Eight

Chapter Eight

"Can I speak to you for a sec?"

Shelly was on her way out after the argument she had with Kiara and Laura. She just wanted to leave this house and go somewhere quiet, not for a soul searching even though Kiara's words still rang in her eyes every second.

Stopping in her tracks she turned and faced him. "Sure." She took a seat opposite him at the dining table.

"Shelly, what's going on with you?" Lucas placed his big palm on the back of her hand.

Shelly flinched but didn't pull away. "I don't know." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"I know you've got a lot going on in your life right now," he began, "but don't let it consume you and the people around you."

"I don't understand what you're saying to me." Shelly frowned.

Lucas furrowed his brows at her trying to get a closer look. "You're hurting your mom."

Shelly felt the tears fill her eyes again. "Alright, I'll stop."

"Shelly, darling I don't mean it like that." Lucas was quickly on his feet trying to caress her hair.

"I need to take a walk." She stopped him and stood up leaving the house.

The night air was chilly and the cold wind bit into her skin like tiny needles pricking her. She should have worn more comfy clothes for this 'walk' but she couldn't care less. The pain and loss she felt were very much greater than the cold.

Walking briskly and keeping her head down Shelly thought about a lot of things and how her life had gone downhill all in twenty-four hours and couldn't for the life of her understand anything.

So lost in thought was she that she didn't hear her name until someone tapped her from behind.

"Holy cow!" She jumped back in fright, spinning around so quickly that her glasses fell.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She heard a small masculine voice. It didn't sound familiar at all.

"Well, you did!" She snapped moving back.

"I'm sorry let me help you." Before she could protest, she felt a hand place something on the bridge of her nose. Then her surroundings became clear.

She looked up at the person who tapped her and saw a cute nerdy guy wearing big glasses. She chuckled as she took in his appearance.

He was wearing a brown turtle neck sweatshirt and black joggers trousers. He was light-skinned, slim, not macho muscular, and about 6'2ft. He had an oval face with a square side box and full plump pink lips.

His cheekbone was strong and his jaw was like a sharp razor line.

Apparently, what he lacked in muscles he made up for it by being handsome. He was adorably cute although she couldn't see his eyes well because of the huge glasses, his brown hair was roughly scattered but still cute, he didn't style it but it looked gorgeous. In all, he was very handsome.

"Thank you." She muttered. She could swear she saw his cheeks darken a bit.

"Are you blushing?"

"What... No... Um... Of course not... H-how could I possi-ibly." He stammered.

Shelly smirked. "It's fine."

"I came to apologize about last night." He scratched the back of his neck. "I called you earlier but you didn't pick up." 

Shelly glanced at her phone and frowned. She had a missed call from someone named Ace. Funny enough she hadn't heard her phone ring. 

"You're Ace?" She furrowed her brows trying to understand what exactly was going on. 

"Yeah." He stared at her, grinning. "Don't tell me you forgot my name also."

She smirked. "I can't even remember meeting you."

He laughed. "That's a very funny joke, Shelly."

The look she gave him told him that this was no joke. "You're serious?"

"I don't know what's been going on in my life since the last twenty-four hours." She gave him a wry smile. 

"You wanna talk about it?" He raised a brow. 

She smiled and nodded. "Sure."

They walked on in silence. Each thinking about their burden and how to tackle it. Shelly was so lost in thoughts that she lost track of time and her destination. 

"We're here." That was the voice that brought her back to consciousness. 

Finally focusing on her surroundings, Shelly looked around and took a deep breath. "Wow!"

"You like it?" He sounded unsure. 

The place she was standing on was overlooking a cliff. Not the previous one she went to, this one was absolutely breathtaking. Water was running from the other side of the cliff. Nice spring water, you could practically sniff it in the air. The grass was green and well-trimmed. A perfect place for a picnic. 

"Wow! This is beautiful!"

He grinned. "If you like this place then you'll her one."

"What other places?" Shelly eyed him suspiciously.

He threw his head back and laughed out loud before taking a seat on the carpeted grass. "You can tell me about it now."

Shelly sat down and stared at her fingers before she started her tale. "Now I'm the bad guy here." She sniffles. "I just don't understand them. I'm supposed to be asked how I'm faring not the other way around. I just wanna go home."

