Childhood Bestfriends with Hollywood's Goldenboypart35

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© Copyright – All rights Reserved 2012 smile024 – L. Smith

Chapter 35

(sorry this upload took so long and it's not really long. next one will be way better- more stuff.)

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“ You- you what?” I spluttered before I stomped up to him and hit him on the arm “ I nearly had a heart attack! I thought some old lady was goanna come out with a baseball bat and tell us to scram!” I told him, feeling a small smile creep onto my face and I hit him again in the arm.

“ Ow, Ella Bear” He complained and pretended to rub his arm. I huffed, feeling really stupid and turned to walk down the drive but before I could walk another step I felt Ari’s warm hand on my wrist, pulling me into the hard warm muscle of his chest. One arm wrapped firmly around me and the other cupped my head, as he kissed me firmly on the lips as we stood on the first step of the porch.

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I immediately felt myself melt into Ari’s kiss, my lips allowing him entrance as he expertly nipped on my bottom lip. Not hard, just enough to make me suppress a sigh.

Just being with him made me want to smile into his lips, but that would have cut off our current very enjoyable activity.

mmmm…

What was I angry about, again?

His arm tightened and I felt my body melt into the hard, warm line of his body, as we touched from thigh to chest. The warmth of his body heat spread across my front and I found myself wrapping my hands round his back, loving the feel of his shifting muscles as our kiss deepened.

Ari’s hand was gripping the back of my t-shirt; his had scrunched up in the material like he thought I might slip through his fingers or runaway.

“ I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Don’t cut me out. ” Ari said between our kisses, his voice was just above a raspy whisper, “ I’m so fucking sorry Ella Bear”

The sound of his voice cut me somewhere in my chest, I hated that I had made him think I could ever not forgive him. That my words made him believe I would just end our friendship. I ran my hands up Ari’s back, savouring the feel of his shifting back muscles as we kissed, slowly deliberately. As if we were savouring each other, trying to apologise with the crush of our bodies and the smooth tangle of our lips, the perfect rhythm of our tongues. I pulled on Ari’s hair, just hard enough to stop our kiss.

“ I know.” I told him, my voice sounded close to tears and suddenly I realised that I was. Ari blinked, watching my face like he was trying to memorise me. 

Gently, I pressed my lips to his, giving him a healing, softly innocent kiss for a second. My heart felt like it was beating out of my ribcage and I could feel Ari’s heart thrumming like a hummingbirds wing trapped in a cage.

“ I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean it. I was angry and upset.”

“ It’s ok.” Ari whispered, crushing me to him in a hug. “ I probably deserved it and more.”

“ No you didn’t” I whispered fiercely. I leant back, holding his face in my palms. Silently craving the rasp of his stubble on his jaw under my hands. “ You know that I’m never going to hate you, right?” I whispered, not trusting my voice to break. My face was already tight, my eyes were blurring slightly with unshed tears.

Ari shut his eyes for a second before a slow smile split across my face.“ You had me kind of worried there for a sec, Ellabear.”

I felt a tear roll down my face and all I could do was smile at him weakly as he brushed it away with the pad of his thumb. “ I love you. Damn, I love you so much it’s actually a little scary.” He kissed my left cheek, where my tear had left a wet trail on my surely blotchy red face.

I sniffed; blinking back tears as I felt a small smile creep onto my lips. “Everything… it’s just that …”- I struggled for the word, trying to explain how overwhelmingly intense my feelings were for Ari. How, frightening it was to love someone so much it hurts to think about being away fro them, to feel like you have an invisible cord inside both of you that links you together and if it snapped you might just stop functioning and loose this essential part of yourself.  “ That us, together feels so big.”

