The Billionaire Summer

Chapter Six

As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I walked into the living room where the boys all sat talking, absent of the girls who likely had gone to bed.

"Adrian how was the date?" Riley asked.

"It was good I got away from you and Hunter for a few hours" I say with a joking smile.

"Asshole" I hear Riley mutter.

"What did you two even do?" Hunter asks.

"Ate pizza, watched the sunset, I played my guitar" I say keeping it short.

"Seems normal" Nico remarked, "and expectedly short".

Nico was likely the only other person who actually knew me besides Olivia, it's also the only reason I let him bug me.

"I keep much of my private life private" I say sitting down in one of the single person chairs.

"You always have" Nico remarked and I laughed lightly because it was true.

"I've had this question on my mind since Aria came here at twelve, what was with the tension in the room?".

"How the?" Riley begins.

"He can read people really well" Nico stated not lifting his eyes from the glass of red wine he held.

"Makes sense" Riley muttered.

"Who Aria was got brought up, I looked her up because didn't know what she looked like and well Olivia saw her, and looked sad kind of as if she thought something might happen between you two so we explained to her nothing like that would" Hunter says his hands folded in front of him.

Something did happen once but that's gone and will never happen again.

"Oh, that would explain the tension" I say looking down at the floor.

"Anyway I'm going to sleep" Hunter says getting up and walking away.

"Ava will kill me if I don't get up there before midnight, and its ten PM".

Riley then followed after Hunter.

The living room fell into a silence.

"What more happened?" Nico asked.

"What do you mean?" I ask confused.

"What more happened between you and Aria?".

I glance at the stairs, and look back at him.

"When getting over Sav we had a thing for two weeks" I admit, "I was reaching out as a coping mechanism. It was kind of like when people act like a couple but aren't that's what we had. When I started to recover we broke things apart with an understanding we were better as friends. I want to tell Olivia but I don't want her to worry about me possibly getting bored of her and going to Aria especially if she's worried about something like that when she's the only girl I want, I can picture a life and future with Olivia and the last thing I want is me having had a small thing with Aria to break us apart for good".

"Adrian that girl has been told her boyfriend interrogated people for the mob, was a gangster for a year, has been put on probation, lost everyone he ever cared about, had depression, terrified everyone around him. But she's also been told you never stopped looking for her when she was kidnapped, she saw you save her, take her to the places she wanted to go, be loved correctly, been told she's all you ever wanted, and even has seen the side of you that none of us have even me, she's seen the devil in you and loved you anyway. You were the devil of New York but to her you're her protector it's obvious looking at you both. Neither of you would let something like a past relationship tear you apart, especially if you want to spend your life with her" Nico says, and I'm thankful he's my closest friend, because he's also the person I've been able to lean on since I was five.