Beauty and the Beau? *BEAU BROOKS STORY*

Chapter 6

I wake up with my head resting on Beaus chest, the rise and fall of his chest a comfort to me.

‘Morning.’ He murmurs.

‘How did you know I was awake?’ I sit up and pull my hair over my shoulder, hoping I look decent. He shrugs his shoulders and I stand up, stretching. I straighten my vest top, and shorts, trying not to give Beau an eyeful.

Walking over to my suitcase I open it revealing clothes, toiletries, underwear and shoes. I pull out ripped shorts, a thin blue oversized t –shirt and some fresh underwear. I turn to Beau and raise an eyebrow.

‘Yes?’ He asks. Amusement flashes in his eyes before he turns and buries his face into the pillow. I turn my back and change quickly, before I brush out my hair with a brush. ‘I love your hair.’ I turn to see he’s sitting up again.

‘How long?’ I laugh.

‘As soon as you turned.’ I huff, scrape my hair into a high ponytail, and sit next to Beau, his arm around my shoulders.

‘I hated being away from you. Hospitals suck.’ He whispers.

‘I missed you too.’ I turn to him and place a soft kiss on his jaw.

The day went as quickly as it came – Jariana went shopping again and me and Beau just hung out, eventually playing basketball.

‘I suck!’ I say, bouncing the ball on the floor.

‘No you don’t. You need practice,’ he pulls me to him, so my back is against his chest. He places his hands on my own, readjusting my hands on the basketball. I struggle to focus as his breathe blows on my neck. ‘Focus.’ He laughs.

‘Stop breathing.’ I return. He laughs, as we send the ball out of our hands and straight into the net. ‘How?’ I sigh.

‘Easy. You live in New York and the way I see it,’ He turns me and pulls me to him. ‘You New Yorkers use too much public transport, and don’t move around a lot.’

‘No fair – you know full well I’m a dancer.’ I retrieve the ball, and try to shoot it on my own – focusing on the top corner as my aim. Just as I’m about to release it, someone shouts mine and Beaus name, sending the ball towards the wrong part of the backboard. I turn to see James.

‘James!’ I groan. I run after the ball, and try again, this time ignoring everyone around me. I shoot and it gets in. ‘Yes!’ I shout, doing a little happy dance. James soon joins in, while Beau and Skip face palm obviously embarrassed by our amazing dance skills.

‘And you call yourself a dance teacher?’ Skip laughs.

‘Who said happy dancing was my expertise?’ I respond.

‘Damn girl!’ James high fives me.

‘What is your area of expertise?’ Skip asks.

‘Pole dancing.’ I say seriously. His mouth drops and Beau laughs.

‘I remember falling for that one once.’ He claps. ‘Dude, she’s like, multi talented.’

‘Not really Mr. Exaggeration.’ I snicker.

‘You guys want a match?’ James asks.

‘How about you lot do that and I admire from afar?’ I laugh, taking a chug from my bottle of water on the sidelines.

‘Alrighty then! You can make sure we’re not cheating. We will all be against each other but we’re going to use one net.’ They all nod understanding, while I sit there thinking – not a smart move quite frankly. 

During the hour’s long game, Beau cheats too many times to count; Skip is a regular offender while James doesn’t foul once.

‘Who won?’ Skip shouts.

‘I thought you were keeping track of scores!’ I shout back. Skip narrows his eyes. ‘Well James wins for not cheating at all!’ James cheers, and dances around, giving Beau and Skip the finger on his way.

‘What!?’ Beau shouts. Maybe I should have let Beau win… He walks towards me and picks me up, hands cupping my thighs while I wrap my legs around his waist. ‘I won.’ He pouts. I trail a finger along his jaw, before I lower my head, slowly kissing him. He grips me tighter, and I can’t help but wonder why I would ever want to give this up.

‘Oi oi!’ We pull apart, and he lowers me back to the ground. Skip is bouncing the ball while James is on his phone. Who said it? I look at Beau, and he’s on his phone.

‘What’s going on?’ I laugh. Beau shows me his phone, and I see a picture of us just now. James uploaded it to Instagram with the caption ‘gross’. I turn and give James the finger, before I’m pulled back to Beau, for another one of his sweet kisses.

‘I don’t want you to go back though.’ Beau pouts. It’s my last full day in Australia and he’s taken it upon himself to suggest every single reason why I shouldn’t go back. ‘Please’ he begs. I’m sitting on his lap, straddling him on his bed. I’m wearing his white shirt over my underwear, sleeves rolled up, buttons done up. He leans his head on my chest, while I stroke his hair, running my fingers through its softness. He hugs me to him, and I wrap my arms around his neck, sighing.

‘I don’t want to go either Beau.’ I pull back, biting my lip.

‘Well stay then.’ He proceeds with his begging for another five minutes before he says something completely different. ‘I have a bad feeling.’ The nightmare from the plane comes back, and I swallow the lump in my throat. I will not be selfish. I will be considerate of other people’s feelings, and I will try because I love him.

The door bursts open and Ariana interrupts our intimate moment, tears streaming down her face.

‘What’s wrong?’ I ask, pulling myself away from Beau, not letting go of one of his hands.

‘We need to leave.’ She sobs.

‘Excuse me?’ I ask. ‘Care to tell my why?’ I continue.

‘Me and Jai can’t do this, and neither should you.’ I squeeze Beaus hand looking for reassurance. He pulls me to him, allowing me to sit between his legs, his hands holding me to his chest.

‘Ariana-’

‘I’m going and I don’t care if you come with me or you don’t but you need to know this isn’t going to work.’ She points to us both.

‘What we do is none of your business.’ Beau says the anger obvious in his voice. I pull away, stand up, and walk over to my suitcase. I pull out a pair of light wash jeans, and pull them on.

‘Where is he?’ I ask Ariana. She nods to across the hallway. His room. I walk out of the bedroom, and into Jai’s room not caring for anything other than the truth. I look to the bunk bed to see a shape under a quilt, with the sound of – sobs? I pull the quilt cover back to see Jai in a ball, crying.

I pull him to me like a mother comforting her child and he doesn’t reject, he hugs me back, sobbing on my shoulder.

‘What happened?’ I ask.

‘Well, Ariana and I can’t do it. We’ve tried and it’s not working. It’s not the distance thing, I can live with that. It’s just us. We’re different, too different.’ I sigh, giving him one last squeeze before he pulls away. ‘I don’t want her to leave though. Is that weird?’ I shake my head.

‘Do you still love her?’ He nods. ‘But you’re not in love with her are you?’ He shakes his head and I nod. ‘I hate to say it Jai… but you need to let go. Move on.’ I declare. He nods and I run my fingers through my hair. ‘What do I do Jai? She wants to leave… me going with her.’ He nods, deep in thought.

‘Go.’ The one word is an ice cube down my spine. I look to the door to see Beau standing there, hands shoved in his pockets, I stand and walk to him. I wrap my hands around his waist, and lay my head on his chest. He doesn’t respond to my touch so I pull back and shake my head.

‘I’m sorry.’ I whisper.