|Damage||cth| -au- DISCONTINUED

|Eight|

Luke:

I felt really bad about what I said to Aria. I knew she well aware that she was raped and of course she wouldn't want to talk about it. 

 The whole drive, my phone was blowing up. Obviously, texts from Dakota, who thought that suddenly I was a different person. She was so worried that I 'unfit' to take care of Aria.

 Even if I wanted to run away with her, Aria would start whining about school or some test she'd have to take the next day. 

Aria was so pretty and she never ran out things to talk about so it was never awkward with her. She wasn't talking anymore. It was really awkward now and many times, I wanted to say something but as soon as I got the courage to, she didn't really care what I had to say.

"So...do you like any of your teachers?" I randomly said.

She kept her eyes glued out the window and shook her head.

"I don't either."

I kept my eyes glued on the road. We were driving about an hour out of town and I was hoping that she wouldn't catch on to where we were going. By the time we got there, Aria was passed out. Her cheek rested on her hand, mouth wide open, and eyes closed shut. I just wanted to watch her there for a bit. Unfortunately, I couldn't. We only really had an hour to be here and then we had to drive home before hitting traffic. Aria's parents already don't like me for obvious reasons. I treated Aria just like how everyone else at school treated her. I treated her like shit. I poked her cheek and she suddenly got up. She looked at me then around the car and sighed. 

"Are you disappointed already?" I asked.

"No, just tired," she mumbled.

She wiped her eyes and got out of the car. I followed her actions and made my way to the backseat to pick up our bags because we were only doing "homework". I knew that wouldn't happen but I guess it would make her feel better if we had the intention of actually completing something. I watched how her shirt slightly lift up as she stretched and I watched how low her shirt dropped when she bent over. I noticed two things in those three or so minutes:

1. Aria is kinda hot.

2. Aria is so fucking hot.

I was hoping she would recognize the park we were at. It was the place that Dakota, Aria, and I met. In her defense, taking her here is extremely cheesy but it was the first thing that came to mind.

"Follow me," I demanded.

She rolled her eyes and walked next to me as I led her to the top of a large grassy hill. She way out of breath by the time we got to the top. Aria seemed to be like that all day. I didn't think it was like her to get so tired. No matter how much shit people gave her, she moved on and was still energetic and loud. She still corrected teachers when they were wrong. She always asked too many questions. Now, she just looks dead. I know pretending to be okay can only go so far. This must have been icing on the cake after what Calum did. She sat down and I sat down next to her. We looked down at the view of a small pond with ducks and at the playground. 

"I almost forgot about this place," she smiled. "I kept seeing this park in dreams and I couldn't remember where I saw it from."

"Yeah, I come here every day after school."

"That's why you're home so late. Dakota always thought you were selling drugs or some stupid stuff like that."

"You don't believe that stuff, right?"

Tiredly, she took her head.

"No matter how many times I told her why you beat up Calum, she never listens. She just comes up with her own reasons in her head. I guess it's just denial. She didn't want to be the reason, you went to jail."