Engaged At The Moment ✔️

19: Because I have a crush on him

“So what did you do?” I asked, voice slightly breaking from how much I was laughing.

“What else could I do? I had to get up and act cool about it even though I was literally dying inside,” she answered between laughs. “Seriously, if it wasn't for that stupid stone, I was really serving the whole slo-mo mysterious model-vibes, and I could tell he was buying it – well, until I ended up falling on my ass.” 

“I’m sure you still served model vibes – just the tripping kind,” I mused, chortling, to which Ashley threw me a mock glare. But despite herself, it wasn’t long before she was joining in echoing the bubbly sounds. 

After getting through the whole ‘step cousin’ drama, Ashley had spent the past half hour filling me in on stories from their trip. And she was so damn good at it, that I almost felt like I was there with Matt’s new ‘saucy’ girlfriend, or that I’d seen when Cole’s pants caught fire, or even that I’d witnessed her fall on her butt right in front of the good looking guy she’d been trying to impress. 

“Fuck it, I’ll get him next time,” she was now saying. “But I’ll try to avoid walking. Maybe I’ll just do my sexy face.” Sure enough, she gave a demonstration of it, only to ask, “it’s totally irresistible right?”

But my reply came as: “I think you mean terrifying.” 

“Hater,” she sallied, leaving me chuckling.

We had a few more minutes of light chatter, and a little later, we were saying our byes, with Ashley reminding me to keep her updated of how things went with my ‘step cousin.’

If only she knew. 

A moment later, and I was ending the call, with a small smile remaining on my face – which for the record, was soon to disappear following the familiar sound at the door.

I don’t know what I was thinking, or maybe it was that I was not thinking, or probably that I was still trapped in the single thought that’d followed me all through today – avoid him. 

But all I knew was that at the clicking of the door, I immediately fell back on the bed, eyes shutting at lightning speed. And so, when he came into the room, he found me ‘fast asleep.’ 

I felt him moving over to the couch, and settling on it soon after. I was just in the middle of breathing out a sigh of relief when I heard the clanking of an object hitting the ground, followed by a hushed: “Em, keep it down.”

Wait, Emma was with him? Oh god, now I really need to sell this sleeping thing. And so, I shut my eyes tighter than before – if that was even possible. 

“Let’s not wake Aria; she isn’t deep asleep yet, else she’d be snoring like a bullfrog by now.”

Wait, what? A bullfrog? If at all I even snored, I was certain it’d sound more like sonorous music, or close enough. But the point is, it’s definitely not going to be like a bullfrog!

“A bullfrog?” I seethed, rising from the bed without a second thought – my eagerness to refute his claim superseding everything else. “I do not sno—”

But that was how far I got before I sized in on the sly smirk on his face. And yes, there was no Emma beside him, just a shoe on the floor which he must have thrown himself. 

Now though, his voice was oh-so-innocent when he said, “oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you?” His eyes however, were practically gleaming with mischief. 

Gosh, he could be such a scheming devil. And now, I’d somehow fallen for his scheme. 

Two words – kill me!