Only Fools - Chapter 37: Chapter 37

Taking in a deep breath as I wake up, I bring my hands up to my face in an attempt to rub some of the sleep out of my eyes before letting out a small groan and stretching out my arms.
"Ow,"
The voice emerges rather quietly from beside me, and I quickly retract my hand back after it comes in contact with the face that the voice likely belongs to. As I quickly roll around to face them, I'm met with Margot May's signature smirk, which instantly brings a small smile to my face.
"What a considerate wake-up call," Margot says in a sleepy voice that I can't help but find adorable.
"Nothing but the best for you," I reply to her in a rather playful tone that she almost instantly rolls her eyes at. However, as her eyes return to mine, we both go silent and it's only then that the memories from last night reappear in my mind.
"Shit," I say quietly, breaking eye contact with the girl as I let out a small sigh.
"What?"
Bringing my eyes back to meet Margot's, I can't help but allow a goofy smile to slip onto my face.
"Shit," I say louder this time before letting out a small laugh. Margot just opts to shoot me a confused look as a response this time.
"We...." I trail off as I glance down at Margot's lips as if the gesture could finish my sentence.
"Did you forget how to finish a sentence?" Margot asks me as she raises her eyebrows.
"No. We-" I begin my attempt to explain, but the smile that slips onto my face cuts me off.
"Those two words unfortunately enough still didn't form a sentence, smiley," Margot says with a smirk.
"Smartass," I say with an eye roll.
"Dumbass," Margot responds with a raised eyebrow. We both go silent yet again as Margot waits for me to finish the sentence that I'm clearly feeling too awkward about completing. I mean, what if it was just a dream? Or what if Margot doesn't even remember it and this sentence crosses the line for us all over again?
"So we kissed," Margot finishes for me. My cheeks instantly heat up at her words as I nod slowly.
"Do you regret it?" Margot asks me, her voice softer with these words as if anticipating some sort of rejection.
"No!" I hurriedly say in response. Clearing my throat, I shake my head as I sit up so that my back is pressed against the headboard of my bed.
"No, I don't regret it," I say more calmly as Margot follows my lead and sits up beside me. Margot smiles softly as she nods at my words.
"Good. Because I don't either,"
And with those words, she takes my hand into hers and gives it a squeeze which almost instantly makes my heart flutter. As I glance up from staring at our now connected hands, I take in her messy yet still captivating appearance. Her hair is sticking out every which way, clearly with no rhyme or reason and yet it just looks adorable. The blemishes she has are no longer covered by any type of makeup and I can't help but be in awe of how natural Margot's beauty actually is, as even what society deems as imperfect is able to add up to a composition that you wholly can't take your eyes off of.
Her dark brown eyes sparkle with a sort of amusement as she stares back at me, likely taking in how much of a mess I look at this hour and hopefully finding some sort of beauty that will make her want to stay.
I could kiss her right now. I want to kiss her right now. But I also have a question at the forefront of my mind that's eagerly awaiting to be answered.
"What are we?" I ask her as I break eye contact to glance back down at our intertwined hands.
"What do you mean?" Margot asks me quietly, though I can tell she's likely only asking so that I can trip up over my words again in trying to explain it to her.
"Um, are we still just friends, or...." I trail off, not wanting to cross an unsaid line by saying any more.
"Still friends? Is kissing your friends a normal thing then?" Margot asks me sarcastically. I roll my eyes at her before shaking my head.
"You know what I meant," I tell her.
"You sure?"
I give Margot a deadpanned glare which she just laughs off, though I can sense some nervousness from just that action. Maybe we're equally as confused and nervous about fucking this thing up. And somehow the thought of that makes me feel just a little bit better.
"You said you liked me," Margot says under her breath, though I know the comment is truly directed at me.
"Yeah," I say quietly in response as my cheeks turn a shade of pink.
"What about Ivy?" Margot asks me the question that I've been deliberating over for a while now.
"What about her?"
"You know what I mean. This ends now if you still have feelings for her. I can't do that, Aspen,"
With those words, I'm suddenly worried that I'm going to say the wrong thing, a heavy weight is placed on my shoulders that clearly wasn't there before.
I don't want to fuck this up. I can't fuck this up.
"I don't," I try to reassure the girl next to me as I give her hand a squeeze.
