"Finding Harmony"

Chapter 9: Not Really Over

Standing against the wall, Alli took a deep breath and began looking for Johnny. She figured he would already be there waiting for her or not waiting for her since she had never told him she'd be showing up.

Finally, she saw him walk in the side door looking extremely depressed. He instantly covered his mouth and began coughing. He must have been smoking. She waited for him to spot her, and when he did, his green eyes looked so watery she had to look away. "Hey," he said softly.

"Hi," she whispered. For some reason, she didn't want to look at him for too long. It had only been three days and she already missed him terribly.

"I just wanted us to talk," he began, pulling her chair out for her.

"Um, I came because I wanted to apologize," Alli said. "For everything that ever happened between us."

"What?" Johnny said. "You shouldn't be sorry for anything. I was the one who put you through all this pain."

"No, you didn't," Alli insisted. "I made the choice to be with you, so I set myself up."

"Whatever you say, Alli. You're the one in advanced everything, so you must already have all the answers."

"I never said that, Johnathan."

"You know I hate being called that, Alli."

"We're not together anymore, so why does it matter?"

"If it doesn't matter to you then I guess it's shit to me too then."

"You know what?" Alli yelled. "I thought you wanted to talk it out. Not argue like little kids."

"And I thought you cared about me and my feelings," Johnny shot back.

"I do... well I did. But we just can't handle each other and I think it's time you face that fact."

"Look, you just can't end things because you want to."

"Well, you didn't object."

"Because I didn't want to be hurting inside anymore," Johnny admitted. "The past couple of days have been hell for me without you." There. He'd said it. Something to make her reconsider. A statement to change her mind. "I love you so much and it's not just going to go away."

"That's the problem, Johnny. You say things that I'm not entirely sure are true."

"You're calling me a liar after I told you every single detail about how Drake killed that guy?"

"No Johnny, I'm saying that-"

"Listen. My aunt and my brother and I used to be so poor that she had to send me out to the corner to sell pot when I was in middle school. I was eleven, Alli. My aunt drank up until my sophomore year. After Drake went to jail, she saw my pain. She tried to help us all be a family again. And everything was going great until you came along and complicated my whole life."

Although Alli knew Johnny wasn't angry, she wanted him to think that she thought he was. "Well, I'm sorry you feel that way." Brushing her hair out of her eyes, Alli rose from her seat and tried not to cry. "I better get going."

When Johnny grabbed her arm, he spun her around and leaned down towards her all in one quick motion. Their lips were pressed together hard and Alli didn't even pull away. When their lips parted, she sighed and turned away. "I hope we can still be friends," she forced out.

"Yeah," he said, looking defeated. "I hope so, too." Walking out of the restaurant, Alli tried to keep herself from breaking down. It hurt so badly and she was the one being difficult. Why did it have to be this way? Why couldn't Johnny have been more like Aaron? "Because he was made for me," she whispered to herself.

--

"I heard you gave Johnny some lollipop," Delia announced, approaching Alli at her locker.

"Wow. So he really is that dishonest," Alli mumbled, slamming her locker door closed.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Delia folded her arms over her chest.

"It means that Johnny is a liar who tells everyone about everything!" Alli shouted, surprising herself with the loudness of her own voice.

"Whatever. Johnny barely talks to me. But Aaron and I are going out now," Delia said. She smirked.

"So he told you. Okay. That's fine."

"No, it's not." Delia shrugged. "You do care."

"As much as I love your catty, jealous ways, now is not the time to be getting under my skin."

"Oh, I think it is." Turning back around to face her, Alli took a step forward.

"And why is that?"

"I know you guys broke up."

"Well, okay. You know half of my high school life story!" Alli shouted, throwing her hands in the air. "Good for you, Delia!"

"We hooked up right after," she spat. "It was great. I screwed the heartbreak right out of him."

"Now you've gone too far," Alli yelled, grabbing a fistful of Delia's hair and yanking it downwards.

"You're just mad because you always knew that Johnny and I were better for each other!" Delia yelled back, grabbing Alli's arm and twisting it around.

"Ow!" Alli screamed, staring at her arm in horror. Delia drew her arm back and then punched Alli hard in the stomach. "Gosh, you're a lesbian; just admit it already, you're gay!"

