I answer him by pulling him toward me and kissing him with all I’ve got.
Right when things are starting to get heated, the door bursts open. “Hey, guys, we’re going to—Oh God! Get a room, Jesus!” Noah throws his hands over his eyes, acting as if the sight of us together has physically burned his corneas.
Aiden gives a very agitated sigh and grudgingly rolls off of me. “We did, Noah.”
Since we hadn’t yelled at Noah to leave, he peeks through his fingers and calms down when he realizes that I’m fully clothed.
“You should start knocking before barging into rooms,” I tell him, not really mad, more just perturbed my time with Aiden was cut short.
“You guys should start locking doors when you’re planning on getting it on.”
“We weren’t—”
“Doesn’t matter! Don’t want to know the details. Like, ever,” Noah interrupts me. “Just came to tell you that the twins have passed out in bed and the adults have decided to play a drinking game, if you want to join.”
“They’re asleep already?” Aiden asks. “They’re usually too excited to go to bed since they can’t wait for morning to open presents.”
“Yeah, I think they’re just really tired, there’s a lot going on here. We promised them we’d set the milk out for Santa before bed, though. Are you guys in for some Christmas Eve drinking fun?”
Aiden’s not really a big drinker. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drink alcohol. He responds by pulling on his shirt and telling Noah we’ll meet him in the family room.
“Are you sure? I can always just tell everyone you guys were too busy fuc—”
I cut him off by lobbing a pillow at his head à la Annalisa, and he laughs, shutting the door as he leaves and makes his way back to the group.
The drinking game we settled on was king’s cup. Basically, we sit in a circle with our drinks and a deck of cards in the middle, and take turns flipping over the top card. Every card is assigned a meaning, the end goal being that someone has to drink.
For example, two means you, so if I flip over a two, I get to choose someone to drink. Three means me, so whoever pulls a three has to drink. Seven means heaven, so the last person in the circle to raise their hands in the air has to drink, and so on until we finish the deck, shuffle, and repeat.
Aiden plays with us, and despite him not being much of a drinker, the alcohol is barely affecting him as far as I can tell. But four full decks and an endless number of empty beer bottles later, the rest of us are all pretty much smashed, Mason, Chase, Julian, and Charlotte the worst of us. It’s a good thing Aiden got the twins’ presents sorted out, along with the stockings, before we started, or else it’d have been a very disappointing Christmas for Jackson and Jason.
Mason and Chase are drunk because instead of taking regular sized drinks when it’s their turn, they basically take two giant gulps or chug half their beer. Julian because he was a really good Question Master the first game and kept screwing everyone over, (if you pull a Queen you become Question Master until someone else pulls a Queen, and if anyone answers any questions you ask during that period, they have to drink), so for the rest of the night, everyone has been targeting him as retribution. And Charlotte’s plastered because she’s a lightweight.
“Whose turn was it again?” Noah slurs as I sit back down on the floor with a couple of beers for whoever’s empty.
No one answers, not to be rude, but because we all remember that he’s the current Question Master.
Instead, Mason flips over the top card. It’s an eight, which means he gets to make up a rule that lasts throughout the entire deck, and every time you break it, you need to drink.
“If you say ‘no swearing’ again, I will dump my entire beer on your head,” Annalisa threatens.
The no swearing rule in the second game is pretty much the reason most of us are a bit more than tipsy.
“Now, now, Anna. You can’t coerce the rule maker.” Mason smiles drunkenly. “Okay, if you pull a card with a suit of hearts, you need to kiss the closest person of the opposite sex on your … left!”
Mason is the closest person of the opposite sex on my left. No matter how hard I tried, fate put me right beside him.
“I don’t want Noah planting his lips on my girl!” Julian announces, throwing a heavy arm around Annalisa.
“Why? Scared she’ll realize she’s madly in love with me and dump you?” Noah retorts.
“More like I don’t want her catching whatever you’ve got,” Julian counters.
