Chapter 39
The next few days I would check in with Keaton seeing how he was feeling about the dance coming up. We had a week long vacation so there was plenty of time for us to talk about it. We went to the skate park a lot and Ary was still flirting. Every time I asked about it he said he was nervous. I told him not to worry, but I knew it wouldn't help much. He said he was worried because he had never slow danced before. I had done it plenty of times with Jared at my old school dances so I told him I would help him practice.
Each day up until Wednesday, Keaton and I would go into the living room and practice his slow dancing. A couple of times some of the older guys caught us and teased Keaton about it. I stood up for him, saying he was probably a better dancer than any of them now.
When I said that to Chase he said, "Wanna bet?" I wasn't expecting it and was shocked that he would say that. He put his hand out to dance with me, but I turned around and kept dancing with Keaton. I should have taken his hand and danced with him. I was just shocked. I didn't think he would have done that.
Keaton noticed that I felt something from it, because when Chase left, Keaton stopped dancing and asked why I didn't dance with him. He said, "I know that you like him. It's obvious and I know you know he likes you too. You're not stupid." He kept dancing after that.
When Wednesday rolled around, Paige was at the house ready to pick me and Ary up. We drove to Ary's house. It was pretty big. Not as big as the Johnson's house, but nothing was really. She walked out in converse and a t shirt and jean shorts. She had a hat on and she wore it backwards.
She got in the back and Paige and I turned around and smiled at her. She rolled her eyes. "Can you just drive, please?" she asked without patience.
We faced forwards laughing and drove to the mall. When we got there we went to the stores with the most simple, yet still pretty dresses. Ary looked around, but seemed lost. I walked up to her as she looked at a light pink dress.
"Do you like it?" I asked taking the bottom between two of my fingers and feeling the fabric.
She shrugged. "I don't know, I don't do this kind of thing," she said.
"Okay, well, I think it's a very pretty dress. You should try it on and see how it looks," I said taking one of the smaller sizes and handing it to her.
She took it in her hands and gave me a worried look before she went into a changing room.
She soon walked back out with the dress on. She had let her hair down and her rusty colored curls flowed in front of her light peach colored dress. The dress had a bit of lace around the v neck line at the top and a bit in the mid section, just above the waist line. It looked gorgeous.
I grabbed Paige's arm to bring her attention to Ary's beautiful dress. "That looks amazing," I said, pulling Ary out of the confinement of the changing room area and bringing her in front of the big mirror.
She looked at herself in amazement. Paige and I backed up and watched as her eyes roamed over the dress. "It's so beautiful, but I don't know," she said with a worried look on her face.
"What do you mean? You look amazing," Paige said.
I stood next to her and looked at her in the mirror. "What's wrong? Do you like it?" I asked.
"Of course I do," she said with a pause. "But, what if Keaton doesn't? What if he thinks it looks horrible? Or what if he does like it? Does that mean I'll have to dress like this all the time to get his attention?" She started rambling and coming up with tons of reasons why the dress might not be a good fit, but they were all ridiculous.
I put my hands on her shoulders and faced her towards me. "Keaton asked you to this dance because he likes you. If Paige and I think the dress looks amazing on you, then Keaton definetly will as well. And you shouldn't change yourself for a boy anyway. I think if Keaton asked you to the dance without this dress on, then he will definetly like you later without it as well."
She turned back to the mirror and smiled. "It is really pretty," she said satisfied. Paige and I smiled at each other and high fived. "I'm wearing these shoes though," Ary said.
I looked down at her feet where I found her gray converse. I nodded. "It actually doesn't look half bad with those," I said. "It makes it more casual."
"Casual is my middle name," Ary said heading back to the changing room to take the dress off.
She bought the dress and we all got some food before heading back to the house to get her ready. The dress wasn't terribly expensive, but Paige and I offered to help pay for it, but Ary said it was fine. She said her parents had given her plenty of money to spend. They were extremely excited that she had finely found girls to hang out with and was actually going dress shopping. Without being dragged by her mother.
When we got back to the house, we all climbed out of the car and went inside. I walked in first and saw Keaton standing by the bottom of the stairs with a stressed look on his face. He was talking to Chase and Ethan who sat on the couch with video game controllers in their hands. They hadn't even looked away from the screen when the door opened.
"Will you guys please help me?" Keaton pleaded throwing his hands up and gripping onto his hair.
I walked over to him as Paige and Ary were walking in. They shut the door behind them and Keaton's stressed attention was no longer on getting ready. He looked at Ary with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a surprised tone.
"I invited her over to get ready. Lydia will take you two to the dance, but you only have an hour left until you have to leave," I stated. "Where are your pants?" I asked.
