For the rest of the holidays, I spent in my flat reading and revising.  It wasn't like I had completely cut myself off; everyone knew I was too good for that. Elliot came up to visit me once with dad and I gave him a tour of London. Well another day spent out having fun. My days were never counted as a waste whenever I had fun.

Arthur and I were in touch every night- well until the shooting of his music videos and my final exams began- talking about anything and everything. Generally, it'd be the normal friends' talk where he'd be telling me about his day and then ask about mine too. I'd tell him the load that the uni, the showcase and the theatre was putting on me. Apparently the play selected for the Showcase was Much Ado about Nothing by Shakespeare. Everything was done- preparation, the dialogues costumes, but in the end, the lead lady got her foot fractured. I felt bad for the poor girl, but was also worried as to what would happen at the showcase now. It was scheduled for the fourth of January and there was no time to get a new girl and make her rehearse.

'Wasn't there anyone who'd know the lines by heart?' Arthur asked. 'You must've had a sidekick.'

I laughed at his choice of word. 'No. We didn't this time.'

He was quiet for a moment before saying. 'Chastity?'

My heart almost stopped. I had never heard my name spoken more beautifully, ever before. 'Y-Yes?' I stuttered.

'How do you manage to get into so much trouble?' he chuckled.

I felt the heat creep up the back of my neck and also my cheeks as I giggled. 'Trouble is my middle name.'

'Is that so?' he teased. 'Why don't you do the part?'

'What part?' I asked, confused at first, but then when I thought about his words again, I realised what he was speaking of. 

Arthur continued, I don't know how, but realizing that I understood. 'Who knows, if you'd be a really good actor too. You might become an established actress as well.'

I laughed.

Well that was mostly how it'd go. I'd share everything with him and if there was something bothering me, he'd try to give solutions. It was surprising how he never had problems with anything. His life just seemed to be perfect. Well, it would've been if Marcus wasn't in it. He'd always tell me about the pranks they'd play on him during the recording. Like this one day they had paint war right there in the studio and Marcus was so badly painted as he entered the studio without any idea of that was going on.

As soon as my finals began, Arthur knew better than to disturb me. He himself got busy with the interviews, recordings and practices for the upcoming gigs of his. Though Arthur's idea for me to perform was completely ridiculous, I had started to take it into consideration when none else way was visible. My life, hectic as it was, became all the more Hitchcock. The three days of finals were so stressful that I spent the next one day completely in bed sleeping for hours. The next day was all the more hectic. Though the practice for the showcase was going completely fine, yet there were some parts where I needed finishing. Talk about becoming an established actress. Being the director I knew how to deliver the speech and how I wanted the scene to be, but telling others is one thing and doing it for yourself is completely other; like poles apart. You'd get the delivery right, but then I'd do some mistake here and there. But otherwise, it was going well owing to my hard working team.

I was on my laptop watching some actors perform the play on you tube when I heard the bell ring. Sasha had moved in with us for this semester and it was nice having her around. She got from the ground where we sat at the foot of the couch. 'I'll get it,' she yelled over her shoulder. I heard a commotion at the door as if a large group of people entered. I turned to get a look back at the door to my diagonal right. I saw boys and girls from the showcase team enter the flat with huge grins and huge packets in their hands.

With a really wide grin I jumped up to my feet and stood there watching them totally amazed. I didn't know what was happening. Who had called them here? It was a surprise.

'How come nobody informed that we were having a party?' I asked jokingly.

'Surprises are not meant to be told,' Carter, my classmate answered. 'We're here to practice with you. Don't worry you'll do great.'

I grinned at him. 'Thank you so much!'

'She actually needed that,' Inari, my flat mate said, smirking. 'She's been stressing herself out too much lately.' She winked at me.

I smiled back at her. We all sat down and practiced our dialogues for a while before Minnie shouted 'Who wants pizzas?'

And this is how the party that night began. But this wasn't the only surprise that I got that night. While we were all having pizzas and watching Much Ado about Nothing, the original movie, I heard my phone ring beside me . I jumped up to my feet as soon as I saw Arthur's name flashing through the screen. I bet Sasha saw who it was calling, hence there was a huge grin plastered to her face in a teasing way. I blushed and left for the kitchen.

'Hey, Arth!' I said, excited as soon as I was in the kitchen. I saw that there was a large stack of untouched pizza boxes and wondered how much these kids had spent on the pizzas.

'Hey, Chast!' he said matching my level of excitement. It made me giggle. 'I'm so sorry it took me so long. Things have been crazy.'

'It's okay,' I said, opening one box and the smell of oregano hit my nose, making my mouth water even after I had finished one large pizza myself a while ago. I closed the box controlling my urge to just eat. 'I have been pretty busy myself. I'm sorry too.'

