27. A Fire

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CHAPTER – 27

 

LOVE IS... A FIRE

'Love is a fire. But whether it's gonna warm your heart or burn your house down, you can never tell.'

I couldn't exactly tell whether the murmurings had started once I was left alone at a corner of the party upon Kim and Keith's exit from the venue and when Ashton took leave amidst our conversation, or they were there since our arrival. But now when I was left alone, I couldn't stop them from reaching my ears.

"I can't believe he is here tonight."

"Isn't this his first appearance in months?"

"I didn't think he was going to be here tonight."

"I know, right? Especially after everything that happened the last time, it comes as a surprise."

"Do you think he is still taking drugs?"

"He looks stoned tonight."

"And so does the girl who came with him."

"Well, I think he looks exceptionally handsome tonight. Maybe he is not an addict anymore."

"When it comes to Ashton Parker, you can never say."

"I agree. I've been to school with him and I know that he is excellent at pretending."

These were few of the many statements that my brain registered in the crowd. Some people claimed to have gone to school with him, some said they were classmates in college, some dragged attention of their respective little crowds by saying that he used to play baseball with them when they were kids, about twenty odd people made their listeners gasp by telling that they used to be best friends once and that 'once' was before he got into 'bad things', and fifteen women of different age groups had claimed to take Ashton's virginity.

Rolling my eyes at the amusing rumors that the people in the party were indulging in, I started searching for Ashton. It had been almost half an hour since he disappeared somewhere and I had been getting utterly bored since Kim and Keith said their goodbyes about twenty minutes back.

All I wanted to do was find Ashton and go home.

With a sigh, I left the support of the wall and placed the untouched wine on the nearby table. Alcohol and I couldn't get along well. This was just another one of the many differences between Ashton and me. The list was getting longer by the passing days.

A few more rumors were heard and ignored by me as I made my way towards the bathroom. It looked like even the bathroom was built up especially for the party hall. My average earning brain started doing mental calculations about the money they must have spent on something as useless as a 'Party Hall' in their mansion. Shaking my head at myself, I entered one of the stalls and did my business. Just as I was fixing my clothes, I heard two girls entering inside the bathroom giggling their hearts out.

"He is so hot. Definitely hotter than Dylan."

"No! I find Dylan hotter. Have you looked at his eyes? Wow!" the other girl said.

"Well yes, but Ashton has that dangerous, serious spark in his eyes that makes me drool," the first girl said.

Ashton's name pricked up my ears and my imagination was fast enough to picture his beautiful eyes. I couldn't disagree with her. Their laughter brought me back and the second girl asked, "When did he come back from rehab?"

"So even you heard that he went to a rehab again some four months back?"

"Of course! Everyone knows it. Taking drugs lands you there. It's the truth anyways. I mean, Priscilla never told anybody exactly where he was during these months."

The first girl hummed in agreement while I tried to fathom whether there was even an ounce of truth in anything that these girls and the people outside were saying. My mind suddenly went to one of the candidate's we had met, Tiffany. Even she had asked him about drugs.

 

"I also read about your drug intake. It's good that youhave left it."

Ashton hadn't denied it, in fact, he had answered with, "Who said I have left?"

 

I forced myself to not believe in any of the crap that I was witnessing tonight. I trusted Ashton. I really did. It was better if I didn't let my judgments get clouded by rumors as baseless as these. Wasn't there a rumor about him having a pet snake at his place? I let out an inaudible snort at the memory. Of course, none of it was true.

"It's a surprise to see him here tonight," the first girl said.

"I know, right? After everything that happened at the party here, about four months back, it comes as a shock. Honestly, I'm more surprised by the fact that Mr. Parker even invited him," the second girl added her input.

"Tell me about it! The entire scene he had created that night was such a blunder."

"Messy childhood, messy relations, messy party, and messy life."Ashton's words rang in my head. Were these girls talking about that night? For some reason, I was sure they were talking about the same night.

"Seriously! I can't believe that Dylan and Ashton are brothers," Dylan's fan voiced out. "Dylan is such an angel and Ashton is a devil."