“Relax, it doesn’t have to be on the lips,” Mason clarifies, and everyone settles down.
We continue playing for a couple of rounds and then Chase pulls a six of hearts. I know the exact moment he realizes what that means, because his entire face lights up bright red; the closest girl to his left is Charlotte.
“Ooo, Chase and Char! You know what that means!” Mason smiles, excited that he gets to witness his rule in action.
Chase looks completely stunned, and Charlotte giggles then raises her bottle.
“Cheers!” she says to me and Annalisa, because six means chicks.
We take a drink of our beers, and when Charlotte’s done, she puts her bottle down, puts her hands on Chase’s face, and kisses him right on the lips. I think she stunned everyone, but she probably broke Chase. I wonder if she stopped his heart completely. From the angle I’m sitting at, I can’t even tell if he’s kissing her back or not. She pulls away quickly and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Okay, it’s your turn to go, Aiden,” she says like she didn’t just kiss her best friend who’s secretly in love with her.
Chase, however, is in a complete daze, a slight smile on his face as he looks off blankly in the distance.
“You know you didn’t have to kiss him on the lips, right, Char?” Noah clarifies, his eyes shifting back and forth between her and a still shell-shocked Chase. She blinks at him, lids heavy.
“Oh.” She shrugs and giggles at nothing in particular.
Okay, maybe she should stop drinking. I’m the one sharing a room and bathroom with her.
Aiden, Noah, Annalisa, and Julian pull cards as the game continues. On my turn, I pull a five of hearts.
Five means guys, so the Boys raise their bottles in a salute and take a drink.
“Suit of hearts means I get a kiss, Amelia,” Mason gloats, almost smugly. “I want one like Char gave Chase.”
Mason smiles, and I ignore the feeling of guilt that appears every time I look at him. Clearly a drunk Mason is not a more charming Mason.
Before I can even react, Aiden abruptly stands up from his spot across from me and purposely walks around and sits down between me and Mason. He throws a quick glare at Mason when he starts to object, shutting him up immediately, then turns to look at me.
“Guess I’m the closest guy on your left,” he states.
Putting his hand possessively but gently on the back of my head, he tangles it in my hair and pulls me to him, kissing me deeply. My first thought is Damn that was sexy, but then the butterflies realize who’s kissing me and decide to throw a party in my stomach.
I pull away from him, ignoring all the whistling and cheers from our drunk friends, and look at him quizzically. What was that all about? Aiden smiles at me, looking mighty proud of himself, and gives Mason a quick, pointed look.
Realization slams into me like an eighteen-wheeler. He just used me to make some kind of point in his macho-man standoff against Mason.
Mason’s looking down at his bottle and not paying attention to the rest of the game. Sometimes, like at times like these, I think he likes me as more than a friend, and other times, like when we just joke around or when he flirts with other girls in front of me, I think he knows we’re platonic. So it would be incredibly awkward if I just confronted him off of a suspicion, and he looks at me all, WTF, k-bear, you know we’re just best friends.
And then there’s Aiden. I don’t really know how I feel
about him pulling this possessive kind of stuff. I’m not going to lie, it’s kind of hot, but then again, he didn’t need to use me to get to Mason, if that was even his intention. I could’ve kissed him on the cheek, like Noah just did with Annalisa.
Is this just “drunk” Aiden being superjealous? He doesn’t look drunk, though. After one more full deck of cards, we decide to call it a night.
I think Chase carried Charlotte up the stairs and helped her get in bed. Aiden helped Annalisa get Julian to their room, and everyone else kind of stumbled off to bed as well.
I decide to clean up before going to bed—I don’t want the twins to discover our giant party among all their presents. I’m not really tired anyway, and it’s not recommended to mix sleeping pills with alcohol, so I figure by the time I’m done cleaning up, plus the alcohol, I’ll be tired enough to fall asleep without the pills.