Ari’s face looked nervous as he took a deep breath and began to speak, his words coming out so quickly they melded into one another,  “ I know, everything between us has always been like that – we don’t really do things by halves. We just sort of jump in.” a slight smile crooked the edge of his mouth momentarily before it disappeared. “I’ve screwed up and I understand if you can’t trust me like before.” He clenched his jaw, like he was having trouble spitting out the words, or they were painful in his mouth, “ Fuck! – Ella Bear it’s going to be like living hell, but if you don’t –trust- if you can’t love me now because of what I did…” he closed his eyes again, and I saw his throat move as he swallowed “ I’ll try to get it. I’ll try being friends but I will always love you. That won’t change and I won’t pretend that I don’t. I can’t, Ella Bear.”

 

Is that what he thought?

Can he get more stupid?

I took a shaky breath, “ Open your eyes.” I whispered, and Ari’s light blue eyes fluttered open hesitantly, and I realised I didn’t think I’d ever seen him this scared.

“ I meant what I said at Chase’s. I love you, and still in love with your stupid ass.”

“ Really?” Ari rasped, staring intently into my face, watching for any signs I was tricking him.

“ Really” I whispered, running my fingers down the sides of his face along his temples.

Ari’s grin that split across his face was beautiful. Just beautiful. I know guys aren’t meant to be beautiful and he probably would like me to replace it with the word like ‘handsome’ or ‘rugged’, but Aaron Fox, my best friend, was simply beautiful in that moment.

Ari’s arms held me to him as he smiled like all his Christmases had come at once wrapped up in me. Then he kissed me softly, barely a whisper. It was the essence of what the perfect kiss can be. Gentle, sweet and full of promise. I closed my eyes, drowning in his presence. My head felt like it was fizzing as I relaxed into Ari’s body again. When I nipped his bottom lip playfully, Ari groaned softly and then it was like everything caught fire, becoming urgent. Our kiss deepened, his hand coming to hold on my neck and on the dip hollow of my back kept my body firmly plastered to his. In a second I felt myself being lifted backwards, his arms wrapping around my back to cup my butt so I was just a few inches off the floor, then the hard line of something hit my back and we were wrapping our arms round each other as we kissed. I let my hands explore under his shirt, running my hands over the ridges of his six-pack as Ari’s hands drew smooth circles on my waist and stomach. His weight kept me a few inches of the floor and I felt so delicate held in his strong frame.

Suddenly I remembered that we were at the Seashell House; I was kissing Ari on the front porch of the seashell house, surrounded by washed out blue wood and shell chimes. The one that Ari hadn’t told me he owned. Or had even considered buying.

“ Wait.” I whispered, pulling away slightly, it came out way breathier than I wanted.

I was supposed to sound in control, not out of my mind with lust.

Ari paused. His eyes were heavy lidded from our kisses and I could feel the distracting brush of his fingertips along my skin of my lower back.

“ok.”

“ Do you really own the seashell house?” I asked, trying not to give into the urge to kiss Ari’s lips that were so temptingly close.

“ No, I wasn’t joking. It’s all mine. Or at least it has been for the last..” he looked up like he was calculating. It was seriously sweet. It reminded me of when we used to do our homework at each others house and he always looked up to the heavens like he was waiting for answers when he got to math equations. “..About three months, now.”

I sucked I a breath and felt a sting of panic on my chest. “ Three months? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Ari frowned, “ Honestly? It was supposed to be a surprise for you after you got your acceptance letter to the university of California.”

“ huh?” I chirped, feeling totally confused and overwhelmed by the feeling of Ari so close as I tried to focus.

Why would the seashell house be a surprise for me? It was a beautiful house, but what did it have to do with me?

Ari smiled, brushing a strand of hair from my cheek, “ The Sea shell house isn’t too far of a drive from you’re the university and I was thinking that it would be nice to have a place to ourselves that we could hang out and relax in between my work and your studying without our parents or your future dorm roommate hassling us.”

“Oh.” That was actually really sweet. And thoughtful. And did I mention sweet?  “ When were you going to tell me?”

“After you get your acceptance letter.”

“ But I haven’t got my letter yet, I don’t know if I’m going to”-  I countered.

“ You’ll get in. I can feel it.”

