CHAPTER - 34 (not proofread, bear the mistakes)

LOVE IS... LIKE FIREWORKS

'Our love is like fireworks - bright and scary, but hard to walk away from.'

'You do know that I like you, right?'

I stared at him with unblinking eyes as he said those foreign words to me.

'You do know that I like you, right?'

His words echoed in my head, not making even an ounce of sense in my already overburdened mind, while I tried to calm myself and not jump to conclusions.

'You do know that I like you, right?

What kind of 'like'? What are you talking about? Could you kindly clarify further about what exactly was I supposed to know?

He quirked an eyebrow at me, conveying that he was waiting for me to reply; reply to his weird way of confession, but was it truly a confession or just another one of Ashton's stupid jokes? With him leaning against the wall, smiling as if he nothing dramatic had happened in the last one hour, he looked like he was talking about the weather, instead of his 'probable feelings'.

In my brilliant head, I could already foresee the probable future conversations. 'What do you mean that you like me?' I would ask with trembling lips and ragged breathing.

For a reply, he had a huge variety to pick up from. 'I like you as a friend,' or 'I like your cooking, so yeah, I like you and want to keep you around so that you'll cook for me. I'll ask Priscilla to pay for you that, as well,' or 'Ha! You fell for my joke, Liana. You really are an idiot.'

Apparently, all his probable answers involved me making a fool out of myself. No, thank you! I had already done that enough to last a lifetime. Hadn't I already made a huge fool out of myself by displaying my terrible mood swings in the last one hour? I decided against saying the obvious. There was no need for me to pay heed to his silly confession; a confession that he was so going to convert into a joke. I mean, c'mon, this was Ashton we were talking about!

So, in reply to his question, I shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Of course, you do. Everyone likes me."

His eyes widened at my response and he almost lost his balance. Thanks to the wall that he was leaning against, that he didn't fall. Before he could utter any word, I turned around and said over my shoulder, "Have a good night, Ashton."

"Liana!" he called yet again, but I chose to ignore his beautiful voice calling my name as if it was something melodious.

Once inside my bedroom, I turned around and saw him coming towards me. He clearly wanted to talk. But could I really even speak a word with the amount of butterflies in my stomach? So, thanks to the awful lot of butterflies, I did the only thing I could think of - shutting the door on his face with an innocent smile plastered on mine.

I heard him calling my name and I leaned against the door. I tried not to draw my own conclusions of his simple, friendly words while on the other hand, I tried to calm my rapidly beating heart. The sudden loud bang on the door did nothing to help my heart. I backed off from the door and narrowed my eyes towards it, trying to scare off Ashton who was on the other side. I couldn't allow him to play with words and then with my heart. No way!

With desperate eyes, I searched around my room while he continued the assault on my poor door. My eyes fell on my music player and my eyes widened as I recalled the first day of this assignment. Grinning, I walked towards it, ignoring Ashton's vain attempts and switched on the music player, increasing its volume at the maximum. 'And that's how the game is played', I wanted to tell the pro of the same game, but chose to keep my silence

But my grin faded as the song I had just played reached my ears in an ear screeching noise - My Anaconda by Nicki Minaj.

Oh great! As if the things were already going well.

Slapping my forehead, I changed the song in an instant, but heard Ashton's laughter during the little gap. With a little smile on my face, I shook my head and slowly stepped towards the door. Amid the soft music that was now coming through my music player, I could hear Ashton still banging the door with lesser force. There were calming sounds of his laughter as well, which made me sigh. He couldn't be laughing if he had actually confessed his true feelings to me, could he? No sane person could do that, especially not Ashton. He was way too aloof and nonchalant about his feelings. Listening to his heartbreaking story proved that.

Confessions of feelings and Ashton didn't go hand in hand.

It was all a joke.

'You do know that I like you, right?'

Nothing, but a joke.

A joke that left my heart to do flip flops and then left to get hurt all alone. It was weird that how with Ashton in the picture my emotions were all over the place. I leant against the door and silently prayed that what he said was nothing but a joke because I wanted it to be that only.

