As the sun slowly peered through the velvet curtains and into the room where Harley and Hope lay sound as sleep on the bed, the soft tweeting from the birds filled up Hope’s ears, causing her to slowly cringe a little before flashing her eyes wide open when a small ladybug splattered its soft black feet against her forehead.
She waved her hand over her face and the lady bug flew away and towards the open window. A yawn escaped her lips as she sat up and stretched her arms over her head, feeling the relaxing pull on her joints that had stiffened while she was asleep.
Her tired droopy eyes slowly glanced down to the spot beside her. Harley remained deep in sleep, breathing softly with the bed covers draping just above his waist, exposing his entire chest. A small blush filled her cheeks as she recaptured yesterday’s moment.
It was official, he was now hers.
A small smile creeped onto her lips as she reached out her fingers to his face with the rising heat in her cheeks. Once her fingers felt the skin on his cheeks, an electric shock filled her entire body as she moved her fingers ever so lightly, caressing them to his forehead. He flinched a little, but not enough to wake him up from his deep sleep. He simply moved his head to the side a little and away from the distraction, getting her to chuckle lightly as she took her hand back from his face. She leaned away from him and shoved her feet off the bed and onto the fur carpet.
She glanced over her shoulder to Harley once more, feeling the tight knot tighten more in her stomach, unsure of the reason she had never seen him as a man before when she feels so strongly for him now. It was as though she just didn’t know she was in love with him.
With no second to waste, the thought of Ace slipped into her mind, getting her to clench her jaw tightly in nervousness as she clenched her covers. She hadn’t apologized to him in the right way. She knew Ash wasn’t much to talk about his feelings so openly. Even though it seemed as though he didn’t take it too harshly, she could tell I was worse than it really is.
She quickly made her way into the bathroom and hopped into the shower.
Meanwhile in the dining hall, Penelope had gotten up as early as possible and rushed into it, waiting for breakfast to be served, only to find Ace standing at the foot of the table and staring down at it, almost mindlessly. A small frown made its way to Penelope’s lips when she knew too well Ace wasn’t taking the entire situation the right way. Right after their little ‘chat’ the other day, he simply turned around the left for his house without looking back, hardly even saying goodbye. For a completely understandable reason, she felt as though he was partially mad at her for forcing Harley and Hope to end up together. Not that it was completely her fault, the two simply had very strong relationship together that they didn’t realize. Penelope was just trying to help them out and answer their unanswered questions.
The only problem here was that Ace had actually fallen in love with her. It was nothing but a joke at first for him. He simply wanted to toy with Harley’s feelings for Hope and try to break him apart. There was already bad chemistry between Ace and Harley from the moment they met, but it only got worse when his feelings for Hope actually manifested themselves without warning, and before he knew it, Hope had fallen in love with Harley.
Thinking maybe it was just a bad dream and that he would wake up any moment and find Hope in his bed like always, he realized he was never going to wake up from that nightmare.
Suddenly, it felt as though all that he did always resulted to him being alone.
“Hi there.” Penelope forced on a smile as she stood beside him.
He remained unfazed as he kept his unmoving gaze on the table. Almost like a soulless body patiently waiting for the return of its soul.
“Hey, I’m talking to you.” Penelope hissed as she reached up to his face, plotting to pinch on his neck, since he was much taller. Compared to Hope, Penelope was much shorter, making Ace a skyscraper standing beside her since the end of her head was on his chest.
He grabbed hold of his wrist before she could even get the chance to pinch him and squeezed his hold, causing her flinch in pain. She struggled to snatch it from him for a while before he let go and glared at her.
“Haven’t you done enough damage to me?” Ace hissed out with a cold gaze in his eyes, forcing a chill up her spine as she cowered back in fear that the dominating gaze. “Learn some manners and know your place.” He clicked his tongue, turned from her and walked towards the door.
“You know, you’re being a pain.” Penelope hissed back as she massaged her pained wrist. “It’s neither Hope nor Harley’s fault. If they love each other you can’t just expect them to break up because of you.”
“Oh really?” he asked as he stopped and glanced over his shoulder to her. “Is it because I’m an outsider and that I don’t deserve her? Or is it the fact that I haven’t lasted the longest so I don’t deserve her at all. Fine, maybe we’ve lasted a really short time, but at least I know that my feeling weren’t fake. They were real. But because Harley deserves her more, then my feelings don’t mean anything to either you, Hope and Harley. Because you just don’t care about me, just because I wasn’t born here.”
“That’s not the reason at all, Ace.” Penelope sighed out and bit onto her lower lip as she glanced at him. “You don’t know how long Harley had to wait and all the things he had to watch and sacrifice to finally get her. It’s not about you being the victim, Harley is the victim.”
“Right, like I said, my feelings don’t matter to you people.” Ace forced out a chuckle and turned, leaving the room within seconds, leaving Penelope feeling very guilty for even saying the truth.
Well, she expected worse.