CHAPTER TWELVE: CHARLIE
I went into my new school the next day, Rockford, and, as I suspected, the halls were filled to the brim with preps, jocks, Japs, Baps, and about nobody else. I looked like I'd gotten lost, for crying out loud. I bet I was the only person in that whole damn school that was wearing black cargo pants and a royal blue tank top that had a blood red skull on it. I seriously doubt anybody in this whole school even knew what Hot Topic was. I saw a whole bunch of fliers and posters for pep rallies and junk, which made me roll my eyes. Who in their right mind would go to one of those things? I went down to the principal's office, gave them my forms, and they gave me my schedule and stuff. My first class was Computer science. Now when in God's name did I sign up for that shit? Never. What the hell, how bad could it be? I asked myself. So, I go to this Computer Science room, right, and the teacher notices me right away. She was kind of young, late thirties, maybe, and she had dark hair and big eyes. The whole class had been sitting down, at their own computers and all, in the middle of class, but the teacher just stopped class. She was looking at me funny.
"Are you Avarielle? I'm Jennifer Calendar."
"Ari."
"Right. Ari. We'll get you caught up with the rest of the class later, but why don't you tell us about yourself first?" This is just one of the many reasons why I hate new schools.
"Fine." What should I say? 'Hey, what's up preps? I'm Ari. I kill vampires and demons, and my favorite bands are Sublime and Green Day. I play soccer and I am a foster child.' I didn't think so, so I decided to scare 'em up a little bit.
"Okay. My name's Ari. I used to go to Lavine High, but my old foster family hated me more than cockroaches, so they turned me back over to social services who planted me in some penthouse down here which forced to be around you people. I play soccer, I board, and I also can hit pretty hard, so leave me alone." That was probably the greatest thing I'd ever said to a new class. It was all the more better because of the looks on their faces. They were like oh... my ...god. It was fantastic. The teacher, however was not taken aback. She looked... okay with it to a certain extent. That ruined my day.
"Where should I sit?" I asked Calendar.
"How about right next to Charlie Reingold, right there?" She pointed to some girl who looked like she didn't belong there either. She was in all black, and her shirt was black and pink mesh with saftey pins spelling out the word LIE. She wore a lot of makeup, and her straight blonde hair was streaked purple, as opposed to my natural auburn hair. I sat next to her, putting my bag down on the floor. She looked at me, with some admiration, but not smiling, which was cool, because I didn't smile much either.
"Hey. Nice speech to the cretins of the earth." She complimented.
"Thanks. Cool manicure." She had gotten a black one, with little white painted skulls on the nails, too. It really was awesome.
"Glad you like it. Actually, Janie Levitson told me the same thing yesterday, only with much more sarcasm."
"Lemme guess, Janie Levitson's a prep whose father works on either wall street or as a CEO for a multi-million dollar corporation and pays her a hundred bucks just for smiling."
"Wall Street." She replied, a smile dancing in her dark green eyes.
"Thought so." I kind of liked this Charlie girl by now. She was cool, kinda goth, but that was okay, who had probably the coolest manicure I'd ever seen, and she liked me, too. Who needs a vampire for a friend when you can have somebody who you actually can tolerate for a few hours?
~*~
At lunch hour, Charlie and I were sitting on the steps, drinking Cokes when a girl with long blonde hair dressed in a pink skirt and a white sweater came over to us, with her own little crew, all in perfect lil priss outfits. I already knew I didn't like them.
"Charlie," The girl said in a high, clear voice that ticked me off, "Looks like you made a friend. Finally."
"I'm sorry, but do you have a purpose for being here?" I asked the girl.
"Yeah, I do. I just wanted to say that like, it's good that one outcast found another. Good for you both."
"Ooh, Ari, she used a word that's over six letters long!" Charlie said to me in her utmost sarcastic voice.
"Wow, that's just like, so totally amazing!" I exclaimed in my best cheerleader imitation.
