Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
CLOSER BY TEGAN AND SARA
He holds my hand the entire way as we walk toward the restaurants on the island, and he seems like he has no intention of letting it go.
It’s darker now, but the sun hasn’t fully disappeared from the sky yet.
He keeps me close to him as we walk, looking in shop windows, our words escaping only every now and then.
There’s still a bit of tension in my body, the feeling of his so close, but so far all at once.
He’s bigger than me in every way. He overpowers me, but somehow I feel like we fit as we walk together.
This is all very simple. Walking with him is simple, and I know the tension I feel is only in my head.
But, the simplicity of it all is what makes my head spin, how casual and normal all of this feels.
I have no doubt he feels nothing right now, he’s just here, and he’s enjoying his time. .. That’s the difference between us.
“Is this okay?” He asks, nodding his head to a small pizza restaurant.
I nod my head, and he pushes the door open, a small bell sounding.
He leads me through the door with his hand, letting mine go as I walk in.
He follows behind, his hands moving over the tops of my bare shoulders and down my arms as he follows behind me to the counter.
I lean back slightly, looking up at him over my shoulder.
“I’ll take… Hawaiian but add banana peppers,” I tell the man behind the counter.
The man working doesn’t think anything of it, but Bellamy makes a short noise that makes me look back at him.
“What? You have a problem with my pizza preference?” I challenge him, and he looks at the man instead of me.
“I’ll have pepperoni and black olives. A normal choice, unlike my date here,” He nods to me, standing close behind me.
My back presses to his hard chest only slightly, and he looks down at me, a light smirk forming on his lips as his eyes glaze over my features. This is what butterflies feel like, exactly how he just looked at me.
“You're pretty,” He tips his chin up at the compliment, and I smirk at him, wanting nothing more than to cover my face because I know how much I’m blushing right now.
I hate PDA but I completely forgot we were even in public for a second.
“You two are adorable,” Both of us snap our attention to the old short Italian man behind the counter.
“It’s her, not me... Here,” Bellamy reaches into his pocket, pulling out cash, far more than what he owes.
He puts his empty hand on my upper arm as he leans over me, handing the older man the cash.
“Keep the change, thank you, sir,” He smiles his famous, pearly white grin, and then walks away, turning me with him.
We sit, we wait, and then our pizza comes out.
The two of us don’t take long to finish our food, and he’s sure to help me from the booth afterward.
He holds out not one but both of his hands for me.
I look at his face, not his hands, and place mine in his.
He lifts me out of the deep seat and pulls me toward him.
Once I’m standing he lets me go first, his hand soon finding my back again, guiding me carefully until we’re out of the restaurant.
He nods his head, and I look back toward where the ferry boat was docked.
“Are we not going back yet?” I ask him.
“I figured we could knock two birds with one stone tonight...” He nods his head, and I look where he’s nodding.
There’s a bright neon sign, an arcade, and I find myself smirking.
“We’re not really dressed for an arcade are we?” I ask.
“Outfits don’t matter, let's go,” He nods his head to the arcade, and pulls me with him, his hand grasping mine again.
He holds my hand as we walk into the arcade. He brings us to one of those machines that converts real money to a card so we can play games. His head is truly in it because we go straight to the games without a second to spare once the card is in his hand.
“You know I’d be fine with you just buying me a silly stuffed animal and-” I watch and shut my mouth as Bellamy lets go of my hand, and turns to me slowly.
His jaw is dropped as he looks at me with disapproving eyes.
“That is the most unromantic thing I have ever heard of. Do you even hear yourself right now?” His hands are now on his hips as he looks at me like I just killed a puppy.
“That’s kind of the whole point.”
He scoffs so loud I’m sure everyone around heard.
“No, the whole point is to be cheesy and romantic with you... I’m winning this fair and square. If you’re bad at arcade games just say that,” He walks off without me now, ready to prove his point.
