PERFECT PAIR

(7) It's Just Me And You!

ARIELLA

A shower of kisses. 

Soft rubs on the scalp. 

What a way to wake up! 

I open my eyes halfway and see the little angels kissing my cheeks and playing with my long, gold hair. They have their cute little feet curled up on my bed right next to me. 

"Good morning, auntie!" They chirp in unison. 

Duke and Dawn, my brother's twins, are just the cutest! They are the best morning alarm anyone could ask for. 

I sit up on the bed, yawning and stretching. 

"Good morning cuties!" I pinch both their cheeks gently. "Shouldn't you guys be having breakfast?" 

"Yeah! But we want to have breakfast with you at the table!" 

I pout my lips and pull them in a hug. "Awwww…" 

The door busts open. 

Samantha enters dressed in a maroon jumpsuit and a classic pair of stilletos. Her hair is tied up in a tight ponytail and her face has minimal make up which makes her look so natural.

Sometimes I look at her and think to myself, 'I want to look like that at thirty five.' Because the gorgeous woman still looks sixteen! 

There's excitement written allover her face. Ugh! This is good news she has from that famous actor. 

"Guess what!!!" Sam shrieks. 

"Ansel said yes to the meeting?" I mutter. 

"You don't look excited…" she frowns and crosses her hands across her chest, throwing me that stern scary look. 

She then glares at the twins. "The two of you! Out! It's time to breastfeed." 

Duke scowls at her. "Only babies breastfeed. And we are certainly not babies! We don't have any tooth gaps!" 

"Who taught this little boy how to talk back!" Sam grumbles. "You're just as hard-headed as your daddy. Now get out! The two of you!" 

Sam shooes them out of the room and sits on my bed. 

"Now tell me," she starts. "Is there a problem, Ari?" 

"No… Why?" 

"Ansel is a big actor and he called you for a role. He even said yes to the meeting you proposed yourself." 

I was hoping he would say NO! 

She continues. "But even after he said yes, you still don't look like you're excited for this milestone! Why? What's the problem now?" 

The problem is, I don't want to meet with the f*****g prick. 

This is his way of winning that stupid kissing challenge of his. He wants to prove to me that he's not a horrible kisser! So he's pretending to give me a role so that he can kiss me and be the winner of that stupid challenge. 

Sam touches my cheek gently. "You know you can tell me anything…" 

Silence… 

"Oh God! Or did Ansel try to force you to sleep with him during the shoot that day?"

"No! Jeez! No!" I oppose. "Why would you say that?" 

"All these actors and directors are mostly filthy people, trying to sleep with every skirt under the sun. I wouldn't be surprised if Ansel tried to make a move on you and maybe that's why you're not excited about all this!" 

I shake my head. "Fortunately for me, that's not the case." 

"Then what is the case?" 

"I just don't want to work with Ansel!" I blurt out. "There! That's the reason I'm not excited! Ansel is the reason! I just don't want to work with him!" 

There's silence for a moment. 

Sam is staring at me like I'm an insane witch that possessed her little sister's body. 

She licks her lower lip and snickers. " I'm just going to pretend like I didn't hear whatever vomit just came out of your mouth."

I sigh and growl. "See this is why I didn't want to tell you in the first place…" 

She glares at me. "Why? Why don't you want to work with Ansel?" 

"He's proud and he's boastful and he's full of himself!" 

"Proud, boastful and full of himself have one meaning!" she responds. "Any other reason?" 

"Yes! He's stubborn and cocky and rude. Plus, he likes to flirt a lot which just makes me super uncomfortable! I just don't want to work with this guy! Please!" I frown and pout my lips. 

She takes a moment of silence and stands up from the bed. She walks to the window and draws the curtain. She stands there looking outside for a few seconds and turns back to look at me. 

" Come here! "

I hop from the bed in my pajamas and stand next to her, beside the window. 

"When you look outside, what do you see?" Sam asks. 

"A town." 

"A town of what?" 

"A town of people…" 

"This town just has people?" 

"And buildings, apartments, schools, clinics…" 

"Enough," she stops me. "Now of all those things you see, are all of them plainly white? No other colour?" 

"No." 

"What colours do you see?" 

I roll my eyes. This just sounds stupid. 

"No… I'm serious," Sam insists. "What colours do you see?" 

"Green, red, blue, pink, black, yellow -" 

"Now stop!" she cuts me off. "Now do you get what I'm trying to show you?" 