"Oh, you little bitch!" Delia made a grab for Alli's head, but she moved out of the way just in time. "You better be glad that we're in school because otherwise I would have had your ass on the ground a long time ago!"

Her chest was heaving now, and Alli took the opportunity to yank her hair again and pound her five times in the head. "There. Maybe that'll knock some sense into you!" Delia shoved Alli onto the floor and then Alli kicked her in the stomach.

"Girls, girls, girls!" Coach Armstrong shouted, stepping in between them. "What is going on here?"

"She started it!" Alli shouted, pointing a finger at Delia.

"Come with me," he instructed, leading the two angry teenage girls down the main hallway and into a small room. "When the principal is ready for you, he'll call you in," Coach Armstrong told them before heading off.

"You know what?" Delia started. "You're not over him. If you were, you wouldn't have been trying to fight me."

"I don't know why I lunged at you," Alli admitted. "I mean, I don't care anymore. You can have Johnny and Aaron. That's your business." Delia seemed to be stunned into silence because she didn't say a word until the Shep called them into his office.

"Good morning ladies," he greeted them. "Have a seat." Pointing to a row of chairs situated in front of his desk, he pulled his chair up and took a seat himself. "So... what happened?"

"I was innocently retrieving books from my locker," Alli began at the same time Delia said,

"I walked up to ask her a question-"

"We'll start with Ms. Bhandari's side of the story." The Shep gave her a fake smile and nodded for Alli to continue.

"Okay, well, like I was saying, I was at my locker minding my own business and then Delia walked up and immediately began to provoke me – out of nowhere and for no reason. So when she finally made a comment that I felt was absolutely unnecessary, I decided it was time to take action."

"Ms. Bhandari, you know about the zero tolerance policy we have for violence. The 2004 incident will never be repeated if this rule goes unbroken. Never."

"I understand that Principal Sheppard-"

"And yet you still started the physical fight," the Shep cut in. "Ms. Bhandari, a war of words is one thing, but to lay hands on another student is against our policy." All Alli could do was sit back in her seat and do her best to not slap the silly grin off Delia's face.

"Okay Delia. I'll see if you really are telling the truth this time." So she had a track record, huh? This was going to be a piece of cake.

"Well Shep, I wanted to ask Alliana if I could borrow her notes for science class-"

"Please," Alli interrupted. "We don't have a single class together and you know it!"

"Ms. Bhandari," the Shep raised his hand and Alli stopped talking. "You had your chance and Delia showed respect when it was your turn. Please do the same for her."

"As I was saying, I wanted to ask Alliana a question. For fun, I started teasing her about her ex-boyfriend."

"So you started the verbal altercation?"

"Yes, I believe so. But not intentionally," she added. With a roll of her eyes, Alli heaved a sigh.

"Okay. So... to be fair I think we'll split this right down the middle." Alli smiled. She'd get to push Delia's buttons all through detention. "One day of suspension for the both of you." Alli's jaw dropped.

"You've got to be kidding, Principal Sheppard."

"Here are your slips and I won't see you tomorrow." Alli picked up the pink piece of paper and stared down at it. This was now the second time she was receiving one of these. Her once clean record was now even more tarnished, and it was all because of Delia. Perfect no longer existed in her school vocabulary.

When they exited the Shep's office, Delia turned back towards Alli and laughed. "Ha ha! Look who's a bad girl now."

"Whatever," Alli grumbled. Under the pink sheet was her admit slip to her first class. With a sigh, Alli began her trek down the hallway.

--

At the end of the day, Alli and Sav rode the bus home. Once they were both inside their house, they decided to start on their homework before their parents came home from work. Alli had already decided not to mention her suspension until Sunday night – if at all.

Sprawling out on the floor, Alli opened her Biology textbook and began reading Chapter 9. Sav began doing his Trigonometry homework and Alli turned on the radio. "Anya's coming over later," Sav announced out of the blue.

"Cool," Alli said, flipping a page. "When?"

"I think after dinner."

"All right," Alli said. "I hope you don't try to ask her questions about my love life."

"Trust me, I won't," Sav assured her, making a face.