"He is not," I mumbled to myself, not being able to bear this crap any longer. It was weird how I had, myself, labeled him as a devil in the beginning of this assignment and now, I couldn't bear anyone else calling him this.

The first girl interrupted my thoughts. "Yeah. No matter how sexy he is, even I can't deny the fact that he is an alcoholic who raped someone. He should be glad that he has a family like this who saves his a*s every time he commits a crime."

My jaw dropped open at the new piece of information. I could hear my heart beating loudly and threatening to come out of the ribcage at the absurd news.

Rape? Impossible!

That was the last resort for my patience and I stormed out of the cubicle, making their heads snap in my direction. I washed my hands with tightly clenched jaw and ignored their gaze on me. Drying my hands, I decided to ask them with a fake smile on my face, "Oh! I'm sorry. Were you discussing about Ashton Parker?"

They again giggled and one of them replied, "Almost everyone at the party is talking about him." I realized that she was the first one i.e. Ashton's fan.

I laughed a tight, fake laugh in response and asked from both of them, "So did you see any of these things that you just said with your own eyes?"

Giving in to my satisfaction, they shook their heads.

With a bigger smile, I asked again, "Then you must have heard it with your own ears from Ashton himself, right?"

Again, they shook their heads, looking at me with confused frowns on their faces.

I wiped off the fake smile from my face and let my lips press in a thin line. With narrowed eyes and clenched jaw, I advised them, whole heartedly, "If you didn't see it with your own eyes or hear it with your own ears, then don't invent it with your f*cking mouths!"

With that I stormed out of the bathroom, leaving the gossip mongers to themselves in complete shock. I didn't ponder over my rare choice of words. They didn't have a filter over their mouths and sometimes, it was just okay to remove the filter from mine as well.

"Where are you, Ashton?" I muttered with clenched jaw as my eyes roamed over the corridor. Taking out my phone, I called him. He answered after the fourth ring and I shot my question at him in an annoyed voice, "Why did you bring me here when you had to leave me alone?"

His throaty chuckle could be heard through the phone and he answered, "Come on the second floor, third door to the left."

"But why?" I asked in confusion but he cancelled the phone in response. Rolling my eyes at my phone in annoyance that was directed towards Ashton, I looked around to spot a staircase away from the heavy crowd of the party. With tightly clenched jaw and fists, I made my way towards the staircase. Anger towards Ashton for leaving me alone in this stupid party consumed my thoughts, which got fuelled by the many rumors I had the misfortune of hearing in the last half an hour.

Did Ashton know about these rumors? Of course, he must know. Almost everyone who was interested in gossip columns was aware of these irritating and baseless rumors. How in the world could he handle these so well?

I reached the first floor and just as I was about to take the first step towards the second floor, I heard a voice that made me stop and retreat my step.

"Ryan, don't make a scene here. Please!" Priscilla's low voice reached my ears and I stopped in my tracks. Putting my detective skills to use, I peeked slightly towards the dark corridor and spotted Priscilla and her husband, Ryan Parker, standing there in a strained atmosphere. I hid behind the wall, and decided to use my ears only. I couldn't risk getting caught while doing something as skillful as eavesdropping.

"I'm the one creating a scene here? Are you serious? Why the hell is he even here?" Her husband asked her in a hiss, a hiss that travelled perfectly through the empty corridor and reached my ears.

"Because I invited him."

"Why?"

"Why shouldn't I have invited him? It's my birthday and he is our son."

"He is not our son, Priscilla. Not after everything he did seven years ago." My eyes widened at his harsh words and I covered my mouth to stop the gasp that was threatening to escape my lips.

"I still refuse to believe any of that." She defended in a strong voice, making my heart fill with slight happiness. I still couldn't believe that Ashton had problems with her, and after listening her defending him in front of her husband, I promised myself to try to make things fine between them.

"Oh stop it! You and I both know that he is just like his real parents... just like your sister and her useless husband. I gave him so many chances, Priscilla and you know that. But not now! He has been nothing but shame for us. Don't you remember what he did four months back? Of course, you remember that and you still invited him? I can't believe this. Look at everyone! Everyone is talking about him and his scandals."

