Chapter 4
Darren POV
In the era of picture phones, money, and waiters who could be easily bribed, pictures of the date had spread by the next morning. Now while there was no legitimate proof that anything worth mentioning had actually happened, the evidence that was there was incriminating enough. In one picture (though it was fuzzy), Trystan looked like he was leaning across some kind of table to kiss Aerona, and in another he was dragging her into an alley of some kind…
What really annoyed me was that the only reason people cared was that they were popular, and Aerona at least, was only popular because of me. Trystan had his own reasons.
Not like I cared or anything.
I just hated Trystan. He was a despicable excuse for a human being, as I knew all too well for having to interact with him throughout my childhood due to family connections. It was like he was scared of getting close to people, so instead of acting normal and mature and trying to work through it, he would break the girl’s heart. Made me sick.
But it was Aerona’s business whom she dated.
I slammed my locker, ending up trapping one of my fingers. Yelling out a stream of profanity, I managed to slip it out. A bunch of freshmen girls started giggling, and I scowled. Seemed the world wanted to make a joke of me today. I glared icily at them until they stopped their insipid noises of amusement, and headed to Chemistry.
I was late, of course. I still had the looming issue of how to break it off with the ever clingy Gwen, and decided to spend my class time concentrating on this. I didn’t sense her having any real affection for me, so that wasn’t a motive for her, or would cause a problem when I broke it off. My normal tactics seemed to fail with her, annoying. Finding out her objective seemed imperative to move forward….
My inner monologue was broken by a sharp heel piecing my toe. “WHAT THE HELL?” I yelled, as the foot began throbbing in tempo with my hand. I looked up to see the culprit, and ran into hazel eyes so scary I somehow felt lucky that it had only been the heel thing. It was that one girl who had always sat behind me drawing during class but I had never really bothered to ask her name….and she always wore boots, not heels, so she had worn these specifically to attack me? All these thoughts ran through my head quickly as she raised an eyebrow, seeming to challenge me. I chose to turn around, but not without muttering “Freak.”
She was probably an Aerona supporter. This made me start to worry if I was going to have the whole female student body against me after getting rid of Gwen, she may have been hated by loads but she also had a following of underclassman that hadn’t been exposed to her ignorance of people’s feelings. And I couldn’t take more incidents like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a paint bomb or something in my locker (I’m not paranoid, it’s happened to other people).
The pulsating from my finger and toe was getting worse, almost unavoidable. Was my toe bleeding…? Either way I figured it was probably time to hand it over to a professional, such as the school nurse. The chemistry teacher, a bumbling moron, was still trying to find the lesson plans, and didn’t even notice me stand and slip up (I didn’t really feel like revealing to the whole class how drawing girl had gotten the better of me).
So I walked, favoring my right foot as much as possible while still moving quickly, towards the nurse. I was passing the famous make-out spot…It was just called the “Room”, as naming it would have been too dangerous. Basically it was a closet with an abnormally small door that was locked. The combination was kept by every Upper and passed onto the news ones, although many other people figured it out. The rumor was a rich alumni who had started the room had bribed the principal to leave the spot alone.
“You know you want to…”
Ew. How disturbing. Couldn’t whoever it was be quieter? I walked faster.
“Come on…”
Wait was that Gwen??
I spun back around and dialed in the combination.
Yep it was her alright, full-on making out with a very guilty-looking Trystan.
Now seeing your current girlfriend (who you despise) making out with your ex-girlfriend’s potential boyfriend (who you also despise) is an experience that is hard to describe unless you are really there. I coughed. When Trystan saw me, his face went white and he pushed Gwen away. “Darren there’s an explanation, I swear.”
I struggled to hold in a smile, he sounded like the chagrined girlfriend.
“You’re the wrong person to be saying that,” I responded, trying to play the part of the scorned lover as best as possible, while hiding my inner glee. I had an easy out! I had an easy out! “Gwen…”
“You can’t break up with me,” she said simply. There was an absence of any form of guilt in her voice.
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you really in position to say such a thing?”
Gwen smirked in a way that looked…evil. She came up to me, looked me straight in the eye, and dropped her voice to an eerie whisper. “Oh Darren, but I am….because I know.”
I blinked. “Know what?”
No one spoke for a moment, and then it dawned on me. I spun on Trystan. “Did you TELL her?”
He scowled. “Of course not!” Unfortunately, he wasn’t lying. I was just dying for an excuse to punch someone, and he was always a perfect candidate…but not today.
Gwen, giggling in an evil tone that had resembled her whisper, shook her head. “Oh no no, I didn’t need to be told, I already knew. I’m one of you. I can do the same things you can. Not the exact same of course, but similar.”
My first thought was “I’m one of you” was about the worst, most clichéd line from any fantasy film ever, but this was quickly replaced by panic. “Wait, do you mean...that would…I…”
“What can you do?” Trystan asked her, his ability to speak still seeming to be intact.
“Like I would tell you,” she countered back quickly.
I started pacing. “Wait, I’m still hung up on the small little point that if you can do what we can, doesn’t that mean you’re RELATED to us?”
When she smiled, I seriously considered puking on my already bleeding toe. “Oh Darren,” she said again, “You’re very naïve to think your family did not branch out. I’m not direct cousins like you and Trystan are or anything, but I am related. Second cousins.”
I HAD KISSED MY COUSIN. I HAD KISSED MY COUSIN. The same, disgusting thought flashed through my mind about a hundred times….TRYSTAN HAD KISSED OUR COUSIN.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I said, momentarily distracted from the slowly rising bile in my system.
“I’m discovering this just now too, you know.”
“Like that’s an excuse!” The volume of my voice increased with every word.
