THE OCEAN OF YOUR EYES | PART TWO
Word Count: 3.7K
Characters: Arthur Barone x Original Character (inspired by a friend)
2 hours. 120 minutes. That was the time Ana had spent at her house between the time she was dropped off, and the time she would be picked up once again by her friend to drive to Pat’s house. She was trying to pretend that she hadn’t counted those minutes down, fidgeting in front of the wardrobe to decide what the right choice for the evening would be. She didn’t want to look like she was making an effort, God knew that Barone’s ego was big enough as it was, without needing to be encouraged by the idea that she was wearing something to be on the receiving end of one of his ocean blue glares. She shivered at the thought of his eyes, but tried to push the thought out of her head before it could materialise into something real. She had opted for some skinny high waisted jeans with a cropped pale yellow top that made her tanned skin look even more glowy in comparison. It didn’t feel like something she would wear to impress anyone, so she felt pretty satisfied with her choice. As Vinnie’s car pulled up on Pat’s driveway, she carefully got off and looked around to see if she could recognise the cars that were already parked, so that she could be prepared if he had already arrived.
“Looking for your lover boy?”
Vinnie asked with a small smirk, gaining himself a side-eye from both Ana and his fiancée, even if they were trying to communicate very different things. Emily was trying to say “Don’t push it. You’ll scare her before anything even happens”. Ana’s eyes were trying to convince both Vinnie and herself that that spark of excitement she was feeling at the idea of seeing Barone outside of the baseball field was actually just nerves due to the fact she wasn’t great at group gatherings. But as much as she tried to push the thought away, there it was again. She had always been a curious child, her mum always had to chase her down the street as she got distracted by every single thing that didn’t look familiar to her, maybe that was just her curiosity getting the best of her. Curious Ana, wanting to understand why Arthur Barone was such an egotistical ass. Before she could say something out loud to defend herself, Em put her hand on her arm and started walking with her towards the door. They lightly knocked on the door and immediately they were greated by the familiar figure of Patrick’s dad. Alongside the two girls, he was one of the loudest people on the bleachers whenever there was a game.
“Oh, come in, come in. Nice to see you ladies. Vinnie. I am just leaving, give you guys some space.”
He grabbed his keys from the table next to the door and let them walk inside before closing the door behind his shoulders. Loud voices were already echoing from the living room, signalling they were not the first people there. Vinnie grabbed Em’s hand and left a kiss on her palm, before disappearing towards the living room to find his friends. That was his way of saying “I am probably going to have a beer too many this evening and be really loud with the guys, but I love you and I am glad you still want to marry me.” He disappeared in the living room, leaving the two girls alone.
“Let’s grab a drink.”
Emily led Ana towards the kitchen, more familiar with the space as she had been there multiple times before. They crossed paths with a brunette holding a couple of beers and waived at her, recognising her as Polacco’s cousin who had recently moved here from the UK to study at STAC.
“So do you always come here after a game?”
She asked her friend, since it was her first time at one of these celebrations.
“Sometimes it’s here. Sometimes at Maz’s. I haven’t dared to set foot in Polacco’s apartment.”
Ana laughed, thinking of the state of his place without even needing to see if for herself. It felt nice to be a part of such a tight knit group of friends, she had always hoped to find her people growing up, and she was starting to wonder whether maybe they were hers.
“We’ve never really been to Barone’s. He generally doesn’t come to these things. Not sure you’ve noticed, but he’s not everyone’s favourite person.”
Emily anticipated the question that her friend was never going to ask out loud. Ana wrinkled her nose and shrugged her shoulders, trying to suggest disinterest in what the brunette had just said, but in reality she was really curious to know why. Was he the same person he presented to everyone when he was protected by his own four walls? Was that just a mask he used, or was he really like that all the time?
“He’s definitely not mine.”
“Talking about me?”
Ana almost jumped out of her skin as she heard his voice very close to where she was standing. She turned her head to find he had just walked into the kitchen and was heading for the fridge to grab a beer for himself. She couldn’t control her eyes as she proceeded to study his whole figure. He was wearing washed out jeans that hugged his figure perfectly, and a simple light blue V-Neck t-shirt. That was possibly the most basic look a guy could have ever achieved, but Ana had to suck in a breath to control the next words coming out of her mouth.