"Don't start this now, please! He looks fine... in fact, he looks happy. Can't you see that?"

"No, I can't because I don't want to!" he shouted, making me jump at my spot at his coldness. "I'm fed up of your ways of making up for a person like him. Get back in your senses, Priscilla and make sure that he leaves tonight as early as possible because if something like that night happens again, you wouldn't want to imagine what I would do to him."

An inaudible gasp again escaped my lips at the cold, ruthless threat and I covered my mouth in an instant. Hearing the footsteps coming towards me, I hid behind the staircase, holding my breath, trying to comprehend everything that I had just heard. The footsteps became louder and eventually faded away but I was too lost in my thoughts.

Realizing how truly messed up things in Ashton's life were, my eyes filled up with tears. First the horrendous gossips and then his own family saying things like these about him, clearly not accepting him, how could Ashton handle all this? I couldn't believe the gossips, not at all. But how could I just brush off everything I had just heard from Mr. Parker's mouth? I had to know the truth.

In search of that truth, I walked to the second floor and reached the third door to the left.  Running my tongue over the upper set of teeth, I brought my trembling hands to knock on the door. About two minutes later, the door flew open presenting Ashton, who was looking at me with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Took your sweet time, didn't you?" He rolled his eyes at me.

Nodding my head, I mumbled while looking at the floor, "Yeah."

"Idiot," he mumbled and took a step back, doing one thing he had loved doing since the first day we met – shutting the door at my face. But unlike all other times, I wasn't surprised; I didn't call him or bang the door... I just didn't react. Probably that's what made him open the door in merely a minute. He didn't say anything for a while and I kept staring at his leather shoe clad feet. Bringing his finger under my chin, he lifted my head up so he could see my face and I could look back in his mysterious grey eyes.

'Tell me everything!' I wanted to shout. 'Stop being a stupid mystery!' I wanted to order. But I couldn't do any of that. All I could do was stare back in his eyes and try to find some answers. And what I saw, clearly surprised me.

Care... care and concern for me.

He must have seen something as his eyes widened slightly and he asked, "What happened? Did somebody misbehave with you? Why are you crying, Liana?"

Not bothering to reply to his questions, I stepped towards him and hugged him. Nobody deserved to be treated in such a way. There had to be a story behind every rumor, behind every talk, and no matter how much my mind was cursing me for being an idiot who was willingly running towards trouble, I couldn't help but not believe anything I had just heard.

"What's wrong, Liana? Why are you crying?" he asked, keeping his hand at the small of my back.

Clearing my throat, I stepped back and hastily wiped the little tears that had managed to run down my cheeks. Was I ready to ask away all the questions and make him run in the opposite direction, which he sure would? Was I ready to give him time and trust me enough to share his dark secrets with me? I shot a smile in his direction and told him, "I was just missing my dead dog." I never had a dog.

He shook his head while muttering, "Unbelievable" and asked, "And you hugged me because I am like your dog?"

My lips twitched up ever so slightly and I suggested him, "Don't flatter yourself."

He threw his head back and laughed lightly. I couldn't help but stare at him as he looked... normal and fine. Was he aware of the things that were being said downstairs? I hoped not. I didn't want to see his scowls. His laughs were better.

  

"Don't want to come inside?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

Raising my eyebrows at his question, I asked back, "You're showing courtesy? Is everything okay?"

He chuckled and turned around, leaving the door open for me to enter. "This is exactly why I'm not a gentleman. It's easier being a jerk."

"Is it?" I entered inside and my eyes wandered to every wall of the room that clearly belonged to the younger version of Ashton Parker.

"Yeah." He grunted, stretching his arms over his head. His action made me shift my focus from his interesting room to his very interesting body. He had removed his grey jacket and I watched as his muscles flexed under his crisp white shirt. "People expect a lot if you're gentleman." My eyes snapped towards his face when he continued, "But if you're a jerk, zero expectations."

