Love Is...

13. Hate

I scowled at him and grumbled, "I hate you." I didn't mean it even a bit. Hate and love are two words that are very passionate, according to me. The opposites I didn't use very often. Of course, I didn't hate Ashton.

His smirk faltered a bit for a split second and it took form of a bitter smile. With dead serious eyes, he mumbled, "That's a lot better than loving me."

There was something in the way he said this that made me pause and just stare at him for a while. I stared at him with curiosities that had started taking birth in me since the day before, after his mother's phone call.

What was the reason behind his bitterness? Why was he the way he was?

"What's the matter, Ashton?" I asked, not letting my curiosity stay within me.

His jaw clenched a bit and just as he opened his mouth to most probably order me to just shut up and mind my own business, Tiffany reached us and greeted, "Hi, Ashton. Hi, Liana."

"Hey," I mumbled as I took in her appearance. Her shoulder length black hair was left loose as they contrasted her flawless fair skin perfectly. For a moment, I pondered over asking her the secrets of her spotless skin as a fresh new pimple had graced my right cheek just this morning. Her brown eyes were sparkling with happiness, showing that she was clearly a morning person, unlike Ashton. Her shorts and tank top gave away that she was here for morning walk and not for a date, which was kind of weird.

Ashton chose to not reply to her, which made me pinch his arm slightly. "What?" he frowned at me.

I shot him a glare, ignoring his question. "Should I leave the two of you to talk?" I asked, looking between them with a smile.

Just as Tiffany opened her mouth to reply, Ashton beat her to it and declared, "No." My eyebrows shot up in slight surprise, and Tiffany, too, looked a bit surprised at his reaction. "So, Tiffany it is, right?" he asked, causing me glare at him some more.

'Why, God, why? Why is he such a rude moron?'

"Idiot," I hissed lightly, so only he could hear.

Tiffany, on the other hand, chuckled a bit and replied, "Yeah."

He smirked a bit and asked, "What do you do?"

"I'm a dietitian." She smiled.

"Cool." He shrugged and sat down on the bench, without asking her to sit. He was so not a gentleman. Noticing the nth glare I shot towards him in less than an hour, he asked me with a frown, "What?"

Ignoring him, I looked back at Tiffany and smiled a bit. "Please sit down."

She chuckled back and sat down beside Ashton, leaving considerable distance between them. I, too, sat down on the other side of Ashton.

"What about you?" she asked him, tilting her head slightly. "What do you do?"

In response, he shrugged and said, "Nothing."

A grimace formed on my lips. True that he did nothing but couldn't he give a tad bit normal reply, something like, I'm planning to join my family business or I'm thinking of a new setup. There was no dearth of a creative yet respectable answer of this question.

"Oh." Tiffany frowned and continued, "I've read about you in newspapers. It has been a few years since you came out of the prison. For what were you charged?"

Ashton stiffened beside me, and I stared at the side of his head in shock and curiosity. I wasn't aware of this bizarre rumor. He didn't reply, which made Tiffany say further, "I also read about your drug intake. It's good that you have left it."