Undying Love (The Introduction) (2 page)

He goes around the bonfire naming everyone. When he gets to her he says
,
"And the object of your affection is Arianna. But we all call her Ari for short."
 

From that moment on, the name is embedded in my brain and in my heart, forever.
 

Chapter Two
 

Arianna
 

I get a sensation … more like a tingle that begins from the base of my neck to the soles of my feet. I glance up to find the source of this electricity burning straight through me. Over the bonfire, I see someone I've never seen before gazing at me as if I'm the moon or some lost treasure. As we make eye contact, I scowl and turn away.
 

I don’t scowl because I’m mad; it’s more because I’m terrified. I get up and grab Rachel's hand so we can go for the walk she's been pestering me to go on for the last ten minutes.

"I'm ready to go, Rachel.”  
 

 She stumbles. "Ugh! Now you want to go, when Abel walks in with the most prime piece-of-ass I’ve ever seen. He must be new."  
 

I roll my eyes. I love her, but she's a bit too boy crazy for my blood.
 

I cross my arms over my chest and scowl at her.
"It's now or never. And if you don't go
with me,
I'll go by myself."
 

She puts her hands on her hips and buries her feet in the sand. "Fine, I'll go. But promise me you'll help me get the dirt on the new guy."
 

"Fine.”
 

I'm just agreeing because there is no way in hell I'm going near him. He is dangerous to what little sanity I have left. I don’t understand how I can feel so much for someone I've never even met. But I don’t want to find out because I know it won't end well. That’s the only thing I’m sure of.  
 

As we get to the end of the beach, I stop and stare at the ocean. It can be so calm and serene, but at any moment, it can turn into a raging beast. Just like life.
 

She touches my arm lightly. "Hey, are you okay?"  
 

"Yeah, I'm fine."
 

She looks at me with soft, concerned eyes. "I lost you there for a minute."
 

"Sorry about that. What were you saying?" I cross my arms over my chest and I begin to rub them.
 

"I was asking if you saw the guy."
 

"Ugh … yeah I saw him." I say carefully.
 

"Do you think he has a girlfriend?"
 

I shrug. That is the last thing I have on my mind right now.
 

"Let's go back Ari, before he leaves."
 

I sigh and accept my fate because I know she won't let it go.
 

Rachel has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. Probably from birth. Our moms were best friends, so for as long as I can remember Rachel and I have always been together. I’m the yin to her yang.
 

Five years ago she became more than my friend, she became my sister. My parents were killed in a plane crash on a trip from the Cayman Islands. It was their twelfth year wedding anniversary. They left me with Rachel's family and I've never left.
 

As we arrive back to the bonfire, I notice that a few more people have arrived since we left.
 

I hear someone call my name, and I notice it's Colin. He was my next-door neighbor before my parents died. We've been friends since kindergarten.
 

"Hey, Ari." He says as he jogs next to me.
 

"Hey, Colin. How
have you been?
"
He looks nervous and it makes me feel anxious.
 

"I'm good. I was wondering …"
 

I raise my brow expectantly. "What?"
 

He starts looking at the ground as if he found it interesting. “I was wondering if you weren't busy this weekend. If you wanted to catch a movie or something?"
 

I'm gawking at him while he smiles shyly at me. Colin looks like the all-American boy next door. He is popular at school and smart, but he's my friend. I've never looked at him as anything else. I frown at him as I contemplate a reason to say no.
 

"She'd love to,” Rachel hurriedly responds before I can come up with an excuse. I spin to stare at her, but she doesn't even look at me. She continues to stare at Colin and make plans that I could care less about. So I do the only thing I can think of without punching my best friend. I simply walk away.
 

I return by the
bonfire with fumes coming out of my ears as I fight with my
headphones to put them back on. I key up my playlist on my phone and I start to
feel the electricity pulsing through me again. I look up and see the new guy walking towards me with a swagger that would look so stupid on anyone else
. But on him, it's perfect
and for that reason, it pisses me off.
He licks his lips as he whispers, “Hello.”

 "Hi
.
"
 

"What did your headphones do to you?" He asks with a smile in his voice.
 

"Nothing."
 

"Well, are they broken?"
 

"Nope."
 

He quirks a brow at me and says, "So you're mad at someone I presume?"
 

"Maybe."
 

"Can you say more than one word?"
 

I smirk at him. "Nope."
 

He shakes his head. "Okay then."
 

He laughs and sits next to me. He smells clean and crisp. He has on a cologne that's not overpowering. But, it gives you the sensation of burying your face in his chest. I slide away from him before I do something stupid.
 

"So … my name is Skylar—Sky for short. I just moved here from New York."
 

I don't respond. So he continues to talk.

“I love to play soccer. I was a striker on my school's team. I also was on the swim team. I love soccer more than I love swimming, though. I didn't want to move here, but I didn't have a choice. I'm an only child and my favorite color is yellow."
 

He raises a brow at me expectantly and grins.
"This is the part where you start talking to me because I told you
so much
about me
so that I wouldn't be a stranger to you anymore. You know that whole ‘don't talk to strangers’ thing? Now I'm not a stranger, so you can talk to me."
 

I wrinkle my nose at him. "What are you talking about?"
 

"Ah! See, you do know how to say more than one word at a time. I was beginning to believe you were slow or something."
 

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Real funny."  
 

