The Best Friend's Contract

Kenna

me.

"Can you give me a hand?" I ask, putting stacks of books into the empty box in front of me; not wanting to leave the apartment without having them near my side-reading is one of the things that I can never stop doing, no matter how convincing someone might be to stop Aidan walks towards my direction before stopping near me, leaving me to look up at him and see that he's currently giving me a mannequin's hand which causes me to flinch. He leans his head back into laughters, enjoying my reaction as I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, not expecting him to literally give me a hand.

"Where the hell did you get that?" I immediately ask as he continues to laugh, making me try my best not to join him.

"Kenna, years of knowing you... never thought you were a creep. I found it in the store room and I don't even know why you have it," He replies, taking a closer look at the plastic hand before poking my back with it-making me lean my body forward and away from him. "Give me that," I say as I try to take it away from him but he starts to lift it up, away from my reach due to our heights. "Very funny. Ha ha ha, now give it to me."

It's no doubt that Aidan is enjoying this far more than I do as I start to jump up and down to reach the mannequin's hand but fail miserably, seeing that he's actually putting it up high. No matter how much effort I put into grabbing the plastic hand, he'll just continue to lift it higher and higher until I give up.

"If you want it, come take it." He winks, making a run towards the kitchen.

Within seconds, I am already running after him without caring if we end up making a mess in the process because both of us seem to be finding this as an amusement, laughing and running after one another even though the main reason coming to my apartment, in the first place was to pack my clothes and necessities.

"Aidan, I'm not psychically fit!" I exclaim.

He continues to chuckle as we both circle around the kitchen island, trying my best to grab onto his arm but he manages to slide away. Both of his eyes are gazing directly at me, his lips curving up into a wide grin while his right hand is holding onto the mannequin's hand up high in the sky-definitely out of my reach.

"Blame yourself for that," He replies. "You should've agreed to me when I invited you to jog around the block, at least once a week but no... you insisted on going to work. God knows how much calories you could've burned if you had accept," He adds, finding this as an amusement.

Just as I'm about to say something, I suddenly remember that he does have a weakness. His weakness is something I've learned years ago when we were teasing each other and by far, I'm the only one who knows about it; not even Dimitri knows about it. The only reason why he insisted on not letting anyone know and never letting his guard down is because he's embarrassed of anyone ever finding out.

It's simple. He's ticklish.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

"Fine... you can have the plastic hand. I don't want it anymore," I cross my arms before locking my gaze with his-letting him furrow his eyebrows, not expecting me to give up easily.

My reflexes react quickly as I run towards him, tickling the side of his waist which causes him to lose his balance and fall down onto the ground but pulling me with him. My grip on his waist tightens, preparing myself for the fall as he let go of the mannequin's hand in order to wrap his arms around my waist-not letting my body receive the impact.

With a loud thud, we both fall onto the ground. He groans as he was the one who had received the impact while I landed on top of him-making myself stare down onto his face. Our faces are only inches apart... somehow very close and could lead into something more but all we do is just stare at one another, deeply into each other's eyes.

Both of my hands are placed onto his chest but I make no further movement to lift myself up from his body and he makes no sign on trying to push me away.

To my surprise, his right hand goes away from my waist and up to my face, slowly tucking a strand of hair behind my ear before glancing down at my lips. We are both frozen at our spot, just waiting for something to happen and we both know, it's something we doubt. I don't know what the hell is going on in my mind nor his. It's as if we can't even move away and just stay still which is pretty crazy. Never would I be frozen at my spot when my best friend is trying to kiss me or lean forward and do things I've never imagined but for some reason, I can't move away. I can't stop him, either.

The truth is, he's my best friend. I can just push him away or slap his face and pretend it was a sudden gesture but here I am, staring into his eyes and glancing his lips, only waiting and provoking him to continue whatever he has in his mind.

All of a sudden, the doorbell starts to ring which causes us to blink away from the trance. I immediately lift my body up and away from his as he clears his throat, trying to make the surrounding less awkward.

"I'll get the door," We both say at the same time, quickly breaking the eye contact afterwards.

"Uh, I'll just... place the hand where it came from," He says, standing up and walking towards the back without paying a second glance leaving me letting out a deep sigh, not really expecting ourselves to ever feel this way. The discomfort.

Without further ado, I gaze at myself in the mirror to fix my hair before heading towards the door. My eyes roll towards the back at the sight of my other best friend, Dimitri. He has a wide smile on his face before patting onto my head and entering my apartment, leaving me closing the door behind me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Am I not allowed to be here?" He turns to look at me, pretending to be hurt as he places a hand on his chest. "Kenna, I'm hurt. Just because you married Aidan and not me, that doesn't mean you can just neglect me as your friend. I need your love more than he does," He pouts.

"Oh, newsflash... I've known him longer than you." I reply, heading straight towards the boxes on the ground-making sure I have labeled them. It'd be easier for me to unpack later without needing to check one box at a time.

He follows behind me, "Yeah but I'm more passionate. I understand women better. I understand you better. Aidan can never compare to me because look at me, I have the whole package. Looks, personalities, money... you name it, sister. I'm the perfect guy," He says, proudly as he presses both of his hands on the kitchen island.

A soft chuckles escapes my lips, "Why would I need a passionate best friend?" Then, I am already putting the boxes near the front door.

Dimitri frowns, "To care for you, duh. Why are you even asking me that?" He lets out a deep sigh as he takes a seat on one of my sofas, "Speaking of passionate... what happened between you and Aidan, last night? How can you still walk?" He asks, glancing down at my legs.

"Come on, Dimitri. Don't pretend as if he didn't tell you about the contract. The whole point of our marriage is based on a contract we both made you would know that," I reply.

He chuckles, "I know that, Kenna. I'm just teasing you because who knows? You two might have had some fun, last night. Anything can happen," He leans in to whisper near my ear, "Like they say... opposites attract and you both have different sex organs that would fit." He adds. "You're disgusting," I smack his arm and he groans, not liking the fact that he has gotten more smacks from me than anything else.

Aidan appears from the store room, looking up at Dimitri and I as we both turn to look back at him. He raises an eyebrow at his presence, "Did someone invite you? Why are you even here? I thought you were on your flight to Chicago," He continues to make his way towards us.

Dimitri's lips curve up into a grin, "Something happened last night and made me miss my flight. She didn't want me to leave, either... so, don't blame me." He chuckles before turning to look at me, "They never want me to leave. How insane is that?" He sticks his tongue out at me.

Name one person that would

actually want Dimitri in their lives. Not as a best friend or a colleague but as a partner. I mean, sure... he has it all. He's not wrong when he said that he's the perfect package because a guy like him is hard to find he just needs to change his ways and his attitude around people.

He's full of himself. He's a sweet talker.

I fake the loudest laugh which causes both of them to turn and look at me. Dimitri's grin fades away immediately as Aidan smirks, enjoying the fact that whenever Dimitri and I meet each other, we'd pick a fight. "Your ex-wife left you... no offence," I shrug, walking away. "Dude..." He breathes out, "That was fucking hurtful. I really don't like you, right now. We need to go on our separate ways for a couple of hours because I need to heal," He says.

Then again, he's a great best friend.

He's not the one who would easily get hurt just because I tease him or offend him : .... he knows it's all a joke and I'd never really hurt him without any intention of fooling around. Yes, he would pretend to get hurt by placing a hand on his chest but he's actually just very good in acting. He took drama class in high school, though.