I hadn't heard from Jenni that night, not that I was expecting to. The odd thing was that I'd got a text from Benjamin, asking if I was ok. Now I know that we're friends and all, but that's not what I consider a normal thing for him to do. I have a feeling he knows more than he's letting on, especially because of his whispering that morning. Deciding on giving up with the drama for the night, and opting to not watch the highlights of last year's x Factor, I went to bed. It was rather early for me to even try to sleep, so I plugged in my ear phones and started listening to my favourite's playlist. With an acoustic cover of 'Perfect Stranger' beginning to play, I rolled over in my bed and drowned out my thoughts. Well I tried; some part of me couldn't let up on the Aiden situation. And this song certainly wasn't helping. However cliché it sounds, the lyrics reminded me of him, of us, not that there was an 'us' to begin with. And the voice of the singer, I didn't know who it was being too lazy to check my iPod, but he was amazing. Yet he sounded so familiar. Pushing the thoughts out of my mind, I turned off my iPod and rolled over hoping for some sleep before work tomorrow.

My attempts to sleep were wasted; I should learn to listen when I'm told not to go to bed angry. I was currently wandering through town, having been sent on my lunch but still ferrying after my boss. See, I'm a part time secretary for an electrical firm ran by Mollie's Dad, Maurice. He has to be the most disorganised man alive, stressed by the fact that he'd forgotten to bring the correct paperwork with him for a new contract. So as I scurried through the busier than usual shopping centre trying to find the right shop unit and struggling to keep hold of the notes and contracts I was carrying, my eyes caught sight of the one person I was dreading having to bump into. He wasn't hard to miss, the quiff was a giveaway. I couldn't help but stop and stare as he walked on the other side of the open aired mall, with one hand in his pocket, the other holding an unlit cigarette. He ran a hand through his hair, and glanced in my direction. He must have spotted me, as he stopped in his tracks, causing a pedestrian based traffic jam amongst the shoppers surrounding him. We just stared at each other, neither of us making the move to walk to the other side of the first floor, not wanting to make the first attempt at contact. I was pulled from my thoughts as my phone starting ringing. Reminding of why I was out of the office in the first place. I shut my eyes, and turned away, struggling to ignore him and follow through with my delivery. So I opened my eyes, and continued my walk onwards, not looking back at him. He made himself perfectly clear on his opinions last night before he stormed out. If he wants me, he'll have to make the first move. Not that I've had much experience in playing 'hard to get' or whatever you call it, but my familiarity with such happenings is from watching Mollie and Katie.

Half an hour or so later, I was sent out of the way from the business talk and on a proper lunch break. This was a rare occurrence, but seeing as I'd thought ahead and managed to organise the paperwork before trudging across the city centre with it, I took it as a thanks from Maurice. Now I had the spare time, I opted for a suitable meal, rather than a rushed something that never satisfied my hunger between duties on my days in the office. With that in mind, I made my way to the centre of the shopping mall and began my ascent to the restaurants on the top floor. I was caught up in the possibilities of a decent meal, as well as stressing slightly over having to eat on my own in public. Amongst my pondering and panicking, I hadn't recognised who was standing some mere feet in front of me on the escalator. Having Aiden and I in the same shopping centre can be taken as a coincidence, seeing as it wasn't exactly planned. But with Stevie being here as well, this still seems to be a fluke. And as I neared the next level of the mall, a certain quiff wearer appeared in my eye line. He was looking in my direction, almost as if he knew where I'd be heading. But as I moved off the escalator, and stopped just out of way from the oncoming pedestrians, it became obvious that he was waiting for someone else; but not just anyone, the certain someone who was standing in front of me seconds previously. This had to be prearranged. It's just too far fetched for my liking, something was up.

Amongst my frustration and confusion, I decided upon breaking the 'hard to get' rule and phone Aiden to see what the hell he was playing at. I pulled my BlackBerry out, seeing that my missed call from earlier was from Aiden himself. Not that I was paying much attention to what he was doing, seeing as I was lost in his eyes during our staring match. Shaking the positive thoughts of him out of my head, I rang his number, and turned to walk towards the restaurants, briefly glancing back at the two fellas. I'd made it to the forth ring, before the generic telephone operator started into her message, and as I glanced back again, I just about saw Aiden shove his phone back into his pockets and walk in the opposite direction with Stevie in tow. This had just totally spoilt my mood, not that I was in particularly good one to begin with. With that rejection not quite bottled up, I stormed into McDonalds got a take away meal, and made my way back to the office. Not quite a proper lunch, but it's the best I'm willing to cope with right now.