I went to speak, to tell him about Columbia, It was on the tip of my tongue. About how I wasn’t planning on staying here next year, but my mouth just wouldn’t move. The words seemed to lodge in my throat and instead, I replied in a small voice “ I don’t know if I want to go to California. I – I don’t think it’s for me.” It was the first time I’d told anyone apart from Marissa and the schools career councillor. My words felt like bricks, crashing down and disturbing the pre-predicted, expected image that my life had been drawn out as by my parents.

“ What? When did you start feeling like this?” Ari asked, concern all over his face.

“But that’s not the point.” I continued, “ I don’t really like that you didn’t tell me. This isn’t like buying a bracelet or a dress, this is a house. An amazing Victorian style, great location, and probably super expensive house.”

Ari frowned, “ I guess I should have, but I’ve actually been looking for my own place for a while for when I film in the LA studios. This house fits the bill for me.” I looked down at my shoes, feeling stupid and ungrateful. I just couldn’t get this niggling panic out of my chest. Ari lowered me down to the floor gently; keeping his hand on my waist he bent his knees so he was in my line of vision.

“ Were not talking about me not telling you about buying the house, are we? This is about the Taylor thing.”

I nodded. “ I just hate that you lied to me about her. Especially when she’s such a crazy stalker bitch.”

Ari nodded, “ Yeah, she is a crazy stalker.” I loved that even after what she’d done he couldn’t call her a bitch. “I just didn’t realise it at the time, I thought she was just very friendly.”

 I couldn’t help but laugh at that. I could just imagine how Ari had mistaken her obsession for friendliness. He was like that sometimes. It was seriously odd. He just didn’t always see when other girls were practically drooling on him; he just mistook it for being nice. I think somewhere in there he still sees himself as the skinny kid who had toothpicks for arms until puberty hit.

Just a bit friendly? Jeez you really don’t have good crazy girl radar, do you?” I teased.

Ari rolled his eyes, “ Well now we’ve cleared up how stupid I am, I’ll tell you how even more stupid I got.” He winced like he was embarrassed. His left hand on my back twitched slightly with nerves. He took a deep breath, searching my eyes before he continued. “ I allowed my agent and her’s manipulate me into a fake relationship with Taylor for movie publicity. I didn’t really think it was a big deal at the time. Everyone said it was only a temporary arrangement as we did the premiere tours. It only meant I had to be photographed at lunch with her, holding her hand or kiss her cheek at the premiere occasionally. Being ambiguous when the press asked questions about us being in a relationship is what the PR team usually ask you to do in a romantic movie, anyway. It just seemed really simple. I thought she only saw me as a friend and that she knew what her agent was doing. Turns out she knew it was a set up but thought I wasn’t faking it – I have no idea why.” Ari frowned in confusion, “Somewhere along the line she thought I actually had feelings for her. I have no idea how; I did nothing to encourage her other than the occasional kiss on the cheek for cameras. Never alone. Never outside of a professional setting.”

“ I believe you.” I whispered softly.

He sighed and ran a hand though his hair, looking tense. He was so handsome, even with dark shadows under his eyes and unshaven. He looked gorgeously rugged.

I could imagine that it must have been really difficult for her not to fall for Ari – what with him being so friendly for the cameras and probably just really nice to her naturally while they were working on the film. As odd as it felt- I just was sorry for Taylor.

“Then, when we were in Australia at a film crew party with the cast she got really drunk, and as we were leaving the back entrance of a pub she kissed me. That’s what the grainy photo was from. At the time I dismissed it as her just being drunk and lonely so far from home. I politely pulled her away and got her a taxi back to her hotel. Then this whole thing blew up in my face. She kept harassing my agent for us to get more photo opportunities together after the film promo… he kept saying yes, arranging stuff I wasn’t comfortable with … not telling me about any of it until the day before.”

I nodded, “ That explains the constant phone calls since you’ve got back. You didn’t exactly seem like besties.”

Ari smiled weakly, “Was it the jaws ring tone I programmed for him that gave it away or the constant screaming matches over the phone?” he said as he exhaled.

“Maybe, both?” His seemed so tired and suddenly I could see how much this whole situation had drained him. On instinct, I went onto my tiptoes and kissed one of his dimples, softly for a second to comfort him.

