His Girl #Wattys2016

2. The best day of my life.

I only had to do a little stalking to confirm the news. It was all over the Internet within days that Aaron was going to be my neighbour. Well, not exactly that but something along those lines. Everybody seemed excited about it, everybody who knew him at least. And my level of excitement had crossed the clouds and reached heaven.

A week later Drake came to school late, with a fake permission slip. It said that he had been to the doctor but I knew he had secretly been watching Aaron move in to his apartment. He rejected to comment on the topic when we broached it, only making us more curious. But I had more important things to worry about so I shifted my train of thoughts onto those rails.

The thing was, since I had learnt of his moving in I had been planning to bump into him at his place. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't just barge into his house uninvited. And being invited to visit was off the table, for now that is. So I'd have to devise a plan to make the meeting look natural and coincidental somehow and I needed Drake's help for this. I knew too well that he wouldn't be too pleased to help but he owed me one too many favours which I would make use of. With that in mind, I began hatching a master plan about the same.

"Drake, I hope you're alright." I smiled sweetly at him. It felt so alien to be nice to him but drastic times asked for desperate measures.

"Wow, look who's all interested about my life now," he teased. "What do you want from me?"

"Funny. I'm genuinely showing concern and you-"

"Oh, come on. What do you want?" He was grinning, so I knew he had already read my mind. After all, it's a fact that evil minds think alike.

"You already know how much I want to meet Aaron. And now I have a chance. But I want it to look like a coincidence. So I was thinking..."

Once I was done explaining my plan, his grin had been replaced by what looked like a mild frown. But he had not yet said no so I was still hoping against odds that he'd agree to it.

"What's in it for me, though?"

"Your best friend's happiness."

"There." He said, wiping a non-existent tear off his cheek. "That is all I want from life. Now I'm ready to sacrifice my life for you."

"Oh, shut up. Tell me if you're game or not, Drake."

"Fine, fine. Though it's way too stupid, I'll still do it for you." He put his arm around my shoulders and gave a soft squeeze to my right arm.

*****

The next day, at the decided time, Drake and I met at the pizza store near his place. We had planned to take a pizza up to Aaron's house and pretend to have lost our way. Though it sounded silly even to me, it seemed to work for us. I chickened out many times on our way to his apartment but Drake kept reminding me how important it was for me so I stayed put. We reached Aaron's door and Drake gestured for me to take long, deep breaths. As I did, he rang the bell and gave me a thumbs up. A minute later we heard footsteps advancing our way. I braced myself and waited. When the door opened, slowly, I saw that it was Aaron who had answered the door. One look at him and I felt the nervousness draining out of my body, a kind of calm dawning on me.

"Yes?" He asked, stifling a yawn.

I knew enough about him to understand that I had disturbed his sleep. He was a nocturnal artist who slept during daytime to compensate for the loss of sleep. I had always known this about him and yet had disturbed his sleep. Huh.
But it didn't seem to matter to me as much as it should have. I was staring at his bed hair, taking in his sleepy eyes and slowing realising the fact that his face had left me speechless.

Drake nudged me with his elbow and I was dragged back to reality. "Um, pizza?" I asked, holding up the box so he could see it clearly.

"But I didn't order for it. Or did I? I don't remember." He was rambling on and my head was nodding on its own.

"Sarah!" Drake whispered in my ear but I didn't know what to do. All the training he had given me on how to behave in front of Aaron had surprisingly been evaded from my memory. As if he realised that Drake turned to Aaron, taking control of the situation.

"I don't know, sir. Is this where, um..." he fished out a slip from his pocket and pretended to read it, "the Samuels live?"

Aaron answered, still looking at me (which was making me turn redder with every passing moment), "Nope."

"Oh, we must have been mistaken. Sorry to have disturbed you-"

"Not a problem." He said, smiling at us like he meant it. "Anything else?"

This was not planned, we had to have left by now. But it was like Aaron wanted us to stay. (Either that or my mind was making up things again.)

"Um, no." I said, "We'll leave now."

"Without a photograph with me?"

When I looked up at his face, he had a huge grin plastered on it. I knew I had to pretend to not know what he was saying but somehow my expression was stuck to that of a lovesick puppy. He laughed casually, a sound that made my heart beat faster, taking a step forward.

"No pizza store sends two people for one delivery. That much even I know," he said in a teasing tone.

I smiled, despite the situation. I had read many times about his laidback behaviour with his fans, but experiencing it first hand was making me fall deeper for him.

"I want to take a picture with you. I'm a huge fan-"

"I can see that." He said, "you have been staring at me like people stare at their favourite piece of art."

"And that's exactly what I feel about you," I blurted out.

Drake cleared his throat, clearly not interested in our exchange of casualties.

"Oh, and this is Drake. Drake Samuels. He lives in this very apartment, on the third floor." I said, as if introducing him would trigger his interest.

"Oh, so Mr. Samuels gets to eat that pizza?" Aaron joked and I found myself smiling again.

"No, this is for you." Drake yanked the box out of my hand and held it for Aaron to take it. Sometimes Drake acts like he likes Aaron more than me.

"Great, let me quickly pay for it. I'd been meaning to get a pizza anyway..." he said, turning away from us.

"You don't have to pay," I said, "-in cash. A picture would do."

Aaron studied me for a moment as if he wasn't sure.

"Alright. But we'll have to share this pizza. Too large for one person, you see," he winked at me.