Perfectly Unseen

41: dust in the wind

D u s t
          in the wind
         ~+~+~+~

THE rest of the day passed in a blur as my head filled with thoughts of Liam and of his confession. And if I wasn't thinking about Liam or keeping myself busy by avoiding Ashton, my body filled with a consuming anxiety for my sister that nearly left me unable to function.

"Hey," Emma pushed me into the door as I daydreamed in the passenger seat. "Stop thinking. You and I are going on an adventure." She smiled, throwing me a quick glance before turning back to the busy road in front of us.

"In this boring town?" I muttered doubtfully as I watched store after store pass by my window.

She chuckled, "We've been friends for what? Three years?" Emma began with a smirk, "And this is the first time I've ever gotten you out of the neighbourhood? Jesus, Ailie, no wonder you don't consider yourself my best friend."

I frowned, "Of course you're my best friend, Emma --who else do you see me hanging around with?" It wasn't a lie. But when I thought of my best friend, a certain blonde with icy blue eyes that was definitely no Emma popped up inside of my brain in her place. "You know I'm more...reserved." I excused my lame best friend behaviour with a blush.

Emma's blue eyes brightened as she pressed her lips together to reframe from smiling. "Thanks. But as I was saying, if you had ever actually gone out with me, you would know this town has some pretty wicked places to go to."

My eyebrow raised in disbelief. Everyone knew besides the football games, parties and the mall, this otherwise large town of Mika Lakeview was stock full of disappointment. "Alright, I'm intrigued. Prove it." I waved my hand in front of me, a small amused smile growing on my face.

A few red lights and turns later, we had made it downtown where little Italian and Mexican restaurants were scattered around randomly. Parking on the side of the road, my eyes grazed over the aging brick buildings, trying to find the place she seemed to be dying to show me.

Emma turned to me with another excited smile, "Come on. I swear you're going to love it." She hopped out of her little blue smart car, waiting for me impatiently on the sidewalk as I uncertainly followed after her.

She led us down close to the alley where the last door stood, hidden from sight. Without hesitating, she pulled open the door and waltzed right into the dim lighting. Before my eyes could adjust, loud distinct crashes could be heard that instantly brought a smile to my face. It was like my long-lost childhood calling out to me.

"Since when?" I grinned, my eyes slowly getting used to the darkness as I took in the colourful glowing pins and lanes of the bowling alley before me.

"God knows," Emma laughed, looping her arm into mine, "Do you remember Eric?" She tilted her head watching me as she brought up her old boyfriend from grade ten. "Right before he moved away we played one of those scavenger games his family always forced us into and we stumbled across this little gem." Her lips curved up before giving the slicked-back black-haired guy behind the counter our shoe size and money.

We crossed the room with the bowling essentials and quickly found lane number seven. The ten assortment of glowing pins came down from the machine and were placed on the illuminated yellow lane. I was already excited just admiring the fun glow of colours. The musty scents of sweat, desperation, and loneliness were even welcomed as I stood remembering those good days with my happy little family.

"Ready for me to kick your âss, bug-eyes?" She giggled, grabbing a glow-in-the-dark sparkly white ball from the rack.

I fell down to the hard orange seat as I crossed my arms smugly, "Bring it on, druggy." I teased, causing her to instantly frown at me with furrowed eyebrows.

"You are never going to let that go, are you?" She grumbled, spreading her legs and swinging the heavy ball between them, "It was dark, there were random strobe lights everywhere, and someone shoved a pill into my mouth --it was a viable reason to freak out." Emma huffed, letting go of the ball as it shot out of her hand and crashed loudly down onto the lane before -with a skip- rolling straight for the...gutter.

"You were in your basement, Emma-" I giggled, silently cheering for her awful bowling skills, "-and you were with your friends, including me. Why would you think any of us had hard drugs?" With a snort, I watched as she butchered her last try with only one pin down in total.

She brushed off her hands, her cheeks turning pink. "You suck." She pouted as I stood up, grabbing the glowing pink ball that just went through.

My lips stayed curled upwards, "You had just finished complaining about your bad breath too." Turning to the pins with a chuckle, I swung the ball at my side back and forth for momentum before releasing it. Subconscious I leaned to the left as it veered for the right, cheering it on like it wasn't an inanimate object.

Emma booed it behind me, telling it to keep going right just before the little pink guy crashed into the 4 right pins, knocking down two more.

"I didn't taste the mint!" Emma continued her humiliating memory. "I wasn't expecting someone to shove something into my mouth and I just swallowed!" She whined as I cringed from the horrible innuendo.

"But you stayed silent." I pointed out, grabbing a splotchy lime green ball. "Then began to freak out like ten minutes later because you thought you were tripping on speed or something." Repeating my earlier actions with a few alterations, I watched giddily as I managed to get the rest of the pins down.

"Yeah, well..." She hesitated. "Shut up. Tell me about Ashton." Emma changed the subject with a smirk on her face as I glared at her, taking her spot on the chair.

"What about him?" I frowned, thinking of dumb Ashton and his bipolar tendencies.

Emma walked slowly over to the bowling balls, her hands behind her back like a villainous character in a movie. "The rumours about you are changing," she finally said after a moment of silence. "You have always been the weird quiet girl stalking Ashton up until recently --people are starting to notice how Ashton is always helping you out."

Chewing my lip, I felt the unsettlement inside of my stomach as I thought over her words. "He's always there." I mumbled the realization. He was there almost every time with Lucas, and he was there for me with my sister, and he was even there for me after seeing my crumbled family. Not even Emma had seen as much as he had.

Emma nodded, going back for another ball. "Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely supporting Hunky Liam in this, but Ashton's not too bad of a guy either, given how much you've been complaining about him."

I shook my head, the feeling in my stomach worsening. "He isn't a bad guy." I agreed quietly before frowning again. "But he is the one that's caused all the bad things lately to happen."

She shrugged with a loud exhale, "Maybe. But at some point you're going to have to put the blame on the ones actually hurting you."

But I couldn't. There were times I could push it to the back of my mind, but ultimately I couldn't overlook the fact that he had turn the one place I was perfectly unseen in into nothing but dust in the wind.

"He has hurt me." I sighed with another head shake as my gut tightened. Maybe he wasn't so bipolar anymore, maybe he has been the same way since he had a change of heart. But he did hurt me and that was something that I would always remember. I would always doubt him because of it.