"Were you just making fun of me?" Whoever the hell she was asked me in shock.
"Now, see, if you had an ounce of intelligence you'd know that for sure, wouldn't you?" I was really on fire.
"Why don't you leave us alone now?" Charlie agreed.
"Ugh. Fine. But you better watch your back or I'll-" I stood up. I was so much taller than her, and visibly stronger, too. I could snap her arm like a twig, even without super strength.
"Or you'll what? Tell your daddy? Or the football team? Because I can take any of 'em on, no problem. I'm not intimidated by you. If you think you can go around saying mean things to people and not expecting them to say anything mean back then you're a helluva lot stupider than I thought." I burned her. Bad. Almost everyone on the steps was watching this. It must have been some kind of new revelation or whatever.
"Bye now." Charlie said.
"Fine. I hope you have fun hanging out with a stupid goth wicca!" She stormed off, her minions following. Wait, Charlie was a wicca? Maybe I could tell her then...
"You're a wicca?"
"I've tried out a few spells. Why?"
"Well, my guardian has some spell books and stuff back at the apartment. It's pretty cool." Dex would kill me if I told anyone. Seriously, he'd take my head off.
"You're into that kind of thing?"
"Sure."
"Do, um," She lowered her voice, "do you believe in vampires?" Oh my god. This was too good.
"Have you ever seen one?"
"One attacked me last year. Someone killed it, though. That's how I got into this stuff. I believe in demons." She was totally serious, and I totally believed her. Okay, I had to tell her now.
"Um, Charlie? You wanna come over after school? I have some stuff you might be interested to hear."
~*~
"Wow. Are you serious?" Charlie asked me. I'd just told her everything. Well, not about me being in love with a vampire, but about slayers, demons, Laura, Dex, the council, all that. We were in the dining room, eating ice cream (who would have thought her favorite flavor was Half Baked by Ben + Jerry's too?)
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I completely believe you. I just wanted to make sure." She wasn't being sarcastic. She was serious. "And you have super strength?"
"Yeah."
"Can you show me something? Something cool, and slayer-y. But not anything that'd hurt me or break something."
"Sure." I stood up, went to an area of the room where stuff was out of the way, and I did a back flip, kicked the air, and pretended to stake. Charlie looked at me, in awe.
"That's awesome! So you like, fight demons and stuff? And this Dex guy, he trains you?"
"He's my watcher, yeah." As though on cue, the phone rang in the kitchen. "Just a minute." I went to get the phone.
"Hello? Ari?" It was Dex.
"Hey Dex. What do you want?"
"Where are you? You were supposed to come by and train this afternoon."
"I'm at home, hanging out with my new friend Charlie. Oh, and she's cool, and I told her everything. She believes me and she's gonna keep it a secret, so no need to flip out."
"I don't give a damn about you and your new friend, just get over to the shop now!" He hung up. For a British dude, he sure can yell.
I went back into the dining room.
"I gotta train. Wanna come?"
"You mean, train with your watcher and all?"
"Unfortunately."
"Sure."
~*~
"Good work, Ari. Now, tonight, you should patrol some of the alleyways downtown." I had just finished training with the crossbows and knives. Charlie had gotten a call from her mom on her cell and had to go home, so she'd left.
"Which part of downtown?"
"Oh, I don't know. Wherever you think the vampires will go. Now, I need to do some research if you could please go..."
"On what?" I was pushing Dex's buttons a lot today.
"It is none of your concern at the moment. Now out."
"Whatever. See you tomorrow."
"You had better come next time."
"I will, chill out."
~*~
I decided to screw alleyway patrol and go home. I was hungry and I wasn't really in the mood after my three hour training session. So, I went up to Laura's penthouse. I got there at about eight, and Laura wasn't home yet, which meant that I was on my own food wise. I went into the kitchen and took a Dr. Pepper out of the fridge and heated up some leftover pizza. I ate and went to my room, where I did some homework. I was just about done with Algebra II/Trig when the phone rang. I picked it up.
