Ariel's POV
There stands Dylan, hands shoved in his pockets, his hair perfectly tousled, a genuine smile playing across his lips. Suddenly, I want nothing more than to be in his arms. I press my lips together, take his outstretched hand, and walk with him to his car, resting my head on his shoulder as we walk. "You look beautiful." he whispers in my ear, sending chills down my spine.
I feel the blood rise to my cheeks and I can't help but smile. "Thanks." I say, bringing my eyes up to his. Our eyes lock together as we stand in front of his car. I turn to face him, grabbing his other hand in the process and pull him a little closer to me. I bite my lower lip gently, not sure what to do, but making sure that my eyes never leave his.
His bright blue eyes search my dull gray ones for who knows what. All I can focus on is how close we are. How our breaths are mingling and how he's smiling. I smile back, but can't bring myself to kiss him.
Why?
I have no idea.
Because I want to kiss him.
At least, I think I do.
Come on, Ariel. It's like, half an inch. Just move in! Its Dylan Carter!
But the other voice in my head argues.
Don't push it. What if he doesn't want to kiss you? Then he'll think you're clingy or needy or something. And besides, do you really want to?
Just shut the hell up!
"What?" Dylan asks, a shocked look now replacing the content one. He steps back a little, too far away from me now to kiss him.
"What?" I ask innocently.
"You just screamed 'shut the hell up' in my face. I didn't say anything." he says.
Oops.
"Uh, sorry, I was just thinking to myself. I really didn't mean to shout in your face. I -" I start, but Dylan interrupts me by placing his lips to mine. "Its fine." he says with a small chuckle and opens my door. I slide into the car and buckle myself in as he walks around the front and gets in as well.
He smiles at me before starting the car and drives off to the restaurant. Why does he keep smiling at me? Whatever, his smile is gorgeous. We arrive at the restaurant and get a seat by the window, where the city is alive with the bright lights of cars and buildings. "Its breath taking." I whisper. I've always loved the look of the city at night.
The waiter brings our meals, and Dylan pays like a gentleman. During dinner, we laugh and talk about different things, but he never really seems interested in what I'm talking about. He seems like he only wants to talk about him.
So I just sit there, my hands folded in my lap, while listening to what he has to say. I push the thoughts past me. Everybody has flaws, and this one can definitely be over-looked.
After dinner, its about 8:00, and the movie starts in about fifteen minutes. We leave the restaurant in haste, driving quite fast. We make it just in time to buy our tickets. The theater lights have been darkened and the main adds start to play just as Dylan and I walk inside. "You want to go get us some snacks?" Dylan asks, as we find our seats.
"We just had dinner." I say laughing a little. He must be joking. "So?" he asks, laughing too. I nod and take the ten dollar bill he hands me and walk out of the theater, biting my lip gently on the way out. Dylan was being so sweet before, but now he's not letting me talk and making me skip the beginning of the movie to go get snacks when we just had dinner.
This date is not going as well as I thought it would.
~-~-~-~-~
"I'll see you on Monday?" Dylan asks me. We stand outside my house, the moon high in the sky and the stars twinkling like little lights. The warm May breeze blows my hair off my shoulders and makes the hair on the nape of my neck stand up. "See you Monday." I say with a smile, trying to stay positive and awake.
He takes my hands in his and pushes me back against the front door gently, making me blush. Finally, a good part to the night. He leans in, slowly at first, and I close my eyes. But his lips never meet mine. His lips find my ear and kiss directly below it before whispering "Goodnight Ariel." and walking back to his car, leaving me frozen and covered in goosebumps.
What?
I wait till he's gone to turn around, roll my eyes, and walk inside. First, he doesn't let me talk, second, he makes me miss half the movie going to get him snacks and drinks, and third, he doesn't leave me with a goodnight kiss. Well, not a real kiss. I stomp up the carpeted stairs, quietly so I don't wake my parents and brother up, and lock my bedroom door behind me.
Hopefully Zoey will be feeling better so I can tell her how much this date sucked. How does Dylan get so many girls? He's almost as arrogant as Luke is.
Luke.
Why is it my stomach twists into a knot whenever I hear his name?
I lay back on my bed and close my eyes. Why do I keep thinking about Luke? I need to get him out of my head, because it will never work. He doesn't like me or care about me or anything like that. Even if he did maybe a little bit, although that's not likely to happen in a billion years, I've most likely ruined it now what with all the arguments we've been in.
I backwards roll off my bed and go to the bathroom and wash off my makeup. I come back to my room, change into an over sized t-shirt and shorts, and climb into bed. But the one things that is still on my mind even as I lay in bed, wide awake at 11:30 at night, is Luke.
And I'm worried that this...thing, if there even is a thing, is turning into something more than just mutual project partners for me.
~~~~~~
"Hey Zoey. Are you feeling any better?" I ask Zoey the next morning over the phone. "No. My headache is back, and I've been feeling nauseas all morning." she states. I can hear the frown in her voice. My poor best friend. What is going on with her? She's never been this sick before.
"Do you want me to stop over?" I ask. "No, I don't want to get you sick." she says. "I have to go. I feel like I'm gonna throw up. I'll talk to you later, OK? When I'm feeling better?" she says. "Alright. I hope you feel better, Zoey." I say. I didn't want to keep her any longer, even though I didn't get to tell her about the date.
