Pretend (68 page)

             
"Nope," he said, popping the p as the smile on his face increased.

             
"Oh," I said as a smile filled my face at this new information.

             
"See you later beautiful, later ladies," he said as he waved a hand at Jinnie, Erica and Marissa.

             
"Oh
my gosh
, you guys are so cute," Marissa said with an excited look on her face.

             
"So true," both Jinnie and Erica said. I was going to tell them to all stop bei
ng such girls until I realised
that they hadn't argued about saying the same thing for once so I kept quiet and smiled politely.

             
"So
,
are you sexy ladies ready to party?" Erica asked as we all nodded our heads and ran towards the living room, like a bunch of
kindergarten
kids.

             
Rachel may have set out to ruin my night but it had somehow managed to become one of the best nights of my life. Not only was Crystal ok about me and Aiden but she was actually happy too.

* * *

             
As the hours went by we spent the night laughing and dancing away to the music. I actually hadn't had this much fun in what felt like forever. It was almost as if all
of
the drama at the start of the night hadn't even happened.

             
It was two in the morning and practically everyone had gone except for our little group of course. There was me, Aiden, Jess, Anthony, Crystal, Cameron, Taise, Murphy, Erica, Jinnie and surprisingly Marissa. It turns out that she is actually nothing like Rachel and happens to be a great person. Most of the night
,
I was just highly entertained by
Murphy's failed attempts to hit on her.

             
"So Mari what school do you go to?" Murphy asked with a smirk on his face.

             
"It's Marissa and I go to Clement High," she responded as she got more comfortable in the chair in
between me and Jinnie.

             
"Sorry Marissa," he replied, dragging out
the 's'
in her name.

             
"Can't say that I've heard of it," he continued.

             
"Yeah and I bet she's happy, you'd probably stalk her," Crystal said sarcastically, making us all laugh.

             
"Yeah whatever, she'd love it," he replied confidently.

             
"No actually
,
she wouldn't," Marissa replied making us all laugh again.

             
"Oh Murphy gets turned down by a lady, guess you been hanging around Taise too much," Anthony said as him and Aiden erupted into a fit of laughter.

             
"Hey, why you got to go bringing me into your drama?" Taise said as he looked at Anthony with an annoyed expression.

             
"Sorry dude but you're an easy target," Anthony said as him and Aiden shook heads to agree and began laughing again.

             
The great thing about when you have a good friend is that when you
give them a certain 'look',
they just understand what it means, luckily for me Jess is one of them friends
,
so when I gave her the 'look' she responded right on cue.

             
"
Awww
don't be so mean, we think
that
you
're great Taise, don't we April?" S
he said as she went and sat on the left side of Taise making the smile on his face increase as Anthony's did the opposite.

             
"Yeah and so strong and manly," I said, following Jess' girly tone of voice as I sat on the other side of him and began stroking his arm in the same manner that Jess was stroking the other one.

I caught an amused
glimpse
from Crystal that almost had me in fits of laughter but quickly brushed it off in a bid to keep up our little show.

             
"I mean
,
if I wasn't in a relationship Taise I would be happy to-"

             
"To what!"
Anthony cut in as Jess began to stroke Taise's face much to his delight.

             
"I think that she was going to say that she would be happy to-"

             
"Ok, ok Taise get up," Aiden interrupted me, mid sentence.

             
"No thanks I'm quite comfortable here," he said as he winked at Aiden and Anthony before the rest of the guys burst into laughter.

             
"You morons are so whipped," Crystal said as she continued to laugh louder.

             
"I am not whipped!" Anthony said as he spun around to face Crystal's laughing face.

             
"Oh, you so are!" Jinnie and Erica said as they both continued laughing as
well.

             
"Bro you are whipped," Aiden said as he tried to hold back his laughter.

             
"What! Dude
,
you do realise that she was talking about the two of us, right?!" Anthony said as he pointed between himself and Aiden.

             
"Yup but I'm not in denial, I just want this joker away from my girl," he said as he threw me a smile that made my whole body tingle.
It was so nice to be out in the open.

             
"Yeah well I'm not and it's not funny," he said with a more serious expression.

             
"You tell them baby," Jess said in a teasing tone as she got up and gently ran her finger down Anthony's back.

             
It was clear to see that it was having an effect on him as he struggled to keep his serious expression.

             
"Come on Taise," Jess said as she held out her hand to him.

             
"Come where?" Anthony said as he spun around to face them.

