#neni replies

[nenilein]

I’m sorry but do u guys seriously think bots voted for ulala? Am I understanding that claim correctly? I’m not even trying to fight or argue it’s just blowing my mind that ulala won fair and square and accusations started flying all over the place. I love her my followers love her we all voted for her that’s how polls work I’m in shock

The total vote count on the poll doubled within 10 minutes. I know that because I'd taken a screenshot of the poll to send to friends 10 minutes before it happened. And I wasn't the only one who observed it. If you followed any of the other polls in the contest you would have seen that I even made fun of how destructively beaten some of my favorite characters of all time were. Teddie from persona 4, my favorite character ever, is currently losing badly to a dog and I say GOOD. If people like the doggo, that is fine.

And plot twist, I love Ulala too. I voted for her on several of the previous rounds and was sad by how quickly she got knocked out of the first bracket. I think she absolutely deserves a win. I am just not favor of abusive language being used to accomplish that. And I know botting when I see botting. I am not saying you did it, but somebody among your followers definitely did, and maybe you should reflect on how you encouraged that behavior.

I'm a game collector, love the Dreamcast to pieces and I've been pining to get original physicals of both Space Channel 5 games for literal years now, and I still will be trying, but I'd be lying if I said that this behavior hasn't put a very sour taste in my mouth. At very least I'll probably not tag any fanwork I make for the franchise under the fandom tag, because this is apparently not the sort of community I want to interact with.

#neni replies

[karmaisakhaleesi]

Heeeeey... saw requests are open, and wanted to see if you wrote for lo'ak??? If you do, could you maybe write one with either a metkayina reader or a human reader??? If you don't that's okay!

of course! sorry it's so short! lmk if you'd like a part 2?

~ Lo'ak x fem!metkayina eader

warnings~ pure fluff!

wordcount~ 937

summary~ you are a member of the Metkayina clan, and are the twin sister of Tsireya.

Lo'ak watched as you gently patted the neck of your ilu, a small smile on your face as the waves played with your hair. His hands were shaky as he slowly approached you, his breath catching in his throat when the sun caught your eyes. The rays illuminating the beautiful blue specks in your green eyes.

As he approached you, you turned to him and greeted him with a warm smile. He tried to speak, but his voice caught in his throat, overwhelmed by your beauty and the tranquility of the moment.

You noticed his unease and gently asked, "Is everything alright, Lo'ak?"

He took a deep breath and finally found his voice, "I apologize for disturbing your moment of peace, but I couldn't help but notice your ilu. If you don't mind me asking, what's its name?"

Smiling you sat back in the sand, letting the waves move your hair away from your face, "It's Neni, sand."

"Is there a reason for the name?" he asked as he reached his hand out toward her.

Humming you reply, "Not in particular."

Lo'ak smiled, "Neni, that's a beautiful name."

You nodded, "Thank you."

Lo'ak looked at Neni, admiring the color of her scales and the way you seemed so in tune with each other. He turned back to you and asked, "May I pet her?"

You smiled and nodded, "Of course, she's very friendly. Just be gentle with her."

Lo'ak approached Neni slowly, extending his hand to pet her. Neni sniffed his hand before nuzzling it gently, enjoying the attention. Lo'ak smiled, feeling the rough scales of the ilu under his hand.

"I think she likes you," you whisper before standing, the water cascading down your body as you stretch.

Clearing his throat Lo'ak looked up at you before whispering, "I wanted to say thank you too."

"Hm?" you tilt your head at him, confused.

Feeling a blush rise to his cheeks, he continued, "When the others wouldn't believe me about Payakan, you did. You defended me, why?"

Shrugging you crossed your arms, "Well, I know the feeling."

Looking at you quizically he opened his mouth to speak before your ilu began to click. He watched as you mounted Neni and grabbed your arm, "Wait."

You paused, halting your ilu from leaping back into the waves, "What is it?"

"Could I come with you?"

Smiling you grabbed his hand and pulled him onto your ilu, his arms wrapped around your waist tightly, "Don't fall off," you laughed, and then dove into the sea.

The cool water surrounded you and you breathed a sigh of relief as Neni sped up, the scenery passing by so quickly you didn't notice when the reef faded away to open water.

Feeling a tap on your shoulder you turned to see Lo'ak staring at you, his yellow eyes reflecting the rays of the sun from the surface.

"You're amazing," he whispered, his eyes still fixed on you.

You chuckled, feeling a bit self-conscious under his intense gaze. "Thanks, but I'm just me."

"You're amazing," he whispered, his eyes still fixed on you.

You chuckled, feeling a bit self-conscious under his intense gaze. "Thanks, but I'm just enjoying a ride on my ilu."

Lo'ak shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. "No, I mean it. You have such a deep connection with your ilu, and you're so free and fearless in the water. I mean, you even came to save me that time with Payakan, it's amazing."

You blushed, feeling a warmth spread through your body. "Thank you, Lo'ak. That means a lot coming from you."

The two of you rode in silence for a while, enjoying the peacefulness of the sea. The sound of the waves and the gentle breeze were the only sounds around you. You could feel Lo'ak's arms around your waist, holding you tightly as Neni carried you further out into the sea.

After a few minutes, Lo'ak leaned in closer to you, his voice barely above a whisper. "I have something to tell you."