**

Day - 14

After turning and twisting in my bed for most part of the night, I had managed to sleep. When I woke up, I realized that it was better for me to just stay awake for the entire night as Ashton's little 'not so funny' joke had given birth to the rays of hopes to the little girl inside me and all I dreamt about was the 'happily ever after' that Ashton and I were going to have in the near future. Yeah, right!

I buried that little girl deep inside. There was no place for her in this big bad world.

As I stared at myself, while brushing my teeth, I couldn't decide how I was supposed to behave with him this morning. With everything that he had told me about himself last night, he had managed to creep his way into my heart deeper than before. Add to that, his stupid joke!

Shaking my head, I tried to clear it from my messed up, confused feelings. It was better to stay focused on brushing my teeth rather than think about Ashton.

Once I was done, I went straight towards the kitchen, trying not to stare at Ashton who was lying on the couch. "Good morning." I heard him say and my heart skipped a beat.

After calming my stupid heart, I chirped in an over enthusiastic voice. "Good morning. Would toast be fine for breakfast?"

He was silent for a little while, eventually answering, "Yeah".

"Perfect!" I chirped again and gritted my teeth together to keep the over enthusiastic Liana from coming outside. Hadn't I just decided to behave normally? My chirping was anything but normal.

For the next few minutes, we sat silently, indulged in the breakfast and our respective thoughts. My thoughts were mostly about knowing what Ashton's thoughts were. Many more questions were coming up in my mind and I wanted to know everything about him.

"Ashton," I started saying. He looked up at me and I cleared my throat before continuing, "I-I'm sorry for last night."

He raised his eyebrows and I continued, "I acted on impulse."

Rolling his eyes, he said, "Of course, you did. It was not you."

"Yeah, I mean, I should have understood that telling that wasn't easy for you."

"God, you have no idea!" He closed his eyes as if remembering the pain and I bit my lips in utter sympathy.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have forced you." I apologized whole heartedly. In my anger of feeling betrayed, I had selfishly ignored his feelings.

He shook his head. "You didn't force me. I feel better after saying that to you."

Smiling, I told him, "Sharing feelings make us feel lighter, right?"

Chuckling, he answered, "Well, can't say I agree to that."

Frowning, I asked, "Why?"

With raised eyebrows, he stared at me for a while as of waiting for me to understand his answer on my own, but I really couldn't. So, in reply, I raised my eyebrows as well. Eventually, he sighed and chose to answer, finally, "With the kind of reply you gave, I felt far more than lighter. Try some antonyms of 'lighter', will you?"

A confused frown made its way to my face and I reminded him, "My reply? I had hugged you and apologized for being so inconsiderate."

"Oh C'mon, you slammed-" he stopped mid sentence once I completed my sentence. After shaking his head, he took a deep breath and smiled slightly. "Liana, what exactly are you talking about?"

With furrowed eyebrows, I looked at him as if he had just asked the dumbest question in the world, which he definitely had. "Your confession about your past." He stared at me with disbelief clear in his eyes, and then he threw his head back before groaning. "Ashton, are you okay?" I asked, covering his hand with mine on the table between us.

His groans changed to laughter and my frown deepened as he continued laughing at nothing at all. Sensing my confused yet irritated glare at him, he calmed down and replied, "Yes, Liana. I'm okay, but you-" he stopped as he stared and smiled slightly before continuing, "-you are an idiot."

I pressed my lips together as I stared at him in nothing but confusion. I thought of putting aside his strange talks for the moment by satisfying my ever-curious mind. "When we met at that bar, about four months back. . ." I started and Ashton looked at me. Clearing my throat, I continued, ". . . what happened that night?"

He raised his eyebrows at my question and slowly chewed the bite in his mouth. "Are you always so curious?" he asked. With a grimace, I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't want to lie. Smirking slightly, he commented, "Curiosity killed the cat."

I added with a chuckle, "But satisfaction brought it back."

His smirk grew. "You do know that it was added much later, right?"