Keaton looked down at his bottoms and realized he didn't have pants on. "Shit," he said as he ran up the stairs.
Chase and Ethan laughed at him from the other room. I shot them both glares and they stopped instantly. "Paige," I said turning to her. "Can you show Ary up to my room? I'll be there in a minute."
Paige nodded and Ary followed her up the stairs with her dress in her hands. I walked into the living room standing in between the guys and the TV. They groaned as I was blocking the screen. "Ellie, would you move?" Chase said.
I raised my eyebrows at him and put my hands on my hips. He looked at me and shrunk into the couch. "Will you two please go up stairs and help your brother get ready?" I asked.
"He doesn't need any help," Ethan said.
"He was just down here in his underwear," I said gesturing to where Keaton stood previously. "Please," I said looking at Chase.
He sighed and put down his controller and looked at Ethan, then nodded towards the stairs. Ethan rolled his eyes and groaned as he stood up. Chase followed him and as he passed me, I reached my hand out and touched his arm. "Thank you," I said. He smiled at me and winked.
I followed both of them upstairs and when they went into Keaton's room, I went into my own. As I walked in, Ary was already in her dress. Paige was getting the make up ready for us. I walked over to my vanity and plugged in my curly iron. "Do you want to curl your hair?" I asked.
"Uh, sure," she said. I could tell she wasn't very positive about it so I thought that we should just do a little.
"What do you think about make up?" Paige asked. Ary shrugged. "We can do a little. If you don't like it, we can always take it off." Ary nodded and took a seat at the chair by the vanity.
I slowly started to curl her hair and Paige started with her make up. She applied some mascara and eyeliner to make her eyes more vibrant, but that's all she thought necessary. Ary was already so pretty without the make up. She really didn't need it. "Before you go to bed, just make sure you wash it off or else you'll wake up tomorrow morning looking like a racoon," Paige joked.
I finsied her hair and ran my fingers through it to loosen the curls. She turned to the mirror and looked at herself. I think she was surprised. She didn't look completely different, but it was probably just something new.
There was a knock on the door and Ethan popped his head through the crack. "Keaton's ready when you are," he said to all of us and was gone after he shot a wink towards Paige.
Ary stood up and put her converse back on. It made me laugh that she could still pull off this look. We followed her downstairs and waiting at the bottom was Keaton dressed up in a black suit with a bowtie. He looked so cute.
I smiled as his jaw dropped when he saw Ary. His eyes were wide and a huge smile spread across his face. Before she even made it to the bottom of the stairs he was practically drooling.
They stood in front of each other and I took my spot next to Chase who sat on the couch in the living room. Ethan was standing by the kitchen and Paige joined him. He snaked his hand around her waist and kissed her cheek.
"You look beautiful," Keaton said to Ary.
I could see Ary blush and she smiled at him. "You look pretty nice yourself," she said. They were so cute.
Next thing I knew, Lydia and Jeff came spilling into the room, with cameras and phones. We all laughed at them getting pictures of the two. Keaton put his arm around Ary and they stood smiling for the cameras. "You look gorgeous," Lydia said to Ary.
She smiled and said, "Thank you."
"And Keaton, oh my little boy is all grown up," she said as she walked towards him and started peppering kisses all over his face.
"Mom," he groaned trying to dodge the kisses.
"Fine," Lydia said as she walked towards the dining room table and grabbed her purse. "Are you ready?" she asked opening the door.
They nodded and smiled at each other and walked out of the house. Surprisingly, Jeff went with them. I figured he would have stayed here. It was nice to see him go too.
Just as they left Wesley walked downstairs and ran into the living room sitting on the couch next to me. "Who wants to watch a movie?" he asked.
We all said sure and Ethan and Paige came into the living room with us, sitting on the little couch. Wesley grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels.
"So, Wesley, tell us about your boyfriend," I said.
He was about the start talking when Chase cut him off. "You have a boyfriend?" he asked.
Wesley nodded.
"Wait, what?" Paige said.
I had totally forgotten that she didn't know. "Oh yeah, Wesley's gay."
He smiled at her and she squealed. "OMG," she said. "That's so cute!" We all laughed at her reactions then she hit Ethan's arm. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I forgot," he said.
"You forgot I was gay?" Wesley asked.
Ethan shrugged. Paiged rolled her eyes and then Wesley preceeded to tell us about his boyfriend. "He's nice and funny and sweet and-"
"What's his name?" I asked.
"Is it something cool and exotic like Fredico or Roberto?" Paige asked.
Wesley looked at us. "It's Danny."
"Aw," Paige and I said in unison. "That's cute."
"Is he cute?" I asked.
I saw Chase roll his eyes and I hit his arm. "Uh," he said and stopped. I saw his eyes flicker up to both of his brothers who were both preoccupied with the TV.
