This chapter is dedicated to [messyhairbun]! I'm so glad to have known you, fellow Potterhead! :) We solemnly swear that we're up to no good! Haha! 

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Chapter 21: You and Me is us

****Caroline's POV****

I waved at Hayden as he drove away. What a day! First it was all about Hayden's surprise date then the fans! Honestly, I had no idea where our deal was heading to! All of Hayden's tactics still got me feeling light-headed and this wasn't a good sign! It wasn't part of the deal! I wasn't supposed to fall for him or his charms! This deal thingy would seriously be the death of me!

Dragging myself with lethargy overpowering me, I walked my way up the stairs to the apartment and rang the doorbell.

The door opened wide on the second ring revealing a shirtless Aaron with a silly grin on. If any other girl would've seen him like this, they would've fainted on the spot. Either that or there would be lots of drool at my doorstep. Eww.

"Hello!" Aaron chirped as his piercing grey eyes landed on me. I gave him a small smile in return to which his grin became a frown.

He moved away from the door to let me in.

"What's up, sis? Shitty class? Boring day? PMS?" He questioned, his eyes squinting at me as he closed the door.

I chuckled in response and headed straight to the kitchen.

"No, you idiot! I'm just tired." I yawned as if on cue.

He smiled at me and tagged along.

"So...what did you do today?" He asked while leaning on the wall.

I raised my eyebrow pointedly while sipping my glass of water.

"You don't know?"

"How am I supposed to know?" He mocked, his voice teasing.

I gave him a puzzled look and removed my phone.

"Is the WiFi on?" I asked, heading to the Settings option.

"Hmmhmm..." He replied, his eyes curiously watching me.

I began typing feverishly and gasped at the amount of pictures of Hayden and me flooding on the internet today!

"You seriously didn't know where I was?! Where on Earth were you?!" I yelled incredulously while shoving my phone to his face.

He snatched the phone from me, his eyes growing wide as saucers.

"Shit! What the fuck?! Seriously?! What the freaking hell?!" He cussed as he stared from the screen to me.

"Exactly. So where were you?" I mocked while opening the cupboards to look for something to munch.

"I...I was in my room. Studying." He replied while rubbing the back of his neck.

I jerked my head towards him. Ouch!

"I sure did hear a snap." He whispered teasingly, his eyes looking straight at me.

"You were what?! Studying?" I clarified without a blink of an eye. Sure he studied when no one was around. Sure he got straight As. But studying right now? Right after his classes? That was pretty unexpected. I expected him to go partying or something. He was like that. And there was never a second where Aaron Raymond Stewart got out of the social world!

"Yeah. So what's new about that? Plus I'm going to be a sophomore. Better get ready." He reasoned, his eyes landing on the Doritos pack in my hand.

"Nahah, nerd! You're not getting this one!" I stated, pointing at the packet.

He lunged for it just as I had expected him to. I was quick enough to defend my Doritos. They were the love of my life!

"You're not getting these, I said! These are Roulette. Limited edition plus my favourite type! Suck it up and eat the Toasted Corn one." I ordered while strutting away with my Doritos.

He whined behind me. "Why does mom have to buy this shit flavour?! It's disgusting!"

I smirked and headed towards my room with the Doritos and locked it. I couldn't trust the guy. What if he took it when I kept it in the living room?

I got fresh and walked out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around my body. I chose to wear my favourite Minions pyjamas and my brother's white tee which said, 'ZOMBIE ALERT!' in a crazy black font. Now that would be exactly perfect in the morning. Right after I woke up. For now, I looked fresh.

It was already eight by now and my parents weren't home. I walked out of the room with my Doritos and closed the door to see Aaron lounging on the couch watching Avatar. His favourite movie and mine too!

I went to the kitchen and took out a large glass bowl and put all the Doritos in it. I walked out to see that Aaron was watching me carefully.

"I've a golden heart!" I replied while pointing to my heart. He rolled his eyes at that, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"God bless!" He commented, his eyes back on the TV.

I giggled and removed two glasses for us to pour our cokes into. Movie nights with Aaron were always awesome! We used to have movie nights every Friday after which we would've a sleepover. Aaron was my cuddly bear and I always slept like a log with him!

"You got the coke, right?" I asked, my head in the fridge.

"Yep. Get the glasses, will you? And yeah! Get a bowl for this stupid Doritos flavour too!" He requested, making a puppy face while looking at me.

