❝ 𝙄'𝙈 𝙄𝙉 𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝘼𝙉 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙏𝙃𝙔 𝙈𝘼𝙁𝙄𝘼's 𝘿𝙄𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙏 𝘿𝙀𝘾𝙄𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎 ❞ - Aria Caldwell x Damian Blackwood [Romantic Suspense]
- ,' 『 ✉️ 』- In which an 18-year-old Aria Caldwell's ordinary life is turned upside down when she...
" I... I dont know what to fell! " "And that scares me" - Aria
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╭──────༺♡༻──────╮ CHAPTER 2: THE DISTRACTION ❤
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“I... I don’t know what to feel!” Aria Caldwell wailed dramatically, her voice echoing off the walls of her bedroom. Her room, usually a sanctuary of calm and order, had transformed into a chaotic mess of crumpled tissues, scattered romance novels, and an abandoned tub of chocolate ice cream.
Her reflection in the mirror seemed to mock her with its blend of confusion and mild panic. The glittering gown she had worn to the gala lay discarded on a chair, a stark reminder of the elegant world she had left behind. Instead, she now wore an oversized sweater and pajama pants, the universal uniform for emotional turmoil.
Her phone buzzed on the bedside table, shattering the silence. It was a text from Elaine Harper, her best friend and the self-proclaimed expert in “making life interesting.”
Elaine: “Hey, where’d you go? The party’s still going strong. Did you and Damian hit it off?”
Aria stared at the message, her mind still reeling from the previous night’s events. The sight of Damian Blackwood’s intense gaze and the grim scene she had witnessed kept replaying in her mind like an unsettling loop. She took a deep breath and typed a reply.
Aria: “You could say that. More like I followed him into a murder scene.”
Elaine’s response came almost immediately, her worry palpable.
Elaine: “Wait, what? Are you okay?”
Aria sighed, realizing that trying to explain her ordeal through text wasn’t going to cut it. She dialed Elaine’s number, her heart pounding with a mix of anxiety and fatigue.
When Elaine answered, her voice was a mixture of concern and curiosity. “Aria? What happened?”
“I don’t even know where to start,” Aria said, collapsing onto her bed and burying her face in her hands. “Damian took me to this sketchy part of town, and then—well, he killed someone.”
There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line. “Are you serious?”
“Yes!” Aria exclaimed, sitting up and running a hand through her disheveled hair. “And he told me it was dangerous and that I shouldn’t be involved. I have no idea what to do or think.”
Elaine’s voice took on a soothing, almost maternal tone. “Okay, first of all, take a deep breath. Second, it sounds like you’ve stumbled into something much bigger than you anticipated. Maybe you need some time to process all this. How about we do something completely normal tomorrow to take your mind off things?”
The following day, Elaine arrived at Aria’s house with a grocery bag that looked like it could feed a small army. Inside were a variety of snacks—mostly junk food, a couple of DVDs, and an assortment of magazines with headlines that promised “life-changing” tips.
“Today’s mission,” Elaine announced dramatically as she walked through the door, “is to distract you from all the dangerous criminals and their dark secrets. And by that, I mean a full day of junk food and mindless entertainment.”
Aria couldn’t help but laugh at Elaine’s theatrical delivery. “You’re a lifesaver.”
Elaine set up an impromptu movie marathon in Aria’s living room, arranging the snacks into a sprawling buffet on the coffee table. The afternoon was filled with the clatter of pizza boxes and the sound of laughter as they devoured cheesy rom-coms and nostalgic teen dramas.
At one point, as they were halfway through a particularly ridiculous rom-com involving a mistaken identity and a high-stakes fashion show, Elaine glanced at Aria with a mischievous grin. “You know, if this whole ‘detective’ thing doesn’t work out for you, you might have a future as a drama queen. Just saying.”
Aria chuckled, shaking her head. “Very funny. I think I’ll stick to normal, drama-free life.”
Elaine popped another piece of pizza into her mouth and gave Aria a playful nudge. “Normal is overrated. Besides, it’s not every day you get dragged into a real-life crime scene. We’re making memories here!”
As the day wore on, Elaine’s relentless optimism and Aria’s willingness to embrace a little distraction helped to lift the weight of the previous night’s events, if only for a short while. However, beneath the surface of their easy laughter and indulgent snacks, Aria couldn’t escape the gnawing curiosity about Damian and the dangerous world he seemed to inhabit.
The evening drew near, and with it came the inevitable return to reality. Elaine was helping Aria clean up the remnants of their movie marathon when Aria’s phone buzzed with a new notification. It was a message from an unknown number.
Unknown Number: “I hope you’re well. We need to talk.”
Aria’s heart skipped a beat. She showed the message to Elaine, who immediately looked concerned. “Do you think it’s from Damian?”
“I don’t know,” Aria said, her mind racing. “But I have a feeling it’s important.”
Elaine nodded, her expression serious. “Maybe it’s time to find out more about what’s really going on.”
The message had left Aria with a mix of trepidation and curiosity. She was beginning to realize that her brief encounter with Damian was only the tip of a much larger and more complex situation. Her normal life, as comforting and predictable as it had been, was no longer an option.
As she prepared for bed that night, Aria couldn’t help but replay the events of the previous evening in her mind. The normalcy of the day had been a welcome distraction, but the reality of her situation was starting to settle in.
The last thing she did before turning off the lights was send a reply to the mysterious message.
Aria: “Where and when?”
She set her phone on the bedside table and turned off the light, feeling a mix of anticipation and unease. As she drifted off to sleep, her dreams were filled with fragmented images of Damian, the night’s violence, and an undercurrent of danger that seemed to lurk just beyond the edges of her consciousness. She knew that whatever lay ahead, she couldn’t ignore it—no matter how much she wanted to.
