Pretend (66 page)

             
"I don't know," she said as she casually shrugged her shoulders.

             
"Crystal," I said as I raised my eyebrows.

             
"What? It was comfortable, wasn't it?" She asked as she smiled at me.

             
"Oh
,
just come on," I said as I dragged her arm and started to plan out Jess' apology speech in my head.

             
As we approached the front door we were suddenly stopped by all of the commotion that was going on.

             
"Get your hands off of me! You can't kick me out!" Rachel screamed as I watched a frustrated looking Murphy with his hands around her waist, carrying her out.

             
"Oh how I love to be entertained," Crystal said before I nudged her in the side.

             
"Behave," I replied as I smiled back at her.

             
"Look
,
just calm down man, go home and get some sleep," Murphy said as though he had been saying the same thing for quite a while now.

             
"This is all your fault!" I heard her scream as she looked in my direction.

             
"Oh get a grip will you!" Crystal jumped in as she began laughing at Rachel.

             
"Jumping to her defence
as always?
" Rachel growled through gritted teeth.

             
"
Aww
are you just upset that you ran out of blusher and only got to do one cheek," she said, referring to the red mark that my slap had left on her face.

             
"I can help you with the other side if you like," Crystal said as she started to head towards Rachel with her hand held in the air, ready to slap her other cheek. I quickly grabbed her arm and shook my head before slowly stepping up to where Rachel was stood in Murphy's arms.

             
"Rachel just stop, you're
embarrassing
yourself now," I said as I looked at her with pity.

             
She may be a lot of things but deep down I could tell that this all
stemmed
from the fact that she was hurt, I could see it in the depths of her eyes and part of me just felt sorry for her.

             
"Shut up! Look at you, you think that you've got it all don't you, friends, boyfriend, everything. Well you won't have it forever because you're pathetic and sooner or later he'll get bored of you and start looking for something more entertaining just like Kyle did," she said as she pointed towards Aiden.

             
I quickly jumped in as I saw the frustrated look in Aiden's face as he went to reply. I gave him a look that said that I could handle it and seen him physically begin to calm down.

             
"Maybe he will, maybe he won't but I don't really care Rachel, it's a chance that I would happily take with him. I would much rather that than be like you. You're lonely, bitter and only live to hurt other people and all for what? Just to make yourself feel better. It's time to move on, I get it, Kyle hurt you, he hurt me too but that doesn't mean that you have the right to go around trying to destroy other people's lives. It hurts, I know but it gets better but you have to move forward. Stop looking to ruin lives and in
s
tead look to find happiness in your own," I said gently as I held her gaze.

             
I could see that my words had touched something deep inside of her as her eyes softened just a little. I watched as she struggled to keep back the tears that had already reached the brim of her eyes.

             
"Get off me," she whispered to Murphy in a shaky voice.

He looked to me and I shook my head.
She took a few steps forward before turning around to face her red headed friend that I recognised from Crystal's party.

             
"You
coming?"
She half whispered as she tried to hold back more tears.

             
"No. I can't do this anymore, what you did tonight was wrong Rachel, we're through," she said as she shifted her eyes to the ground, looking more nervous than ever.

             
"Fine," Rachel mumbled before walking away.

             
I couldn't help but want to follow her, I could feel her pain and I felt guilty.

             
"Don't," Crystal said gently as she held my wrist in her hand.

             
"Trust me," I said before giving everyone a little nod that told then to go back inside. They all followed my command obediently before walking through the front door.

             
"Rachel?" I said in a gentle tone as I caught up with her.

             
"Just leave me alone," she said as I watched the tears stream down her cheeks.

             
"It gets better," I whispered.

             
"What?" She asked in a confused tone.

             
"The pain, the heart
break, it gets better," I repeated.

             
"I hope you're right," she said before slipping inside
of
her car.

I watched as she started up her engine and began to drive away. As she turned her head to lo
ok back at me I could have sworn
that she gave
me
a small smile. In that
strange
moment that seemed to make no sense, I knew that she'd be ok. I understood her in a way that didn't seem possible. When my heart got broken I hid and
suppressed
all of my feelings but Rachel lashed out, it was the only way she knew how and my heart broke for her but I knew that she would be ok, eventually.

             
"Hey," a voice said from behind me as a pair of strong hands gently slipped around my waist and a head rested on my shoulder.
I didn't need to turn around to know who it was, I would know him anywhere.

