibly rough, playing football as the star quarterback all through high school, tall enough to carry pretty much anyone around, and entirely made of muscle. He teased me relentlessly, messed with my things, and made inherently frustrating comments about my being a cheerleader when I was also the head pitcher of the boys' baseball team. And yet, one warm afternoon, after years of seemingly hating each other, he showed me what "I don't like you" can really mean.

7 Years Earlier

“If you pull my hair one more damn time, I’m going to kick you.” I hissed quietly over my shoulder at Caleb Steele, the annoyance that had followed me in every class since kindergarten.

“It’s so cute that you think you could." He stuck his tongue out at me, and I rolled my eyes, turning back around and waiting for the bell to finally ring, signaling the end of the day.

Geometry was the only class I shared with Caleb this year, as he was finally a junior and I was a sophomore. However, he had failed geometry last year and was forced to repeat the class, always flopping into the seat behind me.

“Hey, Aster?” Caleb whispered, gently tugging one of my curls. “What's the name of that new girl on the cheer squad? I can never remember, even if she never leaves me alone.”

“Amanda. She sucks.” I whispered back. “She’s a pick-me. Now stop touching me, I don’t like you.”

“I don’t like you either.”

The bell rang, and I shot out of class, heading immediately for the locker I shared with my twin brother Harlow. He was already there, running a hand through his bright blonde curls as he talked to a girl I knew he had a crush on named Gracie.

“Hey.” I waved, and Harlow returned it, watching me put up my books. “Do you have practice?”

“Yeah, do you?”

“Yeah." Sighing, I stretched and looked behind me to find Caleb standing a few rows down, talking to a few of the guys on the football team. "Ugh,” scoffing, I turned to look in the mirror I had put on the inside of the locker door, fixing my soft brown curls as Caleb had managed to mess them up all through class.

“How can twins look so different?” Gracie tilted her head, ginger waves falling around her, books tight in her arms.

“We’re fraternal.” Harlow and I answered at the same time.

Harlow and I were the youngest of four, having two older sisters named Fern and Frankie. Fern had graduated from high school two years ago, and Frankie was set to graduate this year. We were the babies, born to amazing parents named Ren and Kieran Leclair. Ren was from England, having moved to our hometown of Sandy Springs, Georgia, when he was six. Kieran was Brazilian, French, and Belgian; his birth parents abandoned him, and he was adopted by our grandparents, Melina and Anthony, when he was 7. Ren ran away from his birth mother, Eliza, at 16 when he came out as transgender, living permanently with my grandparents on his side, Clara and Rian. Our parents were 8 years apart, both working in the beauty industry since before we were born. Ren owned and managed a barber shop, and Kieran owned a salon in Atlanta. Our sister Fern planned to work for Kieran when she graduated from cosmetology school, something our parents were thrilled about.

Harlow and I may have been twins, but it was true we looked very little like each other. He was honey blonde, where I was a medium brunette, but both of us had tight curls thanks to our parents. Harlow's hair was always short, curls piled on top of his head, but I kept mine along my upper back for the days I wanted to lean into the feminine feelings I occasionally had. His eyes were hazel like Ren and mine were bright green like Kieran's. I was the only one of four to have freckles, however, spreading across my nose and cheeks. We were all on the tan side, a bit lighter than Kieran, and in the summer, we would all tan to be even darker than he was. I was also far shorter than my brother, the top of my head only ever reaching his eye level.

“Aster, I love your socks today.” Gracie gasped. “The frills are cute!”

“Thank you.” I giggled, looking down at my knee-highs as I was given permission to wear skirts to our private school 6 years ago, as long as I followed the dress code and bought them from the school website. “I'll ask my dad where he ordered them and have Harlow text you.”

“Thanks! Okay, I need to get to my club, so I'll talk to you later.”

“Yeah." Harlow smiled, watching her go down the hallway.

“If you wait too long, she won't say yes to homecoming.” I teased Harlow, and he gently shoved me.

“Get to practice.”

“Oh boohoo, you big baby.”

We both headed toward the locker rooms, and I grabbed my bag from Coach Equa’s office as she let me change in the bathrooms. I wasn't comfortable being mostly nude around the boys or girls, and she was aware of this, letting me have my privacy for six years now.

This was one of the upsides of going to private school since kindergarten. I was able to be a junior cheerleader at nine, and now at 15, I was on the junior varsity squad, my varsity spot already secured for the next year.

Once I was ready, my hair pulled up in a high ponytail, I packed my bag and headed to the field. I was the second to last there, the girls doing their warm-ups as the football team ran laps on the track around us, Caleb leading the pack.

“Oh damn.” Cindy giggled, waving to her boyfriend, Brent. “I love when they run around shirtless, don't you? Except Caleb, always in long sleeves.”

“I could take it or leave it.” I scoffed, dropping my bag on the bench and starting to stretch.

