Pretend

by Charlene Antrobus

  "Oh, well that's really good especially for men like Anthony and Aiden," she said with a smirk on her face.

  "Yes it is, if I'd known that you would be the one to calm Anthony down then I would have introduced you to him years ago," I said as a smirk filled my lips too.

  "Did I just hear my name?" Anthony said as he threw his arm around Jess' shoulder and gave her a peck on the cheek.

  "Maybe you did, nosey," she said as she smiled at him.

  "Hey," Aiden said before slipping his arm around my waist and giving me a smile that made my heart do a crazy back flip.

  "Oh, there you all are," Crystal said as she, Jinnie, Erica and the red head approached us.

  "Guys, this is Marissa, Rachel's friend," she said, pointing to the red head.

  "Ex friend," the red head said nervously.

  "You never know, once she gets through this little thing that she's going through I'm sure you two can work it out," I said, knowing that she felt guilty because of what Rachel did tonight. I wanted to reassure her that there were no hard feelings.

  "Hopefully," she replied as she threw me an understanding smile.

  "Anyway I'm glad that you guys are all here because I wanted to talk to you," Crystal said as she pointed at Aiden, Jess and Anthony with an evil smile on her face.

  "Uh oh," Anthony mumbled.

  "Yes uh oh my dear sweet lying little Anthony," she said as she gave him a death glare.

  "Hey, I didn't lie, I just didn't talk," he said as he tried to avoid Crystal's gaze.

  It was all quite amusing since I could see that she was fighting to hold back her laughter.

  "You see I've already grilled madam here," she said looking towards me.

  "And I expect doughnut brain here to hide stuff from me because he always has," she said as she slapped the back of Aiden's head.

  "Ouch, I need my brains you know, hot looks alone mean nothing in this word," he said as a smirk filled his face. I rolled my eyes at the same time that Crystal did, causing him to only laugh more.

  "So, that leaves my two 'loyal' little friends over here. Now, now, now what to do with you two," she said as she eyed up Anthony and Jess.

  "Hey I'm Aiden's best friend so I was torn plus I'm a guy you can't expect me to make rational decisions. Aiden told me whilst I was already doing something and you know that guys can't multitask, I got confused. Here take her, she's the real villain here," he said as he pushed Jess, gently towards her.

  "Oh, don't think that I'll forget that later," Jess said as she threw Anthony a look that meant that there would be payback.

  "The funny thing is that you all actually believed that you could lie to me and that I wouldn't know," Crystal continued with her little game.

  "Erm...Well...Yes? I'm coming!" Anthony shouted as we all looked at him in confusion.

  "Sorry guys Murphy's calling me, he needs help with that thing from earlier, you coming baby?" He said turning to Jess.

  "Thing? Oh that thing, yeah the important thing that we've got to do," she replied, playing along with his little game making the smirk on Crystal's face increase.

  "Yeah that thing," he replied with a nod.

  "Yeah we better get going to help him with erm...The thing then," Jess replied.

  "Yep, ok guys we'll catch you later," Anthony said as he dragged Jess' arm and walked off towards kitchen whilst smiling.

  "Oh you can run but you can't hide," Crystal shouted after them as the smirk on her face increased.

  "Yeah but we're in Murphy’s mansion, so many places to hide and hiding should be fun with my sexy little girlfriend here," he said as his eyes scanned Jess' body and he placed his hand on her waist.

  "Get off me, remember you tried to sacrifice me to her first," she said as she slapped his hand off of her.

  "That was just a part of the plan baby," he said as she scoffed and walked off into the kitchen with him following closely behind her. We all turned to face each other and then burst out laughing.

  "Oh gosh, I love my friends," I said as we all tried to calm down.

  "Yeah always offering the greatest entertainment," Crystal added as we all shook our heads in agreement.

  "What's all the laughing about?" Cameron said as he walked up to us.