"How do you know for sure?" Margot asks me in an insecure tone that I can't remember ever having come from her before.
"It's just something that I know. Ivy is my best friend, but you're the girl that I like, that I want to be with,"
Margot nods her head slowly, but I can tell that she's still not convinced.
"You're worried?"
"Well, people usually don't fall out of love that fast," Margot tells me.
"If I loved her then I wouldn't have been able to start liking you so easily,"
"But you said...." Margot trails off, likely recalling the times that I told her about Ivy all while being too blind to see what was actually in front of me.
"I said I loved her. And I do. I always will. She's my best friend. I was never in love with her though," I say before letting out a sigh, "And I did have a crush on her, but I'm starting to think that was a long time ago. I just got so used to liking her and liked the idea of her so much that.... I just held on."
"The idea of her?"
"She was always there for me. I depended on her. I could trust her. It's all stuff that she could do for me.... nothing really specific to her," I clarify as I begin to realize truths that I hadn't even discovered quite yet.
"How do you know that's not all I am to you?" Margot asks me. I don't even need to hesitate to answer.
"Because I like how you can speak your mind no matter what and how you make me laugh. And I love that you're always there for me, but I also want to always be there for you, not out of obligation or anything like that, but because I seriously want to.... I want to know everything about you, Margot, even though you'll probably have to repeat yourself a billion times because of how forgetful I can be. I just.... when I realized I liked you, I pushed myself to tell you, not because you're just some silly crush that I could get over, but because I figured that just the chance of being with you was worth the risk of you hating me, like every voice inside my head said that you would. That's something I never was able to do Ivy, because a relationship I didn't really want would have never been worth the risk,"
As I finish, I look back up at Margot who has tears welling in her eyes which she quickly blinks away.
"Getting emotional on me, May?" I ask her as I bring my hand up to cup her cheek.
"Well, I'm not that great at all this 'feeling stuff' but I do like you, Grayson. You're fucking weird, but I somehow can't help but find that to be oddly adorable, unfortunately enough," Margot says with a small laugh as she tilts her head into the palm of my hand.
"Is this the part where you ask me to be your girlfriend?" I ask Margot with a lopsided smile.
"Fuck, no," Margot says as she pulls away from my hand.
"Am I supposed to ask you? I'm not really sure how this works," I admit hesitantly, slightly shocked by Margot's response.
"I'd say no because there's no way in hell that our anniversary is going to be on Valentine's Day. We are not playing into the hands of those scumbag corporations," Margot tells me. I let out a small laugh at her reasoning as I shake my head because I should've expected this from her.
"Oh, that's unfortunate. So I guess I'm going to be single on Valentine's Day. I'll just have to go out today and find another single to spend the day with. Maybe we'll hit it off and-"
My rant is suddenly cut off as Margot grabs me and pulls me over so that I'm sitting sideways on her lap.
"No chance. I'm still spending the day with you. You missed that part?" Margot asks me.
"Oh, yeah. I must've. Strange," I say with a shrug before attempting to get up, which only results in Margot grabbing me yet again and rolling over so that I'm pinned down on the bed underneath her. My eyes flicker down to her lips as she begins to lean forward to press them to mine. And so I begin to lean in too, but stop just before they can actually meet.
"Whoah, whoah, whoah. We're just friends. No homo, dude," I say as I pull away before our lips can meet.
"Are you going to be like this all day?" Margot asks me as she pulls away and falls back onto the bed beside me.
"Have you met me?" I quip back before hearing my phone buzz on the nightstand beside me.
"Unfortunately," Margot mutters under her breath. With a small smile, I plant a kiss on her cheek before rolling over to grab my phone off of the nightstand and check who messaged me.
Group Chat: Tori and the Mediocre Bitches
Naomi: hi guys are we still on for today????
Tori: of course babes
"Oh shit," I say quietly before turning to look at Margot.
"What?"
"I forgot that I already agreed to spend the day with Tori and Naomi...." I tell her in a slightly sullen tone.
"Oh," she says in response, clearly deflated.
"But I'm sure you could tag along if I asked...." I say with a mischievous smile.
"I don't wanna insert myself where I'm not wanted," Margot tells me.
