Life One Summer [On Hold]

Chapter 12

Brushing my fingers against the shoes as I passed them I caught sight of a pair of blue eyes staring intently at me through the gaps in the rack. When he caught my glance he smiled, and I thought back to that first day, how fun it'd been with us together. How in such a small amount of time, a week even, I'd grown to know this guy in a way I'd never expected. We finished the aisle and turned into each other standing unusually close.

"Sorry didn't see you there." he said, blatantly lying.

"Really?" I countered, raising a brow. This definitely constituted flirting, I was not going to talk myself out of it. Not now.

"Hey Aria, do you think these would match my dress?" Alice said as she came into sight, as if we were doing something we shouldn't Travis and I parted gaze. Thinking on my feet I grabbed onto a pair of black platform heels.

Why the hell are you acting like somethings going on? Nothing was.

As if on cue my mind began working at the excuses again and I ignored the past few moments. I took a glance at the cream satin pumps and grinned, "They'll look perfect Alice."

She smiled back, "Yeay! I'll go and pay for them. Have you found your shoes yet?"

I looked quickly at the ones I'd picked up, they actually seemed quite perfect so I held them up, "Yup."

"That awesome." She pointed at the signs hanging all around the store, "They're doing a sale. If you buy two pairs of shoes you get a fifty percent discount on one pair." Grabbing the heels from my grip she began to run off calling back to me, "You can pay me back later."

Taking her orders I walked out of the shop and leant against the wall just outside of it, staring at the chandelier suspended in the middle of the mall. Travis followed and I saw him leaning in the space next to me.

There was silence for a moment until I heard him take a deep breath, "So?"

Suddenly I was hit with the urge to ask him what was going on.

"Travis?"

"Aria?"

It seemed we'd both had the same idea and we both backed away from the conversation. After another couple of minutes Travis tried again, "You seem happy." He said definitively. "You know for a girl who broke up with her boyfriend yesterday."

We'd come back to the lie again and I kind of hated bringing it up. "I am." That wasn't a lie. "He was an asshole." Again not technically a lie.

"I kind of got that from the phone call," he chuckled slightly, "You sure know how to put on a show."

I laughed at the irony of it, "I sure do."

"You know I've never met someone quite like you Aria." He said turning towards me. "You're so..."

"So what?" I whispered as I felt him move slightly closer. My heart was racing and I had no idea where this was going.

Everything around us was blurry. His eyes bore into mine as he brought up a hand moving it slowly up my neck and onto my cheek sending shivers along my skin, "So amazing."

I saw the moment, the sudden dip but reality jerked me away. Leaning back against the wall and taking a breath, I glanced at his confused, hurt expression. Shaking my head at him I bit my lip, "What about Casey?"

It was the question, the excuse I had been using all this time. She may have been a bitch, but she didn't deserve to be cheated on.

Travis' face fell, "She's not important."