You turned to face him, curious as you brushed a piece of seaweed out of your hair.

"What is it?"

He took a deep breath before continuing. "I've been wanting to tell you this for a long time, but I haven't had the courage to do it. I like you."

You felt your heart skip a beat at his words, and you turned to face him fully, a stunned expression on your face. "Lo'ak, I...I don't know what to say."

He looked at you with hopeful eyes, waiting for your response. You could feel the weight of his words, and you knew you needed to be honest with him.

Feeling your heart race a mile a minute you leaned forward and shut your eyes without thinking, your lips meeting in a quick kiss before your ilu rushed to the surface.

As you broke the kiss and surfaced, you looked at Lo'ak, feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness. He looked back at you with surprise, but then a smile slowly spread across his face.

"I take it that as a yes?" he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

You nodded, still feeling a bit breathless from the kiss. "Yes, Lo'ak. I like you too," you said playfully splashing him.

He let out a whoop of excitement, and hugged you tightly to his chest, laughing. He really had been overthinking things.

As you rode on your ilu back to the shore, you felt a blush creep up your face, wondering what your family would think as his lips met yours again.

sorry this was so short and if any of the characters was ooc, i haven't really wrote for Lo'ak so, it might not be accurate...

thank you for your request! lmk if you still want a human version with Lo'ak?

💖

#lo'ak te suli tsyeyk'itan #lo'ak te suli tsyeyk'itan x reader #lo'ak sully #lo'ak sully x reader #lo'ak sully x you #lo'ak fanfiction #avatar the way of water #tsireya #lo'ak x fem reader #lo'ak x na'vi reader #lo'ak x reader #lo'ak sully x na'vi reader #lo'ak sully x female reader #lo'ak sully x fem! reader #lo'ak sully x metkayina! reader #avatar 2009 #avatar 2 #avatar 2022 #avatar #avatar fanfiction #sully family #sully family x reader

[neni-has-ascended]

Are you still doing the persona name analysis? And if you are can you do naoto please?

I actually spoke about Naoto’s name before, but that was a long time ago. So here I go!

“Shirogane” (白鐘= literally means “White Bell”. However, it is pronounced the same as the Japanese word for “Platinum” and an old word for “Silver”. This will be important in a moment. 

“Naoto” (直斗 ) is harder to translate, since the first Kanji has multiple meanings and the second one is more or less meaningless when used in a name. It’s usually given to mean “Honest” or “Good Person”, but the first Kanji can also mean “healing”, “repair” or “soon”. The second Kanji is meaningless in names and only used for its sound, but can be taken to mean the constellation “Big Dipper”. 

However, now we get to the TRUE meaning of Naoto’s name: It’s actually an elaborate reference to the Super Sentai Franchise! 

Specifically, the name is taken from two successive 6th rangers in the franchise that were on TV around the time Naoto, canonically, would’ve been at the prime-age to watch those shows: Naoto Takizawa from “Mirai Sentai Timeranger” and Shirogane from “Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger”. (You might know them as the Quantum Ranger from Time Force and the Silver Ranger from Wild Force.)

This just goes to show how important Naoto’s closet-nerdiness was to the developers; They even put it in her name! (And, of course, she ends up being a “Sixth Ranger” of sorts herself-)

#Neni Replies #Persona 4 #Naoto Shirogane #valkyriefastwing

[neni-liveblogging]

(Do you know of any resources that dictate what a Navigator is in the Persona universe? I'm only familiar with the main 3-4-5 games, and there doesn't seem to be much information as to what designates a Persona-user as a Navigator over a combat-suited role. Not much is given, but for something that has a "title", it sounds like you'd have to be trained specifically for the job. Maybe I'm missing that info from spin-offs or something. Thanks in advance!)

In P1 and P2, every character’s Persona is shown to have a certain amount of “navigation” potential. For example, characters will sometimes state their Persona feels “anxious” or “senses something dangerous up ahead”.

I think the same is true for the games after, and Fuuka, Rise and Futaba are just those rare cases of Persona Users whose Persona’s energy is more focused on sensing or transmitting information, rather than on self-defense or expressing aggression. Mitsuru’s case is a good example of that: Her Persona is mostly combat focused, but its sensing capabilities are strong enough to help navigating Tartarus. 

Fuuka actually voices a hypothesis about that late in Persona 3: Her Persona is primarily a scanner because Fuuka is extremely concerned with understanding what other people expect of her, to the point that it reflects in her Persona. 

Similarly, Rise has a preoccupation with how she is *perceived* by other people and how she can make them perceive her differently, so her Persona “broadcasts” information about her to others and about others to her. 

As for Futaba, while she is a shut in who’s not especially connected to the outside world, she’s always hungry for information, hence why her Persona is Necronomicon, and that hunger for information is reflected in its powers: She can use her Persona to *suck up* information about the things around her and distribute them. It’s a result of her extreme curiosity.

So to sum up, Fuuka’s Persona reads hearts, because Fuuka wants to understand people. Rise’s Persona broadcasts her thoughts and receives the thoughts of others, because Rise wants to broadcast herself and receive other’s feedback. Futaba’s Persona sucks up and distributes information, because Futaba is one of what Japanese scholar Azuma Hiroki called a “Database Animal” herself. 

