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Cozy

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Chapter 26: Cozy (Aaron's POV)

"Put sunscreen on," Vanessa demanded as we reached the beach. 

"I just did before we left the waterfalls," I replied, turning to her in my seat. 

"No, you didn't. You put it on when we reached the waterfalls. That was a long time ago." 

"Have you even put sunscreen on? At all?" 

She blinked at me. "Just put it on," she huffed. She poured some into my hand and then her own, applying it mainly to her face. "Everyone else is here, right?" 

"Hmm," I nodded, getting out of the car. Once she was by my side, I locked the car. 

As it beeped, Vanessa grabbed my jaw, turning my head to look at her. She used her fingers, wiping my cheek. "You still have sunscreen there," she mumbled, going up on her toes. I stared at her while her tongue poked out from the corner of her mouth. She looked too focused on sunscreen. "There. Come on." 

I trailed a step behind her as we reached the others. Wood was already piled up in the middle of a circle of foldable and smaller sunloungers. Everybody was already seated. There was an icebox a few steps away from the circle too. When we finally reached the circle, we exchanged a few hellos with the others. 

Lyla told us, "Those two seats are Daisy and Julian's, they went to get something from their car." 

Vanessa remained standing beside me as she said, "There's only one free seat then." 

"No, there's two," Lyla replied. 

"Where's the other one?" I asked. 

Lyla looked over, counting the chairs under her breath. She turned to Zach who was sitting beside her. "Didn't we bring exactly twenty-two chairs?" 

"Lyla, Zach," Davidson called out, "weren't you both responsible for bringing in the chairs?" 

"Yeah," Zach nodded, "but I could swear we bought twenty-two. We counted them." 

Judith turned to glare at her husband who sighed and then shook his head, mumbling something to her. Knowing her, she's probably accusing him of getting rid of one chair so Vanessa and I would have to share a seat. 

Before Lyla and Zach could be scolded, Vanessa cut in, "It's okay. It doesn't matter, it's just a chair. I can sit on the sand, it's not such a big deal." 

"No, you should take the chair," I replied, turning her to look at me, holding her arm gently. "I'll sit on the sand." 

"It's not such a big deal," she chuckled. "Take the chair, Aaron." 

"You should take the chair, Vanessa. I'll sit on the sand." 

"No, just take the chair," she laughed, pushing me towards it. 

"For God's sake, why don't you both take the chair then?" Nick laughed forcefully, looking at us. He shrugged. "It shouldn't be such a big deal, it's not like we don't know you're together. Just keep a lid on the PDA," he smirked and then sipped on the beer bottle in his hands. Nick was a fucking asshole, always had been. 

Yesterday at dinner when he asked Vanessa if she was the girl I spoke about in college, I know he wasn't talking about the annoying student I mentioned at the time. Of course, that annoying student was Vanessa but that's not what he was talking about. He was talking about the time I told him that there was a student, an ex-student, in one of the classes I was helping a professor with, a student I almost hooked up with, a student I thought was 'really fucking pretty.' A student I liked. 

God knows why I told Nick about it but I know that Vanessa can never hear about it. She'd always hold it against me if she knew I had a crush on her back then. 

"Or is that a problem? You two don't want to share the seat?" Nick asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. 

I rolled my eyes. 

"Here then, Vanessa. Take my chair." He began standing up. 

Oh. That's what he's doing, huh. 

I grabbed Vanessa's arm before she could even think about taking Nick's chair, which I'm sure she wouldn't anyway. "That's not necessary, Nick. We can share the chair. But no promises on the PDA being limited. Don't mind it," I replied, glaring at him as I sat down in the chair, my hand still on Vanessa's arm. 

She looked down at me and then dropped her bag to the sand. She shot me a subtle look, a subtle angry look, and then took her sandals off, leaving them with her bag. I grabbed her hips before people noticed her hesitation and pulled her down into my lap. She was undoubtedly uncomfortable and she was sitting on the very top of my knee, trying not to put her weight completely on me or lean against me at all. 

"Make it more obvious, won't you. Tell everyone we're not together," I whispered in her ear. 

She turned to look at me. "This is your fault," she mumbled. 

"I'm aware of that. But we're already in it now," I replied pointedly. 

She sighed and held my gaze. "Are you out of your mind? Why did you do that?" 

"Because I had to."

"No, you didn't have to—" 

"Maybe I wanted to." 

She shut up, staring at me. 

I caught her off-guard and took that opportunity to pull her back. She was properly sitting in my lap now, her back leaning against the right side of my front as she turned to stare at me. "I wanted to make sure you didn't take the seat he offered, okay?" 

"Why? Would that bother you?" 

I paused, my eyes scanning her face. I had to force them up from her lips. "Yeah. It would bother me. A lot, actually." 

