Untitled (aka: Aisling's Story)

There was a time when everything seemed perfect, and totally in sync with Aisling’s life. She was turning eighteen, had just graduated as the valid-Victorian of her high school, and had been accepted at UCLA. She would be double-majoring in British History and a Photography course. She allowed herself to have different career choices. She had the perfect boyfriend, Daren, who treated her as an equal, never trying to control the relationship. He was the perfect gentleman, always holding the door for her, and surprising her just when she needed to be cheered up. To put the cherry on top, she had the best family anyone could hope for. Always supportive of her decisions, but within reason. They always steered her onto the right path. Aisling was on the top of the world; heck, she owned the world. Everything was going for her, and nothing could go wrong.
Or so she thought.
The five-foot-nine teen raised her purple-tinted sunglasses to her emerald eyes as she strode out the door and made her way to her car. The wind’s light fingered hands played with her auburn, red tinted hair, playing patterns on the back of her tan leather jacket; she had recently gone on a shopping spree, and had purchased that jacket, along with the pale blue blouse dark brown jeans she was wearing. Her tennis-shod-foot kicked an empty soda can out of her path. There had been a party in the parking lot the previous night, one which she had declined to attend. She wasn’t a big party person. She sighed as she fought her way through the remains, tripping on a left-behind lawn-chair. She caught herself on a nearby car, setting off the alarm. She winced, and quickly slunk away, her face turning scarlet with embarrassment.
A tap on her shoulder made her wheel around, falling backwards before she could regain her balance. A hand reached out and caught her before she hit the ground. She looked up, bewildered; she was still waiting for the impact of the crash. She found herself staring into clear, pale blue eyes, a sideways smile immediately revealing her savior. Aisling scowled furiously at the juvenile-acting boy who she shared classes with. The one who had been pestering her to date him.
She stood up, pushing away his offered hand. “What do you want, Dominic?” she asked acidly.
“Well, a ‘Thank you’ would be nice, for starters,” the light-haired teen replied, his smile pasted in place, “and secondly, you could say yes to my next questi-“
“No, I will not go out on a date with you.” She answered, already walking towards her car again, eager to escape this annoyance she had recently acquired.
“How do you know if that was my question?” he asked, stepping over the debris as he caught up to her.
“Well, if that wasn’t it, then what was it?” she asked, straining to keep the edge out of her voice.
“Um, I- I just wanted to know if- if I could borrow your notes from history…” he rushed, obviously trying to cover up his surprise that she answered. Aisling just rolled her eyes behind her glasses.
Pathetic. Why can’t he just leave me be? “Sure…” she started going through her book-bag, but not really looking for the notes. Her mind worked rapidly. He could potentially use those notes to blackmail her into going out with him, and they had their first exam in two days. She looked up, feigning an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Dominic, I thought I had them with me…” she let her voice trail off for the effect. Hopefully he would fall for her performance.
“Oh, that’s ok, then… I’ll just borrow them from Dan…” he shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to do next. “Well, I guess I’ll see you in class, then, Aisling.”
She waved her hand absently in the air at him, not observing how his eyes widened at something behind her. “Yeah, in class, then.” Dominic walked quickly away, his footsteps fading. She sighed, and leaned against the car, rummaging through her purse for her keys.
“Looking for these?” a smooth bass voice said, her keys dangling over her shoulder. She turned around to look at the thief. Could this day possibly get any worse? A young man who couldn’t have been older than twenty, slightly taller than her was facing her.
Collecting herself and her surprise off the floor, she replied, “Yes, thank you-” she reached for the keys, just to have them pulled away from her somewhat playfully. Aisling glowered at him behind her dark sunglasses, knowing that her eyes by now would be an almost black-green in contrast to their normal light-emerald color. “What do you want? If you don’t mind, I’ve been having a rather bad day, and you are not making it any better.” She tapped her foot impatiently.
The stranger chuckled, and dropped the keys in Aisling’s waiting hand. “Alright, alright… I wouldn’t want to mess with the angry tigress…” he said, holding his hands up in mock surrender. She blushed furiously, and quickly bent her head over to hide her now-crimson face, trying to get her car unlocked. As she opened the door, nearly slamming it into him with the force, she looked up.
“So, what’s your name-” but he had disappeared. She whirled around, bewildered, but he was nowhere to be found. As she started to climb into her car, puzzled, she heard a voice. “Your eyes really are pretty when you’re angry…” she stuck her head out the window, but he still hadn’t reappeared. She sighed, and started to drive, punching the buttons to turn on her Evanescence CD without bothering to look at what track she was going to. She smiled as her favorite song, “October”, came on automatically. As she was turning out of the lot, she looked in her rear-view mirror, and found something rather odd. She still had her sunglasses on. No one could see her eyes through them. Her breath caught in her throat at that realization. She quickly whipped them off, and looked at the lenses. Completely dark. Not see-through at all. At that disturbing discovery, she left them off for the rest of the day, putting the mysterious stranger from her mind as she carefully drove home. She would worry about it later. Right now, she had a history exam to study for.