After clearing away all the bottles from the family room, and putting away all the snacks, I tackle the kitchen. Currently, I’m trying to get Noah’s shirt down from the top of the fridge. I have no idea how or why it ended up there, but at some point during the night Noah pulled it off, and then it ended up on top of the fridge.
I’m not the tallest person around and I don’t think I’m too short, but even on my tippy-toes and stretching as far as I can, I still can’t reach his stupid shirt. I’m past the point of going to grab a chair: this is personal now. I glance at the counter. Maybe I can jump onto it and launch off to grab the shirt? Or maybe open a cupboard door and monkey climb the shelves?
“Need some help?”
I twirl around and see Mason standing behind me, clearly deciding now is the time to practice sneaking up on people like a freaking ninja.
He looks at my face and laughs at my reaction, eyes bright. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
I brush my hair off my face, avoiding looking right at him. I still can’t face him, not completely. “It’s fine. I thought everyone went off to bed.”
“I was, but I heard you makin’ so much noise I had to see what was going on. Sounded like you were skippin’ rope or havin’ a dance party with no music.”
I look back at the top of the fridge, Noah’s shirt at the very back, taunting me. Mason follows my gaze, a smile breaking out when he realizes the current situation.
“You know, you could’ve just gotten a chair—”
“I don’t need a chair! I can do it myself.” I narrow my eyes at the stupid white shirt, mocking me for my shortness.
“Wow. Good to know drunk k-bear is competitive.”
With squared shoulders, I focus my full attention on the shirt. When I jump for it again, big hands land on my waist, lifting me up higher so I can reach the back of the fridge. I snatch the shirt and Mason lowers me back to the floor.
“Yes! Stupid shirt. I win!” I feel like whipping it onto the floor like it’s a football and I just scored a touchdown.
“Technically, I win, because without me you wouldn’t’ve gotten the shirt,” Mason slurs with a smile, still buzzed from the game.
“Whatever. I’ve still got the shirt in my hand.” I turn around to literally rub my prize in his face.
He laughs, and it’s then I realize his hands are still on my waist as they tighten, pulling me closer to him, unconsciously, I think. There’s a sudden palpable shift in the room. It was light, airy, and fun, but now it’s serious, almost suffocating me with the intensity. My eyes widen as I end up chest to chest with Mason, who’s looking down at me and smiling like I’m the most interesting girl in the world.
I clear my throat and try taking a step back. “Um, might wanna let go now, Mason.”
He looks at me as if in a daze. “What?”
“She said let go,” a harsh voice says from behind us, cutting through the room with undeniable authority.
At the sound of Aiden’s deep voice, Mason shakes his head and drops his hands like I’ve physically burned him.
“Oh, umm, sorry. Dazed off there for a bit.” He laughs forcibly, almost awkwardly.
“It’s okay.” I smile at him reassuringly as Aiden crosses the room in a few big strides.
Once he reaches me, he grabs my hand, possessively intertwining his fingers with mine, his eyes shooting daggers at Mason.
“We’ll all help finish cleaning up tomorrow morning. Let’s get some sleep.”
Before I can even reply, he tugs me toward his room, throwing a “good night” to Mason over his shoulder, as if an afterthought.
He leads me into his room and closes the door behind me, the muscles in his back tense.
“What was that about?” I ask him.
He turns to look at me, his face blank, but his still tense back giving him away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The whole possessive caveman act back there? And during king’s cup?”
Aiden never acts all jealous and possessive like this. Sometimes I know he is, but it’s usually cute and endearing, not all must horde the shiny object so no one else can see it possessive.
He rolls his eyes. “I am not a caveman.”
“You know what I mean. What’s going on with you?” I realize I’m still clutching Noah’s shirt, and toss it haphazardly somewhere on the floor, the previous significance of it having completely vanished.
“Nothing’s going on with me.” He’s careful to keep his face neutral, his eyes devoid of any discernable emotion. He’s good at doing that, but he usually doesn’t guard his emotions with me. I don’t like the distant way this makes me feel.
I sit cross-legged on his bed, and he leans against the door, arms tight across his chest, almost in defense.
