Chapter 10
Taking Flight
My nerves overcame me as I watched Ari and Rory leave the library together. Any thought of concentrating on schoolwork fled. Thousands of thoughts flooded my mind. What if Rory said no? What if their voices could be heard? What if the two of them started actually fighting? What if Rory cried? I didn't stick around for any answers, but left from the rear exit of the library and was able to get back to my room without seeing either of them. I collapsed into my fluffy chair; I had gotten half way through my history assignment when I was interrupted by a light knock. I got up and pulled the door open to find Ari standing in the hall with his hands in his pockets. He was biting down on his bottom lip.
“Hi,” I said softly.
“Hi.”
“So…”
“So, I talked to Rory.”
“And?” I was nearly inaudible.
“Well, he hates me again, but he didn’t break my nose, so it wasn’t too bad.”
“What does that mean?” I asked as the tension built inside me.
Ari walked into my room a little further, took his hands out of his pockets, wrapped them around my waist and pulled me to him, closing the small gap between us, and kissed me. Gentle at first, his soft lips felt so amazing on mine. He lightly shut the door all the way with his foot. His tongue teased my lips into opening and our kiss grew deeper. The butterflies in my stomach started taking flight and a fire rushed through my body, making me tingle all over. I threw my arms around him and kissed him back; more passion burst between us than I thought possible for two people. Ari cupped his hand behind my head, blinked his eyes open and smiled at me. My cheeks flamed with white-hot heat.
Ari sat down on my armchair, pulled me onto his lap and began to explain what had happened.
“I laid it all out on the table for him; I let Rory know how I feel and how I think you feel. He was a little mad at first but he knew I was speaking the truth. He said he had blown all of his chances with you anyway and he just wanted to see you happy.”
This made my heart smile a little bit. I was sad that I had hurt Rory – he was my friend – but I knew that he and I would get over this part of our relationship and that I would never lose him.
Ari went on, “I know that he still really has feelings for Julia, and I am pretty confident that she is coming around to him, too.”
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“Not at all. For starters, I have you … and also Rory and Julia are a lot alike.” He brushed my hair away from my cheek, then added, “There is something I want to do.”
“Ok,” I smiled.
“Close your eyes.”
I closed my eyes as Ari asked and a moment later I felt his soft lips kiss the tiny, dark freckle I had right above my lip.
“I have wanted to do that since the moment I first laid eyes on you.”
“Really?”
“Mmm hmm. Badly.”
“Well, there’s something I have wanted to do, too.”
Ari’s eyes lit up. “Oh? What would that be?”
I slowly ran my fingers through his thick, dark and unruly hair. His eyes closed at my touch. When he opened them up again, he had an amused look on his face.
“What?” I asked with a giggle.
“Ava, you do that all the time.”
“I have never done that.”
Ari’s smile was so large it lit up my room.
“Maybe not when you’re awake, but you have very bold and curious hands and fingers while you sleep. You are a very controlled and disciplined person, Ava…until you sleep. I love it when you wrap your body around mine and when you snuggle your face in tight to my chest.” His smile got bigger. “Your toes get cold and you tangle our legs up together, you knot your fingers tightly in my hair.”
He paused for a second and his smile faded. “I am so sorry that I didn’t do this sooner. I was selfish and I didn’t consider your feelings the way I should have. That night when I brought you to my room and you said we needed to talk, I knew what was coming. You were going to end whatever we had. I panicked and held on to you for dear life. I watched you sleep all night long and thought of how on Earth I was going to make our relationship work. I decided right then to do whatever it would take to have you for myself. I didn’t want to stay away from you any longer and I didn’t want to sneak around. I wanted everyone to know how I felt about you. I just had to get to Rory before he saw us. Then he knocked on the door and I blew it. You stopped talking to me for the next few weeks. It was as though to you I had never existed. Mia was right for chewing me out. You are too good for me.”
I knew what he was saying. I had turned my emotions off when he was near me. I refused to feel anything. Doing so was unbelievably hard and I hoped never to have to do it again.
Ari continued talking. “When I saw Rory in his room with Julia on the night of his party, I knew he had screwed up any chance he might have had to try for you again. That was one of the happiest days of my life.”
“He was with Julia?”
“Uh, yeah. I thought you walked in on them.”
“I did, but I was too shocked to see who was with him.”
“Oh, yes, he was with Julia. They were using each other to get back at me. It blew up in Rory’s face and couldn’t have worked out better for me.”
He kissed me again, softly on the lips, my stomach did more flips, and my body began to tingle all over again.
“Do you forgive me?”
“Yes, of course. I actually liked our little talks at night. I just wish I could have had you more in the day time too and now I will.”