"Yeah?"
"Ari? It's Laura."
"Hi."
"I'm stuck in a business meeting until really late tonight, so I might not be back until about eleven."
"That's fine. I just ate and all. Trained, homework, and I'm not patrolling tonight, because I want to turn in early."
"Sounds good, hun."
"Oh, and Laura, I actually made a friend at my prep filled school. She's the one cool person in the whole damn place. And I told her about my slayer thing because she's wicca and she believes in demons and junk, so I told her and she's totally cool with it."
"That's great! Maybe I can teach her a few tricks."
"Sure. I bet Charlie'd love that. Bye Laura."
"Bye sweets."
I hung up, and went back and finished my last math problem. I put my books back into my backpack, and took off my reading glasses. Yes, I have reading glasses. Leave me alone.
I looked at the clock on my desk. It was nine thirty. I went into my other room, opened up the window and went up the fire escape to my roof, where I hadn't been since the night I got sick. I missed it, and I'd only been up there once. There was just something about that roof. I can't explain it, it was just... special. When I was up there, I didn't want to leave. I felt something up there, something that was mine, and only mine. I would never bring Charlie up here. Or Dex, or Laura and especially not Angel, even though he had already been up here. Nobody. It was my roof, and I didn't want to share it. Laura told me she'd been up here a few times, but she didn't like heights, so she stopped. That was good, because I didn't want her up here. I sat down on the little wall, and swiveled slowly so that my feet were hanging off the edge of the building. It was dangerous, sure, but I could take the fall if I did. I closed my eyes, and felt the soft, smooth wind go through me, almost. It was so wonderful being up there, and I felt as though I'd never leave. I was so wrapped up in loving this moment that I didn't even hear Angel come up behind me.
"Ari." I wasn't surprised. I knew that if anyone would ruin my moment, it'd be him.
"Angel." I said without turning.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm on the roof."
"Why? It's dangerous. What if you fell?"
"I could take it. And no, this is not a suicide attempt. This is me sitting up here enjoying being here, alone. Until someone shows up and mess everything up for me like they always do." That was harsh. I've been very harsh today.
"Ari, what is wrong with you? I mean, you keep on confusing me! First you get all up and in my face that I don't think that we should be together, and then when I apologize, you say that you don't think we should even see each other except to fight side by side, and then when I try to help you fight, you blow me off, and then you act like I'm the bad guy!"
"It's called having problems, Angel. It's something I'd think you'd know something about."
"See? There you go again. All you do is come up with some witty comeback and then tell me to get lost."
"Get lost."
"My point has been proven."
"What exactly is your point? I mean, what do you want?"
"I want us to go back to the way we used to be. Just friends."
"And pretend like it never happened?"
"Yes."
"It won't work, you know that right? I mean, once something like that's happened, you can't just take it back. It doesn't work like that. We messed it up, and now we can never go back."
"Pessimist."
"Optimist." I didn't look at him. I only looked out at my city, on my roof, with someone who was driving me past the brink of insanity.
"So what are you saying?"
"I'm just saying that we changed things. It's true that things aren't just black and white, they can be gray too, but sometimes, they only can be black and white. And that kind of situation is what we have here."
"So, if what you're saying is white is love, and black is just nothing, and gray is friendship, we can only have love or nothing?"
"No," I replied. Now I swung my legs over the roof, stood right in front of him and looked in his big brown nothing eyes, and said, "Black is love. White is nothing." Then I started to go back down my fire escape, but he grabbed my arm. I tried to pull away, but his grip was too strong.
"I thought black was your favorite color."
"Black is the absence of color. That's why it's my favorite."
"But then why is black love if it's the absence?"
"That's exactly why it's love. Now let go of my arm."
"Not until you tell me what you're thinking." Great.