“I know you believe you’re the centre of everyone’s thoughts, I am sorry to disappoint you.”
She didn’t miss the way his eyes followed up and down her body. He was never very subtle when he studied her like that, and she always tried to ignore it, but she felt a different kind of intensity in his eyes that evening.
“Want a picture? It’ll last longer.”
She gave him one of her best fake smiles and he couldn’t help but smirk as he brought the beer up to his lips.
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
Em laughed and grabbed her drink, heading for the door, but Ana almost didn’t notice, dead set on winning this argument.
“Can you possibly be any more of an asshole?”
She never really allowed herself to look in his eyes for a long period of time, worried that she would start drowning in them, but for the sake of this conversation she wanted to hold his gaze for as long as possible. As the words left her mouth, she noticed something that she had never seen before in his eyes. Hurt. It only lasted a second, and he quickly replaced it with one of those smiles that she was much more used to, but that one second was enough to make Ana wonder if she was missing something much bigger about him that he didn’t want anyone to see. He took a step forward and she took one backwards, feeling the kitchen counter against her back, leaving her in the one position she had sworn she would never find herself in. She was trapped right in front of his body. During every single interaction they had had so far, she was comforted by the metal fence between them. Now that the fence was gone, she was feeling much more vulnerable than she cared to admit. He raised his hand slowly, stroking the ends of her hair at first, and then moving it up towards her face, still focusing on the outline of her hair as he started moving it away from her cheek. She was holding her breath, trying to control her body’s reactions to him. He had never stood so close to her, his eyes were burning on her skin and leaving her exposed. She couldn’t help but turn around and meet his gaze, feeling her legs weaker as she started sinking in the ocean of them. He started moving closer and as much as she wanted to push him away, this time she felt her body fight her against any movement. His lips rested on her cheek, but only lightly stroke it. He traced her jaw with his lips and felt her shiver under his touch. She closed her eyes, hoping he would be too busy with what he was doing to notice, but he felt his lips curve into a smile against her skin. Feeling his smile against her felt like the best sensation in the world. He started moving towards her lips and she tightened her grip on the kitchen counter. That was it, all of her efforts to prove to him she wasn’t going to fall for his stupid tricks were about to be wasted. As she braced herself to feel his lips meet hers, he moved them away in one quick movement and brought them up to her ear.
“You seem to be pretty into this asshole.”
Before she could say anything else, he took a step back, and then another one until she felt the distance was safe enough to breathe in. He smiled and before she could find the words to insult him, he walked towards the door and joined the others in the other room.
-
After taking a long moment to compose herself, Ana had made her way into the other room. She spotted Polacco slouching on the sofa, his cousin sitting on the armrest right next to him. Zapata was also on the sofa right next to Pat, who turned around and gave Ana a wave and a smile.
“Where have you been hiding?”
Dells asked from the other side of the room, sitting on one of the armchairs. Vinnie smiled, but before the words could form on his lips Em shook her head in his direction to dissuade him.
“Snooping. I’ve never been here before.”
She tried not to make eye contact with Barone, who was sitting right next to the window, a bit further away from everyone else, but she wasn’t a good liar when someone else in the room could call her bluff any minute.
“See anything you like?”
He asked, gazing distractedly outside of the window with a smirk hidden behind the neck of his beer bottle.
“Nothing that isn’t extremely predictable.”
Ana responded instinctively, seeing Pat open his mouth as his cheeks coloured red. She slapped herself mentally, thinking of how rude of a comment that must have sounded to someone who wasn’t aware of the subtext of those words.
“I love your place, Pat.”