“Please don’t tell Aerona.”
Of every reply I could have imagined from him (and trust me I could imagine many), that was the last one I would’ve expected. “What?”
“Just don’t tell her.”
“Since when you have you cared about your girls knowing you cheated on them?” It was an honest question.
He wouldn’t look at me as he answered. “Please, just don’t.”
“Oh, wait for it, next you’re going to tell me you actually CARE ABOUT HER,” I scoffed.
“And what if I do?”
Somehow, that comment really pissed me off. “Yeah right. You’ve been on one date, or whatever the hell it was you did last night.”
“But I saw her when she was with you. The way she looked at you, the way she spoke to you…You were an idiot to treat her the way you did.”
I looked to Gwen, but she seemed to be happy to stay in silence and enjoy the havoc she was causing. I took a deep breath.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I looked at the floor.
“Oh really?” His tone sounded condescending.
“Yes, really! She didn’t love me.”
“She said that?”
“No-“
“Oh, let me guess,” Trystan interrupted. “You’re little lying detector powers or your new ‘greatest fear sensing’ crap told you that.”
I hated that he was right. “Going to take a jab at my powers are you? Like yours are so great? Making boobs bigger? Oh and I suppose at your 17th you’ll be able to enlarge butts too.”
“At least my powers actually benefit someone; you only use yours for yourself!” he snapped.
“Not true, the government would find it very useful to be able to tell if people are lying!”
“Then why don’t you just go and call up the FBI then, I’m sure we’d all be happy to see you go!”
“Maybe I-“
Gwen started laughing, stopping my reply mid-sentence and reminding me of the bigger problem here.
“If you care about Aerona so much, why did you kiss Gwen?” I asked
“I think it might be her power. Distraction or something…”
Gwen rolled her eyes.
“Convenient excuse,” I shook my head. “You never change do you!”
“Well then why did YOU kiss her?”
I coughed. “Well I, uh…”
“ENOUGH!” Gwen said finally seeming annoyed. “Here’s the bottom line. I could easily expose both of you to the whole school, no problem. And I don’t think either of you want that.”
“Not particularly,” said Trystan in an annoyingly cheerful voice.
“So, Darren, you’re not breaking up with me.”
“And your proof?” I asked, grasping at straws.
She held up a phone. “I’ve been recording.”
I decided to ignore for the moment how much that really creeped me out. “Why do you want to be with me anyway?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Oh, I have my reasons, not important for you to know. If you hadn’t walked in on me kissing Trystan things would have been so much easier, but ah, you do what you can.” She smiled and I almost puked again. “So are we at an understanding?” She finished.
I nodded, and she left, strutting and holding up the phone as if an ever present remind.
“Please don’t tell her,” Trystan said again. “Please?” I didn’t answer, and eventually he left too.
As my mind began to process everything, I realized my toe was still bleeding, and the bell had just rang, so I had missed all of my chemistry class. Why hadn’t I just gotten a pass like a normal person?
I was almost to the nurse anyway, so I decided I could just go there, pretend to have tripped and just now gotten the strength to get up, which would explain why a five minute trek would’ve taken me 40 minutes. Of course to make this plausible I would have to make myself look much more hurt...maybe I could hit my leg on a chair? Or slam my head into a locker door?
As I got closer I saw Aerona by her locker (she had always hated having her locker by the nurses office), and opportunity seemed to hit me like lightning. I could tell her, right now. She would hate him; want nothing to do with him…
But then again, what did it matter? It was her business, her life she could throw away and waste…
“So you don’t actually LIKE him right?” The ever annoying Tegan was asking her, hovering in the way I imagine bees would to a hive. “I mean I know you originally SAID you didn’t, but then Beth sent out all those pictures from your date and I wasn’t sure…and…”
“And you believe EVERYTHING Beth says now?” Aerona said, sounding annoyed.
“So you don’t.”
“No Tegan, I declared my love for him and we’re getting married. It’s going to be a beach side wedding, want to come?” She rolled her eyes.
Tegan blinked, her mind seeming to take longer than the average person’s to understand the sarcasm. “So…you don’t.”
Aerona sighed, shut her locker, and walked away.
“Tegan,” I said, swooping in as soon as she left. She liked Trystan! I could sense it immediately, her worst fear at the moment was Aerona finding out….very interesting indeed, although not surprising. There didn’t seem to be a girl who wasn’t in love with him.
“D-D-darren!” She hiccupped and stuttered, as if even standing in my presence was some kind of crime.
“You care about Aerona right?”
“Of-ff course! Wait, this isn’t some jealous ex-boyfriend thing is it? Because if it is-“
“Just listen to me,” I said, struggling to not smack the girl. “There’s something I think you should know…”
For a moment I wondered if maybe I was making the wrong decision, but then it passed.
Chapter 3
Author Notes: Well, here's another chapter, please leave me a review letting me know what you think!
Aerona POV
“OH. MY. GOD.” Tegan seemed to be in more shock then I was. “Did that just…happen?”
I snapped my phone shut. “Yeah, it happened…ugh he won’t stop texting me!”
“But you’re not really going to….go out with him are you?” She tried to curl her eyelashes while looking in the school’s bathroom mirror, but screwed it up and dropped the thing in disgust. I wished she would stop acting like that, as if the curl of her eyelashes or the color of her nails would determine whether or not the sun would rise the next day. And no matter what she did, she was never happy with it.
“I don’t really have a choice,” I said, flipping open my phone again. He really didn’t give up, did he? I mean, we are in school, in case anyone had noticed. Of course Tegan and I were both pretending we were in the “nurses office ” so we could have a chance to talk about everything, but I do believe we had a good excuse.
