The Perks of Being Too Beautiful

Chapter One

I wake up to find Cullen's eyes fixed on me. I nearly forgot why he is in my bedroom. I begin blinking, trying to remember everything that happened last night. Cullen's eyes--so full of tears--did not look like it belonged to him. He is never one to feel any emotions, much less cry. I never saw him in that way before. It was unlike him.

"Will you get up?" Cullen says, already irritated. And ready, of course.

I look at my alarm clock. 5:47AM.

"School doesn't start until another two hours, Cullen. Why are you always in such a hurry."

"This comes from a girl who already has two late tardies to class. Another one and you'll be suspended. Hurry up or I'll leave without you."

I scramble to get up, finding that Cullen already laid out clothes for me to wear. He already went through my closet? Jeez, how long has he been awake? I ran to meet him beside the door.

"You actually look a little decent for once," Cullen smirks. "You're finally dressing better."

I glare at him, "I'm not amused."

"Suit yourself. Walk faster, will you, Aria?"

Cullen is my best friend. It's been that way for about eight years since he pulled me out of the lake when I was drowning. He was that neighbor whom everyone thought was weird because he hardly left the house or was rarely seen talking to anyone. Cullen never seems to have any feelings whatsoever, except he seems to be constantly bitter. Until last night.

My thoughts are interrupted when Cullen's warm hand grasps mines. "Daydreaming again? I don't need to drag you every time we go somewhere."

I sigh heavily. "When are you going to actually show some compassion for me? We've been friends for eight years but yet you still treat me like how we first met when we were 10."

"Then you should know that I don't show compassion to anyone and at least I do talk to you," Cullen says.

I don't say any more because I know that is true. It isn't that Cullen is shy, he can talk plenty if you knew him, but it is just that he dislikes people and didn't trust them. He hardly talks to anyone but teachers, his family, and well, me.

We arrive at the steps of Lyrica High, where Cullen lets go of my hand. Many girls begin to swoon over Cullen, and the more confident ones try and ask him for a date. Ironically, they are the same girls from our neighborhood that isolated themselves from him because they thought he was strange, but the summer before high school, he grew a lot taller, and I suppose more handsome, and many girls began to admire him. His "mysteriousness", as they like to call it, became something attractive. Every morning since the 9th grade, they wait at the entrance for him so they can begin their usual mob around him, begging for his attention. Each time, Cullen never says a word to them or even looks at them directly.

Cullen proceeds to walk through the hall, where the girls and I follow him. The hall isn't a long hall or even anything significant, but it seems that way because it takes a long time to get past, due to all the girls being in the way. As we're walking, I can hear girls calling Cullen's name, and telling him that they love him. Many ask if he would go out with them. I struggle to keep up with Cullen but girls begin to pull me to the back. "Get out of my way," one says to me, and thats when I decide it's useless to try to catch up with him.

I can barely see Cullen's head in front of all the girls but I see him turn around. He sees the entire hall filled with admiring girls and scans them all. He finds me all the way in the back and looks straight at me. He walks towards me, and the girls begin murmuring to themselves as who he's looking at, until they realize it's just me. He grabs my hand again. "I'm beginning to have to drag you everywhere, Aria. Why are you so slow?" he says, ignoring the fact that he knows I've been pushed back.