If Only

Chapter 16- The Party

Soon it's about five o'clock and I finally get up from the couch. We just finished watching a three and a half hour movie. Well, actually, rather I finished the movie. Darion fell asleep at about the two hour mark.

I carefully removed his head from my lap where he was sleeping and stretched. I let out a groan before I began to wander around. With Darion asleep, the house is silent again. There's no arguing parents, no obnoxious older brother, no stupid photos of baseball games where my face is cut out. Just me, Darion, and the fish. Part of me wishes this, the silence and serenity of this fantastical reality, could last forever. But the realist side of me knows it won't. I'll have to go home eventually and then there will be arguing parents, and there will be an obnoxious older brother, and there will be a stupid photo of a baseball game where I was purposely cut out of the photo. Gone with just the snap of a finger.

Darion's phone buzzes on the coffee table and curious as I am, I gently take it in my hand. A text. I swipe to open his phone and become surprised when I find there is no password. A teenage boy who doesn't have a password on his phone? Never thought I would meet one. I opened his messages and read the new one from some guy named Steven.

Hey man, party at my house tonight! You coming? You can bring your whoever you want! 5:03 P.M.

I take it upon myself to answer.

Hey man! You can count me in on the party! I'll definitely be there! 5:04 P.M.

Part of me feels guilty answering for him, but I smile and place his phone back on the coffee table. Before I get the chance to walk away, I feel someone pulling on the bottom hem of my shirt. I whirl around to see Darion blankly staring into the distance. Out of the blue, he pulls me down on top of him. I let out a faint yelp as I land, seemingly hard, but he doesn't seem bothered as he holds my head tightly to his chest. I weave my arms out from beneath me and rest them at the sides of his torso. We lay in silence for a couple of minutes before I interrupted.

"Is everything alright?" I ask. Though I don't get a verbal answer, I can feel him nod as he hugs me tighter.

"You scared me." he finally speaks. It's in a whisper, but it's better than silence.

"I didn't mean to. I have no impulse control." I slightly laugh though I know there's no humor in what I did. A few moments pass by before either of us talk again.

"What were you doing on my phone earlier?" he confronts. My face heats up.

"I may or may not have been answering a text for you." I admit.

"Fleur." he groans.

I laugh, "What? I got you into a party!"

He responds, "Who said I wanted to go to a party?"

"I did!"

"Loser."

"Shut up."

"Loooooser."

"I said shush."

"And I said loser." he smiles as I rise and look him in the eyes. We both stand up and smooth the wrinkles from our clothes. He finally agrees to going to the party but only if I go with him. I of course accept this offer and head once again to his mother's closet. I pick out *insert dress* and begin to change, ignoring my image in the mirror. Darion yells through the door that he's going to go and get ready, and that if I need anything I'm free to call across the house for him and he'll get whatever it is I need. I feel grateful for him, I really do. Ever since I first met him, all he's done is make sure I'm okay and that he hasn't hurt me. Even when I ran into him in the hallway, he apologized.