"Speech"
'Thoughts'
["Speech Through Technology"]
||
…
"Uugghhhh, are you sure?" Ashley groaned as her forehead hit the table she was sitting at.
"I'm pretty sure," Amelia responded, her arms crossed, and her expression disinterested.
Inside the workplace, the current topic of the conversation hadn't shown its face today. Although she had been basically turned away, Ashley didn't think she should give up before she started.
Raising her head to look at Amelia sitting across from her, Ashley spoke again. "I could've sworn he liked me!"
The shout from Ashley almost drew a sigh from Amelia's mouth. To her, it was plain to see, but she guessed that not everyone was blessed with the same vision.
"Yeah, he doesn't like you at all." Amelia could see it clearly; the monotone way she said it made Ashley slouch further.
"Give me a percentage! A percentage!"
"Saying it twice won't increase your odds, it just makes you look like a desperate gambler…"
Amelia rolled her eyes—the desperate pleas of the person in front of her, using her as a love calculator.
"Please…" Ashley practically begged. She knew Amelia better than anyone else; anything she said, be it an observation or an insight, was bound to be more accurate than anything she could come up with.
Amelia brought up her left hand. "Zero percent." She said as her hand formed a zero with all five fingers. The results seemed to slap Ashley metaphorically and physically in the face.
"Come on… I could've sworn I had at least a chance." Ashley said as her disbelief grew, going through her memories, she could think of so many moments that had pulled them closer.
However, her words seemed to catch Amelia's attention. She could understand why Ashley would ask that, checking in with others in case you thought someone else was behaving differently, that was fine. But did Ashley really like Dante? Like, actually?
She couldn't believe it, but the only way to find out was to ask.
"Ashley… do you really like Dante? As in, actually?" Amelia said slowly and softly, as if Dante were trash people weren't supposed to like.
Ashley's face twitched for a few moments before a sigh tore from her lips. "Yeah, I think I do."
Amelia's face scrunched up in disgust, much to Ashley's confusion. "What do you even like about him?" She asked in a way that made her dislike of the person in question obvious.
Ashley took a few seconds, as if recounting her entire experience of the moments and situations she was with Dante. "He was kinda just… there for me. I was in the darkest moments of my life, and he pulled me out of that. It helps that he's handsome, but I find the little things he does really cute.
You know, how he mumbles things to himself sometimes, how he talks aloud sometimes, or how he always tries to put a plan to what he's doing, but through all that, he still ends up trying to spend time with everyone he knows. You know what I mean?"
"No, I don't."
Amelia's response came instantly after Ashley finished saying her heartfelt words.
"To me, Dante doesn't make sense. Every action he does is contrary to what he actually feels." Amelia said as she cringed. "I'm sorry to shit on your love, but Dante gives me the creeps. I don't know what it is about him."
Silence reigned in the room after that. Ashley slowly but surely began to squint, her suspicion rising.
"Hmmm." Ashley hummed as she was about to voice her suspicions. "Amelia… you wouldn't happen to be gay, would you? Or are you perhaps scared of good-looking men?"
"What?!" Amelia immediately slammed both her hands on her side of the table. "I swear, you'd fall in love with the devil if he were handsome!"
"Is he…?"
Amelia nearly fell over from the sheer amount of disbelief and disappointment welling in her.
"Girl, you're a freak. A whole freak." Amelia put her hand up and waved it with the same tone she was speaking with.
"Me, a freak? You haven't even told me what type of men you like!" Ashley immediately shot back.
However, a hand practically blocked her vision.
"Hush and listen."
Ashley pulled back, her back straight, and she crossed one leg over the other. "I'm listening, tell us your grand preferences."
"I like my men of the… darker variety," Amelia said with haughtiness. Going so far as to flick her hair as she said it.
"So, you like… black men?" The disbelief in Ashley's tone prompted a slight pause in Amelia's prideful image she had set up for herself.
"Yes, I like black men. Black men with afros." Amelia said with gravitas that ate Ashley's rebuttal.
So she came up with a new one.
"Where the fuck are you gonna find a black man with an afro?! At least the guy I like is in front of me!"
"I will find him! He exists! Don't come after my likes because yours are weird!"
Amelia's immediate comeback hit Ashley hard, but she would never admit it.
"Mine aren't weird! You just can't see what I see." Ashley crossed her arms, unwilling to admit her taste in men might be difficult for some to understand. (A/N: You fell in love with this version of Dante??? I'm gonna throw up.)
"I see how it is, you don't wanna admit it. Girl, you and Dante could be the title of a book. 'When A Weirdo Likes A Weirdo.'"
Ashley brought her hands to her eyes, falling back in her seat a little, her head tilted back. "Ugghhh, I can't be that weird."
Amelia shook her head softly, "I'm sorry, I don't know any other girl who walks into fifteen red flags and thinks 'hey, this guy is husband material!'"
Now dejected, Ashley rethought what Amelia had first told her when she asked about her chances with Dante.
'"I don't see you and Dante working out. To me, it'll end with him disliking you or hating you. It's not that you're a bad person, but I see the way Dante looks at you. It's giving, 'I keep her around because I don't want to be an asshole and ignore her.' He has no liking for you in his system, maybe only for entertainment. I could be wrong, and I know if you were to get in that relationship, you'd be the happiest. The problem is whether Dante would feel the same, and I don't think he will."'
The supposed advice to help her ended up crushing the feelings in her chest. But, like what she said before, she wouldn't give up without trying.
Even if the chances were zero, she couldn't leave things as they were. Who knows what Dante was doing now? Who knows when he would find someone while she wasn't around? Who knows when they will die by some creature?
Leaving things as they were would only allow a temporary happiness of being near him. Something had to change. If left without action, she'd be doing nothing and watching Dante with someone else. That couldn't be allowed.