7. Grant
1560 Words
7
Grant
“Oh fuck.”
Ari’s face in the crowd silenced the cheers. Even through my buzz, I wasn’t stupid enough to have wanted her to see that.
“Thanks,” I mouthed to Killian. She winked at me and said something else, but I shoved the microphone in her face and jumped off stage. The crowd was unyielding as I attempted to reach Ari.
“f*****g f**k,” I grumbled under my breath. I nearly knocked someone down trying to get to her.
Her icy glare should have stopped me in my tracks, but I barreled right through the protective wall she had put between us. I grabbed her around the middle and pulled her against my chest. She smelled f*****g amazing.
Fuck. I just wanted to take her home and forget this day had ever happened.
“Let’s go home,” I said into her ear.
She yanked herself from my grasp and crossed her arms.
“Great show man!” one person said, clapping me on the back as he walked by.
I nodded at him, but kept my focus on Ari. She hadn’t said s**t yet.
A series of interruptions kept us from speaking.
“That was amazing,” one groupie said.
“Oh my God, you guys should sing it like that all the time.”
“That’s the best I’ve ever heard it.”
I ground my teeth and tried to block it out. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
She continued to glare at me as if I was the only f*****g person in the room who had done something wrong. Why was she up on her f*****g high horse when she was the one who had pushed me away this morning? She had things to account for too.
I grabbed her roughly by the arm and hauled her toward the entrance. She gasped and tried to pull away, but I held onto her tight. If she wasn’t going to speak up, then she’d have to deal with this.
As soon as we stepped out of the Ivy League, Ari wrenched her arm free from me and walked around to the side of the building. I pursued her.
“What the f**k is your problem?” I demanded.
She turned around, crossed her arms, and stared at me. She just f*****g stared at me. I could see she was seething. It was all bubbling up under the surface.
“The cold shoulder? You’re not going to f*****g say anything?”
Ari turned her head to the side out toward the parking lot.
“Okay fine. You know what. Don’t say anything. I have enough to say for the both of us,” I spat at her. “I thought we were over all of this s**t. I’ve never been in a f*****g relationship, but I can pretty much guarantee it’s not supposed to work this way. You’re acting like a f*****g crazy person, Princess. If I wanted to f**k around like this, I’d be banging every girl in the League tonight.”
“That’s good to know,” she ground out.
“But I’m not. I was f*****g pissed tonight. I came here to get wasted. I wanted a distraction when you didn’t f*****g pick up your goddamn phone.”
She turned her head back toward me. “Will you always need a distraction when one day doesn’t go as planned?”
“I’m not a f*****g saint, Princess. You knew that when you signed up for this. I play in a f*****g rock band. Girls throw themselves at me left and right, but not a single one of them compares to you.” I ran my hand along her jaw line and up into her messy blonde hair. “What’s going on with us?”
She turned her head away from my hand and closed her eyes. I wanted to lash out at her all over again, but the ice was cracking. Pain was written on her face. Her eyes were scrunched together. She swallowed a couple times as if she was trying to keep from…crying.
No, she couldn’t cry.
“Ari,” I groaned. I pulled her into my arms. She rested her head against my chest and gripped my shirt in her hands.
“That song, Grant? My song?”
“I know. It was impulsive.”
She pushed away from me again. “You’re always impulsive.”
“Killian called out ContraBand, and she said her favorite song was Life Raft. Everyone went crazy, Ari. You should have heard them.” Her lips pressed together in a thin line. “Everyone pushed me toward the stage and chanting for us to sing. What the f**k was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
When she didn’t say anything else, I kept talking. “Are you going to tell me why you ran out on me this morning?”
She shook her head.
“f**k, Ari. Just tell me.”
“No. I’m not ready to talk about it,” she said. Her voice wavered, but she stared me straight in the eye.
“Fine. f*****g fine. Take your time.” I itched for a cigarette right now like nothing else. “Maybe you should go.”