I sighed and removed another bowl. This was my brother we were talking about here. What more to expect?

"Aaron! Get your lazy ass off of that couch and come help!" I yelled.

He huffed dramatically and walked towards me. Such a faker!

"Yes, damsel in distress?" He sneered.

I gave him the finger to which he chuckled.

"Take these glasses." I said while handing him the glasses.

He obliged and walked to the couch with me following in tow along with the bowl of the Roulette Doritos and an empty bowl for his crap flavoured ones.

I sat next to him and moved closer so as to get comfy. I loved to be enraptured by Aaron's body heat. It was always very comforting. Plus he always smelt good!

He too had gotten fresh and was wearing grey track pants and a black tee that said 'EXPLODED!' in a crazy white font. The tee defined his muscles.

I reached for the Roulette Doritos bowl and we began munching on it in silence while watching the movie.

"How dare you not wait for me?" I questioned, glaring daggers at him.

"It's not a DVD, love. It was playing on one of the channels." He replied, callously.

I made an "oh" sound. We sipped on our cokes. Suddenly it felt like this get-together was not our usual movie night because that always involved watching movies from DVDs. Also, Aaron couldn't be this quiet about Hayden's and my date. That was odd! Plus today wasn't a Friday! Also, he started the movie before I could join him! I looked at him and noticed him looking at me, waiting for me to realise.

"You want to talk." I stated, moving away from him and leaning towards the end of the couch. All of a sudden, the movie playing on the TV was just for show.

"Brilliant! My dustbin finally understood!" He chirped, his eyes twinkling with mock pride. A smirk played on his lips.

I scowled at him to which a Dorito was flung at me. A freaking Roulette one!

"Not the Roulette, you monster!" I seethed. He laughed evilly at me and messed with his hair.

"Before that, where's mom and dad?" I asked while settling on the pillow so as to get comfy, the Dorito in my hand pointing at him.

"They've gone on a date. Dad's surprise." He replied with a smile while crunching on the disgusting flavoured one and making a face.

What was with people and date surprises today?!

"So how was it?" He asked.

"How was what?" I asked, oblivious.

"Your period." He replied, rolling his eyes.

"I haven't got my periods yet!" I retorted dramatically.

"Argh! I'm talking about your date, stupid!" He huffed in impatience while giving me a weary look.

"Oh that."

There was silence for sometime and it was only filled with my crunching and his sipping.

"It was...good. We sat on the London Eye. Then...his fans. They came. But I handled it." I replied timidly, my deep blue eyes locking with his piercing grey ones which were searching for answers buried deep in my soul. He could read me like I was an open book! Nothing could ever be hidden from him...

"You see...I feel like there's more to this 'thing'..." He motioned by quoting the word in air "...than what meets the eye." He finished, taking a sip of his drink before putting it down.

I watched him as he leant closer and bent one foot on the couch while the other lay on the ground.

"What's going on, Carol?"

I sighed. A sigh of defeat. A sigh of opening up and venting it all out.

"You're right."

He quirked up his eyebrows in question.

I cleared my throat. "It's a deal."

He fist thumped the air in response. "I knew it! I so knew it!"

"But listen before you judge. I...we had to do it that way, Aaron. I know you don't like Hayden but I need to tell you that what happened that night was totally unintentional. There's a story behind it which is believable. Trust me." I reasoned.

"What story? Care to fill me in?" He sneered.

Huffing, I began to narrate Hayden's side of the story to Aaron and while narrating, I noticed his eyes slowly widening and then they fixedly stared at the ground.

"...So that's that. Then that night at Avondale Park I felt so damn guilty that I had to agree with his deal of a one month relationship which was pretty reasonable. Little did I know it would add to more drama." I blabbered and sipped a large sip before looking back at him.

He sipped his drink. "Is he making you fall for him again?"

I nodded. "I guess so. He has not stopped serenading me! Our deal was pretty simple. Make the best memories of this one month and part ways. We hadn't ended our relationship right. So we thought of giving it a one month chance. I mean, I'm not really sure if he still has feelings for me. I think he just wants to make it special. But you see, I've not completely moved on from him. If he keeps treating me like his princess, then I'll never be able to move on from him however hard I'm trying to! And if things are not special, how are we to end this relationship right?! And I so want to move on from him, Aaron! I really want to! I've to!"

Aaron opened his arms for me and I snuggled into them, my hands circling his back. His cheek rested on my forehead and I could hear the steady beating of his heart.

