"They're cousins," Nat replies.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Cousins! They're cousins," she repeats, "to be quite honest I don't know how we never saw it, they both have reddish hair, same eye color and everything. Looking at them now I can totally see it."
"Cousins?"
"Yup," she replies.
"How did you find out?"
"Well I just got to work and I saw Giana walking out of Eric's dad's office and she called him uncle."
"Wow," I say, "why didn't he tell us? Didn't we tell Eric about her back when she uploaded that audio on her Instagram?"
"I think we did. I don't know to be honest, I want to trust in him because we're both good friends with him but the more we find out the more we realize we don't know Eric as well as we thought we did."
"Exactly," I say and then an idea hits me. "Hey is Giana still there?"
"Yeah, she's sitting at a booth here with her friends."
"What about Eric?" I question.
"Not yet, but I know he's supposed to come because I saw the employee sign in sheets."
"Okay, I'm on my way then."
"Okay," she replies, "I have to go before anyone sees me on the phone but I'll see you here."
When Aaron had ended things with Giana back then on Homecoming night, I thought that was the last I'd see of her. But now I realize how wrong I was, and more than anything, how much I needed something not only from her but from Eric as well. I had questions, and they were the only ones who could answer them.
"Mom can I go to the diner? I'm kind of hungry and Nat is there-"
"Be back by ten the latest."
"Thank you. Bye. Love you."
"Love you too," she replies from the living room as I make my way to exit the front door. Once I'm inside my car I drive as fast as I can to the diner only to find the parking lot completely filled so park on the side of the street, not too far from the diner. I get down as fast as I can and begin to run toward the diner. My phone buzzes and I look down as I run as I try to look for my phone inside my bag when suddenly I bump into someone.
"I'm sorry." The words come out before I get a chance to see who I'm talking to.
Aaron's eyes lock with mine, his expression going from confused to concern within seconds.
"Are you okay?" It was the first words of worry he had said to me since the party. In fact it was the first words that showed interest for my wellbeing instead of words only used for me to leave him alone.
"I...," my words trail off and I know that I should probably tell him about Giana and Eric but I'm too worried that Giana may leave or Eric won't be there if I don't get there soon so I take a step back from Aaron and say, "I have to go."
I walk away from him and run toward the diner. I look around, in hopes of finding Giana but I don't see her anywhere. When I catch a glance of Nat behind the counter I walk over to her.
"Hey," I say, "I thought Giana was here."
Nat looks up at me cautiously and whispers, "I saw her and Eric go out the back."
"Thanks," I say and walk out of the diner and enter the alley that leads to the back of the diner. Surely enough there stands both Giana and Eric and I want to hear what they're saying but I'm walking too fast so I don't have enough time to stop before they see me.
"Lux," Eric says as soon as he takes a good look at me, "what are you doing here?"
"You're a liar," I say, "Both of you."
"Oh get over it," Giana replies, "we don't owe you anything, much less the truth."
I ignore her comment and keep my eyes on Eric.
"I thought we were friends, why did you lie about not being at school earlier today?"
Eric is quiet, unsure of what to say and beside him Giana scoffs.
"So what?" she says.
"Can you guys just tell me what's going on?" I tell them, bur my eyes don't leave Eric's, my eyes pleading him for the truth.
"Have you heard of the phrase 'blood is thicker than water'?" The question doesn't come from Giana but rather from Eric and suddenly he's got this look on his eye that I don't recognize anymore.
"What?" I find myself saying.
Eric feigns a yawn and walks closer to me as Giana crosses her arms but I also don't fail to notice the smug look on her face.
"It's an idiom," Eric says, "it's a way of saying that family is more important than friends."
"I know what it means," I bite back, beginning to feel the sudden slap to the face that betrayal between friendships bring.
"Then you know why we did it," he replies.
"Did what?" a low voice behind me questions. I turn around and find Aaron standing behind me.
Giana smiles.
"Well since you're here too I guess we should start with you," Giana tells him and takes a step closer. She loses the smile she had and makes an annoyed face.
"Did you honestly think what you did to me on Homecoming would end well for you? Did you think I would forget? I never forget. I can hold onto grudges for a really long time. Which is why I roofied you at that party."
"You did what?" Aaron says, shocked.
Giana lets out a laugh.
"It wasn't that hard to be honest. Okay, maybe it was a little. I mean after all you were acting so lame by saying that you didn't want to drink any alcohol because you were going to the wedding with Lux the next day," she says then adds with a mocking tone, "how cute."
"And once I realized how close you two have become I decided that I wasn't going to let that happen anymore. What you guys did to me was unfair, humiliating, making me look like a fool. I was hoping you didn't wake up until after the wedding was completely over but of course you had to go to the diner and ask Nat where the was at. You looked like love sick puppy, worried he'd hurt the feelings of the girl her likes. So I called up Eric and told him to go instead, and luckily he got there before you."
"You're insane, you know that right," I say and she rolls her eyes but then smiles again.
"Just wait until you hear what we did to you."
