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Song in the sidebar is the song that is playing in the Seth/Ariel scene.
Enjoy!
The day went on as normally as a day for me can go. After speaking with Leno, I then went back in my hospital room to prepare for my second session of chemo. It went rather well; besides for me feeling tired and nauseous during the round and afterwards.
The chemotherapy took a few hours, and it was finished by around early afternoon. Once it was done, Seth was sent to come pick me up from the hospital and bring me home.
It didn’t take him long to get there. Within twenty minutes, I was in the front seat of his Jeep, already prepared to head to sleep for the day.
“How’d it go?” My brother asked me as he started up his precious vehicle.
I shrugged my shoulders and looked out at the hospital as it got smaller and smaller the farther we went. It was another scorching summer’s day; the sun beating against my bald head warmly.
“I’ve surely had better days,” I admitted to him.
“What happened?” He wondered, concern in his voice. He had always been so protective, it had become cliché.
“Caleb happened,” I replied. I turned back towards my brother, to see that he had a confused look on his face. “I found out something about Caleb this morning that wasn’t really that reassuring.”
“This being?”
I told my brother the whole story of what happened this morning. About Isabelle, her being in Washington, and just the fact that I was a replacement for her while she was away. I explained Caleb’s plan on how by the time Isabelle was back in Pennsylvania, I would most likely be gone. My used-to-existence no longer mattering to him.
This earned me the most shocked look from Seth, which soon transformed into anger. I just knew that the man who he once thought of as his friend definitely didn’t have that spot in my brother’s life anymore.
The story was pretty long, so by the time that I was finished, we were driving onto our street. Seth pulled into our driveway and parked the car, yet he didn’t get out right away. He just slammed his hands on the wheel and said angrily, “So he had a girlfriend, but he pretended as if he didn’t when he was on that date with you?”
“If you want to make a short synopsis of it, yes,” I confirmed, nodding my head sadly.
I could tell that my brother wanted to continue talking about this; make me feel better and such. I, on the other hand, just wanted to go inside and climb into the comfort of my bed. I unbuckled my seatbelt and said, “I’m sorry, but I just want to forget about it for now. Chemo really knocked the energy out of me and I really want to just sleep.”
He nodded understandingly and got out of the car as well. We both made our way to the front door of the house and Seth unlocked it with his key. The moment the door opened, I stepped in, eager to feel at ease by my home. I guess I felt a slight bit of relaxation already, but the biggest thing I was feeling was hunger as I hadn’t eaten all day. I made my way into the kitchen, went to the pantry and grabbed a granola bar. It wasn’t much, but it would fill me up for now.
I passed Seth as I made my way to the stairs, making sure to give him a little hug. I then climbed up the staircase and I basically dragged myself to my bedroom. Not even bothering to change into pajamas, I hopped into my bed. Relief flooded over me as my head hit the pillow.
Beds are where dreams are made, yet at the moment, my bed was the actual dream. It just filled me with coziness. It made me forget about all my troubles for the smallest fraction of a second, and that was enough for me.
I propped my back up on my gigantic collection of pillows so I could eat my snack. As I ripped open the wrapper, I heard a familiar “Bing!” noise coming from my desk. I turned my head towards it, only to see that my laptop wasn’t closed. I brought my body in an uncomfortable pose to retrieve it, and after a little bit of a struggle, I succeeded. I brought my laptop onto my lap to see what was happening. It was then that I realized that I had never signed out of my online page, meaning that it showed that I had been online this whole entire time.
In the bottom right corner it displayed my unread messages. My thirty-seven unread messages, to be exact. Clicking on the sign that showed this, I noticed that they were all from Maria.
MariaLuv123 says: Hey!
MariaLuv123 says: Hello?
MariaLuv123 says: Ariel, where in the world are you?!?!?!
MariaLuv123 says: WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME?!?!?!? :’(
MariaLuv123 says: You don’t love me anymore, don’t you?
MariaLuv123 says: Ariel May McArthur, I’m seriously scared right now. Are you alright?
MariaLuv123 says: ANSWER MEEEEEEE!!!!!
The messages went on like this. The first one had come an hour ago, and Maria was still at it, messaging me like there was no tomorrow. Not wanting her to worry anymore, I finally typed back a response to her.
Red_Ariel says: Hi! Sorry, I forgot to sign out last night. I was at the hospital and I didn’t have my laptop with me.
MariaLuv123 says: THANK THE HEAVENS YOU’RE ALIVE!!! Is everything alright?
Red_Ariel says: Hospital and cancer wise, yes. Otherwise, no.
