Belle

𝐼𝑋

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By the time I worked up the balls to walk out of the washroom my brother was once again gone.

Where does he keep disappearing to? I have no idea.

Ace was sitting by the tv playing on his Xbox when he turned to face me and removed his headset.

"Hey," I say awkwardly.

"Hi," he says matching my tone and I mentally cringe.

"Where's Kaden?" I say trying to start up a conversation and at the same time answering my previous question.

"I've got no idea" he laughs before putting his headset back on.

I flop onto my bed after cringing at the situation for a couple of minutes and begin using my laptop to watch YouTube videos.

"About what you said," he says keeping his eyes on the game.

"It was an accident," I say curtly.

His face turns and his eyes meet my own, clouded in thought. "Ok," he says but his eyes stay on mine.

"Let's go to the club," he says and smiles brightly.

I feel confusion swarm in my head. Was he mad? "Huh?" I say wondering about his mental state.

"Let's g-" he starts but I cut him off.

"I heard what you said, but why"

"Well Kaden isn't coming back soon, wherever he went, and my sister isn't coming back until she finds the balls to apologize so now it's just us two, and why can't we have fun?" He asks excitement clouding his hazel eyes.

"I guess?" He was right. Especially about the Calista part. We've been friends for 18 years and in those 18 years, we've had endless fights. Some of which neither of us apologized until Kaden and Ace grew tired of our shit and made us both apologize.

Of course, right now it was different. I didn't want an apology, I just wanted my best friend back.

"Then it's settled, get ready and I'll text Kaden," he says getting up from his spot and walking over to grab his phone from the nightstand.

He quickly taps on the screen before looking up at me and pointing at the washroom, motioning me to get ready.

I quickly pull a two-piece sparkly off the shoulder dress out of my suitcase and run into the was room to get ready. By the time my makeup and are done and I walk out, Ace was ready and sitting on his bed on his phone.

He wore a simple tight black t-shirt that hugged all his muscles and showed off his sleeve off tattoos with a matching distressed pair of black jeans.

His eyes met my own when he looked up and I couldn't help but smile. His eyes trailed down my body and down my tanned legs and I felt myself shudder.

Without a word he put his phone into his pocket and held my hand to spin me around. I let out a giggle as I turned in the heels I was wearing.

Ew, why did I giggle?

He smirks at me before pulling me through the door and into the elevator. My eyes connect with a new tattoo on the back of his wrist. I could tell it was new by the slightly faded pink skin around the tattoo. It was the word "Beauty" in red ink with a rose growing under it.