A Beautiful Fate (14 page)

Ari ran his hand slowly back up the inside of my arm and across my shoulder. He lingered for a moment on my collarbone before making his way up my neck and across my jaw line then he brushed his fingers across my lips. The touch was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I felt a happy pull in my tummy urging him to do more.

“You have never minded when I touch you… when I hold you.”

“No.” I closed my eyes.

“Good, because your skin is soft and I can’t seem to keep my hands off it.”

Holy hell
.

I peeked up through my lashes at Ari and he flashed me a beautiful smile.

“I can tell that the game is keeping you awake. The whole point of my being here is to get you back to sleep.”

His voice was clearer, less husky when he spoke, and he moved his fingers off my face and began to play with my hair.

“So you like the Cubs. Well, I am Sox fan so does that makes us enemies?”

“White or Red?”

“White.”

I scrunched my nose up at him in disapproval but shook my head no and at some point in the night I fell asleep on Ari’s lap answering more silly, pointless questions like that. My dreams were peaceful and happy for once.

My eyes fluttered open for a moment around dawn. My room was still dark and I could hear quiet breathing in my ear. Ari had fallen asleep. His head was on my pillow and his arm was wrapped tight across my body. My heavy eyelids closed again, taking me back to unconsciousness and happy thoughts before I was able to process how wonderful it felt to be in these arms.

When I awoke again, my room was bathed in light. I felt a feather light touch caress my arm.

“Morning.”

I blinked at Ari and smiled. “Morning.” My smile faded to a frown.

“What’s the matter?” He moved a stay hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear.

“Aren’t you worried someone will see you walk out of my dorm room?” I asked still mad at him for ignoring me last night at the party.

“No, I am not. You should be worried though.” He smiled playfully.

I jumped up, horrified of what people might think of Ari slipping out of my room wearing his pajamas.

Ari laughed. “Calm down. It’s ten thirty on Friday. No one on this floor sleeps in this late besides me. They’ve all gone home or down to the beach.”

Ari stood up. He had on a pair of blue and white striped pajama pants that hung artfully off his hips and a white tee-shirt. He lifted his hands above his head in a stretch causing his shirt to rise. I stole a glance at his stomach, at his muscles and the little trial of hair that disappeared under his waistband. I felt my face flush with red-hot heat. Ari chuckled and dropped his hands back to his sides.

There was a knock from my bathroom door. “Ava, are you awake?” I heard Emily say on the other side.

My chin dropped and I looked quickly from Ari to the door and then back again. Ari waited calmly for me to decide on what I should do.

“Err, just a minute, Em!”

I grabbed onto Ari’s arm and pulled him across the room, I opened my door that lead to the commons and pushed him out. He smiled brightly at me. “Have a nice day, Ava. I will see you later.”

“K,” I blushed then paused for a moment not wanting to say goodbye. Emily knocked again and I jumped and shut the door fast and ran over to the bathroom door to greet Em.

“What were you doing?!”

“Uh, nothing…um, what’s up?”

Emily took a deep breath and smiled. “Pilates? This afternoon, you in?”

“Absolutely.”

“Awesome, I am so bored today.” She said as she plopped down in my chair.

Emily sat around my room for a bit and complained that the boy she had met a few weeks ago had stopped calling her. I gave her the “grass is always greener, it’s always darkest before the dawn” speech and then promised to meet her at the Pilates studio later on that day. She peeled herself up out of my chair and went back to her room to write an essay for history. I let out a sigh of relief once the door finally closed.

I went to the gym and happily shoved my ear buds in. I listened to
Discovery
while I did a quick five miles, thinking of Ari the whole time while running with a foolish grin stretched across my face. As I rounded my last mile, I spotted Emily walking through the gym door. She was chatting up Ari and Rory. My stomach immediately filled with butterflies at the sight of Ari. Emily smiled and waved at me and I smiled back and returned her wave. Rory waved to me as well and I saw a smile spread across Ari’s face and then a very tiny wink. He mouthed “hi” right before I turned the corner.

Emily met me in the Pilates studio shortly after my run. Emily’s shorter than I by a couple of inches was and has a great California tan. Her hair is always full of bouncy curls and she nearly always has a smile on her face and something funny to say. She talked all through Pilates, making the instructor mad, and finally quieted down once she was warned for the fiftieth time to be quiet or else. After Pilates, Emily talked me in to having lunch with her at
Ambrosia
, the campus café. I listened to her prattle on about the boys in her life, or lack thereof, and smiled at her. She asked me how things were going between Rory and me and I assured her, once again that there was nothing but friendship in our future. Or so I had hoped. I’m not sure how convinced I had him the other day when I said I wasn’t interested. At times, I still got the sense that he might want more. I did not volunteer any information to Emily about Ari and me. As far as Em was concerned, Ari and I hardly knew each other.

Emily and I washed up after lunch then we hit the library for some much needed study time. I sat down at a table next to her, Viola, Sam, Sophie and Rory. I tried to focus on history but my thoughts kept floating back to Ari and his strong, warm arms, his intoxicating scent and the way his heart beat like a lullaby.

Giving up on studying altogether, I pulled up my email program, and started reading a note Mia had sent that morning. In the email, she told me all of the details about her last date with Jack and that they would be going out again that night. She said she couldn’t wait. She went through all the specifics about what she was going to wear and how they were going to the Navy Pier and that, even though Navy Pier sounded kind of like a cliché, she was really excited about going. I wished her luck and hoped that she had fun and told her over and over again how much I missed her.

I closed my laptop and looked up at the table to see that Ari had joined the group. He and Rory were laughing about something. I had noticed that, every once in a while, when no one was watching, they actually seemed to like each other. Ari winked at me again and my cheeks turned pink. Rory stood up and announced that he was heading home and all the girls told him goodbye.

