Being The Player's Neighbour

Chapter 11 - The First Date

"You look awesome." Aaron smiled.

Self consciously tugging at my abstract design t-shirt, I replied, "Thanks, but jeans and t-shirt isn't exactly prescribed 'date attire'."
I scrunched up my nose, thinking of the argument I'd had with Shanaya earlier. She thought I looked like a street urchin and was way too underdressed for a date.

Thankfully, Aaron didn't seem to think so.
At least he said differently.
"But I wouldn't expect anything less from you. Besides, dates are just two people who like each other, hanging out, right?"

"That's the sensible approach. I really don't get why first dates have to be magical, fuzzy and all that crap."

He laughed quietly and held out his hand. "Shall we?"

I took his hand as we walked from my porch to his garage.

"Well hello, death monster."
I was talking to the black, creepy contraption that stood in front of me.
I wasn't totally comfortable with it, but I'd finally given in to the fact that the only mode of transport for our date was going to be Aaron's motorcycle.
He had threatened to make me walk all the way to the movie theatre, where we'd planned to go.
Frankly, I wouldn't have minded walking, but that sort of defeated the whole purpose of a date.

"So what do you wanna watch? I trust your taste in movies enough to let you pick, so please don't make me regret it."

I looked at Aaron to see a pleading expression on his face.
"And by 'regret it' you mean if I make you sit through an epic chick flick romance film, right?"

"Yes. And I promise I will walk out if you decide on anything of that sort."

I put on my best 'whiny cheerleader' voice and looked haughtily at my nails as I spoke. "But, Aaron! I have to see what Megan fox and Angelina Jolie are wearing in their latest movies so I can order a handmade version of their outfits! And anyway, I just cannot bear those stinky action movies. The actresses in those don't even get mani-pedis. Like, ugh. So gross!"

Aaron was clutching his stomach and doubled over with laughter by now.
"Wow. That was one scarily perfect imitation. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were vying for the spot of cheer captain."

"Oh so you think I'm not cheerleader material?" I asked, making a big show of being offended.

He stopped laughing and shook his head. "Nope. You're not enough of a backbiting bitch to be one of them."

Taken aback wasn't the word to even remotely describe my surprise. One moment I was fooling around, being dramatic and the next I was stunned speechless.
Pretty much everyone around me had openly accepted that I was rude and annoyingly bitchy to anyone that I hated.

"I've been nothing but mean and rude to you for most of the time you've known me and you still think I'm not that much of a bitch. Bit farfetched, don't you think?" I snapped at him.

He scrutinised me for a minute, with an expression I couldn't fully understand.
"I can see through your perfectly composed mask, you know. You try so hard to keep up that 'I'm tough and invincible' exterior, when in reality you're a sweet, caring person at heart."

How did he do that?

I thought I had absolutely perfected my biting sarcasm and non-caring actions. I'd practised them so much that they'd become like a second skin by now. Every morning I would put on that mask and it would crumble to pieces only when I lay awake at night.

Aaron's voice cut through my jumbled thoughts. "Hey, Avery. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

I cut him off before things could get sentimental.

I was a coward when it came to dealing with emotions, and running away from them was my way of coping.
"You have nothing to apologise for. I just wasn't expecting you to be so...observant."

I had wanted to say 'I wasn't expecting you to care two hoots about me', but it was best to avoid controversy.

With a half worried, half confused expression, Aaron mumbled something to himself.
To me it sounded a lot like 'didn't plan this. It's all wrong and screwed up.'

~*~

"Okay, stop! You're killing my stomach!" I poked Aaron's arm accusingly.

We had just come out of the theatre after watching Iron Man 3.

Aaron had been making hilarious remarks and comments on every one of the character's lines. It should have annoyed me that he was spoiling the movie, but I had never laughed so much before. His comic timing was so perfect, that my sides had started hurting by the time the final credits rolled in.
I'm sure the people seated around us were quite peeved since I'd been laughing for almost every other scene of the movie.

"It's not my fault that you find everything I say so funny."
He poked my arm now, probably as a reply to me poking him earlier.

Well, if that's how he wanted it....

"As if you weren't saying all those things just to make me laugh ."

Poke.

"Puh-lease. Not everything revolves around you."

Without missing a beat, he poked my side.

"Ouch. You don't have to always poke me back. I'm the delicate girl here!"

Poke.

"You're kidding, right? I'll probably have a bruise on my arm due to your poking."

Poke.

"Meh. You're a guy. You're supposed to be all macho and have damage proof skin."

Poke.

"If you poke me once more, damage proof skin or not, it will mean hell for you."

"Ooh threatening me, huh?" I poked him again and kept at it since I saw no reason to take his threat seriously.
"Whatchya gonna do, biker boy? It's a crowded movie place. What's the most damage you can do? Shoot me murderous glares or poke me back. Well, bring it on."

"You asked for it, candy head. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Wait wait wait.
He wouldn't do that in the midst of all these people.
Would he?

He can't!
He can't launch a tickle attack on me with everybody milling around!

But I had put my trust in false hope.
He would totally launch a tickle attack on me, since he obviously wasn't worried about the reaction of the random public standing around.
I realised this a second too late. By then, his fingers had already started tormenting my stomach and sides.

My response to getting tickled is something that I'm going to sweetly edit out, for the sake of everyone else's sanity.
Let's just say that Darth Vader on a surfboard would have been less conspicuous than my laughter and shouts of protest.

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Author's Note: So it's been a month...and my exams went pretty awesome! :D
Plus, summer break's close so hopefully there are gonna be more frequent updates.
Wohooo! :P

Secondly, a huuuuge thank you to everyone for supporting my story :') <3

Vote, Comment, Fan...and in the mean time, I will try to write awesome-er chapters for you guys (yes. I know awesomer is not a word xP)
And I promise the next one's gonna be dramatic =D

The song is Hurricane by Bridgit Mendler, since it's been playing on repeat.
Needless to say, I LOVE it ^_^

The dedication is to one of my close friends for just being herself =) <3

Xoxo
~Av~