With my McDonalds meal in one hand, and my bag upon my shoulder, I typed the pin into the keypad to get into the offices, and trudged up stairs to the main office and the kitchen area. Sitting there, happily tucking into his lunch was Benjamin. With him being a fully trained electrician and all, he did manage to get a job in his Dad's business. I shut the door, dropped my food on the table, my bag on the floor, and flicked the kettle on to make some tea; then just slumped into the nearest chair while flinging my phone onto the table.

"What's wrong with you?" Benjamin asked, with a somewhat surprised tone and a mouth full of food.

"Boys are dicks" I stated, annoyance still building, and not linking my sentence to my audience.

"Thanks very much!" He scoffed after swallowing his mouthful, the chuckled lightly.

"No, you don't count. It's that dick Stevie, he's just gone and spread a load of bullshit to Aiden! And obviously, the idiot's believed him" I ranted, before tucking into my McDonalds lunch. "Oh, and on my way to meet your Daddy with some paperwork, I just so happened to spot them meeting up for a man date!" I said between bites.

"Oh right", Benjamin said not looking overly surprised. "We thought you knew?" He asked with confusion evident on his face.

"I knew no such thing!" I exclaimed, "And what the hell do you mean we?"

"Well, let me see if I can get this right. Meeky had said about Jenni talking to Kenny and Stevie about needing a word with Aiden. So I thought they'd be meeting sooner or later. Mollie and Katie were even gossiping about it this morning on their way up the road." He explained, thinking it all made perfect sense. The look on my face must've proven otherwise. "Did they not tell you?"

"Obviously not, and I very much doubt Jenni and her fan base will have told you what kind of meeting they had planned for last night then?" He looked just as confused as I did moments previously. So I started into explaining the events of yesterday, phone calls and rumours included. Benjamin had just sat there, with a blank face, listening. And that face hadn't changed when I'd finished my rant. "Ukgh, you're useless! Why did I even bother talking to you about this?" I complained.

"Oi! When have I ever not been there to help? It's not like I haven't bothered before. You've never needed me; there's always been one of the girls there for this kinda thing. And you're more than capable of finding yourself a bloke to fend off creeps for you. So excuse me for not having up to date drama remedies!" He snapped, grabbing the remains of his lunch and walking out of the room slamming the door behind him.

Well that went better than expected. I bundled up my half eaten food and shoved it in the bin, not feeling very hungry after all. I made myself that cup of tea, before picking up my phone and trying to get through to Aiden again. One ring, two rings, three rings, four. As I was about to hang up, figuring if he didn't want to talk to before, waiting half an hour wasn't going to make it any better, a deep voice spoke from the other line.

"Hello?" Aiden answered rather cheerily, clearly not checking the name of the caller before picking up the phone.

"What the hell are you meeting with that creature Stevie for?" I fired straight off, not feeling the need for any small talk to delay the inevitable argument.

"Oh, hello Robyn. I'm good, thanks for asking! How are you?" He rhymed of cheerily, sarcasm seeping through every word.

"I'm serious, you dick. What the hell are you doing even talking to that cretin after what he's done?" I snapped, yet again.

"That's none of your business, I'll have you know. It's not like you need to know every single part of my life, then again a controlling little skank like you would probably feel the need to" He said in monotone.

"I told you! I've never even looked twice at those fellas! Why are you taking his fucking side? You couldn't stand the creature the other night!" I exclaimed with confusion and annoyance building within me.

"That's before I heard your back story, I've already told you why I can't even think about getting with you. The whole idea of what you've done is just bringing up some bad memories." He said before clearing his throat, letting more emotion show through his voice than I'd expect he wanted to.

"Oh, so you hear one rumour of me being a dirty slut and go off running? Then have the utter cheek to churn out some sop story about being heartbroken? Excuse me while I play my violin." I snapped, my patience wearing thin. I sighed, to try and gain my composure before starting up again. "It's all total and utter bullshit, Aiden. I have never in my life been more honest than when I say it's not true" I said, fighting off the tingling feeling in my nose that always results in tears coming shortly after.

"I just can't, Robyn. I've heard it all before, and chose to dismiss it all. It's obvious that I was wrong on that judgement, so even if there's a just a slight chance of any of this being true, I need to find out. The idea of it all actually makes me feel sick." He said softly, seeming to be struggling to keep fending me off. "So I need to know the full story from Stevie, I needed to hear it all, and have the time to figure this all out." He explained, with more determination that he'd shown previously during this phone call.

"You'd already heard it all, from me and from him! You're just giving him the opportunity to stir even more shit about me. He's fucking jealous that I was willing to give you the time of day, and didn't even look once at him. I'm the one telling the truth here, and if you can't acknowledge that, then you really aren't the person I thought you were." With that brief rant, I ended the call dropped my phone on the table I was still sitting at and rested my head in my hands trying to gather my thoughts. Needless to say, those actions never work and I was soon struggling to keep the tears away. I was in way to deep, and I don't even understand how. He's just a boy, why so I care so much what he thinks?

