Love Arranged (#1)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five: Maggie

The feeling of cold water practically slapping me across the face was what broke me out of my trance-like state.

Making me shriek at the sensation as the sight of Evan's head emerging out of the pool was what greeted me first thing "Evan! What the hell?!" I bellowed as I wiped the water off my face.

His face broke into a mischievous grin as he swam towards me, all the while I was too busy drying myself up and squeezing the water out of my hair as I roped it within my grasp.

"We've been here for almost an hour and the only thing you've done is dip your legs into the pool," he said, playfully stroking my legs from underneath the water for emphasis.

I glowered at him as I delivered a quick kick to his stomach, causing him to wince as his face contorted into a pained expression "That's not an excuse to soak me, you imbecile."

He managed to choke out a chuckle, looking up at me "Would you have preferred a different way to have gotten wet?"

Feeling an unbearable heat shot right through me, I attempted to swing my legs forward one last time but almost as if he predicted my reaction, he was quick to hold them in place.

"Hey!" I whined.

He effortlessly pulled himself up from the water, putting his hands on both sides of the pool as he caged my body close to his "Come on, princess. This is a pool party, let loose." he said.

I sighed as I looked around our surroundings in a moment's worth of recognition, the sun was out and bright as ever in this reasonably warm afternoon.

Jasper was standing on the sidelines cooking burgers whilst Jess, Ashley, Colin, Zach, and Elijah were at the pool playing a wrestling game that required both girls to sit on the guy's shoulders whilst they attempted to push each other into the water.

It didn't surprise me when Jess was the one to bring Ashley down into the pool, I laughed as Jess threw her ups in the air as she and Colin cheered.

"Take that, bitch!" she boasted in victory as Ashley sprung back up from the pool, pouting at her.

Jess's eyes softened as she looked down at her best friend with an apologetic stare "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that, sweetheart." she cooed "That was meant for Zach."

I chuckled as Zach barked out a sarcastic "Are you calling me a bitch?" as I felt Evan's eyes on me "See?" he whispered as I diverted my attention back to him "It's fun, right? So come on, join us."

I let out a breath, nodding my head "I will, I'm sorry." I told him "It's just that I've been... distracted."

Evan's brows knitted together in perplexity, and I couldn't help but grin faintly because I've never realized until now how much I found him adorable when he looked confused.

"Why? What's the matter?"

What's the matter? The matter is that I'm still on about the whole Beth situation and how I'm going to approach Evan about it without it being awkward.

I know the only person I can talk about this with is Evan and Evan only, and I can only hope he won't dodge this conversation because even though I didn't expect to talk about Beth of all people when it came to him, their weird, heated interactions are just hard to ignore at this point.

Plus I didn't wanna have to assume the worst of it. Believe it or not, I do feel slightly wary that she and Evan might have some... history.

The kind that's crucial enough for Evan not to have touched on long ago and elaborate.