A Little Lost

; t h r e e

                         ✻ t h r e e ;

After a few moments of explaining, I managed to persuade my mother that the window gluing and the ruined garden were all pranks from our neighbor– he kind of had a bad reputation, wouldn't hurt to make it worse, would it? Aiden had gone home after Maddie left, but not until I agreed to go to school.

"Lena! I found a piece of paper in your pocket." my mother's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I pursed my lips and took the little slip of paper from her after nodding a silent thanks. I retreated to my room, and shut the door behind me. My hand raked through my hair before opening the folded paper. The words written on it shocked me. They horrified me.

        Lena, this is Tristian.

        Listen. Oliver is alive,

        And you have to understand

        That he's doing this to protect you

        he's actually ar–––

The rest was unreadable. It was smudged, and a little torn. Probably from the washing machine. I believed that the person who left the note was actually Tristian. I hoped it was at least, I felt a little trust towards him. He warned me a few nights ago, after all. I dropped the note and flopped onto my bed.

What did I expect? Oliver was alive– and he was doing something. I had a little hope, Oliver was alive. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't showing up either. I tugged my leg to my chest and wrapped my arms around myself, the moment Aiden showed up in my life, weird things had been happening. And I didn't like it. Not one bit.

x . x . x

"Maddie!" I whined, while dragging my feet on the pavement.

My best friend shook her head violently. "Nope! You're coming with me on this blind date. What if the guy turns out to be horrible, again?"

"How's that my fault?" I muttered, clenching my fists.

"You only don't wanna come cuz you're obsessed with Aiden. Don't deny it!" Maddie said in a sing song voice. 

I marched up to her and whacked her shoulder with a chuckle. "I am not!"

"You're still coming with me, I don't care!" Maddie shot back with a grin.

We arrived in front of a frozen yogurt store, I know, real original. But that what makes Maddie… Maddie. She tugged on my sleeve and dragged me in. A woosh of cold air blew in my face as the doors opened. 

"Oooh! There he is." Maddie said in a hushed voice, pulling me towards a man sitting in the corner.

I flopped down clumsily onto the chair beside my best friend as she greeted her date.

"I'm Maddie Hargrove! And this is my best friend, Lena. She already has a wooer though." 

"Maddie!" I screeched, slapping a hand over her mouth. "First off, he is not my wooer! Second off, I shouldn't even be here!"

Dropping my hands, I turned my head slowly to glance at her date in horror, he probably thought we were awful people and would run off. Oh god, I ruined Maddie's date. But to my surprise, he was trying to hide is laughter. I wanted to disappear, or sink into a hole straight to Hell, right then and there.

After he sobered up, he grinned at us and said, "I'm Oliver, Oliver Ronan." 

Maddie and I exchanged a look and I sent him a wary smile. "That's a neat name. Since you don't seem like a pedo, I'll be leaving now." I muttered, choking down a sob upon hearing the familiar name. This Oliver looked nothing like my Oliver. But the fact that his name was Oliver, made it all pretty hard to deal with.