I groaned.
“What?” Tegan was holding up mascara now, but accidently got some on the area beside her eye.
“He wants to have a date, after school.”
“And?”
“Well I have to go, obviously.” I texted a reply and shut my phone. “Gwen was there…everyone was there.”
“Whatever, you don’t even like them!” She was trying with the mascara again, but her hand was shaking so much she kept on missing. What was she so upset about?
“I know that! Gosh Tegan, what is your problem?” I grabbed the mascara and threw it on the sink. “And why do you keep trying to do that? You’re obviously upset about something, and you’re just going to keep getting it on your face unless you calm down.”
“Give it back!” Tegan grabbed it from me. “I need that!”
“You look fine.”
“Yeah, like you could understand.” And with that, Tegan stormed off.
What was her problem? I sighed and leaned my head against a wall. Review of my life: My boyfriend cheated on me, I had now found myself in some all-out feud with his NEW girlfriend, resulting in some date with the school’s biggest player, and now my best friend was pissed at me. Not to mention I hadn’t done my geometry homework and I still wasn’t sure how I had gotten over alleged boyfriend in the first place.
Today was going to be fantastic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, at least he was punctual. At exactly 3:15, like we agreed, he was waiting by that extremely large oak tree. I never understood why that thing was there in the first place. Everything else in the area was all pavements and streets; this was Chicago we were talking about. Perhaps they were trying to salvage a little bit of nature?
“Hey,” Trystan said, nodding his head. I had to hold in the urge to tell him to get over himself; he was leaning against the tree and crossing his arms like he was some kind of gift to the world.
But instead I just bit my lip and smiled. “So where are we going?”
“Alinea, you know the restaurant over on Halsted Street?”
“Wait, isn’t that place supposed to charge like 100 dollars a meal or something?” I asked, skeptical.
“So?”
“So…that’s a lot of money to throw around on the first date with a girl you barely know.”
He shrugged. “No big deal.”
“Right…” The truth is I was kind of excited to go there. I mean, and I was well-off as well, but that didn’t mean I went around eating at Alinea’s every day.
Trystan could obviously tell I was pleased. Darn it.
He put his arm around me. I was going to pull it off…but…I saw Gwen looking from behind a column. Way to be obvious, I thought. Just to spite her, I pulled Trystan tighter. Why did I care so much? I wish I knew… She just made me SO angry.
As we walked, I realized I didn’t know what Trystan’s car looked like- I hoped it wasn’t a convertible, because that would be way too clichéd for me. Luckily, it was some brand of car I didn’t recognize. It was still obviously an over-priced sports car or something, but not a convertible.
“So…why’d you raise your hand anyway?” I asked as I sat in the passenger seat.
“Raise my hand?”
“To be my boyfriend or whatever. There’s got to be a reason.”
“Well, Darren, he doesn’t really talk to people, and... he talked to you. So there’s something special about you, right?”
Well, I hadn’t been expecting that.
There was an awkward moment of silence.
He suddenly laughed. “Just kidding. I think you’re hot.”
I would’ve slapped him, but since he was driving I reconsidered.
“Or perhaps I was kidding about kidding…” he said way too quietly, turning and winking at me.
“Look at the road,” I scoffed. “And the mysterious thing, not working for you.”
“Oh, a girl immune to my charm?”
“Shocking I’m sure,” I deadpanned.
We drove up to Alinea and for a moment I forgot about Trystan. I was excited!
He had made a reservation. This didn’t surprise me, I knew you couldn’t get in without one, but when had he had time to do this? Hadn’t I just agreed to go out with him only a couple hours ago? This place was supposed to be booked for weeks.
But the waiters all acted like they knew him. We were immediately whooshed to a booth and handed menus. I grinned, they had crab. I hadn’t eaten some good crab in a long time. My eyes boggled at the prices though. “How can you afford this?” I asked him, despite the fact I had mentioned it earlier.
“My parents are plastic surgeons; they’re good at what they do.”
“Still, I mean my dad’s a lawyer, but... ”
Some appetizers were brought out and I realized I was starving. After all, I had barely eaten anything the last few days.
“Oh my god, this is so good!” I said, or more tried to say, it came out as “Oh m go this is o ood.”
Trystan laughed. “I thought you might like this place.” He took a sip of his drink. “Now, it’s time for questions.”
“Questions?” I asked, wiping my mouth with a napkin.
“This is a date, isn’t it? And isn’t the point of a date to get to know the other person?” He raised his eyebrows. “Unless you’re one of those people who want to skip the talking…” he leaned across the table and I swatted him away. “Let’s go with the questions. What do you want to know?”
He started interrogating me with one-word questions.
“Shoes?”
“They’re Uggs, why?”
But he didn’t answer that.
“College?”
“I want to go to Columbia.”
“Major?”
“Vocal performance.”
“Singer?”
“Vocal trainer. Can we move on to questions where you actually use more than one word?” I requested.
“Favorite color?”
“Favorite color?” I scoffed in reply.
“Two words,” he responded. [HA, love that!! Knew it was coming^-^]
I sighed. “Right. Turquoise actually.”
He started to ask me another question, but I held up my hand. “No, it’s my turn.”
“Fine,” Trystan said, grinning.
I paused for a moment and studied him. What I really wanted to ask was something that would make him trip up, prove what an imbecile I knew him to be.
Finally, I thought of something. “How would you describe love?”
“What kind of question is that to ask on a first date?” Trystan sounded put out.
I shrugged. “Oh it’s fine, if you can’t think of a smart enough answer.”
“Why, how would you explain it?” He said, trying to spin it back to me.
“I believe I was the one who asked first!” I insisted.