             
"Hey," I whispered as his grip got tighter.

             
"You ok?" He asked as I felt his warm breath brush across the side of my neck.
I nodded my head to say yes as we stood in silence for a little while.

             
"Crystal doesn't look mad anymore," he said.

             
"She's not, we talked and she understands," I said as a small smile filled my face.

             
"So
,
that means that I no longer have to hide how I feel?" He asked as he gently turned me around to face him.

             
"Well
,
I don't think that she'll want a full blown show everyday but yeah," I said as a giggle escaped my lips.

             
"I can work with that," he said as I watched his eyes flicker to my lips before closing the gap between us.

             
I don't k
now why but for some reason it
felt like he was kissing me for the first time and I
was loving
every minute of it. Maybe it was the fact that we didn't have to lie anymore or maybe it was just that everything was finally going go
od again. I didn't know but I kne
w on
e thing, I wanted to bottle up the
moment forever.

             
"Yeah
,
me too," I finally
replied
once his lips had left mine.

             
"What is it?" I asked as he stood in silence and stared at me with a serious look on his face.

             
"I don't remember being this happy in a long time," he said as his face remained serious.

             
"Me either," I said as I continued to stare into his eyes.

             
"
Mmmm
," he said as he let out a little sigh as though he was struggling with something.

             
"What's the matter?" I asked as I looked up at him curiously.

             
"I planned to do this a little smoother but I can't wait," he said as though he was going through an internal battle in his head as he scratched the back of his neck.

             
"Aiden
,
are you ok?" I asked as I looked up at him with a confused expression.

             
"
Mmmm
," he said as he shook his head to say yes.

             
"You sure?"
I asked.

             
"Yeah, just kiss me again," he said in what appeared to be desperation.

             
I loved kissing him so he didn't get an argument from me. As I kissed him, he took over as I felt his tongue fill my mouth. His kiss was so passionate and beautiful as though he was trying to tell me something.

             
"
Sssh
, keep your eyes closed," he whispered as we gently parted.
I shook my head to say yes and kept them closed as requested. My body shuddered as I felt his hands gently make their way up to my cheeks.

             
"April?" He whispered as I felt his lips form into a smile against my cheek as he gently brushed past it, towards my ear. I knew
that he could feel the way that my body was responding to him and he clearly liked it.

             
"Yes?" I said, hardly able to even speak as my body took in the feel of his warmth against me.

             
"I need you," he said as I silently enjoyed his words and the feel of him against me.
I shook my head once again.

             
"I want you more than I have ever wanted anybody in my whole life," he said in a husky voice that was driving my body insane.

             
"I-"

             
"
Ssssh
," he said, cutting me off. He obviously had something that he was trying to say and so I remained silent, standing still with my eyes closed as I listened deeply to the sound of his voice.

             
"I want you so much," he said as he somehow managed to get even closer making my body shudder yet again.

             
"What I mean...What I'm trying to say-"

             
"Yes?" I cut in. I couldn't help it, I needed to hear it, my whole body wanted to hear it.

             
"I love you," he finally whispered as my eyes snapped open to see him staring directly into my eyes. None of us looked away but instead just held each
other’s
gaze.

             
"I love you so much," he repeated as his eyes never left mine.

             
"I love you too," I finally said as I let a small smile slip onto my face.

             
Before I could even take in his or my words he had already pulled me into yet another kiss but I didn't care, I wanted him to kiss me like this for the rest of my life. I couldn't put into words how Aiden made me feel but it was like an out of body experience, it felt so right and so natural. It just confirmed that he was the one that I would want to kiss me for the rest of my life. I needed him too, I wanted him, I wanted to be his and him to be mine and he was.

             
"Ok, ok can we break up the spit war now? There's a party in there and you two need to be moving yourselves and your tongues this way," Anthony said as he broke out into laughter.

             
"Way to ruin a moment Ant," Aiden said as he smirked at his best friend.

             
"Hey, what are friends for?" Anthony said as he forced himself in
between us, slung his arms over our shoulders and led us back towards the front door.

             
"Plus I was starting to miss you dude, I was having withdrawal symptoms," Anthony continued as a smirk filled his face.

             
"Yeah sure you were," Aiden replied as he rolled his eyes and smiled.

             
"Shouldn't you be engaging in your own 'spit war' with Jess?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow at him.

             
"I should
,
yeah but you see, somebody upset her and I'm not getting any
tlc
as a result," he said as he looked over at me.