"I'm thinking that I'm annoyed with you."
"I know you're annoyed with me. But why?"
"I don't know now let go of me."
"Not until you tell me why."
"Because I just am."
"There's more to it than that." He knew me too damn well.
"No there's not." Lie. Lie. Lie.
"You're lying." True.
"Yes, I am. I'm a liar and a hypocrite and therefore you shouldn't associate with me and you should let go of my arm."
"Come on, Ari. It's just me. I'm your friend you can tell me anything."
"I don't need you as a friend anymore. I already have one of those."
"Well then what do you need me for?"
"I don't need you for anything. Leave me alone."
"You're lying again."
"Yes, I am. I'm lying again. Caught me. Now. Ow! Pressure point!" It was true, he had struck a nerve. And it hurt. He saw this, and he moved his hand up my arm.
"If you won't talk to me-"
"I won't."
"Then I'll talk to you."
"Don't. I'm sick of hearing your voice."
"Ari, shut up and listen." I shut up and let him talk. "I love you. And all I really want to do is be around you, but you keep on... changing your mind, so it seems. And it's confusing, and hard to be around you. But I love it so much that I keep following you. I don't want you to hate me or be mad at me. All I want is for you to be happy." He was so sincere, and he just said that he loved me. All I could think of to say back was,
"I'm sixteen."
"I don't care." Then he let go of my arm. "That's all I wanted to say." I was free to go now. I could leave him there. But once again I didn't want to leave my roof, even if he was up there with me. I actually didn't mind it so much. Sharing it. I wasn't sure what to do next. So I did something impulsive. I hugged him. I just went up and held onto the guy. He put his arms around me, too, and we stood there like that, just holding each other on the roof. It was like a movie, and I felt horrible about that. But it wasn't, because it was real.
"I don't care either." I told him.
"Good." Then we both sort of pulled away and looked at each other.
"So what now?" I asked. "What do we do?"
AN: Review, dammit. Don't make me get out my flamethrower.
I went into my new school the next day, Rockford, and, as I suspected, the halls were filled to the brim with preps, jocks, Japs, Baps, and about nobody else. I looked like I'd gotten lost, for crying out loud. I bet I was the only person in that whole damn school that was wearing black cargo pants and a royal blue tank top that had a blood red skull on it. I seriously doubt anybody in this whole school even knew what Hot Topic was. I saw a whole bunch of fliers and posters for pep rallies and junk, which made me roll my eyes. Who in their right mind would go to one of those things? I went down to the principal's office, gave them my forms, and they gave me my schedule and stuff. My first class was Computer science. Now when in God's name did I sign up for that shit? Never. What the hell, how bad could it be? I asked myself. So, I go to this Computer Science room, right, and the teacher notices me right away. She was kind of young, late thirties, maybe, and she had dark hair and big eyes. The whole class had been sitting down, at their own computers and all, in the middle of class, but the teacher just stopped class. She was looking at me funny.
"Are you Avarielle? I'm Jennifer Calendar."
"Ari."
"Right. Ari. We'll get you caught up with the rest of the class later, but why don't you tell us about yourself first?" This is just one of the many reasons why I hate new schools.
"Fine." What should I say? 'Hey, what's up preps? I'm Ari. I kill vampires and demons, and my favorite bands are Sublime and Green Day. I play soccer and I am a foster child.' I didn't think so, so I decided to scare 'em up a little bit.
"Okay. My name's Ari. I used to go to Lavine High, but my old foster family hated me more than cockroaches, so they turned me back over to social services who planted me in some penthouse down here which forced to be around you people. I play soccer, I board, and I also can hit pretty hard, so leave me alone." That was probably the greatest thing I'd ever said to a new class. It was all the more better because of the looks on their faces. They were like oh... my ...god. It was fantastic. The teacher, however was not taken aback. She looked... okay with it to a certain extent. That ruined my day.
