Author's Note :: Thank you so much to the people who have reviewed this for me and also subscribed. It's been a while since I've written anything, so getting feedback from you guys is really great.
I also had a reviewer point out to me that I did not mention ages or anything like that in the last chapter. I apologize for that and I promise that it will change with this chapter!
Again, thank you guys. And because I forget things often and didn't mention it in the last chapter, the title for this comes from the song "Southern Constellations" by Pierce the Veil.
Enjoy~
Gendry
For one reason or another, he was pacing back and forth in his room again. The prospect of finally actually getting some real alone time with his best friend was making him nervous. He wasn't entirely sure why he was nervous. He just knew that there was a knot in his stomach that would not go away. Groaning, Gendry tugged at the ends of his blue-black hair.
Why did his best friend have to make him so damn nervous!? It wasn't fair! Especially considering that he was quite a bit older than her and close to graduating high school.
Arya was a sophomore and fifteen years old. Gendry, on the other hand, was eighteen. Not that it was a huge deal, three years wasn't much of a difference. Especially, apparently, to Arya. Her boyfriend, Jaqen was eighteen as well and in the same graduating class as Gendry.
'Maybe it's a good thing she's into older guys… If she and Jaqen ever break up, I might have a chance.' The realization of what he had just told himself in his mind hit him a few moments later and he froze, blinking. 'Wait…did I really just say that?' he asked himself, tilting his head. He groaned and smacked himself in the forehead. He really was as stupid as Arya always claimed him to be. Great.
He heard a brief knock at the door before he heard his mother's voice speaking to someone downstairs. "It is so good to see you, Arya! I'm so glad you could come! Gendry's up in his attic," his mother said before Arya said somewhat else in return.
'Shit!' Gendry panicked, looking back and forth frantically to see if he had left anything he shouldn't have out.
"What are you doing, stupid?" Arya laughed as she came up the stairs. He huffed and spun around at her, his brow furrowed. She had her long brown hair down for once and tucked behind her ears. Her large grey eyes were framed by long pretty lashes, making them stand out even further against her face. She wore a simple grey hooded sweatshirt that was too large for her by far, the sleeves pushed up to her elbows, and a pair of faded blue jeans that flared out over her feet a little ways down from her knees.
"Nothing."
"Uh-huh. Sure…" she said, drawing out the sounds on her last word. She laughed at him and then walked over to give him a brief hug.
Gendry squeezed her and held her to his chest as much as he dare, holding her feminine figure close to him. Arya hid it, of course. She wasn't nearly so fond of being girly as her older sister. She didn't like showing off her figure and she seemed almost insecure about her new curves.
The only reason that Gendry had noticed the way that her hips had flared out from her slim waist and that waist had led up to her petite, budding breasts was because of the fact that he was often graced with hugs whenever he did get to hang out with her.
She stepped away from him and looked up at him expectantly. "So what are we doing today?" she asked, unaware that he was thinking about the way that her curves would feel when he ran his finger tips along them…
Mentally, Gendry had to smack himself. He had a girlfriend, Arya had a boyfriend, and they were supposed to be just friends.
"I don't know," he said, smirking, "whatever you want, I guess."
Arya rolled her eyes and punched him lightly on the bicep. "Way to go, Stupid."
"Are you hungry or anything?" Arya shrugged at his question and Gendry sighed. Why could she just not make this easy on him? "A movie, then?"
Again, the girl shrugged, but she made a facial expression that showed she thought watching a movie was a good idea. "Cool. You have to decide the movie, though."
His best friend looked at him, incredulous. She stuck out her bottom lip and placed closed fists on her hips, staring him down. Gendry smirked, crossing his arms over his chest and lifting one of his eyebrows at her. They remained in their stand-off for a few more moments before Arya got this evil smirk on her face and shrugged. "Fine."
Arya
She wasn't entirely sure why she had chosen this movie. Maybe it was because she thought that, for whatever reason, his mother wouldn't have it in her house. She shouldn't have hoped, because here she was sitting next to Gendry trying to hold in her laughter for the absurd cheesiness that was Tangled.
"I can't believe you actually have this movie," she had said when Gendry pulled it from the cabinet in the entertainment center. He had looked back at her nervously, chuckling.
"Mom's a big fan of Disney movies," he had offered, shrugging. She wasn't sure he would actually take her serious when she told him she wanted to watch Tangled with him. Seven hells, what had she been thinking? She was an idiot.
But she did have to admit that it was nice to just be able to sit on the couch next to Gendry without having to deal with anyone distracting her by playing with her hair or trying to kiss her and keep her from watching the damn movie. She missed the simplicity that was hanging out with her best friend. She also missed just being able to be comfortable in silence.
When she was with Jaqen, she always felt like she was doing something wrong if she was silent for too long. She didn't have to worry about not being comfortable. She could just be herself with Gendry. She could be Arya. Stubborn, bull-headed Arya.
She settled down into her sweater, sighing contentedly. Her eyes kept flickering over to Gendry, who had a bemused smile on his face and in his stormy blue eyes. Gendry was a rather large young man for his age. Not nearly so large as her sister's boyfriend, but he was still one of the tallest (and broadest) in his class. He was about six feet tall and however much he weighed was all lean muscle. Not that Arya was making any note of how much of that muscle he had or anything…
He was wearing a pair of faded grey jeans that had probably once been black at some point. A dark blue t-shirt stretched across his chest. His raven hair was mussed as it always was, a testament to the fact that he didn't comb through his hair often, if at all. The last few times Arya had seen him, his hair had been especially messy, like he had been pulling it or something. She smirked at the thought of Gendry getting disgruntled.
"What's so funny?" he asked her, turning his head towards her.
"Besides the ridiculous song and dance numbers in this movie? Nothing," she said slyly. Gendry laughed, throwing his head back with the force of it. It made her smile, too.
"Oh please, Arya. You know you're enjoying it," he teased. She stuck her tongue out at him and threw another light punch against his arm. "Punch me, will ya?" he said, reaching to shove her.
Arya yelped lightly as she fell over onto the couch, rolling off onto the floor. "Good going, stupid," she laughed.
Pushing herself onto her knees, she leapt at her best friend, pouncing on him. He let out a yelp of surprise as well and they both went down from the couch onto the floor. Arya was on top, her hands pressing flat against his chest. A moment later, she was trapped below Gendry, his strong arms on either side of her head.
And then they froze. Like they had just realized what the hell they were doing. Wrestling and rolling around on the floor was nothing new for them, but…something was different this time. Arya wasn't sure what it was, but it made her blink a few times. Gendry was giving her a strange look and there was a tension between them that hadn't been there a few moments before.
The tension between them made her nervous and she scrambled away from him as best she could, retreating to the opposite side of the couch. Gendry sat up, running his hands through his hair, pushing it back from his face. He had a grin on his face when he turned toward Arya. She couldn't help but to smile as well, despite feel awkward at the weird tension that had come up out of nowhere.
She couldn't get the face that her best friend had made when he had pinned her down. She couldn't put a description on what it could have possibly meant and she wasn't entirely sure she even wanted to know, for that matter.
"Stupid," she told him, sticking her tongue out at him again. He just laughed at her again. Why in seven hells was he being so damned infuriating today!?