“Well…”
“Don’t be so second grade, if you can’t think of something, I’ll answer,” I snapped.
I paused. I hadn’t expected him to ask me what I thought. What did I define as love? I knew I had felt it before, and in that moment I longed to remember. But just as before, it was on the tip of my tongue, I could almost reach it, almost remember, and then it was gone just like that.
But I had to come up with something to say. I had to look smarter than him... So instead I accessed a memory my brain would let me. I had answered this same question when Tegan had asked me a long time ago; I had used a swimming analogy because Tegan had experienced a short phase in which she was obsessed with professional swimming.
“You’re familiar with being underwater, right?” I asked.
Trystan nodded.
“Well, I believe that loving someone is like being pushed under water. For a moment all you can feel is desperate, uncontrollable fear. But then, you can remember you can swim. You have a choice- you can either stay in the water, letting the current carry you along to who knows where, or fight and try to swim back to shore.”
Trystan looked taken aback, but then raised his eyebrow at me. “What did you steal that from?”
“I didn’t,” I snapped. “Gosh, you asked a question and I answered. Sorry that I’m not so shallow that half of my brain is taken up by thoughts about my hair.”
“That’s not fair,” Trystan protested jokingly. “It’s a fourth, at most.”
I decided not to dignify that with a reply.
“So…what’s your answer?”
“My answer?” He asked in faux innocence.
“To the question.”
“I…I don’t know really.”
I felt color rising to my cheeks. I had given a good answer, a real answer, and he responded with “I don’t know?” I scowled. “Really, because I under the impression you were in love with yourself!”
There was a moment of silence and I wondered if I had gone too far, a couple from another table was even staring at us.
But if my words had affected Trystan at all, it didn’t show in his face. Instead he smiled, pretended he hadn’t heard me, and waved the waiter over to pay the check. I felt even guiltier when I saw how much the tab was. “Let me help pay for that,” I muttered.
“It’s ok,” he responded, handing over a red visa to the waiter. “Now let’s get out of here, I want to show you something.”
He took my hand and dragged me outside. I expected him to pull me in the direction of the car, but instead he pulled into a dark space in-between the restaurant and some building next to it. It wasn’t exactly a menacing alley or something, I mean it was noon and there was a bird singing somewhere, but it was still kind of creepy.
“You’re not going to rape me, are you?” I joked nervously.
“Wasn’t planning on it, but thanks for the idea.” he said sarcastically, looking both ways as we entered the back of what I dubbed a “mini-alley”.
“Now I’m about to show you something, but you have to promise not to scream, alright?”
My heart was pounding…was he going to show me drugs? A gun? Was he lying about the whole rape thing? I felt my cell phone in my back pocket, my hand on the speed-dial for 911 (mom had insisted I put that in after she saw some after-school special about some 10 year old getting kidnapped).
But he didn’t put his hand into a pocket or something. No instead he lifted his finger and held it very close to my chest. There was an odd plop! noise and despite my promise not to scream, I couldn’t help but yelp.
My rather average sized breasts had just shot up to what was surely a D size. My bra felt like it was about to burst, and my first inclination was take it off, but I obviously couldn’t do that. Instead, I started fuming. “WHAT THE HELL!” I yelled.
Trystan put his hand over my mouth. “I said to be quiet!”
I took his hand off of my mouth. “Yeah well, my boobs just grew about two cup sizes. Care to explain?”
“Remember how I said my parents were plastic surgeons?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I snapped.
“This is how my family does it. We all have different, oh, gifts, powers, whatever you want to call it. My mom’s great at reconstructing stuff, fixing noses and chins and stuff, and my dad can do wonders in the area of liposuction. My older brother, he can do something, but of course he won’t tell us yet.” He rolled his eyes.
I did the laugh I did when I was nervous, and started blinking rapidly, this was SO not happening. “Yeah right, and wouldn’t your customers be a little…freaked out by your methods?”
“People are knocked out for surgery Aerona.”
I put my head in my hands. This was just too…weird. This was definitely a hallucination or something. Any moment now I would wake up in math class, with everyone staring at me and that annoying boy who always wore orange poking me with a pencil.
But after considering pinching or slapping myself I realized how clichéd that was, and hating all things clichéd, decided I would just have to accept this was happening until further evidence proved otherwise.
“Wait, saying I believe all this, which I’m NOT,” I said slowly, trying as hard as I could not to look at my enhanced chest, “why are you telling me about it?”
Trystan laughed. “Oh, I have my reasons. There’s a whole world around you that you’re not aware of Aerona. Maybe you should open your eyes.”
I just stood there and blinked for a moment. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, and I was still holding on to the hope , no matter how clichéd it was, that this was a dream. “Can you um, take me home?”
“Of course.” He turned and walked towards the car.
“You planning on putting these back to their regular size?” I asked as I trailed behind him.
“When I feel like it. They look kind of hot on you.”
I scowled and got in the car.
Chapter 2
Darren POV
They all hated me. I could see it in their eyes as I walked down the hallway, as I sat down in my desk.
But it was easier that way. I wanted them to hate me, needed them to hate me.
Now I know. I sound like the stereotypical, whiny teenage boy. But here’s the thing- I’m not a normal teenage boy. No, I would do anything for that.
Luckily, I got into school late that day. I had a dentist appointment. Of course I would be telling my friends I had been ditching, although this was the farthest from the truth because the school principle had threatened that if I was late one more time, he was going to send an escort out to my house every day that would break down the door at 7:30.
Yes, I have a tardiness problem. So what? The only reason he cares is because I’m one of the key players on the football team and he wants me to set a “good example.” That one geeky kid who pushes up his glasses too much, he comes into geometry late almost every day, and no one says a word. Okay, so there’s a small possibility he goes to the nurse to take medication. But whatever.