"This thing is complicated, yes. The deal seems pretty reasonable to the entire story, but that's the past, Caroline. If you guys broke apart, there's no point trying to fix things that weren't meant to be. I don't hate Hayden. Don't get me wrong. Also, I'm really sure that he has feelings for you. So I request you to not lead him on for this stupid deal. If you're going to behave like you're okay with the fame, okay with the way he treats you like a princess, then he's going to feel like you'll never move on from him and he might even take advantage of this and sway you off of your feet even after this one month!" His voice was a mere whisper of pure sense.

My eyes wandered to lock with his. His gaze was comforting. Loyal.

"What do you think I should do then?" I asked.

"Break it off. Close the deal. It's not worth it anymore." He replied, sternly.

I thought about it. It seemed pretty sensible. Once I could close the deal, I would be no more obliged to make special memories with him. Hayden would be my past. Kevin would be my present. I just had to do one simple thing. Close the effin' deal!

But what next? Aaron said something truly right that the past was the past and that nobody could change it. But wouldn't this hurt Hayden and some side of me that we ditched a really nice relationship? He wouldn't even be my friend for that matter!

'Think about you now, Caroline. It's not selfish to think about your benefits sometimes.' My conscience warned.

I looked at Aaron who was finishing my Roulette Doritos. I grinned at him. That brat!

"You're right. I'll do just that."

He beamed at me. "Good thinking."

It was already quarter to 10 and I was feeling damn sleepy. Oops. I didn't tell him about Kevin! It was good I didn't actually. He would be immediately haunted by memories of Abigail. He had figured that Kevin and Abigail were friends though he never asked me who Kevin was and if I knew Kevin, how I didn't know that they were friends.

I yawned.

"You're sleepy." Aaron stated with a lopsided grin. He took the bowls with the glasses to the kitchen and washed them.

"You should get some sleep." He added, sincerely.

"Hmm." I replied, trying hard for him to get my point.

"Okay. I get it. I just wanted you to beg so that I could feel like I was your knight in night suit." He spoke with his hands in the air in mock surrender.

I giggled and he took my hand leading me to his room.

"Aren't you feeling sleepy?" I asked, groggily.

He yawned as if on cue.

We laughed at that.

My brother's room was really awesome though I wouldn't tell him on his face so as to build up his ego. His ego was already as huge as a football field!

He had 3 electric guitars of Ibanez on one very visible corner. A basketball hoop hung right on top of his bed. He had posters of all of his favourite guitarists and singers especially Metallica stuck on the wall behind his bed. His room was light yellow and he had shelves of his soccer trophies what with being lead quarterback. He had a study table and Beats speakers were on the four sides of the walls. Flags of his team called "Linkers" back in high school decorated the walls too. He seriously had taken the effort to bring his whole room to London! Kudos! [Note the sarcasm]

His king sized bed captured my attention and I hopped towards it and flopped on it. Aaron chuckled and followed me.

He lay on the bed and I moved closer to him, my back facing his front. His arm encircled my waist and I wafted in the comfort. He switched off the lamp and his room was filled with darkness.

"Aaron?"

"Hmm?" He replied.

I turned to face him, his piercing grey eyes highlighting his features in the dark.

"Do you miss her?" I whispered.

Most of the time, I was a very guilty sister. My brother would be very overprotective about me and would look out for me and I on the other hand dreaded on asking him anything about Abigail. I knew Abigail was his first ever serious relationship. I don't think asking about her offended him but sometimes, I realised, it was best to break the barriers we made. Speaking out our thoughts loud really helped.

I shifted the hair lying on his forehead that were almost reaching his eyes while he sighed, his eyes boring into blank space.

"I miss her more than you can ever imagine." He whispered back.

Tears filled my eyes at that. Why was Abigail making my brother go through so much of pain?! What the hell had happened that day?!

"I-I can't talk about it now, Carol." He stammered.

I kissed his forehead.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then don't. I understand what you're going through. There's nothing much to tell about what had happened because you've already told me all of that and there was nothing much. Nothing wrong that sounded. What I'm asking you right now is tougher. To vent out your feelings. I'm sorry." I said.

He grimaced. "There's nothing to be sorry about, love. Let's just go to sleep, hmm?"

I nodded and turned my back towards him, moving closer. Soon, I drifted off to sleep.

A sleep of comfort and love which my brother could only provide.