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.
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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.
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.
