“Uh yeah. I am,” he said, somehow managing to not sound like a total idiot.
Smooth, Adrian. Smooth.
“Cool, cool. My name’s Aria.”
She didn’t seem to hate him for sending her to the hospital which was good, and he immediately took it as a sign to start frantically apologizing.
“I’m really sorry about your head by the way. I seriously didn’t think the ball would hit anyone,” he apologized as he meant every word.
“It’s fine.” She swung her legs to the edge of the bed. “I’m not dead or anything, even though I already told you guys that. We didn’t have to come all the way here.”
It sounded a little more directed at Mira than him.
However, he couldn’t help but wonder why she was so against the idea of going to the hospital in the first place. Did she just not like hospitals or was it something else?
Whatever the reason was, it didn’t sit well with him. Her own health was in jeopardy, and she still refused to get it checked out? What part of that made it a good idea to just shrug it off?
As soon as the nurse came back with permission to discharge her from the ER, relief flooded through his body. They were practically home free, and just needed to fill out some paperwork.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Mira told Aria.
“Thanks, but, um . . .” She seemed a little uncomfortable. “I can pay you back . . .”
“We can pay for it,” Mira insisted as she tried to comfort her.
“Ah.” Aria appeared torn.
“Don’t worry. At least between the two of us, it’ll be fine.” Adrian gave a reassuring smile.
Aria looked at Mira then back at him. “Are you sure? I know she can be really pushy but—”
“It’s fine. Really,” he said.
Aria still wasn’t convinced, so Adrian decided to try a different tactic. “So, I hear you like history.”
“Ah . . .” She laughed almost apologetically. “Lame right?”
“Not really. I think it’s interesting to see why the world is the way it is.”
“Right?” Her eyes widened as her lips quirked a smile.
Before they could continue their conversation, Mira butted in.
“Guys, it’s almost six. I don’t know about you, but I have to go home, and I still have to drop off the two of you.”
“Right right.” Aria nodded, then looked at him. He could only hope that she was a little interested in getting to know him.
“Maybe we can talk about all of this some other time?” Adrian asked, and hoped it didn’t sound too desperate or clingy.
“Yeah, maybe. I’ll probably see you around?”
“Probably,” Mira scoffed.
“Cut it out Mira. I’m not dead yet so don’t pull the angsty teen mode on me.” Aria made a face at her best friend.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get going,” Mira said with finality as she led them to the car.
Adrian had no room to argue, so he could only comply. He wasn’t exactly sure where he stood with Aria, but at least he knew that she didn’t loathe him, which for him, was a win.
He wouldn’t lie though. He was afraid of this whole situation. He didn’t want to force her into anything, but he also didn’t want to live a life that felt incomplete.
All he could hope for was friendship. That would be the best-case scenario. If he couldn’t manage that then he’d be okay with them being acquaintances or maybe even frenemies.
As long as she wouldn’t disappear from his life all together, he’d figure out a way to make it work.
Chapter 6
Aria
Why didn’t she realize it earlier?
There were a ton of new kids enrolled this year, and oddly enough, they all seemed to be from the same place. They also seemed to know each other really well.
Hell, even Mira knew them. All of them. Each and every single name of the twenty-ish new kids. This was the same exact person who couldn’t remember what they ate for breakfast.
Then there was another thing that was weird.
Or another person.
Adrian.
He seemed to be everywhere.
Aria noticed that he would pop up in places where she didn’t expect to see him. It wasn’t like they were in a massive school or anything, but she didn’t even see her best friend nearly as often as she did with him.
Thankfully, it wasn’t like the creepy stalker-type of “Hello-I’m-here-too” scenarios, but it was the type that made her seem like she was the one who was following him.
It also didn’t help that Adrian quickly cemented himself within the school. He was a nice guy who was a decent person to everyone around him, and seemed to radiate positivity and good vibes.
Which made it hard to not notice him. That of course, wasn’t a bad thing, but it was definitely different.
Aria couldn’t exactly figure out why, or how he churned out this much good energy, but she honestly didn’t mind it, especially when Mira was too busy with other extracurriculars. Usually when that happened, Adrian himself would seemingly materialize out of nowhere and strike up a conversation.
The best part was that this was a completely normal thing for him to do. She had seen him do something like that with other people so no one got any special treatment. It was like he was subconsciously gathering an immense following before he could run for student council president or something.
Another thing she noticed was that he was pretty smart and had sound logical reasoning. Sometimes, they would talk about history and the politics of world leaders, while other times, he would talk about how opposites tend to attract in cooking.
For instance, he personally thought it was genius to add pineapple on pizza, and she even listened to his theories that seemed to work out. This