At this my heart stop and I take a step back and almost trip on a rock if it weren't for Aaron.
"Do you ever wonder why you lost your job here?" voices Giana and my eyes widen. "We stole the money that night that you were closing up. Honestly it's your fault though, maybe next time you should learn to not put your music up so loud so that you can be aware of your surroundings. The next day Eric came in and told his dad that there was some money missing and the last person to step foot in the diner the day before was you."
"Why would you do that? All because of what did to you on Homecoming? You did that to yourself Giana," says Aaron.
"You don't get it do you? Or maybe you will. See I liked you Aaron, and when I say liked, I mean liked. And I thought that night when showed some interest in me, my dream of dating you would finally come true. Not once did I think that this whole Instagram situation would cause you and Lux to get closer together. I mean how stupid can you be to fall for the girl that made everyone hate you? But then you broke my heart Aaron and maybe that's where you can relate to me. The fact that the people we like will never like us back. So I'm giving you one last chance. Forget about her and come to me. I still like you. In fact, I love you Aaron. I love you so much."
Giana walks over to Aaron, her arms open wide to embrace him but he pushes her away and she becomes angry again.
"You're going to regret that," she tells him.
"I highly doubt it. Lux, let's go." Aaron grabs my wrist and pulls me but I stay put, my eyes still on Eric.
"You're not even going to explain yourself," I say to him and he shrugs.
"Like I said," he replies, "blood is thicker than water."
At his words Aaron pulls on me again and this time I let him take me away from them. We walk to my car, my thoughts on everything Giana had just said, and on Eric, Maru and Sage. I let out a shaky breath and force myself not cry and Aaron sees this because he pulls me in a quick hug before asking for my keys. He says he'll drive me home and from there he'll just ask Bianca to pick him up. My brain and heart hurt too much to decline his offer and within the span of fifteen minutes Aaron has parked my car in the driveway. And as I look around us my mind can't help but go back on that day he kissed me.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm sorry," I say.
"Lux what they did isn't your fault-"
"No," I reply, "I'm sorry for recording you on that day. I'm sorry for letting Giana hear that recording and I'm sorry she put it on Instagram for everyone to hear. I'm sorry I got us into this mess and I'm sorry for ruining your life." And suddenly I'm crying because the more I apologize the more things I find that I should be sorry about. My hands are on my face and I'm sure by the time I'm done speaking my words are incoherent.
Aaron pulls my hands away from my face and wipes my tears.
"You didn't ruin my life Lux," he says, "we're only in high school, my life hasn't even started yet." He's teasing, I can tell by the tone of his voice and I know he says this so I can feel better but I don't.
"It's your senior year," I say, "you spent half of it being hated by classmates."
"So?"
"So I ruined your senior year."
"Lux relax. I don't care if people like me or not. Maybe I did at first but believe me since I met you I had to force myself not to care what people think. If they like me then cool, if not then that's fine too. You didn't ruin anything, in fact you probably did quite the opposite and opened my eyes to the reality I was trying so hard to avoid with the bad boy persona I put on."
"I should've known you weren't a jerk. In fact I should've known you were nice. One of the nicest guys I know. But of course I always assumed things and made you out as a bad person."
"I'm no saint Lux," Aaron retorts.
I frown before saying, "I'm sorry for hurting your feelings." At this Aaron looks away and I let out a sigh before talking again.
"Giana was wrong you know. I do like you back. And I didn't run away because I was rejecting you Aaron. I ran away because I was scared of letting my feelings for you take over me. I was afraid that you would break my heart, but in doing so I not only broke your heart but I broke mine as well. I know you don't want to hear this and I know it's too soon. But I do like you, have for a while, not quite sure how to stop."
Aaron is silent for a while and my heart speeds up when realizing that maybe confessing my feelings for him was the wrong move; maybe I was too late.
"Heartbreak is scary," Aaron finally says, "And I know for a fact that I don't want to go through that again." At this Aaron looks up at me and we lock eyes.
"And you're important to me Lux," he adds, "but maybe we should just be friends."
He doesn't give me a chance to say anything before he opens the door and that is when I notice Bianca's car parked to the side. From the rear-view mirror I watch him go inside her car before she drives away.
As soon as I walk in my house I notice Sage standing in front of the kitchen island.
"Hey," I say, "what do you have in your hand?"
Sage looks up at me annoyed and mutters, "A bunch of bullshit," before throwing the papers on the island and stomping back up to his room.
Confused by his words I walk over to the island and grab the papers, reading them carefully.
Dear Sage Callaghan,
The Admissions Committee has carefully reviewed your application to the University of Arizona. After much consideration, I regret to inform you...
I stop reading and realize why Sage is so mad. He didn't get in to U of A.
One word: Yikes
Mores 'Yikes' to come in later chapters ;)
Don't forget that if you want to know when the next update is coming to check my bio on my profile (:
Rn it has today's update, but later tonight I'll have another date (and time) set for the next update
Until then, stay safe x