Love On The Beach

Chapter 8

Zayn

“Come on, bro. Let’s go,” Aaron says. “We have next class together.”
“Sounds good.”
“Hey, don’t worry about her. She seems like a strong person. After all she said she’s been through,” he tells me.
“Yea, I guess. But it’s her first day. And she already got pushed around by Jade.”
He nods. “Poor girl. She doesn’t deserve any of that. She was brave.”
“For sticking up for us? Totally! No one does that to Jade.”
“Literally. I have a feeling Aria will put her in her place.”
We both nod in agreement.
“I have a good feeling about her being our friend. She’s sweet, friendly, tough, all those great qualities.”
“Yes,” Aaron agrees. “When I first met her, she had an amazing attitude and was very kind to me.”
We walk to our lockers, hoping to see Aria. Her locker is next to mine, apparently. But I don’t see her anywhere. She must be pretty upset.
Once me and Aaron get our things, we walk to the classroom. Pretty sure our teacher is Ms. Madden.
We walk into the classroom and take our seats in the back, as Ms. Madden introduces herself to the class.
“I’m bored,” Aaron says.
“Same.”
“Wanna talk about stuff?” he asks.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, just life, I guess.”
“Was your summer good?” I ask.
“I would say so, yes. Except for that one incident.”
“Between you and Cassandra?”
“Yea…”
Aaron and Cassandra started dating in the middle of sophomore year, 5 months after Cassandra’s ex cheated on her. They were really one of the cutest couples. They were amazing together. They actually were together for a while. But, apparently, over the summer, Aaron decided to break up with her for some reason. So he talked to her about it. Sure, she was heartbroken, but she accepted it. Now, they are just friends.
“How is she recovering from it?”
“I would say she’s better. She acts very normal around me, like nothing happened.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Yea.”
We sit in silence for a second, watching Ms. Madden go around the room, pointing at kids to say their name. Pretty sure she does that every year. She points at me and Aaron, and we say our names.
“Hey, do you have her number?” I ask Aaron.
“Who?”
“Aria’s.”
“Oh. Yea, I do. You want it?”
“Yes!”
He pulls out his phone, trying to hide it from the teacher. He shows me the number, and I pull out my phone to put her in my contacts.
“I’m gonna text her real quick,” I tell Aaron.
“She’s probably not gonna text back. She seems like a kid who wouldn’t be on their phone during class,” Aaron says.
“Eh, I’ll text her anyways.”
I go onto my messages and text her number saying, Hello Aria…
“Dude, she’s probably gonna be scared!” Aaron says, looking at my phone.
“That’s the point.” I laugh.
2 minutes later, I get a text back:

Who’s this????
1:09 p.m.

The Z-man… obviously!
1:09 p.m.

WHO?
Oh… is this Zayn?
1:10 p.m.

Well, yes, yes it is.
1:10 p.m

Who gave you my number?
1:10 p.m.

The A-man… obviously!
1:10 p.m

“The ‘A-man’??? Seriously?” Aaron says, shaking his head.
“Obviously!” I finish.
He rolls his eyes. “You're impossible.”
“Thanks!” I grin.
          “It's not a compliment!”
          I ignore him and go back to texting Aria.

Hey…you doing okay?
1:13 p.m.

I guess… I don't know…
1:15 p.m.

You were quite brave to do that…
I was telling Aaron earlier, no one stands
up to Jade like that. Thank you.
1:15p.m.

Thanks… it sucked though…
1:16 p.m.

Is… your side doing okay…?
1:18 p.m.

It's definitely gonna leave a mark…
1:19 p.m.