Would they be happy to see him?
He sure hoped so.
But there were too many people today at the damn mall. He wasn’t sure who it could be or how to discern them from the crowd. The school year was about to start, and since this was also a university town, there was an extra surplus of students shopping.
Adrian dodged a few groups of people while he attempted to look normal. He didn’t want to appear out of the norm, but his levels of desperation were increasing. Suddenly, he was met with a dead-end at one of the long hallways. To his frustration, he looked around the area, only to find a few people there and none of them made his heart tug.
The pull began to weaken and Adrian understood that he was too late. He didn’t make it in time and now they were gone.
As the disappointment faded, he suddenly felt confused. He didn’t understand what to do at the moment, because he was ninety-nine percent sure that his soul mate would have jumped at the opportunity to meet him as well.
That’s how it normally goes . . . right?
Chapter 4
Aria
It wasn’t like she was a bad driver, she just happened to lose her sense of direction every now and then. It also didn’t help that the mall had an underground parking lot, and navigating through the maze of concrete was nearly impossible. Every time she tried to navigate through the stupid lot, Aria could’ve sworn that she already saw that gray pillar twice.
“Hey, so I met these guys—”
“Who?” Aria didn’t let Mira finish the sentence.
“At that party remember?”
“The family one?”
“Yeah,” Mira continued. “So there’s Nick and Adrian. Nick’s cute and all but he’s got a girl.”
“Damn.”
“I know, right? Who would’ve guessed that the superstar athelete already has a girlfriend?” she said ever so sarcastically.
“So, what about the other guy?”
Mira replied, “Adrian? He’s cute. He’s got the whole green eyes and dark hair thing going for him so he’s nice to look at.”
“Nice.” Aria shook her head with a smile. “Did you talk to him?”
“How can I not?”
“I dunno. I mean, sometimes I feel like you’d get too shy or something.”
She gave her a look while Aria finally found one of the ramps that led to the outside streets.
Finally the light!
“Hey, don’t give me that face. I’m being honest.”
“Well, I did talk to him.” Mira sounded a little petulant. “And they’re both cool.”
“Like dateable cool or just cool?” she had to clarify.
“Ehhh, for me, it’s a no. Just regular cool. You know?”
“That’s tragic.”
“You’re telling me.”
“I am.” Aria then switched lanes as the car in front of them kept pressing their brake lights. “These idiots don’t know how to drive I swear.”
“Jesus, you and your road rage.”
“It’s totally justified,” Aria claimed as she kept an eye out for anymore deviants.
“Uh huh,” Mira said and then asked, “How did you pass your driver’s test again?”
“With skill and agility.”
“Ha ha, sure.” Mira’s voice dripped with sarcasim.
“Not my fault you didn’t see the stop sign,” Aria bit back. “How many times did you have to retake it again?”
“Just two!”
Aria simply snickered while her friend tried to explain how her tests were somehow rigged.
As Aria drove to Mira’s house, she loathed the fact that the crazy university students were back in town. Them and all their bad driving skills. Then again, she’ll probably be in a similar boat next year.
Once they arrived at Mira’s place, Aria couldn’t believe that summer was essentially over. Monday was the official start of the new academic year.
Her last year.
Although she was pretty excited for her senior year, she wasn’t excited for the new wave of students. For some reason, every year after hers seemed to harbor less and less mature students. Maybe it was because she was getting older, but Aria didn’t want to deal with freshman running through the halls as if it were a playground.
There were also the rich kids. The ones who cried about not getting the right car for their sixteenth birthday, or had the perfect party to celebrate with all their friends. Although, she couldn’t deal with those types of kids now, Aria could understand why they were like that.
Her family wasn’t exactly fantastically rich, but they were still able to live comfortably. However, things took a dramatic turn for the worse and she ended up just like them. She was just like those kids who didn’t understand the value of a dollar, and would just swipe a card she didn’t own without a care in the world.
She used to be just like them.
It’s been a few years since then, but Aria still cringes whenever she thinks about it. If she were honest, she could try and blame her behavior on the dramatic twists of life, but realistically speaking, it was a pretty horrible justification.
It was her vice.
Her coping mechanism.
A coping mechanism that kept her dad at work for long hours of the day to maintain her lifestyle.
A vicious cycle really.
If her mother knew, Aria suspected that she would be yelling at her all the way from the afterlife.
Eventually, Aria made it back to her town house. It was empty as usual. Dinner was up to her again, although she did have a small glimmer of hope that her dad would have dinner with her before she started school again. Not that it was a massive deal or anything.
As she made her way towards the kitchen, she found a note next to an ever familiar credit
