Chapter - 9

LOVE IS... FUN

Love don't have to be a bunch of drama
A bunch of knock-down, drag-outs, crying in the rain
It's all right to keep it light now mama, don't you think
We're having such a good time together and it's only just begun
My heart has never smiled so hard
Baby, lovin you is fun
Its fun.  - Easton Corbin - Lovin You Is Fun

Day - 3

Love is kind.

This is the definition I had given to Ashton on the second day of our assignment. He had replied with an immediate snort accompanied by 'that's crap'.

The part of the famous Bible quote was not helping me too. It's safe to say that I had already lost any hopes of making Ashton fall in love with someone in just two days of spending time with him. He was way too moody, extremely arrogant, a sadist who enjoyed watching me in misery, and the living definition of lethargic.

His friend, whose name was still not known to me and I decided to call him with his name of the day, Gale, was on the other hand the exact opposite of him. It was probably easier to find out his real name than making Ashton fall in love with someone.

With a deep pool of messed up thoughts in my mind, I stared at my phone in the process of making notes of this 'pain in the bum' assignment. Brittany was definitely out of the list. Just the mere thought of her and the possible things she must have been doing inside her bedroom with three guys made me cringe. I shook my head to get rid of the various dirty images that Ashton had succeeded in feeding inside my brain. He probably enjoyed every bit of narrating the entire incident to the always grinning, Gale. He made sure that he enacted my expressions of plain innocence followed by deep confusion and concluded by disgust. He was the one who explained my reactions so deeply to Gale and it didn't take a genius to figure out that they both had laughed madly at me while I had waited patiently for them to calm down as I myself tried to stop the laughter that eventually got mixed up in their laughs. It was nice, well until, Ashton very smugly told Gale the tale of my broken laptop. That had brought all my misery back and my happy mood had been thrown deep down in a gutter. Hence, I was left to do all my work on my phone.

'Not suitable at all; indulges in group pleasures.' I typed in front of Brittany's name and pondered over deleting, omitting, or editing any of the eight words I had written.

"What are you doing here? Is it eleven already? How the hell did you even get inside?"

My head snapped towards the source of noise and my eyes landed on his frowned in confusion face and narrowed eyes. "My turn to ask twenty questions," I replied in fake enthusiasm.

"Are you sh*tting me so early in the morning? How did you get inside?" he asked, looking annoyed.

I didn't bother answering his first question and straightaway jumped to the second one as I replied with the same enthusiasm as before, "From platform nine and three quarters."

He made a low growling noise, which reminded me of a pissed off wolf. "Isn't it enough that I tolerate him already? Don't get so influenced by him," he suggested with lightly clenched jaw referring his friend.

"Why shouldn't I? He is nicer than you," I informed him with my smile still intact at its place.

"You're more annoying in the morning than any other hour of the day," he commented, as he started moving towards the kitchen.

"Aww, thank you," I replied sarcastically. Getting up from the couch, I too made my way towards the kitchen and continued, "But no matter how much I try, I can never be even half as annoying as you are."

He turned to look at me from the wide open refrigerator and narrowed his eyes playfully at me. How did they manage to look so beautiful each and every time I stared at them? "Maybe because you can never be as awesome as I am."

"Oh! The lies a person tells oneself," I retorted with a roll of my eyes.

He smirked at my reply and stared at me with his intense grey eyes. "You mean like the lies you tell yourself and to the world?"

A frown covered my facial features at his words and I expressed my confusion. "What lies?"

A chuckle escaped his lips as he didn't bother clearing up my confusion and turned around to take out something from the refrigerator. My curiosity increased as he stretched the silence to unbound limits by taking all his time in pouring milk for himself and adding some cereal to it. To add to my irritatingly increasing curiosity, he started eating his cereal while completely ignoring my presence.

Rolling my eyes at his childishness, I asked again as I took the seat opposite him on the counter of his kitchen. Being called a liar was something I could not bear. I hated lying and people who lied. Nolan had lied to me. I loathed lies.

However, the ironic truth was that I was a liar myself. Hadn't I lied to Ashton about my happy relationship status which probably was true in some parallel universe? Hadn't I lied to him about my undying faith in love? Of course, I had. But my lies had the possibility of being beneficial to Ashton and me.

Was it possible that Ashton already knew that I had been lying to him all this time? Was there a possibility that I was fooling nobody but myself with all my lies?

No! It was not possible. There was no way he could know all this.

"What are you trying to say? What lies have I been telling everyone and most importantly, myself? For your information, Ashton, I never lie," I informed him in the most serious voice I had probably ever used.

He stopped feeding himself and looked at me with a smirk on his face, that very mysterious, arrogant, and annoying smirk. "And for your information, Liana, I do not have even a single facial hair." His eyes were playful as he replied using his sarcasm, showing that he didn't believe even a word I had just said with all seriousness put together.