He chuckled. 'Forgiven. What are you doing and what all that noise in the background is?' he asked in reference to the loud volume of the TV from the living area.

'Actually my showcase team is here,' I confessed. 'We were just watching Shakespeare's play. '

'Sounds boring,' he said and I could imagine him making faces. I giggled. 'But that answers the question I was just going to ask. Do you have an hour or so for me?' he asked his eyes hopeful. My eyes went to the people sitting in the living are that were here just for me.

'Arthur, I...' my voice trailed off. I was in two minds about it. I wanted to spend time with him, but I also didn't want to hurt the feelings of my friends who were here just to help me through.

'Oh, come on Chastity please? I promise you won't regret it.'

I bit my lower lip. I loved the way he said that and I wanted to go so bad. But how could I let my friends down? But I was going to see Arthur after so long!

'I'm outside your building waiting for you,' he said and my eyes bulged out.

'W-What?' I shrieked out so loud that I bet every head in living was turned to face the kitchen. I heard Arthur chuckle, just when Sasha walked in with the biggest grin ever. 'When did you-'

'Too much questions,' he groaned. 'Just come down or I am coming upstairs.'

'No!' I jumped and said out loud, but he just chuckled while Sasha looked shocked this time and also confused as to what was up with me.  'I'm coming down,' I said. Sasha's eyes lit up with that and I hung up.

'Eeeep!' she exclaimed so loud that I had to shush her. 'He is outside the building?' she whispered to me. I nodded, pouting. 'What are you pouting for? Just leave!'

'What about all of these here?' I asked jerking my chin in the direction of my friends.

She stared at me in disbelief. 'It's Arthur Crawford,' she said. 'And you'd rather sit here with us?'

I frowned. It was a mean thing to say. 'Yes, you are my friends.'

'He is going to be more than that!' she said.

'How do you know?'                                                                                                                                                                     

'Lucky guess,' she said and winked at me. 'What are you wearing? What is it a date?'

I shrugged. He hadn't specified. He was here perhaps to just meet up. Just then the doorbell rang. I jumped. how could he be up so fast when i told him that i'd be getting down!  'I'll get it,' I said half running to it before anyone got up. Thankfully no one moved and so I was at the door before anyone could even think of moving.

 I opened the door and Arthur knocked at my forehead again, just like he did that day. 'You know we've got to stop meeting like this,' he chuckled.

I rubbed my forehead in pain. It didn't hurt that bad, though. I walked outside shutting the door behind me. 'Sorry.' I could tell by the way my cheeks felt that I was going red by each passing minute. I took a step back and saw that he was in the pyjamas just the way I was. His pyjamas were much better than mine though. He was in a chequered pyjama of blue, red and white colour, a grey t-Shirt with a rust colour hoodie and a grey beanie with white Vans. He looked down at my plain flannel pyjama that had sweet pea green and baby pink checks along with white lines; I had a yellow sweater on that hugged me in all the right places. My hair were let loose as I liked them and my waves today were more close to curls than the normally are. His personality wasn't affected by the pyjamas; he still managed to mesmerize me.

I nervously rubbed scratched my right palm with the fingers of the left one as he checked me out. 'How are you here?' I asked.

His grin came down flat as he frowned at my question. 'Do you want me to go?'

'No,' I said almost immediately, horrified by the thought. 'No, that's not what I meant...' my voice trailed off as I looked down at my slippers, crossing my feet. When I looked up at him he was grinning down at me.

'Relax, I was kidding,' he said. 'I just wanted to see you.'

My heart fluttered hearing that. Did he just say that? Of course he did. Wow, he wanted to see me. Could it mean something? Something as in that Sasha had hinted back in the kitchen? But could there be something more than just friendship? I know we talked on phone all the time, but that's also what friends do right?

I was pulled back from my thoughts when I heard the door behind me click open. My breath was stuck inside until I just realized that it was just Sasha. She didn't walk out, just called for me to the door after Arthur and she had exchanged a smile and a hand wave. She handed me two boxed of large pizzas and said grinning, 'just in case you decide to eat something. We must not waste pizzas.' She winked at me and went back inside.

Nibbling at my upper lip I stood with Arthur there in the corridor with the two boxes in my hands. 'Can I just go and change?' I asked.

He smiled. 'You look perfect. And by the way,' he came forward and grabbed the pizza boxes from my hand, 'I love pizzas.'

I giggled as he led me to his car parked out in front of the building. He decided to take me to a park nearby. We sat there under a tree with our pizza boxed talking for hours. I told him how I sucked at acting and the friends were over to help me while I was here sitting and having pizzas with him.

'Ouch,' he said, placing his hand over his heart as if I had just stabbed him there. 'You'd rather be with your friends and rehearse than be with a cute singer and have a pizza date?'