“Yes, you will,” he agreed, and licked his bottom lip. My pulse picked up a beat. Ari pointed to my freckle. “Do you have any more of these little things that I should know about? This one here has the ability of making me forget my own name.”
Oh, holy hell.
“If you play your cards right and look hard enough, you might find a couple more.”
His jaw dropped. I loved that I could get such a strong reaction out of Ari. He was the most poised and composed person I had ever met. I felt very powerful at the moment.
“Mmm. I am going to begin my search right now,” Ari whispered, and started kissing me behind my ears and on my neck. He stopped to ask me a question about myself from time to time, and each time, I thought a moment before answering. When I did finally answer, the kissing began again.
Ari and I hung around my room doing more of the same for a while. Suddenly I spied my book on the floor near my bed. There was a pen sitting on top of it and I recalled the words I had heard in my dream. I got up, walked over to the notebook and picked it up, trying to remember how the letters I had scribbled earlier this morning had sounded.
“Hey Ari, what does ‘skotosei to koritsi’ mean?”
“I don’t know … I don’t speak Greek all too well. Why are you asking me that?”
“Well … ” I started, and then I told him about my dream and how a few men had been discussing something I could not understand and how one of them kept saying, “skotosei to koritsi” over and over again.
Ari’s face went pale. “How many men were there?”
“I think six; why?”
“What did they look like?”
“I don’t really know… they all kind of looked the same – dark short hair, well built, brown eyes … kind of Mediterranean.”
He quickly stood up, pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, and started dialing. He grabbed my keys off the desk and waved for me to follow him. Ari was on the phone with his dad by the time we exited my room. I followed him quickly through the commons.
Ari pushed the call button on the elevator while he spoke to his father. He looked at the closed elevator doors, then to me, then back to the doors again.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, we climbed in together.
“I’ll call you right back, Dad.” Ari hung up the phone, grabbed me in his arms and pushed
me against the elevator wall. He pushed his body and lips against mine and kissed me fervently, his fingers knotting in my hair. I hardly had time to respond – but I knew I liked it.
By the time we arrived at the ground floor, I was breathless and left wanting more. Ari winked at me and hit “send” on his cell again. We got down to my car and he tossed me the keys. I climbed into the driver’s side. He mouthed “my house” and we started off towards the Alexander’s beach home.
We arrived at Ari’s parent’s house the same time that Andrew did and the two of them, father and son, quickly made their way through the house and into Andy’s study. I followed along, not sure how to take the hurry and the secrecy.
“Ava,” Andy said, “tell me exactly what you dreamed.”
I went through the dream again and repeated what I had heard. Ari and Andrew quickly started talking about it. After a bit, feeling increasingly anxious, I snapped, “Would someone just tell me what the hell it means?”
Andy looked at me with fear in his eyes.
“Uh, Ava,” he said, trying to stall and failing, “actually the phrase means ‘kill the girl.’”
My shoulders dropped. “Oh. Ok. So. I mean I already knew that someone wanted me dead. That’s nothing new.”
“Well,” Andrew began, “we had hopes that they didn’t know who you were, or where you were, and we may still be correct, but it sounds to me as though they have begun planning some kind of action. What are the chances you will have this dream again?”
“Pretty good, actually. I have most of them over and over again. But I can’t really control my dreams.”
“That’s just it, Ava, you can control your dreams. What you are experiencing are not really dreams; they’re more like visions … sometimes of the past and sometimes of the future. The Kakos are attempting to choose your fate. You have the power to stop them only before the fate has definitely been chosen. And only you have the power to influence what the Kakos do – that’s why these visions come to you – so you can take control. If you dream of these men again, try to stay where you are for as long as possible and to get as much information as you can.”
“Ok,” I answered readily, “I will. But I don't know their language and I can't guarantee I will remember all the words … ” An icy fear started to edge its way through my body.
“You will understand more than you expect to,” Andrew said. “You have powers while in your visionary state; you just have to master them.”
Ari and Andrew went on talking together in hushed tones, and I excused myself to give them space. I found Aggie and Lauren in the kitchen making dinner.
“Need any help?” I asked, as I walked in and sat at the island.
“Ava Baby!” Aggie said with a smile. “I have missed you!” She pulled me to her for a strong hug and then kissed both of my cheeks energetically. As soon as she let me go, Lauren took her place for another hug and more kisses.
“So, Ava,” Aggie said, while chopping up vegetables, “I hear you and my Ari are finally a couple.”
“Um, yes, we are actually … who mentioned that to you?” I asked, since we had only been dating for a total of two hours and both of those hours we had spent in my dorm room making out.
Lauren rolled her eyes. “Get used to it, nothing is private around here, news travels fast, especially when Rory is involved.”