She commented, trying to save herself from the awkwardness. She shot a deadly glare in Barone’s direction and started to look around to find a place to sit down. She cursed to herself as she looked around to find the only place she could sit was right next to him on the window’s edge, almost as if he had already planned it. She was never going to let him win, and showing him it bothered her to sit next to him after what had happened in the kitchen was the last thing she was going to do. She nonchalantly walked towards him and sat down, crossing one leg over the other. No one except for Em really seemed to notice, and they all went back to their usual conversations. They sat there in silence for about a minute, as he kept on staring outside of the window and she sipped on her drink slowly.
“Enjoying the evening?”
That tone of mockery was starting to get on her nerves. He had no right to go and turn her evening upside down by playing those games with her. What was he even trying to do, anyways? If all he wanted was to get something from her he should have just gotten it over with. God knew she wouldn’t have moved away. That thought made her feel even angrier with him.
“What do you want with me, exactly? You could literally have a thousand girls who have no problem just kissing your ass, but here you are making my life impossible.”
He giggled, clearly amused with how well he managed to push her buttons. Also pretty entertained by the fact that she was completely clueless about how he was around her compared to any other girl.
“I pay you compliments and smile at you, I would hardly call that making your life miserable, darling.”
She crossed her arms to her chest, setting the drink down next to her body.
“I don’t care for your compliments.”
“Did I tell you how gorgeous you look tonight?”
His gaze went up and down her body again, and her cheeks coloured red. She truly, deeply hated the fact she couldn’t control her body around him. He bit down on his bottom lip as he saw her blush because of his comment and she pressed her legs together even harder to avoid feeling things. Other things.
“You moved away, anyways, so why didn’t you just get it over with before you move onto your next conquest?”
She cursed to herself under her breath. She sounded like a lovestruck fifteen-year old who was upset at the fact he didn’t actually kiss her. She expected to see his usual satisfied grin, but he didn’t look too amused.
“Contrary to what you may think, I would never kiss you against your will. Now if you really, really wanted to kiss me, it would have been up to you.”
His tone was so low it made her shiver, noticing the intensity in his eyes again. Whenever she pushed him towards something so extremely predictable, something she would have expected from this persona he liked to put on whenever they were together, he went and did something completely unexpected. She felt disappoinment starting to build up in her chest, but she tried to dismiss that thought at the back of her mind who told her that she would have wanted to kiss him.
“Honestly, I am telling you, it feels like this team is cursed. No offense, Maz, but every single person who wears this jersey ends up not being drafted.”
Zap was leading an animated argument involving every single person sitting around the room.
“That may be because you all suck.”
Polacco interjected, grabbing his third beer from the coffee table in front of him.
“Yeah, remind me when it was that you got drafted?”
Dells jumped in, calling Polacco’s bullshit.
“You all very well know Maz is the only one who ever got close.”
Vinnie pointed at his friend who was not taking part in this conversation, he had been very happy with his life since the previous year’s draft, but it was still somewhat of a sore topic.
“You speak for yourselves, if it wasn’t for my wrist...”
Polacco groaned, interrupting Barone’s sentence before it could even leave his lips.
“When will you stop it with the wrist bullshit, Barone? It’s been two years. Literally nobody believes that shit anymore.”
“I don’t really care if you believe me, I had the Yankees and the Red Socks coming to scout me when it happend.”
“Yeah, and we all know why they were really there. The Barone family name. Baseball legacy. Too bad you’re shit and nothing like your brother.”
Ana expected the situation to escalate in a screaming match and she braced herself for the reaction, but what happened next actually surprised her. She turned to look at Barone to understand the silence that had just fallen on the room, and she saw it again. Hurt. His beautiful blue eyes were full of it. No cockiness, no smug retort. Just plain hurt. He set down the beer right next to him and without another word he headed for the door.
“You’re such a dick, Polacco”
Zapata hit him on the arm lightly, as the tension in the air could be cut with a knife.
“I am the dick? He’s an asshole 90% of the time.”
Ana felt something in her chest as he said that, thinking back to when she had seen the hurt in his eyes for the first time. Without thinking much about how it would look to everyone else, she got up and started following him outside. She had to pick up the pace to catch up to where he was, considering he had a head start.
“Where are you going?”
He didn’t listen to her and kept on walking the path that led off the Murray’s garden and towards his car.
