The Perks of Being Too Beautiful

Ch2; The Lake

Chapter Two

School ends with orchestra. Cullen and I usually stay after school for two or three hours just to play. Everyone in this school has to have a talent to be able to attend this school. Cullen's is the violin. Mines is the viola and painting. Cullen and I stay and we write music together. This is the only time I can be with him at school where I don't have to worry about any girls around because no tone knows he stays here.

I begin playing a soft melody on the piano. Cullen sits next to me as I play. "That sounds nice," he says.

I turn to face him and our faces are close to each other like how it is in a movie before the two characters kiss, except this isn't a movie so it's just nothing. "Yeah, I wanted to try and play something sweet but I can't figure out what to build from here," I reply.

"Well, most songs I heard that were 'sweet' were completely repetitive. Or it goes to this more intense second movement, like it turns from ballet beside a lake to ballet in a storm."

"That's a strange comparison but I see what you're saying."

I begin playing for another hour until I finally say, "Sara invited me to her party."

"Oh really?" Cullen replies with a slight sarcastic tone. "She's really that desperate?"

"Well, she wants you to go." I say, stating the obvious.

"I can't. We're celebrating your birthday."

"Cullen, we both know my birthday was two months ago!"

"Oh, I must have mistaken then," he laughs. "Ah, but do you want to go?"

I think about it and I do want to go. I am never invited anywhere, and even though I was only invited to get Cullen to go too, this would be my first actual party. But I also don't want to go because I don't like those kinds of people. I think about what they said about my outfit.

"They didn't like what you chose for me to wear," I blurt out.

Cullen looks at me up and down. "Well, you didn't exactly have the nicest clothes. Everything you owned were black or rags"

"You know why I dress like this, Cullen."

"I know. When do you plan to stop dressing this way?"

"When we graduate."

"You do know that this is a beach party, right? Which means no more of your glasses that you claim is prescribed, when we both know its just some cheap plastic you bought at a drugstore. And no rags."

"Oh, so we're actually going?"

"Yeah, I guess," he says, packing his violin.

I think about how Cullen never went anywhere that his admirers invite him to. I wonder why he wants to go now. I sigh, "alright."

Cullen and I take the long way home. We walk slowly beside the same lake he saved me from. It is as if he is thinking the same thing because he says, "remember when you fell in that water and I saved you?"

I smile a little, "of course I do. It's how we met."

"It was weird. I was playing violin under that tree right over there, and then, I saw idiot fall in from the hill to the deep side."

"There were fishes in the lake, I bent a little too far and fell," I argue.

"Whatever. There's always fishes in the lake." Cullen laughs at me.

"It was a good thing you were there. Why were you there anyway?" I an suddenly curious.

"Well, it was back then when people avoided me. Remember those times?"