Tangled Strings

Chapter 6

Bryan

It was quarter past eleven and I still had five hours and forty five minutes in hand till Ashley came. So I logged in on YouTube. I liked watching the videos of some backyard scientists. They would experiment with cold drinks bottles. Also I wanted myself to keep up-to-date on the recent issues in the world like latest song releases, new movies and much more.

After about an hour I got bored and my eyes got itchy so I shut down my laptop and took out a book named Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Not everyone loves classics and I was specially asked to read it, by Ashley. She loves Jane Austen and her expression of words. I have just started reading and have gone as far as the second chapter and it seems BORING...  Everyone has their own choice, right? If I ask a person of literature background to go in for computers. Will he be able to? No, right! But I have to read... I cannot lie because after reading I have to give every single detail to Ms. Brookes. Yeah, she's caught me!

I had just read two pages of the third chapter when my eyelids seemed glued close. So I shut the book, adjusted my pillow and went off to sleep.

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The next thing I knew when I woke up was a cooling sensation down my spine and Ashley and Meghan standing in front of me, giggling. It's so cruel of them to do this, I thought and then laughed it off in my mind.

After this episode Ashley went down to the kitchen and started preparing something for dinner. She was baking a cake. Suddenly, out the blue, she asks me about the divorce. Yeah, my parents are getting divorced. It's not a big deal for everyone nowadays, but I don't like separation. Any kind of separation whether it is from friends, family or even school when we graduate. But yes, separation is an essential part of life. It makes us strong, somehow, and it becomes easier for us to drink pain more easily.

So I say it's okay and she calls me a champion. But I don't want to be a champion. I want to be her champion.

I don't know if it's true or not but I have read somewhere that girls have some sixth sense by which they get to know if a person likes her or not. But Ashley doesn't seem to get it. But it's fine. I want this feeling to develop inside of her too. So we don't lose each other in the course of my confession.

So I'm trying to listen to her champion speech, looking at her. But I can't understand any word of it. I just hear her voice, tingling my sensations and my heart. When I look at her, she's so...perfect. I mean,  God has never created a more beautiful person. And I love her, everyday, every time. Every minute of my existence I will spend loving her. Even if she doesn't, I won't let it bury my feelings. I will love her till...forever! And in between all this I just blurted out without knowing that she'd make a great wife! And she's got me...now the teasing will start. She seemed shocked at a moment and then thinking I was joking replied back with a joke–"for whom?" she said. "For me" I thought, but didn't say it out loud. I say "for anyone"... Anyone except everyone but me! "Oh shut up!" I order myself and got off the kitchen table on which I had been sitting all this while.

I went to the backyard. Backyard was my favourite haunt whenever I was upset or angry or when any other feeling developed inside me. I took out my orange ball—as Ashley refers to it—and aimed at the basket without any luck. Ashley joined me after a few minutes. I was never surprised how Ashley always found me whenever I tried to hide. Maybe my haunts were too well-known and I needed to change them or maybe Ashley was too well-known to my habits. And just, as if, reading my brain she added to our conversation that she'll always find me wherever I hide. That isn't true at all. If I don't want anyone to find me, I can disappear as if I'd never existed...but I just can't live without seeing my beautiful princess.

And then she asks a question that I'll always remember. Not that the question had hurt me or something but it was asked with such innocence on her face, her cheeks full of color and her eyes looking straight towards me. I was sitting on a chair but I couldn't feel anything under me. I couldn't even feel my own weight for a second and then I regained my consciousness. I had softened so much from her question that I could have melted right there. I put my hands in her oh-so-soft-and-silky hair and just shuffled them. They were so...velvety and soft and smooth. She liked my gesture. I could tell it from her expression. The sudden change she felt when my hand touched her hair. I could tell. I wanted to be her Romeo...it's just that I'm not fit for the task and that there are so many other good-looking boys that I don't think I stand any chance at all.

"I won't let you get away. At least not that easily." I will laugh at this for maybe forever. She won't let me get away. Like i was preparing to. I mean, come on, even I'm not that kind of a guy who would leave someone that easily!!

I'm all shocked when she mentions my mother and her offer to herself. I mean I was stunned that my mother would offer Ashley to stay for the night at our house. Not that she doesn't like Ash but she never has talked about it. It was an out of the blue offer. So, I apologize quite formally for my manners. I think this formal thing has been there in me for a while. Maybe sometime back when I started reading (or tried to read) classics a lot. By a lot I mean two chapters of Sense and Sensibility. And its also in my genes because we have a whole lot of Harding history which my father used to tell when he was still in his senses. Now it just seems he has lost it.

I was thinking and she says she won't stay. I wasn't surprised but it did hurt me. I wanted her to stay. I wanted to see how perfectly she fits in my family, how she looks when she's sleeping, what she does after waking up. I guess it wasn't time yet. Also, it's entirely her decision to stay or not. I don't want to force it down on her. So it's okay. But just so she knows I add that I would have liked if she was just...staying.

She looked hurt by this sentence and I immediately wished it back–that I had not spoken them in the first place. I knew her father was important for her but couldn't he spare her for just one night? I know Sam won't feel bad. He trusts us blindly and we weren't ever going to let him down. I just wish she changed her mind.

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A/N How was it? Did you like it?
Comment please...

Bryan is such a softy at heart... It's adorable... Or is it just me who finds him adorable?

And what do you think about Ashley? Will she stay? Or will she not?

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PS- Dedication to the birthday boy Mr. Chef ...!! yippiee...!! I hope I'm not too late to dedicate the chapter... And yes this was the least I could do... and yes your gift is pending..!! :P :D

Love,
Anshara.❤