Under the Umbrella ✓

-19-

When Aria left her campus, she diligently went through the layered handouts she received from her last class, but now she made use of it to fan herself, unable to concentrate on a single word she read.

It's hot. It's so hot, she whimpered inwardly. Aria didn't think she had any more energy to reel under the relentless glare of the sun, but just the thought that Coffee Break was only a few minutes away motivated her to keep going.

The closer she got to Coffee Break, the more deranged her mind seemed to be with thoughts swaying to the one person she had been dwelling on since yesterday. She couldn't get Elliot out of her mind, no matter what she did or where she was. She had no specific reason why. She was convinced now that he was trying to make an effort, but she wasn't sure if she could let him in.

When life got hard, lying became her defense. Everything felt ten times shortened with a lie than a route of explanation. She didn't only lie to the people around her, but she also lied to herself in such perseverance that she wholeheartedly believed it sometimes. Expectedly, she was lying to herself this time too. She force-believed that she lied to keep answers short, but when Elliot had called her out on it, she could finally admit that she just wanted to look strong.

She came to terms with people seeing the miserable side of her life. She believed it wouldn't matter as long as she didn't acknowledge it aloud. She wanted to be a warrior who took it all in though it was disingenuous of her to want something like that when she despised every single occurrence that had turned out unfavorable and complained about most phases of her life.

In that case, she had plenty to talk about her life. She might not have even wanted answers by now; she just wanted to talk about it. Whenever she spoke to Sandra, she tended to exclude most things that she desperately wanted to let out. No matter how close she was to Sandra, she found her life to be a big sack of disgrace, and the very humiliation stripped off any trace of valor to tell her. The humiliating part of her life was the rebel wanting to burst out, but she disciplined herself enough to refrain.

So there was. There was a lot to know about her. She just wouldn't dare to talk about it until her life wasn't so wretched.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she had a loosened grip on the sheets in her hand and when an abrupt gust of warm wind whizzed past her, the papers flew with it.

Shit!

The sheets landed on the street in front of Coffee Break. There weren't any cars passing by so she scuttled across to collect them. She rose to her height after picking the last of the papers, but a glance to her right kept her feet rooted in uncertainty. She wasn't sure what she was seeing until she caught sight of a bright red car speeding toward her and all she could do was widen her eyes in response.

While her mind knew she had to move, her legs wouldn't budge and she was frozen to the spot as the car drew closer to her at a vicious speed.

"Aria!"

She only heard the sound of a blaring honk next before she shut her eyes tight.