Love Of My Life

26

This wasn't my best chapter because I am literally so tired but it's a lead up into future chapters so it's okay lol xx

...

Ben

I'm still not quite sure if I am awake when I finally begin to move around at 5 in the morning. I groggily throw all of my belongings left out in a bag, not bothering to fold clothes or check to make sure nothing is broken. I should have gotten ready last night but Aria and I talked for a while in bed before finally passing out. How can I get anything productive done when she's with me? 

The answer is I can't.

Luckily she had left a little while ago to gather everything out of her room. This leaves me with some time to get myself presentable, although I'm slowly caring less and less because of how tired I am. 

I walk into the bathroom to brush my teeth. That's when I hear it: loud banging coming from outside. 

I walk to the door, my toothbrush hanging from my mouth, and open the door to see Aria banging on someone's door. 

I pull my toothbrush out. "Ari what in the hell are you doing?" I ask her, my speech mumbled from toothpaste. 

"Joe. Won't. Wake. Up," she says, in between banging on his door. I notice she is wearing the white t-shirt I let her wear a couple nights ago, tucked into a pair of jeans. She turns to me, her cheeks pink from being flustered. "Everyone texts me in the morning telling me that they woke up, and Joe didn't and now he isn't answering his door,"

I hold up a finger to her signaling for her to wait a second, and I run back in my room where I rinse my mouth out. I walk back into the hall to where she is.

"You're going to wake the entire hotel, love," I tell her, putting my hands on her shoulders. 

"Then Joe can explain why," she says to me loudly. 

I shush her and then say, "Let me try,". I knock gently on his door.

"Joseph, it's Ben. I really need you to get up," I say softly, but loud enough for him to hear me. 

A head pops out of their room. It's Rami. 

"What's going on?" he asks. Just then Lucy pops her head out behind Rami.

Aria and I take a second look.

"I should be asking what's going on over there?" Aria says. 

Did Rami and Lucy share a room last night? Or did she go over this morning?

"Is there something you want to tell us?" I ask the two.

Both Rami and Lucy look at each other and open their mouths to explain, but before any words can come out Joe's door opens. 

"Did I hear my British lover?" he asks, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. 

"Unbelievable," Aria grumbles. She stalks back to her room, clearly irritated. I try to suppress my laughter, but it escapes slightly. 

"So is Ben the British lover or Aria?" Rami asks slowly, his eyes wide with amusement. 

"We leave in five minutes!" Aria announces from her room. 

By the time we all get to the lobby, we are about a minute late and surprisingly it wasn't Joe's fault. The receptionist was taking a while to check Aria out and she wasn't having it. I haven't seen her irritated really, so this is a new sight. I'm assuming she's not an early morning person. 

She barely talks to anyone the entire ride to the airport, yet again no one really seems to talk to each other. It's too early to function. However, she perks up when we actually get on to the plane. 

The ride seems shorter than last time, probably because we sleep for the majority of it and it actually is a half hour shorter. Aria cuddled into my side practically the entire time. I was almost scared to touch her because I didn't want her to yell at me, but she looked so peaceful when she was actually sleeping.  

Once we actually touch down in London, it is about 2 in the morning, the following day. I'm so glad we slept the entire plane ride because now we won't be able to sleep tonight. 

"What time do we need to be in tomorrow?" Gwilym asks Aria once we are settled in the stretch car that came to pick us up. 

Aria has her head buried in her phone. A worried look spreads across her face. I frown. 

"Ari?" I whisper, nudging her a little.

She looks up. "Sorry, what?" she asks, her cheeks flushing. 

"What time do we need to be in tomorrow? Or later should I add," Gwilym repeats. 

"Oh, um, I think tomorrow is going to be a day off. For you guys at least," Aria says, laughing slightly at the end.

"Really?" Lucy asks. Her eyes flicker to Rami for a split second. I want to ask them about earlier but I bite my tongue. 

Aria nods. "Yeah something came up that I need to tend to so I'm going to cancel tomorrow. Plus we all just got back so we need a little time to recuperate,"

"Is everything okay?" I ask.

"Yeah it's just there was an issue with production while we were gone apparently, so I need to rectify it. Nothing big, I just need to check to make sure a scene was put together properly because it's causing 'major stress' according to Brian and Roger," she explains. 

"You'll fix it," I say to her, putting my arm around her shoulder. 

Our driver drops us all off one by one. Eventually it comes down to Aria and I, and she agrees to come back to my hotel for a little while.

I get a little self conscious as we make our way to my room. She's never been over before, and even though it's not my permanent dwelling it is still my space. 

"How come you don't stay at the same hotel as Joe?" Aria asks me when we walk inside. "Actually none of you guys stay in the same building,"

"I'm actually not sure," I say. I had never thought about it. 

I throw my stuff down on the couch when we walk in. Aria gently places her bags and such on the floor.

"I notice you wore my shirt today," I tell her, smirking slightly. 

She walks around, eventually walking to my bedroom where she lays on my bed. I walk over and lay next to her, both of us staring at the ceiling. 

"I like the way it smells," she tells me.

I turn my head so that it is facing her, her doing the same towards me.

"How so?" I ask.

"It smells like you," she tells me. "I can't explain it. Kind of like cologne and...smoke? I don't know,"

I smile at her. She makes me happy and she doesn't even try. 

She moves closer to me and plants a kiss on my lips, then on my cheek and jaw bone before nestling into me. I wrap my arms around her. 

As I think about Aria and how much I like her, I find my eyelids getting heavy. Aria's breathing slows and eventually sleep takes me too.