             
"Oh, I haven't had a chance to look around all of the rooms in Murphy's place yet and since Taise comes here
so
often I was hoping that he could, you know, take me on a tour," she said as she attempted to keep the most serious expression on her face.

             
"What? Hell no! Sit down now," he said as he pushed Taise back down in the chair.

             
"What's wrong, it's just a tour," Jess said innocently.

             
"Yeah well I want to take you on a tour," he mumbled as he shot a few daggers at Taise.

             
"Well until you apologise to Taise, he's taking me on one," she said as she turned to us to laugh silently.

             
"What? I
ain't
apologising!"

             
"Ok then, come on Taise," she said.

             
"No, wait! Ok fine, fine!" He said in a frustrated tone.

             
"I'm sorry," he said quickly and quietly.

             
"Pardon?"
Taise said with a pleased look on his face.

             
"Don't push it dude," he said as he stared straight into Taise's eyes.

             
"Ant?"
Jess said as she blinked her eyes together a few times.

             
"Fine!
I'm sorry man now can we go on the damn tour!" He said as the whole room erupted into a fit of laughter again.

             
"Dude you are so whipped!" Murphy said as he slapped his knees a few times and continued laughing.

             
"Shut up man!" Anthony said as he tried to stop the little smile that was forcing itself onto his face.

             
"Can we go on this tour now please, I've got lots to show you," he said as he turned to face Jess with his usual playful expression back on his face.

             
"Yes," she said as she rolled her eyes and dragged him towards the door.

             
"Whipped or not, I still got game," he said as he winked at us and flicked the collar of his black shirt up in the air.

             
"Oh shut up," Jess said as she slapped him round the head.

             
"Ouch baby, what was that for?" He said as he rubbed his head.

             
"For being a whipped idiot," she said as she continued to drag him out of the room.

             
"Excuse me?" We heard him say from outside of the room.

             
"Yeah, who's got game now?" Jess replied as we all burst out laughing again.

             
How have
I not realise
d
how we
ll suited those two are all of these years
?

             
"You guys might as well crash here
tonight, there's plenty of room
," Murphy said to us all.

             
Everyone seemed to no
d their head in agreement.

             
"You ok with that?" Aiden whispered in my ear before I
gave him a small smile and a no
d of my head.

* * *

             
It wasn't long before Murphy showed us all to our rooms. He was sure to state that we
needed to keep the rooms clean. O
f course that speech was only aimed at the couples.

             
"So you've had quite an eventful night haven't you?" Aiden asked as he jumped into the bed next to me, causing my side to lift slightly.

             
"You could say that again," I said as I snuggled up to his chest and took in his smell.

             
We lay in silence for a while. I
t wasn't uncomfortable but rather nice actually.

             
"April?" Aiden finally said.

             
"Yeah?"

             
"You know that I meant what I said earlier, don't you?" He asked as he stroked my hair.

             
"What? About being whipped, yeah," I said as I burst out laughing.

             
I should have known better than to wind up Aiden when I was alone in his arms. As he began to tickle me I squirmed around, laughing loudly as I tried to escape his grasp. Before I knew it he was on top of me with his legs either side of my hips and looking down at me with a little grin on his face.

             
"Is it too late to say sorry?" I asked as he held down my wrists on the bed and chuckled to
himself
.

             
"
Erm
...Yep," he said with an amused look on his face.

             
"So maybe I got it wrong, maybe you're not whipped," I said with a smirk on my face.

             
"Oh no
,
I definitely am I just need to train you not to say
it outside of these four walls."

             
"Train me? Is that right?" I said as I began to laugh.

             
"Yeah
,
train you
."

             
"So
,
when does the training begin?" I asked with a smug look on my face.

             
"Now," he replied.

             
"What does it entail?" I asked innocently.

             
"It's much easier if I show you," he said before leaning down and kissing me gently.

             
"Wow this training doesn't seem too hard," I said playfully as his lips parted from mine.

             
"It's not supposed to be, it's supposed to act as a distraction," he said as he smiled at me.

             
"From?"

             
"Everything and anything," he replied as he kissed me yet again, gently letting go of my wrists so that I could wrap them around his strong neck.

             
This time as he went to pull away I stopped him and instead deepened the kiss as I pulled him closer towards me. I d
idn't want him to stop.
I wanted to feel him all the time, it felt so natural to me. The more he kissed me, the more I felt my breathing begin to speed up and a feeling of excitement rushed through my entire body. I felt completely lost in the moment as I allowed him to kiss me more, it was only as he gently parted from me that I came back to reality.