Love, Aria

Chapter 20 | Brenden

Monday, January 20, 2020

    I put my phone down and laid back in my bed, trying not to think about everything going on in my life. Emily's Tweet had been such strange timing with everything going on...but it wasn't the first time I had heard of selling the answers to finals. Professors were the ones selling them half of the time.

    I was deeply concerned about Aria. I didn't know what to do; she clearly was worried about our relationship, and it had only been a few days since we had started things up again. I wasn't worried about her faithfulness to me; she had never done anything to make me think that she might veer away from me in any way. But I knew that I had quite the horrific track record, and I was determined to prove to her that I was not going to be involved with any other girl...ever again. Especially not with Lexie.

    Knock knock.

    I checked the clock, wondering who in the world could be knocking on the door this late at night, and on a school night when there were 8 AM classes the next morning.

    Then I remembered that Andrew had been having strange encounters with his roommate for the past couple days, and I had invited him to stay in my room if he needed anything, or just needed to get away. I couldn't make that promise and then not answer the door.

    Dragging myself out of bed, I used my phone as a flashlight to get to the door without tripping on anything. I rubbed my eyes as I went to open it, forgetting that there was a peephole I could have used to avoid any awkward situations...should the visitor not be Andrew.

    I opened the door and was immediately yanked into the dimly-lit hallway, the flash of what must have been a camera momentarily blinding me. I shook my head to clear the spots and looked directly in front of me to find a scarcely dressed Lexie Washer.

    "Good grief Lexie, have you stooped this low?" I grumbled, turning to walk back into my dorm. "Sneaking to my dorm room late at night? Are you that pathetic?"

    "No, not at all." Lexie shook her head, grabbing my arm and turning me back around to face her. "I was just thinking that maybe we could talk about us."

    "Us?" I laughed, "There is no "us", Lex. You know that. You've known that for quite a while...I would say ever since you dumped me?"

    Lexie seemed to think for a moment.

    "Yes, but that was all in a moment of anger. A brief moment of anger, might I add. I just think that we would both be so much happier--"

    "Forget it." I shook my head. "I'm in love with Aria, and I always have been. It was wrong of me to date you in the first place when I still had those feelings for her. So you were right to dump me. And now we both need to go our separate ways. Find someone else and stop following me around like a lost puppy."

    Lexie Washer was not one to have her pride called into question, and she nodded slightly after I spoke.

    "Very well." She responded, glancing at a slim figure that was standing in the shadows just outside of my view. "I guess I won't be seeing you around."

    "Probably not." I replied. "And tell your friend to not take pictures of me again, thanks." I said, rolling my eyes as I walked back into my dorm.

    "Did you get what you needed?" I could hear Lexie's voice whispering as she walked down the hallway, "That was absolute torture for me."

    I closed the door before the other person spoke, and returned to my bed, trying my hardest to ignore whatever had just happened. There was no reason for me to feel bad about anything; I had turned her away and hadn't stuttered about it for a moment.

    "Who was at the door?" My roommate Josh seemed to have woken up from his slumber to speak groggily.

    "Nobody important." I replied. "Go back to bed." I crawled into my own bed and pulled the blanket up to my neck. "How did you wake up, anyways?" Josh was a notoriously sound sleeper, and no matter what I did in the morning, he didn't wake up until a sound came from his phone.

    "Got a text message." He replied, pulling out his phone and checking it. "From...a blocked number."

    "That's nice." I replied, slowly dozing off. "Goodnight."

    "Uh-huh."

    I eventually was able to fall completely asleep, despite the single ping of a text message reaching my phone as I did.

Well this is the last update for this week! Chapter 21 will be up on Monday for your enjoyment (and I'll be on vacation! Yay!)

-Katherine