“Aster!” Caleb called as he passed me, coming to a stop. “You won't loosen up if you're being half-assed. I know you know better.”

“Why don't you go ahead and kiss my ass, you giant?!” I yelled back, and he winked, his warm brown eyes filled with mischief as he stole my water bottle from the bench and threw it across the field. “Oh goddammit. Go get it.”

“It's to make you run.”

“I'm so tired of you.” I walked over and poked his chest. “Why don't you just leave me alone?”

“Well, now, why would I do that? It's much more fun to piss you off. What are you going to do about it anyway? You're the size of my leg.”

Caleb pinched my cheek, and I smacked his arm away before I was suddenly tripped onto the ground, smashing my side into a bench. Amanda, the newest cheerleader on our squad, was suddenly standing there, touching Caleb on his biceps.

“Did that… ugh… thing hit you?” She gasped, batting her eyelashes as the wind blew her muddy blonde hair around.

“Get off me,” Caleb scoffed, pushing her away, “and leave me alone. Don't touch them,” he gently helped me off the ground, startling everyone, as Caleb never treated me nicely.

“Caleb?” I whispered before hissing, my side starting to burn.

“You tore your uniform. That's why you should stick to baseball." He tried to tease me, but his eyes gave away the concern he actually had.

“Caleb Steele!” Coach Gray called, and Caleb snapped his head over, shaggy brown hair fluttering beautifully in the breeze, “You know better than to mess with people. Five laps, let's go.”

“Oh, but he-” I started to interject, and Caleb shook his head, gesturing for me to be quiet.

“Right away, Coach.” Caleb took off, and I sat on the bench, Coach Equa running over to check on me, Harlow not far behind, as he was a running back and at football practice with Caleb.

“Did he hurt you?” Harlow gasped, “Aster, you're bleeding.”

“I'm fine,” I grumbled, “Amanda tripped me. She keeps doing stuff like this, Coach. Ask anyone. She calls me so many bad names and tries to start rumors that I'm only on the cheer squad to try and hook up with the girls. I don't even like girls!”

“Is this true?” Coach Equa turned on Amanda, who shrank back. “Squad?”

“It's true!” All of the girls shouted.

“She calls Aster he/she, a faggot, and a loser all the time,’ Cindy counted off on her fingers before coming behind me and squeezing my shoulders. "Aster’s been our best friend and support for 6 years. All she does is spread lies and run her mouth.”

“She's not good enough to be on our squad,” the team captain, Heather, joined in, sitting next to me, “I can't find anywhere to put her, and she's trying to cause issues.”

“She's also bringing morale down on the football team. If I can add anything,” Harlow called before Coach Gray yelled for him, “Gotta go. Aster, stay down, just watch today,” he ran to the field, hair bouncing as he did.

“Amanda, you're done, get your things and leave,” Coach Equa dismissed her, and Amanda left with a screechy whine before stomping off the field. “Aster, you stay there for today. Learn the routine by sight and join tomorrow. We'll catch you up.”

“Okay,” I nodded, moving to a bleacher and sitting with my chin resting on my knees, following the counts.

“Here,” a deep voice came from the other side of the railing, and I found Caleb staring at me, my water bottle in his hand.

“I'm sorry you had to run laps because of me,” I took the bottle, pouring a bit into my mouth.

“It's not your fault. How's your side?”

“Bleeding a little, but I'll have to have my aunt fix my uniform. I have my other one, though.”

“Um,” he nodded, “I'll just… see you later.”

“Yeah. I don't like you.”

“I don't like you either.”

The practices wrapped up a bit later as I waited in front of the school for my father, Kieran. Harlow was still in the locker room when a warm hand tapped my shoulder, and I tilted my head back to find Caleb staring down at me.

“Thank you for your help today, but stop following me,” I grumbled.

“I'm sorry she hurt you,” he whispered, “I just wanted to give you something,” he reached into his backpack and pulled out a small blue box.

“I won't marry you, Caleb.”

“Shut up, you asshole, you're the last person I'd ever marry. Open it. Dick.”

I opened the box to find bandages, and Caleb chewed his lip before leaving the box with me and walking away, climbing into the passenger seat of a beat-up green pickup truck.

“Why did he?” I muttered to myself before I realized he knew I was hurt and was just trying to help, “Like I'll use these.”

I grumbled for a moment before opening one and freezing. I had expected a simple, beige bandage, as you always found. But it was yellow and covered in tiny pink flowers.

“What the… fuck,” giggling, I put it on the worst part of my side, “I could use these against him.”

I sat there a bit longer thinking of how it would feel to tell everyone Caleb carried around cute bandages in his backpack. But it left a nasty taste in my mouth, and even if I had sworn Caleb to be my enemy, that was over the line. Caleb never did anything truly mean to me, just lived to annoy me, and I was the exact same way.

“I still don't like you,” I muttered at the pickup truck as Caleb's father drove away, “but thank you. Asshole.”