When Two Worlds Collide

CHAPTER 7 PART 2

Eli's POV

After Aidan talked to me about Lawrence, I didn't know what to think. He always used to talk to me in the mornings and at breaks. Why wasn't it the same now? My heart fluttered when I talked to him, so I decided to be courageous and talk to him first. It doesn't sound like much but I never knew what to say, or, more like I didn't know how to actually say what I wanted to. During lessons I muttered under my breath multiple times, going over what I was going to say, forming the lip movements silently. Most of the time it was just one or two words, maybe even a short sentence, but it felt like trying to memorise Shakespeare's entire works.

Today, though, during lunch, I couldn't see him. If he was studying after lessons, then I didn't want to go looking for him in case I disturbed him or something. So, hesitantly, I went into the lunch hall, and sat down at an empty table in the corner. Right away, memories came back of earlier years I spent at this table, when I was completely alone and everyone thought I was weird. People still do, I think, but at least Aidan had helped me open up to people at bit more. I even waved at some of the people I knew in my class sometimes, if I was feeling brave, (Which I didn't feel often, but it's still better than nothing... Right?) And I could speak to my teachers most of the time with not too much trouble.

When I was younger, I didn't learn to speak until I was a lot older than most people, so I went to special school until I was about seven. After I did start to learn, it was very hard for me to talk to people, or even for me to put sentences together at all. The teachers thought I just needed practice, so they gave me many extra lessons after school and during breaks, but saying things over and over again just confused me and made me upset when I couldn't say something right. I just wanted to be normal, to be confident when talking to people, and to have friends and not worry about saying things wrong or appearing weird towards people.

After a while, though, the teachers gave up on trying to get me to talk, so I pretty much stopped doing it altogether. My mother noticed this, however, and took it into her own hands to teach me to speak properly. Every time I would get something in the wrong order, she would scold me harshly and make me say everything again. Before long, though, she started losing her patience, since she thought I did it for a joke, and I could speak all this time, I was just being 'A childish attention-whore' I often heard her call me to my father. Of course, at this time, I had no idea what that meant, but by the sour way of speaking she was using, I could guess it wasn't good.

Because of her relatively short temper, after a while, every time I said something wrong, she would practically shriek at me, which made me cower in fear under the table, making her scream at me to go to my room until I apologised for what I did, even though I had no clue what I did wrong. I still didn't, really. I told her many times that I tried my best, though then I didn't understand that not everyone always believes you. I didn't understand the concept of lying. Obviously my mother thought differently.

Out of fear, then, I stayed up countless nights going over everything, forcing myself to not go to sleep until I had learnt how to say and act everything as needed, which took a long, long time, from what I can remember.

I wondered if Aidan he wasn't here because of that party tonight. Did he not want to go? If he didn't want to go but also didn't want to upset me, that would be bad. My cousin tended to make those parties quite extravagant, which I mean that he tended to use a lot of loud music, invite a lot of people, and buy a large quantity of alcohol. I don't think most of the people who he invited were even legally allowed to drink, which was another reason I didn't want to go. People always told me that alcohol changed people, and made them more violent. I don't know why anyone would want to be around others when they are like that.

As I sat down, since I wasn't really hungry, I took out my book on biology. I loved learning about plants and nature, sometimes I liked to go out and just look at the trees, or find bugs in grass, especially when I was younger. Now though, mostly everything that was near to where I lived was made of concrete or another artificial substance which didn't interest me.

Randomly, I felt a finger tap on my shoulder, which made me feel like something really powerful was going through my body. I looked up to see Aidan, with his eyebrows furrowed and his other hand scratching his neck. He started mouthing something, forming the words but making no sound. Is that what I looked like when I did that during lessons? I thought.

Aidan sighed and said quietly, almost whispering, "Hey, do you want to go to the library? Y'know, to, uh, talk?" I nodded and put my book away as we walked out of the hall. I wondered what he wanted to talk about. Did he not want to go to the party, like I thought?

I circumspectly moved over to one of the chairs and sat down. He coughed and took in a deep breath, then blurted out: "Hey, look, I've been a dick to you, but I've just been weirded out by the whole Lawrence thing, OK? But I'm okay with it now. Sorry I was an ass". He was upset about Lawrence? I'd never had anyone kiss me before, I had no idea what it is like. The closest I had ever got was my older sister kissing me on the cheek before I went to sleep when I was younger. Is it the same thing with other people as it is with family? I guess not. I really don't understand these things, though.

My instant response, which had become a common one quite recently, was to nod slightly and give a small, shy smile. When I smiled, he did too, sometimes, and I liked to see that.

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After the last two lessons of the day, I tried to find Aidan, which took a while, but when I did find him, finally, he was walking out towards his house. Did he not know that it was about an hour after school, but my cousin's house took half an hour to get to? Or was he trying to get away or something if he didn't want to go?

Suppressing these thoughts, I went over to him and tugged as hard as I could (Which isn't very; I'll admit) to which he literally jumped in the air, before turning around and softening his face, furrowing his eyebrows slightly. I sighed a little and started slowly "Umm, it's t-that party t-tonight... R-remember?" It took a few seconds before I heard a small groan but a defeated nod from him.

(A/N- Yay! Part deux! Haha :) A little thing I'm doing to my chapters shortly after I publish this where I write songs in the author's notes like I did with part 1 of this chapter, so it matches up. Plus, I have a BUNCH of songs that I love, and I love to share them even more, and it's fun. So, why not? :) that's it for notes, though :) The song this chapter part is Swing Life Away by Rise Against, I love that song :) ALSO. My acquaintance/new awesome follower Mariannakk IS WRITING A GXG and it's awesome so if you're into that stuff then check it out. There's only 1 chapter but it's a great start :) anyway, bye!)