"Where should I sit?" I asked Calendar.
"How about right next to Charlie Reingold, right there?" She pointed to some girl who looked like she didn't belong there either. She was in all black, and her shirt was black and pink mesh with saftey pins spelling out the word LIE. She wore a lot of makeup, and her straight blonde hair was streaked purple, as opposed to my natural auburn hair. I sat next to her, putting my bag down on the floor. She looked at me, with some admiration, but not smiling, which was cool, because I didn't smile much either.
"Hey. Nice speech to the cretins of the earth." She complimented.
"Thanks. Cool manicure." She had gotten a black one, with little white painted skulls on the nails, too. It really was awesome.
"Glad you like it. Actually, Janie Levitson told me the same thing yesterday, only with much more sarcasm."
"Lemme guess, Janie Levitson's a prep whose father works on either wall street or as a CEO for a multi-million dollar corporation and pays her a hundred bucks just for smiling."
"Wall Street." She replied, a smile dancing in her dark green eyes.
"Thought so." I kind of liked this Charlie girl by now. She was cool, kinda goth, but that was okay, who had probably the coolest manicure I'd ever seen, and she liked me, too. Who needs a vampire for a friend when you can have somebody who you actually can tolerate for a few hours?
~*~
At lunch hour, Charlie and I were sitting on the steps, drinking Cokes when a girl with long blonde hair dressed in a pink skirt and a white sweater came over to us, with her own little crew, all in perfect lil priss outfits. I already knew I didn't like them.
"Charlie," The girl said in a high, clear voice that ticked me off, "Looks like you made a friend. Finally."
"I'm sorry, but do you have a purpose for being here?" I asked the girl.
"Yeah, I do. I just wanted to say that like, it's good that one outcast found another. Good for you both."
"Ooh, Ari, she used a word that's over six letters long!" Charlie said to me in her utmost sarcastic voice.
"Wow, that's just like, so totally amazing!" I exclaimed in my best cheerleader imitation.
"Were you just making fun of me?" Whoever the hell she was asked me in shock.
"Now, see, if you had an ounce of intelligence you'd know that for sure, wouldn't you?" I was really on fire.
"Why don't you leave us alone now?" Charlie agreed.
"Ugh. Fine. But you better watch your back or I'll-" I stood up. I was so much taller than her, and visibly stronger, too. I could snap her arm like a twig, even without super strength.
"Or you'll what? Tell your daddy? Or the football team? Because I can take any of 'em on, no problem. I'm not intimidated by you. If you think you can go around saying mean things to people and not expecting them to say anything mean back then you're a helluva lot stupider than I thought." I burned her. Bad. Almost everyone on the steps was watching this. It must have been some kind of new revelation or whatever.
"Bye now." Charlie said.
"Fine. I hope you have fun hanging out with a stupid goth wicca!" She stormed off, her minions following. Wait, Charlie was a wicca? Maybe I could tell her then...
"You're a wicca?"
"I've tried out a few spells. Why?"
"Well, my guardian has some spell books and stuff back at the apartment. It's pretty cool." Dex would kill me if I told anyone. Seriously, he'd take my head off.
"You're into that kind of thing?"
"Sure."
"Do, um," She lowered her voice, "do you believe in vampires?" Oh my god. This was too good.
"Have you ever seen one?"
"One attacked me last year. Someone killed it, though. That's how I got into this stuff. I believe in demons." She was totally serious, and I totally believed her. Okay, I had to tell her now.
"Um, Charlie? You wanna come over after school? I have some stuff you might be interested to hear."
~*~
"Wow. Are you serious?" Charlie asked me. I'd just told her everything. Well, not about me being in love with a vampire, but about slayers, demons, Laura, Dex, the council, all that. We were in the dining room, eating ice cream (who would have thought her favorite flavor was Half Baked by Ben + Jerry's too?)
