Half Hearted

Chapter Ten

| Ash |

Ash woke up with a blundering headache, and the events of last night came rushing to him. Fuck, he thought, I told her basically everything.

He heard shuffling feet as he sat down from the mattress, his eyes adjusting to the light.

"Of course I'm going to ask him about it," he heard Oria's high-pitched voice amidst the sound of the shuffling feet on the floor.

"No, you're not. I doubt he even remembers anything. Besides, judging from his drinking last night, he's probably got a hangover and you wouldn't want to make it worse," Teresa stated, walking into the kitchen and slowing down after seeing that he was awake. "Ash..."

"You're awake!" Oria came running into the kitchen. She searched his face frantically for any signs of illness. "Do you need hangover pills? I've got lots."

Ash shook his head, putting a hand on his temple and croaking out one word, "water."

Oria went straight for the glasses in the cupboard, and Teresa raised her eyebrows at him. She was being cautious of her every move. "Do you... perhaps remember anything from last night?"

Ash feigned ignorance, wanting to see how this would play out. "No, why? What did I do?"

"Teresa said you drank yourself to death at the bar, and then you passed out," Oria shrugged, handing him the glass of water. He drank it, and then stared at Teresa, who was now avoiding eye contact and staring at the clock.

"Really? I didn't do anything stupid last night? Say anything stupid?" He questioned, trying to get a reaction out of the girl with the bushy eyebrows.

She shook her head, "you stayed quiet all night, which was nice."

Ash finished the glass of water, wondering why she was acting this way. Had she just not wanted to talk to him about it, out of pity that everyone else would come to know the reason as to why he was this way? Or did she have another ulterior motive? The thoughts made him weary, and he needed to know why she was hiding this from her supposed 'best friend.'

He watched as the two of them left to go to school, staying quiet until he planned the right moment to confront her about it.

For about two hours he surfed the net, using Oria's tablet. He didn't log on to any of his social media, as he knew that would only make things worse. But he didn't bother deleting his accounts either. He had earned too many followers for him to get rid of his fans just like that.

Grunting as he saw yet another picture of Cheryl and Thomas, he turned the tablet off and went for a cup of tea. Since the only people in the household were girls, Ash had to settle for either a pink mug with blue and red lines and dots, or a bright yellow one with black cursive letters writing 'Coffee is the Shit.' He shook his head, missing the times when Cheryl slept over and complained that his house was too plain for a girl to live in. It was right after he'd proposed that she move in with him.

He was in the middle of boiling water when the phone rang. Curious, he saw that it was someone named Tyler. And then he remembered Oria saying something about Teresa confessing her love. Ash picked up the phone out of sheer boredom.

"Hello?" The person on the other end of the line spoke, astonished. "I didn't think anyone was going to pick up the phone."

"Hi," Ash spoke, changing his tone a little bit. He wanted to sound nicer, at least.

"Hey, who am I talking to?"

"Who am I talking to?" Ash asked, and he heard a sigh from the other person.

"You're talking to Tyler Williams," he replied. And then added with slight hesitation, "Teresa's childhood friend. Now, who is this?"

"You don't need to know," Ash grinned, already envisioning the questions running through his mind.

A grunt made its way from the other end of the line, "okay, could you just please tell Teresa to call me back? She's still at school, so I don't want to bother her."

"Okay, sure," Ash agreed. Tyler muttered a 'thanks' before hanging up. He smirked, knowing his presence would make things just a little bit more interesting with Teresa.

| Teresa |

The lecture went by normally, and as usual I found myself wanting to drop dead on the floor. Steven didn't show up, and he'd probably make up an excuse about his family. Oria never bothered to pry into his business.

When the professor signalled the end of the lesson, I yawned, grabbing my books and binders. Claire, instead of rushing off to head to her parent's restaurant, stayed with us. "My parents let me off the hook today. They're interviewing people for the new job. Mind if I stay with you guys?"

"Of course not," I replied, walking down the stairs and out the door.

"Where are we going anyways?" Oria asked, fiddling with her hair.

I thought about it for a while. And then I remembered about my own job. "I can drop you guys off anywhere, I've got a shift tonight."

"In that case, just drop us off at the apartment," Oria suggested, her eyes lighting up - probably at the thought of being with Ash again. "We still have to introduce Claire to Ash."

Claire slyly shrugged, "actually... I met him already - yesterday. I delivered some food from our place."

"Hey, he took my advice!" Oria beamed, her dimples digging deeper into her face. Advice? I thought to myself. It was that or settle with the spoiled milk at our apartment; of course he was forced to order food.

"He's rougher than I thought," Claire admitted as we got inside the car. She got in the backseat alone while Oria sat at shotgun. "I thought models were supposed to take care of their skin and everything, but he looks like he wants to do the opposite."

"Yeah, he's not in a great state. But we gotta stick it out for him anyways!"

After I dropped the two of them off at our apartment building, I headed to my workplace and started my shift. It was normal, and the physical labour took my mind off of a few things. I was just about to take another order when my phone started buzzing in my back pocket. Ignoring the uncomfortable feeling, I continued talking to the couple.

When I left, and put up the piece of paper on the metal hanger, I sighed and excused myself to go to the washroom. It wasn't busy anyways, and I only had that one couple in my area to serve.

"What?" I answered the phone, partly annoyed.

"Ash says Tyler called and asked you to call him back," Oria informed. Knowing her, she was probably smiling while she said that.

"I'm in the middle of my job right now, tell him I'll call him when my shift ends." With that I hung up and sighed.

What did Tyler want now?