“Rory,” I said, “I should have known.”
“Speak of the devil, Baby, and the devil shall appear!” Rory said with a laugh as he walked in through the back door.
I gave him a sheepish smile and a small “hi.” I wasn’t sure exactly where we stood friendship-wise. But he grabbed me by the shoulder as Aggie and Lauren had done, pulled me to him for a huge hug, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then, for good measure, he put me in a headlock and messed up my hair. I felt much more at ease knowing that we could still goof around with each other.
Rory threw the refrigerator door open and all the bottles jiggled and clanked. He pulled out two pops, grabbed an apple off the counter, and headed back to the study.
“We’re eating in an hour and you’d better have an appetite!” Aggie called after him, shaking her head.
Once Rory was out of earshot, Aggie smiled up at me.
“Ari is very fond of you, Ava. I am so glad to see things are working out.”
“I like him, too, very much.” My cheeks felt hot.
I helped Aggie in the kitchen for a while then sat at the table and started to help Lauren with her French homework. We managed to get through the lesson but doing so was a chore; Lauren knew very little of the vocabulary, even less of the grammar and had almost no accent at all. She was a good listener, though, and made progress even in the short time we worked.
Soon after, Julia arrived from next door with Rory’s parents. She had been living with them for the last few weeks, and I kind of thought her move had something to do with me. I was happy to see her again. She sat and talked with us about a new band she was going to see up in L.A. the following weekend, and I thought, as I had the first time I met her, that she was really very nice. She didn’t mention Ari, and there was no way I was going to mention him to her.
Growing restless, I eventually got up and found my way in to the living room. The room was empty and I needed an escape; my brain couldn’t choose which of the many topics rolling around in it to attend to. Stress and anxiety were on the rise, bringing bile to the edge of my esophagus; I knew myself to be in danger. Worse yet, I felt the people around me to be in danger as well.
Running was out of the question, so I sat at the piano and began softly playing Chopin's Nocturne op. 9, no. 20. I closed my eyes and let the music take all the thoughts away. I moved into Ingrid St. Pierre’s “T’sé” and sang it to myself softly in French. The song had been one of Mia’s personal favorites. I finished and took a deep breath to steady my emotions then closed the piano lid. When I turned around on the bench, I was stunned to see that the living room had filled up. Every person in the house was there, sitting quietly watching me. My cheeks flushed pink.
“Holy hell, I am so sorry,” I squeaked and put my hands up to my cheeks while everyone stared at me.
Aggie spoke up. “That was your father’s piano, Ava. No one has played it since him.”
I just blinked at her, unable to formulate a sentence.
I stood up as Ari came over to my side. “So are you ready?” I asked, trying to ignore all the other faces in the room. I hated playing in front of crowds; it made me feel vulnerable and exposed.
“Well, actually,” he said, rubbing at his five o’clock shadow, “do you mind if we stay here tonight? My Dad thinks it would be best … you know, if you dream something new. We really want to stay ahead of them.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s fine but, …” I said, turning to Andy, “I have never been able to control my dreams. If I could change a dream, I would have never let my mother die, or Mia.”
Aggie came up and squeezed my shoulder. “We know that; don’t worry. Now come on everyone, let’s eat.”
We sat down to dinner. Aggie had made eggplant parmesan and a large salad stacked with veggies, then added to the table a beautiful loaf of crusty rosemary bread. The dinner conversation took on a lighter tone and people began to ease up. Aggie turned to me.
“Ava, where did you learn to sing like that?”
“I can’t sing, Aggie.”
“Nonsense, we all just heard you. It was beautiful.”
I smiled at her, wishing she would just drop it. “That song sounds pretty only because it is in a different language. I really don’t sing well, and I certainly did not intend to subject any of you to my voice.”
“Well, I thought it was beautiful. And about tonight, I thought staying here would be easier for you. You can stay with Ari in his room. We have extra toothbrushes and things in the closet down the hall; I’m sure you’ll find everything you need in there.”
“Aggie, it's fine,” I said, feeling even more unco
mfortable. Is she giving me permission to sleep with Ari? “I can just stay on the couch; it’s no big deal.”
“Don’t worry, Ava. We are modern people; we recognize that the two of you are going to be together one way or another. Sneak around at school all you want, but there will be no sneaking around behind my back in this house. Oh, and please don’t make me a grandmother yet! I am still much too young,” she said with a wink.
I felt as though I might puke. I shot Ari a look and he gave me a little grimace. He had told his mother! Totally embarrassing … I chugged my entire glass of water, my mouth had turned so dry.
Ari came to my rescue. “Ma, leave Ava alone.”
