Love Of My Life

3

Ben

My phone has been going off nonstop since Aria made the group chat. I've always hated group chats, but this one I don't mind. I find it funny also because most of the time Gwilym, Rami, Joe and I will be sitting in a room together yet we'll only be communicating through the chat.

"Okay we need popcorn, soda, chips, chocolate, pizza bagels-" Joe whispers in the supermarket,  distracting me from my thoughts. 

"I'm lactose intolerant," Gwilym whispers back.

"I'm Gwilym intolerant but you don't see me complaining,"

Gwilym nudges Joe hard with his elbow. I can't help but laugh at these idiots. My idiots now. 

Gwilym, Joe, Rami and I decided to have a movie night. We needed snacks so we wanted to pick them up and Joe came up with the genius idea for us to go "undercover". We look absolutely ridiculous, wearing hats and sunglasses indoor. If anything we are bringing more attention to ourselves.

"We look like we're about to rob the place," I whisper harshly.

"I think we look fabulous," Rami adds loudly, not bothering to whisper at all.

I roll my eyes as we walk through the store, looking for everything we need. Joe pushes a cart and it is already mostly full.

"You're turning into Freddie," I comment.

Rami turns to me, waving his arms out. "I need to stay in character, darling," he says in his Freddie accent.

I hear Joe and Gwilym snickers and I laugh. I think that Rami is the perfect choice for the roll and I like to push his buttons because of it. I think Rami is starting to pick up Freddie's mannerisms. 

We walk down the frozen aisle and stumble across all of the frozen pizzas and appetizers.

"Should we?" Joe asks.

"The answer is always yes," Rami adds, beaming at the sight of food. 

We load up on junk that we absolutely do not need. Personally I had to go on a strict diet for this role to begin with, but this is a celebration of not getting fired. And celebrations always require food. 

I look to my right down the aisle to see what other food selections are here and I see a familiar girl. My face heats up and I duck behind Gwilym, since he's taller than me.

"I think Aria is here," I whisper to the boys.

They all turn their heads very obviously in the direction that I am looking, and sure enough we see her walking down this aisle. She wears an oversized jean jacket over a grey sweatshirt it looks like. All of our heads snap back to the food.

"We have our disguises on, she can't recognize us," Joe mutters. 

It's not like we don't want to see her, but seeing her while we have an entire shopping cart of junk food is a little embarrassing. How do we explain that? 'Hey thanks for not firing us. We're celebrating now'.

Aria gets closer to us and we all stiffen like cardboard, refusing to look at her.

"Ah yes, me an intellectual needs food," Joe says in his best British accent. I choke a little. 

"Excuse me," Aria says from behind us. "Can I get in there real quick?"

Perhaps she didn't notice us. We all move, taking small steps to the side while we awkwardly refuse to acknowledge her further. Aria slips between us opening up the freezer. She pulls something out but I am too preoccupied with staring at nothing to notice what it is.

She retreats behind us to her cart and just when we think we are in the clear she laughs.

"You know you're not fooling anyone right?" she says.

"Dammit!" Joe yells loudly. We all relax our posture and turn to her, taking our sunglasses off.

"Was it that obvious?" Rami asks.

Aria nods. "Extremely. Why are you guys hiding from me?" she asks, amused by our behavior.

"We didn't want you to see us in this state," Gwilym comments.

"Pigs," Rami adds.

Aria laughs. "I don't judge. Besides who cares what I think?"

"We do," the boys and I chorus.

"Hey, Ari," Rami says, shooting us a knowing look. He's up to something. "Why don't you join us tonight? We're having a movie night at my hotel,"

Aria looks almost shocked that we invited her. Perhaps shocked because we just work with her or maybe she's never been invited to a movie night.

"Really?" She asks, a child-like excitement sleeping through.

Rami nods. "It'll be fun. It can be a bonding moment,"

Aria looks like she's weighing her options. I can't help but notice how her hair has a tinge of red to it, it looks like. It's like black but also brown and red. I find myself captivated by her but I shake my head to bring me back to reality. I don't know why I'm like this.

"I'm in," she says. My body feels weird after she says it but I ignore the feeling.

"Great! I'll text you the address and we can meet you at, lets say, eight?" Rami tells her.

She nods and we say our goodbyes before Aria walks away.

"She's our boss," Joe says. "Is that weird?"

Rami shakes his head. "No. Look she's genuinely a great person. We hung out a couple times during my audition for Freddie and then we  worked together to further perfect my role. I really like her. I think you guys will too so therefore I'm going to force her friendship on you all without her knowing,"

"Pretty sure that's illegal," Joe mutters.

Rami rolls his eyes so hard I think they might fall out of his head.

"It'll be great. I'll make conversation and we'll watch a movie and hang out. It's fine," Rami says. 

I groan internally, feeling slightly anxious tonight. I don't know why my emotions are everywhere, but I would like to find out and preferably soon.