The Code of Aries ?

(24) Overnight

"You know, Aries, despite how hard you try to act all tough, you're pretty kind," I honestly tell him, making him chuckle.

"Kind? I'm not kind."

"You are to me."

"It's because you're annoying."

"Shouldn't you be mean to me instead if that were the case?" I ask him next, and Aries no longer answers that question.

"This might sound a little weird coming from me, but aren't you tired of pretending like you're the perfect student? Come on, you're a senior. You're rich, handsome, and smart. You don't always have to be smiling at everyone and being a yes man. You don't always have to be kind," I explain to him, and Aries ends up laughing this time.

"Why are you desperately trying to make me mean?" He asks me, and I bend my head over so I can look at him, making him stop drying my hair with the towel.

"That's not what I'm trying to say," I defend, and Aries looks down at my face. The moment our eyes met, everything around me suddenly stopped again. Despite the dim light, he still managed to mesmerize me like this.

"I'm not entirely pretending. I'm just being decent, and nothing's wrong with that. Just because I'm in a bad mood or just because I'm a little annoyed, it doesn't mean I should show it. They don't have to see all that. Because if they can't see, they can't ask questions."

"So you keep it bottled in and get frustrated alone?" I ask him, and Aries lets go of my head and shrugs his shoulder.

"Well, I get frustrated with you easily, and I'm sometimes mean to you with no issue. So I guess that balances it out," he jokingly replies, making me pout like a kid.

"But I don't like it," I say out loud before I can even stop myself.

"You don't like it when I'm mean to you? You just said I shouldn't be kind all the time," he continues to say, and I can tell that he's still joking around.

"It's because you're mean to her too," I finally tell him.

"Her?"

"It feels like you're treating me like her, and I don't like how that plays out. She even told me that I should talk to you about her, and...shit...why am I even saying this to you? I guess I really did drink too much earlier," I say in shame. I thought Aries would definitely be mad at me now for even opening this up, but he doesn't. Instead, he decides to joke about it further.

"So that's what this is about. You're jealous," Aries teases, making me look back at him again, only to see him grinning at me.

"I don't have the right to be jealous of someone who isn't mine," I seriously tell him, and the grin on Aries's face instantly disappears. He then bends over and leans his lips toward my face. My heart skipped a beat because I thought he was going to give me a kiss, but he stopped just inches away from me and gently pushed me away so he could stand from the bed.

"You're being mean," Aries tells me, making me furrow my brows.

"Why, are you?" I ask him, referring to the last statement I made.

Aries looked like he was about to answer, but then, I swear to it, he looked guilty for a quick second.

"I'm gonna use the bathroom. You can go to bed," he tells me instead before heading inside the bathroom.

As soon as he closed the door, I leaned my back against the bed and rested my head on it, staring at the ceiling and lifting my hand out to cast a shadow. "Now I'm the mean one?" I ask myself while staring at the shapes I'm making with my hands. And then, like some kind of psychopath, I remember what Aries said just seconds ago.