A Beautiful Fate (7 page)

One night, I woke up to him shaking me awake and I was mortified.

“Hey, hey, shhhh… it’s okay, Ava.”

I blinked my wet eyes up at Ari and he brushed his thumbs across my cheeks.

“Are you alright?”

“Mmm… Yes. I am so sorry for waking you up again.”

“Stop it with the sorry crap. Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I am fine, really. Just dreams.”

He stared at me for a long moment and took a seat on my bed. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Ok… well it might help.”

“I said no.”

We sat there for a minute, neither of us speaking. I was still trying to calm down from my nightmare when Ari broke the silence.

“Who are you?” He looked at me with his deep dark eyes. They were burning into me while he awaited my answer. This was the second time I had been asked the question and I still didn’t know how to answer it.

“I don’t know what you mean. Who are you?”

“Who I am doesn’t matter,” he answered. After a time he asked, “Do you think it’s possible to lie without saying a word?”

“Yes, Ari, I do.”

“I do, too. In fact, sometimes it’s impossible not to.”

“Why? What lies are you telling?”

“Lies about you.” Ari stood up and walked towards the door. He paused with his hand on the door handle. “Ava, remember that if you need anything, let me know.”

I watched as he closed the door behind him.

****

I hung out with Rory and Emily a lot in the evenings. We ate dinner together quite often and then headed for the library to study. Rory and I always sat next to each other at a great big table. We saw Ari coming in to use the research section from time to time. He always said a quick hello to Rory, nothing to me, then took a seat clear across the room.

Sometimes before bed, I would find Rory out in the commons watching some stupid TV show. He would laugh aloud and his reaction would make me laugh aloud. He and I were really becoming good friends. Every once in a while, I got the feeling that he would like to be more than just a friend, but the feeling was always fleeting and quickly faded back into friendship. Rory was cute and funny, but in my heart I knew I would never like him the way I think he was beginning to like me.

Once, I tried to explain my feelings about him to Emily and she just didn’t get it. I rolled my eyes at her and pointed out the fact that she likes every guy so of course she couldn’t understand. But I never once let her in on my feelings for Ari or on the fact that he visited me nearly every night when the rest of the floor was asleep. I liked Emily but I knew if I gave her gossip like that, she would spread it like wildfire.

It was a Wednesday night. I had been sitting at my desk for hours reading for literature class. I jumped in my seat and nearly spilled my coffee when someone pounded on my door right before it flew open.

“AVA!” Emily yelled laughingly. She had been sitting in the commons with Viola, Sam from the tenth floor, Sophie and Ari. I could see them all crowding behind her.

“Um, hi, can I help you guys with something?” I glanced at the clock on my computer. The clock said nine...nine at night and I was sure Em had been drinking for a while.

“Yes! Ava, we are going to this little bar off campus to check out a band. It’s like Rory’s brother’s friend’s band or something. Wanna come? You only have to be eighteen to get in...”

“Oh, um… thanks, but no thanks. I’m a bit younger than you and I’m not eighteen yet. Sorry.”

“Oh, well, no problem there – Ari can be your date. You can get her in, can’t you, Ari?”

I shot Emily a warning look that didn’t even faze her. Ari caught my expression and rubbed the stubble on his cheeks.

“Yeah, sure,” he nodded.

“Emily! Look at me! I’m not even dressed to go out. Go on without me! I’ll come out some other night.”

“Whatever, Ava. Your hair looks perfect as usual. Your makeup is flawless. All you have to do is change.” Emily walked the rest of the way in to my room and threw open my closet door. The rest of her entourage piled in and took up residence in my tiny space. Ari took his usual seat on my bed. Making himself at home, he played around with my open MacBook and changed the song I had playing to one of my favorite Indie rock songs.

We locked eyes and my cheeks turned pink; whenever I was with Ari, whether for fifteen minutes or three hours at two in the morning, everything seemed better. Our late nights together were a regular thing. Nightmare or not Ari would be there at my door to check on me and talk for a bit. I had fallen for him
hard
. I don’t have any clue what his feelings for me were. He rarely talks about himself and has perfected the art of answering my questions without really giving me an answer.

“Honestly, Ava, you have the best wardrobe,” Sophie called from the closet. “There are things in here that aren’t even on the racks yet.”

Emily brought me back down to earth by yanking down a flirty dress and pulling out a pair of shoes I hadn’t even worn yet. She tossed them in my direction with the command, “Get dressed!” The smile faded from my face.

I gaped at her and the rest of the group incredulously. “Alright… I guess I’ll just go and change in the bathroom,” I said, looking around accusingly at the crowd in my room. I took my dress and shoes and retreated to the bathroom to get ready. I looked in the mirror.
Ok, my hair is okay, I guess
. I touched up my makeup, put on some lip-gloss, put on the dress and the shoes and walked back in to my room.

Emily whistled at me, linked her arm in mine, and led me out of my room. The contact was too close; I was instantly uncomfortable. I took my arm out of hers and took a few steps away. We went down to the lobby and out to the parking lot.

“Ava, you don’t drink, do you?”

“No.”

“Good, then you don’t mind driving us, right? Your car is big enough to fit us all and we need a sober driver. Ari would drive but his car is full of surfboards or something,” she said, rolling her eyes at him.

Unbelievable!
They had actually dragged me out of my nice little cocoon just to take advantage of my sobriety and car space. “Fine,” I said, fishing my keys out of my little bag.

Hitting the button on my key fob, my lights blinked, my doors unlocked and everyone clambered in. Emily sat up front and I looked at her.

“Ok, Em, where to?”

“Oh, I have no idea how to get there.”

Emily Martin I am going to hurt you.

“Ari knows.” She hopped out of the car, opened his door and had him switch places with her. Ari climbed into the front and my mind went fuzzy. He smelled so delicious. Like summertime,
baio
should bottle him. Margaux would make a fortune.

