Beautiful Ruins

Chapter#06

Like her? Like Ace Adams?

He doubt it. He was no professional or some experienced man but from how his knowledge of love or liking someone goes, his feelings didn't add up. Matt had said that he was aware of her which he admitted but he was usually sensitive towards others emotions but he couldn't deny that he did took notice of hers a bit too closely but in his mind that could be explained by his curiosity towards the girl, just because he was noticing her can not mean he liked her romantically. Because in his mind, he was sure that his heart didn't race, he didn't feel particularly happy when he sees her instead his first thought is how to get away and yet he didn't really disliked her.

Also, he didn't know her, at all. It has hardly been four days since he first met her. There was no way he can like her that fast. And how could he or anyone like someone they didn't even know. He have felt that she was dangerous, felt that she was cold, indifferent but had also seen her genuinely happy, angry and annoyed. Seen her surprise and startled but just because he had seen her different emotions doesn't mean he knew her. To fall in love with someone, you need to get to know them, understand them to like them and as much as he had seen Ace, he really can't honestly say that he liked it.

He was a mess thinking about it all day, which was one of the reason he couldn't sleep last night because if, and only if Matt was right and he was by some miracle attracted to her then what? What happens next? He can't pursue her at any cost. First, he didn't know how and second, he didn't wanted to endanger the girl. Though she was tough, he would never let someone be involved in his mess.

This was one of the reason why he called her. Instead of going around in circles and wasting both his time and energy, he wanted to meet her and see for himself. To say that it never occurred to him that his way of doing things were not only stupid but weird would be true. In fact, if Matt ever find out how he took his advice, he would have probably choked himself.

He was just on his way to pick her up when he got a call from Matt.

"What is it?" he asked while picking it up.

"Did you see the picture I sent you?" Matt's voice sounded urgent.

"Picture..? No, I haven't checked. Wait..." Daniel said and open Matt unread messages. There were bunch of pictures, probably taken from a zoom lens of someone sneaking towards their school's parking lot. Though the picture wasn't clear, Daniel recognized who it was within seconds.

"Is that Stella....?" He still confirmed from Matt who was still on call.

"Yes. Someone posted this on school's f*******: page. It was removed but some people still managed to save it." Matt explained.

"It is from today?"

"Definitely. I saw her in first period. She was fine but nobody saw her after P.E."

Daniel was silent, his mind thinking over the possibility of who can be capable of doing something like this, Of going so far.

"Daniel, do you...maybe it was...Ace?"

Ace?

It can't be anyone other then her.

"I'll talk to you later, Matt." Daniel said and hung up before Matt said anything else.

To his surprise, he didn't felt anything towards her actions. They seem like something she would do.

His pace fasten when he saw that it was almost 7. Her house wasn't far from his, just a street away but talking to Matt distracted him to slow his steps. That and also he was quiet surprised by what he saw.

Ace was waiting for him on her porch when he arrived. Dressed in her usual clothes with hood and jeans, she looked completely indifferent and normal. She saw him and crossed the small lawn to come in front of him. Her eyes were blank and he had a feeling she was deducing what he wanted.

It was the first time he noticed that her eyes were hazel.

Now, consider how he was a complete stranger, he did understood her feeling towards this strange behavior of his which wasn't even making sense to him but he needed answers and he would take them from whoever was the best person to give them to him.

"Where are we going?" she asked, her eyes twinkling in the street light.

"Just for a walk." He said and started walking up the street, knowing that she will follow.

They walked in silence for few minutes. Daniel wanted to start talking but he didn't really know where to start such a bizarre conversation. Ace didn't look she minded the silence so he took his time to think over everything once more. Starting this extremely weird conversation was just part of the problem, the other issue was what would he want from it all? What kind of answers were he expecting from her? Though he very much wanted her to shun him politely about this whole thing so he could move on, he needed reasonable explanation for such feelings. An explanation which his mind would accept without an excuse, which satisfied his conscious which was swimming around in circles.

