Chapter 2: The Beginning of the End

Friends can leave a footprint on your life forever. The longer their presence washes over you, the more your original life erodes to uncover a new face and new story.

Chapter 2

The rest of the day passed more-or-less in a blur with classes and homework and vague responses to queries regarding my red eyes. I almost had a few more attacks when I thought about how little these people really cared and how much they just wanted to be part of the drama, but I choked down the feelings. I had a bus to catch after school, and if I had to call my mom to come pick me up because I shut down and didn’t make it out of the bathroom in time, I would have a lot of explaining to do. It was easy to come up with a story about friend drama when I talked to my peers and nosy teachers, but my parents knew me. I don’t have any friends with whom there could even be any drama. I don’t need to lie my way out of telling them about my problems…again.

So I bit back retort after sarcastic retort and sat back in class trying to distance myself from the world around me. It was not meant to be, though. Nobody in this school could distance themselves from things when the persistent tide of school drama continued to drag me out toward the sea.

“You’re atheist? Don’t you know that atheists are doomed to eternal damnation? Is it really worth it?”

My ears picked up on this strain of conversation for two reasons. For one, the voice speaking was one that caused my blood pressure to spike every time I heard it. Ian White. He went to my church and I should have seen him as a brother, but I really just hated him. With a passion. I don’t hate people, but this boy wasn’t a person; he was a full-blown demon so bad that hell rejected him and spit him back out to torture the good people of earth, a job that he took very seriously. Everybody in the school avoided this kid for fear of getting a sermon on their wardrobe church, sexual orientation, or language.

The second reason that caused me to come out of my self-induced partial coma was that I knew his victim. The girl that I had noticed staring at me during lunch was sitting in her chair with her legs slung haphazardly over her desk chewing gum and ignoring this kid as if he wasn’t there. It looked like he had been at it for a while.

“He died for you, and you ignore it. God can still pardon your sins if you repent. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Here’s a little something to help.”

At this point she cocked her eye brows, pulled her legs off the desk, and leaned forward in his direction. I don’t know how she did it, but she managed to look mocking and interested at the same time.

“Hon, if I’m going to hell, and you’re going to heaven with the rest of the people like you, I really don’t care. I’ll send you a post card, okay? Maybe Satan will sign it for me too since, according to you, we’re already so close. I don’t need your help, I don’t want your help, and I swear to god that if you give me that Bible that I see in your hand, I will rip it apart, one page at a time while you watch.”

Ian stared at her as if he were trying to decide if she were being serious, and apparently decided that she wasn’t. He slid the Bible reverently onto her table and began to walk back to his seat.

“Should I start with Genesis, the crucifixion, or maybe the Nativity? I don’t know. I’m feeling particularly…sacrilegious…today.”

Up to this point she had been cool and reserved, but the Bible on her desk seemed to have induced temporary insanity. An angry glint in her eye almost managed to scare me before I remembered that it was directed toward Ian and not me.

Ian looked over and tried to pretend like he wasn’t worried for the Bible.

“Ten…”

Her hand had chosen a page from Leviticus, but I couldn’t tell which one. Ian’s eyes widened and he jerked as if to run toward her, but he resisted and sat there.

“Nine…”

Her eyes glinted, but Ian still hadn’t moved.

“Eight…seven…six…five…”

Her had began peeling the paper downward, putting more and more pressure on the binding and the thin, translucent paper.

“Four…”

Ian stood up.

“Don’t do it!” He said this like God was going to strike her down if she did, but she seemed impervious to his commands. In fact, her counting began to speed up and her face turned into a stoic mask.

“Three…Ian, you had better come get this goddam book, because I’m not kidding.”

Ian looked her in the eyes and acted like there was a chance that he could win this battle of wills. By this time everybody in this class had turned around to watch.

“Two…one…”

I wasn’t going to watch this any more. His stupidity and her obviously fragile nerves weren’t going to combine into a happy ending, so I stood up and walked over to where she was standing and took the Bible gently from her steady hands and returned it to Ian.

“Ian,” I said, “You will sit in silence for the last five minutes of this class. You will leave quietly, and keep your eyes straight ahead. You will get on the bus, go home, and pray about whether or not this was the right thing to do today. You will not bother this girl again, and you will not do this again otherwise I will deal with you at church on Sunday.”

I swear that his eyes shot fire as he sat in his seat, but he followed all of my instructions perfectly, and I didn’t have to think of a way that I would have to “deal with him on Sunday”. I don’t know why he listened to me, but he did, and for now I wasn’t going to question it. I turned to see the girl still standing there with tears in her eyes. I didn’t know what the tears were for, but I recognized the look of desperation that had so often been present on my face. She needed help, and I was the only one who was going to offer it right now.

“Come on,” I said as I took her hand.

