Half Hearted

Chapter Eight

| Teresa |

The lesson ended in about two hours, and Oria left to talk to the professor about her B- essay - which to me would have been perfectly fine. Claire had rushed to go help her family at their restaurant. They were one man down since some guy had quit his job, three days after being hired, after finding out that they served duck.

Meanwhile, Steven and I stayed in perfect silence while walking to the parking lot. It wasn't until he just stood in the middle of the sidewalk that he started talking. "So... I did some research last night."

"Regarding what?" I asked, unlocking the doors with my remote key.

"The runaway Ash Stymest," he replied. His tone didn't sound so pleased when he said Ash's name. "Do you know why he ran away?"

I shook my head, urging him to go on. I had never even bothered to search up the reasons. "He owes his management money. A lot of it."

Raising my eyebrows I looked at Steven questioningly. "Really?"

He nodded, his eyes erratic and wide. "Some legal trouble came up and his management had to deal with it. But he couldn't pay them back, so he ran away."

Before I could comment any further, Steven saw my unsatisfied expression, so he continued. "But get this. Get this - he was caught for selling drugs to a minor."

"Oh," I sucked in a breath. He pursed his lips in a thin line, satisfied with my response.

"Are you going to kick him out now?"

"I would, but Oria wouldn't," I stated, seeing her make her way towards the car. "And don't tell her anything about this. Besides, we don't even know if it's true."

"But-"

"She'll figure it out for herself," I tried assuring his broken heart. "And us telling her won't make a difference. If she's already got it stuck in her mind that Ash is perfect, there's no going back."

He echoed my sigh as Oria opened the seat to the back. "Since I'm in a good mood today, I'll let you have shotgun, Steven. Professor Reedus just raised my mark to an A minus, thanks to my great rebuttal skills."

Steven congratulated her, obeying my advice and keeping Ash's past hidden. I still had to search it up for myself, since I had doubt that it actually happened. It seemed as if it were a shallow issue; he was so messed up it wouldn't have been something as small as selling drugs. Being addicted would have been a different story.

When we got to Steven's place, I parked in one of the two empty slots of his five door garage. The other three doors were taken by the matte black Bentley, the gorgeous Rolls Royce Phantom, and a Honda that must have belonged to Steven - he tried as much as possible not to rely on his parents for income. Since he had his own personal chef, we liked to hang around his house as much as possible. His chef was also a personal barista, although Steven's alcohol selection deemed too small for a house as big as house.

Oria just loved visiting his dog - an Alaskan husky. It was huge, but its fur coat kept it looking adorable.

"Hey, Charlie," Steven greeted his butler as he made his way through the entrance hall. No words could express how many halls there were in his house. "Could you please tell Alice to fix us up some lunch? I'm feeling a sandwich today."

"Right away," Charlie nodded, heading to the kitchen.

Churchill - the dog - came running towards us, and his breaths were heard from the other room. He greeted his owner, then proceeded to lick Oria's hand. I cringed, thinking of the hygiene. I wasn't much of a dog person anyway. Or a cat one, for that matter.

Deciding to do some spare research while waiting for the food, I pulled out my phone and went to Google. Then I typed in his name, only to find many stories on how his runaway came to be.

| Ash |

He had gotten hungry, and the bag of Ruffles just didn't seem to satisfy him any longer. Deciding to take Oria up on the Chinese takout offer, he picked up the phone and looked at the number. Who even has landline nowadays?

When a man with a heavy Chinese accent picked up, Ash ordered some spring rolls, and then added some soup. Oria had left him with a fifty, so he felt freedom in his choice of foods. He felt grateful for Oria, really. Her light attitude made his days seem that much happier. Teresa, on the other hand, was like a cloud that wouldn't go away.

He waited for about half an hour until the doorbell rang. When he opened the door he saw a petite Asian girl. She had fair skin, and her hair was tucked into a bun to suit the employee hat. "So it really is you," she breathed.

Ash raised his eyebrows in panicked concern, but she shook her head and explained herself. "I'm Claire, a friend of Teresa and Oria. We got the call from here and my dad told me it was a guy who made the call. Then I remembered Oria told me about some guy named Ash."

"Oria told you?" Ash asked, surprised. Although, he wasn't necesarily mad. Cheryl's lookalike could do no harm to him.

"Yeah. Anyways, here's your order."

Ash handed her the fifty dollar bill, and she handed him his change. She then left with a shy smile, and was out of his sight.

He locked the door after that, remembering Teresa's scowling face, and then continued watching The Walking Dead. He knew one of the actresses, Lauren, since she was a friend of... Cheryl.

Shaking his thoughts from his head, he found another title on Netflix and watched. The hours rolled by slowly as he found himself eager to get outside, but knowing that he'd make himself vulnerable to being seen if he did so.

When he couldn't settle on any other movies, he turned to cable instead. And after flipping through some channels, he settled on Entertainment News.

"In other words," the blonde woman held a smile. "Cheryl Hayes has now been spotted with British actor Thomas Sangster. Talk about being stuck in a maze. And as we all know, Cheryl was rumoured to have been dating Ash-"

He shut off the TV, about to throw the remote at the wall, but then calmed himself down. It was right then when Oria and Teresa decided to come back home.

Ash's thoughts were still unsettled, and the thought of seeing Cheryl's lookalike now, made him want to punch a wall. Without greeting them, he grabbed Teresa by the hand, taking her out of the apartment. Oria's questioning words were heard from behind him, and Teresa struggled to get out of his grip. But he was already in the mood.

And there was only one thing that could be done to take his mind off of it.