Shaking my head, I stated, "Contrary to what you look like, you're actually intelligent."

He threw his head back in laughter and a smile made its way to my face. "What do I look like?" he asked in a suggestive tone, resting his elbows on the table between us.

'Hot, sexy, amazingly handsome with those inviting lips on that perfectly sculpted face,' was what came to my mind in an instant. Thankfully, these wonderful words left me tongue tied for a moment and I didn't say what my heart wanted to say. Instead, I settled with, "Ugly, ill mannered jerk, and a perfect example of the word 'lethargic'." He laughed again, making me press my lips together. "I request you, not to change the topic." I interrupted his laughter.

His laughter faded and he smiled his 'charming my pants off smile'. "And I request you to say, at least once, what you actually want to say," he said in a husky voice; a voice that successfully fused all the bulbs inside my head for a prolonged moment.

I stared at him with a surprised look on my face as his words settled in my mind. Was he implying what I thought he was implying? I opened and closed my mouth a few times to say something, but I couldn't come up with anything.

Considering my state of speechlessness as a reply in itself, he shook his head slightly and smirked. "It was Priscilla and Ryan's wedding anniversary that night. I had attended that party on Priscilla and Dylan's insistence as I hadn't met Priscilla in years, even after she tried to make amends. I went there, some started talking about some of the rumors that float around about me and they reached Ryan's ears. He confronted me and said that I was an uninvited guest. I tried to keep calm, but then he started repeating every f*cking rumor, showing that he believed all that shit. He started calling me a drug addict, a psycho, a rapist, and what not." He chuckled as he stared at me with emotionless eyes. "That was probably the high point for me. And after a silence of almost twenty years, I snapped at him. In front of two hundred people, I told him that I'm glad to be called as a drug addict or a psycho rather than being called as his son."

I bit my bottom lip and flinched ever so slightly at his harsh words, but who was I to judge? It wasn't me who faced everything he had faced since his childhood.

"And history repeated itself, when people very conveniently ignored everything he had said to me and highlighted one f*cking sentence that I had said," he said with a sardonic grin. "After that I took off from that place and realized that probably the only true companion I could get in such an awful night was some good ol' liquor."

I smiled slightly as I realized that my thoughts were exactly the same on that fateful night. "And I interrupted your companionship with liquor," I commented, not feeling sorry about my interruption. After all, he was the one who had interrupted. Not that I was complaining.

Matching my smile, he shook his head. "And I met you."

Smiling, I tugged a hair strand behind my ear and asked, "Why did you come back to New York?"

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I was in Europe for a long time, taking inspiration for my paintings. But five months back, I realized that I needed a stable change and I came back. I missed this city, you know. So, this city gives me inspiration now."

How ironic was it that when I was opting for an 'adventurous change', he was opting for a 'stable' one? I couldn't do anything but silently agree with him on the parts about the New York City.

I racked my mind for the many questions that were scattered in there. This was for the first and probably the last time when Ashton was giving away straight answers, without any sarcasm or taunts or pervert remarks. And I was so ready to grab it. "Who was the girl with Mr. Bingley and you in that café?"

He frowned at my question, probably trying to remember the person I was talking about. "Oh!" His eyes widened in realization and he asked, "Are you talking about the day when I lied to you?"

With a scoff, I told him, "One of the many times you lied to me? Yeah."

Keeping a hand on his heart, he mumbled, "Touché!" I rolled my eyes at him, after which he continued, "That was Bingley's sister. I met her to get your laptop fixed. She has some friends who are kind of experts in all this." He shrugged as if it was nothing, while in all honesty, it was a lot. All this time when I thought of him as a useless, good for nothing, selfish jerk, he was doing something so thoughtful for me; wasting his precious Sunday on getting my laptop fixed.

My heart melted to the core at his confession and my stomach started galloping like a wild horse that had been set free after years. The little girl in me who was a huge fan of Ashton, whom I had been trying to bury deep inside me, resurfaced at the speed of light to the topmost position, leaving every sane thought in my mind far behind. She was winning and she knew it.