"Just checking," Alli reminded him.

"Yeah. Now let me get back to work," Sav grumbled, continuing to scribble away.

After Alli finished her reading assignment, she turned off the radio and snapped on the television. Sav walked into the living room with a can of Coke and sat down on the couch. He reached over to grab the remote from Alli, but she drew her arm back and away from him.

Sav reached around her arm for it, but Alli continued to resist, shouting, "Let me at least channel surf. Every time you get it first you always hog it!"

"I just want to see the hockey scores!" The remote went flying across the room and Alli's binder flipped up into the air and landed in Sav's lap.

Glancing down, Alli saw the cover decorations she'd spent all last Sunday afternoon working on. Written in her best looping cursive across the front of her binder were the words Alliana DiMarco with hearts and stars and rainbows and smiley faces all around it.

Sav turned to look at her and Alli grabbed her binder even though she knew Sav had already seen it. "Wow, Alli. And you really think I believe that you and Johnny aren't together?"

"Sav, I swear we're not! I wrote that a week before we broke up."

"Whatever, Alli. Save it for the dinner table."

"Fine. Be that way. Make me suffer while you go out with Anya night after night."

"It's not about that, Alli. Johnny's a bad guy; I don't know how you can't see that."

"Have you ever spoken to him? Tried to get to know him? Not immediately judged everything about him?" Alli rose to her feet, clutching her binder to her chest. "You don't know Johnny. You don't know what kind of person he is. Just stop!"

"Like you do?" Sav yelled. He sighed in defeat. "Do whatever you want." Shrugging his shoulders, he took a sip of his soda.

Racing towards the hallway, Alli kept running until she turned and slammed the door to her room. Snatching her phone up from her dresser, Alli began dialing the familiar numbers before she could really think about what she was doing. Waiting for him to pick up, Alli bit down on her bottom lip and bit off one of her pinky nails.

"Hello?" His voice sounded a little high-pitched, as if he was confused.

"Hi," Alli said softly. "I didn't really mean to call you. I mean, your number was just in my head and I dialed." She paused to think for a moment. "I guess I probably did want to talk to you."

"Look Alli. I know you're in denial. You kissed me back this morning."

"This isn't about that, Johnny. Sav knows. That we were together. He's definitely going to tell our parents now."

"Well, Alli. I'm sure you'll think of something before Sav does. And besides, it doesn't even matter anymore, right? We're over." Reality really hit her now and Alli sighed heavily. When the words came out of Johnny's mouth, she knew they were true. Maybe he was going to hang up on her.

"Yeah, but-"

"But what?" Alli thought about Johnny and how delicious he was. His hair, his eyes, his torso, his legs, his back, everything. Now it was all out of her reach.

"I thought we were going to try and be friends," Alli said.

"Yeah. It doesn't mean you have to call me," Johnny said.

"Well bye." Instead of hanging up, Alli waited for Johnny to click off first, but he didn't.

"I heard you kicked Delia's ass this morning," Johnny said, breaking the silence.

"Well, I don't know if I'd say all that," Alli replied, trying to sound modest.

"Reese said he saw the whole thing and you were amazing."

"Wow, Reese handing out compliments? Maybe pigs will start to fly soon."

"Nah. He's just a little pissed because Delia's kind of a lying, cheating skank to him now."

"Yeah. She told me."

"What? Why?"

"That's how the fight started." Taking a breath, Alli started again. "She also told me that you two hooked up on Sunday... not too long after we broke up."

"And you believed her? Come on, Alli."

"I didn't know what to think. She said you two did it and then she started dating your brother-"

"Jesus, Alli! Why would you believe her when you know what kind of a person she is?"

"And then she said that I wasn't over you because if I was then I wouldn't have been fighting her."

"Oh," Johnny mumbled. "Well that's something for you to think about, not me."

"I know."

"Well, I hope you have fun this weekend without me." That was something else Alli was going to have to get used to. Without a boyfriend, her Saturday schedule was empty.

"Yeah. It's going to be the best weekend of my life," Alli told him. She wasn't sure if she meant that or not.

"Bye," Johnny said.

"See you around," Alli replied.

--

By the time their mother got home, both Sav and Alli were poised and ready to tell her all about what Alli had really been doing the past few weekends.

