Never Too Late

Aria's Point of View

After doing what I said I would never do again, I started to regret it. This had to stop and I had to be the one to make it happen. Schmidt had fallen back asleep and I crawled out of his bed. I got re-dressed and went down to hall to my bedroom. I found a box full of my clothes, grabbed a shirt, pants, underwear and bra then headed to take a shower. I heard talking coming from Jess's room. I wondered who was in there with her. I closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower. I stripped of my tank top and sweat pants and hopped in. The warm water woke me up some more. Schmidt had me in this spell of his. I had to break it. We couldn't keep sneaking around. Well, we could but it wouldn't end well. We would eventually get caught and I didn't even want to start thinking about what could or would happen if that ever happened. I sighed. I was over thinking this. I needed to turn my brain off for a bit. I grabbed the shampoo and put some on my hand. I worked it into my hair and then rinsed it out. I grabbed the conditioner and did the same thing. After I washed my body off, I turned the shower off and grabbed a towel. I wiped myself off and then got dressed. I wrapped my hair up in the towel and headed back to my room. Lucy was awake and was texting someone. She looked up at me and then back down at her phone.

“Where did you go last night?” she asked.

“I woke up after you left and couldn't fall back asleep so I went out to the living room and watched some TV. I guess I ended up falling asleep out there,” I said, hoping that she wouldn't hear me lying.

“Okay then,” she said.

I sighed in my head. I was glad she didn't ask any further questions. Lucy usually knew when I was lying to her. I looked around the room and saw all the boxes that we would need to take care of. I dug around, looking for my hair brush. I finally found it. I unwrapped the towel and then brushed my hair out. I decided to leave it down for now. I sat on my bed and grabbed my phone. It was only eight fifty.

“We probably should try to get most of our stuff out of the boxes today,” I said, breaking the silence.

“I'm going to hang with someone today so if we’re going to do this let's do it now,” Lucy said.

I nodded my head and we started to unpack. There was one closet so we ended up splitting it in half. Not like it actually really mattered; our styles were totally different. There was only one dresser too, so we decided to split that in half as well. My stuff was on the right and hers was on the left. After we were done with getting the majority of everything done, Lucy went and took a shower. I grabbed the last box that had some of my personal belongings in it. I pulled out a photograph of my mom, Lucy, and I. It was before my mom had gotten really sick. I was about ten in the photo. We all had smiles on our faces. Looking at this made me miss my mom even more. I put the picture on the night stand next to my bed. Lucy walked back into the room. She grabbed her brush and brushed her hair out.

“Want to go see what we can find for breakfast? I think I heard Jess and Uncle Nick out there,” she said.

I nodded and we both walked out into the living room/kitchen area. Sure enough Jess and my uncle were out there. Jess was getting coffee and my uncle was sitting at the table.

“Morning, girls,” Jess said.

We both said hello and ended up grabbing the cereal. I grabbed the bowls and Lucy grabbed the spoons and milk. She passed me the cereal after she was done with it. I poured some in my bowl and then put milk in it. I sat next to Lucy at the table. Small talk went around and then Schmidt walked out of his room. He only had sweat pants on. He saw that I was looking at him and he smirked. I looked away and took a spoon full of cereal and put it in my mouth.

“So what's on the agenda for you two today?” our uncle asked

“Well, I’m going to hang with someone and won't be back until tomorrow,” Lucy said.

My uncle looked at me next. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don't know, probably just go out and become a hooker for the night,” I said.

I heard Schmidt choke on his coffee. Lucy tried to not laugh and I got concerned looks from Jess and my uncle.

“Seriously?” my uncle asked.

“Oh totally, I do it every Saturday night. Just go to a random club and then stand outside and wait for a nice handsome guy to walk by and then I make my move,” I went on.

If looks could kill, I was pretty sure my uncle would have killed me. I looked over at Schmidt and he was giving me the same look.

“Guys, I’m joking, it's a joke,” I said.

I heard the sigh of relief come from my uncle. Lucy was still laughing.

“So what are you doing then?” Jess asked.

“Probably work on homework. I have that essay to do for your class then some psychology homework,” I answered.

“Well, I have to work and I don't know what Schmidt or Jess is doing so you may be here alone,” my uncle said.

