Aria and I glanced at each other for a split second before looking at our parents.
“I thought you were coming back next week,” Aria said casually, not an iota of nervousness in her voice.
“We thought we’d surprise you,” Dad shrugged.
Mom hugged Aria first and then me.
“Surprise!” Mom added joyfully. “So how was your party, Arianna?” Aria didn’t say anything for a few seconds, like she forgot her own party. But I knew that she didn’t want to remember the day we were kidnapped by crazy werewolves.
“Fun,”
“What did you get for presents?” Mom asked while she closed her phone.
“You know, the usual, clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup,”
“Did you dance with any boys?”
Aria smiled, “Yeah, a few,”
“And what kind of alcohol did you drink?”
“Wine-” Aria quickly covered her mouth but it was too late, “I mean, the adults had wine, I had water.”
“You can lie to us better than that,” Mom put her hands on her hips. Not a good sign.
“I didn’t-”
“Maybe you shouldn’t post everything online where your parents can see.” Dad interrupted and I waited for them to start yelling.
When they were angry, my parents preferred not to yell. They would interrogate us, keeping their voices level, like they were waiting to pounce on their prey.
It just made Aria and I even more terrified.
“I just had a little sip.” But my parents snorted. Mom opened her phone and showed us a picture of Aria downing a beer bottle. I frowned, not remembering that part of the night.
“Does this look like a little sip?” Mom demanded.
“I’m eighteen, everyone else my age was drinking-”
“That doesn’t mean you can!” Dad was yelling now, his face red with rage, “When will you learn that your actions have consequences? You can’t leave this online, the police will arrest you and your future will be ruined! Is that what you want?”
“No.” Aria said weakly but I knew she had already zoned out a while ago.
“Go to your room. Both of you.”
We ran upstairs, Aria angrily slamming our door.
“Don’t slam!” Mom shrieked and Aria jumped onto her bed, screaming into it.
“I hate them!”
I sighed, unfortunately used to these fights. I learned that it was best to obey my parents and give Aria her space and talk it out.
I laid down on my stomach and took out my homework from my bag.
“I’m so happy that in six months I’ll be out of here.” I was sad, to be honest, but didn’t say anything. I liked having our family together. We got on each other’s nerves sometimes- okay, every other week- but we’d protect each other no matter what.
“I’m an adult now, I can do whatever I want. It’s my future, not theirs.” I wanted to point out that she wasn’t above the legal drinking age but didn’t want to interrupt her rant. “And it’s not like the police are gonna see that pic of me.”
Aria flipped onto her back, cooling down, “And even if they do see, I’ve already been accepted into college and my college really wants me so I doubt they’ll reject me.”
“Don’t you have homework to do?” I asked curiously, flipping through the math textbook.
Aria groaned then reached for her bag on the floor, pulling her phone out.
“Yeah, but I’ve got more important stuff to do.” While she was checking her phone. She really was obsessed with that thing.
“I can tell.” Now, what problems was I supposed to do? Numbers five through fourty-seven. Nice. Math homework was a killer.
I started it quickly, getting pulled deep into thought. If I graph the equation, the derivative is-
“Ken hasn’t texted me back,” Aria said suddenly, “Do you think he’s ignoring me?”
“When’s the last time he texted you?” If I graph the equation, the derivative would be-
“Last Saturday.”
“Maybe he’s busy or something, give him some space.”
Aria stretched her long legs and leaned them against the wall, “But I want to see him again. Was he just using me?”
“He’ll text you back if he really cares about you. Be patient.”
“Maybe I should text him again.”
I shook my head, she never listened to me.
“Okay, I said ‘Hey’.”
“‘Hey’?” That was short and vague.
“It’s casual.” She defended. “It could mean ‘hey, what’re you doing’ or ‘hey, I miss you’, it could mean anything.”
Ten math problems later and Aria let out an excited squeal.
“Ohmygod, he replied back!” She smiled widely, “He said ‘hey’!” I grinned, happy she wasn’t angry anymore.
Even if he was out of her reach.
*****
“So, where are you from? I would’ve recognized you anywhere.” I was getting sick of all the flirting. I just wanted to do my work but Even and Law made it impossible for me to focus. Specifically, the monstrous group of girls that followed them.
“We moved from Oregon,” Even replied and I held in a snort. They were probably trying to keep a low profile. Boy, how that backfired.
“How exotic.” A girl I’d seen with a different guy every week said, leaning her head in her hands.
“And you’re brothers?” Another girl who was chewing gum asked and I knew for a fact they weren’t but their cover must say otherwise.
“Yeah, fraternal twins.” Law said.
“That’s hot.”
“Naomi, Kaitlyn, are you actually getting work done back there?” Mr. Leonard barked and before I could protest, Naomi, the gum girl, grabbed my work.
“Yup, it’s right here,” Naomi showed him. He squinted at us suspiciously but walked away, “You don’t mind if we copy your work, right?” She asked but didn’t give me a chance to answer. “Thanks,”
I didn’t complain as she passed around my work for everyone to copy.
Right when I’d just gotten my work back, the bell rang. Naomi and Kaitlyn grabbed their purses and waited for the boys.
“Wanna sit with us today? I can teach you how we kiss in Appleby, I bet it’s really different than Oregon.” Kaitlyn offered smoothly.
I missed not having English today but Aria and I had the same lunch anyway.
“Sorry, but we already have a table.” Even said politely and they frowned, unsatisfied.
“Well, maybe next time.” The girls winked at them and giggled loudly as they walked away.
“Hurry up,” Law said as I frantically struggled to pack everything up.
They walked ahead of me, maybe as if not to show they were with me, and I followed them to lunch.
They sat at a table with the other guys and I got the feeling that they didn’t like me. Even maybe but Law definitely hated me.
I sat down at our regular table, a long table that stretched across the cafeteria. Aria would sit next to me, with all of her friends on her other side. I didn’t really know any of her friends but it was better than being alone.
Aria’s friends started to sit down, ignoring me like always. I took out my fruit salad and started to eat, waiting for Aria.
She was a few minutes later than usual but I finally saw her. Her face was etched with worry.
I waved at Aria but she didn’t wave back. Instead, she went into the lunch line, got a bottle of water and left. I dropped the apple I was eating and debated on whether or not to follow her.
It looked like there was something on her mind and judging from her lack of appetite, I’d say she was worried. I wanted to know what was wrong.
A few seconds after Aria left, Even and Law got up from their table. I got up, too, but as they passed by my table, Law whispered,
“Stay out of this.”
They were all out of my reach.