~after hera’s convo w/ phoebe~
Walking with his group felt like hours as Maxon had already started to tick him off. He was seconds away from pulling out his silly string from his bag and spraying the whole can in Maxon Russo’s ear. Tempting, but Aj was a good boy. Even after a little argument. He hummed a little tune as he held his flashlight with one hand, adjusting the strap of his bag with the other. “Mm, this isn’t as scary as I thought it would be…” He muttered to the group. He wasn’t really paying attention to who was walking where between the three others — he had been distracted by the pure adrenaline he had pumping through his veins as they explored the place. This was fun to him. Aj stopped as Phoebe mentioned fixing her bun, and smiled lightly as she made it into this cute messy little concoction. It was obviously a lie that she had to fix it, but her stopping them sure made him forget about the creepy spirits lurking. Wait… Did Aj just think about her bun being cute….? He looked away and immediately out his mind elsewhere, looking around with his flashlight towards a dark corner that was pretty much scaring the sh*t out of him. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep with all of this.” He said, barely finishing his sentence.
Suddenly, Aj felt a hand tug him towards it’s direction. His eyes widened in fear as he thought a scary demon was pulling him towards the hidden torture chambers of this very-much-so haunted place.
“Oh, fck, please don’t kill me—“ he said as he was pulled into a little hallway. Dmn it. This is where he died. This was where he died without living his little baker boy dreams.
Except — it was only Phoebe. He clenched tighter to her hand, feeling his heart beat wayy faster than it should be. “Holy sh*t, I thought you were some ghost lady trying to take me away to marry her for eternity,” He said, letting out a small sigh of relief. “You know, haunted houses aren’t really the place to start doing spontaneous acts.” He said, giving her a click of his tongue as if he were a disappointed parent — laughing shortly after.
“I couldn’t stand it either…” He replied, playing with the cord latched onto his flashlight.
”It was a nightmare and I guess that’s what Halloween should be about but I’d rather die than spend another minute with them.”
He chuckled at her with a small frown. “Yo, I think Maxon and I were about to kiss. You know, that tension in our argument and all…” He joked, making two kissy noises with his lips. “Honestly, thank you for pulling us away… It’s usually better this way anyways…” He said, muttering that last part with a shrug.
“Do I think this place is haunted? Hmm,” He repeated, feeling her trip right into his body. Which
— by the way, wasn’t even covered fully considering he liked to use any chance he got to be shirtless.“Woah, you okay, P?” Aj laughed lightly as she rested her forehead on his shoulder, then wrapped his arms around her tightly in an act to make her feel just a little bit safer. “Yeah, for sure… I’m terrified.” He admitted.
There was just a single moment between this that made his heart flutter. Just a hint. He hadn’t ever had that happen with her, oddly enough. But it was nothing he would’ve noticed. A brief silence flooded over them as Phoebe’s lips parted ever so slightly, making him wonder: “what was she doing…?”
”Who’s ghost do you think did that?”
The moment was quickly brushed away as she pulled back, popping a question to avoid any awkwardness he was assuming. He nudged her softly with his shoulder as her accent poured out. “Britney Spears… hands down.” Adlai said, smirking lightly in humor as he raised a suggestive brow. “She told you it was Britney, b*tch.” He teased, flipping the tip of her nose lightly with his pointer finger to tease her.
Before he could say anything else, Phoebe came towards him slowly. He furrowed his brows as she let out a breath. “Are you–“ He whispered this slowly, not even planning to finish the sentence before Phoebe’s arms were wrapped delicately around his neck and her soft lips had met his.
He was shocked. Not even going to mention the fact that his eyes were wide open in shock as he felt the only unfamiliar grounds of this girl making it’s way to be discovered. He had a decision to make here. A tough one. Though, he pretty much knew why she was doing this. And that was going to hurt him even more. It wasn’t real…. Was it?
Finally, his eyes closed tightly and everything that was going on around them had disappeared. Nothing really mattered now. He had no control over the fact. This was insane. What if someone saw? His arms gently pulled her closer to him, closing the distance as their lips began to move in harmony. But it was only for a couple seconds before she had pulled away, spitting out an apology.
He looked at her for a moment — the two of them standing in this empty creepy hallway. The pure silence cascading over them like a curtain in this goddmn crazy asylum. You could practically cut the tension with safety scissors. Yes, child fcking safety scissors. Letting out a breath through his nose, he licked his lips as he looked away from her finally.
“Vanilla cupcake?” He asked randomly, referring to her chapstick as he laid his bag on the floor. He wasn’t going to act like anything happened. Treat it like she’s your best friend – he thought. Just like usual. Be casual. The poor guy’s mind was going a thousand miles a second. Like did she mean to do that? Was there anything behind it or was it for another reason.
He handed her an extra flashlight from his bag and shrugged lightly. “Wanna go look around?” He said, throwing his bag back over his shoulder.
@astxrism phoebe
