Serena's POV

We still were on our way to his place, me holding onto his back like a monkey, him carrying my weight with ease in complete silence, after he broke it. "Do you eat properly?"

"What? Why?" I asked back.

"You're literally the lightest thing ever. No wonder you passed out at Misty's."

"You're not my dad."

"I could be..."

"Omg stop."

He started laughing. I sensed his vibrating voice through his shirt and hot waves breezing through my body, with every movement he made. It felt strange, yet weirdly amazing. I was cold and hot at the same time, my whole body full of butterflies. Am I sick? What is this?

"We're there." he told, walking straight in the direction of a quite big house. Not a mansion, but definitely big. It looks pretty old, with some ranks growing upwards along the walls in a beautiful kind of way. The house itself had dark beige-grayish kind of colors. All in all, it looked beautiful.

"I know, it looks kinda... used, but I think it gives the house kind of a..." he said, trying to figure out how to end the sentence, so I thought I could help out: "Personal touch?"

"Exactly."

"I think it's gorgeous. It has character."
We were 10 meters away from the door, but suddenly he just stopped walking. He glanced over his shoulder to look at me, giving me one of his gorgeous grins. "You're definitely something different, Yvonne." I would have answered something, but his eyes paralyzed me, making it feel like my whole body turned into stone. It felt like I was captured in his spell, and all I could do, was look at him.

He looked away again, walking the last few meters to his door. "Y'know, my friends were all going like 'ew' and 'bleh' when they saw this house, but, to be honest, I never understood why. I love it, seriously."

I don't know how he managed to handle it, with me on his back and the bike in his hands, but after he put the bike against the wall so it wouldn't fall, he pulled out his keys and opened the door to his house. It smelled like cinnamon, for some reason. Just like him.

After he closed the door behind him, he went to the living room and put me carefully on the couch. "You alright?" he asked. "I'm alright, thanks... again." I told him, slightly embarrassed and ashamed of myself. "Always, princess." he answered, while walking over to the kitchen and getting a bag of frozen peas out of it, before walking over to me again and handing it over. "Just hold this against your ankle for some time." he told me while sitting down on the armchair next to the couch, getting his phone and headphones out and listening to some music.

I still felt a bit ashamed of myself. In the last couple of days, he helped me out quite a lot, and I didn't even help him once. Those are the kind of moments that just make you realize how useless you can be.

After two years of obeying Palermo and doing whatever she wanted me to do, after two years of working in a cafe, I'm used to being used. I need to be used, because it's the only sense of existing I was taught in the last two years, the only sense I remember, and I can't stand being useless. I know it sounds sad, and it probably is, but, to be honest, I'm not. I'm just... used to this.

"Is there a reason you're staring at me?"

Ash just sat there, one of the earpods in his hand and a questioning look on his face. "Oh, uh, s-sorry." I apologized and looked away immediately. Though I didn't look at him, I sensed his body sitting next to me, his weight making me fall slightly to the left side.
"Princess... what's up?" he asked, his tone convincing me to look at him again. "Nothing, really. I was just worried, that... maybe... I don't know... I'm bothering or something." I told him, totally sounding like a crybaby. I looked down again, because I couldn't look in his face right now.

"How could you bother me?" he asked, lifting my face under my chin with his index finger. "Stop saying shit like that, okay? You may be clumsy sometimes, and there may be a psycho-bitch bullying you, but that just gives me more reasons to protect you, 'kay? Don't say something like that again."

He wasn't screaming or something. Though his words sounded harsh, his voice was calm and comforting.

"Wow, okay, uuuh, very corny, sorry."

He suddenly said, going back to sit in his armchair, while I was still trying to figure out what the hell to say, and I'm the kind of person that always knows what to say. What is this? Every time I'm around him I feel kind of... nervous. This is so weird. I'm not even shy or anything. I don't mind being around people, but around him, I feel uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time, so all I could do, was stare at my ankle, cooling it with the frozen peas and concentrate hardly on not staring at him again.

"Hey, uhm, are you good at french?" he suddenly asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, I guess? Why?"

"I forgot my homework today and the damn teacher said he wants it tomorrow, but french and I are two different worlds and, usually, Gary does the french homework for me, but he doesn't answer the phone, so, could you do it? Pleaaaseeee? I saved you from the psychhoes!"

"Psych...hoes?"

"Yeah. Psycho + hoes. Psychhoes."

"Wow. You're genius."

"I know. Now... uhm... can you do it? Please?"

I mean... he's got a point, and it would also be a chance to help him out after he was helping me out... a lot now.

"Okay, fine."

His face lit up in a smile, while he jumped out of the armchair and ran to his bag to get his french stuff out. "Thaaaank yooouuu." he screamed out of the hallway, making me giggle.
When he came back, he handed his homework to me with a second"thank you", causing me to giggle again, and let himself fall back in his armchair. It was a bit hard doing everything one-handed, 'cause I needed to hold the frozen peas with the other hand, but I still managed to do the homework. I was done in under two minutes. When I threw the homework on the couch table, he just looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Not intending to sound rude, but I thought you said you'd do it." he said.

"I did." I answered him.

"What? That weren't even... two minutes."

"I know."

His puzzled face not changing, he took the paper and looked at it, impressed that every task was sold. "Wow. And you're sure this is correct?" he asked.

"Quite sure." I answered.

"Well, okay then. I trust you. You want, I don't know, tea, or something?" he asked, making me giggle, but my giggle seemed to confuse him, telling by the look on his face.

"Hey, what's so funny?" he asked, playing offended, wearing a goofy smirk.

"Just didn't expect this question, sorry." I told him, still half giggling.

"Well, I don't have coffee here, 'cause I hate coffee, but I have a lot of tea, 'cause I love tea, so, you'd like one, or not?"

"Pretty ironic for someone who works in a cafe, don't you think?" I teased him, smiling playfully, making him giggle.

"You'd like one, or not?" he asked again, still half giggling.

"Yeah, I'd like one." I told him smiling.

DUUUDEEEE I SPENT AAAGGEEES WRITING THIS CHAPTER!!! I swear, for some reason, this was so difficult, idek...
I'm always writing, it's not like I forget to write, I swear, I'm always active, but sometimes the words just don't really flow and I'm stuck in this one scene and I just can't write anything cuz idk how I want the chapter to go and it's just uuughhhh. Whatever, I hope y'all like the chapter. I think it's kind of weird, but I tried lmaoooo. I just want to upload this cuz I don't want y'all to wait. Before I forget it, THANKS FOR 1K READS! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I swear I'm always soooo happy about ur comments! Y'all r so nice, just dlmdlxnkds gorgeous people! Stay wonderful y'all...

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