Sunday, October 1

The Sansone Residence/ Movie Theater

Holly

"So here's the thing, Aubrey," I inform my girlfriend, who is staring with a blank expression down at her science paper. Over the past hour or two, I have been attempting to tutor her in the latest unit in the class. However, since she has some type of learning disability and has to be in the 'special' section at school, it's taking her longer to understand the concept. It's required a lot of my patience, but I'm doing my best to not lose my temper. "When a cell multiplies, that means that it doubles up every time. Like here."

Quickly, I take out the jellybeans hidden in my pocket, and she perks up. "Jellybeans?" she says excitedly, reaching out for one, but I gently swipe her hand away.

"Yep. But we have to do something first, and then you can eat them."

Aubrey nods vigorously. She's kind of reminding me of a bobble head. "Okay."

I smile at her and take one jellybean out of the pile, setting it in front of her. "Good. So do you remember when we learned how to multiply back in the second grade?"

She considers it for a brief second before nodding slowly.

"So how do you multiply something by two?" I ask her. "Or um, I should say, how do you multiply two times one?"

It takes her a minute of thinking, and I can tell by her face that she's struggling to think of the right answer. But right as my mouth opens to explain it further, her face lights up. "Isn't it the same number when you multiply something by one?"

I grin. "Yes."

"So…" she hesitates and glances down at the sheet of notebook paper. On it is 2x1=? "The answer is…two?"

I nod, grin turning even wider. "That's right." I move another jellybean next to the one already in front of her. "So think of these jellybeans as cells. They've multiplied once, so now there's two instead of one."

Her eyes widen. "That's so cool," she whispers, and I laugh.

"Yes," I agree. "Yes, it is."

She examines the jellybeans, eyes moving from one pile to the other. "So now they have to do it again?" she wonders.

"Mmm-hmm."

Aubrey bites her lip, playing with her long, dark hair. "So do I add one like I did last time?"

"No," I tell her, shaking my head. "Remember? When you multiply something…" That's when I hesitate. I'm starting to think that she thinks multiplying and adding are the same thing when they obviously aren't. So I decide to take a different approach. Sliding two more jellybeans from the other pile on the table, I put them right next to the already existing pile of two and begin to speak to Aubrey in a way that I think she'll understand well. "Think of it this way. Each jellybean wants a friend to bring with them. So when they both have one, now there's four jellybeans."

She stares intently at the candy, blinking in surprise. "Ohhh. That makes sense. So do I just give them each a friend from over here?" The brunette gestures to the bigger pile, and I nod.

"Exactly. Because everybody needs a friend. But make sure to add them after giving everyone a friend."

"Okay." She begins to add one jellybean to each one by her. "One…two…four…"

"Three after two."

"Oh, right." Aubrey bites her lip and starts over. "One…two…three…four." She looks up at me, a somewhat nervous expression on her face. "Is that right?"

"It is," I assure her. "Now count all of the friends together. You can do it."

Aubrey glances up at the clock, and her eyes widen slightly, but then they immediately drift back down to the candy. "Um…okay. One…two…four, no, three…four…um, five or six next?"

"Five." I hold up my five fingers.

"Um, okay. Five…six…" She chews her lip even harder, eyes looking up at the ceiling. "Is it seven?"

"Yes," I say excitedly. I've never seen her count this far. Seriously.

"And then…um…eight?"

I nod happily, and she looks down at the table, disbelief written all over her face. "I did it," she says slowly, smile starting to grow on her face. "I did it!"

"You did it!" I cheer, and she squeals and jumps out of her chair, making me laugh even harder.

"Now I'm even better than Fuzz McGuzz at science!" she yells, looking down at her chubby brown cat and pointing at him. "Take that!"

I chuckle. "Well, we're not quite done, although you have gotten really far," I remind her, and she stops jumping, instead looking at me in surprise. "Multiplying still goes a lot farther in the cell world."

For some reason, she once again glances nervously at the clock. Why, I don't know, because she can't tell time, not even on a digital clock like the one on the stove. "Something wrong, Aubrey?"

She immediately stops looking at the clock and instead sits right back down in her chair. "Um…no." Twirling her hair around her finger, she avoids looking at me. "Um…so how do I multiply this, then-"

"Aubrey." My saying her name makes her finally glimpse at me. I begin to frown and cross my arms. "What are you hiding?"

Her eyes widen once again. "Nothing," she insists, squirming a bit on her chair. "Come on. I wanna keep doing science-"

"What is it that you're hiding? Did…Charity ask you to be at one of her many balls or tea parties and you're running late?" I'm referring to her white, fluffy cat.

"I'm not hiding anything, Holly," she says firmly, returning her attention to the jellybeans that are on the glass table we're sitting at here in the kitchen. Also here in the kitchen are two empty bowls previously filled with penne and shrimp made by Aubrey's mom.