Walking in, the bell rang, and a bunch of freshmen girls came out of an English one classroom. Here’s the thing about freshmen girls: they’re annoying. I can’t stand them.
And of course, just like most of the world, after that day, they hated me.
“How could you?” Spat a girl with hair whose brown hair had been colored so badly it almost appeared green.
I smirked. I found her expression comical due to the fact that only yesterday I had overheard her giggling with her friends (who had equally poor dyed hair-was this some sort of club?), and wondering if she should talk to “the cute junior boy.” “What?” I asked.
“You cheated on Aerona!”
I rolled my eyes. So Beth sent texts to freshmen now? Not surprising, but still annoying.
The girl kept glaring at me, as if challenging me to say something. But what could I say? It was her fault, but I could never explain that to them, they wouldn’t believe me anyway.
So instead I looked the girl straight in the eye, turned my eyes on “cold” and responded, “It’s not my fault she’s obsessed with me.”
And walked away.
As I was walking, I realized that answer hadn’t really made sense, but shrugged. Like it mattered. A guy came up and high fived me. Now I call this guy “nameless jock #2”. Why? Because I never really bothered to learn any of the names of the guys on my football team. They’re self-absorbed, hair gel worshiping idiots. Which is exactly why I hang out with them.
Nameless Jock #2 looked really pleased about something. Since #2 is often worse than the others, I usually don’t listen to him and just nod with the occasional “dude” or “cool” thrown in to contribute, but, since I felt like being amused, I decided to actually listen.
“Greet job scoring Gwen!” And yes he did say “greet” as in saying hello. That’s not how you pronounce it though. He thought it was an extremely clever mixing of the words “great” and “sweet” Why he decided to do this? I really can’t say, I wasn’t listening when he explained.
“I know, pretty tight right? She came to me.” I suddenly realized that was probably the longest sentence I had ever said to him and fought back the urge to laugh.
“But like, dude, I thought you and Aerona were using the loooveee word.”
I paused for a moment to think of what my nameless jock friends would say, and came up with a good answer. “Gwen’s hotter.” #2 high fived me again.
Why exactly was I with Gwen? Yeah that part eluded] me. I remembered talking to her, then everything was a little blurry…then the next thing I remembered was Aerona seeing us kissing and that look in her eyes…but I shook my head. It didn’t matter now. Gwen was the kind of girl who went from guy-to-guy in a week, so I would just wait for her to break up with me.
“Speak of the—ugh, what is it?” As #2 searched for the word to finish his phrase, which would of course be “devil”, Gwen walked up to us in boots so high I wondered how she didn’t fall straight on her face. I hadn’t lied about the hot thing- if I had cared about that- because, well, she definitely had some features that were bigger then Aerona’s. And she also had that whole foreign-intrigue going for her, pin straight black hair, tan skin, and huge lips that you just don’t find on American girls.
“Heyyy,” she said, putting her arms around me. She looked upset about something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, although I already knew what it was.
“Aerona’s back.”
“So?” I didn’t look into her eyes as I answered. The truth is I kind of wanted to see her.
“So…what if she’s like, super jealous or something and tries to hurt you?”
I raised my eyebrows, because I could tell this wasn’t really what was bothering her. Aerona couldn’t hurt anyone if she tried. One time, some lower girl had robbed her locker and stole an important paper, for some reason that’s still unknown today, and when Aerona found out what it was, she didn’t do anything to them, just asked the teacher for an extension on the paper (and they all love her, so it was fine), and said that the girl probably had an significant reason.
I quickly deciphered what was really on her mind. “Are you sure you aren’t worried that I’ll feel something for] her?”
She bit her lip. “How do you know everything?”
I smirked. “I don’t know everything. Just a lot of things.” A lot more then people might think…
“Well yeah, I mean, you said that you loved her…”
I couldn’t wonder how the hell everyone knew that. Had Aerona told people? We had agreed that was a private thing, but Aerona was a girl, and girls told other girls private things, who told other girls…
“Yes, I did,” I said slowly. What to say, what to say…if I chose my words carefully, I could either extremely piss her off, which would probably mean another annoying blast from Beth if she started shouting at me, or possibly get myself deeper into a relationship I had no desire whatsoever to actually be in. Dangerous waters indeed.
But I never had time to think of something, because at that moment Aerona walked down the hall.
She looked- different. For a second, I couldn’t tell what it was. Her hair was still blonde, long, and wavy, her eyes…it was her eyes. Now the thing about Aerona is if you look into her eyes hard enough, you can always see what she is feeling. They sparkle a little when she’s happy, when she’s sad the color gets deeper, and when she looked at me…well anyway now they just looked blank. It was almost like a cloud was covering them. She was smiling though, talking to her friend Kegan or Tegan or whatever. That girl had always been annoying, obsessed with social-climbing, although she was just too awkward to ever actually make it.
But the smile didn’t reach her eyes. That look, I had seen it somewhere before, not on Aerona but somewhere else…I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I hoped that maybe if I put my head deep in my locker and stayed very quiet they would just walk by and life could go on, but for whatever reason Gwen couldn’t let it be that way. She stepped deliberately in Aerona’s path. “So you finally show your face.” I rolled my eyes. What was her motive? Did she LIKE to embarrass me?
Aerona’s eyes grew colder, but were so obstructed you barely noticed the difference looked and sounded so much more put together then the messages she had left on my cell phone, begging me to call her and just explain. I hadn’t responded to any of them. Yes, I’m a jerk, an a-hole, whatever people may want to call me. Don’t care. It’s not like it was easy.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aerona flipped her hair back, which was kind of a clichéd preppy girl thing, and surprised me coming from her. She had always hated anything clichéd.