I follow behind him as he finds the basketball games, all lined up next to each other. I feel like I might have unlocked the inner child in him by putting this on the list. Though this is all for me, I can see now he’ll get a lot of joy from this too.
“I’m not bad at this one,” I stand directly next to him, my shoulder touching his arm right above his elbow.
“Not as good as me. I’m the quarterback,” He boasts.
“Like that matters, this is basketball, not football. Though, I know it might be easy for you to get your sports mixed up...”
He swipes the game card, ignoring my insults. We start, our bodies brushing as we shoot hoops. We both get so into the game, we forget that it has to end. The timer goes off, and he looks down with a triumphant look until he sees that I scored more than him.
“Impossible,” He furrows his brows, and I smirk.
“Hate to break it to you, but I spent almost every afternoon on the court this semester. I won fair and square,” I swipe my hands together, dusting them off from my win.
There’s no hiding the smile on my face now.
“So you’d be up for a rematch then?”
“I never said that. I don’t do the whole losing thing, especially after I just won. Next game.”
He takes my hand and he brings us to Skee-Ball, and I watch as he swipes his card. I just stand next to him, watching him as he takes the game ball in his hands.
You know, Skee-Balls aren’t tiny. They are very normal sized balls…
but a Skee-Ball in Bellamy’s hand looks like a child's toy... And I really wish I hadn’t looked because now I can’t stop.
I watch as he plays, my mouth basically watering at the sight of him playing a stupid arcade game.
I’m not really sure how one person can make the most unattractive things attractive, but that’s what Bellamy seems to be doing with this game.
“Do you want to play?” He asks, and I hesitate, wondering if he caught me staring.
“Oh... No. I’m fine, I can watch. You’re just... Really good.”
Good at holding small objects… Like my fucking throat.
“Do you want me to show you?” He asks, and I want to say no, but how else am I going to tell him I want to watch him hold tiny balls? I’m not going to.
I step forward, and he takes my hip turning me around, but he doesn’t let his hand slip away.
He keeps it rested there, gripping me loosely, his thumb pressed to my back, his long fingers wrapping around the front of my body.
He leans over, scanning the card again, and then he bends down to grab one of the balls.
I watch him shamelessly now, knowing he can’t see me staring at his hands from this angle.
He passes me the ball and then lets his hand cover mine, and I think my stomach flips a million and one times.
I feel like my insides could win Olympic medals in gymnastics considering how many twists and turns they just did, holy shit.
“Are you okay?” He asks, and I nod, the back of my head brushing his shoulder. He brings my hand back and then forward again. “Let go,” He breathes out, and I do.
Just like he had done before, the ball goes in perfectly, earning us 100 more points.
“Again?” He asks, and I don’t oppose, mostly because I’m secretly enjoying the feeling of his incredibly large hand covering mine which is embarrassing to admit.
But I don’t care. I need to tell Sienna that I hate her for pointing out his hands to me because I never noticed them before. If I had...
Well, I don’t know if Bellamy would have lasted as a friend this long.
After a few more rounds of Skee-Ball, we move on.
Making our way through the entire arcade, we play games until our cards run out.
We take them up to the prize kiosk and put the tickets together.
We wait at the ticket counter, looking to see just how many points we racked up, waiting to see just how big my new prize will be.
The number continues to go up until it reads 10,232.
We look at each other and Bellamy has a shit-eating grin before turning back to the guy behind the prize counter who looks like he hates his life.
“Whatever she wants,” He tells the guy who doesn’t even change the expression on his face.
He doesn’t nod, or acknowledge Bell at all, he just looks at me, waiting for my reply. Fair enough.
“Which one do I get?” I ask Bellamy, looking at the plethora of giant furry stuffed animals on the top shelf.
They’re all 9,000 tickets.
“I don’t know, the big purple monster looks kinda like you,” He points out, and I smirk, fighting a laugh at his insult.
I look up and see a giant dog stuffed animal, a golden retriever, and I point to that one.
“I’ll take the dog.”