MariaLuv123 says: Oh no, what happened?
I proceeded to tell her everything that happened between Caleb and I. I gave her every single detail, besides the recently added part with Leno. Come to think of it, Maria had no idea about anything that was happening with Leno and I.
At first she didn’t respond, but in a matter of seconds she typed back to me messages of fury and rage. They kept coming in at lightning speed, one after the other, her anger growing with each letter she typed.
MariaLuv123 says: You’re not SERIOUS are you?!?!?!
MariaLuv123 says: This is insane.
MariaLuv123 says: Everything that was cute and great about Caleb has officially disappeared. How could he do this to you?! That’s just cruel. I am so shocked right now. Oh my freaking god. I swear, when I get back I’m going to do some horrible things to him.
I typed back my reply as quickly as I could.
Red_Ariel says: Oh no Maria, please don’t do that.
MariaLuv123 says: Why not?!
Red_Ariel says: I want to make him live with the guilt.
Feeling my eyes getting droopy, I told Maria that I had to get going, that I missed her and that I loved her like a sister (a tradition on how we ended every single conversation of ours.) I made sure to log out this time and I then placed my computer back on my desk. With that, I ate my granola bar, put my crumpled wrapper on my bedside table and got under my covers.
Finally, sleep came over me.
***
I only wanted to sleep for a few hours; wake up at maybe four or five. Yet, when my eyes fluttered open and I glanced at my alarm clock, I was very surprised to see that it was 12:42 in the morning. I had slept for ten hours hours.
I would have liked to go back to sleep as there was probably nobody awake in the house, meaning I’d have to be as quiet as possible, thus leading to boredom; yet I wasn’t tired at all. For once, my energy was completely rejuvenated.
I lifted myself up and stretched my arms, letting out a sign and a groan. As I stood up from my bed, a grumble came from my stomach. I was absolutely starving.
Making my way out of my room, I opened my door to see that all of the lights in the hallway were turned off, confirming my theory that everyone was asleep. I could hear my father’s powerful snores coming from my parent’s bedroom. How my mother managed to get any sleep remained a mystery to me.
As I began walking down the staircase that brought me downstairs, I heard a faint sound in the distance. I stood still at first, not knowing what it was, and just listened. After listening for a minute, I realized that I wasn’t supposed to understand what it was. It was one of odd, alternative Seth’s songs. He had probably left his iPod on once again, hence the weird noise coming from downstairs. Since he was a child, he would always forget to turn things off.
Stepping down the stairs, memories filled my mind of always having to shut off his devices. The music got louder as I got closer to the main floor of the house. When I was at the bottom, I went to walk into the kitchen to fix myself something to eat. The music was now at full blast, playing a song that I didn’t recognize: a man with an extremely high-pitched voice singing, the sound of whistling in the background and what sounded like young children joining in on the chorus. An acoustic guitar being strummed beautifully, drums being hit and maracas being shook brought it all together. Once I was in the kitchen, I could see that the music was blaring from the family iPod dock that was placed on the counter. Sitting next to the dock with a plate on his lap was my brother, nodding his head to the music while munching on a grilled cheese sandwich.
“Seth?” I wondered. I pinched my wrist, not knowing if I was actually dreaming or not. Once I inflicted enough pain to prove otherwise, I decided to wait for Seth to fill me in on what he was doing.
He looked up and smiled. “Oh hey! Somebody’s finally awake.”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my eyes and then I stretched my arms once again. “What are you doing?”
“Listening to some music while eating a grill cheese sandwich. You must be starving, do you want me to make you one?” He offered, motioning towards his plate.
“Yes please,” I responded. Seth’s grilled-cheese sandwiches were legendary. I usually had to beg to get one.
As he went to get the cheese from the drawing-covered fridge (my parents insisted on keeping every single picture that Seth and I had ever drawn in our lifetime), with his back facing me, he asked, “Are you feeling any better? In general and, you know, with what happened today?”
I shrugged my shoulders, even though he couldn’t see me. I didn’t know how I felt at this moment. Of course, I still felt so very hurt because of Caleb, and I did feel bad for turning down Leno once again. Yet, I had made sure that I didn’t say a flat-out no to him. Now that there was no Caleb in the way, I could actually be something with Leno. However, I still wasn’t sure what I was feeling for him.
“I feel like I’m an artist and my feelings are a painting. Sometimes, even I can’t understand the art that I’ve created,” I responded.
Not getting anything out of the fridge, Seth turned around and closed the door with his hip. He crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrow. “There’s definitely something wrong if you’re using all of your fancy reasoning.”
