A Lifetime's Worth

Chapter 3

"Dammit I left my cell phone behind." Ariana cried out as the three girls were walking out of the building. "It must have slipped out of my pocket when we were on the couch."

"Dude. You just fed your digits in Parker's phone. How could you not have remembered then?" Lana said in a cold voice.

"Oh I'm sorry. I'm not as smart as you are." Ariana snapped at her. She'd had enough of Lana for one day. "Anyway, I'm not asking you to stay." It'd be better off with Lana gone anyway. "You too, Martha." She added, though for her it was a genuine offer.

"I'll go." Martha said. "Sammy just texted. It's important."

"Is everything OK?" Ariana asked.

"Yes yes. You sure you'll be fine on your own?"

"Ofcourse I will. What am I, twelve?"

Martha chuckled and headed off with Lana. Ariana on the other hand prepared herself to climb five flights of stairs for the second time. On her way upstairs though, couldn't help but think that she'd be alone with Parker in his apartment this time. Maybe he'll just look for the phone himself without letting me in. Nevertheless, when she reached his apartment, she waited for minute to catch her breath, pouffed her hair, pulled down her top a little bit, pulled her jeans up a great bit and then knocked on his door.

"Oh hey!" Parker exclaimed as he peeped from behind the door. He evidently had not been expecting her. "What's up?"

"Err..I kinda think my cellphone slipped out of my pocket..like on your couch. Do you mind if I check?" she said. Ariana sort of realized how stupid she must be coming across. Lana probably was right.

"Oh sure. Come in." Parker replied. "Check away."

As Ariana walked in, she realised certain changes had come across in the apartment within the 5 minutes of them leaving. The pasta was on the center table along with a can of beer, there was a throw pillow and a rug on the couch she had been sitting on the other couch was the T-Shirt and the cargo pants that Parker had been wearing. "Uh-oh!" Ariana thought. She heard the door close behid her and she suddenly became very concious about the fact that she was alone in the apartment with a guy who probably was ... she turned around half afraid of what she might see ... Oh thank God! His cargo pants had been replaced by boxers. She laughed in relief, suddenly ridiculing herself for even thinking that Parker would open the doon naked.

"I'm so sorry. You probably think I am a fool for losing my phone like this." Ariana said as she walked over to the couch, to cover up for that laughter.

"Oh I assure you its completely normal. Hold on. I'll remove those for you." He came up and bent down to remove the pillow and the rug. It was at this point, when Parker was so riduculously close to her, that Ariana realized that he was bare chested. He was so close that she could smell the faint old spice cologne off of his body although she was holding her breath all the while that he was near her. "There you are. Go ahead."

Ariana stuffed her hand inside the crevices between the cushions and the back and side rests and after a few seconds of groping around, she finally found her cellphone.

"Got it." She announced.

"Cool."

Ariana opened her cell to find 3 missed calls. One from Natasha and two from mom. Also, there were two messages. One was from Natasha :

 how's Mr. Tutor? Having fun with the Dorky Duos? :P  

Call me when you get this.

Xoxo

The other was from Shannon:

Can we meet when you're done with your thing? Call me.

Don't tell Tash or anyone else.

"I'll go now. I'm sorry for the trouble. And thanks!" Ariana said.

"Do you know that you apologise way too much? Is is just me or is it with everyone?" Parker joked. I smiled apologetically. Again. Then I made my way out of the door. "Can I ask you something though? If you don't mind." He added after some thinking.

"Sure."

"Are you normally always this quiet?"

I smiled at him, "Oh, you'll see." I whispered and rushed off.