“I'm going out for the night so I won't be back until later on,” Schmidt said, looking at me.

Was he trying to make me jealous? Because I couldn’t care less what he did.

“I'll be gone on and off. I have to go do some shopping but you can join me if you want,” Jess offered.

“Maybe, I just want to get my homework done,” I told her.

Jess nodded. I had always wanted to get my homework done first. Lucy usually teased me about it but I didn't care. I'd rather have my homework done instead of doing it at the last minute. We finished breakfast and then Lucy left. My uncle left shortly after her. Jess went out to do her shopping and Schmidt was taking a shower. I grabbed my laptop, notebooks, my psychology book, pen and pencil, headphones and my iPhone. I went and sat on the couch. I put my headphones in and plugged it into my iPhone. I put music on and started working on my English paper. I was so into my writing that I didn't realize that Schmidt was sitting beside me. He took my left headphone out and I looked up from my paper.

“What do you want?” I sighed.

“Well, I wanted to talk,” he said.

“Well, I need to work on this paper,” I said, grabbing my headphone and putting it back in.

He took it out again and took my laptop away from me.

“Give it back,'” I said.

I tried to grab it but he moved it away from me. I sighed and he read my paper.

“This is pretty good so far,” he commented.

“Thanks, now give me my laptop back,” I said.

He handed it back and turned the TV on. I put my headphones back in and started writing more. About halfway through my paper I felt his hand start running up and down my thigh. I pushed it away but he just moved it back. I looked up at him and pushed his hand away again. He just ended up putting it back.

“Will you stop it?” I demanded.

“Why? Is it bothering you?” he asked.

“Yes it is, I'm trying to write,” I said.

Schmidt nodded and then moved his hand. This didn't last long but I knew it wouldn't. He kept moving his hand further and further up. I stopped typing and looked at him.

“This thing between us needs to stop now,” I said, pushing his hand away from my thigh.

“You said that last night and look what happened. You can't fight this feeling you have for me,” he persisted.

“I can and I will,” I said.

“I'll love to see you try; you know I'll always win,” he said.

“Fuck you,” I told him with an eye roll.

“When and where? Don't offer it if you won't do it. Oh wait, you will,” he said, smirking at me.

At this point I was done with the whole situation. I grabbed my stuff and headed to my room. I slammed the door shut and let out a frustrated sigh. I put my stuff on my bed and lay down. There was a knock on the door a few minutes later.

“Go away,” I said.

I heard the door open and then someone say, “Sorry, just wanted to see if you were okay.”

I sat up and saw it was Jess and said, “Sorry, this essay is getting to me.”

“Well, maybe helping me start dinner would get your mind off of it?” she suggested.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said.

I got off my bed and went to help Jess. Schmidt was nowhere to be found and I liked it that way. I guess he ended up leaving to do whatever. I didn't care. I had no reason to care. He was nothing to me. I wasn't going to think about him. Not for the rest of the night. I helped Jess out and once everything was done both of us sat down at the table and ate. We made small talk and then my uncle walked in. He gave Jess a kiss.

“Oh gross, that's not something I needed to see,” I said.

Jess laughed and my uncle rolled his eyes. He grabbed a plate and got some food. I finished and went back into my room and worked on my homework. After a few hours I had finally finished. It was pretty late now. Jess and my uncle were asleep by now. I put my books and laptop on the floor making sure they were out of the way and I changed into some pajamas and then headed out to see if I could find anything to watch on TV. I settled on some cartoons. I must've fallen asleep at some point because I woke up being carried to my room. I could tell it wasn't my uncle so the only other person it could be was Schmidt. I rested my head on his chest and still pretended to be asleep. He put me down on the bed and covered me up. He kissed my forehead and was getting ready to leave when I grabbed his hand.

“Don't go,” I said.

“You tell me you want nothing to do with me but want me to stay with you for the night?” he asked, confused.

“Just sleep next to me, I don't want sex,” I said.

I heard him sigh and go close the door. I heard him kick off his shoes and then he crawled into my bed. I rolled over and put my head on his chest. He wrapped an arm around me and then we both fell asleep. I was just hoping he would wake up and be out of my room before my uncle woke up. If not, we would have a major problem.