D-LTA Chapt 5

"Hold on." I said walking over to the door.

I opened the door to see my friend Jenn with a book in her hand. "I
wasn't interrupting anything was I?" She asked mischievously.

"No, we were just hanging out. What's up?" I asked looking over at
Aaron. "Oh, this is Aaron. Aaron this Jenn with two n's. See I have a
friend in Uniontown with one N. In my world it does make sense."

"Nice to meet you finally Aaron. I came up to see if you finished the
assignment for Assessment yet." She said shaking his hand.

"Uh, don't mention that. Yes, I did finish it. It's not perfect, but
it'll work. Why? Do you need help?" I groaned.

"I am done with it too. I just wanted you to look at it for me to see
if I did it right." She said, handing me a piece of paper.

I took the piece of paper and read over it. As far I was concerned it
was perfectly fine.

"It looks fine to me. It's better than mine I think."

"Ok, thanks Alley. I'll leave you two alone." She said walking out the
door with a wink.

I plopped myself on my bed and just started to laugh.

"You ok?" Aaron asked clearly puzzled.

"I'm fine. It's my friends who are crazy." I said smiling at him.

"Yeah, I know how that is. Hey, I'm going to get going. We'll get
together later tonight to rehearse ok?"

"Yeah, that'll be fine. How does our favorite time 7 sound to
you?"

"Sounds great. Well see you at 7." He said and walked out the
door.

A few seconds later there was a knock on my door. I looked around my
room to see if Aaron may have forgotten something but there wasn't. I
opened the door to see Jenn standing there.

"Nothing happened. We're just friends." I said before she could open
her mouth.

"I don't believe you. I saw the way you looked at him."

"Yeah, well."

"You really like him don't you?"

"Yes, but I don't think it's mutual."

"Alley, there is." With that she walked toward the door. "Well I gotta
jet. Talk to you laters."

"Bye. See you in class tomorrow." I said as she left.

The day went by at a crawling pace. I don't know how many times I
checked my watch waiting first for class to end then for seven to come.
Why was did it always seem when you really looked forward to something
the time never seemed to come? Finally 6:45 came around and I walked
down the hill to St. Mary's; which I was slowly growing to love more
and more each day. I got up to the classroom, and I noticed Aaron was
already there; and rehearsing his lines. I watched at the door, amazed
that he didn't even hear me come in. When he got to where the kiss
should be I cleared my throat.

"Looks like you need a partner." I said brightly.

"How long have you been standing there?" Aaron asked snapping back to
reality.

"Long enough, to realize you need someone up there with you." I said
walking toward the stage.

"You know it's really bad to eavesdrop."

"You should talk." I said looking him in the eye.

"Touche. Speaking of which..."

"Don't even start." I said pretending I was angry.

"Please?"

"No. You know what,one of these days I might tell you and you'll be
very disappointed."

"I highly doubt that. So are actually going to tell me one of these
days? Is that like a promise?" He said smiling at me.

"Sort of."

"Oh, I can't wait."

"Don't get your hopes up. If you ask me about it again, I definately
won't tell you."

"Ok. I promise not to bring it up again. Cross my heart hope to die."
He replied, making an x on his chest over his heart.

"Stick a needle in your eye." I said rolling my eyes. "Shall we
rehearse now?

"Sure."

So we went over the scene. I just concentrated on the what the Corrie
would do, and how she would react to Paul. When the line came that was
right before the kiss I just went with the flow. I was Corrie, who is
madly in love with Paul. Corrie would do anything to calm Paul down. We
embraced, and his lips found mine, a little jolt went down my spine
sending a little shiver down it. If only this was real life, and it was
Aaron's lips on mine, and not Aaron playing Paul kissing his wife
Corrie. Reluctantly I broke away from the kiss.

I smiled at him, and realized his arms were still around me. Is he
still in character? Or is he actually holding me? Oh please tell, me
it's the latter. My heart started to pound in my chest. I wanted him to
kiss me. I wanted Aaron to kiss me.

