One Step Behind

Chapter 12~ Dani

After Shay left the next morning, I called Aiden.

"Hello?" He says, sounding like he just woke up.

"Be here in the next 20 minutes" I state, and he knows it's me.

"Okay" he answers, and I hang up. I go and make some breakfast for myself as I wait. Twenty minutes later as I sit down to eat the zucchini, tomato, and cheese omelet I made, the doorbell rings.

"Hi" Aiden says as I open the door.

"Hi" I reply, and he runs his fingers through his fluffy, white blonde hair.

He always does that when he's nervous.

"Thank you for letting me come over" he states, and I begin to notice the dark circles under his eyes. He also has lots of bright red zits popping out of his pale face. There is a line of peach fuzz right above his thin lips. Usually, Aiden would shave even one little hair of any fuzz, he always has the best face wash that gets rid of a huge zit in a day, and sometimes he even puts on make up to cover up the zits or dark circles.

"It's no problem" I reply.

"You look nice" he mutters. Shay had curled my dark hair, drew on black eyeliner under my eyes, and put on a light shade of lipstick this morning before she left. She also picked out a cute outfit for me, but I just was wearing a red and black flannel shirt with black leggings.

"You know Shay, it's what she loves to do" I reply.

"I'm so sorry for hitting Jonah" he blurts out after a brief moment of silence.

"Aiden, I know you are, and I want to forgive you, but..."

"But w-what?" He asks.

"I just, I need some time alone, some time to be single" I mumble.

"Oh" he replies.

"Sorry for wasting your time" Aiden states.

"You're not. Anyways, I just made a huge omelet and some toast if you'd like to stay and eat" I say.

"What makes you think we're friends?" He snaps, and before I can reply, he bolts out the front door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's been 3 weeks since that Monday I came to school to see that Alexis was gone. They had said they would tell us what they found out from the guy at the bar a couple days ago. I couldn't help but feel as if we were never going to find her.

After tossing and turning all night, I had decided that I should talk to Jonah, and hear his side of the story. It was the right thing to do. He had calling me and leaving tons of voicemails, but I never bothered to reply, or even open them. What if he didn't want to talk to me?

Him and I have third period together, so once I arrived at school, I would have to wait almost two hours to see him, and boy, they seemed to go on forever.

Eventually, it was time. He always got to class before me, so as I walked in, I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes. My stomach began to feel as if tons of butterflies were flying around.

"Jonah, can I talk to you?" I say, walking up to him. His black hair is swooped back and the little hairs of his eyebrows seemed dispersed. A couple years ago he had told me he always uses eyebrow gel or whatever so they stick together. Guess he stopped doing that.

"Okay" he replies, and we walk into the hallway.

"Could we go somewhere a little more private?" I whisper. He takes my hand, guides me to the staff bathroom, and walks in.