We're Still Nerds

16~ A Present To My Loyal Readers

Aiden's POV

         I was attempting to be friends with Cassie again. Well, it wasn't particularly hard, but it still sort of hurt. It hurt to see the scars on her hands that she didn't think I noticed, hurt to see the walls she built up shield her eyes from the way they had danced with emotions as they used to. Hurt to see that she was no longer the girl who was taller and scrawnier than me, who managed to trip on invisible objects, who would accidentally snort when she laughed, who never brushed her hair, who was constantly smiling, who was clumsy but never awkward, who had no problem talking to people negatively or positively. 

          But when I walked into her room Saturday morning, she was Cassie again. I stopped halfway into her room and looked around. The room was pretty plain, with bare walls and no curtains on the windows. There was a small half-bookshelf filled with fantasy books, all paperback and tattered. On top of the bookshelf was a shoebox which I knew contained her comic books, though she had another large bin in the basement. Her two closets were closed instead of spewing out graphic t-shirts and sneakers like they did the last time I was in her room, and the floors didn't have anything on them but furniture. In a tangle of sheets slept Cassie.

         Her hair was spilled out onto her bed in a dark, tangled curtain. Her cheek rested on the palm of her hand as she lay sideways. Her skin was pale compared to the dark hair next to it. She looked completely peaceful, her face showing the familiar slack that I'd seen all the different times we'd slept over at eachother's houses before she left. She still slept on her hand- it'd probably be asleep when she woke. Her long eyelashes brushed her cheeks, leaving feathery shadows down her face. Even in sleep, she was beautiful.

         I flinched. This was too much. I turned and fled the room, shutting the door silently behind me. "Is she still asleep?" Mary Grey asked me when I walked into the living room. "That, or she's faking," I answered. "But when she's faking, she usually snores abnormally loud, so probably not." Mary smiled at me, that motherly smile that made me feel at home. I had to admit, it wasn't only Cassie that I'd missed. I'd missed the way Mary fretted over me just as much as Cassie. I missed Bella and her quirky way of singing folk music while she painted a picture in the middle of the living room floor, oblivious to everyone else. I missed Jessie's antics about all of the relationships she'd had, and the wedding, and how she thought Cassie and I were meant to be, although she only said that to make us both turn red. 

        "How are the other two Greys?" I asked suddenly. Mary looked up from her book, surprised. "Bella's doing great. She should be coming back for Thanksgiving, and she's bringing her new fiance. Jessie's become a lot more responsible now that she's got her own family. She'll be coming back for Thanksgiving too, and her and her two boys will be staying with us until Christmas. They're doing really great. How's Will?" she answered. A wave of shock hit me, but I was spared having to answer, for Mary saw my expression and quickly changed the subject. "You'd think that on a day like this, Cassie would've gotten up early." 

           That's true. Maybe she forgot, I'm not sure. It's not something you can easily forget," I replied. Just then, Cassie's door opened, and the girl in question strode out of her room. She stopped and looked at me in surprise. Her brown hair was brushed and falling down her back in silky waves, and she was wearing skinny jeans and an ordinary Green Lantern shirt. "What did I forget?" Cassie asked. I grinned at the same time Mary did. "Okay, that's creepy," she added, quirking a thin eyebrow. I jumped up in response and spread my arms out, as if welcoming a hug. 

               "I want you to think, Cassie. Think really, really hard. What is so special about today?" Cassie crossed her arms and frowned at me, a small pucker forming between her eyes. "Today is October nineteenth? It's not a holiday. It's not my birthday. It's not your birthday. So what is so special about it?" She narrowed her greyish blue eyes, and they gave me a once-over. She glanced down at my shirt, and those big eyes widened even more. "Your shirt!" she exclaimed, and I grinned wider. "My shirt?" I gestured for her to continue. "What happens on October the twentieth?" Cassie jumped up and down, and I chuckled under my breath.