London Leaks

"Don't you bloody dare!" a girl with pin straight blonde hair squealed, glaring at the boy before her viciously.

The boy had the most childish grin imaginable on his face, his eyes crinkling at the sides as he held a bottle of water above the girl's hair. The pair had been catching up when she made a cheeky remark, causing the current scene to unfold. As menacing as she was trying to be to prevent her best friend from dumping his bottle's contents all over her, she couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from twitching up slightly. At least until he dumped the water all over her.

Her mouth formed an 'o' shape and her shoulders stiffened as the cool liquid trickled down her back. She gripped her hands into fists as the brunette before her started to cackle loudly. The nerve he always seemed to muster up shocked her. He never failed to catch her completely off guard.

She bit her lip, wiping water from her eyes before glaring in his direction, "You better run, Payno."

"Catch me if you can, Dezzarae," he winked and darted out of the kitchen, then down the hall as fast as his legs would carry him.

The next few moments happened so fast it was all one big blur in her mind. As she watched him disappear she raced to fill the biggest cup she could find with water and went after him. There was no way she was letting him get away with ruining her hair, especially after it took her so long to get the frizz to calm down. You just don't mess with a girl's hair, it's cruel.

She tip toed as quietly as possible down the hall in search of him, straining her ears for any sign. It was just like her childhood friend to immediately start mischief at their reunion. The two had not seen each other in weeks and they were already acting like fools. She heard the bathroom door creak to her left, she shoved her back to the wall and nudged it all the way open with her right foot.

"Argh." He jumped out with his back facing her as he threw a towel up over his face to shield him from her oncoming attack.

"Over here Liam," she giggled, watching as his head snatched around to reveal his shocked expression. She wasted no time throwing the cup of water in his face and ducking into the bathroom to refill it.

That was all it took for all hell to break loose. Within the next few seconds the giggling girl had managed to refill her cup and sling even more water onto her friend, but not without consequences. Liam armed himself with a bottle of shaving cream and decided to treat it like it was a can of silly string instead. The room was filled with shrieks of laughter as the two refused to call a truce, water and shaving cream splattering all over the place.

Dezzarae watched as the brunette's eyebrows furrowed, causing her to smirk. "Looks like you're all out of ammo, Payno, better surrender while you still can."

"Never!" he whooped, charging at her and causing her to slip, bringing them both down onto the tiled floor.

The air was briefly knocked from her lungs, her body still shaking with laughter as she tried to breathe. Both of them were laughing so hard that no sounds were coming out of their mouths, tears glistening in Liam's eyes. He propped himself up on his elbows as she gasped for air, her laughter slowly dying down as she studied his jaw line. "Did I hurt you?"

She bit her lip and tried to avoid staring at his pink lips, her mind refusing to think about anything, but how badly she wanted to trace her fingertips across the stubble that was growing on his cheek. The urge to kiss him was making her body flush with heat and she was suddenly very aware of every inch of him that was touching her.

When she managed to look into his brown eyes he was smiling lopsidedly at her, causing her cheeks to turn pink. She shook her head no when she realized he had spoken to her, letting her lip slip from beneath her teeth as she smiled up at him. The impact hadn't hurt her at all, but having to restrain herself from filling her desires was brutal. Being in love with your best friend is really hard, especially when the feelings are unrequited. She shook her head and tried to snap herself out of her thoughts.

"White flag," she mumbled, smiling halfheartedly as she wiped some of the shaving cream off of her face and waved it in the air slowly.

She felt his stomach shake with laughter, before he pushed himself up and held his hand out to help her do the same. Just as she was about to check her reflection in the mirror, someone cleared their throat and her stomach plummeted.

"Lucy!" Liam grinned, beaming in his girlfriend's direction.

"Am I interrupting?" she smiled, her eyes flickering in Dez's direction.

"No, not at all, we've just called a truce." Liam was so blissfully unaware of the rift between his best friend and his current girlfriend that it was ridiculous. All Dez wanted to do was reach over and smack the brunette as hard as she could, but because that would likely cause more issues than it was worth she kept her hands and thoughts to herself. She knew that Liam would realize how much of a twat Lucy was eventually, or so she had been telling herself for the last three years.

"It's wonderful to see you Luce, when did you get in?" Dez smiled a caddy expression on her face.

"Last night," she squealed, throwing her arms around Liam and burying her face in his shoulder.

"Wow, what a surprise," Liam sounded like he really meant it too, his eyes hadn't returned to normal size and the smile that was across his face was so big she was worried his face was going to split.

"No kidding," she muttered, "Why don't you two go catch up while I rinse this shaving cream out of my hair."

That was all it took for the two to disappear, leaving her to the jealousy that always seemed to bubble up when her best friend's girlfriend was around.

Lucy and Liam had a complicated relationship. The two had been off and on again for the past three years, which was oddly enough what caused Dez to realize her feelings for Liam in the first place. Things with them always seemed to be perfect, until they weren't, and then oddly enough they get back together a few weeks later like nothing happened in the first place. She had heard enough conversations between Lucy and her judgy friends to know she was just using Liam, but he was blinded by his feelings for her. There wasn't anything Dezzarae had been able to do so far to change that, either.

As she stepped into the shower she remembered the job interview she had with a gossip magazine a few days prior. Even though she thought that there wasn't a vindictive bone in her body, she called the number provided by their help wanted add without an ounce of guilt. Her feelings for her best friend were becoming too much to bear, and she knew if Lucy was out of the picture for good she could make her move.

She just had to give Liam a gentle nudge.

Wrapping a towel around her body and towel drying her hair, she grabbed her cellphone off of the counter before she could change her mind.

"Hey Tanner." She chewed on her lip, "this is Dezzarae Arden."

She paused and closed her eyes slightly, "I've got a story for us."