Chapter 41: Chapter 41

: know

→Narrator: Kam

"They don't like me!" Ariel whispered harshly behind me.

"Huh?" I turned to her from getting out a bottle of champagne from the cellar.

"Your friends. They don't like me." She repeated, a small scowl on her attractive face, arms, folded, hips, resting against the kitchen counter.

I raised an eyebrow at her.

After a long game of charades and Monopoly, everyone decided they were suddenly in the mood for champagne. Reason why I'm here in the wine cellar/cooler, sorting through bottles.

The only reason Ariel is here with me is because, Asa had retreated to her room to study, since three o'clock. Yes. That Einstein studies during the holidays. I'm shocked, too.

Anyway, Ariel had jumped at the opportunity to spend time with me and so far, she has been on her best behaviour.

"Who?"

"Don't act like you don't know!" She hissed. "Your Asa and her girlfriends."

Kosi and Lola still weren't talking to each other, but it looked like they had an unspoken conspiracy to make things difficult for Ariel while she honestly tried to have genuine conversations with them.

In the end, Kosi had left to continue packing and Asa had gone upstairs to study.

Finally getting the bottle I wanted, I exited the cold, dark room.

"They have good reason to. They're protective of Asa. They love her and you're not too subtle when it comes to keeping your hands to yourself. You kept leaning on me even when I push you away. Take a hint, Ariel. I'm taken!" I stressed the word.

A small pout twisted up her bright red lips and she shivered slightly, hugging herself, eyes downcast. "I... I'm sorry, Kam, I don't know what comes over me sometimes, I swear."

I sighed, dropping the Champagne on the counter top. "Look, Ariel, I see where you're going with this. And frankly, I don't understand why. You and I are dead. Things were never serious between us. I don't understand why it's becoming a problem for us. It never was, before."

She flared up.

"Well, that was because, before, you don't go around, telling lighter-skinned anorexic bitches that you loved them."

"Ariel!" I snapped at her, getting in her face. "Don't fucking talk about her like that!"

She was quiet for a moment, maintaining my angry glare, and then, her gaze dropped to my chest, her eyes, softening.

"You know..." She said, a low, seductive edge to her voice. "There's something about your anger that's so hot." She took one bold step towards me, standing so close until the tips of her perky breasts grazed my chest. "Turns me on, everytime," she whispered.

"Ariel-" I growled lowly, gripping her shoulders tight.

But she was undeterred. There was a taunting, cocky look in her eyes, her lips, pulled up in a triumphant smirk as her red claws traced my chest, softly. "I'd like to see you fuck me up, Kam."

I saw red for one furious moment.

Pushing her aside, I stepped away from her, glaring into her eyes. "Don't you try shit like that with me, Ariel. I don't cheat, even before Asa, and you fucking know that! For fucksake, stop this shit you're trying to do because honestly, this isn't the Ariel I know!"

She gripped her hair, groaning. "That Ariel fucking died when she realized she wanted more! I don't want to be your 'friend' anymore goddamit, I want you!"

"And I'm not interested!"

She flinched at my outburst, hurt registrating in her eyes.

I sighed, massaging my temples. "Look. Whatever we had in the past was never serious. You made that perfectly clear even when I wanted a relationship out of you so badly. Those days of us fucking around are over now. I'm in love with Asa. Stop trying to come between us."

Without sparing her a second glance, I took the champagne bottle and exited the kitchen, leaving a writhing Ariel behind.

I didn't understand her deal. It's not like we ever exclusively dated back in the UK. Everything between us was surface level and i dated other girls when she was still in the picture.

So why was she acting so weird now?

"You guys know she needs to leave now, right?" Lola said when Ariel walked into the living room, looking sad and repentant. "Curfew starts at eight. Its six fifteen."

"Yea. I know. Lemme call an uber." Ariel whispered hoarsely, deflated. She got out her phone, an iPhone, an old model, typing a few numbers in. Seconds later, a call came in and she pressed the phone to her ear. "Yes, I'd like to request an uber service, please."

She frowned as she listened to what the receiver was saying. "What? What do you mean you don't work at this time? Since when?"

"The cur-... Oh." She listened into the phone for a few more seconds, before hanging up, exhaling a frustrated breath. "Uber isn't working cause of the curfew."

Everyone glanced at each other uncertainly.

"So..." Dave spoke up. "What now?"

Jordan grinned. "Sleepover!"

"Uh... No." Ariel wrinkled her face at him. "Sorry, but no. I have a shoot tomorrow and I need to prepare from home 'cause that's where all my stuff is. I can't sleep here. Someone needs to drive me back to my place." She looked meaningfully at me. "Kam?"

I sighed, tiredly. "Ariel..."

"No." She refused, "you can't back out from this one. I need you, Kam. My career depends on this. You can't tap out."

Agh!

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair.

Asa won't like this.

"I'm coming," I sighed. "Lemme get my car keys."

-

"I can't believe we forgot about the curfew." Asa was telling me.

I groaned massaging my hair. "I'll be back tonight. I promise."

She shook her head adamantly. "She's lodging in the Capital, right?"

I nodded, gripping my hair and trying to think rationally.

"Kam... It's going to take two hours, getting to her place in Chelsea city. You can't make it back in time. You'd get arrested."

I gritted my teeth.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fu-

She touched my hand softly and I looked into her eyes.

Plane crashes.

Thunderstorms.

"I trust you." She whispered. "You'll come back to me. I know."

My heartbeat slowed down, her words, calming me. "Wait for me, Asa. You owe me a date. Tomorrow."

"Really, Kam?" She raised an eyebrow, fighting a smile.

"Really." Kissed her sweet lips.

Her eyes softened as she held on to my hoodie, almost desperately. "I love you, Kam... I trust you." She whispered again.

And i felt strange.

She sounded... Almost like she was trying to reassure herself of her trust for me.

I looked into her eyes again and suddenly realized why she had been acting strange all along. This was affecting her more than she let on.

She was... Scared.

Holding her face in my hands, marvelling at her cold, powerful eyes, I whispered softly. "I love you too, Asa."

Enforcing all the love and trust I felt for her, into those words.

She broke into a grateful smile. "Thanks, Kam."

"Brb." I grinned at her before turning on my heels to exit her room.

I jogged down the stairs, where Ariel was waiting at the bottom, a triumphant smile on her face.

Which sort of puzzled me.

What was she triumphant about?

"Let's go, Kam!" She declared, skipping to the door. "It's gonna be a long night."

She added, almost quietly, more to herself than to me. "I'll make sure if it."

A shiver went down my spine, a strange feeling settling in my stomach.

If I had known from the start that this would be the beginning of the end, I never would have driven her back home.

If I'd known from the start that this was a plan of hers to get me to leave Asa, I never would have stepped out with her.

I would have told Asa 'I love you' one last time...

If I had known... If I had known.

But I didn't know.

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