𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑, tom holland

13. "ready to lose a bet?"

REAL LIFE

ASPEN PACED the corridor of her upper floor, wringing her hands. The flight Tom had originally planned to take to visit her had just arrived, and the girl's nerves were at a high. Even though she knew it was unrealistic— her family homewas a good two hour drive from the closest airport— she couldn't help but wait for a knock on the wooden front door. It was crazy, she didn't even know if Tom was coming, let alone an idea of arrival time.

ASPEN'S MOVEMENT became so frequent and constant it began to aggravate her two younger siblings, who watched from Joshua's doorway as Ruby tugged on his hand, eager to know what was bothering their sister.
"Aspie," Josh sighed, glancing at the woman who's hands were tugging at strands of her brown hair.
"Sit down, please. You're driving me up the wall." With a sigh, Aspen followed her brother into his room and took a seat on his bed. She flopped down, allowing Ruby to climb onto her stomach.
"You know he'll come, right?" Josh commented, resting a head on Aspen's shoulder.
"You don't know that." She sighed, not opening her eyes.
"Wanna bet?" The boy smirked, pulling his sister into a hug. Ruby crawled up Aspen's body and kissed her cheek.
"When are we gonna meet Tommy?" The nine year old whined, with such poor timing it made Josh wince.
"I don't know, Roobs. I don't know." Aspen replied, stroking the girl's hair.

AS ASPEN lay beside her siblings, her mind began to wander. Even as Ruby drifted off to sleep, and Josh pulled his earphones from his jeans pocket, the eldest Kelly child lay staring at the white ceiling. How did everything fall to shit so suddenly? How did Aspen lose her grasp? Aspen could usually keep her cool with exception ease, even around people she liked as more than friends— which she now discovered she possibly could with Tom. She was never a jealous person, ever. But after just one little news article, she had lost it. Riley and Morgan were right— she really had fallen hard.

BUT, IN ALL fairness, Aspen thought, Tom had done the same. The more Aspen thought about it, the more her friends seemed to be correct. The young actor had appeared to have gotten jealous over Aspen and Cole. Even though Aspen had explicitly stated that the two were just friends, maybe Tom had perceived the costars as a little more than what they told. But it wasn't like that, it really wasn't, and Aspen hoped Tom realised that now.

THE TICKLE of a moving curl against her cheek brought her back to reality— Josh was moving. "Come on, Aspie." The boy called, throwing his headphones and phone down beside her and scooping his younger sister into his arms.
Aspen shook her head. "What?"
"That's the door, dear sister." Joshua smirked, readjusting the sleeping Ruby in his arms. "Ready to lose a bet?"