Capture My Heart (BK3: Niall Horan)

-Ch 48: Criminality.

 CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: Criminality.

 Ashley Dawson:

It was a matter of days later when I became aware of a presence in the house that was here by the account of seeing me. This was communicated by my Father who had delivered it after a rushed “see you later” as he attempted to not let his tie strangle him in his bid to leave the house on time when his earlier decisions had been in opposition to that. I had nodded and pushed my top lip over my lower, glancing behind me to the mirror that revealed a half-hearted effort on my account, the day having worn off the makeup that I had applied this morning.

It was a warm evening for this time of the year, and the sun was somewhat blinding as it attempted to heat the interior of the guest bedroom that I had been blandly situated in for a few days. The walls were very white, which either meant they had been painted recently, or the curtains had not been opened for an extended period of time. For a daft and puzzling second I had thought it to be the former, since the visits of the red headed woman had become more frequent, but then I realised that my Father and this woman were adults, and I highly doubted that she’d be staying in the guest bedroom where there was options further up the hall, where my Mother used to lie.

I felt slightly immature and unaccomplished, being twenty-two and living with my Father, although it may only be on a last resort and temporary basis. I suppose it highlighted my foolishness to build such a strong dependency on somebody that supported half of my life but could walk out of it any second. I was aware that I had primarily been the one who had initiated this, but he didn’t have to oblige. My dominance was a docile surprise, but I suppose he never really was the strong and anti-emotional person that some men were, he was point-blank opposite if you had to put a label on it.

I found myself needing to squint as the door opened fully and the figure that entered through the cavity it left was blacked out by some light projecting from a background window. I wasn’t sure if I wanted anyone beside my Father to see me in this awfully unfortunate and unflattering situation, but I was left with no choice as somebody who I might have called my best friend at one or two points, looked me up and down.

“You look…Good, actually, you know, considering your appearance last time.” The greeting from Mallory was an interesting one; maybe she knew that I didn’t have the right mind right now to exhaust energy on pointless introductions.

“I suppose improvement is always something to smile about.” I muttered, portraying quite the opposite to my utterance.

“Right, so smile then?” I sent her a closed mouth attempt, it was trying that counted. “I’m not sure that I want or even need to know the details, do I? Because I’m sure it’s very complicated and I’ve already got quite the load in my mind already.”

“I’m not sure I want to explain them, it wouldn’t be good for my feelings and shit.”

“That was quite anti-feelings Ash, you okay?”

“I’m not okay, but I’m not dead yet.”

“Well, I guess that’s something to smile about too.”

I scoffed, rolling my eyes I dropped them to the desk I was sat at, I pushed some paperwork I had been staring at over a photo that contained two people that had a lot of issues to resolve, or to succumb to and move on, the decision had to be made soon and it was very much swinging towards the latter if somebody didn’t make a move soon.

“Anyway, cancel your planned night of staring at a screen and refusing perfectly good food, we have some finalising to do.”

“Finalising?”