HEY! THANK YOU REVIEWERS! You guys are the ones that are motivating me into keep on going with this story! And to answer singergirl, I suppose Echo is like Parker. You'll find out about Echo's clothing and personality later. Heehee....drums fingers menacingly Okay, well I guess you all want a third chapter, so here it is!
--Loviet
Chapter 3Later that night (A/N: Yes, it still hasn't been one day! Come on people, I move slowly!), Travis was hanging out at Mickey's. His other set of earphones was on his noggin and tried his best to keep Lily off of his mind. It was so hard, that he was beginning to not mind thinking of Echo.
'Why am I so intrigued in this girl? She is nothing to me, I do not know her...yet what did she mean about noticing her?'
He'd like to think it was her lack of facial expressions he liked...and NOT her long brown hair. As he came to a conclusion that maybe he DID have an interest in her, Ray came rolling in the door, looking around and then snapping his fingers in disappointment. Travis frowned...it was so obvious he was looking for Lily. Ray scanned the room one more time and, when spotting Travis, walked over to him and sat down. Travis smiled back when Ray did, but didn't feel he should need to...after all, he WAS winning Lily. Ray smiled and said something, but Travis (due to his headphones) could only see his mindless flapping mouth running. No doubt it was about Lily and him, so it was a drag to be pulled back into a world he was just getting away from.
"What was that, Ray?"
Ray scratched his head and chuckled.
"I said, have you seen Lily? She was supposed to meet me here...since uh, our last date here didn't go so well."
Travis smirked.
"You mean due to your milkshake accident?"
Ray's attention came upon him and he quickly responded defensively.
"That person walked by and knocked it over! Hey wait..." his voice lowered and suspicion crept into his eyes. "Lily told you that, didn't she?"
Travis rolled his eyes and shrugged.
"Guess she did. So? I can still talk to her...it's not like she doesn't want to talk to me."
Ray nodded, squinting his eyes as if saying "Right, sure." Travis scoffed and got up.
"Look, I need to go home and do my homework."
At that he walked away. But as he was just about to reach the door, he heard a familiar voice.
"Hey Travis...didn't think someone like you would come hang here."
His head turned and what he saw almost drove him crazy. Why did he keep seeing this girl? Echo had her hair up now and a jacket on. She had her finger stuck in between two CD's to place where she was searching. Travis nodded.
"What kind of person do you take me for?"
"Someone who doesn't want to fit in," she stated as she shrugged. Always stating things.
"It's not that I want to fit in, I just like the music here."
"Liiike, this?" She pulled out the CD her finger was placing. Lily Randalls face on the cover. Echo clicked her tongue and grinned mischievously and for the first time, Travis read what was on her face. That face was saying total victory, win, knowing their prey was defeated. "You are so predictable, Travis."
Travis' blood was boiling, but he walked over to her and stopped, squinting his eyes threateningly. Then, out of his bag, he raised the same CD up to her face and turned around, pointing to where it said he was the producer. "Already got on." She nodded.
"So," she said, "you helped her get fame and fell in LOVE while doing it, eh? What a perfect romance story." Her stating seemed to dissolve as every mocking word coming from her mouth got on his nerves.
But what could he say? He didn't even know if it WAS love he was feeling. All he knew was that this girl knew about him and Lily like she was reading the back of his hand. Which, technically (with the CD being held in front of her face and all), she was. At that thought, he quickly put the CD back into his bag and sighed to calm his nerves.
"Look, could you not talk about that anymore?" He tried to glance at Ray without her seeing, but obviously failed as her eyes followed it and saw him sitting there. Her face twisted in some sort of disgust look and she sighed.
"Ray...what an immature boy to be facing. And that girl is picking him over you? Ha, well you are obviously not very good at competing." Her voice was low but soothing.
She did it again! How the hell could she read him like that? How can she know with just a small gesture. But before he could ask her, or even get in another word, Echo was walking toward Ray with sway in her walk and a twinkle in her eye. Travis' eyes widened and he turned to act like he was looking at CD's instead of them. But at the corner of his eyes, he saw everything.
Echo sat down very closely to Ray and smiled as she crossed her legs. Ray probably knew her, because he started chatting with her. Then, the door creaked open and Lily came in looking stressed. Then he knew what Echo was doing, and he couldn't believe she did it! She was distracting Ray so Travis could be with Lily! Did she like Ray? New questions about her flooded through his brain and he tried to focus on Lily's expression when she saw the two, but was so full of glee that he could barely see her.
