Jess’ POV
A date with Aston? Yeah right. After the time he’d taken me to Nando’s, gotten caught up talking to fans to the point that I went to order our food and then sat quietly like an idiot and ate while he took pictures… I’d vowed to never go out on any sort of date with him again. But I was stuck because of those damn tickets. And then we’d breached the subject of him teasing me. I don’t know why I asked, because I was actually scared to hear his answer, but I wanted to know. So I took a deep breath and let it fly, “Why do you tease me so much?” His eyes bugged out when I asked and then he too took a deep breath.
“What?” I said, “You love to see me upset?” “No, I hate it,” he replied. “So why do you do these things?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. I glared at him, knowing he wasn’t telling the truth. Deftly I started snapping books shut and piling them on the floor by my bed neatly. “I like you,” he said quietly.
“Excuse me?” “I like you,” he said again, his eyes catching mine, “Please don’t roll your eyes.” “I wasn’t going to.”
“You always do when I say things like that,” Aston said, “You did when I said you could come to the concert.”
“Because One Direction makes me cringe.” “Well ok, but still I get it… You don’t like me the way I like you.”
“I never knew you liked me,” I muttered. I watched him kick his shoes off and drop his coat on the floor, coming to sit on the edge of my bed. “I have done forever.”
“What?” “Since we were young,” he said, “I think I was 16 when I first realized it.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because you always roll your eyes at me!” he said, smiling faintly as he avoided eye contact.
“And you tease me because…”
“I like to have your attention.”
“So you make me mad at you?”
“It works,” he replied, “I didn’t think you’d take me seriously if I just came out with it so I try to interact with you in other ways. Maybe its gotten out of hand a bit.” “”I might have taken you seriously,” I said, not sure if I really would have or if I’d have thought it was a joke.
“No,” he replied, “I get it. It’s all one-sided.” “Only because you tease me so much!”
“Yeah well…”
“For real though Ast,” I sighed, not really sure where my head or my heart was at in all of this, “We’ve never had a nice time just us. The one time we tried was a total disaster. How am I supposed to know how I feel?”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“Why was our one try at a date so bad?” I asked. “I was so nervous,” he sighed, sliding up the bed a bit so he was sitting next to me. The pair of us had our backs against the headboard, our feet out in front of us. “Nervous?”
“I wanted to impress you and I forgot to make a reservation. And then I got swamped by fans and I thought you’d think I was a dick if I blew them off…” “And so I was left alone,” I finished. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, I just wanted to impress you and I kept failing.” “Right.”
“I promise tomorrow night will be way better. We’ll both enjoy ourselves,” he said, turning his head and finally catching my eye. I stared at him for a second, surprised by these revelations. I had no idea that he felt that way. I’d always thought he was just my best friend’s older brother’s best friend. Or whatever. “Did I totally freak you out by saying all of this?” he whispered.
“I don’t know.” “Sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be sorry for expressing your feelings,” I said, turning my head to face his. We were way closer to each other than I though we were, and I felt my breath catch at the back of my throat as I stared into his eyes. They were so caring and warm. They always had been, but I was all of a sudden seeing them in a new light. Slowly I leant over, catching Aston’s lips against my own. I wasn’t totally sure why I was doing it, but it seemed like something I wanted to try in the moment. I pulled back after a second, my eyes falling into his again. “Ast…”
“Shhhh…” he whispered, leaning forward and catching my lips again. His hand fell to my waist and he pulled me nearer to him, my head leaning back on the pillow as his body came over the top of mine.
I thought it would be weird, kissing him like this. Yeah, we’d kissed before. A few drunken club make-outs and the whole mistletoe situation the other night. But none of that was like this. This was careful and sweet, his fingers staying on my waist as his lips massaged my own, never asking for more. I could feel my heartbeat rising as each kiss became longer and more meaningful, my heart beginning to fall fast. And then the door swung open.
“Woah!!” Natalie shrieked. “Fuck,” I muttered, pushing Aston off the top of me. To his credit he didn’t say anything, but Natalie was another story. She stood and stared at the pair of us for a full ten seconds before hastily muttering, “I’ll come back later” and pulling the door shut. “I should go,” Aston whispered. “Yeah,” I nodded. “I’ll pick you up at like 8 tomorrow?”
“Sounds good.”
“Night Jessie,” he grinned, stealing a kiss and then hopping off the bed to grab his things. I laid there and watched him, my heart beating hard as I tried to comprehend what had just happened. I’d just made out, soberly, with Aston. And I wanted to do it again maybe. “Thanks again for the tickets Aston,” I said as he pulled the door open.
He turned to give me a lopsided grin and a wink, skipping down the hall and out of my flat as he pulled his shoes on. “Woah,” I muttered to myself, “What is going on?”