Normally, she and Aubrey's aunt would have been here, also helping Aubrey with her schoolwork, but both of them own the movie theater downstairs. Tonight's the premiere of a really anticipated movie, so they're downstairs right now getting people settled and all that. Occasionally Aubrey and I work behind the snack counter. She's actually pretty good at giving people their popcorn and whatever else they want. Which makes sense, really, since she's lived here for seven years or so.

Anyway, so I look at her hard. "You promise?"

Is it just me, or does she look afraid that something bad is going to happen? "Um…"

All of a sudden, a knock is heard at the door, and Aubrey jumps. She mutters something inaudible under her breath before jumping up and grabbing me.

"Hey! What are you-"

"Shhh," she whispers, putting her finger to her lips and glancing once again at the doorway. I struggle to get out, but she has a really strong grip on me.

"Aubrey," I hiss, glaring at her. "What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing." She tries pulling me as another knock at the door is heard. "Coming!"

"No, you are not coming," I tell her. Finally, I wrestle free, and she glances at me fearfully as I walk towards the door, hands clenched at the sides. Whatever my girlfriend's hiding, it's not going to be pretty, I can tell.

"Holly, please-" She pleads, but I cut her off.

"Uh uh. Unless you tell me yourself who's out there." I give her a glare, and she recoils. Good.

"Holly, really, you'd be mad at me-"

"I already am," I interject, and her face contorts in pain as I continue. "Did you schedule something with someone else that you were supposed to do while we were doing homework? Well, fine, then when I open this door, I'm going to look like an idiot. But the reason I'm mad isn't because of you. It's because you're not telling me who's out there. That scares me."

Aubrey wrings her hands together, looking away as the mysterious person knocks for the third time. Okay, we need to open this door sooner or later. If this person's a friend of ours, I'm going to feel bad.

"So can I open this door?"

Putting a hand to her mouth, still looking down, she nods. Why is she blinking repeatedly and struggling not to cry? I'm really not liking the looks of this. "Fine," she whispers. "It's a secret I've been keeping from you for a few weeks. I've only told the kitties."

By 'the kitties', she means Fuzz McGuzz, Charity, and Chevrolet, her cats.

My throat tightens. Now I'm really getting worried. "You know what?" I tell her, stepping away and walking towards the bathroom in the nearby hallway. "I'll hide in here. You answer the door, and I'll hear through the door who it is."

"But-"

"Do it," I insist. "Now." I immediately step into the bathroom and lock the door before she can change her mind. I hear her gulp, and then slowly walk over and finally open the door for the person behind it. I then listen to loud shoes step onto the tile, and I press my ear against the door to listen.

"Hey, Aubrey," the person greets her. It's a deep, slightly squeaky voice, so I automatically know already that it's a teenage guy. Good to know, since it's probably one of our friends, then. I then hear him set something down on the table, sending a few of the jellybeans flying through the air. I grimace and close my eyes.

"Hi…" I just barely hear her mutter.

"So what took you so long to answer the door?" the guy wonders. I hear him starting to screech back a chair, but Aubrey must have stopped him, because it only comes back a few inches.

"Um…Chevrolet needed me to take her to her litter box," Aubrey lies, and my brows furrow. Why didn't she just say the truth?

The guy hesitates for a minute before replying. "Um…okay. Listen, Aubrey. I just have to tell you something. I'm not liking where our relationship is at the moment."

I gape at nothing in particular. What does this guy mean, 'our relationship'?

"Because here's the thing. We're going behind Holly's back for the second time."

My stomach clenches, and I sink to the floor, hand covering my mouth. Irving's here? ! And also dating Aubrey behind my back? Again?

"I honestly feel bad," Irving sighs. He shuffles his feet on the floor. "I just don't think we should do this to her. Besides, I have to get back to recording everything Phineas and Ferb do." His voice becomes more upbeat at the mention of his idols. "Did you know that they've done almost a total of one thousand inventions now?"

"That's great, Irving." Aubrey's voice is stiff.

"So…um…where's our relationship right now?"

"Right here."

I roll my eyes and sigh in irritation. Of course she would misinterpret that question.

Irving sounds every bit as annoyed. "No, Aubrey. I mean…should we still be together? I just don't-"

"Um, sorry Irving, but I can't talk right now," Aubrey interrupts. She must be leading him out of the place, because I hear some squeaky shoes on the floor. "I have…homework to do."

Sort of lying. Sort of not.

"Well, okay." Irving sounds surprised. "But are we still together or-"

"Sure, okay? Just please leave." Her voice sounds more forceful than it normally does, and it surprises me a little.

"Okay," Irving says to her. "So…see you tomorrow after school?"

"No problem."