With any chance of being in a good mood today completely gone, I figured it couldn't get much worse so I dialled the number I had saved for Jenni and pressed call. Not that I was expecting her to answer, but I have some serious questions for her and she wont be able to avoid me forever. After the call ringing out, much to my surprise, I picked up my bag, phone, and the long awaited cup of tea before heading to the main office and to my desk.

I managed to keep my head together for the rest of my day at work, as well as keeping clear of Benjamin and thus saving me from having yet another argument. With all my notes packed away, the computer shut down, and my bag in hand I made my way out of the office, into Herbert the Clio, and was on the 5 minute drive home. I soon was parked up, grabbing my keys and bag before leaving the car and unlocking the door. As I stepped over the threshold, a blue 106 pulled up behind my car with an overly happy Jenni inside. This was not a going to be a pleasant conversation. Before any more messy arguments started, I dumped my bag and keys, by the now shut door, stepped out of my pumps, and made my way into the living room before collapsing on the sofa and waiting for the battle to commence.

"Hiya! Meeky's busy tonight so I'm all yours. Bu-ut I'm starved, so do you fancy take out for dinner?" Jenni yelled as she made her way into the house, dumping her bags beside the door, and making her way into the living room where I was sitting. I just kept flicking through the channels on TV, waiting for her pathetic nice act to fade and the anger and spite to start seeping through. "Hello, earth to Robyn? What do you fancy for tea?" She asked, sitting in the arm chair and turning to face me.

"Get what you want, I'm not hungry." I said in a monotone, gaining a confused look from her. Not wanting to put up with more of her fakery, I stood up and left the room grabbing my things from by the door and heading upstairs to my room. I rummaged through my bag, finding my BlackBerry and sending a quick text to Mollie confirming our lunch date for tomorrow. As I was contemplating ringing Benjamin to figure out what got his knickers in a twist at lunch, Jenni appeared at my door with a rather annoyed look on her face.

"What's up your arse?" She asked, stepping into my room and folding her arms in an attempt to look stern.

"Nothing, people are dicks. But that's nothing you need to be involved in" I smiled, grabbing my laptop and sitting on my bed.

"Are you only finding this out now? I thought we'd had the 'everyone's a twat' conversation years ago, dear." She laughed, unfolding her arms and sitting on the desk chair in the corner of my room. "But what's with the cold shoulder?" se questioned, returning the conversation to a more serious note.

"I could very well ask you the same question, but then again I'm not that bloody nosey!" I snapped my patience getting thin yet again today.

"Excuse me? What the hell have I done to you?" She exclaimed. Her acting must be getting better; the shock on her face almost looked real.

"You know very well, and I'm pretty sure a certain cousin and creep of a mate will give you a hint" I stated, giving up on getting any social networking done and setting my laptop to one side.

"You mean Kenny and Stevie? What have they done? And more importantly, what have I done to encourage them?" she asked seemingly taunting me, appearing to be getting bored of playing the innocent one in the argument.

"Don't you dare play dim with me, I know you better than you think I do. Well, I used to anyway. Your latest scheme seems to have proven otherwise. You've never had an issue with me getting fellas before. Is it because I've never had a second meeting with them, and actually shown an interest in them? Or it is just cause this one hasn't been pre-approved by you? But then, the ones you have recommended have definitely been above the mark like!" I ranted, daring to build the argument up another level. "I just have some questions though, dare I ask. Why me? Why now?" I asked, genuinely wanting to know the answer.

"Are you kidding me? You've been too selfish and picky for your own good, any boy I've even mentioned to you it's been a straight away no from you! To be honest, we were all starting to think you played for the other team, if you catch my drift. But you're wee Benjamin's always been strongly against this idea. I reckon he has a bit of a thing for you, think that's why he's been in such an iffy mood with you since you started pining after mister superhero from the weekend." She snarled out, seeming happy with her little rant as she sat back in the chair and started picking at her nails.

"I can't help it if all the so called 'boys' you recommend to me look as if you've found them round the back of a dump! That doesn't make me a lesbian though! Benjamin doesn't have a thing for me; he's just protective seeing as I'm like his sister. And I have never in my life pined after someone, and that includes Aiden!" I yelled, with all my tolerance for her bullshit totally gone.

"Oh" She said. That was it, for a good 5 minutes. Nothing but total silence, until she stood, walked to the door and simply stated, "I guess you don't pay much attention to celeb gossip then, do you?" before storming downstairs.