“As in, after I took your Darren and you made that ‘scene’ at the football game, no one thought you’d show your face.”
I wondered if Gwen was really thinking about what she was saying, since it seemed more of the school was actually on her side, but decided it was best not to get involved. Nameless jock #2 seemed very excited, obviously hoping for a catfight. I pondered for a moment what it would be like to be him, with such a one-track mind, but decided in the end that I wouldn’t like it, despite how care-free he appeared.
“Please, like I care!” Aerona laughed, but it didn’t sound like her at all. I frowned. Aerona didn’t laugh like that.
“Oh Darren, please, please call me back, you’re everything to me’” Gwen quoted mockingly. WHAT THE HELL, she had listened to my voicemail? Hadn’t I deleted them all right away anyway?
For the first time since the encounter began, Aerona looked at me. It was just for a moment, as if to confirm if Gwen’s word was true. I had to admit it did make me sound even WORSE, if such a thing were possible. Chills went straight down my back as she looked away a second later, as if nothing even hurt her anymore.
“I no longer feel that way. I feel absolutely nothing towards Darren.” The words faltered as she began, as if what she were saying didn’t really make sense to her.
But she wasn’t lying, I would know. It was painful enough, being so close to her. And I couldn’t even look into her eyes…because those were definitely not her eyes….and now…she didn’t care….I shook my head and concentrated.
“Prove it.”
“How?” Aerona raised her eyebrows.
“Ask someone out, right now. Unless you, of course, can accept that no one will say yes.”
“Fine.” Aerona looked in the crowd. Wait, she was really going to do this? Aerona would NEVER do that. She was a sociable girl, but she was also very polite and didn’t take very many risks.
I saw her look over at Gavin, wasn’t that the guy friend of hers that liked her? It would be a safe choice, he would obviously say yes.
But instead of asking him, she continued to blow my mind. “Attention fellow juniors!”
People stopped, because well, Aerona was still somewhat an Upper, and people respected her (except for those really smart kids who wear plaid and think we’re all overrated, which of course we are, and those few social rebels).
“Who would like to be my boyfriend?”
I saw Gavin, stumbling from the back of the throng, try to raise his hand, but someone with bright blonde hair and blue eyes (really a male version of Aerona if you will, except for a completely ridiculous black stripe in his hair that serves no purpose), pushed him out of the way and stepped forward. It was Trystan. I groaned. Trystan was notorious for breaking girl’s hearts. Him and Gwen would probably do splendid together. Whatever he planned to do to Aerona was not good…
Wait, why did I care?
“I will,” he said, nodding his head as he continued to stop Gavin’s attempts to move forward. I felt a little bit sorry for the guy, no one even bothered to help him when he fell flat on his face.
I could see the distaste in Aerona’s face, she hated him. But Gwen was watching, half of the junior class was watching, so refusing him would seem a cop-out. “Fine,” was all she could manage to get out. Trystan put his arm around her, and it was all I could do to stop myself from punching him before
I remembered I wasn’t supposed to care anymore.
“So, give me your number?” He asked.
Aerona took his wrist and wrote on it with permanent marker. Also something she would never do- and where had that marker come from? She wasn’t carrying a purse today, or a backpack for that matter.
Gwen looked floored, and I seriously wondered if she was going to faint, especially due to the excessive] height of her footwear. Gavin, who had finally picked himself off the ground, walked over to Aerona and whispered something to her, looking very upset. Meanwhile Tegan looked so nervous/excited I wondered if she was about to pee herself. She seemed to live vicariously through Aerona. I would have suggested the nearby girl’s restroom, but that would have been rude, and also kind of random, because we probably had only exchanged about 3 sentences.
And with that, the bell rang.
The sensation itself was quite odd. When I woke up that morning felt invigorated, full of some new kind of light, although I wasn’t sure why. The troubling part was I couldn’t remember where I had been the night before. I remembered leaving the house, remembered falling back into bed, but at least an hour or so was completely blank. And no, I was not drunk.
But my mood felt so light that the problem seemed trivial. After all, it was sunny outside, and a cool spring breeze filtered in through the window. What was there to be sad about? Standing up to bask in the warm light, I noticed a broken picture frame lying on the ground. That was odd…
The picture was of me…and…who was that? It was hard to tell, as it appeared there had been a weak attempt to cover up the face with pen. Green eyes, gelled up brown-hair….Darren! Darren…now why did that name seem to spark something? Oh yes, my ex-boyfriend. And then, suddenly, in a rather annoying rush, the memories began to play.
Like a slideshow in my head, I saw it all over again. Gwen and Darren behind the bleachers, kissing, Gwen smirking at me as Darren told me he didn’t love me anymore…Me, sitting in the same bed I had just exited, crying my eyes out, tissues everywhere. I could even see myself throwing the frame now and hearing the glass crack.
But despite the sorrow I should be feeling over such depressing memories, I didn’t seem to feel anything at all. It was perhaps as if I was remembering something I had seen in a movie, someone else’s life but surely not my own.
I had said I loved him. Now why I had said that? I had been very sure at the time, but now, trying to place the emotion…what was love? It was like when you’re trying to think of something you know you know, but keeps escaping you, right on the tip of your tongue…
I sat down again and put my hands on my temple. All this forgetting stuff was starting to become vexing. My cat, a beautiful Russian Blue, walked into the room and began rubbing against my leg. The sight of her made me smile. “Well I can be sure of one thing,” I murmured, patting her head. “Whatever I felt, I sure don’t feel it anymore.”