Lily was walking in when she stopped dead as she saw Ray kind of close to this other girl. Travis almost started laughing, but coughed to keep it down. Then, he felt her near her and he smiled. Without even looking up, Travis greeted her.
"Hello, Lily."
"Travis, who is that with Ray?"
Travis looked up and put on his best-confused face.
"I don't know...I think it's the new girl."
Lily's brow furrowed and she shrugged, but he could see she was quite bewildered about it all. So was he. He couldn't figure out why Echo was talking with someone she thought was immature just so he could be with Lily. What was in it for her?
"So you haven't bought one?"
Travis was ripped, once again this day, from his thoughts by Lily and looked down to where she was pointing. He was looking through Lily's CD's.
"Oh, uh...yeah I did but uh, I lost my case."
She looked at him curiously but didn't press it. Travis, feeling disappointed in his excuse, went over to another place, preferably farther from Ray, and acted like he was picking through CD's there. Just as he hoped, Lily followed.
"So...what are you looking for?"
He shrugged.
"Just looking..."He wanted to say more, he NEEDED to say more, but nothing was coming to mind to say to her. What was there to talk about other than the ultimate question "Are you sure we're just friends?" He sighed and then looked at her. Courage was building up when he looked into her eyes and saw she was biting her lip and looking behind him. His brow furrowed and then he too twirled around. Ray was sitting alone and Echo was no where to be seen. From where they were standing, Ray couldn't see the two, but Lily was feeling guilty, and Travis knew it.
So he scoffed and looked back to the CD's.
"You meeting Ray here on a date?"
Lily looked at Travis surprised and tried to play it off that she wasn't.
"No! No, he just..he just needs help on his uh...homework-"
"He told me." Travis looked up with a sad humorous face on. "Please," he stepped aside, "don't want to keep you away. You can ask him who that girl was with him." He grinned and pulled a CD he acted like he wanted and walked pass her.
As Lily walked hesitantly up to Ray, Travis put the "new" CD in into another category cleverly and then walked outside. Just when he was feeling on top, however, something ALWAYS seemed to bring him down. Echo was leaning against the wall outside and looking at the stars when he (with a step in his walk) strolled on out to go home. As if she was expecting him, she got up and walked up to him."You owe me, ya know."
Travis looked at her like she was crazy.
"Ah, but you see I did not ask you to do that...so technically it was a favor I am not meant to return."
Echo's eyebrow raised and she scoffed.
"Whatever...so did ya talk to her?"
"Yeah"
"What did you say?"
"Why do you want to know?"
By this time they were both walking down the sidewalk with the lights occasionally lighting up the area around them.
"I just thought I'd help someone..."
Travis stopped and turned to his side to face her.
"Why are you here? What do you want from me?"
"I want to help you."
Now it was turn for Travis to scoff.
"Why?"
"I already told you...you noticed me."
Travis didn't say anything. Echo sighed and continued to walk. But Travis wanted to know what she meant, so kept walking with her.
"At my old school," she began, "I wasn't liked very much. I was told I was weird. I had no friend, I made friends up so my parents wouldn't send me to counseling anymore. Alone time is needed for the inner soul, but I at least want someone to talk to."
Travis still didn't understand so stayed quiet.
"Look," she sighed in frustration, "if I help you with Lily, all you have to do is let me hang with you and your friends. In fact, that would work out well. I'd get to know Lily and Ray more and I could ya know, pull them apart and stuff..." Echo stopped and stopped him with her hand. "What do you think?"
Travis' mind was buzzing. It was like hiring someone to kill Ray, or rather Ray's HEART, yet it meant mending his. He looked at her and nodded.
"Alright...alright I'll hang out with you. Introduce you to my friends...but you must guarantee you will help me all that you can. If not, I'll tell them what you are there for."
She smirked evilly and answered, "Ah, but you see if you tell them they will know you were apart of it..., which will cause more chaos. There is no going back."
Travis cursed in his mind.
"But," she finished, "I will do my best...and believe me...there will be results."
At this, she turned and walked down a different road, disappearing into the shadows. Travis then felt sudden regret and he didn't like the feeling of this...knowing it wouldn't turn out the way he'd expect it to. How right he was.
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WOO HOO! Another chapter out! And so SOON. : ) Alright! Well I'll try to get the next one out ASAP for all my fans. YAY I HAVE FANS! Heehee. Thank you for all the reviews!--Loviet