I leaned closer to him. "Whisper it to me." I could tell he was a bit embarrassed.
He leaned closer and whispered in my ear, "Yes."
I squealed, but covered it up quickly. "So when do we get to meet him?" I asked.
"Uh," he flipped through the channels a bit more. "I was thinking, maybe tomorrow night at dinner? I that's alright with everyone."
I saw the guys nod. "Of course," I said. Wesley was such a sweet guy. I would hurt this Danny boy personally if he ever did anything to Wesley.
After a bit more of seaching, we found Into the Storm and decided it was the winner. Wesley got up and turned off the lights. That's when it started to get a bit awkward.
I was sitting next to Chase, the guy I liked, in the dark. I wanted to hold his hand so badly. I wanted to feel his touch again. When I touched his arm earlier, I hadn't even meant to. I just couldn't control myself. I wanted to feel his warmth again.
My eyes flickered to the right and I saw Ethan and Paige on the other couch. She was smiling at him and he was leaning closer to her. I wanted that so badly.
I let out a tiny sigh, but it was cut short when I felt someone's hand touch mine. I looked down and saw Chase gently putting his hand on mine and slowly intertwining our fingers. He looked down at me with a smile. I returned it and leaned my head on his shoulder. Just before the movie ended, Lydia and Jeff got home. They saw us all on watching movies and didn't say a word as they walked upstairs to their room.
I thought I saw Lydia's eyes flash towards Chase and I. She didn't seem to show that she saw our hands though.
As the movie ended, Paige and Ethan got up. Paige grabbed her bag from upstairs and Ethan walked her out to her car. Wesley said goodnight to us and smiled as he walked by us to go upstairs. I think the boys knew about Chase and I. We didn't really hide it, but we weren't overly affectionate either.
Ethan came back in and smiled to us as he walked upstairs as well. I looked at Chase. "Are you tired?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Are you?" I nodded as I yawned and laughed. "Do you want to go to bed?" he asked.
I shook my head. "I want to stay with you," I said as I wrapped my arm around his and rested my head on his shoulder agian. He flipped through the channels and put on a random show. I don't think either of us was watching it though. I was too preoccupied with trying to keep my eyes open and enjoying the incredible moment this was.
Chase and I were finally completely alone. It was just the two of us. I brought my legs up onto the couch next to me and Chase put his arm around me. I leaned against his chest and his thumb slipped under neath my shirt a bit. He rubbed his thumb back and forth on my hip and I slowly closed my eyes.
Everything was perfect. Everything felt right. It was just so amazing. I smiled and let my eys shut.
Then everything got a little less perfect as I heard the front door shut. My eyes opened and I looked up as I saw a figure walk from the door towards the stairs. I felt Chase's hand tighten around my waist. "How was it?" I asked.
The figure faced us and his face came into view from the light down the hall. "It was a lot of fun," Keaton said.
He smiled at us and I smiled back. He walked back up stairs and I looked at Chase. His bright blue eyes were looking back at me. He slowly slid his hand up my cheek and his fingers hooked behind my ear. "Ellie?" he said slowly and quietly. I waited. "You're so beautiful." I smiled and closed my eyes as I sunk into his hand. "Come on," he said shifting his position.
I sat up and he stood up taking my hands and helping me up. "I can carry you if you want," he offered. I laughed and shook my head. "Seriously," he smiled.
I walked in front of him towards my room. I opened the door and stepped in a little bit. He was right behind me, waiting outside of the room. His hands wrapped around my waist and he pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer while standing on my tip toes.
I felt his lips touch my neck and it sent tingles all through my body. Then his lips landed on my right cheek and the tingles grew until I could feel the parts of me touched pulsing. I wanted him to do it all again. "Chase," I said quietly. "Will you stay with me tonight?" I asked even quieter.
He was quiet, but he still held me in his arms. He loosened his grip a bit and I could feel the warmth slowly drifting away. "I shouldn't," he said.
He was right. This was insane. We weren't even dating yet and I was asking him to sleep in my room with me.
But it felt so right. I felt so safe and comfortable and warm when I was with him. When he was gone I felt lost and cold.
He smiled at me though. "I'll see you in the morning," he said and kissed my cheek once more before he turned around and walked down the hall to his room. I smiled as he walked off and closed the door.
I leaned against the door and felt the butterflies in my stomach erupt. I wanted Chase. He made me happy. I wanted him. I got in my bed and held the dolphin he had won me, in my arms.
The picture posted with this chapter is Ary in her dress (played by Bella Throne). Please let me know what you think of Chase and Ellie or Paige and Ethan or Keaton and Ary. Anyway thanks so much and I can't believe it, but there are only two chapters left!!!