When It All Changed

Chapter one

I was seven when I first met him, Ares. He pushed the boy, Bash, who took my dolly, on the ground. He gave it back to me and kept glaring at the boy. I don't even think he looked at me once. Another moment I had with him was in the sixth grade. When we were partnered up for the science fair. The teacher made every girl choose a card from a basket. In that basket were all the boys' names from the class, he was already popular then. I was the last one to draw a card, and there it was. In a very elegant handwriting, Ares. I said the name aloud, and then realized I didn't have to, he was already sitting next to me. We had time during the lessons to work on the project. To be honest, I did a lot less than I thought I would. I wasn't exactly talented in the science domain, but I tried my best. We made glow in the dark bracelets and took first place. I still have the ribbon.

And now here we are again, this time at my house. His dad happens to be my mom's boss. Apparently, these two don't have enough time to discuss whatever they need to discuss at work. She invited him over to dinner, and since he politely declined saying he can't leave his three kids for so long at home alone, she invited them too. I already knew that Ares was his son, I didn't know he had a younger twin brother and sister. Ares apparently didn't know I was the daughter. The only indication I had of that, was that he raised his eyebrows in question. He wasn't a talkative person.

He sat across from me, my mother at the end of the table, his father at the other end. The girl twin, Artemis, sat next to me. While the boy twin, Apollo, sat next to Ares. "Your hair is sooooooo pretty!" I turned to her and smiled brightly, thanking her. I didn't exactly want to lie to her and tell her that her hair looks great, too. Especially since it looked like someone tied it for her, blindly and using one hand only. When I looked to the front, I saw this longing sad look on Ares's face, while he was staring at Artemis. He saw me staring and cleared his throat awkwardly.

After dinner, me and Artemis went up to my room where I straightened the 7-year-old's hair. It wasn't an easy job, considering she was so excited that she kept wanting to turn around and ask if I was done. After about half an hour, we finally went down and showed it to her family. The first face I saw was her twin brother, who gasped dramatically and pointed at her while tugging on Ares's shirt. The second face was of course Ares', he looked... Well, it's hard to describe, it looked like the face every father makes when he is giving his daughter away at the altar. Sad, but also happy. His father was sitting on a small couch with his back to us, so he saw her last. It honestly wasn't as I expected. He looked angry, intimidating, like he was about to punch something. He suddenly stood up, announced that they were leaving, and walked to the door. Everyone followed him, my mom first, trying to convince him to stay. The twins next, looking extremely worried. And then there was Ares, who was wearing that stone-cold-poker-face I sometimes see at school. Something was telling me to make them stay, just lock the door until everyone calms down. I didn't understand the big fuss anyway, if they liked her hair curly, it's no big deal. It will get back to normal. Somehow, I didn't think that was the issue.

After they left, I helped my mom to clean up. Actually, I cleaned up and sent her to bed, but I just wanted to sound modest. I sat at my window, attached a small light to my book and read there. After a while, I heard something knocking on my window. I looked up, rolled my eyes and smiled goofily. Bash, yes, the guy who stole my dolly once, was pulling on the rope that we tied up on the top of our windows. It has a clip-on for notes and an umbrella, in case it rains. We weren't exactly besties, but we had our moments. I opened the window and took out the small note, as slowly as possible, since I know it'll annoy him like this and make this conversation ten times more interesting.

"How did the dinner party go? .... Got some dessert left?"

Of course, boys and their food. I lifted up one pillow and got my notepad and pencil out. Writing a small response.

"You do realize I can't send it over the rope, right?"

"I'm not stupid, you can come over and give it to me."

"You know I'm not doing that, way too lazy."

"Then you aren't getting the science homework."

"That's mean, you know I suck.... I'm coming over."

I went over to my mom's room and found her reading. I have already been to Bash's house a couple of times, so all I had to do is say I was next door. I took the cake out of the fridge and cut a huge slice. Closing the door behind me, with my phone in back pocket and the slice in my hand. I didn't need to knock as Bash was waiting by the door. "Milady, come in." I chuckled lightly before entering, handing him the piece of cake. He went to the kitchen and brought two forks. We went up to his room; he has a television in there and put some random TV show. We don't really talk about anything important. We do this every time we have a dinner party, or science homework that I don't get, or just out of plain boredom. After about half an hour, I felt my phone buzz, and pulled it out. It was my mom, telling me to come home. I rolled out of the bed and wanted to tell Bash that I'm leaving, but he had already fallen asleep. Honestly, he looked adorable asleep and insanely hot when he makes one of his typical dirty jokes. He usually says it and wiggles his eyebrows while licking his lips, his eyes going over my body in a way I think he plans to eat me up. He always laughs afterwards, so I never actually take any of his "offers" seriously. I instantly slept after arriving home.