|Damage||cth| -au- DISCONTINUED

|Seventeen|

Luke:

It felt like no matter what I did, I wasn't going to satisfy Aria. I mean...how could I? I wanted to be somewhere, anywhere but here. I could just sense how miserable she was. She kept her head fixed on her phone and she probably wasn't looking at anything specific. It was finally the last round of bowling and I was ahead of everyone, by myself. Even though, Calum and Jennifer were right behind me. I walked over to Aria on the table by herself and sat across from her. She kept aimlessly scrolling through her social media.

"Hey Aria?" I said.

She looked up with a blank expression on her face.

"If I win this, we're going back to my house for a lazy day. Deal?"

"What about Dakota and Ashton?" She asked.

Behind me, Ashton and Dakota were laughing at some joke Mikey told.

"I think they'll be fine," I reassured. She gave me a doubtful look. "I promise, Aria."

"Only if you win..." she half-smiled.

"I think you mean when I win," I retorted.

She rolled her eyes and I returned to the bowling platform where everyone was waiting for me. Calum nearly struck out. This meant that I had to hit all of the pins in order to win. It was finally my turn and I picked a purple bowling ball from the ball rack. Purple was Aria's favourite colour.

"This one's for you, Ariana!" I announced.

She averted her attention as soon as I said her full name. No one ever really called her by her full name. Everyone knew her as Aria. I felt a little bold for saying it. It would be even more embarrassing if I missed it but I didn't. I won. I won for Aria. I would be embarrassed to tell anyone that this was my first time even touching a bowling ball and I just was extremely lucky today.

I walked over to the table and confidently stared at Aria.

"See... I didn't need you to win this."

"I know you didn't."

"Ready to go?"

She eagerly nodded and she shot up from the booth.

"Hey, we're heading out. We'll see you guys later. "

I stared at Dakota to make sure she wasn't crying for me to take her with me. She seemed almost unbothered by it but I could tell more than anything, she was worried about Aria. I winked at Dakota and held Aria's hand as we left. I ordered Dominos to be delivered to my house and we drove off. Aria was quiet as she usually had been lately.

"Are you okay?"

She shrugged.

"Well...I don't know."

"You can tell me anything."

She yet again rolled her eyes at me.

"I'm serious. You can tell me anything."

"Okay...ever since, it happened. I keep getting nightmares and flashbacks about it happening which I only think is normal because it's only been a little over a week. And maybe, I'm just worrying myself over this being on web md all morning. I don't know what I'm trying to say," she rambled.