Her brows furrowed as she relaxed against me. "You sound mad." 

"I'm not mad." 

"No. You sound..." A chuckle escaped her. "You sound jealous, Aaron." 

"Vanessa." She looked ahead at where Nick was still standing, calling her again. "Would you like a drink?" 

I tightened my arm around her waist, leaning up to her ear. "Do you want to say yes and find out just how jealous I can act?" I whispered against her ear. 

"No, thanks," she smiled at Nick. 

Everybody had gotten back to their conversations. Our co-workers were slowly getting used to the idea of Vanessa and I together, they had stopped staring and whispering at us over the course of the day. 

Vanessa shifted a bit in my lap, trying to turn towards me a bit more. "Why do you hate them so much?" she asked, going to put an arm around the chair but it ended up around my neck when she realized there was no back of the chair for her to rest her arm on. 

"Because they do things that make me hate them," I answered. "I thought that was obvious. You said it made sense why I hated them." 

"It does, but it looks like it bothers you more than it bothers them. And that doesn't sound right." 

"What?" 

"That something bothers you more than I do," she shrugged and then flashed me an innocent smile. 

"Trust me, Vanessa, nothing could ever bother me more than you do," I scoffed. 

"That's a compliment." 

"Is it?" 

"It is, considering you never show any emotion. The closest I've gotten is seeing you annoyed. And I seem to annoy you more than anything. I've never even seen you smile, Aaron. Sometimes, I think that's a good thing. I think seeing you smile might kill me. I'd get a heart attack. From shock, of course." 

"Of course," I mumbled sarcastically, nodding. 

"Does anything even make you smile? Should I try?" 

"If you want." 

"I don't like doing things I would fail at." 

I bit back a chuckle, holding her gaze. 

"Don't they look cozy," Nick remarked, coming back with new drinks for a few people. 

I tipped my head back, cursing under my breath. "I might fucking kill him one day," I mumbled. 

"Happy thoughts. Think puppies, think Theo and Blue. Oh, think about that one time I embarrassed myself in college. How can you ever forget?" 

"Which day? There were so many," I replied without looking at her. 

She smacked my chest, muttering, "Dick." 

I chuckled, thinking back to one instance when she quite literally fell out of her seat in the middle of her class. It was something about her dropping a pen and trying to reach it with her foot. And then the chair slipped from under her with a loud screech too. I lifted my head back up, staring at her, my tongue poking the inside of my cheek to hide my laughter and smile. "God, you were an idiot, Vanessa." 

"I was, yeah. But when?" 

I lowered my head and closed my eyes, laughing silently. 

"Aaron." 

I looked at her and for once, tonight, I couldn't hide it. I didn't. The smile that often tugs at me when she does or says something stupid without realizing it. When she does things like fall out of her chair or run into the door at work or fail to sit on her chair when she's focusing on something and trying to sit at the same time. "Hmm?" 

She stared at me, her gaze dropping to my lips. "You're smiling," she stated, dumbfounded. 

"Am I? Probably." 

"You have dimples. How have I never known you have dimples?" 

"Maybe you never paid enough attention." 

She narrowed her eyes on me. 

"Or maybe I never smiled at you," I admitted with a shrug. 

"And how often would you say you've wanted to smile at me?" 

"Often enough. You're funny and you're dumb. But what kind of enemy would I be if I smiled at you?" 

She shook her head softly. "You wouldn't be an enemy if you smiled at me." 

I lifted a brow. "Oh. So we're not enemies anymore?" 

"No," she barely mumbled, "I guess we're not." 

It felt strange to hear her say that, to hear her admit we were not enemies anymore. "Are you giving up on our hatred, Griffin?" 

She blinked, smiling, and then chuckled softly. "I might be." 

"Oh, I see. It's not hate anymore, huh?" 

"No, it's not. I don't hate you." 

I nodded softly, holding her gaze. "Good. Because it's exhausting," I sighed. 

"What is?" 

"It's exhausting pretending to hate you." 

She rolled her eyes. "You say 'pretending' like you've never hated me to begin with." 

"Hmm, I haven't." I shook my head.

She stared at me, stunned. 

"I've never hated you. You're just annoying sometimes." 

"How can you tell me you've never hated me?" 

"I haven't," I shrugged. 

"But you let me think you did?" 

"You hated me, didn't you? It didn't matter what I felt. But since we've established that you don't hate me anymore..." 

"Then what?" 

"Would you like to be my friend?" She didn't say anything, she just stared at me. I lifted my brows, repeating. "Would you like to be my friend, Vanessa?" 

She nodded after a minute. "Yeah. I'd love to be your friend, Aaron," she whispered.

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Chapter 26

They officially

don't hate each other <3

next chapter: friend