Her eyes hardened, but not before I saw a spark of hurt in her eyes. “Maybe I should.”
“Find me when you’re ready to talk about it.” I turned and walked back toward the entrance to the League.
“Grant, wait.”
“What?” I snapped. “What do you want me to say? There’s something that is bothering you, and the most straightforward, outspoken, mouthy person I know in the entire world won’t tell me what it is. So, it feels a bit more like my Princess walked out on me now.”
“No. I’m not…I’m not walking out. I just…I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
Scared? Aribel Graham was scared? Now I’d heard everything.
She closed her mouth. Her hands were shaking at her side. Tremors traveled up her arms and through her whole body.
“Jesus, Ari, what is it?”
“I kissed someone else,” she blurted out.
“You did what?” I stumbled backward a step in shock. “You f*****g cheated on me? What the f**k? Of all the people I’ve ever known…I never.”
“No. No, Grant. It was while we were broken up. It was an accident. A total mistake.”
“You’re goddamn right it was a mistake. Biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your life, Princess,” I snapped. “This was someone other than Donovan? Or was Donovan actually a real thing and you were covering it up when we got back together?”
Ari closed her eyes. “This is why I was scared. I knew you’d react this way.”
“How else am I supposed to react?” I yelled at her.
“It meant nothing. My parents were trying to set me up with Henry after New Year’s when I thought…”
“When you thought I’d done what you did…”
“No! I thought you’d slept with a groupie. I would never have…” She ground her teeth and sagged. “I’m sorry. I went out with my brother, and the guy showed up. We shared a bottle of champagne, and he kissed me. He tried to convince me to go back to his place, but I told him no and I left.”
“I don’t know what the f**k you expect me to do with this Ari. Your parents are setting you up with other guys over break. Do they even know we’re dating?”
She bit her lip and cast her eyes away from me.
“f**k, they don’t know,” I said momentarily stunned. “What are you f*****g ashamed of me?”
“Grant, no. God, I’m not. I just…with my parents. It’s hard.”
“Are you f*****g kidding me right now? It’s hard with your parents?”
“I didn’t mean that as it being more or less difficult than anyone else’s parents,” she said. Her hurricane blue eyes pleaded with me to understand. “All I’m saying is that it’s hard when they expect so much from me. You’re amazing Grant, but I know my parents won’t appreciate that.”
She said the last part so softly I had to lean in to hear her.
“Why? Because I’m in a band? Because I’m not on track to be a CEO? Because I don’t have a f*****g trust fund?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “All those things and more. I don’t care about those things though.”
“Maybe you will one day.”
“I care about you.”
“Enough to f*****g kiss someone else and not tell your parents that we’re together.”
Ari straightened and crossed her arms. “I apologized for what happened. Okay? Neither of us is faultless in this situation.”
“What do you want me to do, darlin’?”
She frowned. “Darling, really? We’re back there?”
I shrugged and leaned my back against the brick building. “Tell me what you would do if I’d kissed someone else and no one in my life knew who you were.”
“We’ve been through that before Grant. I screamed at you and told you to sober up. More or less what I want to do now.”
“You left.”
She sighed heavily. The weight of carrying around her secret must have been killing her. I could already see that she didn’t look as stressed as she had before. She looked uncomfortable as hell, which was fine by me, but not upset like I’d thought she’d be since I was yelling at her.
“Apparently everyone makes mistakes,” she said.
“Even a princess.”
A tentative smile crossed her face at the use of her nickname. f**k, that smile ruined me. I sighed and gave up the fight. I wanted to be angry, but I was f*****g happy to know what was wrong with her. If I was honest with myself, I was glad it wasn’t me.
“Come here,” I said, pulling her toward me.
My hands slid through her loose hair, and my lips landed on hers greedily. Her kisses were hot and needy. She pressed her body against me, and my mind raced ahead of me. How fast could I throw her back against the wall and get under that dress?
I was going to find out.
- Writer
