Aurora Annabelle Rivers

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I went back into my room, prancing like a bunny. I knew that there would be no way I could possibly go to sleep, so decided to work on the essays that I still had barely touched.
After a while, the mood left, because I realized how much I needed a good grade in my AP Euro class. The essay was on the crusades and how they affected the lives of the people living there. How boring is that?
Anyways, soon enough my phone rang. Crossing my fingers, hoping it would be Julian, I picked my phone up. A smile broadened on my face and picked up.
"Aurora," a beautiful voice sang.
"My darling, Julian," I replied.
"I just wanted to hear your voice. How long has it been, two, three hours? I hate that this has to be a secret."
"Do you want me to die of complete and total sorrow, when I lose you in a stupid fight over me?"
"What are you saying?" he said jokingly. "You don't think I can take Alex?"
"Not a chance, but that's fine. Besides, to everybody we're just friends so we can hang out, but certain rules have to follow."
"So does today sound fine?"
"I have practice in an hour. Afterwards maybe..."
"Perfect, but I'm actually on my way there now. To my practice, so I'll meet you sometime at the end of yours. I'll be waiting, just don't leave."
"Okey Dokey, Artichokey."
That made him smile, "I don't know how I lived so long without you," he sighed, "but at this very moment, I have to go."
"I'll see you then."
"After track?"
"After track."
"I love you."
"I'll miss you.
"Okay."
"Kay, bye," then I hung up.
Sighing in happiness, my thoughts were soon disrupted by another call. I picked up my phone and put it back down when I saw that it was Alex.
'Ugh,' I thought. 'And to think I let him ruin my whole life.'

I needed to get ready for my track practice, so that's exactly what I did. And at the exact time, Amanda came round to pick me up.
"So, do you want to talk about it?"
"About what?"
"Last night. I'm so glad that you and Alex are finally seeing eye to eye," she stated proudly.
"Well..." I began, but instead she finished my sentence.
"...you guys got into another fight. What was it about this time?" I didn't know if I should tell her or not, so I figured that I would when the time was right. And it surely wasn't now.
"Oh the same old thing," I tried to state coolly.
"Rory, you know that you can talk to me. If anything is going on, you can tell me. If you're worried about me telling Connor, let me tell you that I would never."
"Manda, I know. I know you wouldn't do something like that," I said although I wasn't sure of anything anymore with her. "Don't worry, nobody could ever replace you."
"What are you talking about? Who are you talking about? Okay, Rory, after track you are telling me everything that you haven't already since that day in Swirlies. What's going on?"
"Amanda, why are you getting so worried over nothing. I was kidding around, and after track I'm going to be a bit busy. So we can reschedule to now. Nothing happened that you don't know about. Okay."
She looked at me skeptically but could say nothing else, because we were interrupted by my phone.

