Page 44 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“Tristan?” Aria asked.

I responded way too quickly. “Yes?”

She pointed up to the top shelf of the closet. “Can you get that stuff down for me?”

I looked up to where there were some boxes stacked in the top of the closet. “Yeah, of course.”

Stepping forward, I reached up towards the top shelf, pinning Aria between me and the back of the closet. She elbowed me, trying to maneuver in the little amount of space. “Wait. Let me back out then you can do it.”

“I’ve almost got it. Just hang on.” The boxes were pushed further back, so even with my height, they were difficult to reach. I leaned forward on my tiptoes and reached as hard as I could, in spite of the fact that Aria was pushing me away from her. “Aria, stop. I can’t reach it with you doing that.”

“Then move and let me out and you’ll have more room.”

I growled in frustration. “Fine. Hang on.”

“Shutting this for a second,” a voice called from outside the closet.

“Huh?” The door of the closet hit my back and pushed, forcing me against Aria and shoving us both deeper into the closet. I looked over my shoulder and clicked my teeth. “Idiot. Why would he shut it with me in here?”

“He probably didn’t see you in here,” Aria hissed. “Can you move over?”

“It’s not like there’s a ton of room in here. I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable.”

She scoffed. “Then don’t stick around and sign up to clean the same area I agreed to clean.”

I sighed. It was a low blow, but I deserved it. “I’m sorry. I just want to talk to you but you won’t even look at me.”

“I told you, we have nothing to talk about.” She reached around me for the door handle, but struggled to reach it. “Can you please open the door so we can get out?”

As much as I wanted to trap Aria inside so she had no choice but to hear me out, forcing her to deal with me wasn’t going to be productive. I fished a hand behind me and grabbed the handle to the door, but when I pushed, though the door moved, it didn’t move far.

“Shit,” I hissed.

Aria let out an exasperated sigh. “Very funny.”

“I’m not kidding,” I said. “I can’t get the door open.”

“What?” Aria wrapped around me, sliding a little too close to me and encircling me with the smell of her delightful perfume. She squeezed between me and the door, setting her full backside right at my waist and tried to force the door open, unintentionally rutting herself back against me. “Dammit. I think those idiots stacked the desks in front of the door.”

“Can you turn around?” I asked, begging my lower half to behave itself.

“No. I don’t wanna talk to you,” Aria said.

“Fine. I won’t talk, just turn around.” I moved as far back as I could, but the closet wasn’t very large.

This was bad.

Aria pounded on the door. “Hello? Can you move the desks? We’re stu—”

And at that moment, the fire alarm went off. The blaring was much louder than Aria’s screams to try and get us out of the closet, and we could hear the shuffling of feet as those left rushed out of the room and then eventually silence.

“Did she not notice that we aren’t with them?” I asked.

“Everyone’s running in and out while cleaning. She may not have even been in there when it went off.” She set her forehead against the door, once again accidentally sticking her butt further back and rubbing it against me. In terms of punishments for my past misdeeds, it was by far the worst. “We’re just going to have to wait until she takes roll outside and notices we’re missing.”

“Whatever,” I squawked out in desperation. “For now, please for the love of god, just turn around.”

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