Chapter 8: Aria

                                    

                                          
No way this jackass is sitting here laughing at me.
First, he leads me on, sharing an amazing night with me. We talked, we danced, we drank. We had, overall, a jolly fucking time.
But then, the second I asked him to come back to the house and hang out with just the four of us, he blanched. He immediately bowed out. 
I was nervous as hell, but after a silent pep talk from Katie, I opened up. Took a shot. Instead of being rewarded for taking a risk, though, Griffin slammed the door in my face.
Fuck this. 
I place my hands on his chest and shove so I can get him away from me and go find Katie. His laughter fades at my movement, but instead of stumbling backwards, he traps my hands against his chest with his own. Using my shove as momentum, he spins us around and my back hits cold metal. 
My breath hitches as I realize I'm pinned between the cold metal of a truck door and the searing heat of the man in front me. Traitorously, my body betrays me, my heart pumping quicker and my stomach fluttering at the position.
Griffin's eyes are dark as he steps closer to me, forcing me to tilt my head up to look at him. The laughter in his face is totally gone, replaced with a fire I haven't seen before.
"Please enlighten me. How did I reject you?" he asks, his face tilted down towards mine, his body close enough for me to feel the heat rolling off of it.
When I look away and don't respond, he releases one of my hands and instead grabs my chin, forcing me to meet his searing gaze.
"Answer me," he demands.
Annoyed now, I fire back, hurt and anger lacing every word. "I went out on a limb. Opened up. Invited you back to our house to hangout just like Katie invited Blake. But you shot me down."
I enviously think of Katie and how easy it is for her to get what she wants.
"Princess. It's not the same. Katie invited Blake back to the house knowing exactly what she wants from him tonight. You reluctantly invited me back after being bullied into it by your overly eager best friend."
"That's not true-" I start, again trying to drop my gaze. I trail off as Griffin holds my chin in place and leans closer, placing his other palm right next to my head. 
"Aria, I was trying to give you an out after seeing your panicked face as Katie was pressuring you. Can you believe that maybe, just maybe, I was trying to respect what I thought your boundaries were?"
I swear my heart drops to my stomach. Well, shit. That's not at all what I was expecting. The fight drains from my body as all thoughts of catching up to Katie evaporate.
I study the man in front of me. His gaze is intense as he searches my face, desperately waiting for an answer.
Well shit.
Finally, I find my voice. "I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding between us," I say meekly.
He pushes a breath out through his nose, allowing some of the tension to release from his shoulders at my words.
"Clearly. Care to clear it up for me?"
I squirm a bit, hyper-aware of how close Griffin is to me and what it's doing to my body. 
"The silent conversation you watched us exchange wasn't Katie pressuring me into anything. It was more of a 'you can do this, step out of your comfort zone' pep talk," I explain. 
"And when you did, I said no, making it seem like I was shooting you down," Griffin finishes for me.
I nod.