"There you go again." He said, quietly. "I know I promised not to ask,
but if you are constantly not here I'd like to know where you are.
Especially since, it brings a smile to your face."

"Sorry. I'll tell you when the time is right." I said slipping from his
arms.

"As long as you eventually tell me. Come on let's run through the scene
one more time and we'll call it a night."

"Ok. I do want to tell you though." I said with a heavy sigh.

"Then why don't you?"

"Too afraid I guess. It is rather embarrassing, at least to me it is."
I shrugged.

"I won't laugh, I promise."

"Not today. Let's get this scene perfect for next week shall we."

He just looked at me, as if he just wanted to understand what I was
thinking but falling a little short. "You know what. I think we have
this scene down pat. Why don't we just go somewhere and hang out for a
while."

"I'd like that. It'll get my mind off of things. Any suggestions?" I
said smiling.

"I noticed that you have a few movies in your room, why don't we watch
some."

"Sure thing. I'm warning you now though, my taste in movies is a little
strange." I said gathering up my things and heading toward the
door.

So we drove up the hill, and parked the car in the lot nearest to my
building.

"So, I should expect the chick movies in full force?" He asked when we
got into the elevator.

"Well, not really. Sure I have a few of them, but I have other movies
that are totally different than the others." I replied turning the key
to go up to my floor.

"Like what?"

"You'll see what I mean." I said as I opened the elevator doors.

"Should I be scared?"

"No. They're just odd selections." I said as I unlocked the door to my
room. "Go see for yourself."

"'Blast From the past',' Clueless' okay they're connected they both
have Alicia Silverstone in it. All of these have Julia Roberts in it.
Ok now these three don't belong," He said scanning the collection of my
videos.

"Let me guess, 'Rocky Horror', 'Skulls' and 'Super girl'" I said
plopping myself on my bed.

"Yes. So what are you in the mood for?"

"Something funny."

"Wow that narrows that down a whole heck of a lot."

"Well, nothing with Julia Roberts, I did that marathon a few days ago.
Oh and no Sailor Moon, I won't torture you with those." I said lying on
my back glancing at the shelf above my bed.

"Ok that's a little better. So we have narrowed it down to 12 videos.
Hmm, well let's subtract some of these 'chick flicks' shall we."

"Don't underestimate the power of a good chick flick. Go ahead. So that
leaves four videos." I said kicking him gently.

"Ok close your eyes."

"What did I tell you about surprises?"

"I don't care. Close your eyes."

I closed my eyes and I heard him insert a tape into the VCR and push
play. "Can I open them now?"

"No." He said sitting next to me on the bed.

"Now?" I asked impatiently.

"No. You have to guess correctly."

I groaned inwardly then I decided I have a 25\% chance of getting the
movie correct. I listened then I heard the tell tale trumpet
music.

"Super girl!" I said snapping up to a sitting position. "How did you
know!?"

"It's a wild guess." He said pointing to my Superman t-shirt half
hanging out of the hamper.

"You're such a wise guy." I said elbowing him in the side.

"I know."

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For being you. And for letting me be me."

He just nodded and leaned against the wall. I settled in right beside
him. I watched the movie, every once in a while reciting some of the
lines. Soon I found myself resting my head on his shoulder, and his arm
was around me. I was comfortable, I felt like I was surrounding by a
nice warm blanket. After the movie was done I got up to put in another
movie. I sat back down next to Aaron, his arm automatically going
around my shoulders and my head rested on his shoulder again. About
halfway through the second movie, which was "Breakfast Club", I started
to fall asleep. I looked up and noticed that Aaron had fallen asleep
himself. I glanced at the clock it said 11, he'll have to leave in an
hour. I put my head back on his shoulder again and fell fast asleep. It
was the first time in about a month that I was able to fall asleep so
quickly.

"Hey sleepy head." Aaron said squeezing my shoulder gently to get me to
wake up.

"Yeah, look who's talking, you were snoring at least twenty minutes
before I did." I said smiling at him.