“Seriously, are you going to pretend like I am not here?”
He stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at her, his eyes were now an intelligible mixture between hurt and amused.
“That would be the asshole move you’d expect from me, right?”
That word was hanging between them since the second it has been spoken, but she refused to just stand there and take it.
“Oh, come on. You cannot act like an asshole in front of everyone and then get hurt when someone calls you on it.”
“Noted. See you next week.” He turned around to find the keys in his pocket but she moved closer to where he was standing and put her hand on his arm, turning him around to face her.
“Would you stop acting like a child?”
She pushed him backwards against the car and, surprisingly, found herself in the same position they had been just an hour earlier - only this time she had the power position over him.
“Why do you care?”
She started thinking about what he had said before, about how he wouldn’t kiss her against her will, even though she never would have admitted that underneath it all she wanted him to kiss her. That way she could have just pretended to be an innocent bystander who happened to fall victim of his gorgeous blue eyes. But no, he couldn’t even make that easy for her. He wanted her to prove to him that he wasn’t alone in this attraction going on between them. He needed for her to get over her pride and actually be the one to initiate this. Why did she care? Maybe she wanted to find out the reason for the hurt in his eyes. Maybe she even wanted to remedy it. All she knew was that she cared. Before she could change her mind, she put both hands on his chest and grabbed the fabric of his t-shirt as she pulled him towards her. Her lips crashed on his and for a second she forgot about every single reason why she had fought against this in the first place. She could feel his body stiff under his touch for the first few seconds as the realisation sank in, but as soon as it did, he didn’t waste any time. His hands were immediately on her face as he pushed her hair back and cupped her face to pull her closer to his lips. There was something magnetic in the air around them that was pulling their bodies together, and Ana found herself pressing her body against his chest, completely taken over by the feeling of his hands on her face and his lips on hers. She would have wanted to gasp for air but she knew the second she broke contact her senses would have kicked in again, so she pushed him even more against the car and let her body melt into his. He recognised the change in intensity and let his hands travel further down, landing on her hips and stroking the naked skin with his fingers. Of all the times he had imagined this moment, nothing could have ever predicted how good it felt to feel her skin under his fingers. Her hands travelled up to his hair and she allowed herself to run her fingers through them, thinking that if she was going to be kissing him just this once, she would have allowed herself to do all the things she had secretly wanted to do since the day she had met him. Even when completely taken over by the feeling of his body against her, Ana didn’t miss the noise of steps walking towards them. She immediately panicked and pushed herself off him, bending down low enough to be hidden by the car as she saw Pat’s dad strolling back towards the house. Barone waited for him to close the door behind him before letting out a giggle.
“Usually girls like to be seen with me.”
Ana rolled her eyes, and before she could take a step further back and break that intimacy between them, he grabbed her arm and pulled her against his body again. She didn’t fight him this time, comforted by the fact that it was dark outside and nobody was looking at them, surely.
“Now will you tell me what that whole thing was about?”
“That’s at least a third date conversation.”
She tried to push him off her jokingly, hiding an amused smile behind her hand.
“I am not going on a date with you, Barone.”
He shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head, meeting her gaze. She stopped fighting him off and just took in the feeling of being looked at this way by him.
“You seemed pretty interested just a second ago.”
“You are not the kind of guy that goes on dates.”
He rolled his eyes, turning the tables on her for the first time.
“You don’t know what kind of guy I am. I am very good at playing the long game when I want to.”
She rolled her eyes, trying to think of a witty retort, but she was interrupted by the feeling of his lips on hers again. She let go of all the tension built up in her body and kissed him back delicately. Maybe she was more intrigued than she thought. She broke the kiss and bit down on her lip, unsure on what to say. Maybe he hadn’t been lying when he had said she was different from the other girls.
“Ana, are you ok?”
Her best friend’s voice started calling from the door, probably worried at the fact she had been gone for a while. She took a step back and this time he let her, following her movements as if he was hypnotised.
“I’ll see you next week.”
She just said, but before she could turn around he caught a glimpse of it. One of those real smiles, the ones he had always wanted. And it was all for him.