The worker pulls out a step stool and climbs up so he can grab the animal. He takes it from its home and passes it to me, looking to Bellamy for an answer to where the rest of the points are going to go.
“Do they stay on this card?” He asks, and the guy nods. “Cool... Stay here for a second alright?” He asks me, and I nod, watching as he takes the game card with the rest of our tickets, and walks behind me.
A young girl with blonde pigtails is walking with her mom behind us.
Bellamy approaches the pretty mom, and smiles at the young girl, saying something to the mom first that I can’t hear.
I watch as she smiles, and nods her head, putting her hand on her daughter's back.
Bellamy crouches down on one knee talking to the little girl.
She smiles at him, her smile so wide it looks like it might be hurting her cheeks.
She nods a few times, and he hands her the game card. He stands, making his way back to me.
“Thank you!” The mom calls out.
He just smiles at her, and then comes back to me, placing his arm over my shoulder. We walk together to the exit, and then toward the boat.
“That was sweet,” I tell him.
“She kind of reminds me of my little sister,” He tells me, and I turn my head to him quickly.
“You have a sister?” I ask him, and he nods.
“She’s not so little anymore. She’s four years and a couple of months younger than me. So she’s 18 now. A senior... She was 12 when my parents passed...” He tells me, and I nod.
“What’s her name?” I ask.
“Brianne. I call her B.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
He holds me tight against his side.
“Why did you pick the golden retriever?” He nods to the large stuffed animal I’m holding in my hands.
“You said the purple monster was me. Well, the golden retriever is you,” I shoot him a look based on yet another cocky grin on his face. “What?” I ask.
“You got a stuffed animal that reminded you of me,” He boasts, his selective hearing coming into play. “Come on, we’re going to miss the last ferry and get stuck here,” He nods his head.
“My feet hurt, give me a break,” I tell him, still picking up the pace to run with him.
We make it to the boat in time, but this time we don’t go to the upper deck, we walk until we get to the bench closest to the captain's side. I sit down, and there are very few people on the boat now considering how late it is. There are pretty bistro lights hanging around the entire ferry, and there’s a warm glow casting from them, highlighting every perfect feature Bellamy already had.
One thing I have learned for sure from this date is that I am more attracted to him than I had initially thought.
Of course, I could see how good looking he was.
I knew that from the start, but I didn’t see it in the way I do now.
There truly is no flaw in his outer appearance.
He’s the perfect man. He’s perfectly tall and perfectly muscular.
His smile is to die for. His teeth are without a flaw, and his dimple is incredibly sexy.
.. Just like his tattoos, and his arms. I haven’t seen him without clothes, but I imagine it’s just as flawless.
There’s no denying I want him in that way. I have fully confirmed that now.
“Did you have a good time?”
I nod softly, “Did you think I wouldn’t?”
He shrugs as he leans down, scooping my legs up so they’re together on his lap. He unlaces my shoes one by one, unwrapping the straps from my calves and pulling them off of my feet. He keeps the heels next to him on his side of the bench and also keeps my feet where they are, propped on him.
“I hoped you would, but I also knew if I didn’t make this date perfect it would set me up poorly, and you’d never finish the list with me.”
“Awe, how cute.”
His hand rests on my bare leg, his thumb moving back and forth on my skin softly.
“You think I’m cute,” He speaks out.
“Selective hearing,” I chime in, and he shrugs.
“Always thinking happy thoughts.”
I laugh, covering my face as I do.
The boat takes its time docking, and I reach over him for my shoes, but he pulls them away.
He takes the shoes in his hands and stands up, reaching for me.
I think for a second he’s going to stand me up, and I want to protest, but he doesn’t.
He pulls me up in his arms, honeymoon style, not letting me lift a finger, or touch the ground at all.
“Now call me your knight in shining armor so I can live my fantasy out,” He tells me, walking me toward the exit of the boat, physically and metaphorically having swept me off my feet tonight…