Before you ask, Mitsuru’s case is a little different: Since she’s desperate to learn what she needs to do to safe her father from her family’s legacy, that “despair to learn” is reflected in her Persona. 

Teddie and Morgana don’t count. Teddie’s Persona doesn’t have unusual scanning capabilities (contrary to Mitsuru’s false assumption in P4U), he does; because he’s a Shadow and thus entirely made of information and emotions himself, he can sense the emotions and information of others. It’s as simple as hearing a human voice is to us. Ditto for Morgana; he’s a Velvet Room denizen, and those beings can sense presences the same way as Shadows can. 

#Neni Replies #persona 3 #Persona 4 #Persona 5 #prophetrick

[ask-persona]

hey! i was curious if you have any good recs for blogs about persona's lore and all that, I recently got into the series and have started playing P2 and P4G (I finished 5) and I would like stuff to read later, please?

Hm, the truth is, I don’t really read tumblr much anymore myself, aside from proofreading my own posts very occasionally. 

Hey, my dear followers, would you be so nice as to help this person out? Please write some recommendation for Persona Lore Blogs in the responses to this post! Thank you. :-)

#Neni Replies #Persona Series #knightedtime

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Is there a reason you talk about your theories as if their are canon? It's kind of misleading for people new to the fandom and the reason one of my friends thought Kokichi being the mastermind was an actual proven thing in game because she randomly found your blog. Like, she was "I was spoiled that Kokichi is the mastermind because I saw something about it on tumblr" and I was like "???"

The thing is, I’m trying to alter my ‘rhetoric device’ (if that’s what it’s called) on any further analyses, such as the re-run from the start of Prologue and the more recent commentaries since the older ones were kind of a mess (and also, part of the learning process for me) but… I’m not sure how to bring across ‘snowball context theory’ without pointing out how and where such things really happen.

I should probably put a disclaimer to the effect that newcomers will have a hard time with what’s going on due to this, but besides that, I thought it was a given that what is ‘spoken to be canon’ is already misleading and inconclusive? There’s also the issue where the Hope’s Peak book - among other things - was never fully analysed let alone fairly debunked, and that would mean that its history - including the secret council noted by Byakuya - is viable context.

What I’m trying to say here, is it’s a little hard to know where to draw the line. The newest meta where I explained ‘Horse Twins’ was meant to connect the pieces in canon and also explain the issue of things lost in context. The angle I’m trying to come from there is rebutting the idea of such things having ‘no relevance’, and that naturally lends itself to pointing towards an answer, as well.

In short: trying to assert that someone (hi, Ouma) was unfairly discredited in narrative, therefore canon, is already a difficult tightrope balance considering, having to scrutinise every detail of the vocabulary with myself every time I say something - as well as the details I’m already fighting over - will drive me more than a bit batty.

#Anonymous #replies #nonstop debates #at least that's the phrase Neni use on her rebuttal to MatPat #I think I'm still missing context or something #*edit phrasing #bloggings

[shookmybones]

Thank God for Cafes and Hot Guys

Ch.1 (PerryX3)            

She sat down and watched, over and over again, the way he walked, back and forth, back and forth. His eyes met with hers. Finally. She thought. She tried not to seem excited, even though she looked like a dog waiting for his owner to come walking up to the door. The dog’s eyes raised his body, and his hopes. So was she; just like the dog; raising her hopes farther than she could ever reach. Those blue eyes are enough for today.

          As a matter of a fact, she did this everyday. Only because she can’t and will possibly never be the same way after those blue eyes met hers. Her eyes were so dark, so brown-black-dark. Perry. Her eyes said it as she looked at the busboy of her dreams. (More like, her “real-life”-everyday world.)

“Darlenys? You’re drooling again!” Arlin snickered.

“She’s like so in love with that busboy guy.” Marlen told her.

“No! Really?! Ya think?!” Arlin replied sarcastically.

“Arlin, don’t mock her!” I said.

“Sorry!” Arlin said, sarcastically saying things to get me worked up.

“Let’s go! I’m tired of staring at him!” Marlen pointed. I wanted to kill her! (Not really, but, yeah. I had the urge.)

          Perry came closer as if someone had planned the script in a movie and the guy was just desperate to meet that girl who drove him crazy.

           My heart was beating faster than ever! I was sinking deep into my seat.

“Oooops! Dropped…uh…something…”

“Here let me help you…”

“No! …I…uh…?”

           He looked at me, as I looked like an idiot who actually puts her whole body under the table just to get a…thing.

“Hi.” He said.

“…Hi…um…yeah. Let me…uh, get out from under this table.” I said.

“I’m Perry, and I’ll be your waiter this, uh, morning.” He smiled.

His smile was…amazing (ah-may-zing)!

“Oh. Hi Perry! I’m Darlenys, your customer this morning!”

“And I’m Arlin and this is her sister, Marlen!”

Shoot me now. I thought.

“Hi Perry!” Marlen waved.

“Hello Marlen! Hey Arlin!” Perry greeted them.

“So what brings you guys here?” He asked us.

“We have breakfast here…” I said.

“Since she’s too lazy to make any!” Marlen interrupted.

“Hahaha. I can’t cook!” I explained.

