Eight Weeks (Unfrozen Four Book 2)

“I swear that I’ll be yours forever, till forever falls apart”—Till Forever Falls Apart by Ashe, FINNEAS

“Another round of shots?” Colin asks, though he has already ordered four new ones and is currently setting down all four of the shots on the table.

“Tequila shots?” Lily asks, though before receiving an answer, she has put some salt on the back of her hand, licked it up and downed the shot, then shoves a slice of lime into her mouth.

Colin kisses the side of her head before downing his own shot.

Sofia looks at me, the same mischievous spark in her eyes as the first time we took shots together. She has a better tolerance for alcohol than me, which I blame on Germany, to be honest. But, fuck, is it hot when she’s near sober from four shots and whatever drink she had, whereas I am barely keeping up with my beer and two shots.

She leans into me, her mouth to my ear when she says, “I bet you won’t drink yours.”

If she thought, I’d ever back out of a challenge… I might have to show her why I wouldn’t. Like, come on, if you don’t want a guy participating, don’t challenge him. He’ll take on the challenge, even if there is a higher risk of him dying than surviving.

We both put some salt on the back of our hand, counting down from three. Only when we reach one, Sofia doesn’t lick the salt on her hand, she leans over to me, her tongue gliding over my neck before she downs her shot.

My jaw drops, as so does the shot glass in my hand, spilling its entire contents on the table. Luckily, it’s the table and not my pants.

As my head shoots toward my girlfriend, I find her laughing uncontrollably. She falls back into the booth, smoothly sliding over until her thigh presses against mine. “I won,” she spits out through laughter.

She has the most infectious laughter I have ever heard; so genuine, loud, and joyous. It is almost a shame that not every single living-being will experience her laughter.

Hearing that laughter confuses something inside me though. I never know if I want to laugh with her, kiss her breath away, or fuck her nine ways to Sunday. Maybe all of the above, but even then, in which order?

“You cheated.” Turning slightly in my seat, I lift her head from my shoulder then hold it in my hands, looking at her. My heart beats faster in my chest, and it’s driving me insane. Why does it keep doing that? “Licking me wasn’t part of the deal.”

She grins. “I never stated any rules.”

“You and your smart mouth.”

Our faces are so close together, I can feel her hot breath roll over my skin. Soft lips only millimeters away, so kissable, and sweet. Her eyes are shining even through the dark light of this bar, building a passage right into my soul when she looks at me. But that’s alright. Eyes this beautiful are bound to find a way to someone’s heart, even if you weren’t aware of falling for them.

“Oh, my God. They just opened the stage for karaoke!” Lily pulls on my girlfriend’s arm, forcing her away from me. “We have to sing a song together!”

“I’m the worst singer to ever exist,” Sofia replies, yet following Lily to the stage. Whatever Lily says next, I cannot hear but I know better than anyone that my sister can’t sing to save her life. So this is going to be fun.

Not so much for everyone’s ears, but fun, nonetheless.

“Let’s do a Spanish song!” Lily speaks, forgetting that the microphone is already picking up their voices. But the look on Colin’s face is totally worth it. My sister knows a total of zero Spanish words, maybe the basics like hola or sí. You know, the words everyone knows, basically.

Now, you may wonder why my sister attempting a Spanish song would be as shocking and horrifying to Colin as it is. Easy, his mother is from Spain, and therefore I would say he knows his fair share of Spanish.

This night keeps getting more and more hilarious.

And when Sofia and Lily start singing, standing on that stage arm in arm, barely hitting any tones, nor saying any of the words right, I can no longer keep my laughter in. It just spills out of me without me having a say in it.

But they’re both laughing at themselves, making everyone inside this bar join in, even the bartenders. When I look at the security guard by the entrance, I even find him smiling the faintest smile possible.

So then neither of them has a great voice, and neither of them knows the words, but they’re a great spirit.

My eyes are now focused on Sofia, and without noticing, I no longer laugh but instead smile at her and enjoy the view. She’s so effortlessly beautiful, it kills me every time I look at her.

There is one more thing about this whole awful karaoke performance that leaves me love it despite the great spirit. Seeing my sister happy.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen her this free, this light. So if it takes a karaoke night for her to be happy, I’d drag her to a karaoke bar every weekend if I have to.

“Have you ever seen my sister this happy?” I ask Colin, noticing how his eyes are only on her. Perhaps I do not need to drag my sister anywhere after all. My best friend seems to be doing the job just fine, keeping Lily happy, I mean.

“I have,” he says as a matter of fact, “In my bed with me buried deep inside her.”

Unfortunately, I no longer have a drink I could throw at him, so gagging will have to do. “Gross.”

He grins cockily, then winks at me like he wants me to beat his ass. “Wish that was you, huh?”

“Definitely.” I gag yet again, memories of that one night we spent together making its way through to me. “Did you ever regret it?”