He laughs at me and I see the deepest dimples ever. I smile and stick my hand out to him.
"My name is Arianna. You can call me Ari for short."
 

He shakes my hand. "It's nice to meet you, Ari. So … I'm guessing you’re calm now; you won't be attacking your headphones anymore."
 

I laugh. "No, I'm good now. Thanks."
 

"You're welcome. But what was that all about anyways?"
 

I sigh and say, "It's nothing important. Normal teenage problems."  
 

He stares at me
as if he can see all my deepest secrets,
and it
begins
to make me feel uncomfortable.

"What?"
 

"Nothing. I'm just trying to figure out the color of your eyes."
 

"Oh!"
Feeling shy, I
turn away and stare at the fire.
 

He chuckles to himself. "So how old are you anyways?"
 

"Fifteen. You?
 

"Seventeen."
 

"It must suck to move in the middle of the year."
 

"Yeah, it did. But it's looking up already." He smiles at me and takes a sip of his drink
and fo
r some strange reason
I feel like he's talking about me
.
But,
I shake that thought away because we just met like five minutes ago.
 

I feel someone's arms go around me and I turn around and see that it's
Abel
.
 

"Hey Ari." He kisses my cheek
as he sits next to me
.
 

"Hey Abel."
 

"I see you met Sky here. He moved in across the street from me today."
 

"Yeah, we met." I whimper as
I watch Sky's jaw begin to tick as he looks at Abel's arm around me.
 

"Hey Abel. Ari, I've been looking all over for you." Rachel says as she conveniently sits next to Skylar. I roll my eyes as she "accidentally" brushes him while she sits down.
 

"Yeah, I needed to get away from someone who was being a pushy brat. Maybe you know her?" I raise my brow at her. She sticks her tongue out at me and I shake my head.
 

"Real mature Rachel." I say with a laugh.
 

"Whatever. Anyways, Colin says he'll call you later to finalize the plans with you."
 

Skylar frowns at me, as if he's mad or something. I look away from his eyes because the intensity of them is overwhelming.
So I turn my attention to Rachel.

"Maybe you should go out with him since you agreed so easily on my behalf."
 

She looks straight at Skylar. "I'm not interested in him."
 

I can see him blushing even in the dark. A
nd fo
r reasons I don’t quite understand, this gives me a tight feeling in my chest
.
So,
I look away and start talking to Abel.
 

As the night prolongs, I hear Rachel give her flirty laugh while talking to Skylar. Every time I glance in their direction, I see her touching him. It shouldn't matter, but it irritates me.
 

 Abel leaves me alone to dance with some chick he was making goo-goo eyes at all night, so I stick my headphones on and block it all out. I don't want to care. She's my best friend, and I just met him. I don't understand what's going on, but I don't like it.
 

 Chapter Three
 

Skylar
 

I've been sitting here for almost an hour. And I’ve been trying to find a way to get out of this conversation with Rachel the entire time. I haven't heard a word she’s said. I'm smiling and nodding when I think it's appropriate.
 

You would think she would get the hint.
 

I hear music playing, and in the corner of my eyes, I see someone pulling Ari to dance. And then I hear her laugh. Since hearing her laugh earlier, I wanted to hear that sound again. But, I had hoped I would be the cause of it. It's almost sounds melodic
to my ears
.
 

 I turn in the direction I saw her being pulled in. When I find her, everything stops and I can't look away. She's dancing with a guy in the most sensual way. Her full hips are moving in ways that shouldn't be seen in public. She seems so carefree and light. She moves as if created to dance.
 

He's pulling on her hips to get her closer, and by the looks of him, he's enjoying it a little too much. I get up to go cut in, but feel a hand on my bicep, and turn to see Rachel looking at me a little hurt.
 

She smiles shyly and asks, "Do you want to dance?"
 

I don't want to dance with her, but I don't want to be rude, so I get up and head in the same direction I saw Ari. She doesn't even notice we're there. She's
so
confident and at ease in her own skin, and I find it so sexy. She's not even trying hard; it's just natural for her.
 

As we begin to move, Rachel starts to put her best moves forward. She's trying her best to keep my attention. But, it doesn't work. As soon as the song is over, I step away and thank her for the dance. I don't stick around for her to respond, I head straight for
Arianna
.
 

I cut in between her and the guy she was dancing with, "Can I have this dance?"
 

She looks at me nervously. "Ugh … I don't know?"
 

"Why Ari? You know who I am. You know that I'm not a stranger. We already straightened that out earlier." I smile at her and she begins to giggle.
 

"Okay, one dance won't hurt."
 

As she steps out of the guy’s hold, he scowls at me and I smile. As we begin to move,
Confident
by Justin Bieber
begins
to play. I smile at the appropriate song title. I wouldn't normally be a fan, but under the circumstances, it works.
 

She grins at me. "Okay white boy, show me what you got."
 

"Oh, you don't think I can keep up?"
 

"That has yet to be proven." She begins to move with the tempo of the song, and I do my best to keep up with her, because, as much as I want to dance, I'm captivated by her. I'm finally looking at her without her hoodie or any other distraction. She's breathtakingly beautiful. She has a smooth, honey brown complexion and her skin looks so soft.
She has th
e most voluptuous pink lips I've ever seen. Her nose is short and pert, and her face is round because she still has a bit of baby fat and innocence remaining. With the illumination of the fire, her eyes look green with specks of mahogany.