Aurora Annabelle Rivers

Chapter 1

Amanda and I, leading the rest of the group, made our way out on the tracks. Weaving our way between the Boys Varsity Team, I let down my golden locks of hair to feel the wind against my face; like I was bathing in warm waters.
Being the captain of the team, and having our Coach not here, I was to lead everything today. First of course was our two warm up laps. While Amanda and I took it easy, we paid no attention to any of the guys; we were already too busy talking about what to do with everybody today.
Out of the exact fifty people on the team, there were about a million ways to split them. The second week of practice, and everybody was begging for me to take it easy.
"Rory I'm so exhausted. Yesterday we ran about four two miles in total, plus everybody's complaining about the three essays that we have to do," Amanda complained to me.
"Manda, I'll see, but Perez told me the exact distance she wants to be covered by everyone. I'll try to take it easy, but I can't promise anything, okay?"
"Rory, come on. I'm dying here."
"How about afterwards, I'll take you to Swirlies, and treat you."
"Fine," she caved, "but I thought you were meeting up with Alex after practice."
"Well last night, Alex and I had another little argument. Its driving me crazy, he doesn't listen to anything I say," I complained.
"But…" she said knowing there was something more.
"But I still love him. Plus I know for a fact that I would regret it if I broke up with him. Everything is so complicated. Ugh…"
"I know exactly how you feel, but hey I did it, and I'm still alive."
"I know…" I said miserably as we finished.
While the girls gathered up around me, I lead the stretches, but my mind was on Alex. There were times when I knew that I couldn't live through what he made me feel sometimes, and other times I just couldn't wait to be with him.
I don't even remember when we started out like this. Everybody had always told us…
"Switch," I said.
… how great of a couple we made, but sometime between everything things went haywire.

My heart wasn't into the practice that day, so I definitely gave everybody a break. I broke everybody up into four sections. Team one ran the streets twice, Team two ran the 800, the 400, and then the 200, Team three ran the mile and then sprinted the 100, and Team four would use hurdles and practice all of the relays.
Everybody was fine with it, especially the newer ones. Amanda would stay with team four, because I could always go over and talk to her. She was my right-hand man.
Amanda and I went over to the shed door, which contained the hurdles and the batons which we needed, but it was locked. Coach Perez usually took the key with her, so when I sent Amanda to go look in her room and it wasn't there, we headed to the Boys Varsity team.
"Well look who it is," Coach Leno boomed. "Rivers, Sanchez," he said referring to our last names.
"Brocky-Boo," I said referring to his childhood nickname, and his team got hysterical. "The shed is closed and we need the hurdles and batons. Perez didn't leave me the key, so we need yours."
He looked at me for a while, with those evil eyes, and I stared right back at him.
"Here," he said tossing them to me. "Just to be on the safe side, Valentine, Luther and Segren go with them and help set up.," he ordered
At that we turned away and left.
"So, am I invited?" Julian asked me. He and I had been friends for a while, but I couldn't remember the last time I had spoke a word to him.
"Invited to what?" I asked confused.
"Swirlies," he said. "I figured since I'm being such a kind gentleman right now plus the fact that I have such a tiring workout ahead of me, that I should be treated as well."
"Sure, if you want to buy yourself something and sit on your own, why not?" I said jokingly.

They helped us set up as they were instructed, and soon enough, being in a somewhat better mood, my watch started beeping.
It was exactly 4:30 and time to go. After six sets of twenty crunches and push-ups, we were done, and ready to leave.

Amanda and I headed inside to the stalls to bathe and then get changed. Relieved and refreshed we made our way to the parking lot. There Amanda's beautiful red BMW was waiting for us.
When we opened the door to get inside I heard a voice call.
"Rory, Amanda." We turned around to see Julian and his two other friends, Alan and Connor walking our way.
"I hope he doesn't really think that he's coming," Amanda whispered to me. I just laughed; since they were too close to hear what I might have said to Amanda.
"Hey, so we're leaving now?" Alan asked.
"Since when were you guys invited?" Amanda fired.
"Well when you invite one of us, its really inviting all of us," Connor filled in.
"I don't mind you coming, but I only agreed to pay for Amanda's so get your wallets out," I said while Amanda looked at me in disbelief.
"I thought we were going to talk," she said in pretense. Amanda had a crush on Connor since I can remember, and it wasn't a surprise she was acting like this.
I got in and they followed.
But as soon as Amanda put the car into drive, my phone rang.
"It's Alex," I told her, picking up the phone. "Hello," I answered.
"Hey, Baby. I thought I'd pick you up after practice and we could…"
"Alex, I have plans. I'll call you back later."
"Who are you with? I hear guys. What plans? Rory, can you please talk to me?"
"Holy crap Alex. I'm with Amanda and some others. You don't f***ing own me. Jesus Christ," I yelled.
"Rory, I'm sorry. But we have to talk. Later, I'm guessing."
"Bye," I said pissed off.
"I love you," he told me sincerely.
I just hung up.
"Someone has you on a tight leash, now doesn't he?" Alan asked.
"Alan, shut up." Julian, Connor and Amanda said simultaneously.