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I completely believe you. I just wanted to make sure." She wasn't being sarcastic. She was serious. "And you have super strength?"
"Yeah."
"Can you show me something? Something cool, and slayer-y. But not anything that'd hurt me or break something."
"Sure." I stood up, went to an area of the room where stuff was out of the way, and I did a back flip, kicked the air, and pretended to stake. Charlie looked at me, in awe.
"That's awesome! So you like, fight demons and stuff? And this Dex guy, he trains you?"
"He's my watcher, yeah." As though on cue, the phone rang in the kitchen. "Just a minute." I went to get the phone.
"Hello? Ari?" It was Dex.
"Hey Dex. What do you want?"
"Where are you? You were supposed to come by and train this afternoon."
"I'm at home, hanging out with my new friend Charlie. Oh, and she's cool, and I told her everything. She believes me and she's gonna keep it a secret, so no need to flip out."
"I don't give a damn about you and your new friend, just get over to the shop now!" He hung up. For a British dude, he sure can yell.
I went back into the dining room.
"I gotta train. Wanna come?"
"You mean, train with your watcher and all?"
"Unfortunately."
"Sure."
~*~
"Good work, Ari. Now, tonight, you should patrol some of the alleyways downtown." I had just finished training with the crossbows and knives. Charlie had gotten a call from her mom on her cell and had to go home, so she'd left.
"Which part of downtown?"
"Oh, I don't know. Wherever you think the vampires will go. Now, I need to do some research if you could please go..."
"On what?" I was pushing Dex's buttons a lot today.
"It is none of your concern at the moment. Now out."
"Whatever. See you tomorrow."
"You had better come next time."
"I will, chill out."
~*~
I decided to screw alleyway patrol and go home. I was hungry and I wasn't really in the mood after my three hour training session. So, I went up to Laura's penthouse. I got there at about eight, and Laura wasn't home yet, which meant that I was on my own food wise. I went into the kitchen and took a Dr. Pepper out of the fridge and heated up some leftover pizza. I ate and went to my room, where I did some homework. I was just about done with Algebra II/Trig when the phone rang. I picked it up.
"Yeah?"
"Ari? It's Laura."
"Hi."
"I'm stuck in a business meeting until really late tonight, so I might not be back until about eleven."
"That's fine. I just ate and all. Trained, homework, and I'm not patrolling tonight, because I want to turn in early."
"Sounds good, hun."
"Oh, and Laura, I actually made a friend at my prep filled school. She's the one cool person in the whole damn place. And I told her about my slayer thing because she's wicca and she believes in demons and junk, so I told her and she's totally cool with it."
"That's great! Maybe I can teach her a few tricks."
"Sure. I bet Charlie'd love that. Bye Laura."
"Bye sweets."
I hung up, and went back and finished my last math problem. I put my books back into my backpack, and took off my reading glasses. Yes, I have reading glasses. Leave me alone.
I looked at the clock on my desk. It was nine thirty. I went into my other room, opened up the window and went up the fire escape to my roof, where I hadn't been since the night I got sick. I missed it, and I'd only been up there once. There was just something about that roof. I can't explain it, it was just... special. When I was up there, I didn't want to leave. I felt something up there, something that was mine, and only mine. I would never bring Charlie up here. Or Dex, or Laura and especially not Angel, even though he had already been up here. Nobody. It was my roof, and I didn't want to share it. Laura told me she'd been up here a few times, but she didn't like heights, so she stopped. That was good, because I didn't want her up here. I sat down on the little wall, and swiveled slowly so that my feet were hanging off the edge of the building. It was dangerous, sure, but I could take the fall if I did. I closed my eyes, and felt the soft, smooth wind go through me, almost. It was so wonderful being up there, and I felt as though I'd never leave. I was so wrapped up in loving this moment that I didn't even hear Angel come up behind me.
"Ari." I wasn't surprised. I knew that if anyone would ruin my moment, it'd be him.
