(Book One) Do you ever feel as if your life has yet to begin? I've been alive for almost seventeen years now and absolutely nothing has ever happened to me. Not until I met a girl who kick-started my life. She introduced me to love, sex, scandal, ex...
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The running shower is audible from her bedroom. Several nightclub dresses have been laid out on the bed. I gulp when I see them. They're sexy and made of a soft expensive fabric. Curious, I lean over to check the tags. They're French. I gulp again.
I've never seen Ari in a dress. Most days she looked like a skater girl out of Seventeen or Teen Vogue. Only those girls were styled, Ari just was. But I hadn't seen her wear anything like this. This would be a new side I'd only seen on her Instagram.
"You like? I got them in Toulouse." Ari walks past me with a towel wrapped around her body, and another turbaned on top of her head. The heat from her shower still lingers around her. And she smells like fresh raspberries and sweet vanilla.
"Yes, they're gorg." I pull my eyes away from her and back to the dresses.
"Which one are you wearing?" She asks.
"Oh, I...don't know." But I do know. I have my eyes on a midnight-blue spaghetti strapped dress. It's made of a silky material and looks as soft as butter. Ari sees my longing stare and hands it to me.
"Try it on. Not without..." She runs over to her dresser and then pulls out a strapless lacy bra. "This." She hands me the bra. "Now go shower."
"Uh...won't your parents find it strange to see us walking around in dresses?" I ask. It was a valid question. My mother would never let me wear these.
"My parents are out of the country." Ari stands in the mirror and removes the makeshift turban from her head. Damp locks fall in wet waves down her back. "Try to avoid my brother. He's on summer vaca. If he catches us this is definitely blackmail material."
I leave her room with the dress, then I tiptoe past her brother's room to the bathroom. I finish my shower and style my damp hair into Ari's favorite messy updo. Why not it worked for her? Then I try on the dress. It fits perfectly.
It's long in the back, flowing down just past my knees. Then in the front, it swoops up only coming up to my mid-thigh. It looks like butter and is creamy soft on my skin. It's the nicest dress I'd ever worn. It's better than the dress I'd be wearing to prom.
I step out of the bathroom and bump directly into a solid figure. My eyes slowly trail up the muscular chest until they meet a set of honey brown eyes. Ari's brother. Damien is standing only a couple of inches from me, shirtless and wearing sweatpants. He looks down at me under bushy eyebrows. His unkempt hair falls in messy tendrils around his face and over his eyes.
He has the same expressive face as Ari, he is startled, and his brow shoots straight up. I start to apologize, but he pushes past me, nudging me out of the way, and slams the bathroom door behind him. I stand in the hall for a moment, put off by his rudeness, before hurrying back to Ari's room.