We got to Swirlies a couple minutes later, in complete silence. Walking inside, the five of us went to a booth to sit down.
On one side it was Connor, Amanda and then Alan, and on the other side it was Julian and me.
The waiter took our order and came back with everything. But by the time it got back, although everybody was back in high moods, I still wasn't.
I wasn't feeling as hyped up as I should have been, so I told Amanda that I would see her later and pitched in twenty dollars, which would cover everybody's order.
I started outside and five minutes into trying not to the think about Alex, I was saved.
"Rory," someone called. I turned around and saw Julian.
He ran over to me.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey," I said back. "Sorry about back there, I'm just so aggravated with everything. I don't know. It's like every time we're together, or I talk to him, everything gets so f***ed up. Sorry, you don't want to hear about any of that."
"No it's okay. Vent your heart out to me. I'm listening, and I won't judge, I promise."
"Well it's…" I sighed. "It's so hard to explain. He just doesn't listen to me or trust me. I mean I love him," I said blushing, "but he's so Goddamn insecure about everything. I mean I don't want to leave him, but sometimes I get so fed up with everything."
"It's like a defect in a piece of software. As much as you wanted it to work, there was no solution, but to get rid of it and get a new one."
I looked at him in awe and then started laughing. I was hysterical and had to stop walking for a second, to gain my balance.
"I didn't realize I was so funny," he told me completely confused.
"Sorry," I said, trying to hold in the laughter. "I just can't believe you compared our relationship to a piece of software."
"Well, if it helped," he said skeptically.
"That was such a good laugh. I haven't had one of those in such a long time. Thank you," I told him sincerely.
"Glad to be of service. So don't you wish you were back there now?" he asked as we turned onto the street of my house.
"No way," I said. "Then, I wouldn't be feeling this good. We should do something, sometime."
"We should?" he asked.
"Yes. Let's hang out today, and forget the whole Swirlies thing happened, yeah?"
Walking up to my house, Julian and I decided on watching a movie. There were so many movies to choose from, but in the end I got him to watch The Fantastic Four. Joking and laughing the whole way through, I completely forgot about Alex, which is what I needed that moment to be.
Alex-free.

In the middle of the movie, when I heard Mr. Softee's ice-cream truck I told Julian we should get some, and we headed outside into the warm air.
When we came back inside, Julian and I made our way back up to my room to finish the rest of the movie, but instead we found ourselves talking.
"Julian, what exactly happened to us?" I asked during the silence. "You, me and Amanda were such good friends, and now this is like the first time I've talked to you, in like forever."
I knew what the real answer was; the causes of all my troubles, my dearly beloved Alex. I couldn't believe that everything between Julian and I had been lost all because of my boyfriend. At that moment I hated Alex so much, more than I ever had before.
I could tell that he that he blamed it on Alex as well, but just decided not to say anything.
"I'm such an idiot," I muttered under my breath.
Julian got up and came over to where I was, setting his Popsicle down on a napkin.
"Aurora, no you're not. Okay? Don't blame yourself for something that was my fault." I put my ice-cream down as well, and jumped up.
"Julian, I know that it was my fault. I let Alex," I shuddered at his name, "get in the way of everything and I know that I shouldn't have done that."

Right at that moment, something clicked. I realized that as much as I wanted to stay and be at ease with Alex, I wanted Julian too.
We stood there two feet apart; his pink lips stained purple from his Popsicle and that was all I could concentrate on. That and how gorgeous he looked.
I couldn't believe that I never had realized this before. He was so attractive, looking at me like this, until he broke the silence and spoke. His words sang to me as he inched closer to me.
"Aurora," he sang shaking his head, "Don't say any of that because I let you go. I couldn't bear seeing you with Alex. I couldn't just watch any of that happen, because since I can remember, Aurora, I have loved you. I love you so much."
I couldn't believe he was saying this. He opened up his whole heart to me, after two years of hardly speaking to one another; he told me that he loved me.
We were literally a centimeter apart, but I knew that I shouldn't do it. I'd make a mess of everything for myself, not to mention for Julian.
"I'll see you," he said turning and leaving. I wanted to call him back, to tell him to wait. But what would I say; that I loved him too? I had no idea what I was feeling for anybody and I couldn't call him back, as much as I wanted to.
I just let him go.

I sat in my bed for the next hour just thinking about what had just happened. What I should have done differently and how I should have gone after him.
I knew I was destroying myself, with my emotions for everyone. Soon enough I couldn't help it and just started crying. I lay down in my bed, underneath my covers and cried myself to sleep.

I woke up to a knocking on my door.
"Rory, honey," it was my mother, "Are you alright? I haven't heard from you all day."
"I'm fine," I said still in a groggy mood.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm fine," I lied. "Just a headache, but I'm so tired. I'll get something to eat later."
"Honey, its nine o'clock now, and you've missed several phone calls, plus you haven't even started any homework."
"I'm fine. I'll figure it out." She felt for a temperature and when there was none, she left the room.
I reached over into my bag to get my cell phone.
Five missed calls.
Five new voice messages.
They were all from Alex.
Alex, Alex, Alex.
I was getting so tired of it all. I had been going through so much with him, but why was it so hard to come to a decision. I didn't want to lose either one of them, but I couldn't bear this painful heartache I was going through.

I called Amanda instead.
"Rory, guess what, guess what, guess what?" she squealed. "I have the best news ever."
"What happened?" I said not very enthusiastically.
"Connor asked me our on a date. After you left, Julian left too, and then Alan did too. So it was just me and Connor. We talked forever and on our way out, he asked me out."
"Congrats, Manda." I said, trying to be happy for her.
"Rory, I know that it's probably not the best news considering, but I just want you to be happy for me."
"Manda, I am, don't worry. But I'll talk to you later, I'm a little tired."
"Okay, Connor's on the other line anyways."
"Bye," I said and hung up.