Exploiting Realities

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE - YACHTS, HEARTBREAK, AND REVENGE

Wednesday, November 27th

Dear Journal,

It's been almost a week now since Mia and Justin came home for the holidays. I was really looking forward to having my sister all to myself, but she seems pretty occupied with Justin. She doesn't really have too much time left for me. I mean, she's got a boyfriend now. I get it, but it still kinda bothers me.

The schoolwork arrangement seems to be working out pretty well. I'm keeping my grades up, and my friends are surprisingly good tutors. Summer's coming on Tuesdays with Avery now that her and Miranda are fighting. I'm confident that it'll blow over soon enough, though. The two of them have never been able to stay in a fight for long.

Alec still hasn't told me about McKinzie. I mean, I already know about it, but it really pisses me off that I didn't hear it from him. Even when he and Lorelai were tutoring me on Friday, he completely ignored the perfect opportunity to tell me about it. Does he think that I'm not going to find out? I haven't been living under a rock. He can't hide things from me.

Dillon's coming over later today to work with me on my health. I still haven't gone back to our regular form of conversations. I'm still giving him one-word answers, and I think he's finally noticing that something's wrong. Yes, he's only just now noticing it. Boys are idiots. But, after several long discussions with Charlotte, I've decided what to do about it today. It's not going to be easy, but it's got to be done.

Love, Aria.

"What's that?" Mia asked, strolling into my room.

"A journal," I told her. "Mom wants me to keep it."

She grabbed it out of my hands. "Can I read it?" she asked, swinging it above my head.

"No!" I exclaimed, grabbing for it unsuccessfully. "That's private!"

Ignoring me, she held it far above my reach and flipped it open to a random page.

"'Dear Journal'," she read, "'today Lorelai came to work out my tutoring schedule and, surprisingly, Alec was with her. Lorelai must have told him that what I have isn't curable, because he was in pieces. I hate the feeling of making him feel so much pain.' Blech. 'Lorelai and Alec are going to be coming together on Fridays, and I'm not sure how that's going to work out since she's already suspicious about---'"

I managed to snatch it out of her hand just in the nic of time. "That is enough," I told her sternly.

"What's Lorelai suspicious about, Aria? What doesn't she know? What have you been keeping from her? What does it have to do to Alec?" she asked me with overeggagerated fascination.

"Shuddup," I mumbled, putting the journal away.

Mia laughed. "Justin and I are going to Sweet Scoops. Wanna come with?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You're inviting me?"

"Yeah," she said. "What's so bizarre about that?"

I shrugged. "I just figured that you'd want to be alone with your honey-boo-boo."

"Okay," she said, "first of all, never call him that again. Ever. Second of all, I see him all the time in Alaska. I never see you! So you're coming?"

"Well, I'll need to check my extremely busy schedule first."

She laughed. "Be ready in five."

She left and I readied myself. I walked out into the living room where Justin and Mia were waiting.

"You ready?" Mia asked.