After the both of them say goodbye and Irving shuts the door, I throw the door open and stomp over to my girlfriend, whose eyes are wide. "Holly, I can explain-" she hurriedly tries to explain, but I cut her off.

"Are you effing kidding me?" I scream, and she slides down into her chair, face turning pale like milk with just a little bit of chocolate in it. "You're dating me and Irving again? How long has it been? !"

She shrinks back even further. "A few weeks," she whispers.

I shake my head at her, feeling more and more angry, not to mention upset, every second. Blinking back tears, I glare at her. "I trusted you, Aubrey," I inform her. "I trusted you to not go back to that bastard. But what do you do? You do. While you're also in a relationship with me. And not just for the first time. This is the second."

Now a few tears are sliding down her cheeks. "Holly, please-"

"No." I shake my head even faster as I grab the bag on a chair. The lump in my throat continues to grow, but I do my best to ignore it. "I don't want to continue to date a cheater. We're over."

The look on her face is so painful I can't even stand to look at it. "Over?" she whispers, and I finally turn away.

"Over, Aubrey. Forever."

"F-F-Forever?" she stutters, and I finally snap.

"Yes!" I yell, walking even closer to the door. The dam inside of me finally breaks, and I continue to scream at my now ex-girlfriend. "I'm tired of dating someone that continues to cheat on me with some idiot that doesn't even love you the way I did. Plus, I'm tired of dating someone that has no brain."

I regret those last words the minute they leave my mouth, but there's nothing I can do about it, because now I've broken up with my girlfriend of over a year and a half so she can date Irving, also known as the guy who hurt both me and Lilly last year. Lilly didn't appear to be hurt, but she was. Believe me.

Anyway, so when I leave the apartment and shut the door behind me, Aubrey sobbing hysterically, I immediately flip my cell phone over and dial Lilly's number. I'm not crying anymore, but I'm pretty damn close to doing so.

Luckily, Lilly picks up on the very first ring. "Hi Holly, what's happen-" She stops when she hears me sniffling. "Oh my God. Holly, what happened?"

I lean against the doorway and slide down, finally allowing myself to sob insanely. "I-I-It's Aubrey," I cry. "S-S-She was cheating on me again. With Irving."

Lilly gasps. "You're kidding."

"N-No. I…broke up with her." I try to control my crying, considering the fact that right below me is a bunch of people waiting in line for a movie. "We were doing h-h-homework, and then Irving came by, and they admitted they were t-t-t-together, and I b-b-broke up with her." I gulp, trying to get rid of that stupid lump in my throat, but it doesn't work.

Lilly doesn't respond for a few seconds, and I wonder if we lost connection before she finally replies. "That's…awful. I'm so sorry. Irving's such an ass."

"No kidding," I sniffle.

"Seriously, he is. What is his problem?"

"I don't know."

"But hey, just so you know, I'm here for you. All you have to do is avoid Aubrey and Irving. I already do so with the latter, and let me tell you, it's easy. As long as they're together and I'm by you, we'll be unstoppable."

Even in my state, I can't help but chuckle. "Thanks, Lills. I don't care what people say; you're a good friend."

She laughs. "Well, thank you. Hey, you're at Aubrey's, right?"

"…Yeah. Why?"

"I'm down here waiting in line to see that romance comedy thing everyone's been talking about. Isabella was supposed to come, but she cancelled at the last minute. You want to join me?"

I scan the line for her, and sure enough, I spot her. It'd be pretty hard not to with that bright blond hair of hers. "You sure it's okay?" I wonder, wiping my nose on my sleeve since I lack of any tissues on me.

"Yeah, sure. I have the ticket. Maybe this'll cheer you up."

I take a shuddery breath and smile for the first time since the breakup. "I think it will." I get up and start making my way down the long staircase, careful not to slip and fall. It's happened before. "Should I just like, join you in line?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't you?" I can see her talking while she says this, and it's actually kind of funny.

"Just wondering. Hey, I see you now. I'm turning the phone off."

"Kay. See you in a few seconds." She flips her phone off right as I come up right behind her, about to have fun. Hopefully, I'll forget about what happened so quickly, going from a homework night to a night where my girlfriend and I broke up.

But even if I do have fun with my best friend, I know I'm not going to forget what happened before.

Next Chapter Preview: Ginger finally tells someone Adyson's secret. Yep, she's waited this long. Surprising, huh? But what if two other untrustworthy people just so happen to hear?

Bet you guys weren't expecting this to happen, huh? It was just a fun, innocent homework night that totally flipped. Poor Holly…I feel really bad for her right now, this now happening to her twice. And I apologize if this chapter felt rushed…I literally typed this in a day, which does not happen often. And there's also one coming up really soon that I want to start writing, too. That one won't be nearly as shocking as Adyson's pregnancy, but it'll still be pretty shocking.

So…yeah. I'm done talking now.