So now it was time to approach this the way I did everything: logically. I had spent a couple days moping and away from school; I needed to get back right away so I wouldn’t get too far behind on all my work. I checked the time. I still had 20 minutes before I should leave….maybe I could run a quick straightener through my hair…
I couldn’t help but squeal when I looked in the mirror. I don’t really consider myself a materialistic person, but my reflection was quite dreadful. For starters, my blue eyes were completely surrounded by mascara that seemed to have flowed down my cheeks when I was crying. I really needed to invest in waterproof. And my long blonde hair was matted and greasy…when had I showered last?
But another look at the clock confirmed that I simply didn’t have time. With a sigh I washed my face, brushed my hair, and put a hat on. It was going to have to do. Slipping on my backpack and grabbing my keys, I headed down the stairs.
“Aerona!” my mom greeted me. She sounded surprised.
“Hey mom, I’m running a little behind, so I should get going.” I was in a rush to get driving. I didn’t want to talk about why I had acted like a zombie for the last few days.
Now my mom and I are very alike. We both have the same blonde hair, blue eyes, and logical approach to life. And for us, knowing each other so well, she knew the most logical choice was not to mention my sudden change from crippling, broken teenager to a normal, calm girl.
Suddenly my stomach growled. Personal hygiene wasn’t the only thing I had neglected in the last couple days. “Actually, could I eat something first? Did you make something?” I asked, embarrassed.
Despite the fact we weren’t mentioning my transformation; she couldn’t hide the emotion in her voice as she responded. “Of course, just grab something from the table.” I felt horrible; I must have worried her so much. How could I have done that to her, after all she did for me on a daily basis? I grabbed a piece of toast and headed out the door before I could feel any guiltier.
Though initially I had felt pleased to be returning to school and seeing everyone again, I now felt some trepidation. Darren walked a bit of a different social circle then me- I guess you could call him one of “them (they’re called the Uppers). When he and I had got together it caused quite a stir at the school- and I was sure that our breakup would as well. I wasn’t looking forward to the questions, whispering, and pointing, that would follow.
But before I knew it, I was in the parking lot. People were running, and I heard the bell ring. Splendid. Because walking in after the bell would definitely make my entrance less noticeable. Taking a deep breath, I walked with my head held high and my eyes looking straight ahead, as to hopefully appear strong and confident.
Miraculously my homeroom teacher was running late, and everyone was taking their time getting settled. I quickly spotted Tegan, my preppy brown-haired best friend, who upon noticing my arrival, ran up and hugged me. “AERONA! I’ve missed you so much!”
“I’m sorry,” I responded awkwardly, aware of the eyes of the ever annoying Beth on me.
Now Beth is the school gossip (every school has one). Besides having the uncanny ability to listen to conversations she shouldn’t have been able to hear, she also knew EVERYONE’S cell phone number, and had set up some sort of odd system that sent it to everyone in the grade at once. Really, she had some sort of technological talent there, too bad she didn’t use it for better purposes.
She was doing her ever famous “hover” in which she looked exceedingly pre-occupied with something, when in reality she was listening. It wasn’t that it didn’t look convincible- just having spent so much time with the Uppers, I knew many of her tricks.
“BUT,” I said loudly, to be sure she could hear, “I don’t CARE about DARREN anymore.”
Tegan tipped her head as if I said something confusing. Then she smiled one of those smiles reserved for small children or people in denial. “Of course you don’t, of course you don’t. That’s a good attitude.”
“I really do-“ I stopped myself. I probably wouldn’t be able to make her believe me- and frankly I wouldn’t have believed myself, if you had asked me as recent as yesterday. Once again, the mystery of what had happened last night overwhelmed me, but I quickly shook it off. That was yesterday, and today was today. And today I could care less.
At this point, the teacher walked in the room, which I was grateful for. I made sure to take a seat as far from Beth as possible.
But it seemed she wasn’t through with me just yet. I opened my backpack to get something and noticed my phone flashing.
Beth: So who broke up w/ who? Iv heard some stuff but wanted ur side.
I sighed, and considered ignoring it. But she would probably keep texting me.
Aerona: He broke up with me. And IDC, I’m fine, so don’t bother spreading im heartbroken or some crap like that.
I could see her eyebrows go up and saw the light of my phone. I quickly checked to make sure the teacher wasn’t looking. He was speaking about some lockers being vandalized, and his eyes didn’t seem to be near me. Beth didn’t have to check- she never got caught.
Beth: Oh rly, interesting, interesting…this doesn’t happen 2 have anything 2 do with Gwen does it?
Even my sudden lack of feeling for Darren couldn’t stop my blood from boiling on the sight of her name. She was an absolutely horrible person, and I had tried to be nothing but nice to her! If Darren wanted her, I really was better off. They deserved each other.
Aerona: U ask her urself.
Beth: Will do.
Aerona: No point in asking u 2 stay out of my personal life, is there?’
Beth: Nope.
I sighed. Oh well- not like I hadn’t expected this.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
When the bell rang for lunch, I thought I might just jump in relief. The day hadn’t been as bad as expected- it had been worse. Beth took no time talking to Gwen, and promptly sent out a report in the form of a couple texts after second period.
In case u haven’t heard (even though every1 knows), Aerona and Darren are THRU. Aerona has no comment, but…Gwen says “Darren just knew what he wanted-if Aerona can’t deal w/ that, then oh well. I heart him!”
I felt like I was in episode of Gossip Girl. And who says “I heart him!” anymore? She sounded like a clichéd, trying-to-hard seventh grader.