“Neither can I! I’m just the busboy!” He said, smiling. I felt so relieved.

“Wow, we have so much in common!” I said, sarcastically.

“Yeah! I mean, you both can’t cook, and wait…what else?”

Perry whispered something to Marlen in her ear. She giggled.

“And…” She continued., “You both like each other!!!”

“Lol! What?!” Arlin seriously laughed out loud!!!

“Ummm…?” I was so embarrassed! I felt my cheeks getting warm; the urge to pee; I wanted to cover and run!

“Excuse me!” I went to the bathroom.

           Perry knew where I was headed.

He followed me…and waited and listened to hear if anyone else was in there. Then, he

barged in quickly.

“Hello?”

“What are you doing in here? This is the ladies’ room!” I laughed, even though I was crying.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Perry asked me.

“My little sister comes up with the silliest things!” I kind of cry-laughed.

“So? Kids are always embarrassing their brothers and sisters! It’s one of those natural things, like girls being pretty just like you.” He smiled. I blushed naturally.

           Perry stared. Then he whispered in my ear; or tried to I giggled.

“What? What did I do?” He asked.

“…Nothing.”

“…?”

“I don’t like whispering. It tickles me.”

“…O…K?”

“I know it’s silly!”                                                          

“Well, no. Different, a bit. At least you’re one of the people that don’t gossip. I hate gossipers!”

“That’s nice…LOL. I’m not much of a gossiper. But everyone sort of is, in their own way.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. See, there are people that say a thing or tow to a friend who begins a long train of lies. And then there are people, who… take what they’re told and just repeat it for the world to hear. Like…? Uh…?”

“Like…uh?”

“Oh, like, ‘Perry and Darlenys speak in a ladies’ room.’ ”

“Or, ‘Perry kisses Darlenys in a ladies’ room.’ “

“What?” I paused, then continued, “So that’s what you whispered!”

“Huh?” He joked.

“Noth-…”

“…-ing.” He kissed me.

           He held my face. His eyes closed. Mine, shut tightly. (I had a tendency to peek!)

“A bit forward, Mr. ..?”

“Delloplane.” He continued. Then stopped to look for something; A sign. He put it on the doorknob from the exterior.

“What’s that for?” I asked.

“It’s kind of like a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign…What? You want women to come barging in here with the urge to pee and disturb us?”

“I guess not.” I shrugged.

“You’re guessing now?”

“…LOL. No.”

“Good. Because I want you to know that I like you.”

“Well…I could have guessed that!”

           He kissed me.

“So does this mean I don’t have to come in here and stare at you anymore?” I asked, feeling embarrassed by my question.

“What?…Oh! Well,…you can still do that, if you want to.”

“So, you knew?”

“Yeah; I stare at you, too.”

“Wow! Marlen was right!”

“I’m glad.”

“I have to go. I promised Marlen and Arlin that I’d take them to the mall!”

“Now I’m sad!” He puppy-dog pouted. (Adorably, of course!)

“And I’m sorry to hear that, but I have to go!”

“Well-okay. But we have to say good-bye/”

“Okay! Bye-…”

           He kissed me. (It was pretty passionate!)

“Bye!”

“How are you going to get out of here without being noticed?”

“Ehh…I’ll find a way.”

“Okay.” I smiled at him.

           I came out of the bathroom with an odd face of carefully-considered caring (?).

(In other words…I was happy enough to burst!)

“What’s with you?” Arlin asked.

“You know, stuff.” I replied smiling.

“Can we go to the mall now, Neni?” Marlen asked.

“Oh! Yeah! Can we?” Arlin reminded herself.

“Sure!”

          I saw Perry come out. Well, actually, I saw that he was out. I didn’t recall the exiting-part. As long as he wasn’t in there anymore and got out without getting in trouble…it didn’t really matter.

“Here’s the check, ladies. Have a beautiful day!” Perry secretly winked at me.

“Mm-hm…”” Arlin and Marlen stared at me.

“Oh, I guess you guys don’t want to go to the mall…”

“Wait!…” They both said.

          So, we’re driving to the mall, the car was full of… “I’m hot; You’re cold. You go around like you know who I am, but you don’t. You’ve got me on my toes!

I’m slipping into the lava. And I’m trying to keep from going under. Baby, you turn the temperature hotter. Cuz, I’m burnin’ up, burnin’ up for you, baby!”

“LOL! Okay! Okay! Let the chouffer drive!” I said.

As We arrive, I laid down a couple of ‘ground rules.’

“No: running around like maniacs; no leaving Marlen alone; always have your cell phones on and off of silent mode. Are we clear?”

“Question: What if I see my friends? Can I go with them and walk around the mall?” Marlen asked. Arlin agreed.

“Well, let me put it this way, if you both know where you’re going to be; say, meet each other somewhere in the mall where you’d go.”

“Limited Too!” They both giggled.

“Whatever, as long as you know.” I replied.

“Always pick up your phone! Especially when it’s one of you guys, or me!”

Ch.2 (Keep Your Receipt!)

           “Thanks Neni!” Marlen got out with her ‘boys’. (JB tote bag)

“Thanks Mom!…” Arlin’s sarcasm dared to come out.

