The Artist's Amour (BWWM) ✓

Chapter 25: The Festival pt. 2

Aria's POV

I slid my hand into Chris's as we walked back from Ferris wheel towards where Nick and Timmy were. The night was winding down to a close as the weather grew colder. The city clock read 11:53 and both Chris and I decided it was best to call it a night.

"Did you have fun?" I asked Nick, swooping him up into my arms and carrying him out from the carnival grounds, towards Chris's car.

"It. Was. Awesome!" He declared, giggling as I tickled his sides. We made it to Chris's car safely and I buckled him in before closing the door and sliding into the passenger seat. Chris's hand reattached itself to my thigh as we carefully pulled out of the street parking and onto the main road.

This time I didn't swat his hand away.

The drive back to my home was much shorter than I had hoped, but hearing Nicks crazy adventures made the time pass all too quickly. Everything Nick spoke about always had a way of captivating his listeners. His stories were so vividly real, you couldn't possibly invalidate its authenticity. He really was special.

Before I knew it, we were pulling into my gravel driveway. "Alright kid, I'm just going to walk Aria to her door, I'll be back in a second." Chris nodded as we both got out of the car. I glanced back at Nick and gave him a quick wave, to which he wiggled his eyebrows and made a smoochy face. I erupted in giggles as Chris lead me up my porch. That kid would be the death of me.

"So I guess this is it." I smiled, once we reached the door.

"That it is. It seems as if I must go home now and read up on basically everything in preparation to meet your mother." He grinned pulling my body closer to his by my waist again. "What's your mother like?"

"Well," I sighed, "she's a bag of surprises. Right now? I'm not sure how she'll be, but before this whole ordeal happened, my mother was very... Formal. She enjoyed talks on current events and politics. Anything about government and its branches, particularly the Judicial system. She was a real bore." I spoke. With every word, you could see Chris visibly grimace.

"Shit." He sighed, holding me tighter as his eyes closed shut.

"Hey, baby, don't worry about it. Just be you. She's not the one you're in a relationship with." I cooed, as my hands went up to his cheeks. I placed a gentle kiss on his lips and went to pull away, put Chris's hand slip up to the middle area of my back to keep me in place as he depended the kiss.

"I really liked that." He groaned against my lips as he steadied me against my front door.

"L-like what?" I stuttered, feeling his lips against my neck now. The sensations were overpowering and I could feel my knees going weak. Luckily, Chris's hands were securely wrapped around me as one settled firmly on my hip and helped hold me up.

"You calling me baby." He groaned, pinning me further into the door. "I love it."

"C-Come upstairs." I moaned, as I tilted my head to give him more access. His hand moved to the doorknob but stopped himself short as realization finally settled in.

"Damn it." He hissed. "Nick's still in the car."

We both looked back slightly to find Nick watch us intensely, eating his bagged kettle corn as his sticky fingers gave us an encouraging thumbs up. We quickly pulled away from each other with Chris dramatically leaning his entire body into my neck. "I'm a horrible father." He joked.

"Nah, you're a great one." I giggled, as his breathing tickled my neck.

"I really do have to drive this munchkin home." He nodded, pulling away from me after some time.

"That's okay." I nodded, slipping my keys out from my pocket. I went to turn around and open the door but Chris pulled me in for one more elongated kiss and a few pecks before finally letting go. "Go." I nodded, shooing him off my porch as he reluctantly walked back to his car.

"Bye Ari." He smiled, sliding into his car.

"Bye Chr-" I started, but my smile quickly faltered. "AriA! Not Ari you twat." I hissed, unlocking the door and slipping in into the warm house.

~

Chris's POV

Rain began to trickle down as we drove back to my penthouse. As soon as I had got into the car, Nick made all kinds of kissy noises all the way home.

"Oh hush, you little weirdo." I laughed, unlocking him from my booster before locking up the doors and heading inside once we reached the building complex.

"You loooooooooooooove her." He cooed in my arms. I just glanced down and smiled at him, not denying it.

~

Aria's POV

I turned the water from the shower off, and wrapped the towel around myself before heading into my bedroom. Instead of opening up my suitcase, I slid open my closet and picked out a long sleeve oversized shirt with some fuzzy shorts.

I had finally unpacked this week.

It felt like such a small milestone to accomplish, but now everything was so... Official. I was officially moved in. The suitcase was packed away under my bed as I had all of its contents neatly in drawers and closets now. I couldn't help the smile that had spread across my face as I glanced bat at my neatly hung clothing.

For once in my life, I felt truly accomplished. I had created a life for myself, a life I was finally proud of.

I was startled by the noise from my roof as rain began to poor down. Quickly, I ran down the flight of stairs to check if the ceiling had leaked. To my surprise, everything was okay. "Oh thank god." I sighed, moving to make my way back upstairs to paint. I was frozen in place by the knock on my door. I really need to get a peep hole installed.

I walked towards the door as my hand hesitantly reached for the knob before finally pulling it open. As I did, I was completely stunned as a pair of hazel eyes stared back at me.

"Lacey?" I asked in disbelief. She was in a large sweater with a hoodie up, but I couldn't miss the darkened bruises all around her face, along with the busted lip that was now trickling blood down her chin. As she shifted sides, I saw her squirm a tad in pain. She must have had at least a few broken ribs. "What happened?" I asked.

"C-Can you help me?" She spoke, taking a few steps forward before she lost her footing and her body collapsed into me.

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Just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who was patient yesterday. I've been organizing a few things that are in the motion to honor Philando Castile. A few artists of mine want to graffiti a mural for not only the black lives that were lost, but the cops that were killed in Dallas. I also held an open house at my art studio for prayers last night so writing wasn't the first thing that was on my mind.

Thank you again. I appreciate each and every one of you.

#stopthehate #stopthekilling