"You two kissed?"
It was only five minutes after closing time and I was in the middle of cleaning my last booth. As I cleaned the table though, Nat decided to tell Eric all about the past two days.
I give Eric a side glance, as put all the plates and cups inside the bin I was carrying.
"It was a fake kiss."
"Fake kiss? Didn't your lips touch?"
"Well yes but-"
"No but's. It was a real kiss."
I set down the bin and stared at them in annoyance.
"The kiss wasn't like that, it was all for show."
Eric rolls his eyes and sighs before raising his hands up in defense.
"Okay," he says, "fine. Whatever you say."
"At least we're finally done with Giana," remarks Nat.
Eric nods. "Yeah, that girl sounded so annoying."
"She was," Nat agrees.
"Alright you two," I say, "enough with the gossip. Let's finish cleaning so we can go home."
Eric sends a salute my way and begins placing the chairs on the tables. Once we're all done we close up and walk toward the parking lot.
"Bye guys," says Nat and she waves before walking to her car.
"Bye," we say to her and watch her drive off.
"So," says Eric.
"So?"
"The kiss was really nothing?" he wonders aloud.
I let out a groan and cross my arms.
"I already told you no."
"I'm just checking, geez you always get so defensive when I bring it up."
"I don't know," I say, "it's just lately everything has been about Aaron and homecoming and that audio clip. Its tiring because I feel like all of this will just continue in a never ending cycle of me feeling guilty and, well, whatever weird situations Aaron gets me in."
Eric lets out a soft chuckle.
"Damn, your life must suck so much huh?"
I roll my eyes.
"Fine, make fun of me all I want. This will be the last time I will be honest with you."
"Oh calm down Lux, I was just teasing. And honestly I don't think things could possibly worse."
"If you say so. Anyways I should go, it's getting late."
"Sure thing, bye Lux."
"Bye Eric," I say before getting inside my car and driving home.
"Running late?"
I look up, surprised as I find my dad sitting at the kitchen island.
It was the next day, Monday sadly and for some unknown reason my alarm didn't go off.
"Yeah," I say going in the pantry to get a granola bar. "I got to go, bye."
"Bye, have a miserable day at school."
I smile and turn to him and say, "Have a miserable day at work dad."
He lets out a laugh and I run out of the house and into my car.
Bye the time I get to school it is 8:40, only five minutes before the bell rings.
I run to my locker and grab my text books, praying that I get to my English class before Mr. Rios closes the door.
"Lux Callaghan."
You know those moments in movies or TV shows in which they make everything seem so dramatic that it actually cracks you up. They add the slow motion effect and you see the main character running towards each other while the melodramatic music plays in the background. At thirteen I was almost sure those were the best scenes in any film; so romantic and perfect that I'd squeal uncontrollably.
Now, at seventeen, I can finally realize how wrong I was. Those scenes weren't romantic. They were cringey, I can testify to that as I watch Aaron Reeves run up to me from the other side of the hall.
If I could become invisible, I would. If only.
I watch in horror as I take notice of the things he carries in his hands. People in the hall watch too, more than likely confused, until finally Aaron is standing before me, a little out of breath.
He has this silly smile on and again I just want to be invisible. And I pray hard that I could just disappear but alas no such luck.
"Lux Callaghan," Aaron repeats. His eyes lock with mine before he briefly looks around, satisfied at the amount of people looking at us.
"I like you," he says.
And there goes that dramatic pause. And we just stare at each other and I can't possibly understand as to why this looks so romantic in the films because all I can feel is embarrassment and my stomach churning with dread.
"I got you some gifts," he finally says and shoves over the giant teddy bear in his hands to me.
I grab it reluctantly.
"Here," he says and shoves the flowers to me next with a big smile on his face. He then proceeds to hand me a paper.
"It's a letter," he says and I almost roll my eyes at the way he says it; all shy as if he was some middle schooler giving his crush a note.
"And lastly," he adds and grabs my hand so suddenly that I almost drop everything I'm holding. I hold the bear tighter and put the flowers between the side of my stomach and arm while holding the letter in my other hand.
He holds up a frame and turns it around so I can see the picture. He looks at the image dreamingly before staring at me.
"So you can put it in your locker."
It is a picture of himself.
I almost die from cringing so hard but I know what he's doing and I know I should follow along. So I force a smile and grab the frame. I look away from him as I try the best I can to not roll my eyes.
"Thanks," I say.
He smiles happily and then the bell rings.
"Well," he says, "I should go. I don't want to be late."
Before I get a chance to respond he walks off.
I sigh, annoyed because I don't know what to do with all the junk he just gave me, but more annoyed than anything because I know for sure that Mr. Rios has officially closed his door.
The people that remained in the hall even after the bell rang stare at me, whispering a little and finally I roll my eyes. With the things in my hand I walk to the nearest bathroom and try to shove everything inside the trash bin. Unfortunately the bear didn't fit so I left it sitting beside the trash bin as I throw at the things Aaron gave me before finally I run off to my first class of the day.
By lunch time I finally see Nat and Maru. They are sitting at a table in the cafeteria next to Sage and Ethan.
"Hey," I say to them once I've gotten my food, "they finally have the spicy chicken tenders."
I take a seat and take a bite out of one of the chicken tenders.
"What?" I say once I see their faces. Something tells me this has to do with a little someone named Aaron Reeves.
"First she says the kiss was fake," Nat says.
"And then suddenly Aaron Reeves gives her a bunch of presents," adds Maru.
"Let's not forgot what Aaron said when he found out she threw out all of the gifts," says Ethan and they all nod.
"How are you guys not actually dating?"
