Half Hearted

Chapter Thirty Two

| Teresa |

The Halloween party was tomorrow, and I hadn't even made up my mind yet whether I was to go or not. Oria tried offering advice, but she wasn't much help. The only people left were Steven, and Claire - who was unfortunately grounded for a week because of a mishap at a recital.

"I mean, the both of us aren't doing anything special, so I don't see why not," Steven shrugged, slurping away at the ramen.

"If you could, would you want to come with me?" I asked, basically begging for their companion.

"Sorry," Oria stated, not sounding sorry at all. "We've got our own plans for Halloween."

"But I thought you weren't doing anything special."

"First we gotta hand out candy to Kelly's kids from first floor, and then we eat dinner, and then... Well, you know."

I scrunched my nose, holding a hand up in the air. "Okay you're clearly not up for a party. But still, this is like my first party alone - without the both of you."

"Are you sure that's the only problem?" She teased with a smirk played on her lips.

I rolled my eyes at her, "he doesn't have any effect on me whatsoever. Besides, I'm there for the drinks, and for meeting new people. Which, by the way, I need help on choosing an outfit."

"Hold on, who's he?" Asked Steven, pausing his feast to listen in.

Oria shook her head and gave him a playful smack. It wasn't so playful, as I heard it all the way from the couches. "You're so behind. You seriously need a break from your business. He is Ash you dumbo."

I laughed at the way they were in their relationship, but felt a sudden twinge of envy.

"Ash as in Stymest? Him again?" He was appalled enough to stand up from the kitchen counter and walk to the couches. Then he stood in front of me, blocking the TV. "Do you really want to see him that bad?"

"Shut up. I don't," I answered, trying to continue on watching my show. He stepped side by side with every movement of my head, completely taking away from my vision of Nate Archibald. "Can you, like, please get the hell out of the way."

"I thought Oria was kidding all this time when she was telling me about you and some guy, but now I get it. You have the hots for him but you just don't want to admit it."

I didn't bothering trying to defend myself; everything I would say would be ignored, and they would keep trying to prove a point.

Steven sat down beside me and tried giving me pointers for impressing a guy - which I did not trust him on, since he was a whole different genre of male - while Oria tried going through my closet to find a dress for me to wear tomorrow.

Suddenly, a thought rang off in my head reminding me that I still had to call Peter. I quickly dialled his number and patiently waited for him to answer the phone.

But then suddenly a different voice answered it, and I had to look back to check if I had dialled the right number. "Hi, who's this?"

"This is Ash, who are you?" And then a slight pause. "Terry?"

A lump got caught in my throat, but I swallowed it away. "Terry? No, this is Teresa. Where's Peter?"

"In the shower."

"Oh," now it was my turn to give a short pause. "Uhm... Just tell him to call me back, in that case."

Ash hung up without saying another word.

| Ash |

"Are you planning all of this?" Ash shouted from his bed, knowing that Peter could hear him.

"Planning what?"

"Teresa at Starbucks, Teresa with the coat, and now Teresa on the phone," he gritted his teeth, staring at the phone in his hand. "And why do you have her name saved as Terry?"

"I thought of it a good nickname for her."

"Fuck no. That would be like me calling you Patrice, or something like that."

"Whatever. Why did she call?"

"I don't know, she said to give her a ring later on."

"Why didn't you take a message?"

"Cause."

"You egghead. You're such a coward."

Ash sighed, then turned on the TV. The show with 'The Kardashians' was on, so he gave out a loud grunt and turned it back off.

Once Peter got out of the shower, he took his phone with him to the washroom and called up Teresa.

Ash was exhausted from the week, and tomorrow night would only exhaust him more.

Not only would he have to dodge the girl Maudie tried setting him up with, but he'd also have to keep his distance from Teresa while trying to keep her from getting her drink spiked. Even though she would pop as the odd one out, with her fashion sense, there were still disgusting perverts out there who would try to shag anyone with a pulse.

The image of her possibly getting taken advantage of popped in his head, and he couldn't bear the thought. No matter what his feelings were for her - which he thought out to be 'hate' - he couldn't let that incident traumatize her again.

And he wouldn't. No matter what.