“…” I gave her ’the excuse me-I’m looking for-the swimming pool-look’

“I mean, Darlenys.”

“That’s what I thought you said.” I said.

“LOL! Okay, bye!” I waved.

          Turns out Marlen was on to something because as soon as she and Arlin saw me turn the corner, she ran into the mall and looked for her friends, a small posse of girls that were waiting for her at Limited Too.

“Wait! You mean, you called? OH!…Uh?? Sneaky! Air five! Whoosh!”

“Whoosh!” Marlen completed her portion of the air five.

“Hey Marlen! Com’on! There’s new stuff in here! You gotta come check it out!” Krystal pointed to the store.

“Jonas Brothers stuff?!” Chelsea’s eyes widened.

Brithany, Xiomara, Alexandra, Miranda and Aishah stared at the marvelous-ness (?) that was come to be called “Limited Too.”

“Okay, I want to see quick and then I’m going to Hollister.” Arlin said. (So typically.)

Back to more important things, like Perry.

           I rush home; fast enough not to get in trouble and start giggling at the fact that all of this happened today. Thank Marlen! (I think I actually thought that?!) I did! Well, now all I want to do is see him again! “The last time I freaked, I just kept looking down. I stu-stu- stuttered when you asked me what I’m thinking’ ’bout…”

“Hello?”

“Lenys!”

“Keyra?!”

“Where are you right now?!” She asked me, getting up and going to a door.

“…Uh…in California. Why?…”

“Just asking.”

The doorbell rang.

“Keyra!!!!!!” I screamed, throwing the phone. (Who cares?!)

“OMJ! I’ve missed you so much!!!”

“Pshhh! You’ve missed me??!! I’ve missed my besterist more than anyone else!”

“AHHHHHH!…” We both screamed.

“So,…enough of this out here! Let’s go inside!” I continued; “I’ve got so much to tell you!”

As Keyra and I caught up, we shared very important details.

“So, guess who I’m going out with?” Keyra jumped up.

“Uh…no idea. Who?”

“…JOE JONAS!!!”

“OMJ!!!!!” I thought about Nick, but didn’t dare to ask her.

“So?”

“You’re wondering about Nick, right?”

“Actually…,” I sigh, “Yeah!”

“He’s fine, I guess. Not really up to much. Don’t worry Lenys, I mentioned you to him; Nothing embarrassing though! I just told him that you love their work, and you really, really think he’s a great guy, and that he deserves better.”

“Keyra! You did not say…”

“What? Yeah, I did! He had to hear it from someone other than his brothers!”

“You’re ah-may-zing!!! (amazing!)” I hugged her.

“I love you, Lenys!!!” She hugged back.

“So…?” She gave me ‘the look’.

“Uh…oh yeah! I met someone…”

“Well, I was going to say, ‘Ask me why I’m here?’ but, okay, let’s go with that!”

“…Thanks for putting me on the spotlight and all, but…yeah. His name is Perry Delloplane. He’s got dark, black hair; deep blue eyes; he wears those skinny, tight Jonas jeans (we) I like so much! He’s sweet, really nice, and he…”

“What?”

“He likes me back!!!”

“Oh, you go Lenys!!” We high-fived; Keyra cheered me on.

“Hey, why is it so empty in here?” Keyra asked looking around.

“Marlen’s at the mall with Arlin; we took pictures in front of her house the day of Camp Rock..”

“Oh, yeah!”

“Wow!”

“What?”

“He kissed me in the ladies’ room!”

“….?”

“Long story-short: Marlen embarrassed me and I went to the bathroom. Perry went in to see if I was okay. He comforted me…”

“Oh, yes he did!”

I shoved her.

“What?” She said.

“It’s complicated, but, trust me, that’s it.”

“What do you mean?”

          I told her how Marlen embarrassed me. I told her about what I thought Perry whispered. (I was most likely right, by the way.) Then ,I told her how Perry ‘comforted’ me. He liked me too! (Yes!)

“Hey! Want to go see him?” I asked.

“Sure, I mean, if you’re sure.” She replied.

“I just have to call Yasmin, my besterist from home.”

I called Yas.

“Yas! You have got to get your butt over here! It’s urgent! I want you to meet someone!”

“Uhmmm….okay. I’m going to sound a little bit like you, but…should I be scared?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Okay, where should I meet you?”

“At The Breakfast Club Café.”

“Okay…what time?”

“Now-ish…”

“Not going to say anything.”

“Fine by me! I love you!”

“Love you too!”

           As Keyra and I get our stuff together to go to the café, I remember something…from this morning. The receipt!

“Wait! Wait!” I looked for the receipt.

“What are you looking for?”

“The receipt. It might have the hours.”

“It says 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.” (It was Tuesday.) Keyra said, reading out loud.

“Well, I don’t know his work hours, or what shift he usually works. To me, I’m guessing he works in the morning..”

Then I realized that there was something written on the receipt.

           “Your eyes are dark, mysteriously wonderous and empty. They make me braver. Brave enough to kiss you, (which I’m sorry if I was too forward, btw.) and just as brave to ask you out, maybe. (?)

Circle       Y   or   N  

“Well now you know his hours. And we’re in no rush, it’s only 1:36 p.m.” Keyra said.

“Yeah, okay! Let’s go!” I said, pulling her.