I giggled. He called it a date. 'No, but seriously, I really suck at acting.'

He was lying at his side, propped up on his elbow smiling at me sitting in front of him.His free hand reached for my face and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear sending a chill down my spine, 'You are perfect, miss Ericht.'

I shivered at the touch and just hoped he hadn't seen that. But I guess he had already.

He frowned. 'Are you cold?'

I nodded, for once thanking that it was London and not some really warm place.

He sat up already removing his hoodie. 'I can fix that,' he said, draping his hoodie around me. I snuggled into it, feeling cosy as the warmth of the hoodie embraced me and the sweet smell of caramel hit my nose. There was a hint of tea in his smell. I really liked it.

'Thanks,' I smiled at him, shyly.

He went back to lying in the same position he was in before and winked at me. 'I'm so sorry I wouldn't be able to come. We have to leave for LA soon.'

'Well its better that you're not going to be there,' I said. 'At least you wouldn't have to watch me that way.'

He chuckled. 'Chastity, even if you'll fall on stage and jumble up your dialogues you'd still be adorable.'

I blushed at his words. We sat there for a while like that sharing our interests and knowing each other better. I found out a lot about him, like he was absolutely crazy for football and his favourite band was Maroon5 and Linkin Park. He liked to watch cartoons with his little sister Gina and so he was a kid at times.

Later as we got talking we also began walking beside the pond in the park. I wanted to sit by it and with my feet in the cold water just to see how the water felt at my feet in the night. But he forbade me.

'Oh, no, you are not going near that.'

'Why?' I asked completely confused.

'If you remember you played in water the last time and you were sick the next day,' he said, reminding me of my first day out with him. I giggled.

'I'm not going for a swim, Arthur, but just sitting by the pond,' I said, giggling.

'I can't trust myself with that. I might be too tempted to push you into the water,' he said. I laughed at the reason he gave. I just sat down by the water and put my hand in it, making it move. The pond looked beautiful shimmering in the moonlight. Arthur sat down in front of me, staring at me with a smile. The reflection of the moonlight from the water danced across his face. With a smirk on my face, I splashed some water on him. He chuckled and before he could attack I was already on my feet running for my dear life, laughing while he chased me. I didn't go beyond the bridge over the pond though and we just kept circling around the tree. I liked the way he chased me. I was actually having fun.

With Arthur, it was like I was my own self. I didn't have to act formal or something. I could just be who I was and not be bothered by that anyone else would think. Why was I that way? Because he was the same. He was never bothered by what others would say. He was a free soul and that's what I liked about him.

I was running away from him backwards while teasing him and couldn't watch my way, but he was too close to catching me and I had to get away, so I kept backing away, hardly watching where I was headed to till my leg slipped off the edge of the pond and Arthur- who was trying to prevent me from taking the fall- and I ended up falling into it. I was nearly drowned in the cold water that was pricking at my skin. But we managed to get our heads above the water and as soon as that happened I burst out laughing.

He laughed along with me as we walked out towards the edge again.

'Wet again,' I laughed. 'I hope it's not a tradition forming.'

He laughed. 'For the next time remind me to take you to an arid place.'

I laughed harder as we wrung ourselves. Then we walked back to his car with the leftover pizza and sat inside in the warmth, having some pizza and listening to the radio. Suddenly one of their songs came up and I looked up at him. 'How does it feel listening to your voice on the radio?'

He shrugged gulping all that he had in his mouth. 'Something I'd never get used to. I really hate listening to my voice on tape.'

I smiled. 'You have a wonderful voice, Arthur.'

'I have heard that.' he winked at me taking a bite of his pizza.

We laughed the whole way to my flat. He walked me up to the door to my building. We stood there for a while, staring at each other, before I broke the contact and said, 'I should better get upstairs.'

'I really had a nice time, you know,' I heard him say.

I smiled back. 'As I did.' I was about to turn around when his strong grip held me by my shoulders and pulled me into him. He planted his soft lips on mine kissing me softly. My lids fluttered close as the heart began racing against time. Butterflies riot my stomach and there was no thought passing my head at the moment apart from the buzz that the kiss had created. There were a lot of things happening to me simultaneously, feelings erupting in my chest that I had never felt before. Goosebumps rising along my arms, making the hair on my arms stand up. He pulled away with a smirk on his lips.

'I wanted to do that last time we met,' he said. I just stared at him, speechless. He chuckled, probably at the way I was looking at him, dumbfounded. 'Well, you better go now; else you'll catch cold again.'

I blinked myself back to reality and turning towards the door I blushed. He watched me go in with a grin and waved. I gave him a small smile and waved back. I didn't want to show it but there were fireworks exploding inside my chest.