"So you're afraid of expectations." The words slipped from my mouth before I could give a second thought to them.

His eyes widened ever so slightly and after a second, he smiled a bitter smile. "Afraid of not fulfilling them."

My breath caught in my throat at the intensity of his voice accompanied by his dark gaze. Was he finally ready to open up to me? Sharing his fears with me...? I waited for him to add something else but he didn't. "And...?" I urged him to continue.

The serious look from his eyes disappeared somewhere and he smirked, "There is no 'and'. Don't even think that."

"Think about what?"I tried to act all innocent.

"About whatever you're trying to do. Hell, I don't want to talk about it." He brushed me off with a slight shudder as if the topic disgusted him. I rolled my eyes at him, and looked at his room. There weren't any pictures of him or anyone else which disappointed me. A little hope that had built up on entering his room and finding out something about him disappeared into thin air.

"You've a great room here," I commented with a smile. It really was a beautiful room with light brown colored walls and the huge king sized bed in the center. It was clear that even when he lived here, he didn't spend much. The furniture looked expensive but was very basic. I liked it.

"You've a great rack there," he commented back, making me look at him with a frown on my face. What was he talking about? That question was answered when I saw his eyes travel to my breasts.

A gasp escaped my lips and I yelled at him, "You are such a disgustingly pathetic pervert." He laughed at my outrage and I turned around to shake my head at his stupidity.

'Jerk. He really is a jerk.'

My eyes landed on a beautiful painting hanging right beside his cupboard. It was a painting of a mother playing with her son. It was a happy picture, showing their bright smiles, fading away every poor thing in the background. "Wow!" I found myself walking towards it and standing right in front of it, not taking my eyes off the perfectly colored painting. "Did you paint this?" I asked in complete awe, not being able to remove my gaze from the framed canvas.

He snorted. "With my left hand," he replied sarcastically. I shot him a dirty look and he answered, "Darcy painted this."

"Who is Darcy?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

"Guess who?" He chuckled.

A gasp escaped my lips. "Mr. Darcy? That's his name of the day?"

Ashton nodded, rolling his eyes. "He is f*cked up."

"He is a sweetheart," I defended in an instant.

"Yeah, right!" Ashton leaned against the closet, looking at me with narrowed eyes. I stared back in his eyes, getting lost in them. My mind recalled everything that had happened tonight. This was supposed to be a simple night where we had to attend a grand party. It was not supposed to turn out like this. I was not supposed to remember that night. I was not supposed to hear any of the gossips that were spreading like wild fire downstairs.

"Why did you come upstairs?" I managed to ask.

His jaw clenched slightly and he kept on looking at me. After what seemed like hours, he sighed heavily and mumbled, "The gossips were tiring the living hell out of me."

My eyes widened at his honest confession. "You heard them?"

He snorted. "Who didn't?"

"Want to talk about it?" I tried to push my luck. He had to tell me the truth. He had to open up to me.

He stared at me for a while and sighed. "I just hope that one day, preferably when we're both blind drunk, we can talk about it."

Raising my eyebrows at him, I pointed out. "Quoting J.D.Salinger wouldn't help you."

"Impressive!" He grinned, making my heart skip a beat. He was so keen on changing the topic and his beautiful grin was successful in doing exactly that.

A defeated sigh escaped my lips when I realized that I had failed yet again. "Let's leave." I started walking towards the door. There was no use of staying in this useless party anymore. Ryan Parker's threat started ringing in my ears and I shuddered involuntarily.

"Just remember, Liana, there is no smoke without fire." His words made me stop in my tracks and I turned around abruptly. It was his voice; his serious tone and his shadowed grey gaze that made me look at him in complete shock. What did he mean by this?

There was no doubt that I wanted to listen to Ashton's side of story. I wanted to know every truth from his mouth.

"I don't mind the fire as long as it brightens up its surroundings which I know it does," I replied back with equal seriousness.

"Then it burns down everything; takes down everything with it," he snapped and we both knew that we were not talking about fire any more.

I shot him a

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