“Hey, Ari, when are you leaving? Maybe I can just catch a ride with you,” Rory said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. Ari shot a quick glance at me and then turned to Rory.

“Uh,” he started, scratching the stubble on his face, “probably not until tomorrow.”

Rory shrugged his shoulders and then looked over at me.

“Am I going to see you this weekend, Ava?” His tone was almost accusatory.

I felt caught off guard and I prayed that my cheeks were not still bright red with embarrassment. “I don’t know, Roar, probably not.”

Rory looked back and forth between Ari and me and his face took on an angry edge.

“I see,” he said. “Well, see you tomorrow, I guess, Ari. Or maybe not.” He looked back at me, and then he walked away.

Emily, who always said the first thing that came to her mind, gawked at Rory as he left.

“What was that all about?”

Ari spoke up, giving me a reprieve. “Whoever knows with him?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Emily said with a laugh.

I gave Ari a quick smile and then attempted to get back to my history assignment.

We all walked back to the dorm and Viola commented to Ari how she had not seen him stay at the dorms on a Friday in a long time. He rattled off an excuse that I missed because my phone started ringing the Cubs theme song, “Go Cubs Go,” and I knew Mia was calling. I was happy that she was calling at a time when I could actually take a call. I hung back from the rest of the group as they continued to walk up the path and I answered my phone. Mia and I talked about the same stuff we had already gone over in our emails, but really talking was much nicer.

“Any new developments with Ari?”

“Yeah, I think so. Actually, things are much better. He introduced me to his family last week.”

“Wow! That’s great. You sound happy, Ava. It suits you.”

I smiled into the phone. “I am happy.”

“Good, you deserve to be happy. You are too hard on yourself sometimes, Ava.”

“Don’t get all philosophical on me now, Mia. Don’t you have a date to get ready for?”

“Oops, you’re right! I have to go now--but I miss you and I love you and will talk to you really soon.”

“I love you, too, Mia.”

Chapter 9

I stayed up on Friday and did all of my laundry and other boring chores, and then I shut myself away in my room and prepared for another long, lonely weekend. Ari came and knocked at my door a little after nine. He took a seat in my chair and toyed with a Ghostbusters action figure I had sitting on the shelf. We hadn’t spoken together about my dad’s letter and I was hoping he did not bring it up. We really hadn’t spoken since the night before when he had said he couldn’t keep his hands off me. That was a conversation I was willing to entertain, but there was no way I could bear to bring it up.

“So why didn’t you go home tonight?” I asked.

“Oh, Lauren’s having some friends stay the night. I’m just keeping out of their way.”

I looked at him as if he were nuts. “Your house is huge! There must be a corner in it somewhere for you to be out of the way.”

“Yeah, true,” he said and ran a hand through his dark hair.

I wish I could do that.

“Or you could have just stayed with Rory,” I suggested.

It was his turn to look at me as if I were nuts. “What and play video games until three in the morning? No thanks. Besides, it’s not so bad here. Do you ever go anywhere on the weekends?” he asked, keeping up with our small talk.

“Nope,” I said plopping down on the bed, “this is my only home. Margaux and I aren’t exactly
les amis
at the moment… or ever for that matter.”

“Sorry,” he said biting down on his bottom lip. “I always thought she was sort of nice, though we haven’t seen much of her since her husband died.”

I sucked in a deep breath, “Perry.”

“Yeah, that’s right, Perry. But she never once mentioned you, or your mom for that matter.”

“Yeah,” I said with a yawn, “that sounds about right.”

Ari stood up and hesitated for a moment.

“Ok, well, you’re tired. I guess I’ll see you later. Good night, Ava.”

Hopefully later as in a few hours later.

“Night,” I said and gave him a small smile before he closed the door behind him.

Feeling exhausted from the night before, I fell asleep with ease, but before long the nightly chaos set in. I found myself in a dream that was so lifelike I could smell the air. I was in Chicago and the weather was crisp and windy. I heard Mia’s voice, so I walked until I could make out her silhouette; she was not alone. She was laughing and hanging on the arm of a tall blonde boy. I smiled, happy to see her so happy.

Mia was leaning on the rail overlooking Lake Michigan near Navy Pier. It was late and very cold outside and the Pier was essentially deserted. I was surprised to see Mia so close to the water – neither one of us had ever liked water, yet here she was, putting on a brave front while she laughed at one of Jack’s jokes. I watched as they talked and saw her lean forward over the railing, looking into her reflection on the black, icy water. I watched as the rail, in slow motion, came loose, and I watched as my best friend Mia fell into the deep, cold water. She bobbed quickly to the surface and started to panic, fighting for her life. Jack stood motionless on the pier, oblivious to my screaming, which of course he couldn’t hear. I yelled at him to do something. My screams got louder as Mia struggled to keep her head above the water. I screamed and screamed until my throat was sore. I ran to the water’s edge, but I was unable to help her. I saw her go under one last time; she didn’t come back up. I woke up running from my dorm room.

Just as I got to my door, it swung open and I crashed head first into Ari’s bare chest. I was screaming and couldn’t breathe. Ari grabbed my hands, pinning them to my sides.

“Ava, talk to me! Stop, Ava. Look at me. Look at my face,” he demanded.

“She’s dead,” I said as the hot tears ran. Ari let go of my hands and pulled me into his arms. “She’s dead, she’s dead,” I said over and over again. I held onto Ari as tightly as possible, unable to stop shaking.

He held me to him as I cried and then, without a word, took me to his room and sat me down on the bed. He went to his closet, threw on an undershirt, and then sat down next to me.