Will to Way, Wilt Away

Chapter 7

Shiloh guided me down a hallway to the right of his desk. Although he still wore a light-washed pair of jeans and Converse, he traded in his dress shirt from yesterday for a denim jacket that matched his pants. At the end of the hall was a door with the sun peeking through the blinds. Shiloh opened the door and I squinted at the influx of sunshine.

"Welcome to the Wasteland," Shiloh said.

I walked outside to a barren dirt landscape scattered with an occasional iron-willed weed. The entire space was about the size of half of a basketball court, and it was indeed a Wasteland. The only vegetation was a single chartreuse willow tree at the far right corner of this desert-like expanse. The long strands of leaves, which resembled locks of hair from afar, nearly touched the ground. Beneath the dangling leaves, I spotted a pair of light-blue slip-on Vans standing atop a red checkered piece of fabric on the dirt.

An opening formed in the middle of the leaves and Julius' head popped out. "Hey! Over here!" he hollered.

We walked through the dirt and Shiloh held the drooping branches aside for me to enter what felt like an enclosed room. Only a few rays of sunlight could enter this space from small gaps between the strands of leaves. I stepped onto the large checkered blanket, which had a traditional wicker picnic basket resting in the middle of it.

Julius wore gray pants and a polo shirt with maroon and navy vertical stripes. He walked up to us. "Shall we lunch?" he asked.

"Ah, yes, to lunch. I love verbing nouns," Shiloh responded.

"Actually, lunch is indeed a verb, my friend," Julius replied with a saucy smile. His happiness made me uneasy.

"Man, with that intelligence, you should've been the one who went to Cornell. Not Aria," Shiloh joked.

The leaves from the trees suddenly opened up and two girls walked toward us. "What was that?" said one of the girls in a high-pitched, accusatory voice.

"Girl, you heard me," Shiloh sassed while snapping his fingers, clearly having no intention of denying his previous comment. He turned to me while gesturing to the girl he insulted. "Aspen, this is Ariadne Malloren. She's really dumb," he said curtly, and I couldn't tell if he was being serious. Given that she slightly smiled to acknowledge his derision, I assumed this was just the nature of their relationship.

Ariadne was classically beautiful. Her light auburn hair framed her slim doll-like face, which matched her dainty figure and fair complexion. She wore a cobalt babydoll dress that puffed out slightly at the shoulders and had a white floral pattern, giving her an elegant aura. She appeared perfectly put together, not a hair out of place. I felt slightly insecure and definitely underdressed standing in her presence wearing ripped black jeans and a white off-the-shoulder sweater.

She held her petite hand out to me and I shook it. "Hi, you can call me Aria or Ari if you want," she said in a sweet, but somewhat ditsy voice.

"Or you can call her dunce, pinhead, nitwit, dingbat, twit, cretin...shall I go on?" Shiloh remarked with a simper.

"Those aren't even clever," Aria refuted.

"Why? 'Cause you've heard them all before!" Shiloh laughed directly in Aria's face, but she kept smiling. She was either clueless, thick-skinned, or just accustomed to this mockery. Nonetheless, I didn't understand why Shiloh would mock a Cornell student.

Shiloh then gestured to the other girl. He cleared his voice and spoke in a grand, posh voice, "And this....this is my QUEEN," he began. "A woman who needs no introduction, but I'm giving her one because she's just that badass. THE Indigo Page."