Will to Way, Wilt Away

Chapter 17

I felt comforted by the homogenous spread of weeks after my date. Lines between days and nights blurred into one continuous haze of passing time, only a few hours of sleep to indicate that yet another day had gone by. I rarely checked the time or date, but Julius and I often watched the sunset together while eating dinner in the Wasteland. When this first became routine, the sun made way for the starry night sky at the beginning of our meal. Each day, the sun bid farewell to us later and later, and eventually the crickets didn't start chirping until after we finished our meal.

Tonight, after eating our Olive Garden takeout, we sat on a picnic blanket in the Wasteland and watched the sparkling stars paint the obsidian sky. Today was like any other day, and with the night progressing swiftly, it appeared it would remain that way.

"Wait why does Aria even live here if she's filthy rich? No offense to your family's business, though," I said, continuing our hour long discussion about Aria's picture perfect life.

Julius laughed his usual charming laugh and answered, "Shiloh never told you?"

I shook my head.

"Man, Shiloh loves this story. It's a staple of his Aria jokes," he continued laughing. "Basically, Aria met this guy named Beau at Cornell, and they dated in college for over two years."

"So Beau was her beau?" I remarked, thinking I was super clever for coming up with a mediocre joke on the spot.

"Yes, exactly! Good one by the way," Julius answered, reinforcing my terrible sense of humor. "When they graduated, Aria was planning on staying in New York since that's where her family is from, but Beau got a job offer in Napa."

I nodded while stabbing a leftover pasta noodle from dinner.

"And of course, Aria follows him here. Beau isn't filthy rich like Aria and they agreed to split the rent, so they bought an apartment here because it's cheap," Julius explained, addressing my earlier question. "For six months, they lived in 5B together, but just a few months ago Aria found out that Beau didn't have a job offer in Napa."

"Huh?" I reacted.

"He had been cheating on Aria with this girl online for their ENTIRE two and a half year relationship," Julius revealed, speaking equally as loud with his hand motions as he did with his voice.

"Okay, and he moved to Napa because....?" I questioned.

"Because this is where his other girlfriend Bianca lives. He moved here so he could go see her! And his 'job offer' here? Yea it never existed. He told Aria he was going to work everyday from eight to five when he was actually just with Bianca."

I was mortified for Aria, but also feeling slightly better about my own non-existent dating life. "Wow....that's pretty bad. Why didn't Beau just break up with her back at Cornell? Isn't it just a hassle to drag her all the way to Napa?"

"Because he's a douche! And he was probably just thinking 'The more the merrier, so two girlfriends is better than one,'" Julius replied, conveying his hatred of Beau through his aggressive hand waving.

"And how did Aria find out?" I asked, my intrigue of this story growing rapidly.

"Oh my God!" Julius shouted, indicating that the story just got better and better. Well, I guess it actually got worse and worse in Aria's case, but from the perspective of the audience, this was prime gossip. "Beau's mom found out about Bianca, so she thought that him and Aria had broken up. His mom literally called Aria to ask if she was okay, so of course Aria was left clueless and devastated....for TWO years!"

"Yikes, that poor girl," I sympathized.

"Nah, she's doing alright. Beau left to be with Bianca, and Aria moved to 8F, which is way bigger than 5B. Now she finally has enough room to store all of her clothes and designer handbags. Her apartment is practically a shopping mall."