Utterly spent from weeping, Aria slept in her tree. She was awakened by Marcus caressing her face and crooning against her hair that everything would be alright. With these assurances thundering in her subconscious, Aria clasped Marcus's hand, and allowed him to escort her to her bedroom. Such is the nature of best friends that when one promises the other that everything will be alright, everything inevitably turns out alright.
Aria stumbled toward the figure on her window-seat, who was barely visible through her blurred her vision. Groggily, she slumped against the masculine chest, burrowing into the tattered sweatshirt. Strong arms hesitantly embraced her, and she sniffled pitifully, until sleep claimed her.
Satisfied that she was on the brink of being comatose, Kip Winters situated Aria's slumbering form more comfortably into his arms, and tenderly deposited her in her bed. Marcus arched his eyebrows suggestively at Kip, barely dodging the pillow Kip flung in his direction. Throwing a final do-what-you've-gotta-do-dawg smirk Kip's way, Marcus shimmied out the window and cockily pranced off into the distance. Alone with Aria Edwards at last, Kip basked in the tranquility of simply watching her sleep.
The next morning, Aria was slumped in her chair at the table in the kitchen, half-eaten, cherry poptart protruding from her mouth, when Rex Evens settled himself in the chair beside her. Dramatically reaching for her crumb-covered hand, he admitted that he had lied to her. Aria chewed on her lower lip, but made no verbal response.
He had lied, he proclaimed, about their first meeting. He had ogled her so blatantly when they first met because he had known she was an Edwards; in fact, he had known she was THE Edwards he had been longing to meet, since first learning, from an acquaintance who wished to remain anonymous, of her kindness, gentleness, sunny disposition, exquisite manners, etc. From the moment she had been described to him, he had been certain that she was THE WOMAN he had been searching for all of his life, THE WOMAN with the capacity to transform him from a corrupt being into a saint.
Fortunately, Marcus bounded into the room, before Aria had the opportunity to throttle Rex Evans within an inch of his life, with Aria's Morning Chocolate Milk. Rex Evans, metaphorical tail hanging between his legs, slunk from the room. Wordlessly, Marcus offered Aria the glass, and left her alone to process the revelation that Mrs. Ester Rosenburg's dreams of Rex Evans falling in love with her had come true.
The remainder of the weekend passed in a murky haze. Aria mechanically ate and slept and showered and primped, but she was too plagued with memories of her interlude with Rex Evans in the kitchen to focus on anything else. Saturday afternoon melted into Sunday, which melted into Monday, which thankfully became Tuesday. Tuesday meant a forced return to normalcy and minimum brain function, as she was expected to provide caffeine to the portion of the Claremont University Student Body not hopped up on twelve cases of Red Bull.
Having finished yet another Tuesday shift at the Claremont University Campus Starbucks, Aria decided that she could benefit from some Girl Talk with Sophia and some quality time with Marcus. Besides, she owed Marcus the most gigantic cookie in the entire history of the universe for rescuing her so brilliantly from Proposal the Third. Obviously, she'd been deluded for believing that contending with a moose in her bedroom was the worst obstacle that life would ever throw at her.
Upon entering 7G, her spirits were instantly lifted by the welcoming grin of Sophia, and the practically overflowing glass of chocolate milk that had been placed before her chair at the rickety table. She knew Marcus had already spilled the beans to Sophia about Rex Evans alleged undying love for her, but she wasn't expecting Sophia's exclamations of boundless joy.
Off Aria's baffled expression, Sophia hefted a gargantuan photo album from her lap, gingerly placing it on the table between them. Swiftly, she opened the album to a pre-determined page, aquamarine eyes glistening with unshed tears, as she directed Aria's attention to a photograph of two gentlemen clothed in matching Princeton sweatshirts and baseball caps. The one on the right was unmistakably Rex Evans.
Daintily sipping her tea, Sophia, voice quavering anxiously, began her awkward confession. She had pleaded with Marcus to remove himself from the apartment, just for that morning, following Marcus's predictions that Aria would drop by, because they had urgent matters of a highly sensitive nature to discuss. Marcus had immediately obliged, fearing a discussion about tampons and application of mascara.
Rex Evans had attended Princeton with Christopher (Sophia's fiancée). They had roomed together during Freshman Year and had instantly become the kind of best friends who are closer than brothers. Wherever one was, the other was right beside him. Throughout Christopher and Sophia's romance, Sophia had come to view Rex Evans as HER best friend, as well. She could finish his sentences, she knew his favorite songs, she knew the best method of coping with his cantankerous moods, and she knew the depths of his cruelty. This, Sophia involuntarily cringed, had become her deepest regret. She had known how unforgivably vile he was, but hadn't been concerned until he betrayed Christopher.
Rex Evans, Sophia claimed, had developed the perfect system of seducing a woman. He began with a simple comment, such as "Those are lovely pants you're wearing, but I think they would look better if I was inside of them with you."; once he was certain that the compliments had endeared him to the woman in question, he moved on to learning her interests, which he pretended to share; when she seemed convinced that they had tons of stuff in common, he would ask her to join him for dinner; dinner generally evolved into more tawdry behavior in her apartment, or the backseat of his car; the final stage: Fortune Fraud. He charmed her into paying all of their expenses (from rent to video rental fees) with flimsy excuses, such as "My paycheck hasn't come in the mail yet, Sweetheart." and "I'm saving up to give you the perfect anniversary, because you deserve nothing less than perfection, Darling." If Daddy had an enormous trust fund set up for his Little Princess, he would propose to her, then skip town after receiving the dowry.
Sophia hastily advised Aria not to let Rex Evans' past destroy her crush on him. He really was a good guy…if you just looked really deep into his soul…and, OH SCREW IT! Aria immediately placated Sophia that she would NEVER return Rex Evans' love, especially now that she had been enlightened about his Seduction System. The harsh truth that Elianna could have been fooled by his bullshit, eventually becoming a brokenhearted, financially-ruined shell of her former self, struck Aria as an unbearably jagged pill to swallow.
Heedless of Sophia shrieking at her that Rex Evans was better friend material than boyfriend material, and heedless of Marcus cursing at the Pomeranian hell-bent on marking its territory (his left shoe), Aria fled from 7G and the Willow Bend Apartments. Feet pounding the pavement, raven hair flying behind her, she collided with a fire-hydrant, landing on her ass, on the pavement, at the feet of Kip Winters.
Gallantly, he helped her to her feet, studying some imaginary spot in the distance, as she rapidly straightened her skirt. Struggling to repress those pesky memories of hands roaming across the material of this very skirt during a certain rainy encounter, Aria hooked her arm through Kips, and he mutely escorted her to Westhaven Circle. She attempted to telepathically communicate her appreciation of his willingness to respect her desire for silence, and the spontaneous, upward quirking of the corners of his mouth seemed to imply that he shared her fondness of not needing to speak.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, the awful truth about Rex Evans is finally revealed! I hate that so much stuff is crammed into one chapter, but, since Jane Austen still hasn't figured out about the magic of segues, I did the best I could with what was in the book. Also, it didn't help that I attempted to write this fic without reading the whole book first. Thanks for reading, and review!
