The Universe Had Other Plans

Chapter 35 - Avalon

            Getting up Wednesday morning was a chore. I was tired and still in a daze from my time spent with Dustin. I had to force myself to leave the covers and get dressed. I didn't have the greatest sleep either. I had had the worst nightmare, but sadly it wasn't just a nightmare. It was what had to be done.

            I dreamt that all my friends hated me and I was kicked out of The Populars. And to add on to it, Dustin's friends hated him too, and it was all because of what I had done. I had told him I loved him... And I had meant it. Dream Avalon knew what to do; she dumped Dustin, no matter how much it hurt her, and went back to normal. In the end, she got her friends back and got on top of the food chain of high school again and everything was fine. That was what I had to do. But I couldn't.

            "Hey Avalon," Dustin said, wrapping me in a hug, when I made it to my locker, "wanna hang out in the music room?"

            "Um, sure. I need to, uh, talk to you anyway," I frowned, hoping it wouldn't be as terrible as I was expecting. He nodded, not noticing my nervousness. On our way to the music room, we just so happened to pass Keeley, Jo and Elora. Now that I wasn't a Popular, they gave me no notice, except when Keeley passed, she purposely bumped into my shoulder, sending a shot of pain through my arm. I winced so as not to yell at her.

            "So... We should do a duet of a song, that would be awesome," Dustin said, sitting down on the bench at the piano. I closed the door behind me, still frowning. "Oh right, you wanted to talk about something, didn't you?" he said, taking note of my silence. He removed his hands from the keys and placed them neatly in his lap. He looked at me with his sparkling puppy dog eyes and made it so much harder than it had to be.

            "Dustin..." I could barely continue. My heart was pounding in my ears, it was getting harder and harder to breathe and my eyes were filling with tears. I looked into his eyes again and lost all the words I had planned to say. I couldn't do it. Something about him drew me in and wouldn't let me out. It was like I was a fish and he was a net. I wondered if he felt the same way.

            "Yes?" his kind smile made me remember when we first kissed, just a few days before. It was amazing how naive I was being and how quickly I was falling for him.

            "We should..." I couldn't say it.

            "We need to..." I couldn't do it.

            "I'm... I'm going to write a song for us to play." I caved. I just couldn't do it. He looked so happy when I said it that I thought he was going to burst. He jumped up from the piano bench and threw his arms around me.

            "That's a such a great idea. It could be our song," he said, wearing his infectious smile. I laughed and kissed him before dragging him over to sit on the bench again. We sat there and talked about all the little things we could talk about. I was really all he had, and he was the same for me. It was sad to think it would be like that until I forced myself to do that right thing.

            "We should go out for lunch," he said as the bell rang for period 2.

            "Cafe?"

            "Sure. I'm buying this time," he laughed and kissed me on the cheek. I had the perfect idea for a song.