Which now that I thought about it, wasn't all that bad. It just had some flaws to it. Maybe he was just nervous? I sit back on my bed and play on my phone for a while before I get an unexpected call from an unknown number.
I press 'answer' and put the phone up to my ear cautiously.
"Hello?" I ask. "Oh, uh, hi Ariel."
"Luke? Is this you?" I ask, sitting up. "Uh, yeah." he says.
Silence.
"Aren't you gonna say something? You called me." I say after a minute. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I was wondering if you wanted to come over today and work on the finishing touches for our project." he asks. Does he sound nervous? Why in God's name would he be nervous asking me to help finish the project?
"Sure. Sounds good. Just give me the address and I'll be over in an hour?" I say, grabbing a pen and paper off my desk. "Yeah. 87 Oceane Drive. See you in an hour." he says, and the line goes dead, like he couldn't get off the phone fast enough.
I change out of my pajamas and into shorts and a black tank top. I brush my hair and teeth and then tell my parents and brother where I'm going. "Do you need a ride?" Cam asks me. "Oh, yeah, a ride would be good. Just let me get the stuff for our project." I say. I run upstairs, grab the poster and other stuff, and then meet Cam downstairs.
The drive to Luke's house is pretty quiet, but Cameron keeps trying to talk to me about things. And I just keep shutting him down. No, not on purpose, just giving him answers that couldn't carry on the conversation. Finally he asks the question I was hoping he wouldn't ask.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Cam. Why wouldn't I be?" I reply, a little too quickly.
"You seem...nervous." he says, taking his eyes off the road for just a minute to look into my eyes. His search mine for a truthful answer, because he obviously doesn't believe the one I just gave him.
"Why would I be nervous?" I ask innocently, hoping he won't know why I am nervous. Because he's right. I'm nervous about going to Luke's house. I'm nervous about being alone with him, if we're even going to be alone. Who knows? His parents could be home.
"Because you like him." he states simply. "What?" I choke out, pretending that I have no idea what he's talking about.
"You like him, Ariel. And your like the only one who can't see it. Well besides Luke." he says, looking at me again with a smirk plastered to his face.
I hate it when he's right.
"No, no, no I don't, Cam. You have no idea what your talking about." I say, shaking my head and staring out the window, avoiding looking at him. Because I'm sure that if I do, he'll see right through me.
"Oh, OK." he says laughing. "Stop laughing, Cam! There's nothing funny about...this." I say, laughing as well. "So there's a this?" he asks. "No. There's no this." I say quietly, feeling all humor leave my voice. Cameron says nothing more.
When we arrive, I have to force myself to get out of the car. I'm right on time, I tell myself as I fish out the rest of the project from the back of Cameron's car. I wave goodbye to Cameron once I'm in front of Luke's house, and wait until he's long out of sight before turning around and knocking on the door.
I stand there, my hand positioned to knock on the dark colored wooden front door. But I can't make myself do anything. I'm frozen.
Come on, just knock on the freaking door. He knows you're coming.
I close my eyes, bite my lower lip, and gently tap on the door with my knuckles, waiting for the door to open. I hear the familiar creak of the door hinges and Luke stands there like he wasn't expecting me to be at the door. Oh, and then there's the fact that he's shirtless.
Oh, my dear Lord.
"Hey," he says, flashing a quick smile in my direction. I tear my eyes away from his torso and up to his eyes. "Hi," I say quietly. "Do you wanna come in or do you wanna stay outside and continue checking me out?" he asks, a smirk replacing the smile.
The arrogance is unbelievable and suffocating.
"Excuse me?" I ask as I open the door. "You heard me. You were staring," he says confidently, crossing his arms over his chest. "You wish," I say, stepping closer to him so now we're inches apart. The smirk leaves his face, realizing how close we are, but I keep my smirk plastered to my lips. Luke stares into my eyes, but I force myself to look away.
"Come on, let's do our project," I say, pulling away from the stare-down of some sorts and bending down to pick up my things. He clears his throat, steps in front of me, and starts walking upstairs. "You coming?" he asks once he's halfway up. "Oh, yeah," I say, and follow him upstairs.
He walks into his bedroom first and goes over to a dresser. "Mind if I put a shirt on?" he asks, the smug smirk back on his face. "Shut up," I say laughing. Why did I laugh? He laughs as well and turns back to the dresser. The smile on my face disappears once he turns away and I sit down on the floor.
Why did I laugh? Why did I smile? Why does it feel like there are a billion butterflies swimming around in my stomach?
He turns back around, fully clothed, and sits down across from me. "Are you OK?" he asks. My focus stays on the floor. "Hey," he says quietly. I feel his forefinger under my chin. He gently lifts my head up to look into his. I swallow, feeling my mouth suddenly go dry. His eyes seem to sparkle as the sunlight pours in through his window and splashes across his face.
His eyes search mine for some sort of answer to his question, but I force myself to not show him one. I can't let him know that my insides are all over the place. I can't let him know that the place on my chin where he has his finger is tingling and sending electricity throughout my whole body. I can't let him know that I'm blushing madly on the inside, hoping it's not showing on the outside.
And I most definitely, absolutely, cannot let him know that I'm falling for him.