He blinked, leaning his forehead against mine, his arms tightening around me momentarily like he was checking I was there. I had forgotten how soothing the feel of his forehead on mine was.

“ Yeah, well I suck. I was really stupid and let him manipulate me because I couldn’t figure out a way out of it– that is until those pictures of us on the beach where released. I had mentioned I was going to visit my granddad, so he must have tipped them off. After that, I began trying to negotiate my way out of my contract, Natalie represents Chase and he gave me her number. Luckily, she agreed to take me on. As you can tell, she’s a force to be reckoned with.” He grinned at the end. “ She reminds me of you a little in that way.”

I felt my stomach twist in guilt when I thought of everything that Aeri had been going through, worrying about silently. I should have asked. But then his hands pushed slightly further up the hem of my top, trailing up my back and all I felt was heated butterflies in the pit of my stomach.

Then his words hit me and I let out a bark of laughter, “Me?”

“Yeah, you. Don’t act so surprised.”

 “ Yeah, sure. I’m just like Natalie, only without the super colour co-ordinating skills” I observed.

Ari looked puzzled and very cute. “ Huh? Super colour co-ordinating what?”

“ It’s a girl thing. Her outfits are amazing.”

“ I hadn’t noticed.”

“ Again – girl thing, Ari. I’d be surprised if you noticed her killer lilac quilted Chanel bag”

Ari grinned, leaning down and nuzzling my neck softly, kissing and biting. A streak of electric tingles swept through me straight down south and I struggled to breath evenly.“ So would I. I’d have to know what Chanel is.”

“ But first, I was thinking I could give you a tour of the Seashell House, after all those years of sitting outside on the curb and you guessing what the inside looked like. But I’m afraid to say Ella Bear, there is no casino room and there isn’t a dance floor with square flashing lights like in Saturday night fever.” He grinned at my former ten year old self’s wackier interior decorating suggestions, eyes glinting playfully as he moved his lips attentions to the other side of my neck.

I let out a shaky, shallow breathe “ Oh no… my illusions are shattered.” I whispered at a lame attack at sarcasm, while I felt myself melting further into him, my eyes closing as I held back a moan.

“ There isn’t a fish tank wall, either.” He whispered, kissing up my neck to the curve of my jaw, up to hover next to my lips teasingly.

“Drat” I breathed, feeling my nails slide across the warm, toned muscles of his back.

Then I felt Ari’s lips land on mine, just as I felt my legs lifted around his waist, and I wrapped my legs around him without a second thought. His kiss was so distracting that I almost didn’t realise we were moving, or hear the soft click of the front door.

All I could feel was Aris body against mine, his hands firm imprint on my legs, the other on the nape of my neck, in my hair. “How do I get the tour if I’m stuck on you?” I asked in-between kisses.

Ari leant his forehead against mine as he spoke, the both of us caching our breath and smiling like kids at each other. I hadn’t even registered the house I’d so desperately wanted to see inside of as a kid. “ It’s either like this” his eyes gestured to our bodies that were connected at the hips, making me aware of how effortlessly he held me as his hands trailed up and down my neck to my lower back. “ Or, I give you the piggyback tour full of charge. Either way, I’m not quite ready to let you go just yet.”

I felt warm electric tingles pooling in my lower belly at his words, and I realised how much I agreed. “ Piggyback ride, it is then?” a huge Cheshire grin stretched out on my face.

© Copyright – All rights reserved 2012 – Smile024  Lsmith

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Hey guys, sorry it’s taken me so long, my writing just wouldn’t flow.

I know this chapter isn’t great- it was meant to go in another direction originally and I just couldn’t make it feel right. Lots of re-writes.

Now it feels ok , though not much happens except they makeup. – Thought the next chapter will be BIG step in their relationship!!! Also , you’ll find out about that Tattoo of Ari’s that you’ve all been wondering about!

Smile024 :D

(Finished this off at night- might have a few grammar or spelling errors. Please just ignore them or politely point them out if they really annoy you.)

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