And EVERYONE had something to say about it, OF COURSE. A blonde girl I had never met in my life gave me a five minute speech on how to get the perfect revenge on Darren (she was talking so fast I didn’t hear all of it, but it seemed to include a large trash can and a train ride to Canada), while another girl assured me that he would come back, and told me that maybe if I had done my hair this morning I would have made a better statement. I nodded and smiled at them both, trying to be as polite as possible-but inwardly fuming at both Beth and Gwen for causing this.
The most awkward confrontation of all was one by my locker, which had happened before the class I was now exiting.
“Hey!” Gavin had said, grinning. Now Gavin is basically the opposite of Darren. He has black hair that looks natural, compared to Darren’s gelled up concoction. He wears glasses and hangs with the smart crowd at school, you know the over-achievers who want to get into Harvard or something. The Uppers had always considered him a “lower”, but I had been friends with him anyway.
“Hi,” I said, smiling, although it was mostly fake. I wasn’t in a smiley-mood.
“Oh, I’m sorry, you’re day has sucked hasn’t it,” but although his words were kind, he kept grinning stupidly. And then-he put his hand on my shoulder!
I didn’t want to offend him, but him touching me was so weird, I had to push away. “What was that?” I tried to keep my tone light.
“Well now that you’re not that with that idiot anymore-you’re free to look at other…options, right?” He was blushing, I could tell the words were hard for him…HE LIKED ME! The thought hit me like a ton of bricks. I had no idea…but now that I thought about it, it was pretty obvious. All the helping me with the homework, IM conversations, avoiding the topic of Darren at all costs…and he had never talked about any other girls. He liked me.
“Ummm…” I had no idea what to say. Gavin was a good friend, but I had NEVER, NEVER, thought of him like that. The idea of kissing him kind of made me want to throw up to be personally honest.
I had to lie. There’s no way I could stand here and totally break his heart. Maybe I couldn’t remember why I loved Darren- but I remembered the misery of heartbreak. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even Gwen.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “But I need time to get over Darren…”
I hated the lie the second it left my mouth. I hated watching Gavin's eyes get a little duller in disappointment. I hated the way he shuffled his feet to break the tension.
But his answer surprised me. “That’s fine, I can wait. And I understand, I would need time too.”
I bit my lip, wondering if what I had done was even worse. Now he had hope- but false hope.
So now I was grateful for a beautiful half-hour of sitting with Tegan, laughing at the horrible cafeteria food but eating it anyway. We had noticed that all the food followed a certain color scheme. Today was red.
“Hey, hey!” Tegan greeted me, placing an apple on her tray. “I saw Beth’s report. That must suck.”
“It does…” I sighed, grabbing an apple with some weird lump on it and placing it on my own tray.
“Don’t worry about it, it will totally blow over. That Gwen, she’s got another thing coming, let me tell you…”
“Speaking of which, why are we heading toward her table?”
The “Uppers” table, which was dead-set in the middle of cafeteria, was already filled with many of the normal people. Oddly Darren wasn’t there- in fact I hadn’t seen him all day. The thought that he was off somewhere with Gwen made me want to throw something across the room, but no, she was at the table.
“I thought…” Tegan started.
“Tegan, you can’t seriously think they’d let us sit there anymore. I’m not one of “them” now. I had no status without Darren. And honestly, I have no desire to anyway. Almost all of them are heartless egomaniacs.”
Tegan sighed. I knew she had always wanted a little popularity, although she would never say it. She was way too loyal to me. “Ok, so where should we sit?”
I shrugged. “Anywhere I guess.”
We ended up sitting at a table in the corner. It was noticeably smaller then our usual one, and didn’t look it was as clean. But as soon as I let the thought flow through my mind I chided myself, I had let myself get spoiled.
ut when some random junior boy at the table sneezed on my food, I couldn’t help but miss it a little.
This is my short little proluge. 
It's supposed to be short to not give too much away.
I had expected the basins to be on shelves, maybe even tables. But not…floating.
The room was stunningly beautiful. The basins, which were made of light gray stone, seemed to be held up by small clouds of purple and white. There were tons of the basins, row upon row, in a seemingly infinite amount. All around me the air was full of a fuchsia-like light. I felt as if I was leaving Earth, and had entered another world. Above me I didn’t see a ceiling, or a sky, but simply the pretty colored light continuing up and up, with little purple-white clouds scattered about.
I took a step forward- and the basins shifted. At the speed of sound they moved, until finally one stopped before me. It looked the same as all the others, seemingly plain and simple, but to me it was beautiful. This was because I saw my name carved in the light gray stone and knew it stood for…my freedom…my release…
But I was nervous. As much as I wanted this, I knew what it would mean. So, my brain did what it always did when I panic: asked questions. What was the light? Why did it look like that? How did the basins float? Would it move if you pushed it, or is it rooted somehow?
I moved my fingers forward, in intention of finding out. Just as they were about to make contact…
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I jumped. I didn’t realize I had been followed. But jumping only ended up scaring me more, for it revealed that the floor below me had disappeared, replaced by small stepping stones, on one of which I was standing. Below me, the fuchsia colored light continued. There was no bottom, just as there had been no top…my head began to ache out of nausea. I’d never liked heights.
Then I remembered I had been spoken to. “Why?” I croaked.
“As soon as you touch the basin, its power is unlocked. You have to be sure,” the lady’s voice answered.
I nodded. This made sense.
“And…I’ll really forget?” I held my hand a few inches away.
“Your feelings, yes.”
“But my memories?”
The lady laughed, but not in a condescending way.”You overestimate my power if you think I can remove actual memories. I can only remove the emotions behind them.”
I took a deep breath. “Ok, I think I’m ready.” Without waiting for her to answer, I reached out to touch the basin, and everything went black.