Colin laughs. “Being with your sister? Nah, dude. She’s my everything.”

I throw a tissue at him, the one I used to clean off the tequila from the table. “Sucking me off, I mean.” We never spoke about that night ever again. It happened, and although Colin and I both seemingly went to tell Grey about it, which ended up with Grey laughing for a good thirty hours straight, we never really talked about it.

Not sure what there was to talk about. I don’t talk about the sex I had with whoever I fucked either. I always just leave and that’s it. But still, I had always wondered if he regretted it.

“I regret having told Grey,” he says, “but only because of his comments and the laughter. And perhaps because he told Miles so he wouldn’t be the only one laughing.”

He didn’t mean any harm, we both know that. And he wasn’t making fun of us, he was just a little surprised. Plus, we were like nineteen or something. Guys that age make fun about almost everything, teasing each other. We still do, even two years later.

“So other than that, no regrets?” Colin shakes his head with a slight shrug. “Did you tell Lily?”

“I have. I wanted her to know before one of our friends lets it slip out on accident and she’d think I cheated on her or something. She took it well. Though, she was a little grossed out because I was talking about you and me, not some other guy. But other than that, I don’t think she’s mad at you.”

“Why would she be mad at me?”

He winks. “You know, because I had my mouth on your before I had it on her.”

“Gross, dude.”

By the time the song ends, some people are screaming for Lily and Sofia to sing another one. I do not understand why, because my ears need a break, but sure, why not?

And of course they give their fans what they want and start yet another Spanish song. This time, however, Colin isn’t having it. “I cannot let them continue to ruin Spanish songs like that,” he mumbles and walks up to the stage.

Lily welcomes him with open arms, holding her microphone out for him or at least enough for them to share it because, God forbid my sister disappointing her millions of fans.

Sofia’s laughter fills the room, before she jumps off stage to dance instead of making up new words to a song that’s named after her. Well, probably not after her but I’m pretty sure the song is called “Sofia”.

Some guy then approaches Sofia, but at least he isn’t invading her space too much, I guess. I would love to get up and tell him to fuck off, but then Sofia turns around, pointing at me. She waves, and I wave back.

The guy nods his head at me, so I do the same as some form of acknowledgement. He then says something to my girlfriend before making his way back to wherever he came from. Only then do I notice how tense I was. Subconsciously, I have clenched my hands into fists, ready to use them in case that guy were to touch what’s mine.

Sofia comes running over to me, panting like she’s been dancing for hours. “How’d you like my performance?” she asks, plopping down beside me.

She leans against me, putting her legs up on the seating space.

“Loved the parts when you didn’t know the words or didn’t hit any tones. They were my absolute favorites.”

“Mine too!” She then turns her phone on the table to face her, tapping on the screen for it to light up. “It’s almost midnight.”

“Five more minutes.”

“That’s going to be my first ever New Year’s kiss,” she admits, taking my hand in hers to look at my wrist. She twists the ribbon, looking at it from every possible angle.

“Who says I’ll be kissing you?”

Sofia lets go off my hand, letting it fall right down to her body. “Who says I will be kissing you?”

Nope. That’s it.

The hand she had just held in hers is now pulling on her hair so that her head leans into her neck, forcing Sofia to look up at me. I may be upside down to her, but the possessive, claiming kiss I lay on her lips still gets the message across.

She is mine. And mine alone.

My tongue finds into her mouth, brushing hers.

Only when she smiles into the kiss do I eventually let her go again. “Don’t say shit like this, Icicle. You’ll regret it.”

“I will if that means you’ll kiss me like this more often.”

“Aaron, Sofia!” Lily shrieks. “Let’s go outside to watch the fireworks.”

I thought we’d just be inside the bar, counting down from ten then scream Happy New Year and go back home ten minutes later… apparently, I was wrong.

So now we’re standing outside, me keeping Sofia in my arms because this woman forgot her jacket inside and is freezing her goddamn skin off. And she keeps wondering why I nicknamed her icicle. She literally is one.

Eventually we can hear the people inside the bar start to count down from ten, I hope. Somehow, I keep forgetting they speak a whole other language here.

Anyway, Colin and I join in starting at eight because we were confused at first. Lily and Sofia follow suit.

Fireworks keep going off although we have five seconds left, but there are always some stupid people wherever you are in the world.

“Three!” we yell.

“Two!”

“One!”

While Colin and Lily yell out “Happy New Year”, I already have my lips attached to Sofia’s.

The night sky gets swamped with firework after firework, and the entire street is suddenly filled with people that just came out of their houses to light up even more fireworks on the street, small ones, bigger ones, every possible firework imaginable.

“Happy New Year, my love,” I whisper into Sofia’s ear, waiting until she has said it back before my lips are back on hers for another New Year’s kiss, because, why the hell not?