Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Phantom of the Opera, sadly.

Chapter Three

Aubrey stopped and turned around to stare at her phone ringing. Her hand was on the door knob, which was lucky because her knees seemed to want to give out.

Then it stopped ringing, and she could hear her mother downstairs answer it.

"Aubrey it's for you" Her mother shouted up towards her, "Hurry though, dinner's done!"

Aubrey numbly walked towards the phone with her stomach somewhere near her throat. Her hand reached out to her phone and gently picked it up and placed it to her ear for the second time that day.

"Hello" She said breathlessly.

"Aubrey, how are you?" A deep voice said.

Her stomach dropped back to the normal spot.

"Lawrence, is that you?"

"Yeah it is. Why were you expecting someone else? I have really missed you, you know."

"I know. I've missed you too." Aubrey said quietly.

Lawrence had been her boyfriend at New Field, the town she had just moved from. She broke up with him when she left, not wanting to do the long term relationship, and lets face it, she was only 16 and didn't expect to get married right out of high school. She didn't even feel like she would have married Lawrence even if she had stayed in New Field.

"So how are you liking your new school?"

"Oh it's okay. Just like any other school." Aubrey said shrugging her shoulders knowing he couldn't see her. She was starting to feel guilty talking to Lawrence again. She knew he still considered them together, though she made herself perfectly clear when she left that they weren't.

"I'm sorry Lawrence, but mom said it's dinner time and I don't want to keep them waiting, you know how she is about a family dinner"

"Oh, okay." Lawrence said and she could hear the disappointment in his voice. "I love you Aubrey."

"Lawrence, don't say that." Aubrey said sadly.

"Why, do you not love me?"

"I told you when I left that we were done. I'm sorry. I really have to go." Aubrey said and quickly placed the phone back in the receiver.

She had tears in her eyes as she stumbled down the stairs.

"How was Lawrence?" Her dad asked without looking at her.

"Fine." Her mother looked at her and placed her hand over Aubrey's when she sat down.

"I know you really miss him"

"That's not it!" Aubrey said loudly. Part of it was knowing that she just broke Lawrence's heart, and feeling silly at thinking Erik was going to call her when he made perfectly clearly that he had no intention of calling her.

"There is no need to shout at your mother." Her father said throwing her a stern glance.

"I know, I'm sorry Mom, I guess I'm just upset that's all."

Aubrey was rather quiet through the rest of the meal and rushed to her room as soon as it was over.

She pulled out her Phantom of the Opera binder and grabbed her book of 'A Midnight's Summers Dream' thinking that she should at least read it again and do the report herself.

Tomorrow I'll just tell Mr. Bamoria that Erik wouldn't cooperate and she would be more than happy to do the report herself.

Aubrey sat down at her desk and started to read the book and was reading the part where Hermia and Lysander escape into the forest and have fallen asleep thinking they were safely out of reach when her phone rang yet again.

She sighed marking her book, knowing it was going to be Jane, since she said she would call about this time.

"Hello Jane." Aubrey said with a smile on her face.

"Umm, I think I might have the wrong number." Said the voice she knew.

"Erik?"

"The one and only."

Aubrey's heart fluttered at his voice.

"I didn't think you were going to call me tonight."

"Yes, well I surprise everyone. So do you really want to take part of this project in English?"

"Yes I do!" Aubrey said indigently. "I like earning my own keep."

"Well that's fine then, have you ever read the book before?"

Aubrey squinted her eyes in anger. "Yes I have thank you." She replied stiffly.

"I didn't mean to offend you, I just had to make sure, how do you want to go about writing this?"

"Well maybe I can go to your house after school tomorrow and work on it."

"No that isn't possible, maybe I can come over tonight and we could work on it."

Aubrey looked at the clock and saw that it was a little after 8 o'clock. "Umm, I don't think my parents would appreciate you coming over this late, but let me check." She set the phone down and bounded downstairs.

"Um, Mom, can a friend come over. We are working on a homework assignment together, and we really need to get started."

She saw her mother check her watch. "It's really late Ruthy." Aubrey rolled her eyes. She hated it when her parents called her by her middle name Ruth.

"It's for school though" hoping this would help with her plea.

"Well I guess so, but only until 10 o'clock." Her father said. She gave a small squeal and hugged her father.

Aubrey bounded upstairs and picked up the phone in a matter of seconds. "Yeah you can come over, but only until 10 then you have to leave."

After the phone had been placed in the receiver she turned to her full length mirror and sighed. She found her comb and pulled it through her tangled curly hair.

In less than ten minutes the bell had rung and she nearly flew down the stairs to answer the door. "Hi Erik, come on in."

She walked with him to the dining room area so they could have plenty of room to do their homework, knowing fully well that her parents would not let her have a boy in her room, even if it was for homework.

"So what kind of report do you want to write?" Erik said briskly.

She had her Phantom of the Opera binder already on the table along with the book.

"Well I wrote down everything we need to have in the report she said grabbing the binder off the table and pulling the sheet out of it.

"We need to include the year it was performed, or what years it was thought to have first shown up, what the story is about, the main characters, just a basic history of the story, and what we thought of it, of course." Aubrey said looking up from the slip of paper in her hand.

It looked as if Erik hadn't heard a word that came out of her mouth. He was looking at her binder and her drawing. "Hello Erik, did you hear me?"

"Did you draw this?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, it's my favorite story in the whole world." Aubrey said glancing at him. "Why?"

Erik cleared his throat, "It doesn't matter, lets just get started." Erik said quickly as he pulled his laptop out of his bag. "I think we should do some research about when it was first acted out, since I'm not sure of the exact date."

They sat for a long time searching different sites about when it was first published, but the closet they could come was sometime from 1594 to 1596.

"Aubrey, I think it's time Erik should be leaving." Her mother said. Aubrey jumped at her mothers voice. She looked down at her watch and saw that it was ten after 10.

"Okay Mom." Aubrey said helping Erik gather all the information they got.

She walked out with him to his car. It was a black eclipse. "Well I'll see you at school tomorrow Erik, thanks for calling me, I think we got a lot done."

"Yeah, no problem." He said briskly.

Aubrey had hoped that after getting out of the eyes of all pupils at school he would loosen up around her.

"Erik do you not like me or something?" Aubrey said quietly.

He looked at her questionably. "I have a hard time getting along with people, I would rather be alone, then surrounded by people. I'll see you tomorrow."

He got in his car and drove off, leaving Aubrey gaping after him.

She fell into bed a short time after he left and fell into an uneasy sleep. Once again Erik Destler came to her in a dream.

"You can't believe what I say. I don't want to be alone any longer."

"Let me lead you from your solitude." Aubrey said looking deep into his eyes. A smile came to his face.

He reached out to her. She gladly placed her hands in his when she felt a tug at the back of her shirt pulling her away from Erik. He stood still his arms still out waiting for her to place her hands in them again, but she couldn't break whatever was pulling her back.

She woke with a gasp. She had felt tears come to her eyes, the dream had seemed so real. After what felt like hours she finally sank back into a dreamless sleep wishing she knew the meaning of these weird dreams.

So did anyone get the line Aubrey said to Erik in the dream? I thought I might add a line from one of the songs, and it seemed to fit so well. Now that you have heard a lot of Erik now, please let me know what you think of everything, I really like reviews, they keep me going!

Desiree'