His Smile

CHAPTER 54

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you said, but people will never forget how you made them feel - Maya Angelou.

Third Person's POV

She was almost close to climbing the stairs when she heard Grayson's voice. They had entered. It urged her to turn and so she did. Her eyes were set on them as they both were carrying brown paper bags she could perceive contained food. She was about to ignore how hungry she felt and continue her journey to her room but immediately her feet touched the first stair, her tummy grumbled, loudly, that she could swear everyone probably to heard it.

"Woah!" Pierson was the first to comment. Gosh! Did she feel embarrassed, she couldn't take another step. "Ashley, was that you?" He asks the obvious.

So much for not wanting Gray to notice her. She awkwardly turns towards Pierson.

"Y- yeah." She grimaces.

Grayson's attention was immediately drawn to her, his heart fluttering in response to seeing her. A smile lights his face and he goes to drop the bags on the dining table.

"You must be hungry?" Pierson suggests and she blushes out of embarrassment, "I guess." She mutters.

"Brought you all breakfast." Grayson says to the rest and after dropping it, heads straight for the stairs where Ashley was, frozen on spot, unmoving and when he gets in front of her, she had no option than to look at him. Her nerves were wracking but she manages to set them at bay.

"Good morning." He greets and was going in for a hug- their normal routine- but she dodges it by blocking him with her hand and stepping back. She only nods in response to the greeting and continues to climb the stairs. Grayson was stupefied to say the least, by her sudden rejection and man, did it hurt? Very. His eyes trail behind her as she rushes up the stairs. He stood there unmoving, and when she was out of sight, he was still rooted in spot still, thinking of what just happened. This was so unlike her, so unusual of her. Did something happen while he was away?

Letting out a shaky breath, he shuts his eyes briefly before opening them again, frustrated all of a sudden. He heads back to where Pierson, Cole and Lucas were, watching him carefully. As he took a seat, they were all looking at him, just confused as he was at Ashley's reaction.

"What's wrong with your girl?" Pierson was the first to ask.

"Don't know?" His voice breaks at the end.

"I think you should talk to her, she's not usually like this." Lucas says trying to comprehend the situation at hand, "She seems upset at something, you need to find out."

Gray just nods his head because he couldn't trust his voice at the moment.

_ _

Breakfast was literally hell for everyone else as they could notice how tense it was between Grayson and Ashley. They were both not talking much and barely eating their food. Lucas, Cam and Pierson were trying their best to make both of them at least, smile to reduce the tension, but it wasn't working. Yvie too did her part by bringing up funny events and stuff to dissipate the tension but all they both did was fake their smiles. Eventually, Ashley gets up, trashes the food and leaves the table. Grayson on the other hand looked so hurt that she wouldn't even look at him, but he covers it up by trying to smile at some of the jokes Cam was cracking at the moment.

_ _

Ash stayed in the room for the rest of the day. And no matter how Cam and Yvie tried, they were not able to convince her to talk about her sudden ordeal. But one thing was sure, they knew it had something to do with Anne. Grayson asked to speak to her, but she made Cam lie to him that she was asleep.