"Colours?" I chuckle. 

"Not funny!" she retorts. "I'm trying to show you that the world isn't just made up of the colour white! It's made up of various colours to make it colorful! And every colour is different from the other…" 

"Where's all this coming from?" 

"Just like colours, humans are all different too. Some are nice. Some are harsh. Some are warm. Some are cold. Some are good. Some are bad. That's just how life is and you can't change that!" 

She didn't have to go through all the struggle of showing me all the colours you know… 

" So just because Ansel wasn't nice to you, doesn't mean you turn down a job that could open so many doors for you. Come on! You were raised tough! This is all you got? Plus, you aren't there for him. You're there for the job."

" But I - "

" Shut up and listen!" she demanded.

" The meeting is tonight and we are both going! And you are going to say a big happy YES to the role! "

¦¦¦¦

I'm strolling on the hallway on my way to class. 

I'm trying to call Kim but unfortunately, her phone is off. 

She's been off since last night. I have not talked to her since we bumped in on Jenna and James. 

Talking of the devil. 

I see them holding hands, kissing and allover each other. Thank God Kim is not here to see this disgusting view on such a beautiful morning. 

I kinda thought Jenna, Kim's cousin, was a cool girl you know… I even kind of hoped she would join our little circle and be part of the gang. 

But thank God time revealed who she truly is. I mean, who f*****g snatches her cousin's man???? 

They start snogging on the hallway as everyone is watching and I'm forced to walk faster and run away from seeing this. I kinda feel enraged on Kim's behalf.

As I'm walking faster, someone touches my shoulder and I spin around to look. 

Emil. 

"You dropped this!" he hands me my earphones. "Be careful!" 

He still has this frown on his face and he's still clearly mad at me. 

Wow! This day is quite something! 

First, Kim is absent, as if that's not horror enough. Then I'm forced to watch Jenny and James kiss. Disgusting! And also, Emil is still mad at me for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON. And then tonight… 

Tonight I'm meeting the asshole. 

And my damn sister wants me to say 'YES' to the role because it's a f*****g big opportunity. She doesn't care if I don't like Ansel or if he humiliated me. 

So, my sister spoiled my day in the morning and Ansel is going to spoil it some more at night. 

"Emil?" I grab his hand and make him face me. "Tell me! Why are you mad at me?" 

He glances at his watch. "I'm getting late for class." 

"It's college. You can miss it!" I throw his words back at him. 

"I don't want to miss it while doing something that's just wasting my time." 

"Wow! Talking to me is wasting time huh!" 

"What do you want?" 

"Tell me why you are mad! Why you are pissed! Because I just don't get it!" 

"Last night at work?" he asks. "Were you almost about to kiss Ansel?" 

That question catches me off guard. 

I'm a bit hesitant and Emil snatches his hand from my grip. 

"That's why!" 

I grab his hand again. "And even if I was going to kiss him! So what!"

He grits his teeth and glares at me and hisses, 

"I've seen what those kind of actors do to girls! That's what! And I don't want that done to you dammit!" He clenches his fist. "So it pissed me off seeing you just flirting with that type of guy! You were literally leading him on! If Nathan didn't separate the two of you, you would have kissed him!" 

I was lost in Ansel's brown eyes last night… Ugh! 

"And that's why I'm pissed!"

Emil walks away. 

I suck at saying sorry. 

Especially when I don't know why I'm saying sorry. 

And that's the case with Emil. 

So I just let him walk away alone. 

I follow behind slowly, feeling kind of confused. 

Strangely, the professor doesn't kick Emil out of class. I thought he'd warned him to never set foot in his class. 

Infact, he doesn't even seem to bully him through the entire lecture. 

"Ms. Stone?" The professor calls. "What did I just say about method acting?" 

Ugh! 

I scratch my head in confusion. 

He's seriously not doing this to me right now. He knows I was not paying attention. 

"Stay behind after class is over!" 

I've been nervous this entire time until the class finally comes to an end.

The entire class leaves. I kind of hope Emil will be left behind to stand up for me against this monster but he doesn't. 

Emil just leaves and my heart shatters in a million pieces. 

It's just me and the professor left all alone in the volumous class. I'm standing beside his desk and he's standing a few steps away, ogling at my body from head to toe. 

It's creepy and it makes me cringe inwardly. 

He winks and giggles grotesquely. 

"Hey Candy!" he rubs his hands in glee. "Finally it's just me and you!" 

¦¦¦¦