As soon as my engine purred to life, the gentle croons of Nick Drake rang out through the speakers. Ari smiled up at me and turned the tune down a little so he could tell me how to get to the bar.

He gave me turn-by-turn directions and I pulled into a gravel parking lot fifteen minutes later. I started getting nervous. What was I thinking of, trying to sneak into some bar? This idea was so stupid. I looked at the group of people, I hardly knew, climbing out of my car. I looked up at the neon sign that was flashing
Hellenes’ Hideout
in blue and white. The sign had a dancing, fat man in a toga with a green vine wrapped around his head; he was holding a glass of wine. Every time the sign would flash, it would look like his wine was spilling out of his goblet. Emily and her crew started towards the front door where the bouncer stood. He had a big shaved head and a leather vest on. His face was full of silver piercings.
Lovely
. My door came open, breaking me from my panic attack. Ari held his hand out.

“Coming?”

“Uh, I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry. Stay with me and you’ll be fine.”

The prospect of staying by Ari all night made me forget all my qualms.

I climbed out and Ari wrapped his arm around my waist, causing my stomach to do a million back flips, and walked me across the parking lot to the bar’s front door. Emily and her friends had all shown their ID’s and had been allowed in with no issues. Ari nodded at the door guy and he nodded back and let us in. No questions asked, no ID’s given.

As soon as we walked through the door, Ari’s arm quickly released me and he took a giant step away from me. I could feel my heart sink – so much for staying by him all night.

As soon as Ari let me go, I was quickly engulfed in a big bear hug from Rory. He picked me up off my feet and spun me around twice.

“Ava!” He hollered. “I didn’t know you were coming. What an awesome surprise.”

I smiled a weak smile at Rory and as he talked, he led me to a table close to where the band was setting up their equipment. Rory introduced me to his brother, Nick, and Nick’s friends, Collin and Misha.

Nick looked just like Rory except that he was a little taller and maybe a little leaner. He was super friendly and told me how he had graduated from DPI two years ago and he was a full-time student at Pepperdine. Collin was quiet and didn’t say much to me, but he still seemed pretty friendly. He had short-cropped blonde hair and dark-rimmed, square glasses. Misha was sweetly pretty and quite talkative. She told us about being in school with Nick and about being good friends with the singer in the band, Rachel. She promised the show would be a good one.

I sat down next to Nick, across the table from Rory. Ari took a seat next to Rory and talked amicably with Nick most of the evening. Emily stayed on the dance floor with Sophie, Viola and Sam. They stopped dancing just to get another drink or pee, as far as I could tell. I wasn’t sure how they were getting served beer, but then again I guess Emily could pull off anything.

The band was surprisingly good. There were just two people – a girl named Rachel and her friend Nigel. Nigel played acoustic guitar and he and Rachel sang. They played many of their own songs but occasionally they did a cover to keep the audience happy.

At one point, Ari got up and went to the bar and when he came back, he set a bottle of water in front of me. I looked up at him and smiled. He quickly smiled back, sat back down with his own water, and started right back up talking with Nick and Collin.

Rory talked to me all night long and managed not to run out of conversation topics. He is just about the most outgoing person I have ever met and has a funny story for every situation. I giggled at some silly thing he said and Ari whipped his head up and looked straight at me. He had a smile on his face that stretched from ear to ear. I felt my cheeks grow hot and pink, my stomach was assaulted with all kinds of pins and needles. Ari quickly looked away and washed the smile from his face as fast as possible.

I hated the way he made me feel. I lost all my senses when he was near me. Who I am kidding? I loved the way he made me feel. I just wish I could figure out what was going on with him. Why wouldn’t he talk to me? I almost decided he was flat out embarrassed to be seen with me. Why else would he talk to me only in complete darkness when everyone else was asleep?

Rory was throwing drinks back faster than I could count. As the evening went on, he got louder and louder, then a little obnoxious.

Nick stood up and announced that he was going to take Rory back to campus. Rory protested for a while then finally gave in to a sober ride home. Misha and Collin went too. I looked over at Emily; she was nowhere near ready to leave. Rory gave me a hug goodbye and I was left at a table with Ari.

Only Ari disappeared as soon as the bar door closed behind Nick and Rory. I watched him walk up to Emily and whisper something in her ear. I felt that I could maybe cry. What was wrong with me? When did I get so pathetic?

Sitting by myself, at a huge table covered with little plastic cups and empty beer bottles, made me feel like a dejected loser. I heard the guitar begin to strum the first few notes of “Pink Moon” and I couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit as I stared down at my knotted fingers. I loved this song, no matter how sad I felt.

Out of nowhere, Ari came to my side, put his hand out, and waited for me expectantly. “Dance with me, Ava.”

I looked up at him with a bemused look on my face and he wiggled his fingers waiting for me to take his hand. His beautiful smile was on his face again. I put my hand in his and he pulled me up to my feet with ease. Ari wrapped his arms around me and held me close and he swayed gracefully to the music. He didn’t even bother to take me to the dance floor. We danced right there in the middle of the bar, people moved to make room for us and smiled kindly at our little embrace. He held my body close to his, put his forehead on mine, looked me in the eyes, and smiled. We were caught up in an unexpected moment, unexpected and absolutely wonderful.

As soon as the song ended, Ari took my hand in his, and led me out the door and to my car. The backseat was already full of Emily and her friends.

I drove us back to campus; while I battled the insane nerves I felt in my tummy, all the while pretending to listen to Emily blabber on about some guy she met until she got the hiccups and couldn’t talk anymore. By the time we got back to campus, Emily and Viola had both turned various shades of green. They stayed outside by the bushes and Sam and Sophie helped hold their hair back.