labyrinth - c. sturniolo ✓

031 - ❝ awkward ❞

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
[ real life ]

❝ AWKWARD ❞

ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ

xavier parked outside the house. to me though, it looked like a castle. i hopped out the car, observing the house and the people around before coming to a conclusion that this was not the small party i was expecting.

"if this is a small party, what do you consider a bigger one?" i asked xavier as he jumped out his side of the car too. he laughed, shaking his head before shrugging.

"i don't know, i wasn't really expecting this either." he said, looking around too. i laughed, nodding my head before following madi and arlo inside while xavier followed behind me. music had been blasting in every corner of this house as well as seeing random faces wherever i went.

arlo had disappeared with madi as soon as we entered so it was just me and xavier. "i'm still really proud of you, by the way." i said, tapping my foot to the beat of 'swim' by chase atlantic playing in the background.

"thanks aria, that really does mean a lot." he said, turning to me and smiling. i smiled back, nodding my head. i could barely hear him over the loud crowd and music, but i tried my best to read his lips. he had been looking away again before turning back to me and furrowing his eyebrows. "also, do you drink?" he asked, knowing i was underaged but just wanted to make sure.

"no," i laughed and looked away from him. "i've seen what it did to my parents and decided to not go down there." i said, still laughing in between my words. he nodded before dragging me to a new room.

"i won't either," he said, opening the fridge when we arrived in the kitchen. "what do you want to drink?" he asked. he looked through the fridge for soft drinks and pulled out pepsi and mountain dew.

"mountain dew tastes like piss." i said, grabbing the pepsi from his hand. pepsi wasn't my favorite but i'd rather have it over mountain dew.

"wow, okay." he said, taking the mountain dew. i laughed before turning in another direction.

"are parties just not interesting when you don't drink," i said, scoffing before turning back to xavier. "like, what am i supposed to be doing right now?" i asked, shrugging.

"i don't know. but i drank a lot of coffee earlier so right now, i need to use to bathroom very urgently." he said, looking around for a bathroom. when he spotted one, he handed me his unopened mountain dew as i laughed and watched as he left. "ill be right back!" he yelled before disappearing in the crowd.

i sighed, going towards a back door that led outside. i needed some fresh air, the smell of alcohol and sweaty, drunk people was making me go crazy.

i found my way outside, walking towards the pool. there was grass surrounding it and flower boxes all around the exterior of the house. whoever lived here was definitely one of the richest people i've heard of and i didn't even know who it was. even though that person probably owned thousands of dollars, they apparently couldn't get lights around their backyard at all. i felt like i was in a big room with not one light source available.

i took a deep breath, sitting down on the grass and placing the two unopened cans next to me. i bundled up into a little ball, holding my legs in my arms and looking down. i sighed, closing my eyes.

"aria?" i heard from behind me. my head flung up towards the the sound of my name, squinting so i could make out whoever the person was. after s few seconds of just staring blankly at the person, he finally spoke up. "it's arlo, what are you doing out here?" he said, noticing how long it took me to find out who he was in the darkness.

"oh," i said, watching as arlo sat down on the grass next to me, drink in hand. "i just needed some fresh air." i answered honestly.

"oh, i understand." he said. as he spoke, i could smell the alcohol in his breath. it was potent, so i knew he'd been drinking a lot already. "do you know where xavier is?" he asked, placing his red solo cup on the grass next to him before noticing the two cans near me.

"he's in the bathroom." i said, watching the cup in his hand fall onto the ground.

"ah, alright." he said, staring at the pool in front of us. the post summer wind was really intense this year, meaning my hair had been all over the place and the water in the pool flowed towards us, crashing against the edges of the pool and making a quiet noise. both arlo and i stared into the space in front of us before i sensed someone glaring into the side of my head.

i turned my head towards arlo before noticing him already looking at me. if i wasn't paying so much attention to him, i probably wouldn't of noticed how he slightly moved closer to me. it was such a small motion, it was barely noticeable.

we looked into each others eyes quietly for what felt like ages before he interrupted the silence. "do you want any drinks?" he asked, hinting to the cup he brought in between us. that's when i noticed how close we were, the only distance between us being the small cup.

i stared at the cup for a little, almost forgetting what he asked. "oh, uh. no, i'm good." i said, awkwardly.

"alright." he simply replied. he slowly shifted closer to me, moving the cup out of the way and putting it down on the other side of him. we hadn't broken eye contact for a few seconds now, just quietly looking into each others eyes.

i had finally realized what he was trying to do when he moved even more closer to me, basically leaning in already. "i'm going to see if xavier is done." i said quickly, finally breaking eye contact and grabbing the two cans from next to me. i gave him a tight lipped smile before simply getting up and walking away. i sighed before walking back inside, already hating tonight.

instead of finding xavier though, i found madi. "madi!!" i yelled, getting her attention. she turned to me with a big smile on her face.

"hey aria!!" she said in reply, walking towards me. "you good?" she asked, seeing the blank expression on my face.

"yeah, just a crazy night." i said, slightly laughing because it was kind of funny how i had just met arlo and that already happened. madi just nodded, looking me up and down.

"why haven't we acknowledged how good you look today." she said, grinning and grabbing my hand before twirling me around.

i laughed, seeing how genuine she was being. "you look like a goddess, what do you mean?" i said, now having a chance to look at her.

"cmon, i want to take some pictures with you." she said, dragging me back outside.

we found this little staircase near a room and started taking pictures. madi took such amazing photos of me so i had to take of her, she looked breathtaking like always.

as the night came to an end, i sat in the passenger seat on the way home so it wasn't awkward between arlo and i. even though i didn't do anything really fun, i did enjoy my day and i thanked xavier for inviting me.

authors note 💌

ermmmmm okay !!!

lmk if you guys want arlo to be more important bc rn he's js being silly.. 😭

im probably going to start making longer chapters because these seem really short to me now even though most of them are like over 1k words