Run, Girl (If You Can)

"What did you think?" Keeley asked curiously when the ending credits rolled.

Aaron had been paying close attention to the movie the entire time. At a glance, it seemed like he was actually into it.

"It had an interesting premise and the movie score was pleasant. You said there are eight of these?"

"Yeah." She hesitated a moment. "…do you want to watch the second one with me? It's still early enough to watch another movie."

"Sure. I'm going to go get water first though. You want some?" he asked as he stood up and stretched.

Keeley nodded and headed out after he did to take a quick bathroom break. Aaron beat her back to the TV room and handed her a glass. She thanked him and sat cross-legged in her original spot after putting in the next DVD from her box set.

When they hit the halfway point of the movie, she laughed. "You know, my dad has tried watching this movie eight times but always falls asleep right here."

He didn't respond so she looked over at him and saw that he had fallen asleep too. She laughed even harder. What was it about this part that knocked people out? She had never had a problem with it.

Figuring he would be up all night if she didn't wake him now, Keeley crawled over to his side of the couch—this thing really was too huge—and poked his face. "Aaron. Wake up."

He scrunched his nose, twitching in his sleep, before ultimately ignoring her poking. She frowned. Normally that worked on people.

"Aaaaaaaaron. You're going to be up all night if you don't wake up now," she said in a singsong voice as she nudged his shoulder. Still nothing.

An evil grin crossed her face. Since he was being so difficult, she was going to see how much it would take to wake him up. She crept upstairs to the bathroom she had claimed (the one with the jetted tub) and grabbed a bunch of makeup.

Keeley didn't usually wear it because she was lazy but she knew how to apply it well from her high society years when makeup was a must. She held her phone in one hand to record it and began applying eye shadow with the other. Aaron was still dead to the world.

Was this totally mean spirited? Yes. But she hadn't put makeup on an unsuspecting male since Kaleb was alive and she was feeling mischievous.

Surprisingly, she managed to do his eyes up completely and put on lipstick before he began twitching. He woke up as she was putting on blush.

"Whattayadoin?" he mumbled sleepily, blinking a few times as he came to.

Aaron saw her holding the blush brush and her phone and instead of getting an ice storm, like she had expected when she got caught, she got the most bewildered look she had ever seen on his face. Keeley cracked up so much that she fell backward off the couch and dropped her still-recording phone.

"Were you tickling me?"

He still hadn't caught on. She was wheezing, desperately holding her sides as she rolled around on the ground.

"Why are you laughing so hard?" he asked, still not understanding what was going on.

"Go—look—mirror—" Keeley managed to get out as she continued to laugh so hard she couldn't breathe, finally managing to grasp her phone and shut off the recording. She locked it quickly so he couldn't steal it from her and erase it once he realized what she did.

She heard him yelp from down the hall and laughed even harder. Aaron didn't seem particularly angry when he came back, either. His arms were folded across his chest and he pouted like a little kid, which looked even weirder considering the bright red lipstick.

"That was childish."

"Yeah but it was also awesome," she snickered as she finally got a little more control over herself. "You wouldn't wake up so I wanted to see how far I could take it."

He loomed over her and got on his hands and knees, pinning her to the ground. She was already breathless from laughing but now her heart thumped uncontrollably as well.

"What are you doing?"

"I can be childish too. You're trapped here until you have properly paid for your crime," he said seriously.

Keeley was very curious how this was going to pan out. She was not expecting Aaron to reach behind him to grab the lipstick and apply an extra layer.

"Are you completely nuts?!"

"No, because this is your punishment."

"What—!" she squeaked as he leaned down and began pressing kisses all over her face. He got every inch of it other than her lips before getting off of her and sitting on the floor.

"There. Now you look ridiculous too," Aaron said in a satisfied tone.

She held up her phone and used the front facing camera as a mirror. There were no less than twenty full or partial lipstick marks on her face.

"Aww this is never going to come off!" Keeley complained. Red lipstick was the worst thing to remove. Her face was still going to be tinted red in the morning no matter how hard she scrubbed.

"Serves you right!"

She scooted closer to him and snapped a selfie. There. Now there was proof they had both been embarrassed.

"Delete that."

"Nope. I'm making it my phone background," she teased.

"…why do I even like you."

She decided to use the same tactic he had a while back and rested her chin on her hands trying to look as cute as possible. "Because I'm so pretty."

"Stay right there!" he ordered.

"Huh?"

Aaron pulled his phone out from between two couch cushions and turned the camera on. "Do that again. I need a new phone background too."

Keeley rolled her eyes but complied and struck her cute pose again. They hadn't done anything this ridiculous together since college. Or possibly ever, now that she thought about it. This was the most fun she'd had in a while. 

She peeked at his phone to make sure it didn't look too stupid and it passed the test. He went to set it as his background and she caught a glimpse of his current one.

It was the picture they took in their reindeer onesies on Christmas Eve where Aaron's arms were around her and his chin rested atop her head. She felt an unexpected wave of fondness for him. That was pretty sweet.