Smoke Break /Georgenotfound/

՜՞՜12՜՞՜

You know how I said I should get strawberries dipped in chocolate? Well, I did. And I've been wiggling my toes in excitement all day to finish studying and devour it.

At exactly 10 p.m. I took everything I needed and went to the balcony. Then I completely forgot why I went there and ignored my dessert for an hour. And I'm not sure what I did for the said hour. All I know is I opened Tiktok, blinked, and then realized it's 11 p.m. already.

I was thinking about how stubborn of an idiot George was for actually not coming here from 10 to 11, knowing that I was clearly joking yesterday, when his voice interrupted my thoughts. At exactly 11 p.m.

"Time's up, Aria, time's up!" George started clapping repeatedly, "Your session has expired, leave, quick!"

I'm actually not going anywhere until I eat my strawberries.

"No," I crossed my legs, grabbing a strawberry and letting him know that I didn't care.

"Why? You realized that it's not fun without me? You missed me?" Rolling my eyes at his obnoxious words, I take a bite.

I'd be living my best life right now if we excluded him from the scene.

"Sure," I was still on my phone, not even looking at him, "if it makes you sleep better at night."

"It actually keeps me up at night," not sure if he was setting up for a joke, or that was the joke which I didn't get, but I decided to finish it for him.

"You're not the only thing that it keeps up," smiling with satisfaction, I finally turned my head to look at him. He finally looked defeated.

"That's information you'll never possess," he slanted his eyes sarcastically.

"Never?" I chuckled, "I possess more information than needed. You know, thin walls."

I was just lying to make a point and didn't expect him to believe me, but the way his cheeks burned up crimson immediately made me look at him dumbfounded.

"You're such a liar," he uttered the words with a tone that suggested it wasn't a statement but rather a desperate attempt to cling onto a glimmer of hope.

"I'm not lying," I continued lying.

"So what did you hear?" He crossed his arms.

"Everything," I was still carelessly working on my strawberry. If I put a bit more effort into acting, he'd actually believe me.

"Oh wow, I'm screwed," he's so much better at acting though.

Well, at least I tried.

"But why'd you get so nervous, huh?" I smiled at him teasingly.

"I literally did not."

His cheeks were still rosy.

"Mhm," I murmured, savoring the taste of the melted chocolate as I delicately licked it off my finger. Unable to resist, I returned to the plate to seize another strawberry.

"Give me some," George spoke with a tone that would make a person believe he wasn't the one criticizing strawberries just yesterday.

"No," I made sure to look right into his eyes while taking a bite. Yet his eyes moved down from my eyes to the strawberry.. or my lips, I'm not sure, "you don't like them, remember?"

"I eat many things I don't like. Give it to me," I knew he wasn't going down without a fight. I groaned in annoyance and gave in, grabbing one for him.

The proximity of the balconies was strikingly evident in this moment. Leaning on the railing, I extended my arm, ready to offer him the strawberry. It was within arm's reach, just a slight movement away for him to grab. Instead, he took a step closer, almost hung his whole upper body from the edge, and grasped it without difficulty - directly with his mouth.

That was unnecessary. And unnecessarily attractive.

"What are your hands for?"

Here I go, blaming people just because I get flustered easily.

After chewing for a few seconds, he answered, "If you really heard everything, you'd know the answer."

I'll admit that I'm slow for taking more than a second to get what he was saying. And when I finally did, my jaw hung open.

"That's actually disgusting.." my voice was filled with revulsion. The fact that he was laughing about it only intensified the feeling of disgust.

"You know what's disgusting?" I already knew what was coming, "This fruit or berry or vegetable- or whatever it is."

He held the stem of the strawberry up. What a hypocrite, he said that after finishing the whole thing.

"I'm pretty sure it's a legume," I mocked him, face still judgemental.

"You're so funny, Aria," the way he speaks is so dramatic.

"At least one of us is, George."

God knows why we keep being passive-aggressive or straight-up aggressive to each other. And we keep laughing it off. Does that mean we hate each other? Or are we just friendly?

"The balconies are so close," he randomly announced, starting to inspect the distance for whatever reason, "I can probably easily jump over there."

"You're having intrusive thoughts, go to sleep," I shook my head. But he was still doing calculations.

"I'm actually gonna jump to your balcony," something is very wrong with him, "watch me."

"You're gonna fall and die and traumatize me for the rest of my life," my face pulled with annoyance.

My heart almost fell down to my knees when I saw him sit on the railing, legs hanging over nothing.

I'm not even joking - if he falls, he's dead. We're on the 11th floor.

"George, stop it." I warned strictly.

"I'm not gonna fall," he giggled, probably not understanding the seriousness of it. Maybe it's because I'm afraid of heights, but I felt like my heart was gonna explode.

"George, it's not fucking funny-" my hand turned white from how hard I was holding onto my phone.

He ignored my words, resting his feet on the barely existent platform underneath. Just looking at him made my legs feel wobbly.

"It is though," he deliberately released one of the supporting hands to tousle his hair, "it'll be so much funnier if I actually fall."

"I'm not even looking," I knew he was doing this to get on my nerves. And not having an audience would hopefully make him stop, "let me know when you're done."

I turned around, my back facing whatever disaster was going to happen there. I also closed my ears with my hands, in case he proceeded to scare me with stupid words or sounds. Yet I still heard a loud thumping sound. I knew one thing - if it were him falling to the ground, I wouldn't hear it that loudly. Hopefully.

As I remained glued to the same spot, my hands still pressed tightly against my ears, a sudden chill crept over me. A pair of cold hands covered my eyes, plunging me into darkness.

"What a disappointment, you didn't die." I tried to turn back around and face him, but his words were quicker than my actions.

"I think I'd like you better if we had one more hand to cover your mouth."