"I guess I have to get going. It's almost midnight, and I don't want to
get you in trouble&;#8230;Hey I don't snore!"

"Uh- huh, sure you don't. It wouldn't be the first time." I said
rolling my eyes. "Do you have to? I mean you are a student here; they
can't really ban you from campus. Like I told you before plenty of room
in my closet."

"I wish I could, but I can't." He said standing up and stretching.
"Come on, you have to escort me remember."

"Ok. Oh, I didn't get to tell you. Remember when I told you I had the
urge to write. Well I started a new story and it's like 10 pages
already." I said getting up, and putting my shoes on.

"That's great! You'll have to let me read it soon." He said opening my
door.

"Maybe, if you are really nice to me." I said stepping out into the
hallway.

"Ok. Well I guess I'll see you Friday then." He said stepping onto the
elevator.

"Yeah. Good night." I said hugging him goodnight.

"Good night." He said hugging me back.

I watched him close the elevator. I went to my room and I fell asleep
smiling and dreaming about Aaron. The next morning I woke up early, and
started to work on the story that I was writing. By the time class
rolled around I had written probably around 15 pages. I had my muse,
and things were actually looking up for me. Everything for once seemed
to be going my way.

Later that day I saw a sign for the Fall Ball. It was our school's
really big dance. It takes place right before we leave for Thanksgiving
break. It has a big dinner, followed by Catholic Mass (joys of going to
a Roman Catholic school) then finally the dance. It was a formal
affair. I went my freshmen year with Tom. A sizable lump found itself
in my throat. Two weeks until the dance. I'm going to go. I looked at
the sign to see when the last day to sign up for a table was; next
Friday. I grabbed a table assignment sheet so I could turn it in later
in the week.

Friday in class, it went by pretty fast. Mrs. Sarceni decided to move
up the Coaching today, so that we would be done next Friday with our
scenes. Our coach was Sara, and she helped out a lot with our blocking.
She also pointed out that I could be more flirtatious. Who am I to
argue with an expert?

After class, Aaron and I drove up the hill and talked about what
changes we should make to our scene. We decided that we would fix a few
things and see how it worked out for Monday's coaching session. I asked
him if we should have another rehearsal before then. He shook his head
and told me that he had to work. Darn that Wal-mart!

The weekend went by almost without so much as a bump in the road until
Sunday night. I was on the computer typing my story when my cell phone
started to ring. I took off my headphones and answered it.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hi." An oh so familiar voice replied.

"Oh, hi Tom." I said trying not to sound too disappointed.

"We have to talk."

"So talk."

"I have some bad news. It has to do with someone you know."

My heart pounded in my chest the first thought that came to me was Gary
had gotten himself hurt over in Afghanistan or worse killed. "School or
home?" I asked holding my breath.

"School."

"Ashley, Amber or Katie?" I asked relieved.

"Ashley. She came to see me Friday."

"Yes, I know she told me that she was going to go visit."

"She also came to see me today."

"Is there a point somewhere in this?" I said getting quite
annoyed.

"We're broken up right?"

"Yes. Why?" I said snapping at him.

"You're mad at me."

"No, I just want to know what you are trying to avoid."

"I kissed Ashley. We're going out." He said finally.

"Oh. I've done worse." I said quickly

After a moment of uncomfortable silence; I continued. "Well not
recently."
Another silence. "If you're waiting for me to scream and yell you'll be
very disappointed." I said.

More silence. "Well since you have nothing else to say I'm going to go.
Call me sometime." I said getting angry by his silence.

"Night." He finally said and hung up the phone.

Strangely I was not sad or upset. I was slightly mad about the
situation. I mean Ashley is like a sister to me. Why would Tom bring
her into this situation? And why did she consent to getting into it? I
just went to bed and stared up at the ceiling trying to figure out what
just happened. My best friend and ex-boyfriend are together. God that
is just like a bad soap opera waiting to happen. Eventually around two
or three in the morning I fell asleep.