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.