  "Just my crazy friends as usual," Crystal replied as she smiled up at him.

  "Oh right," he replied as he threw us all a smile and did a little head nod at Aiden.

  "So could I be a pain and steal Crystal away for a little while?" He asked.

  "Yeah but remember as much as I like you she's still my little sister and I will kill you if you hurt her," Aiden said with a smile on his face.

  "Of course," Cameron said with a smile on his face. He knew that Aiden was joking of course, well to some extent.

  "You brother have been sneaking around with my best friend so you are not one to give out threats tonight," Crystal said as she raised an eyebrow at him.

  "Hey, you already slapped me in my precious brains, I think it's time to let it go now," he said as he winked at her and laughed before ducking from the slap that she was aiming at his head again.

  "Oh there will be plenty more opportunities believe me," she said as she smiled and then walked off with Cameron.

  "Well I'm going to go and find Murphy and Taise, ok?" Aiden said as he kissed me on the cheek. I tried to ignore the 'awws' and 'owws' from the other three girls that I was stood with.

  "Ok, I'll see you later," I said with a smile.

  "Oh and Crystal's staying at Cam's tonight," he said with a very pleased look on his face.

  "Aren't you staying here tonight?" I asked in a confused tone. Usually after Murphy's big parties he would always stay the night and help clean up in the morning.

  "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 being 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?" She 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 realised how well 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 nod their head in agreement.

  "You ok with that?" Aiden whispered in my ear before I gave him a small smile and a nod 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. Of 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. It 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 didn'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.

  "What's wrong?" I whispered as I looked up at him.

  "Nothing," he replied as he gently shifted his body so that he was lying down beside me.

  "Why did you stop?" I asked in a slightly frustrated tone.

  "I want to get things right," he said calmly.

  "Is that an easy way to say that you don't want me?" I asked as I looked away from him, feeling a little hurt.

  "April, are you crazy?" He asked as he gently tu
rned my face towards him and smiled at me.

  "Believe me when I say that I want you but I just want us to be perfect," he continued.

  "There's no such thing as perfect Aiden."

  "I know but all of my other relationships have always been so physical. I've never had anything like this, ever. It just means more and so I want to wait, I just want that moment to be perfect for you, for us. I don't want to be with anyone else in anyway so I want to get this right," he said in such a genuine voice that all I could do was smile.

  "Ok," I whispered as I smiled at him again.

  "Good, now come here, I'm cold," he said as he wrapped his arm around my waist and drew me closer to him with a smile on his face.

  I threw him a smile as I snuggled into his warm body.

  "I love you April," he said as he turned off the side light and kissed my forehead.

  "I love you too," I said as I smiled happily to myself.

  I drifted into a sleep knowing that when I wake up it'll be in his arms and boy was that a nice thought.

  "Wakey, wakey my little lovebirds!" Anthony shouted as he jumped onto the bed, falling directly on top of me and Aiden.

  "Dude, get up man," Aiden growled next to me.

  "You have got to be kidding me," I grumbled as I shot Anthony a death glare. I am not a morning person, at all!

  "Rise and shine!" He said in the loudest voice that he could muster up.

  "If you don't get off of me, you're going to have to explain to Jess why you can't have kids," I said as I heard her laughing in the doorway.

  "Can't you put him on a leash or something?" Aiden asked.

  "You think this is bad, try waking up next to him," Jess said as she watched Anthony with amusement in her eyes.

  "Hey, the Anthony can't be put on a leash. I'm an independent man, I'll have you know," Anthony said as he began laughing at his own stupid joke.

  "Yeah independently whipped," Aiden grumbled, earning him a slap on the back of the head from Anthony.

  "Truth hurts," Aiden continued as he rubbed the back of his head and tried to go back to sleep.

  "Come on guys, I'm bored man, get up!" Anthony sang at the top of his voice.

  "Go play with Jess!" I shouted as I tried to pull the duvet back over my head.