She finally looked up and saw Ace staring at her with a strange look on his face. She heaved a sigh of relief when he didn't seem to laugh at her. "There's a therapy I learned." She gave him the go-ahead to continue. "Well, it's called shout to the mountains."

"Shout to the mountains, huh!" Shelly looked skeptical about it.

"Yeah, you can always try it." He scratched his hair sheepishly, he looked shy.

"I will try it one of these days, I suppose." She smiled at him.

He smiled back. "You can try it here, you know."

"Thought it's shout to the mountains?" He gave her a cool look before throwing his hand up in the air.

"Sure, and we're here overlooking the sky." Sarcasm dripped from his words.

Shelly took a look around her surroundings as the night sky and the shining twinkling little stars cast a glow all around them. This place felt ethereal but the more she stared the more she realized that the cliff was overlooking a mountain.

"Ooh!" She exclaimed happily, "there are mountains."

"Of course not," he gave her a 'duh' look and she gave him the stink eye.

She stood up happily them faced him immediately. "Alright, shoot. How does it work?"

"Exactly according to the name. Shout to the mountains."

Shelly jumped up and down with excitement beside him and he smiled. "So, hey mountain I hate how things are going." She sounded so shy and timid.

"You've got to be bold, Shelly. Tell the mountains all your deepest anger and how you feel. Don't hold back."

She turned back and faced the mountains a new look of determination on her facewhenn she began her rantings. "I don't know what I've done to be punished like this and I don't think I deserve it." Her eyes glinted with cold fire, she was absolutely angry. "I will survive, you hear me because you don't expect me to give up! My name is Shelly Chapman and we are bloody winners!!" She looked distant like she was here but her body wasn't. "The last thing I really wanna do right now is to see you, daddy." Her voice broke at the end and soon the tears flowed freely. "I just don't know what to do I'm so confused. I just really wanna come back home I really can't lose you." She placed her face in her palm and sobbed.

Ace held her close and caressed her hushing her. "It's alright, ok. You've got this." She nodded.

"Thank you, Ace."

"How do you feel?

She smirked. "Well, I did a lot of shouting so I've got a sore throat." They laughed. "But I mentioned a quarter of my problems so I feel better. It's a nice therapy."

"I'm glad I could be of help." He beamed happily.

"Uh—huh. Now tell me how we meet and what happened last night at the party?"

He frowned. "I'm sure your friend will be happy to tell you."

"No, I don't wanna talk to her at least not yet." She shook her head.

"I mean you don't have to go right now." He sat down back.

"Ooh, nice." She sat down immediately.

Never in her lifetime did Shelly believe that she'd sit down with a bloody stranger telling him the truth about herself and talking about nature. Sitting down with a cute guy was one thing, but sitting down with a cute nerdy guy discussing nature and weather was something else entirely and the funny fact was that she couldn't care less.

*~*~*~*~*

"Shelly and Ace, sitting on a cliff K-i-s-s-i-n-g." Kiara sang her new favorite song for the week. Shelly rolled her eyes. She was already tired of telling her to stop teasing her for over four days now. It's been four less annoying days since she came back from that little trip with Ace and everyone was super worried. She had apologized to Laura and Lucas and even Kiara trying to adjust to her new life. She has even started working at chili's cafe and was now doing the dishes with her friend who won't let her hear the last of her encounter with the hot nerd.

"I told you before, Kiara we didn't kiss!" She stressed. 

"Of course you didn't." She frowned. "I'm only reminding you of what you missed."

Shelly facepalmed. Kiara was of the idea wondering why she didn't kiss him.

"Kiara please." She pouted.

"Duh!" She waved her off. "There was a beautiful sky with twinkling little stars and there was fresh spring scent and there was a piece of sexy hunk beside you what else remained to make the night on mountains the mountains the best?" 

Shelly groaned. "A perfect kiss." She repeated Kiara's words.

"Good girl you'd have been if you had done it." Kiara huffed.

"You didn't expect me to kiss a total stranger." Shelly shrugged.

"But you kissed him at that party," Kiara argued.

"I was drunk ok according to you plus I don't even remember what happened that night."

"Fine, have it your way."

Shelly opened her mouth for a comeback but snapped it shut at the sound of the voice she heard behind her.

"Hello, ladies."