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

Chapter 8

Aubrey woke in a huff, she was very tired of getting weird dreams of Erik, and wished they would stop coming.

She rolled over and looked at the clock realizing it was already 10 in the morning. Erik was supposed to get her at noon.

When Aubrey got downstairs my mother had a surprise for here.

"Aubrey there was something that came for you this morning." She said out of the family room.

"Really, what is it?" She asked curiously.

"Come into the family room and I will show you."

Aubrey started walking quickly into the family room and saw a small vase with a carnation surrounded with baby's breath.

"Who's it from?" She asked reaching for the vase.

"I don't know, I didn't look." Her mother said with a smile on her face.

Aubrey pulled the card out of the small envelope and smiled. It said 'Aubrey, please forgive me, I don't know what came over me. I hope this helps, and I'll call you tonight, I have to work this morning. Harry'

Surprise coursed through Aubrey's body, this wasn't expected. A huge smile came to her face.

"Thanks mom." Aubrey said and rushed up the stairs to place it on my computer table. And to think she had though about breaking up with Harry last night. Maybe he wasn't so bad and really listened to what I had to say.

The two hours until Erik was supposed to pick her up went by in a blur.

When they were both in the car Erik turned and said "So what do you want to do today?"

"Oh I don't know. I haven't really been to a whole lot of places, why don't you just surprise me."

Erik nodded his head and took a left turn after a few minutes. After a fifteen minute drive they were slowly getting out of town and had driven to a secluded place.

They were surrounded by trees that were starting to bloom. It seemed to be a public place, but there wasn't another car or person around.

"Erik what is this place?"

"Oh it's some kind of park, I like to come here and relax. If you look down the way you will see a small set of swings."

They started walking towards the place he had pointed out. Aubrey set down on one of the swings and started swinging out of habit.

Erik smirked at her.

"What is so funny?"

"I just thought you were 16 not 6."

"Hey, it's fun!" Aubrey said starting to slow down.

"So tell me about last night." Erik said softly.

At this time Aubrey had stopped her swing, but still sat on it. "Oh, well Harry seemed to be more concerned with watching me than the movie."

Aubrey saw Erik's eyes squint in dislike. "But he is forgiven now."

"And why is that?" Erik asked coolly.

Aubrey told him about the flower Harry had sent her and the note on it.

"So that makes what he did okay!?" Erik asked outraged.

"Well no, but he said he was sorry."

"Aubrey you are to naïve. He is just trying to get in your pants, can't you see that."

Aubrey blushed at what he said. "He is not Erik. You need to be a little nicer to him. He is my boyfriend."

"It makes no difference to me what he is to you; he is still a foul scumbag."

Aubrey felt the anger rise in her chest at Erik's cruel words. "Stop Erik! I don't want to talk about this anymore. The matter is settled."

Erik walked over to the other swing and sat down next to her. He seemed to be in a bad mood.

After ten minutes of silence Erik turned to Aubrey. "Have you eaten lunch?"

"No I haven't"

"Well lets go, I'm starving. I'll take you to a great place."

Aubrey nodded her head and started following Erik. Erik had taken her to a small café kind of place. It was obviously a rip off of a star bucks. Aubrey had ordered a turkey sandwich with a mint tea and Erik had ordered some kind of pastry with a black coffee.

Aubrey started rummaging through her purse to pay for her half of the meal, but Erik placed a hand over hers. Electric shocks went through her hand at his touch and she quickly pulled her hand away from his.

"I'll get it."

Aubrey shrugged her shoulders and walked over to a small two person table to wait for their food.

"Erik, I have asked a few people around school about you." Aubrey said quietly.

"And why would you do that? More particularly what did you ask?"

Aubrey looked down at her fingernails not wanting to meet his eyes.

"Well I was wondering why you were always by yourself and didn't chat with people."

"That's fairly obvious." Erik said quickly.

Aubrey jerked her head up and looked into his eyes. "Not to me!"

Erik angrily waved his hand over his face. "People think I'm some kind of freak because of this!"

Aubrey glanced quickly at his mask and then at the table. A waitress placed their order down in front of them.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure you don't like talking about it. I don't think you are a freak though." Aubrey said looking back into his eyes. She saw disbelief flowing through them.

"Look, it's no big deal, I just don't like talking about it."

Aubrey nodded her head and ate in silence. After they were done they got back in Erik's car. He took her home.

"Aubrey, please don't get mad." Erik said suddenly. Before Aubrey had time to ask get mad at what, she felt Erik's lips on hers. It was a few seconds before anything really clicked in her brain.

She plunged her hands into this thick black hair and sighed deeply. Something in the back of her brain was nagging her though. Harry!

Aubrey pulled back with a gasp. "Erik! What are you doing?"

A small grin seemed to come to his face. "I told you not to be mad."

"How could you! I'm dating Harry, and I told you I liked him. You and I are just friends."

"Aubrey, you can't lie to me, I saw your face when you touched my hand, and you can't hide that from me. I know you like me, just dump Harry and stay with me."

That line struck Aubrey funny. It was something her dream Erik had kept telling her. Stay with Erik.

"Maybe so, but I really like Harry, and I don't want to blow that. You have to understand that Erik. I like Harry. I can't be your friend if you do things like that." Aubrey said and rushed out of the car.

When she reached the safety of her bedroom door she crumbled. Why would Erik wait until she was happy with Harry to make a move? Was life always this unfair to her! She had to move right before her senior year. She liked a guy who brushed her off, when she did finally get a boyfriend he manhandled her, then when she starts to be happy with her boyfriend, a guy she likes makes his move!

Why was life so unfair?

Aubrey stayed huddled on her bed. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and her left cheek rested on her knees looking out of the window.

Hours seem to go by without her moving. Finally the sound of her phone going off brought her out of her bad mood.

Aubrey rushed to the phone and answered it before the second ring could get out.

"Hello beautiful." Harry's voice said.

Aubrey sighed in relief. "Did you get my flowers?"

"Yes, thank you so much Harry, it was beautiful!"

"I just want to apologize again. I should have noticed you didn't want to be like that with me yet, and I just kept plowing on. I'm really sorry." Harry's voice did sound sorry.

"Well, I have to admit, I was a little upset by it. But I'm okay now. I really do like you Harry."

"I really like you as well Aubrey."

They talked on the phone for an hour before her mother was shouting up the stairs that dinner was done.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow okay." Aubrey said to Harry.

"Okay bye."

Aubrey hung up the phone and rushed downstairs for a dinner time.

When she got back up to her bedroom half an hour later she sighed on to her computer. A message appeared quickly.

Are you still mad at me?

No Erik, but I just don't get you sometimes.

And why is that?

You know why Erik. I just want you to realize that we are just friends okay. I don't want to loose you as a friend.

Okay, I will behave myself. I promise. So what did you do after I dropped you off?

I just hung out at the house, then I talked to Harry for a bit.

After a few minutes of talking online Aubrey signed off. Getting ready for bed Aubrey was wishing that those dreams of Erik would not continue, but in the morning she realized that her wishing was for nothing.

So Erik is a bit nicer in this chapter. I hope you guys are liking Harry, and his flowers lol! I just want to say thank you to anyone who added my story to their alert, or favorite list, you have no idea how much that means to me. I also want to say thank you to all my wonderful readers, you are what keeps me going, and I love reading all of your reviews, weather they be 'I like your story' or something that you think might happen further down the line.

Desiree'