Mrs. Bhandari began making spaghetti because the family of four always ate foreign meals on Fridays. "Mom," Alli began, walking into the kitchen. She saw Sav sitting at the breakfast bar out of the corner of her eye. "Remember that guy I told you about? We weren't just friends all that time, we were boyfriend and girlfriend... but we broke up this past weekend. We're still friends, though. And that's why I want to invite him over for dinner."

"Alliana, you did not think I was born after you, no? I knew you had an intimate relationship with that boy; it was very obvious. I'm happy you two were smart enough to go your separate ways before you began making proclamations of love, dear." Too late.

"Well, when can he come? If that's a yes, I mean."

"If his family is in agreement with this plan then he can come over on Monday night," her mother said, stirring some noodles that were in a pot on the stove.

"Great. That sounds good," Alli said. When she turned to leave the kitchen, she smirked over at Sav. He was probably shocked that she'd finally admitted the truth before he could rat her out himself.

Walking into her dad's office, she closed the door behind her and took a seat in his computer chair. Now was her chance to check her email and continue to push Johnny out of her mind. Once she signed in and clicked on her inbox, Alli saw that half of the emails were from Johnny himself.

Opening a new link, Alli decided to check out Johnny's FaceRange page. Since she'd been banned from the website because of the Holly J. incident, Alli didn't have a page of her own anymore.

She typed in his screenname and his page instantly appeared. Thankfully his page wasn't private, because she wanted to read his most recent updates.

Scrolling down the page, she saw a post he'd created the day she'd single handedly ended their relationship. Alli blinked twice, trying to make her emotions shut up and go hide in the corner.

johnnyboy51491: Sad :'(

Sunday, 2:43 P.M.

My girlfriend just dumped me. I have no idea why. I still love her, though.

Johnny still had feelings for her, and all of his FaceRange friends knew it. Skimming through the other posts, she noticed a recurring theme. He kept mentioning how much he missed her and hoped to win her back.

But the pictures he'd recently taken said otherwise. In all five of them he was shirtless and surrounded by beer cans. In one of them, there were two girls on either side of him. One of the brunettes was probably his new girlfriend. Alli was about to click off and read his emails, but then she got an instant message.

johnnyboy51491: i can see that you're logged on.

Something told her to respond.

backwoodsbeauty: so?

johnnyboy51491: i just wanted to say hi, that's all.

backwoodsbeauty: we got off the phone less than a half hour ago.

johnnyboy51491: does that matter?

backwoodsbeauty: you were the one who said we didn't need to talk as much since we're just friends now, but whatever.

johnnyboy51491: so what are you doing right now?

backwoodsbeauty: i was checking my email and i saw that you're still a member of my fan club i didn't know existed.

johnnyboy51491: i just want our friendship to be as strong as a wrestler.

backwoodsbeauty: you are too pathetic.

johnnyboy51491: and you're not being a very good friend right now.

Alli wasn't the nicest girl around, but she also wasn't a cold hard bitch either. She was just afraid that if she and Johnny kept talking so much they'd fall right into the trap and become a couple again.

backwoodsbeauty: i invited you over for dinner on monday...but there's a catch.

johnnyboy51491: wow, a chance to meet your parents after we've broken up. how convenient....

backwoodsbeauty: that's a part of the catch. i'll tell you the rest at school on monday.

johnnyboy51491: that's if i feel like talking to you.

backwoodsbeauty: or we could just not talk at all anymore.

johnnyboy51491: fine, be that way.

backwoodsbeauty: sav was going to tell them everything he knew.

johnnyboy51491: did you tell him that we broke up?

backwoodsbeauty: yes, several times. But he didn't believe me.

johnnyboy51491: ask him when studz are playing their next gig. I wanna go.

backwoodsbeauty: oh, they'll be opening up for some world famous punk band in about 2300.

johnnyboy51491: harsh.

Alli heard the front door slam, meaning her father was home.

backwoodsbeauty: my dad's home. gotta go. bye.

johnnyboy51491: see you at school on monday. bye. : )


I hope you're enjoying the story. It's only nearly half done, so I hope you'll keep reading and reviewing!