“Lenys, I said no rush!!” She yelled after me.

“And why can’t I get through the night without another fight? I’m tired of the hurting…”  My phone rang. It was Yas.

“Are you going over there?”

“Uh, yeah…I’m getting in the car.”

“Okay. Actually I’m closer, so I’m going to walk there.”

“Okay then!”

“Bye!”

“Bye!” I hung up the phone.

Ch.3 (Counting On Time)

          Yasmin decides to walk. Why? No idea. She’s texting who knows who for who knows what reason when she bumps into someone in the same thing; texting. It causes accidents.

“Oh, my gosh! I am so sorry! I..” She’s being helped up by Kevin Jonas!

“No, it’s okay! Things happen…” he got a good glimpse of her.

“..And for a reason, apparently.” He continued, “I’m Kevin Jonas.”

“I recognize you, yeah. I’m Yasmin Abreu.” They shook hands.

“Oh, Hi, Yasmin.” Kevin’s hair was in his eyes. (And we all know how hot that is!) His hair was straight.

“Where are you headed in such a hurry?” He asked her.

“I’m meeting my friend at a café just around here.” She replied.

“Oh, what, uh, your boy…”

“No! Just, just a good friend my best, most dearest girlfriend.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Can I ask why you’re in a hurry?”

“Sure! Ask!”

She laughs. “So, why are you in such a hurry?”

“Honestly, I wasn’t.”

“Oh, but I like now. This is a good time.” Kevin says.

“Why?” Yasmin looked befuddled.

“It could be because it’s California, where the sun’s shining 85% of the time…or because I just met you, Yasmin.”

She blushed. (Awwww!)

“Where is she?” I looked for Yasmin up and down the street.

“Maybe she’s inside already.” Keyra suggested.

“Maybe.” We went inside. She was inside; Talking it up with Kevin Jonas. He kind of turned, noticing Keyra. Yas got up when she saw me.

“Hey Yas!” I hugged her, whispering, “Why is Kevin Jonas here?” in her ear.

“I bumped into him on my way over here.”

“Hmmm…okay.”

“Well?”

“What?”

“It’s nice that you are getting to know him and I’m very extremely happy for you! Both of you!”

“Hi Yasmin!” Keyra greeted her.”

“Hey Keyra!” Yas said “Hi” back.

“Well, we better see who this guy is, before…” Yas said.

“Can I get your order?…”

          Perry was a couple of tables away, but I could hear him perfectly, as if there were no single person but us two in the room of that bathroom in that café. He came towards Yas and Kevin’s table. (I hope he still remembered me.) When he got there, he made no eye contact whatsoever with me. I felt so confused and hurt all at once. Then I thought about going to the bathroom to make it all better, but Keyra could have gone with me, or even Yas.

“So you’re just going to ignore me?” I didn’t hesitate in saying this to him.

“Yes.” He made no eye contact with me. He kept going about his business.

“Okay.” I was about to leave.

He grabbed my hand, “Only because I’m being watched.

“Huh?” I turned to him.

“The inspectors are here and I’ve got to do so much stuff today and the boss left me on duty for almost everything!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!”

“Hey, if you were to get excited about something right now, would you get in trouble?”

“Uh…tell me in the bathroom. Go in like nothing’s ever happened and you are just going to use the bathroom and then I’ll close it for clean up.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey!” He made eye contact with me, smiling.

“Yeah?”

“I LOVE YOU!” I whispered; more mouthing the words than whispering itself. Perry.

“Really?” He said to himself. “Time to clean the bathroom!”

          He told two workers to work on orders, both in and out. He rushed, went back to get the mop and cart to play it out.

“Is anyone in here?” He looked around, as he looked for me, as well.

“Just me; I hope it’s okay.” I looked at him.

“What did you want to tell me?” He asked.

“I read the receipt.” I replied getting closer.

           I showed him the receipt. He read it and said that I didn’t fill it out.

“That’s what I came to tell you. Yes, Perry, I’d love to go out with you!” I smiled.

           He started jumping around everywhere.

“This is…is ah-may-zing (amazing), this is, is insanely-crazy-good…Wow!!!!” He grabbed my face and kissed my lips for a good five minutes.

“Whoah baby!” I said, biting my lips afterwards.

I giggled.

“Hey how’s about we go out tonight? I’m a Cali guy and I know some ah-may-zing (amazing) places to go out to.”

“Uh, sure!”

          We exchanged numbers, email addresses, work hours, and work emails. Anything that could be used to connect, we exchanged it. We finally left the bathroom after about a good 10 mins. Later on, I went back to Keyra, Yas, and Kevin. Yasmin and Kevin were pretty occupied with their own conversation to join us in ours, but we forgave them because of the “image” we saw. Kesmin.

“Operation Kesmin is on go: OVER!” I said to Keyra through my hand-walkie talkie.

“Copy that, besterist! Over and out!” Keyra laughed.

“So, when am I going to meet Joe?”

“Soon…!”

I froze; Then, kind of giggling, played along. Keyra’s eyes were being covered. She had to guess…which was pretty predictable because I was sitting face-to-face with her so it was definitely not me!

“Joe?”

“Good job! Here’s your treat!” He kissed her on the cheek.