Daniel wasn't the type to run on instincts. This was probably his greatest weaknesses. He just refuse to step into anything he knew nothing about. He wanted to know every detail and disadvantage in advance. His mind wasn't slow but he was a very precocious person. Right now, considering he have been thinking about this whole day- his reason was telling him to stop, turn and just go back home without starting this conversation. His reasons were right, he had no idea, no only about Ace's reaction but also about what kind of impact this whole thing could bring it to him. While his gut which was usually just a small voice in his head was telling him to just say the truth.

So the end, for the first time in his life- he listened to his gut and decided to just be honest.

"Matt thinks, I like you." he softly said.

He knew she had paused in her step for just few seconds before walking again. He didn't say anything, didn't even dare to look at her. He knew his ears had turned bright red and suddenly he felt his heart starting to race a little faster then normal but he knew it was probably due to being embarrassed which despite his own indifferent towards having any romantic feeling for her, he still was. He wasn't bad with girls meaning he had no issue talking to them but that was mostly because he didn't see them differently. For him, women were just the other gender, nothing to fret over but this was different. This was the girl who had stirred something inside her.

"Why would he assume that?" Her voice brought him out from his thoughts. Her eyes were looking ahead, in the darkness. Her tone wasn't unnatural.

"I told him a couple of things I felt about you." He truthfully answered, a little relieved and surprised at the same time. The flow of her answers were very different from what he thought.

This time she stopped so he stopped beside her. They had come to the end of a street. Both staring at each other. With her short height, she was looking at him closely like trying to see what he was actually thinking. Daniel was in his own thoughts, wondering what to do next. He confessed to her what he felt or at least he think he did and now what? What was he going to gain from all this?

Her eyes on him made him feel a little bare and uncomfortable.

"You don't believe him." It was a statement instead of question. She was actually reading his mind.

"I don't know you enough to like you. We only met few days back, The time we spent is hardly enough and I don't know you enough to have even found anything likable." he again honestly admitted, even knowing in the back of his head that his words made no sense at all.

Nothing was making sense at this point so he was far from being bothered about it.

"That is true. You don't know me." Her words were said in a defensive tone but like she was agreeing to his thoughts. Her eyes didn't move away from his.

"You don't want to like me?" This time, she had asked.

"I have circumstances." He had no choice to be honest again.

The conversation was really not going as he had thought. She had not asked him any questions that should have been asked nor according to his understanding of her, she told him that his feelings or thoughts were not her business which technically they weren't. They were his responsibility and his burden.

"What do you want to do?" she asked and started walking again.

He also fell in steps with her and thought it through. What was going on again? What was the point of this conversation in the first place? He had in a way hoped that she would remain her indifferent self, that would have made it so much easier for him to decide what he was going to do. He could finally tell himself that he didn't like her and she was too cold for him to even be friends with her left alone, get to know her better but once again she had either put on a mask to make the situation less weird or she really had an unusual way of processing information.

"I can't like you." he simply stated. He knew he was being stupidly stubborn but to hell with it all. He just wanted to get this over and done with.

"How about we try to get to know each other better and after say about two weeks, we make our judgment?" she offered a solution without thinking much and that made him suspicious almost immediately.

"Why are you agreeing to this?" He asked and didn't bother to hide that he didn't trust her.

"Because it sounds fun." He could see she was grinning and again, his chest tighten up.

He couldn't tell if she was lying or not or if she was actually serious about all this. In fact, he really thought that she was treating it like a game, a game which she only decided to play along as long as it was fun and new. For him, these two weeks were either going to turn his life around or make no changed at all. The conclusion was, he was the only one who had something to lose.

He actually felt a little afraid. He was the one who needed a solution which she game. He was the one who wanted answers which she was ready to give but why did he felt like he had agreed to something much more dangerous.

From the smirk on her face and gleam in her hazel eyes, he suddenly felt he had entered a losing battle.