“You’ve been acting like this around Mason a lot,” I state matter-of-factly.
He studies me, opens his mouth, but then hesitates.
“Just tell me.” I decide for him.
“Mason’s basically in love with you, Thea.”
What? Of everything he could’ve said, I didn’t expect that.
“What are you talking about?”
He uncrosses his arms and strides across the room to sit facing me on the bed.
“It’s incredibly obvious to everyone except you,” he says gently.
I blink at him. “But literally two days ago, he brought Erin back to his room and did God knows what with her.”
“Because he knows you’re with me. He can’t help how he feels, though.”
I’ve had suspicions, but with Aiden confirming it now, I don’t know how to feel. Should I say something to Mason? That’s just awkward. Should I ignore it and act like I always have with him? I don’t want things to change with us; he’s, like, my best friend. And how can I possibly say something to him when I still can’t look him straight in the eye without guilt gnawing at my stomach?
“Is that why you get all jealous around him?”
“I don’t get jealous around him.” He defends himself quickly.
I feel a corner of my lip curve up in a smile. “You totally do.”
He runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “I just … I’ve never felt like this before. It’s weird seeing my best friend trying to put moves on my girl.”
Oh my God. Is Aiden Parker insecure? I didn’t think that was an emotion he even felt. And over me? Of all things? My pulse racing, I crawl into his lap, and his arms automatically go around my waist as he gazes down at me.
“It’s you for me, Aiden.”
He lowers his head and kisses me like he’s suffocating and I’m the air he needs to survive, his arms tightening, pulling me closer to him until I don’t know where he starts and I end. We end up tangled in his sheets, his kisses on my neck doing things to my nerve ends I have only dreamed about.
When he comes to kiss my lips again, I can’t help what happens next: I yawn right in his face. My eyes widen in embarrassment, the mood totally killed. But instead of rolling off of me in disgust, Aiden laughs.
“Guess we should get some sleep,” he says, moving so fluidly t
hat he ends up under me, with his hard chest as my pillow.
“Aren’t you gonna kick me out so you can get some sleep?” I tease.
He kisses my forehead so sweetly that my heart nearly explodes. “No, I’m comfortable just like this.”
Whether it’s the alcohol, the late hour, the new revelation, or Aiden’s reassuring presence, I fall into a peaceful sleep as soon as he wraps a strong arm around my waist and pulls me close.
14
I wake up the next morning expecting to find Aiden’s heavy but comforting arm wrapped around my waist, but the bed is empty. Trying to ignore the sense of longing as I sit up, I rub the sleep from my eyes. It’s only six o’clock, and Aiden isn’t in the room at all. I wonder if the twins are up and ready to open their presents.
When I slide out of bed, the early morning chill hits me all at once, and I slip into a sweater Aiden left on the edge of his bed. Snuggling into it, I resist the urge to smell it like a total psychopath, but it totally has the alluring smell that’s distinctly Aiden.
When I get out of his en suite bathroom, he walks into the room at the same time, a tray in one hand and a present in the other. “Hey, Merry Christmas.”
I sit cross-legged on his bed as he closes the door and smile at him, eyeing the items in his hands.
“Merry Christmas,” I reply. “Did Santa come last night?”
He sits cross-legged on the bed in front of me and sets the tray between us. “Yes. The milk has been drunk and the cookies have been eaten. Even the carrots Jason and Jackson left out for the reindeer are gone. All the stockings are filled with chocolates, face masks, nail polish, and other sparkly stuff for the girls, lots of food for the guys. I think Noah got coal.”
I bite back a laugh. “How about your brothers? What did Santa leave them?”
“Jason and Jackson got a video game each, and I’m kind of annoyed at Santa for indulging their video game addiction.”
My heart warms at his humor. This is how Aiden should always be. Relaxed; happy. I gesture at the tray sitting between us. “What do you have there?”
Stay With Me (A Wattpad Novel) Page 14