Ask Me What It's Like to Never Win

By: Leelei

Disclaimer: I don't own Code:Lyoko. This story was written before airing of Season 2 began.

Author's Note: I haven't been thanking you guys enough for all of your great reviews. Merci! I'm glad you like it! ; )

Chapter 10

My cell phone rings that night as I'm lying on my bed, thinking of all the things I'm going to do with Aelita as my girlfriend. I pick it up quickly and answer. "Allo?"

"Herb, it's me, Aelita," I can recognize her voice from anywhere, she doesn't need to identify herself. But she does sound tense. "Look, we need to meet right away. Please, if you're interested in talking, come meet me down at the bench near the school entrance. No one should be out there this late. We'll…we'll be alone to discuss all of this."

I'm sure she can even hear me smiling in my response. "Of course we can talk, Aelita, and I would love to meet you down there. What time?"

"Um…right now…I guess," she answers nervously. "But you have to stop by Jeremie's room and slip the disk under the door. That's the only way this will be able to work."

"Sounds fair enough," I reply. "Just give him back the disk and then you'll meet me outside so we can finally be together, right?"

"…Yes. But we had better not find any copies!" she adds. "And if we do, I swear my friends will kill you."

I chuckle lightly. "Don't worry, Aelita, I won't do anything to jeopardize you now. Just be prompt, okay, mon amour?"

Her voice quivers, "I'll…I'll hurry. Good-bye," and she hangs up quickly.

Of course she has my number; after Ulrich conned it out of Sissi back in Junior High, him and that Odd kid had a blast prank calling me for a while. I was about to change it, but they stopped and haven't called since. Jeremie must have gotten it from them, but was too mad to talk to me himself. But that's okay…I wanted to hear my angel anyway.

It's still warm out tonight, so I disregard my jacket and grab the disk from my desk instead, hiding it in my pocket before I leave, closing and locking my door behind me. I take my time strolling through the halls, whistling and ignoring all the looks I get from the other students. They won't look at me that way when I have the prettiest girl in the entire school on my arm…

I get to Jeremie's door and automatically notice that the lock has been changed. Probably by the school, since they have so much insurance to cover those little details. I take a look at the disk as I stand before the room, then stoop down and slip in under, taking my leave as soon as I see it pulled in from the other side. Now it won't be long before I have Aelita in my arms.

All right, so I did sound like Sissi just then, but I don't care anymore. If this is how I have to get my angel, then this is how it has to be. I leave the building and arrive at the bench, sitting down and looking up at the night sky accented by hundreds of tiny sparkling stars and a full moon so bright I don't know why they even need the sidewalk lamps on. So I'm waiting now, but I see no Aelita.

Finally I spot her walking out of the dorm building almost ten minutes later. It's okay, I won't scold her for being late. But she looks kind of sad walking with her head down like that. I shrug it off as she approaches. "Hi," I tell her.

"…Hello…" She isn't looking at me.

"Please, sit down. There's plenty of room for the both of us."

She's silent as she sits down as far away from me as possible.

"Did you see that I gave him the disk?"

She nods.

"Now I'm not that devious liar anymore that you always thought me to be, huh?"

She shakes her head, still looking at the ground as she bites her lower lip.

"Are you going to speak to me? You wanted to come down here and talk, after all."

It takes her a few moments to respond, and when she does, she seems a little choked up, "Herb…I…I can't go through with this..."

"You what?" I sit up from lounging on the bench and look directly at her. "Aelita, what are you saying? Jeremie and I had a deal."

"I know, but…" She finally looks at me now. "But I love him! He means everything to me! You know about Lyoko, so you understand now that I wasn't born here on Earth. I was materialized from a virtual form…and yet Jeremie always treated me with so much kindness and respect. He talked to me like a person, not a program! And when he told me that he loved me and never wanted me to leave his side when he found the anti-virus those couple years ago, I…I just couldn't help but to promise that I never would."

"Aelita, I'll treat you with that same kindness and respect. I love you!" I tell her, not realizing how loud I've become.

"It's…it's not the same, Herb," she replies solemnly as she stands up. "It's just not the same." She turns her back to me to leave. "Now, if we're finished, Jeremie is waiting for me."

I grit my teeth and stand up also. "Don't do this Aelita. You don't want me to turn you all in."

She turns to face me again. "With what evidence? You already gave us the disk."

I open my mouth to reply, but I didn't have anything to say. Well, she was right. I didn't even make copies, either. I was relying on this damn plan to work. "Aelita, if you go…" I manage to say through a shaky voice as my anger builds inside of me.

"What?" she asks, folding her arms.

"If you go…"

She looks me up and down with a disgusted expression and, for the first time ever, I can't see her as an angel. She's not perfect to me anymore. In fact, standing there under the moon and the lights with her fashionable, light colored clothes and her snotty sneer, she looks like one of those damn preps. "…You will regret this."

She turns her nose up at me and leaves without another word. So that was it. She's made her decision. And she will feel my wrath for this. I had her in my arms, then she decided to jump out of them and go, but soon I will have her in my grip, and then she will have no chance to escape anymore.

She's just about to open the dorm building door when I'm suddenly punched in the stomach by someone reaching from around my left arm. I immediately grab my torso and lurch over in pain, nearly falling to my knees, and I can't look up to see who's there. But the voices soon do that for me.

"What were you fucking thinking, asshole?" it sneers at me. As easy as it is to recognize his handwriting, his voice is even more apparent. It's the Odd kid, yet I've never heard him swear like that before. "Huh? What the fuck were you thinking?"

Another person kicks me from the other side. Without looking, since I'm on the ground now, I just assume that's Ulrich. "What made you think we were going to let her come out here alone with a sick fucker like you?" And I'm right! I guess Ulrich swears when he's pissed off, too. One of them hits me again.

"We had better not see you around her ever again," Odd growls at me. "You know, Herb, we're normally really nice guys, but when you try something as stupid as going after a girl that you know we love and have protected from the beginning, you deserve to have some sense knocked into you."

I get kicked again and I can hear them walking away, Ulrich cursing me in a venomous tone as they go.

Here I lay alone on the cement, hoping nothing is broken as I wonder just where perfection had abandoned me. Now no one else is here with me but the watchful eyes of the moon and the stars above.

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