Exhaling, I added, “I’m not trying to be overly negative, but at this point it feels as if nothing goes right.”
Seth gave me a sympathetic smile and opened up his arms. Without hesitation, I walked up to him and accepted his hug. He put his arms around me and I did the same with him. He patted my shoulder softly as he hugged me tightly with his gigantic bear hug. “I’m super sorry, Ariel. I know it’s really hard.”
“Thank you.”
The same song was still playing in the background as my brother said, “I think I know what will make you feel better.”
“And what would that be?” I replied.
He stepped away from me with a smirk on his face. He held his hand out and asked me with a the most fake of sophisticated voices, “May I have this dance?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Why of course, good sir,” I replied with a voice similar to his.
I took Seth’s hand and put another on his shoulder, and he placed his other on my waist. With our only light coming from the time displayers on the microwave, oven and his iPod, we danced like fools; our dance moves consisting dips, twirls and some things I’m rather sure we created ourselves. It honestly did really make me feel much better. As we laughed, I forget about all my worries.
Towards the middle of the song, we decided to just dance normally once again. We were quiet for a few seconds, when Seth said, “Hey, Ariel, I need to ask you something.”
I looked up at him with a smile. “Yes?”
“Do you think that one day I’d make a good husband to someone?” He wondered.
I certainly hadn’t been expecting that kind of question. Either way, I gave him my most honest response. “Definitely. One day, a very lucky girl will be with you forever.”
“Okay… now what do you think of me possibly asking someone to marry me?” He continued, his cheeks bursting into a shade of bright pink.
I stood there, confused for a second. However, as if a switch went off in my mind, I understood what he meant. The minute this happened, I let go of him, stepped back and brought my hands to my mouth in surprise. With a muffled voice, I cried out, “You’re going to ask Addison to marry you?!”
He made a shushing noise, but then he nodded his head. “Well, not exactly marry me,” He explained. “I was thinking more of a promise ring kind of thing. We’re pretty young and everything and we both want to focus on school, so it’d be best to wait. But I just want to let her know that I love her and I’d be so honored to marry her one day.”
I awed as a huge grin made its way on my face. “That is so sweet.”
He ruffled his hair awkwardly, showing that he was nervous. “Yeah, I think so too. Today, she actually had to head back to Columbia for a little while, so when she comes back I’m going to ask her. Plus, I’ll get mom and dad’s say on this, but yeah, so far I’m having not one doubt.” He had a very large beam on his face. “Everything just feels right… it’s as if everything that is beautiful in the world just becomes even more beautiful and incredible when I’m with Addison.”
He took a step towards me for the second time, and held out his hand, raising his eyebrow to see if I wanted to continue our dance. I gladly took his hand, and this time we held both of our hands together and swayed them back and forth; similar to how young children would dance.
“I want to live a life that’s full of that beauty and incredible opportunities. Addison just brings that to me so easily, like it’s effortless,” He admitted.
“You really love her,” I stated, aware that we both knew this was completely true. “I mean, one day you’re my quirky, weird, absolutely lame older brother. Then all of a sudden, your world suddenly became all about one girl.”
Not even denying this, he shot me a wink and said, “I’m not ashamed. It’s an amazing feeling loving someone so much that you’d do anything for them. Being so crazy for a single person that all you want to do is talk about them. When you’re with them, your heart is simply soaring and all that’s on your mind is “Woah, I love them”. The moment where they’re not by your side, all you can do is think about them, and wish that they were with you so that you could just be happy to have them in your presence. And when they feel the same way about you, it feels like you can just defeat any problem in the world.” Without hesitation, he added to this, “Who knows? Maybe one day, you’ll have this effect on some boy. Hey, you possibly already have.”
The song ended and Seth brought his hands back to his side. This left me just standing there, my mouth open. Had I had this effect on someone before? Well, it’s definitely not like I did with Caleb, that’s for sure. Leno, on the other hand…
Not knowing how much of an effect his words had just brought to me, Seth walked back to the fridge and casually asked me, “Now, how about that grilled cheese sandwich?”
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Ello loves!
How are you all? It's been so long! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in awhile! I have been so unbelievably busy with school, it's crazy. I'm going to try and write as much as possible tonight, though.
So, what did you think of this chapter?! A nice Seth and Ariel siblingy scene :) I've had this scene in my head since the... fifth chapter of this story! I was pretty excited to write it :)
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Thanks so much for reading! Please vote and comment!
Keep calm and read on!
-830freckles/Cheyenne