Make Me (Editing)

seventeen

"You want to know why I was away all of last week, Ally?" He asked me, deliberately breaking my second condition. This was the only answer I had wanted from him this morning, but now I wasn't so sure.

"Yes?" I replied tentatively, knowing that I really didn't have any other choice.

"Because whenever I'm around you," his eyes held such intense eye contact that I felt almost hypnotised by his stare, "I can't freaking hold myself back."

"I- I don't understand," I stumbled, not really believing the words that were coming out of his mouth.

"I honestly can't explain it" his head was in his hands, his eyes closed as he processed what he was saying. "Ever since I met you, I haven't been able to get you out of my head."

"You what?" I was completely gobsmacked by his admission.

"I like you, Al," he finally blurted, slipping in my nickname for the first time.

"You-," I began, but stopped myself before I said something I regretted. I took a deep breath, considering my possible responses to his revelation, before calmly continuing. "I'm flattered, I really am, but you seem to have pretty twisted idea of liking someone, Mr Gray, and a very strange way of showing it."

This entire situation took me back to my primary school days, when boys would be mean to the girls they liked as a way of 'proving their manliness'. And although it may have been cute back then, this was real life, and it didn't work that way. At least it shouldn't.

"Let me prove it to you then," he pleaded, his expressions now considerably softer than I'd probably ever seen it before.

"The only thing your actions have ever proved to me," I started dishing out the hard truth, "is that you are completely incapable of liking anything other than yourself and your business. Being a decent human isn't something you save for the people you want to sleep with."

"It's not even like that with you," he replied, ignoring everything except for the bit about sex.

"Oh, it's not?" I chuckled sarcastically. "Then what is it like?."

"I don't really know," his voice had now softened once again. "Like all I want to do is get to know you, to freaking talk to you. I've never wanted that before, Al, but something about you just.."

"Get's you excited? Turns you on?" I finished his sentence for him. "Believe me, Mr Gray, I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong by you. But it's going to take a lot more than a few nice words to do that."

"I know that," he nodded. "So does this mean you'll give me a chance?"

"A chance to be nice for once, yes," I replied. "But I can't promise you anything more than that. I'm dating someone else, and I'm really happy with him. I'm not just gonna put all of that on the line in the hope that you will eventually change."

He stayed silent, coming to terms with the fact that there was nothing more that he could really do. He was obviously confused, as was I, and needed some time to think everything through alone.

"Have a good night, Mr Gray," I finally spoke, breaking us both from our thoughts.

"You too, Ally," he all but whispered as I made my exit.

Heading out towards the elevator, I sent Nikki a small wave before boarding the elevator. As the doors slid closed in front of me, I released a breath that I didn't even know I'd been holding. I finally let my mind begin to process everything that had just gone down between Mr Gray and myself. It was a lot. It had been completely unexpected. But it was more surprising than anything else, and certainly wasn't at all a negative conversation. Sure, it would be a little awkward seeing him again tomorrow, and I wasn't really sure how we would navigate that. But all in all, I couldn't hold anything against him or be mad at him for his honest admissions, which was a great position to be in.