Love Of My Life

9

GUYS I'm excited because I got a couple of ideas for this story and I am so excited to introduce them. On a side note, this chapter is a major filler but I will double update so the next chapter will be better (fingers crossed) xx

...

Ben

"Ari?" I say, seeing the dark haired girl outside of a bar. 

She looks at me. Her eyes are glazed over and her cheeks are flushed. The way she holds herself is different than normal. She is definitely intoxicated. 

"Hi Benjamin," she says. She closes her eyes and leans her head against the brick wall. 

I walk closer to her. She opens her eyes. Her brown ones stare into mine. 

"Why are you here?" she slurs. 

"I was taking a walk," I answer her vaguely. She looks like she is going to fall over so I outstretch my hand to prop her up. "Why are you here?"

She takes a finger and points it at me, resting it on my chest. "Lucy. We needed to have fun. But now I don't feel well,"

I have three options I could do. I could leave her here with whoever she is with, I could go in and join them with having fun, or I could take Aria home and go from there. Katriona would probably want me to go with option 1. I decide to go with 3.

"Can I take you home, Ari?" I ask her. I put both of my hands on her arms to further stable her. 

"You can always take me home," she says, winking at me. My face heats up. I know she's drunk, but still. 

"Who did you come with?" I ask, ignoring her last comment. 

"Lucy, Rami, Gwilym, Joe..." she says, trailing off at the end. 

"So everyone but me," I mutter. I pull out my phone to text them that I am bringing Aria home because she doesn't feel well.

"It's not that we didn't want you to come," Aria tells me. She leans forward and wraps her arms around my neck, making it difficult for me to text the group. "I was just upset with you,"

"Why?" I ask her. 

"Can we just leave already? I think I might actually vomit," she says, ignoring my question. I sigh and send the message. 

"Do you have everything?" I ask.

She nods. "I didn't bring much,"

We walk back to her flat, or should I say mansion. My arm is around her waist supporting her the entire walk back. Luckily she is able to open up the door and she leads us in.

The mansion is amazing. The floors are a white marble and theres a beautiful staircase that serves as the focal point of the room. It's only contender is the crystal chandelier than hangs from the ceiling. 

Aria grabs my hand as she leads me up the stairs. She takes me down a long hallway and to her room. Although her house is beautifully decorated, her room is comfortable. It doesn't look nearly as expensive as the rest of her place. 

"I need clothes," Aria announces, stumbling her way to her huge closet. She disappears amongst the racks. 

In the mean time I walk into her bathroom. I rummage through the drawers and find what I am looking for: makeup wipes. After dating Kat for so long, I know that a girl needs to take off their makeup and Aria doesn't seem in the right state to think that clearly so the least I can do is help her out. 

I take the package and walk back in her room. Aria sits on her bed in a Queen t-shirt and a pair of baggy shorts. I notice her fumbling around trying to take her earrings out. 

I walk over and sit besides her, putting my hands on hers to help her out. She eventually gives up and let's me complete the task. 

"Can you face me, love?" I ask her, softly. 

She turns to me as I take a wipe out of the package. I softly run it over her face, removing the makeup. Honestly she doesn't need it. I think she's beautiful with or without it. 

It's in this moment that I realize I am falling hard and fast for this girl. I knew it before, but I'm just coming to terms with it now and accepting it. I sigh as I finish. I crumple up the wipe in my hand and stand up, walking to the bathroom to throw it away. By the time I come back to the room, Aria is in her bed and under the covers.

"I should go," I announce. 

"Please stay," Aria says, barely a whisper. 

"I don't want to intrude," I argue. Believe me, I would love to stay, but I feel like that's too far. 

"Please?" Aria begs, softly. "I can't sleep alone,"

I sigh. Maybe I'll just stay until she falls asleep and then I can slip out. That can't possibly be more than twenty minutes or so. At most an hour but I don't foresee it taking that long.

"Okay," I sigh. 

I walk around and climb in bed with her, except I stay on top of the covers. Aria turns off the light on a table next to her bed and the room goes dark.

"Thank you for staying," Aria whispers. "I'm scared to sleep alone,"

"Why's that?" I ask, genuinely curious. I don't believe she's ever mentioned it before.

I feel Aria turn so the she is facing me. I do likewise. I can barely make out the shine in her eyes. 

"I suffer from nightmares. I've been told its because of dad," she tells me. "I have bad PTSD from watching him while he was sick. I spent every minute with him you know," 

"I didn't know that," I say. My heart aches for her. I have no idea what it is like to go through what she did, but it sounds awful. I would have never known she suffers from anything by watching her interact in public. I suppose she is much like her father in that way.

"I don't talk about it," she tells me. "Not with anyone really,"

"You know you can always talk to me, right?"

She sighs heavily. "I want to but I can't,"

"Why can't you?"

"It's complicated," she answers after a pause. She then closes her eyes again leading me to believe our conversation is over.  

It's complicated? I wonder what she means. She definitely seems different since she found out about Katriona. I mean I wasn't hiding her, but I definitely did not come directly out with it. Is it possible Aria feels the same way about me that I do her?

After a couple moments I hear Aria's breathing slow. She's asleep, and I contemplate leaving before she wakes. Something is telling me not to though. I can't quite put it, but I have a funny feeling in me that is telling me to stay. It's like a voice that I cannot hear. 

Nonetheless, I decide to listen to it and I find myself drifting off within minutes only to be woken up by Aria's screams in the morning.