"Angel." I said without turning.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm on the roof."
"Why? It's dangerous. What if you fell?"
"I could take it. And no, this is not a suicide attempt. This is me sitting up here enjoying being here, alone. Until someone shows up and mess everything up for me like they always do." That was harsh. I've been very harsh today.
"Ari, what is wrong with you? I mean, you keep on confusing me! First you get all up and in my face that I don't think that we should be together, and then when I apologize, you say that you don't think we should even see each other except to fight side by side, and then when I try to help you fight, you blow me off, and then you act like I'm the bad guy!"
"It's called having problems, Angel. It's something I'd think you'd know something about."
"See? There you go again. All you do is come up with some witty comeback and then tell me to get lost."
"Get lost."
"My point has been proven."
"What exactly is your point? I mean, what do you want?"
"I want us to go back to the way we used to be. Just friends."
"And pretend like it never happened?"
"Yes."
"It won't work, you know that right? I mean, once something like that's happened, you can't just take it back. It doesn't work like that. We messed it up, and now we can never go back."
"Pessimist."
"Optimist." I didn't look at him. I only looked out at my city, on my roof, with someone who was driving me past the brink of insanity.
"So what are you saying?"
"I'm just saying that we changed things. It's true that things aren't just black and white, they can be gray too, but sometimes, they only can be black and white. And that kind of situation is what we have here."
"So, if what you're saying is white is love, and black is just nothing, and gray is friendship, we can only have love or nothing?"
"No," I replied. Now I swung my legs over the roof, stood right in front of him and looked in his big brown nothing eyes, and said, "Black is love. White is nothing." Then I started to go back down my fire escape, but he grabbed my arm. I tried to pull away, but his grip was too strong.
"I thought black was your favorite color."
"Black is the absence of color. That's why it's my favorite."
"But then why is black love if it's the absence?"
"That's exactly why it's love. Now let go of my arm."
"Not until you tell me what you're thinking." Great.
"I'm thinking that I'm annoyed with you."
"I know you're annoyed with me. But why?"
"I don't know now let go of me."
"Not until you tell me why."
"Because I just am."
"There's more to it than that." He knew me too damn well.
"No there's not." Lie. Lie. Lie.
"You're lying." True.
"Yes, I am. I'm a liar and a hypocrite and therefore you shouldn't associate with me and you should let go of my arm."
"Come on, Ari. It's just me. I'm your friend you can tell me anything."
"I don't need you as a friend anymore. I already have one of those."
"Well then what do you need me for?"
"I don't need you for anything. Leave me alone."
"You're lying again."
"Yes, I am. I'm lying again. Caught me. Now. Ow! Pressure point!" It was true, he had struck a nerve. And it hurt. He saw this, and he moved his hand up my arm.
"If you won't talk to me-"
"I won't."
"Then I'll talk to you."
"Don't. I'm sick of hearing your voice."
"Ari, shut up and listen." I shut up and let him talk. "I love you. And all I really want to do is be around you, but you keep on... changing your mind, so it seems. And it's confusing, and hard to be around you. But I love it so much that I keep following you. I don't want you to hate me or be mad at me. All I want is for you to be happy." He was so sincere, and he just said that he loved me. All I could think of to say back was,
"I'm sixteen."
"I don't care." Then he let go of my arm. "That's all I wanted to say." I was free to go now. I could leave him there. But once again I didn't want to leave my roof, even if he was up there with me. I actually didn't mind it so much. Sharing it. I wasn't sure what to do next. So I did something impulsive. I hugged him. I just went up and held onto the guy. He put his arms around me, too, and we stood there like that, just holding each other on the roof. It was like a movie, and I felt horrible about that. But it wasn't, because it was real.
"I don't care either." I told him.
"Good." Then we both sort of pulled away and looked at each other.
"So what now?" I asked. "What do we do?"
AN: Review, dammit. Don't make me get out my flamethrower.