He snapped his fingers in front of my eyes, bringing me back to the present. Passing a grateful smile, I told him, "Thank you so much." My mind was fast enough to tell my mouth to shut up and not start with my confessions of love for him; the confessions that were sure to make him run away from me and stop telling everything that he was telling or maybe, stop meeting me. My heart couldn't afford it, but my mind wanted that.

A ragged sigh escaped my lips at the never ending battle between my heart and mind. "Do you wish to reconcile your differences with your father?" I asked the next question that popped in my head.

He raised his eyebrows and corrected me, "He is not my father. And no, all my interest has vanished."

"I understand." I nodded.

"Would you-" he started, "-take back Nylon if he ever comes back, begging you, asking you to go back in his life?"

Chuckling, I told him, "No, I would never." That was not even a question now.

"Wow! You didn't correct his name this time. You must be telling the truth." He observed and said with pride in his voice and satisfaction on his face.

Laughter escaped my lips as I shrugged. "There is one more thing that I want to know," I mumbled.

"Of course!" He replied way too sarcastically and tried to appear interested. I shot him a 'be serious' look and he rolled his eyes. "Before that, let me tell you that this is the last question that I'm answering for you in this twenty days ordeal. You should feel f*cking blessed that you're getting to know me." His cocky smirk and his little action of lifting his collar in the end of his little 'I, me and myself' speech gladly reminded me of the arrogant jerk I had met in the beginning of this assignment.

"Yes, your highness!" I replied with a sickly sweet smile to which he replied with a bigger smirk. "Why did you agree to do this assignment when you're on such non agreeable terms with your mother?"

He chuckled at my question. Running his fingers through his thick, unkempt hair, he answered, "I never agreed to do it. I was informed about it through Dylan the night before you first visited me. I was so pissed off at her that I couldn't sleep the whole night. And when I finally managed to sleep, I was rudely woken up by continuous door bells." He smirked knowingly at me and I bit my lip while scratching my ear in a sheepish expression. Immediately, I recalled the first day and remembered his super tired form. Realizing my terrible timing of interrupting him that day, I felt guilt creep up its way to my heart.

Before I could apologize for being a judgmental b*tch, he continued, "To say that I was shocked to see you at my apartment door that morning would be the biggest understatement." He chuckled, looking at me with his warm grey eyes, and I found myself smiling back at him with all my heart. "I thought I was dreaming." He laughed and I chuckled. "I was so shocked that I said the first f*cking words that came to my mind and insulted you." My cheeks reddened at the embarrassing memory of being called a bear and I ducked my head, looking at the little piece of my long forgotten toast. He continued, "I had decided that I was not going to be part of this stupid assignment, but-" he trailed off.

I looked up and probed, "But?"

"But..." he trailed off again, looking straight in my eyes.

All I could manage at the sudden tension between us was a whisper, "But what?"

He broke the eye contact, smirked teasingly and counter questioned me, "Didn't I just tell you that that was the last question that I was answering you in these twenty days?"

I gaped at him in utter disbelief, while his smirk grew. "You are a cheater."

Laughing, he bowed his head as if I had thrown compliments his way and all I could do was scowl at him for being so mysterious yet again. I got up from my seat and went towards the sink to put my plate away. I was silently cursing him with my limited curse words when I felt him right behind me. Putting a full stop to my curses, I turned around and came to face to face with him. As expected, there was that annoyingly charming smirk on his face.

Just as I opened my mouth to say something that could wipe off his smirk, he stopped me with his next words. "Till when are you planning to act like I didn't tell you that I like you?"

So much for thinking of wiping off his smirk, he wiped off every thought from my mind. After what felt like a prolonged moment, I managed to mumble, "I don't know what you're talking about."

He took a step towards me, making me step back and collide with the slab. "Are you sure that you don't know?" he asked in a challenging tone.

Taking a ragged breath, I mumbled a little rant, "Um... yeah, you said something about liking me. Yeah, all friends are supposed to like each other. Yeah." This was what I had derived from his