Safe in My Arms

Adelle quickly walked down the steps of her campus and jogged to her red Vespa Scooter, quickly putting on her helmet and drove through the familiar streets, and finally arrived at her dorm. She ran to her room, frantically taking out her key and tried to unlock her room’s door. She dropped it in over-excitement, and knelt to take it while groaning in frustration. She finally unlocked the door and quickly went inside, throwing her things onto her bed.

She quickly changed into a pair of denim shorts and a tank top, then moved her phone, wallet and make-up pouch into her other bag from her college bag. She left the room and went to her scooter again, not forgetting to lock it.

Trying her best not to speed up, she made her way to Jess’ house. Once she was there, she parked her scooter on the driveway and went to the porch to knock the door. It only took a few moments to wait for Jess to open the door.

“Adelle!” Jess shrieked happily, pulling her into a hug. “I miss you!”

“I miss you too, Jess,” she laughed, hugging her back. “Where are the others?” she asked once she was inside.

“Backyard.”

Without hesitating, she quickly went to the backyard and found all the boys were swimming.

“ADELLE!” John shouted, making the others to turn to look at her.

“ADELLE!” the others shouted at the same time. They all got outside the pool and engulfed her in a group hug.

They were all chiming “I miss you”s and Adelle could only try to search for air to breathe.

“Guys, you’re killing her,” Jess said, pulling Josh and Brian away.

“Look what you guys diiiid,” Adelle whined between the Gomez brothers. “I’m wet!”

John pulled away finally, laughing. “Your fault for not joining us.”

“Well I’m sorry, geez. I just got back from college and I was in hurry to meet you,” she rolled her eyes. “Now there’s no point for me to change earlier.”

“I miss you,” Stephen said, nuzzling into her neck, tickling her.

“Yeah, so am I,” she replied, finally hugging him back.

“Ew, get a room! I don’t need to see my brother kissing,” John snapped.

The couple both rolled their eyes. “You’re ruining the moment,” Stephen muttered.

“He’s John. What do you expect?” Adelle pointed out.

“Right.” With that, Stephen pecked her on the lips and pulled away.

“Save your hormones needs for later tonight!” Brian shouted from the pool.

Adelle stuck her tongue out at him.

“Adelle, you need to get changed before you get a cold,” Jess said. “You can wear mine.”

“Okay, Jess.” Adelle jokingly glared at the boys.

“Can I pick your clothes? Can I? Can I?” Stephen asked excitedly.

“Err, we’re not going anywhere, Stephen, so I’m good with shorts and t-shirt.” Adelle raised an eyebrow.

Stephen winked. “You won’t know.” He pulled her hand and went to Jess’ bedroom.

Adelle stood in the doorway, not wanting to wet the bedroom. She watched Stephen opening the closet and started picking on clothes.

Five minutes later, Stephen handed some clothing that he already picked.

“Get dressed,” he grinned. “I’ll be waiting downstairs.” And then he left her to change.

Adelle was confused, but she went to the bathroom next to Jess’ bedroom and changed. She fixed her hair with her fingers. She reapplied a small amount of natural make-up, took a last glance of her reflection in the mirror, and went downstairs, still questioning why Stephen wanted to choose her clothes. Sure, she had chosen Stephen’s outfits for a few times for fun, but she never knew that he would be interested in picking girl clothes.

When she was at the living room, everyone was in a conversation. Stephen was the only one who was fully dressed (besides Jess); the rest was still shirtless and hair soaking wet, the smell of chlorine could still be recognized from their body.

Stephen grinned when he saw his girlfriend in the clothes he had chosen. He stood up and put his arm around her shoulder and headed to the front door.

“See you later, guys!” Stephen called out.

“Hey, no fair!” Josh whined, “We want to spend time with her too!”

“You can do that when we’re back,” Stephen replied and they both went out from the house. “I drive,” he told her, snatching her scooter keys from her hand.

She smiled at him in understatement. She knew Stephen loved her scooter and until he had money to buy one, he was always the one who drove it when they were going on a date.

She positioned herself behind him and they both put on a helmet.

“Ready?” he asked. She wrapped her arms around his stomach and nodded

John was sinking deeper into the bean bag, staring blankly into the TV screen. Josh stared at him in sympathy. He knew what was inside his head, what made his lips churned slightly downward in a small frown.

John noticed he was staring, so he looked at his direction. Realizing the look he was giving, he gave a ‘stop-it’ kind of look in reply. Josh shook his head and continued watching the Guitar Hero match between Jess and Brian.

John sighed, his mind flying elsewhere again.

His brother always got what he wanted - what they wanted.

But Stephen never noticed that John wanted them too.

This time… Stephen had Adelle.

And John knew that there was nothing he could do.