"Shut up. They both like you. I'm asking,"
I hear Margot scoff from beside me as she mutters something under her breath about wondering why I even asked for her opinion in the first place. With an eye roll, I turn my attention back to my phone.
Me: Sure. Can Margot come too??
Naomi: of course :)
Tori: that's cool you'd probably just be a third wheel to Nao and I anyways
Naomi: ....
Me: I feel like there's something going on that I don't know about....
Tori: Naomi wishes
Naomi: ....
Tori: ;)
Me: If you're gonna keep flirting then don't do it in the group chat.
Tori: I don't know what you mean ;)
Naomi: ;)
"Good?" Margot asks as I look up from my phone.
"Yeah. All good, bestie," I say with a forcibly cheesy smile as I lock my phone and set it down.
"Dumbass," Margot says as she rolls her eyes at me.
"Smartass," I say in return as I stick my tongue out at her.
————
"I can't believe I'm single on Valentine's Day again!" Tori groans as she shoves a handful of fries into her mouth. Naomi lets out a giggle at Tori's dramatics to which Tori immediately sends a glare in response.
As I reach out for a fry from the small tray set in the center of the table, my hand bumps into someone else's and I almost instantly smile as Margot playfully pushes my hand out of the way to grab a fry before me.
"I thought you were with Mason," I say, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion before I finally grab a fry and then proceed to eat it as I send a joking glare Margot's way.
"I mean, sure. For the dance. And things were going great. I mean, he was getting clingy again, but I already knew to expect that from last time. But then, we got in his car and he started talking and I found out that he doesn't like pepperoni on his pizza because it's too spicy. Pepperoni, guys!" Tori tries to explain.
"He doesn't like pepperoni? That's why you broke up with him? I just can't believe that's where the bar is, Tori," I say, shaking my head in disapproval.
I suddenly feel Margot's hand rest on my thigh. My heart begins to beat faster and I'm suddenly thankful that Margot waited until I was done speaking to do this because otherwise I'm sure my words would've gotten caught in my throat.
As I glance up at her, she simply smirks and sends me a quick wink. A smile slides onto my face as I pull my hand off of the food court table and place it on top of hers, turning her hand around to lace our fingers together. Her smirk transforms into a smile, which she then hides not even a second after I get a glimpse of it. As much as I want to keep toying with her by acting around her like I would have just days ago, it's getting harder and harder to refrain from pressing my lips firmly to hers and kissing her until we can't breathe anymore.
I glance down at our intertwined hands and I scowl slightly. The feeling of her hand on my thigh still has my stomach doing flips. I'm feeling this way and it's all her fault.
"Ok. That sounds bad. I know. But that was just my breaking point. I mean, he was so clingy all night: always asking me if I wanted a drink, wanting to dance, awkwardly singing to me during the slow dances...."
"So.... he was acting like he was on a date? Generally, people want to hang out with the person they're on date with. I mean, it takes virtually nothing for you to break up with guys nowadays, Tor. They could blink incorrectly and you would suddenly call things off. You've been recently saying how you want to date someone, but you have too many commitment issues to even make it past a week,"
Tori's eyes widen at my words as she turns to Naomi for backup, but gets nothing outside of Naomi shaking her head to agree with me.
"I don't know how to fix that though," Tori says quietly, clearly realizing that I'm right.
"I think that when you find the right person, the reasons for you to stay with them and love them will so far outweigh the ones to leave and hate them, that you won't be able to justify leaving,"
I glance towards Margot for a split second before quickly returning my gaze back to Tori.
"Whatever. I'm done eating. Let's go shopping now," Tori says, clearly having been bothered by the direction this conversation turned to.
Tori abruptly stands up, her chair flying back a couple feet behind her, before she marches over to the trash can and chucks the fries into it, then turning to look at us expectantly. Letting out a sigh, Naomi stands up and gently pushes Tori's chair back in.
"Are you guys coming?" she asks us rather softly as she gathers the rest of the trash up from the tabletop. I give her a nod with a small smile, which falters slightly as I feel Margot's hand pull away from mine.
As Margot stands up to follow behind the other two to leave the food court, I glance at her longingly for a moment before getting up and walking close behind. If only it was just the two of us. Once Margot turns back to look at me, I can tell by her expression that she's thinking the same thing.