“Hey! I want to meet my besterist friend in the whole wide world!” Keyra’s eyes widened.

“Hi, I’m the besterist, Darlenys. One of the reasons why she’s always smiling.” I introduced myself.

“Hi, I’m Joe, but you already know that don’t you?”

“Should I say ‘no’?”

“It’s kind of hard to do that since you’re accessorizing: Jonas style!” He pointed to the bag and the pendant that had JB on it.

“Oh,” I held the pendant, “Right!”

“Well, I’m flattered that you love me and my brothers!…and that’s a great coincidence that Keyra’s your, uh…besterist?”

“Besterist! Besterist friend in the whole wide world, actually!” I smiled, hugging Keyra.

“Yup!” Keyra def. agreed.

“Okay?…”

“Awkward!” He said, I did too (?). Which made that even more weird.

           We laughed and just talked. Perry signaled to me.

UH-OH! I was so confused! I’m completely horrible when it comes to signaling. Just the basics are good for me; “Hi,” “Bye,” and “I have to pee!” It’s really sad! I know! He gave up and went back and forth near Joe, Keyra and I.

“Wha…I can’t understand you!” I whispered.

“I’m going on my lunch break!” He whispered back.

“Lenys…?” Keyra noticed. Great! (sarcastically thinking.)

“Uh, I have to go…” My cell phone rang. Arlin! Yes!

“I’ll be right back-maybe.”

“Maybe?” Joe asked.

“You see, my sister and her friend are at the mall, and I’m their ride, so…yeah. BUT, (I have no idea why I’m saying this, but,) what are you guys doing tonight?”

           I felt so stupid after I said this, but I felt so bad that I had to leave them.

“Uh, well, I guess not?” Keyra looked at Joe.

“Uh,…no we’re not really up to much today. What’d you have in mind?” Joe asked.

“Oh, I don’t really know, but I’m going out with this guy and I really don’t want to go alone! I wanted Keyra to come and since you’re here, you should go with her! Whadaya think?”

“Well, if it’s okay with you and this guy, and Keyra…” Joe was interrupted by Keyra.

“Of course it’s okay with me! I just hope that you can have the best first-date of your life with…”

“Perry.”

“Oh, you mean, the busboy at the café?” She asked.

“He works here; he’s the one over there, with the dark black hair…”

“Oh, I see him.”

“Well, then it’s settled.” Joe said.

“…Oh man! What have I done?!” I shouted.

“ Excuse me?” Joe asked.

“What happened, Lenys?” Keyra asked.

“I have, like, no idea what to do, or what to wear or…anything.” I continued. “He said he’s a Cali guy.”

“So…? I’m a Cali girl…”

“…And I’m from New Jersey, so what does this have to do with anything?”

“Uh! I don’t know.”

“Okay, Okay! How about we go bowling and then we meet there, play a game or two, then we go our separate ways on this double date?” Joe asked.

“Okay, it sounds good!” I said. “Thank you so much! I don’t know what I would’ve done without both of you guys, literally! I mean, I’d be lost!” I left to go pick up the girls.

I get a phone call from some strange number.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Who is this?”

“Perry.”

“Oh! You scared me there, for a sec!”

“Well, I can see that signaling to you is never going to work!” He laughed.

“Shut up! I’m not the signaling type! I only know hi’s, bye’s, I have to pee,…”

“I love you?”

I got quiet, “Yeah.” I responded.

“Uhm, I’m actually driving to pick up the girls, but can I tell you something really quick?” I asked.

“Sure, what?” He asked back.

“I kinda made a little double-date with my friend and her boyfriend but it’s going to be at a bowling alley, so…it’s just a game or two and then we go our separate ways, but…does that mess with what you had planned for tonight?”

“Actually, that’s great! We can go bowling for part of it, and then, we can go around town.”

“Where?”

“It’s a surprise!”

“Well, okay; what should I wear?”

“Jeans, a nice shirt, NO HEELS!”

“Not a problem with the heels!”

“Why’s that?”

“I only wear them when it’s extremely special; not that this isn’t!”

“Okay. Well I’ve got to go! I’ll pick you up at 7:00 p.m.!”

“Okay! Bye!”

“I’ll be counting the minutes!” He added.

Ch.4 (Rendez-vous)

           He’s just as excited about this as I am! Then, I thought, what to do with the girls tonight?

“Guys! What are you up to tonight?”

“Uh, don’t know!” Marlen said.

“Nothing I guess (?)!” Arlin thought, then just figured that there really was nothing to do.

“Well, I have to go out and catch up with Keyra, but I can’t leave you guys alone, and I’m DEFINITELY NOT TAKING YOU! So, what da ya think?”

“Sleep-over at a friend’s?” Marlen almost stood in her seat.

“Uh, I don’t know? Do I know this friend?”

“Yeah. Aishah.”

“Oh! Is her mom there?”

“Marlen’s already getting it started!” Arlin laughed.

           Marlen was already calling Aishah and asking and planning their ah-may-zing (amazing) sleepover.

“Oh, wow!” I laughed. “What about you?”

“Can I just stay home?”

“As long as you don’t leave the house and don’t answer doors.”

“Okay.”

“So it’s settled? You guys officially have something to do!”

“Yup!” Marlen came into the conversation after she hung up.

