A GIRL LIKE YOU. sam evans

xii. ARIA LIKED SAM EVANS

"I'M THINKING OF SETTING UP A KISSING BOOTH."

Aria's day had started perfectly fine and nothing was out of the ordinary. Well, that was before Finn Hudson walked up to her at her locker.

Giving the tall boy a questionable glance, Aria pulled him with her as they walked to their next class.

"Is this about Rachel?" she took a wild guess at his motive.

"Rachel? No." he furrowed his brows, "Why? Is something going on with her?"

"What? No. I'm just guessing."

"It's actually about Quinn." he said hesitantly.

"Quinn? Quinn Fabray? Our Quinn Fabray?"

"What other Quinn Fabray's do you know?" he rolled his eyes, "Obviously."

"You mean the one who cheated on you with your best friend? Are we talking about the same girl?"

"Look, all you have to know is that all of that stuff happened last year, and frankly, we've both changed a lot since then. I'm going for it. In a discreet way." Finn said as they reached their class.

"Plus, I'm also doing it to help glee club. I'm donating all the money I get to our funds."

"Oh. I see. So we're just gonna pretend this is for glee club and not that you want to make out with a bunch of girls." Aria pursed her lips before giving Finn a pat on the back, walking to an empty seat in the classroom.

•••

Aria liked Sam Evans. A lot. She was good at concealing her feelings for the boy, but she was going to break eventually. She made it this far, she didn't expect it to happen now.

Catching Sam and Quinn speaking at the library— and mind you, they were talking very closely, triggered something in Aria.

Digging a dollar out of her back pocket, Aria stormed up to Finn's kissing booth, cutting through the long line of girls waiting to be kissed.

She slammed the dollar quite harshly onto the wooden booth and stared up at Finn.

"Are you okay?" Finn asked, glancing at her before looking at the long line of, now, angry girls.

"Kiss me."

"Are you sure?" Finn furrowed his brows, concerned, "You seemed kinda sceptical about this before."

"And I changed my mind, okay? Anything wrong with that?" Aria shook her head.

"Okay, jeez. Don't get so worked up." he replied before finally looking her in the eyes.

He began leaning down before stopping abruptly. He stared at her lips for seven seconds—she counted, before bringing his eyes back to hers.

She could see in his eyes he was hesitating. She understood, she was too, despite the adrenaline she was feeling.

Their noses were about three inches apart when he spoke again, only this time, it was a whisper, "This could change everything between us, you know?"

"Just shut up." she whispered before her eyes fluttered shut.

She felt his breath on her mouth and realized something. She didn't want to kiss Finn.

Pulling her head back, she looked up at Finn who was already looking down on her.

"I don't wanna kiss you." she told him.

"Ouch." he replied.

"You just—you seem kinda unkissable." she

"Even more ouch." he furrowed his brows at her.

"It's not just you," she sighed, "Every guy is unkissable right now."

"Are you a lesbian?" Finn questioned.

"No, it's just I only wanna kiss one guy." she stared at the floor.

"Oh. Oh!" Finn exclaimed before flipping the sign on his booth, indicating the kissing booth was closed. The girls waiting walked away, clearly annoyed.

Finn pulled Aria to the side, "Is this about Sam?"

Aria leaned on the lockers and sat on the floor, Finn following.

"No, it's about Puck." she said before rolling her eyes, "Obviously, it's about Sam."

"Then why don't you just talk to him? You know, tell him how you feel?" Finn suggested.

"I've sorta established that I need time to think about me and him."

"So do you?"

"No." she admitted, "I think that was just some dumb excuse I made because I was too scared to face reality."

"But if you liked Sam, why were you scared in the first place?"

"I don't know. I guess I was just scared that if we were together, we would end up breaking up and our entire friendship would be ruined."

Finn quickly replied to her, but she wasn't listening at all. Because there they were, sitting on the floor, students passing by, hoping to get to their class on time.

Some stepping on their feet, others dropping their paper clips and papers by them, but Aria payed no attention to them. Because all she could think about was Sam.

Something that started as small as a crush on her school mate blossomed into so much more. Something she never wanted.

She was still crushing on this boy, a boy who she hasn't known for more than three months.

She always thought this was just something she imagined. But this was real life. And he liked her back.

The tightening in her chest whenever they talked. Her quickening heartbeat whenever she thought of him. It was all real. Very real.

She realized that she didn't like him, Aria loved Sam Evans.