The Perks of Being Too Beautiful

Ch6; Truth and Surprises

Chapter Six

It is 3 in the morning, and I still can't sleep. Cullen is next to me in my bed. His eyes are closed, but I know he isn't sleeping either. I have been sitting upright for about two hours now, just thinking. I think back to what happened earlier. Ms. Harris stared at me while I was frozen in terror. She didn't look a bit sad at all, which confused me more because it was her who was cheated on. But I had a million thoughts run through my mind. Another was the fact that the woman that Cullen's father had an affair with was my own mother. How could I have not known about this? But despite what I was feeling, I could only think about how Cullen felt.

I look at him. His back is towards me so I can't see his face anymore. I lie back down and wrap my arm around him, and place my head against his back. His breathing is heavy, and unsteady. I squeeze him tight , and he turns around. He looks at me with big eyes. He isn't crying but his eyes are glassy. I can't make myself to ask him how he is feeling because I know he isn't feeling anything positive. He breathes a hot breath on my face and kisses my nose. He holds me in his arms and closes his eyes. His breathing becomes consistent and he doesn't move. He's sleeping.

"I love you," I whisper to him. I close my eyes and fall asleep, too.

I wake up at 8AM, seeing Cullen's shadow hovering over me.

"Finally, the sleeping beast wakes up," he says, kneeing my shoulder.

"It's Saturday. I don't need to wake up," I say, turning my back to him.

"The party is today, Aria."

I groan. He still wants to go to that? What happened to last night? He is always pretending that nothing is wrong..

"Get out of bed, you bum." He pulls the pillow from under me and hits me with it.

"I don't want to go, Cullen!" I pull the sheets over my head.

In one quick motion, Cullen pulls the sheets off me and climbs on tops of me. He pins my wrists down and stares at me angrily. "We're going," he enunciates stiffly.

His knee is jammed against my thigh and his grip keeps me from squirming away. He continues to stare at me until I nervously look away. He's never been like this before. I wonder why he wants to go to the party so much.

"We're going," he says again. "Do you understand?"

I nod, and he gets off me. "Breakfast is downstairs," he says before leaving my room.

I sit on my bed for a while, rubbing my eyes. I notice that Cullen has already chosen my outfit, yet again, and it's laying on the table. I walk to it and see a cropped tee over my old, ripped shorts. He left a post-it that said "you may choose what bathing suit you'd like to wear but I'd recommend the nautical striped ones. It flatters you better." And of course he laid those out as well.

I grumble and wear everything that was laid out for me because I'm too lazy to find anything else. I walk downstairs to see, and smell pancakes. I locate them from the platter on the dining table.

"Yum!" I reach out to grab one.

Cullen smacks my hand before I can take one. "These aren't for you."

"You said there's breakfast."

"Yeah. For me." He begins using a fork and knife to cut up small pieces, and placing them in his mouth.

I look at his plate. "There's like 15 on your plate!" I exclaim.

He doesn't say a word and keeps eating. Selfish butt.

I walk to my window where I suddenly see Cullen's father outside looking directly at my window. I gasp out of shock.

"What is it now?" Cullen asks.