His words were confusing me. I didn't know what the truth was and what he was talking about. He was a mystery to me, a dark mystery.

Neither of us broke the, questioning on my part and challenging on his part, eye contact for what felt like hours but was probably just a few seconds. But my loudly ringing phone did the job as I jumped a little in surprise and broke the eye contact. Fumbling, I answered the phone without looking at the name of the person who had called me. "Hello?"

"I'm going on a date with Shane tonight," Steph's voice from the other side reached my ears and my eyes widened a bit in surprise upon hearing her excitement.

"But why?" I questioned her without thinking much about it. I mean, wasn't she crying over that jerk just a night ago? Why was she dumb that she decided to go out with him again?

"Because he asked me to," she tried to reason, though she herself didn't sound confident of her answer.

Rolling my eyes, I turned away from Ashton and went out in the living room to sit on the couch where I was resting. "That's nice," I mumbled as I had to reply with something. "Enjoy your dinner." I knew I was wrong in not suggesting my friend to do the right thing, but I really couldn't do that when she sounded so overly happy about her date tonight. For a fact, I knew that it was a date followed by their banging each other senseless session. Shane was using Stephanie, it was so obvious. But the truth was that she, too, was using him by being with him physically and making herself happy temporarily.

"That I will." She laughed, bringing me out of my thoughts. A little smile made its way on my face when I heard her laughing. It was good to know that she was happy when just a night ago she was crying her heart out. It was weird how the reason of her sadness two days ago was the sole reason of her happiness now. "Girl," she continued with excitement still very much present in her voice.

"Yes?" I asked as if there was any relevance of me saying this word.

"Who are you going to take as your plus one at Seth's wedding?" she asked.

My eyebrows furrowed together at her question and I asked back, "The wedding is next week, isn't it?"

"In which world are you living, Liana?" she asked, laughing a bit at my question. "His wedding is on the coming Saturday."

My eyes widened at the sudden realization and I face palmed myself because of it. "Oh no! How could I forget?"

She laughed loudly and answered, "Seriously Liana? How could you forget your own cousin's wedding? I'm not even invited and yet I remember it." A grimace made its way to my lips when I answered her question in my mind by giving many reasons for forgetting this event. "Anyways, just tell me, who are you planning to take with you?"

"I don't know," I answered, shrugging a bit as it was the least of my concerns at the moment. How in the world was I going to go to that wedding and face her?

"I knew it! Well, don't worry when your best friend is there with you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, resting my chin of my palm.

"Well, Shane has a friend and before you say anything, he is hot. So why don't you tag along with me tonight and we can double date?" Her voice became meek by the end of her sentences.

A little groan escaped my lips at her attempt of hooking me up with somebody, yet again. "Steph, Ashton is dancing around naked his apartment. I've to go," I said, quite hastily, the first weirdest thing I could think of and cancelled the call before she could say anything further.

A huge sigh of relief escaped my lips as I escaped my friend's possible traps and I threw my head back in that relief.

"You do know that I can make that statement true any given moment, right?" My head snapped towards the kitchen door against which Ashton was leaning with a dirty look on his face. My eyes bulged out of their sockets as I realized what I had said and worst, Ashton had heard it all. "You picture me naked all the time in your head, don't you?" he continued as he started taking slow but big steps towards me.

Naked Ashton?

It was all it took for my mind to start making all kinds of pictures in my head. He did have a great physique which was very appealing for me. But then, he was very annoying and a jerk.

Then again, picturing naked Ashton running around his apartment was very funny and as a result of which, I started laughing.

He narrowed his eyes at me while I doubled over laughing on the couch, clutching my stomach at my own joke. Well, I was making at least one person happy even though it was just me.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked.

Taking a few deep breaths, I prepared myself to answer him and managed to say, "I was picturing a little boy running around your apartment naked. I mean, just imagine your bearded, ugly face on a little kid's naked body. That would be hilarious." With that I started laughing again.

He didn't say anything till the time I was busy laughing but once I calmed down, I looked up at him to notice him staring at me with a raised eyebrow and distaste all over his features. "You're an idiot."

I pouted a little at his reply and mumbled, "You spoil my fun."

In reply, he rolled his eyes at me while a little chuckle left his lips. "What are your plans for the day?" My lips stretched up in a huge smile as I heard Ashton ask me something so humanly for the first time since I had met him. His eyes narrowed as he saw my face and asked, "What?"

That rude question effectively wiped away the smile off my face and I shook my head. "Nothing."

"Tell me, why were you smiling like a creepy ghost right now? You do know that you were looking scary, right?"

"You're so rude, and bad," I commented as I slumped deeper in the couch and picked up my phone from the table to look at the profile of the girl of the day.