He put his hand on my leg and softly trailed his fingers up my thigh. He was trying to help me calm down, but his touch had the opposite effect and my blood began to boil with desire. I thought about our crazy, sexy kiss in the elevator and felt faint. I sucked in a breath when his hand got a little too high up my leg and Ari gave me a crooked little smile.
I passed on dessert and helped Aggie clean up after dinner. As soon as the last dish was in the dishwasher, Ari took me by the hand and pulled me down the hall to his room, closing the door behind us.
His room was just as I imagined it would be. He had a remarkable view of the ocean and his bookshelf was filled with some of my favorite books. He had a few pictures on the top shelf, all of him and his family. There were two glass jars, one filled with white seashells and the other filled with smooth black stones. His floor had the same dark hardwood that ran throughout the rest of the house but there was a large white rug in the middle of the room, thick and soft against my bare feet. His bed was king sized and topped with big white pillows and down comforters. His surfboard leaned into a corner and a brown leather armchair with a stack of books on the floor sat next to it. On another wall, there was a huge, panoramic, black and white canvas of a surfer walking the beach at sunset. On the far wall, he had a collage of several more black and white prints of the same surfer. I pointed to it.
“Are all these of you?”
“Uh, yeah, but please don’t think I am self-absorbed. My mom’s a photographer and she took all of them.”
He looked somewhat embarrassed, but they were beautiful prints, and they couldn’t have been of a lovelier subject: Ari. I had noticed black and white prints all throughout their home and each one was incredible. If Aggie had taken them all, she was a very talented photographer indeed.
Ari turned the music of Dr. Dog on in the background and pulled open the doors to a huge walk-in closet. He took out an unopened package of boxers, ripped it open, and threw me a pair. Then he grabbed a white tee-shirt, the same kind I had seen him slip on in the middle of the night on several occasions, and tossed it to me.
“Uh, do you mind if I take a quick shower?” I asked, holding my new pajamas in my hand.
“Not at all,” he smiled, “it’s right down the hall.”
I slipped out of his room, my stomach full of butterflies, and found the closet Aggie had mentioned. I grabbed a toothbrush from a multi-pack, there was also a supply of razors and moisturizer so I stocked up and headed to the shower.
There was nothing quick about it. I took my time washing my hair and scrubbing my face. When I got out, I covered myself in lotion and towel dried my hair and put on my boxers and tee-shirt. I did the best I could at walking calmly back to Ari’s room.
He was wearing his glasses and sitting on his bed reading something on his iPad.
“Hey,” he said with a very reassuring, perfectly beautiful smile, “feeling better?”
“Much,” I nodded.
“Good.”
Ari pulled off his glasses and tossed them aside with his iPad. He wrapped his arms around my waist and fell back onto the bed pulling me down with him. I let out a little giggle and he rolled himself on top of me and kissed me, sending sweet, tingling shivers down my spine. He softly trailed his lips all over my face, neck and collarbone. Then he pulled me up so I was sitting on his lap; Ari wrapped my legs around his body and we kissed deeply, my fingers ran through his hair and his hands ran up under the back of my shirt. Things between us were heating up fast.
“God, Ava, I can’t seem to take my mind off you, and now it seems I am having the same issue with my mouth.”
His voice was husky and his eyes were dark and lidded. I closed my eyes and felt my body melt in his hands. I pressed my lips back to his, our breathing got heavier and my mind began to get foggy. That’s when I heard a soft creaking sound, but I couldn’t place the noise because I was too caught up in our heavy breathing and the rapid beating of our hearts.
“Hey, you guys wanna watch Caddy Sha… holy shit, I deserved that. . . sorry.”
Rory had scared me half to death and I let out a little scream. Ari pulled me off his lap and sat me next to him on the bed.
“Shut the door, Rory,” Ari demanded calmly, but Rory just stood there, looking a bit like a deer staring at headlights.
“Shut the damn door, Rory,” Ari said again, with more force.
“Right, sorry. I’ll just leave the two of you to it then.”
With that, he finally left and shut the door.
“I am so sorry, Ava.” Ari looked at me sweetly while brushing a wisp of hair away from my face.
“No, it’s fine. It is probably for the best that that happened anyway, Ari – I don’t think I am ready to do that yet.”
Ari kissed my forehead, “I would wait forever for you.”
I blushed and he smiled.
“Well, do you wanna watch Caddy Shaaa?” Ari teased.
“No.”
“Good, me neither.”
He scooped me up and tossed me on his giant pillows. I let out another giggle and Ari’s beautiful smile spread, once again, across his face as he crawled under the blankets next to me, wrapping his body around mine. We lay there like that while he stroked my hair and traced circles on my back; he asked me another round of questions and I fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.