After walking around nearly the entire mall, Tori finally decides on a store worthy enough of her presence, a small clothing store that's much too brightly colored for my taste but likely just loud enough for Tori's.
"Let's go, bitches," she says as she makes a hard right into the entrance of the store.
"Finally," Naomi says under her breath, noticeably rolling her eyes in annoyance at Tori and her dramatics.
"Did you say something, Naomi?" Tori asks, though we're all well aware that Tori heard what Naomi said.
"Nope. You must be hearing things," Naomi says before walking off to the back of the store, Tori then following close behind her. I begin to go after them, however I suddenly feel a tug on my wrist. I whip around to see Margot with a mischievous smile on her face. I furrow my eyebrows as her hand slides down to meet mine and our fingers lace together.
She quickly pulls two different dresses randomly off of the racks.
"What the hell are you doing? I doubt those are even our size,"
"Then I guess we'll have to go try them on," she tells me with a wink.
And without another word, she pulls me through the practically empty shop, while making sure to avoid our other two friends, to where the fitting rooms are located. Pushing me into the farthest room, she quickly locks the door behind herself and tosses the dresses onto the bench beside us. I open my mouth to ask her what's going on, but I'm quickly silenced as she pushes me back against the wall, her hands placed on either side of my head.
"So we won't be trying those on?" I ask Margot, tilting my head as a smirk slides onto my lips.
"Oh, did you want to?"
"No," I whisper to her before reaching up and cup my hand around her cheek.
"Oh, I thought we were just playing friends today," Margot says in fake innocence as she tilts her head away from my head.
"Fuck you. Friends don't grab each other's thighs under the table," I counter as my mind flits back to the memory of what happened not that long ago.
"Oh. Is that not something friends do?" she asks me, feigning ignorance. I just glare at her in response.
"Maybe we should set some ground rules for this," Margot offers with a smirk.
"Or maybe you should just fucking ask me out already," I snap back. Margot smiles softly as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear.
"Or I could...." Margot trails off as she presses her lips to mine. I respond almost instantly to the kiss as I lean further into her, parting my lips in order to deepen the kiss, and tangling my fingers in her hair as her hands find their way to my waist.
The kiss is passionate after having been on our minds all day. I smile into the kiss as my hands move to cup her cheeks before running down her neck before I place them on her shoulders.
As I manage to grab her shoulders, I flip us around so that her back is against the wall. Pulling away from the kiss, a smirk slips onto my lips as I see Margot breathless in front of me, pinned against the wall.
With that, I can't control myself anymore as I lean back in to capture her lips with mine. My hands land on the wall behind her as hers travel up underneath the back of my shirt. I can vaguely sense the cold sensation of her fingers on my back, but at the same time, I'm too concentrated on her to really notice.
Lost for breath yet again, I pull away from her, and as we lock eyes, I smile softly.
"Fuck," Margot says under her breath with a small smile.
"Yeah, fuck," I say before moving over so that I can lean back against the wall next to her. We then fall into a silence as our heavy breathing is the only thing to be heard other than some upbeat pop song playing softly through the store's speakers.
"Girlfriends now?" I ask Margot as I look up to meet her eyes.
"Ever heard of friends with benefits?" Margot asks in response.
"Fuck you,"
"So you have heard about it,"
With a playful eye roll, I smack Margot on the arm before walking over and collecting the clothing items that we were supposed to try on into my arms.
"We done?" Margot asks me, clearly amused.
"We wouldn't want to leave Naomi and Tori alone for too long," I tell her.
"Why? You worried they got the same idea in the dressing room next door?" she asks me with a smirk.
"No, I'm worried they got in another one of their petty fights and I'm not there to break it up," I state.
"What a good friend," Margot says before pushing herself off of the wall and following behind me.
"You would know," I tell her with a wink to which she rolls her eyes in response before muttering something completely unintelligible underneath her breath.
————
Shopping with Tori and Naomi doesn't last much longer as Tori gets progressively more annoyed with the showy Valentine's Day decorations and Naomi, as a result, gets progressively more annoyed with Tori. Plus, with all the stores starting to close, options on where to shop surely became limited.
I didn't really notice though as Margot and I spent most of the time caught up in each other.