"What?" I say alarmed and begin choking on the chicken that I had just swallowed. I let out a few more coughs before opening up my water bottle and drinking some of it. When I recover, I look at them in surprise.
"What are you guys talking about? How did he find out?"
"You seriously don't know? Have you like not noticed that everyone's been on their phone for the past hour or so."
"I just thought that was normal," I remark.
Maru lets out a laugh. "Okay but Lux not knowing all that's happening is kind of funny."
"Can someone just explain?" I urge.
"Well let's just say some people made like a fan page of you and Aaron on Instagram. It's actually quite funny because their username is bad boys aren't romantic," Sage explains.
"Are you being serious?"
"Yeah, he is," says Nat, "they're picture of him giving you some presents, and I think they even have a video of it."
"And then there are picture of you throwing away the presents in a trash can in the girls bathroom," adds Maru.
I let out scoff.
"People seriously have too much time in their hands," I voice.
"Yeah," Ethan agrees.
"Maybe you should look at the latest post," says Sage as he hands me his phone.
I grab it and stare at the picture of the teddy bear sitting on the floor beside the trash bin. I scroll down to read the long caption.
badboysarentromantic after being told that junior Lux Callaghan threw away the gifts given to her by him, Aaron just shrugged and said, "That's okay. Those are gifts I gave to her and she can do what she wants with them, I don't mind. I know that Lux isn't easily swayed by my attempts of gaining her affection but I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm just going to keep on trying. I really do like her so I don't see the point of getting upset just because she threw away my gifts. Hopefully the next time she gets a gift from me she won't throw it away, but I guess I have to get her to like me first, so that's exactly what I'm planning to do."
"Who the hell has this time in their hands to make a page like this? People are crazy," I say handing back the phone to Sage.
"Well a lot of people from school are starting to follow that account. At least it's not like Giana where she would just talk shit, but instead it's just a positive look at your relationship with Aaron," Sage replies.
"What relationship? We're not together!"
"Chill Lux, it's just Instagram account, eventually this will blow over. People are just surprised at Aaron's actions and obviously because no one has seen him act this way everyone is intrigued."
I let out a sigh.
"It's kind of ironic though no? How Lux basically ruined his bad boy image and now he's pursuing her."
"It's called bad karma," I respond to Maru.
She makes a face and rolls her eyes but I can tell she still finds this amusing.
"You know what," I was reading through the comments and people actually suspect Lux for being the girl in the voice recording," adds Nat.
"Oh yeah but that's just one of the many theories in the comments. Like I also read that people think Lux brainwashed Aaron into liking her and-"
"Okay I'm leaving," I say interrupting Sage and standing up.
"Where are you going?" asks Ethan.
"I don't want to hear any more of this Aaron drama. I'm done with it. In fact I'm gonna confront him as to why he would even add a comment to that. Like seriously? We had such a hard time shutting Giana up and now this?"
"Lux," Nat begins but I ignore her and grab my tray to throw away and then walk out of the cafeteria to find Aaron.
I look through the halls hoping to find him but I don't. I even go to the biology room where we found Bianca and SoHo but still no luck.
I end up asking a sophomore. I wasn't sure why I asked her but she just seemed like the type that would know. She did and told me to look in the parking lot and sure enough there is Aaron Reeves with the rest of his friends sitting on the hood of Bianca's car.
"Hey here comes your girlfriend Aaron," says Omar with a snicker. I glare at him and watch as Aaron hits the back of his and laughs. He gets up from the car and walks over to me.
"Hey," he says with a smile.
I open the milk from the cafeteria that I took from a random guy and throw it all over Aaron.
He jumps back in shock and his friends laugh hysterically from the car.
"What the fuck?"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm wondering. What the fuck Aaron?"
He wipes his face with his shirt, pulling it up and revealing his torso.
"So I'm guessing you checked Instagram," he says calmly.
"Yes," I say crossing my arms, "I thought we were done with this social media nonsense."
"Look it doesn't say anything bad. It's actually the opposite and if I'm being quite honest it's helping me a lot to get everyone's attention."
"Okay first of all why would you even comment on the fact that I threw away the gifts? That was completely unnecessary and to be honest I don't care if its helping you get people's attention, I don't like being everyone number entertainment. I mean they freaking made a page about us! Like that's insane! People are throwing everything out of proportion."
"Relax will you? Stop freaking out over nothing. I commented on it because I want people to think I'm a good guy. But you better not believe anything I said. I'm pissed that you threw away everything. I actually bought everything with my money and you fucking threw it in the trash. I bet you didn't even read the letter. But whatever you do what you want. But you can't come here and get pissed, we made a deal and you can't back out."
"But-"
"No buts, just calm down, okay? Geez."
I roll my eyes and scoff.
"Stop making comments for that Instagram page."
"Fine," he says, "will you stop getting so mad for every little thing?"
"Fine," I reply.
Aaron gives me an annoyed look before going back to his friends.
"Let's go," he says, "I gotta go change."
When the day ends I go to my locker. I decided to let the Instagram thing go, I have other things to worry about. When I open my locker a paper falls out and I pick it up. It has a neon yellow sticky note on it. I read it.
Saved this from the trash for you & the picture of Aaron, it's inside your locker too.
It's the letter Aaron wrote. I take off the sticky note hoping to find the name of the person but I don't. I put my textbooks inside my locker and decide to throw in the letter as well, not really interested in reading it before making my way home.
So you guys, like myself, didn't expect me to update until another month or so. Bc let's face it, I take forever to update. But I really want to change that. I want to update again this week & I'm hoping (but no promises) that I continue to update as frequently as I have now.
Anyways hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for all your support. The next chapters will be fun ;)
Until Friday (I hope) - Ari âº