“Mrs. Shirley?” I looked to the teacher to make sure that neither of us would get in trouble, and her nod in my direction was all I needed to see before I steered this girl that I had just met today, and still didn’t know the name of, into the bathroom where I had spent so many hours this afternoon. I knew that the eyes of the entire class and those of the students in the hallway followed me, but I didn’t care. This girl didn’t annoy me anymore; I was most definitely intrigued.

“So…what was that back there? You were cool and calm and took care of Ian like it was nothing, but you just did a 180. You’re kind of scaring me right now, so could you explain?”

She tried to put the steel back in her eyes, I could see it warring with the tears, but in the end the water works washed everything else away except the clear blue expanse that seemed so innocent yet so aged at the same time. She didn’t seem able to speak, or even breathe correctly, so I changed tactics.

“Alright. Let’s start with something else. My name’s Aedalyn. Can you tell me yours?”

“Aria.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I believe we’ve seen each other before, but we’ve never been formally introduced. Are you new to this school?”

“I’m new to school in general. I was homeschooled in this little town in Montana, but…circumstances…made it necessary for us to move, so my parents decided here, and I decided to go to real school. I couldn’t stand another year of homeschooling.”

I wanted really badly to ask what those ‘circumstances’ were, but years of people prying into my life had taught me that it was sometimes better to ask less questions. If she wanted to open up, I would offer my ear, but if not, I would just have to respect her right to privacy and let my raging curiosity and vivid imagination provide me with possible scenarios.

“Okay, Aria, can you just take some deep breaths for me. You’re hyperventilating right now, and your pupils are dilating. You’re going to pass out, I promise you, if you don’t slow down. Just look at me, and talk to me about anything.”

I was surprised at how calm I was being. I had never been one to freak out in the face of an emergency, but then again, I had never been in a situation that couldn’t be solved with a Band-Aid. If she passed out, I knew what to do, but I didn’t want it to be pinned on me if somebody walked in to find me with this limp girl in my arms in an empty bathroom. As if I wasn’t enough of an outcast already. I could already hear the new rumors spreading about me. God, this school was driving me crazy.

She didn’t pass out though. She looked at my cross necklace, and her hand twitched toward me as if to touch it. Some unseen force stopped her, though, and a small smile crept onto her face.

“This is one hell of a conversion technique. Good Christian, bad Christian. Damn, you really had me going there.”

            I blinked. I don’t think I’d mentioned anything about converting her, but then I realized that she was making a joke. A small giggle came from my mouth as I looked sideways at her and saw her smile widen too before we were both laughing hysterically together on that nasty bathroom floor.

            “I’ll be right back,” I said, “What kind of soda do you like?”

            “Dr. Pepper, but I really don’t need anything. I appreciate your offer, though.”

            “I’m sorry, Aria, but I haven’t seen Ian get that flustered in forever! Usually I’m the only one who can get him that riled up, and that little prick had it coming to him. I can’t pass up the chance to buy you a drink after that.”

            This almost sent us into another fit of hysterics as the memory of Ian’s antics resurfaced, but we managed to keep it down. One question had been bothering me since we left the room, though, and I had to ask it before I left and this sense of camaraderie faded.

            “Aria?”

            “Yeah?”

            “Would you have actually torn that page out of the Bible if I hadn’t taken it from you?”

            Her face sobered as she replied, “Yes. I have a debt that has yet to be paid.”

            I nodded and walked out of the bathroom to grab our sodas from the vending machine still unsure if she had meant a debt to Ian or the church. Or herself. 

Reviews

[Samuel Jack]

I see why you enjoyed the religion poem so much. Is this based on real events? I like this chapter more than the first, but obviously you need the first chapter to understand this one. This had some funny moments, and a bit more going on to get my teeth into. I'm getting sucked in to Aedalyns story, bit by bit. Now she's more than a walking panic attack :) I like the ending to this chapter, feel like its building to something. Onwards!

[Magnolia Liberato]

Actually the religious section was BASED on real events. It was over-dramatized a little bit, but the people are very real, and the segment was almost exactly what happened. I actually started writing this book the day that it happened and I was eager to put my own spin on the situation and put it in my book. It makes me wonder: if either of those people ever read my book, will they recognize themselves in it?

[Samuel Jack]

Haha funny, the Christian thing is less in your face over here (England) it's more just hatred for other religions lol. The dialogue was really good, I could visualise the scene very well. It's a shame people are like this with religion, you know my thoughts on this anyway.

[Magnolia Liberato]

Yeah. It drives me nuts, but it's things like this that make it fun to write...getting back at people without them knowing it... ;)

[Samuel Jack]

I tried that, but my brother saw a poem that was about him on Facebook, I never stated it was about him, but he figured it out and went "Aedalyn" on my a*s!! Lol so what I do now is, I always show the person the poem, even if its brutally honest, f**k it! Push through the layers of small talk and bullshit, hit em hard and true!