As soon as Margot and I wave our goodbyes to Naomi and Tori and step into my house, I'm pretty sure we both become blatantly aware of our situation: alone in a house with so much tension that you would need a knife to cut through it.
"Wanna watch a movie?" I ask her as I'm not entirely sure what else to do in this situation. Margot shrugs in response before falling back onto the couch.
"Which one?" I ask her.
"You choose. Just no horror," Margot tells me.
"Those two things don't add up," I tell her as I grab It from the stack of DVDs and place it in the DVD player and shut the lights off before walking over and falling onto the couch next to her. However, I'm not there for long as she quickly pulls me over so that I'm sitting between her legs, leaning back against her chest.
"I said no horror, dude," Margot says as the menu for It pops up on the screen and I hit play.
"This is hardly horror," I wave her off.
"Really? Because I really thought evil clown fell into that category,"
"It is actually a shapeshifting monster. Pennywise the clown is just how it most often takes shape," I inform Margot.
"And you're still arguing this isn't horror?"
"Yep,"
"So what is it?"
"A teen romcom," I say without hesitation.
"This should be good," Margot mutters under her breath as Georgie's boat sails down the street.
"It's literally about teenagers becoming friends to defeat a monster and some of them use humor to cope, so it's funny," I explain with a shrug.
"And where does the romance part come in?" she asks me.
"Oh, you'll see.... just pay extra attention to Richie.... and Eddie," I tell her with a wink before turning my attention back to the screen just in time to see Pennywise's mouth practically unhinge to reveal an amount of teeth that surely confirms its monstrous nature.
Throughout the movie, I try not to laugh as Margot buries her head in my shoulder at some points, and instead just squeeze her hand that's held in mine.
As the movie ends, Margot reluctantly allows me to put in the second one after I promise her that she can choose the movie next time, though I think we both know that's not true.
"Aspen?" Margot whispers to me while my eyes stay glued to the screen in front of us as Richie makes yet another sarcastic comment.
"Yeah?" I respond.
"I have something I need to ask you," she says quietly. Confused, I pull my eyes away from the screen to turn around and look at her. The first thing that I notice is that she won't meet my eyes, specifically because she keeps glancing over at the television, or more specifically at the digital time displayed below it.
12:00am.
"You're one of the weirdest fucking people I know and you drive me absolutely crazy sometimes-"
"This better get nicer," I mutter under my breath which only earns me a glare from Margot in response.
"Then stop interrupting me, dumbass," Margot says with an eye roll and small smile as she playfully shoves me back into the couch cushion, "Anyways, I was gonna sneak out tomorrow morning and grab flowers and do this properly-"
"Oh, bad idea. I do not have a green thumb," I tell her, shaking my head as I recover from her shove so that I'm facing her completely, sitting on her lap with my knees on either side of her thighs. However, the glare I receive from her in response immediately shuts me up as my cheeks turn a shade of crimson.
"I was going to do this properly, but I can't wait any longer to call you mine. So, Aspen Marilyn Grayson, will you be my girlfriend?"
"I don't know. Me being off the market may just break too many hearts," I joke.
"Oh. Should I retract my offer then?" Margot teases me in a tone much to serious for my liking.
"Fuck, no. Of course I'll be your girlfriend," I tell her before crashing my lips into hers, not being able to wait any longer.
The kiss starts off slow and sweet as we're both beginning to realize what's actually happening.
We're girlfriends. Margot Annalise May is my fucking girlfriend. I smile into the kiss at the realization. She's mine.
And as our lips move in sync with each other's and the kiss becomes more passionate, she's the only thing on my mind as I think of going on real dates with her and holding hands, of all the chances I'm going to get to make her laugh and all the goodnight kisses on the front doorstep.
As I move my hands to cup her cheeks, our lips finally disconnect and we're both left breathing heavily as a result.
"Can I tell you a secret?" I whisper to Margot as I rest my forehead against hers. She nods in response, which allows a small smile to slip onto my face.
"That clock is about six minutes slow. It's still February 14th," I say softly.
"Fuck," Margot mutters under her breath, causing for me to laugh softly.
"And I thought that I was the alleged 'dumbass' of this relationship," I tease the girl.
"Smartass," Margot says with an eye roll before placing a kiss on my forehead.
"Dumbass," I say before connecting our lips yet again.