Sax and the City

Chapter 4- Mari Told A Little Lie

On Friday afternoon, Kayla carefully straightened her hair, put on a nice-ish shirt, and sprayed a fair amount of perfume. She even put in her contacts and applied a coating of mascara. She cleaned the dining room, organized her textbooks and school stuff, and arranged for her mother to take her sister shoe-shopping, an activity sure to take all day. Kayla was resting on the couch, waiting anxiously for Aron to arrive, when her phone buzzed.

AB: Hey, I'm really sorry, but something came up. Can I take a rain check on the tutor session?

KS: Yep.

AB: Thanks so much.

AB: Gotta run. Bye

Needless to say, Kayla spent the rest of the night toiling through Geometry, watching Mean Girls, and eating all the food known to man. But nothing upset her quite as much as when she checked her Snapchat story. Guess who was in Mari's? None other than Aron, who had probably canceled on her to spend time with Mari. Why didn't he like her? Was is the age gap? Yeah, he was a sophmore, and she was a senior, but that's not a huge deal! Plus-and it was a big plus- Mari had a fREAKING BOYFRIEND! What about that didn't Aron get?

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When Kayla finally returned to school, she was pale and withdrawn. Her ankle throbbed with every move she made and splitting headaches plagued her night and day. She was behind on sleep because she had been slaving away at her homework after he-who-must-not-be-named-but-whose-name-rhymes-with-shmaron bailed. But she dared not admit this to her mother, who would surely keep her from going to school. Not even band could cheer her up. Aron noticed she was having issues when, one day, she repeatedly missed a three measure chromatic one that Kayla normally would nail on the first try.

"Kayla, what's up? You don't know the notes or something?"

"Shut up and turn around, Aron." Kayla snapped. Her head was screaming. She dug around in her pocket for a few loose Ibuprofen tablets. She came up with four and downed them all.

"Dude, that's probably way too many."

"I said, shut UP, Aron."  Kayla was tired, in pain, and cranky, and right now Aron was on her last nerve.

"I'm trying to help, dude. Chill."

And just like that, Kayla wanted to cry. Here she was, yelling at the love of her life. Gosh, she was so pathetic.

"I'm so-sorry." Her voice hiccuped, and now she was trying not to cry. No. No, no, no, please no, don't do this to me, Kayla mentally begged. Pull yourself together. Stop it.

"Are you crying?" Aron asked incredously.

This was bad. Very bad, Desperately, she tried to think of an explanation.

"My head just hurts, okay?" Kayla concentrated on her music. The lines and notes were blurring together. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

"You need to get a doctor, Kayla. Seriously. Your head shouldn't be hurting like this anymore."

"It's fine. I'm fine. Play the notes for me, please."

"But Kayla-"

"Do it! Please!" Kayla half-hissed, half-yelled.

Aron reluctantly played the passage. After a few tries, Kayla nailed it. Feeling vindicated, she turned again to Aron.

"Thanks."

"Yep. Hey, by the way, I'm free tomorrow if you wanna do the tutor session again? In between school and band?"

Kayla was taken aback. Sadly, her first remark flew out of her mouth, and she shortly regretted it.

"You're not gonna bail on me this time for Ma-a-ari?"

Aron looked at her strangely. "They scheduled a make-up practice for saxophone choir. That's why I couldn't go."

"Oh." Kayla said stupidly, feeling her face flush. "Well, yeah, tomorrow's fine."

"Cool." Aron flashed her a winning smile as the bell rung. "Later."

Kayla watched him walk away. Mortification and embarassment turned her cheeks bright red, and suddenly all she wanted to do was go die in a hole.