All That Matters

Chapter Four

ARIA'S POV

Song suggestion: Contagious - Avril Lavigne

Alina wasn't always available. She went to a different school and had another group of friends too. So on evenings that she wasn't home , I used to spend my time writing or watching movies from the 80s.

I was a generic Tumblr obsessed teenager. I practiced singing once in a while but could never do it in public after an unfortunate event that took place in the fifth grade where I'd ended up screeching on stage for two minutes straight .

One evening I decided to swing by Ali's to borrow her red mini dress for Jina Kapoor's eighteenth birthday party which was the next day. I got dressed and yelled for my mom to shut the door as I left.

I arrived at Ali's house and rang the bell. I waited two minutes and no one answered. I rang again.

Suddenly I remembered Ali vaguely mentioning going out to eat with her friends that evening. Just as I was about to head back home, the door swung open.

Her brother stood there, annoyance written across his face and a red bandana wrapped around his forehead to keep his unruly hair back. Without the mop of hair framing his face I noticed he had his left ear lobe pierced too.

He reeked strongly of weed and bad decisions. I noticed he had puppy brown eyes that glistened sightly as the sun rays hit them.

He definitely got those from his father as both Ali and her mum had sea green eyes.

"May I help you?", he asked suddenly with a smug look.

He was probably used to girls standing and drooling over him. I looked away in embarrassment.

I opened my mouth to speak and no words came out. I was so taken aback that my mind seemed to have stopped processing completely. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and immediately I looked down at my sneakers.

"Aree...yoou..here..for..Alinaa?", he asked, slowing drawing out each word because he probably though I had trouble understanding his accent or that I was just plain mentally retarded.

"Yes", I managed to squeak out.

"Ah, she speaks! Speak again bright angel!", he said in mock excitement, quoting Romeo from Romeo and Juliet.

This was just adding to my confusion about this mysterious ill mannered boy. Why would a pothead like him quote Shakespeare?

"Well she's not home kiddo. Bad timing", he said. I was a little offended with his choice of words but I chose to ignore it.

"I need to borrow a dress of hers for a party tomorrow.", I said with a sigh.

"What party ?", he asked suddenly.

I looked up at him, a little surprised that he was showing any interest at all.

" Jina's eighteenth birthday bash", I replied as he held the door open for me to walk in.

"You're going to that? I mean, how do you know her anyway?", he asked, with one eyebrow cocked up.

As sexy as that was, I was getting a little annoyed with the interrogation.

"Through Alina of course", I said rolling my eyes at him.

"Don't roll your eyes at me. Aren't you a little too young to be at a party like that anyways?", he said with a smirk.

Oh that did it. I walked past him right into Ali's room.

"Oh you can come in by the way. Nice attitude you've got going there", he said out aloud behind me.

I could feel him smirking. The audacity the boy had to say that I, of all people, had an attitude.

"You're one to talk", I fired back.

As I stood there rummaging through Ali's closet looking for her dress, I came across a little black number. It was a mini black dress w two cut outs on either side of the waist .

I held it up against my body as I looked into the mirror. I was well aware that her annoying brother was watching me from the doorway.

With a sigh I lay it down on the bed and continued my hunt for the red dress in her disorganized closet.

After what felt like an eternity, I found it and lay it next to the black one trying to figure out which one would look better. All this while, he hadn't moved from his post.

Exasperated and too conscious to do anything in front of him, I collected both the dresses in my arms and walked past him.

I could imagine him rolling his eyes behind my back.

"Wear the black one", he said suddenly.

I jumped a little in fright. I turned around to look at him. His gaze was intent.

"I'll think about it", I said with a little smile. Maybe he wasn't that bad after all.

"Tell Ali I borrowed her dresses will you?", I added.

"Fucking tell her your self", he replied, rudely shutting the door on my face.

Oh well, so much for being nice. Only when I reached home did I realize that I still didn't know what his name was. I made a mental note to ask him the next time I saw him. I knew it wasn't the last time I'd see him.