Half Hearted

Chapter Twenty Six

| Teresa |

I was already awake, but I couldn't get off my bed. The bus would be leaving in about an hour, but I didn't want to face him.

Not yet.

Cowering underneath my bed sheets, I gave myself a face palm.

I mean, I knew I was mad, but I shouldn't have gone out and drank myself silly. I basically revealed my whole life story, and more.

I shrieked when mom knocked at my door. "Darling you might want to have breakfast before you leave."

Sighing, I pushed myself off the bed and changed into my favourite pair of sweats, and a hoodie. Downstairs, the three of them were already around the table.

My heart skipped a beat when I caught a glimpse of Ash, his hair unruly but still attractive.

Taking a seat on the opposite side of him, I ate my breakfast with no eye contact whatsoever. I don't think he noticed.

When time passed by, and it was time for us to leave, I said farewell to my mom. Dad and Ash were at the door talking about something.

After I grabbed my backpack, we walked to the terminal and waited until the bus came. Neither of us talked as we did so, but I hummed my way through the whole ten minutes.

We seated ourselves at the very back when the bus did come, and I inched some space between us, trying not to be obvious about how I was slowly moving my ass bit by bit until I was basically pressing myself into the window.

And then, so that I had a good reason not to talk to him, I shut my eyes and feigned - which wasn't all that fake, because I did take a nap for half of the time - sleep.

| Ash |

Ash had to stop himself from laughing at her obvious attempts.

She'd been trying so hard to distance herself from him, that he didn't have to do anything at all. Good, his conscience spoke, stay this way until you're out of my life.

It was hard to say when she would be out of his life, really. Ash had a very vague idea of when Peter would call the publicity stunt quits.

For the rest of the bus ride, Ash played on his phone. It died just ten minutes before the bus came to a stop.

As people were getting off, he looked at Teresa, with her hair falling on her face. Trying to shrug every thought away, Ash gave her a harsh push on the arm. She woke, frustrated.

"Didn't have to be so rough about it," she muttered as she got up from the seat.

For a while they stood there waiting for a cab. Ash didn't have any cash on him, so he had to rely on Teresa. "Delta Hotel please."

Again, the two of them sat in silence as they both watched the buildings pass by on their side of the car.

Suddenly, Teresa's phone rang. "Hello? Yeah, he's here. I don't know. Sure. It's for you," she informed, handing him the Android.

Ash took the phone from her grasp, careful not to brush hands. "Why aren't you answering my calls?" Peter's voice spoke.

"My phone died on the way," he replied, rolling his eyes.

"Anyways I thought I'd let you know that Randall's guys are waiting for the two of you to get there. Act like a happy couple when you get out of that cab, alright?" Peter hung up before giving Ash the chance to speak.

Sighing, he gave the phone back to Teresa, "photographer's are gonna be at the hotel. I'll just hold your hand or whatever."

Teresa felt her cheeks heating up, but she simply nodded.