Half Hearted

Chapter Twenty Nine

| Ash |

Ash couldn't help himself.

The pictures of Teresa and Grant were found all over social media, with his face crossed out at the sides.

'Mystery Girl and Barry Allen?'

'Love Triangle in the Making.'

He wanted to throw up at all the titles.

It hadn't even been a week, let alone two days, and rumours were already starting to rise?

Shaking his head, Ash scrolled past the individual pictures and settled on the one with Teresa and Grant holding hands. A throbbing pain awoke in his chest, but he found himself in denial over his feelings.

It seemed like his temper wanted to let loose again, and he was only one second away from throwing his phone at the wall.

"What's got your bollocks in a twist?" Peter came into the room, crashing down on his bed and sighing of relief.

"I shouldn't have let you fire her," Ash muttered, shaking his head and letting his phone fall on the bed.

"What's that?"

"Nothing," he said through his teeth. A bit frustrated with himself, he grabbed his newly bought winter coat and headed out the door, not bothering to tell Peter where he would be going.

Well, even he himself didn't know where he was going. His feet tended to wander at the most opportune times.

Once he was in the elevator, he remembered that he left his sunglasses in the room. What the hell, he assured himself, today doesn't seem like the day anything will happen.

But something did happen.

And as he strolled inside Starbucks, thankful that he'd made it more than ten blocks without being recognized, he caught sight of Teresa's dirty blonde hair. And then her untamed eyebrows.

Stopping in his tracks, he hesitated about actually heading in, but then his pride became the better of himself. She should be the thankful one, seeing me.

Proceeding to get in the line, he noticed three girls standing in front of him, talking ear to ear and eyeing Teresa down. A lump got caught in his throat as he tried ignoring the protective feeling. He'd gone more than a week without personally seeing her, and yet she still had this effect over him?

Sighing, he thought it best if he left it alone. Maybe the girls would be tired of shamelessly calling people names behind their backs. Besides, they didn't seem to be fighting for his cause. They didn't notice him, so they must've been in some other fandom. Grant.

He felt his hands clenching to a fist as he walked to the cashier to order. "Green tea frap, venti."

The girl grinned, placing the order down on the machine. She batted her eyelashes obviously, "that's a bit cold for the weather, don't you think?"

She was obviously trying to get his attention, but Ash ignored her without ease. "Don't you have other people to serve?"

Awkwardly, she called the person behind him, and he went to wait for his frappucino.

| Teresa |

I couldn't believe it was him. Out of all the places in Toronto that he could have gone for a drink, he chose the exact same place I was in. Unbelievable, I thought. I knew there was something called fate, but this was going too far.

I chose to ignore him, and continued talking to Kandice - my partner for our upcoming assignment, because Oria and Steven were now choosing to pair up with each other from now on - about what we were going to do for the presentation. Claire always chose to be by herself.

"I think it's fine if we split the talking parts," she suggested, her eyes wandering to our upcoming drinks. Then, they wander elsewhere. "Hey, do you see that guy with the tats?"

I mentally prepared myself for the usual comments on how 'hot he is', and didn't bother looking at his direction.

"He's been staring at you a lot."

My eyes grew wide, and I resisted the urge to turn around. Kandice lost some of her composure, "well, I think it's you. Because no guy like that would look at me. Well, I mean some guys have but they don't look like that. Besides, there's nothing interesting behind us or anything. Wait, is there?"

A chuckle escaped my lips as she realized she held eye contact with Ash for too long, and then she shrieked when our drinks came out.

Wanting to get out of there as fast as possible, Kandice excused herself and ran out the doors with her drink in hand. I turned around to grab my drink, but the funniest thing happened.

While reaching out, I felt a push on my rear, and suddenly I felt something wet on my back.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" A voice chirped out, causing me to turn around and face three girls - about half my age.

I was too shocked to reply, "I-uhm-it's fine, really." I let out awkward giggles as I tried ignoring the looks people around us were giving.

The girls turned to leave, and I could have sworn I heard one mutter something about Ash, but I shrugged it off. The sticky feeling was starting to ooze its way through my shirt, and I had to get out of there.

Completely embarrassed, I headed out of Starbucks in a frenzy, not even bothering to put my coat on. It was cold, but I didn't want to have to wash my coat from the sugary drink that she spilled on me.

For a few minutes I couldn't hear anything. I was so focused on thinking about what everyone thought of me back when it happened. Did they laugh? Did they pity? No one even bothered to help, and they all just resumed their regular lives.

Suddenly, tears threatened to come out of my eyes. Why didn't anyone even go as little as to offer to help?

I didn't have time to regain my composure when a voice called my name out from behind. Turning around, I saw that it was Ash. He was holding two drinks in hand, and one of them was the one I left behind.

He stopped jogging, and then extended his hand out to me. "Yours."

I shook my head, not wanting any affiliation with Starbucks whatsoever. "Just keep it," I stated blankly, turning around and starting to walk. But a firm hand grasped my wrist, forcing me to turn around again.

"Take it," he ordered, placing the warm drink in my hand. There was a stern look to him. Before I could try leaving again, he zipped down his coat and handed it to me. Then, he took the one from my hand and just held it.

I stood there, dumbfounded. What is this? He basically fired me, and continued to have to no contact with me whatsoever, but now he was doing this? What was he up to? "Do you want me to put the coat on you myself, or...?"

I shoved my drink in his arms - which were already full, thanks to my coat and his frappucino - then slung his Swiss Army coat over my shoulders. The warmth felt so relieving, I didn't bother thinking about the fact that he'd have to clean the mess up from the inside of his coat.

Ash stood there, waiting for me to zip it up. As he watched me struggle, since my hands were already feeling numb from the cold, he stepped forward to try and help, but I stepped back. He had no business playing games with me anymore. "Just stop, alright? Thanks for grabbing my drink, and thanks for this coat, but right now you're the last person I want to talk to."

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing in response. I kept the same, irritated look on my face. He was about to say something, but then he stopped himself - seeming to be in his own internal conflict - "fine. Just... get home safely."

And then he turned around and left. Just like that.

The frustration was far beyond belief.

Who did he think he was? Coming into my life whenever he pleased, giving me all sorts of feelings, and then dropping me like that?

The tear escaped from my left eye, and I wiped it away disdainfully.