"You're so uptight?" I heard him chuckle and felt him sit beside me on the couch. The space where he tried to sit was way too small to adjust him and he tried to push me using his body.

"What is wrong with you?" I yelled a bit as I felt him push me to the side using his broad shoulders.

"Move a bit," he ordered.

"Why should I?" I asked with my mouth slightly open at his unacceptable and rude behavior.

"Why do you ask so many questions?" he countered back.

"Don't change the topic. I'm not moving. Why should I? I was sitting here first," I yelled again trying to make myself clear. There was no way that I was going to do what he had asked me to do. Why should I?

He sighed and moved his head closer to mine, while I kept moving my head back, away from him. "C'mon, Liana, move your sexy ass a bit."

My cheeks burned red at his closeness as well as his words. His voice was so husky that it managed to send shivers down my spine. His face was so close that I could see every detail of his handsome face. His eyes were magical, and probably, I had become so used to staring at them in the last two days that they seemed so familiar and warm to look at.

"You can't do this," I whispered when he stopped moving his head towards me and stared at my green eyes with a blank expression.

"What?" he asked in a whisper. Both of us were alone in the apartment, and yet, we were whispering.

"This," I whispered back.

"What, Liana?" he asked again.

Just as I was about to answer him, the doorbell made both of us jump back a little and snap our heads towards his apartment door.

This time I didn't wait for Ashton to get up and open the door as his hatred for opening doors had been quite obvious since I met him. I got up and started moving towards the door.

"No need to open the door. I forgot to lock it last night," he told me, and I gave him a 'duh' look. A laugh escaped his lips as he answered his own first question of the day. "No wonder you got easy access in my house today."

Not bothering to answer him, I continued moving towards the door. Holding the door knob, I turned around to look at Ashton and saw him sprawled on the couch where I was sitting earlier. He was smirking his trade mark smirk as he finally got his way.

Rolling my eyes at him, I told him what I wanted to say when I was interrupted by the doorbell, "You can't call me scary in one sentence and then call my bum as sexy in the other."

He laughed out loud and managed to say between his laughter, "Bum? I didn't say that word. I said 'ass'."

"I know that, idiot." I narrowed my eyes at him.

A grin stretched across his face. "Liana, you are so..." He trailed as I waited for him to complete his sentence.

"Uptight?" I completed his sentence with a little smirk on my face as I knew he was going to say that only.

He pressed his lips together and nodded slightly. "Why don't you open the door now? I don't like to keep my guests waiting," he said with sarcasm dripping down from his words.

"Oh, I know!" I agreed with wide eyes and over enthusiastic nod.

Chuckling a bit, I turned around and decided to put an end to the wait of whoever the person on the other side was. I opened the door and saw that nobody was there. In confusion, I stepped out of the apartment and looked towards my left and then to my right to see who the guest was, but I couldn't find anybody.

"Who is it?" Ashton's voice reached my ears from behind and I turned to see that he was now standing at the doorway.

"Nobody. I guess, some kid rang the bell and ran away." I shrugged as I again looked around.

"Maybe," he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh and next time, don't forget to lock your doors. It's not safe," I suggested him sternly.

"Yes, mom!" He mocked me, making me narrow my eyes at him.

"You're so annoying." I sighed, crossing my arms across my chest.

A little smirk pulled up at his lips and he said, "I've heard this from you way too many times in last two days and on this third day, I'm starting to get bored of this compliment."

I smiled up at him and said, "That's good. I'm not here for your fun or entertainment."

His eyes turned mysterious and playful as soon as I said this and he took a step back inside the apartment. He tilted his head to the side and with a huge smirk on his face, asked me, "Who said you are not?"

Before I could understand what he had said and thereby meant, he shut the door at my face again.

Three days in a row. I was breaking records.

His laughter could, probably, be heard all the way to California as he enjoyed my misery yet again.

"Ashton!" I yelled, in attempts of making my voice reach till California as well. There was no use for me to bang the door as I knew that would open the door eventually.

"See, I'm having fun with you, Liana. Who said you aren't fun?" he shouted from the other side amidst his loud laughter. The sarcasm in his voice was dripping much more than the cheese on an overloaded cheese pizza.

Sighing, I sat down in front of his apartment taking the support of the wall as I waited for him to open the door. With a little smile on my face, I answered him back sarcastically, "So are you, Ashton. So are you."

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A/N

I'm not in my senses, I've fever. And I'm typing whatever the hell my finger's mind in commanding me to type. Don't mind me, please! :P

I'm back! Yayy!! Sorry for the delay. I feel terrible for being so late in my uploads now. But, I will upload the next chapter very soon. I promise!!!

How was the chapter? It's NOT a filler. I never use fillers in my stories. Every chapter is very important in building my characters & their relationships. My AWMA readers would know that. :D I hope you guys liked it. :D

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