I didn't even have to look at the Caller ID because I put a special ring-tone for Julian. I was unsure whether I should pick up, especially being in the car with Amanda, who was already on my back about absolutely nothing.
I just decided not to pick up, but Amanda began at me. "Rory, you guys need to talk. Just because you got into a little fight, doesn't mean there isn't a solution for it." She grabbed the phone from me and picked up.
"Alex, this is Amanda, and Rory has a message for me to tell you. She's very sorry about last night, but is a bit pre-occupied at the moment, so she wants me to tell you that. Okay?" I have no idea what Julian was saying on the other side of the phone, but it made Amanda's nose wrinkle up and then turn to me with an even more suspicious look.
"Okay, sorry. Bye," she said into the phone and hung up. Then turned to me, "Rory, what the heck is going on here? Can you please tell me something? Why is Julian calling you and why aren't you picking it up and why the hell did you let me make a fool of myself in front of him?"
She had parked the car in the parking lot, but before she turned the engine off, I jumped out, "Sorry, we're going to be late. I have to go change."
I ran into the locker room, changed as fast as I could, then ran outside over to the Boys Varsity Team.
"Rivers, you need the key again?" Coach Leno asked me in annoyance.
"No, I was just wondering... Well, actually we do need the key," I told him. I didn't even know if I was supposed to lead practice today, but the whole point was for Julian to come over and help and I would give him a heads up about everything.
"Is there anything else?" Leno asked.
"Umm... did you do something to your hair, it looks nice." I turned around as he passed the key to Connor who was followed by Julian and Alan.
Julian walked up to where I was casually, but when I looked at him, I could see a hint of a smile on his face.
"Me. You. Talk now," I whispered. He looked at me strangely.
"I can't hang out after practice. Amanda is getting all upset and is forcing me to talk to her. But I don't know what to tell her. Tell me what to say. I can't really tell her, she'll go ballistic about morals and all that crap."
He clenched his teeth, and whispered in my ear, "You don't' know how amazing you look when you're like this."
My mouth gaped open, but he hugged me in return.
And that timing couldn't be any more perfect, because at that Amanda ran from the locker room to see Julian and I hugging.
Normally, she wouldn't care, but because she had this weird idea in her head that couldn't wait until after practice, she wouldn't let me go without knowing every single detail.
She walked down towards Connor, and began talking to him in a hushed voice, while we all set up the hurdles.
It's so sad but the only thing I could pay attention to was Julian. When he talked to me I was fully there, but when a teammate asked me a question or commented me I was a complete spaz.
And of course, my dear dear sweet Amanda had to realize all of this too.
After the Boys Varsity Track team finished a whole half an hour before our team, Connor and Julian both decided to wait. And because Perez did come to coach practice today, she had me running harder; when I ran by both Connor and Julian, I had of course my eyes locked on my dearly beloved.
Finally our practice ended and still avoiding Amanda, I sneakily ran inside to the stalls and out again to my locker, without her noticing, but of course I knew that she realized I was up to something.
Heading outside, I could see Julian waiting for me with Connor. I ran over and plopped down right next to him on the bleacher.
"Hey there you two," I said playfully. Usually after practice and a long shower I got really giddy, just like I was now, but what made it even worst was that Julian was here; which made me even more hyper.
"Ready?" he asked getting up. I got up with him, and we left Connor there sitting alone waiting for Amanda. I wondered what she was saying to him, or what he even might be thinking about Julian and I hanging out.
As soon as we were far enough so that Connor wouldn't be able to hear us, I asked, "So, what did you tell him?"
"About what, us? He didn't even say anything when I told him that we were going to hang out."
"You didn't tell him anything, did you; specifically, anything that happened last night?"
"Well actually that was all this morning, but no. Besides, Amanda is probably going to get it out of you somehow. While you guys were running she was looking at you like you..." he stopped.
"...like I'm the devil, probably. I mean I don't need any other drama in my life, but I feel like she's not even there if I try to talk to her. So, what's the point of telling her this?"
"Just because she's with Connor, or whatever is going on with them, doesn't mean she's not there for you."
"Well it sure does seem like it," I said as we sat inside of his car. Technically it wasn't his car, but he used it all the time, since his brother left to France for the school-year.
"Connor asked me if anything was going on with you, and when I asked why, he said because Amanda was worried that you guys were being driven apart. So don't tell me that she doesn't when she obviously does." I pouted, until he began to speak again.
"And I can't believe that you told her I was Alex on the phone," he laughed.
"I didn't. When you called I hid the phone, because we were in her car. So she thought it was Alex because I didn't pick it up and grabbed it from my bag and started talking to you." I started laughing at the memory of it all.
"So what do I do with her? If she gets it out of me, don't kill me?" I pleaded and we stopped at a stop light to his house.
He looked over to me then said, "Do you think that I could even kill a fly?"
"Yes. Do you remember the time when we were like in 6th grade and I dared you to fry some worms in my backyard and then eat them?"
"Oh yeah; because we had just finished reading the book, How to Eat Fried Worms. I completely forgot about that until just now. Ugh, I can taste them now, crawling in my stomach."
"Eww..." I said, "That's so gross."
"It's going up in my esophagus. Man those worms are fast, I could feel them..." then he started to hold his throat.
"Julian stop being so gross, that's disgusting."
"I can't help it, its squirming around in my throat. I got it," he said as he stuck a brown thin wriggly thing out of his mouth.
I screamed.
He started laughing. "It's only a Twizler," he said slurping it back up and showing me the pack of them he had nearby. Partially traumatized, I started laughing because I probably seemed like an idiot to him.
"I can't believe you actually fried them, and in your mom's frying pan."
"Well you guys told me too, plus it was a dare and if you didn't know, I happen to be a man of my word."
His house was a second away and from that moment until we got inside his house, we were laughing hysterically.

His mother was sitting in the kitchen, in her yellow bathrobe and a hot mug of coffee in her hand, while reading a newspaper. When she looked up to see Julian and me walking in, she was a bit surprised. I hadn't seen her in such a long time, but it seemed as if she aged so much since then.
"Aurora, my dear, I haven't seen you in such a long time. How are you?"
"Good," I replied, giving her a hug.
"Mom, we'll be out in a minute," he said leading me up the stairs into his room.
"Julian, you're mother is so nice," I completely forgot how good she is. But before he said anything, my phone rang.
"I think I'm going to end up killing this thing," I said as I picked up the private call.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Aurora, please don't hang upon me," it was Alex. I put the phone on speaker so Julian could hear who it was.
"I'm sorry about last night..." he said, but I cut him off.
"Alex, really I'm not in any mood to talk to you. So, we can just postpone this."
"Why don't you ever feel like we should talk about anything? You just always want everything your way and I hardly see you giving a damn about anything."
"Hmmm... maybe that's why I'm in no mood. I'm not even going to talk to you about this. Not now, later, okay?"
"No, now. Unless you're with hmmm... I don't know. Julian. I bet you are, and you don't even have to deny it, because I know that you are, whatever you say. It figures, after last night."
"Alex, you really have got to get over yourself. You can't just assume that..."
"No, Aurora you need to get over yourself. All you do is play games with people, and expect things to turn out peachy keen in the end, but you know what; they can't. And I don't think I am going to waste my time worrying about us anymore. And assume nothing because I've been trying to work this out, but you know all you do is..."
"What are you saying?" I said cutting him off and on the brink of tears.
"You know what I'm saying, and I mean it," and the phone line went dead.