Stairways | A Surviving Summer FanFiction

Part 7 - Ari's house

Ari's house only takes about ten minutes to walk to, and by the time you get there, you're still absolutely dripping wet. Ari goes in the front door, checking around to see if his parents are about. You guess not, for he gestures for you to follow him inside.

"I can see if Summer has some clothes for you to borrow?" He says, pulling out a chair for you to sit on.

"Yeah, thanks." You nod gratefully. He comes back in a few minutes with a handful of clothes and throws them down.

"Take your pick. Summer won't mind if you go in her room to change."

"Thanks." You grab a T-shirt and some shorts and go to change. You're halfway through getting changed when you hear a voice from the other side of the room.

"So Ari smacked you in the face, huh." She said with a huge smile.

You jump in surprise, quickly pulling on the T-shirt. "Summer! I didn't know you'd be in here."

"Well where else would I be?"

"I don't know, I thought you might have left. Weren't you gonna teach Honey how to skate?"

"Yeah we're going later." She replies, then pauses. "So did Ari hit you in the face?"

You roll your eyes. "No he did not hit me in the face. What exactly did he tell you?"

"Not much. Just that he accidentally pushed you in the pool. When I saw your nose I thought he might have conveniently left out the part where he hit you in the face."

Your hand subconsciously goes to your nose which is still bleeding, and Summer hands you a tissue from a box by her bed.

"So what happened exactly?" She asks.

"Griff and his friends from Anchor Cove."

"God with that Sheridon chick? Don't worry. We got revenge yesterday." She smiles in satisfaction.

"What do you mean 'revenge'?" You say cautiously; you wouldn't put it past Summer to do something insane. Or illegal. "And what do you mean 'we'?"

"Relax Y/n. Me and your brother just went out on his jet ski yesterday at the competition then I put her surfboard under a car." She shrugs. "No big deal. She did it to my skateboard first."

"No big deal? Summer do you realise the Anchor Coves already hate us enough without us destroying their property?"

"Okay, I don't know who you're including in 'us' because last time I checked I wasn't a surfer." She laughs.

"And you did this with Marlon?" You ask incredulously.

"Listen, Y/n. Sometimes you just have to get revenge to get these kinds of people off your back. "You trust me, don't you?"

"Don't make me answer that, Summer." You sigh and she laughs, picking up her skateboard and practically bouncing out of the room.

"Gotta go teach Honey how to skate. See you later!" She throws her skateboard to the ground and hops on, and you hear Ari protest as she rides through the kitchen.

You head to where Ari's sat at the table. He's shirtless, his scars completely visible, and you try but fail to draw your eyes away from them.

You know that Marlon still thinks about that day sometimes: you can tell. The way he gets spooked whenever anyone mentions Stairway, the way there's a pang of guilt hidden behind his anger when him and Ari argue.

"Thanks for the clothes and stuff..." you say, making your way the front door. "I'll see you later at Manu's..." You trail off, and Ari stands up.

"Wait, Y/n...I uh, just wanted to apologize for the whole...pool thing. I didn't mean to push you in."

"You shrug. It's fine, it was Griff's fault. He pushed you." You reply. "But...why were you there? At the hotel?"

He hesitates. "Err I came to ask you if you wanted to go for a surf later. Maybe before we go to Manu's?"

"Err..."

Purely for training for Jackson Bay, y'know." He added quickly, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Uh, yeah, sure." You reply with a smile, before leaving the house.