Arlin and I laughed!

          We got home. I got out my Ipod and connected it to the dock ad just started dancing to my play lists. Music always calmed me down when I was feeling uneasy…because I was so excited!!!

          Perry and I were officially going out and not just as girlfriend and boyfriend, but on a date! How wasn’t this real? Then again…I pinched myself “awake” but I was already awake and I was dancing around in my room, doing invisible air-guitar solos for all of my dreams that have and were coming true!!! I was finally going to go out with the guy of my dreams!

           I was taking a shower. My clothes were all set on my bed, (Yes, I still did this!), Marlen was at Aishah’s, and Arlin was on the computer. The doorbell rang and since I was taking a shower, I barely heard anything. Arlin answered the door.

           There stood Perry Delloplane in a nice shirt and jeans with some vans. (Me like! Not that I saw!)

“Hey Arlin!” I had a feeling we weren’t alone, “Can you come here a sec?!” I couldn’t leave because I wasn’t about to go over there in just my robe.

“He’s here!” Arlin smiled, poking me.

“Okay, Okay; but I really am going to catch up with Keyra and talk to Joe some more…”

“Joe-Jo-…” Her face was paralyzed.

“Jonas.” I said.

“Whoah!”

“No, you can’t go!” I said.

“Maybe you’ll get to see him one day!” I said.

“Fine! Have fun…”

“Oh yeah, in my robe!!!” I grinned sarcastically.

She laughed out loud, “Sorry! Well, when you get dressed, have a good time!”

“Thanks!”

           I went to the living room. I did my breathing exercises on my way there. Turns out, so was he! Perry.

“Whoah! You look…beautiful!” He stared.

“Thank you! You look really nice, too! Love the shirt!” I pointed.

“Thanks! Oh, by the way,” He ruffled through some things in his bag of stuff, “I got you this.” Then he took out the bouquet that matched the single orchid.

“Orchids? Classy! Thank you!” I put them in a vase. I put the single one in the hair. “Let’s go!”

“Yup.” He took my hand. I blushed.

          We got to the bowling alley. Keyra and Joe were talking. As soon as I was in five feet of them, I heard a loud, “Lenys!” cry.

“Keyra!” We hugged. Joe walked over and said hi. Perry said hi.

Keyra whispered, “He’s cute!” in my ear. I giggled.

“Okay! Let’s do get this started!” I shouted. Keyra laughed.

“Yeah!” Joe screamed, making a funny face at Keyra.

She laughed. They kissed.

Perry held my hand and we talked about everything as the game kept going.

“Yeah! Oh Yeah! Uh-huh!” Joe danced.

Keyra pointed and laughed.

“Oh yeah?” He ran towards her. She screamed. He kissed her.

“Oh god! Not in public!” I yelled; Perry laughed, then got completely serious, getting closer, holding my face. We kissed as I tried to bowl; I dropped the ball and kissed him…getting a perfect strike?! Joe’s eyes widened. Keyra’s jaw dropped. Perry and I had no idea that that had happened. We stopped. I giggled.

Later On…

           Joe summed up the scores, even though that was the machine’s job, and turns out, Keyra won! He overreacted.

“What?” He pulled his hair. “That’s impossible!”

Then I added, “That’s illogical, Joe can’t have it!”

“Haha!” Keyra pointed at Joe. Perry and I laughed.

Ch.5 (Nine In The Afternoon)

           Perry and I decided to go our separate ways, without Keyra and Joe.

“I think we’re ready to go.” I whispered to Keyra.

“Okay…” She whispered back.

“Bye Joe, Bye Keyra!” Perry said as he held my hand. I had a huge grin on my face.

“Oh! Leaving already? Okay then!” Joe asked. Keyra shoved him.

“Bye Lenys! Bye Perry!” Keyra shouted, waving.

           I was so extremely nervous. Perry made me feel safe, although he was a total stranger, he was a caring stranger.

“Where are we going?”

“Anywhere you want!” He ran from me, making me chase him.

I laughed.

           It was like a part in a movie, the guy plays around with the girl, she plays back.

          We tumble and roll around on some grass. Perry falls on me. I laughed to a silent smile. We just looked at each other. Perry kissed me. He helped me up and we got into the car and rode off.

           All of sudden, “Shake It” comes on the radio and I scream. I, trying to be hilarious, started singing to it.

“I’ll take you home if you don’t meet me at the front door (meet me at the front door). You’re body’s cold, but girl, we’re getting so warm. And I was thinking of ways that I could get inside. So now you’re falling in love (Here we go now!). This feeling’s tearing me up! (Let me go now!)…”

Perry laughed so hard at me, in a good ‘you’re so cute’ way!

“So, Cali-guy, where are we going, tonight?” I whispered in his ear.

“I told you, anywhere you want!” He whispered back.

“Well, as you may have noticed, I’m not from here…At least let me know what we’re going to do!”

           He thought deeply, for a couple of minutes; Enough for us to reach our destination.

“Here; we’re going to have fun!” He opened the car door for me. I screamed inside my head (and outside)!

“What are you screaming about?”

“…I…like to express my feelings for the crowd to hear…?” I shrugged my shoulders.

He laughed. “Com’on!” He took my hand (tonight. We could run so far. We could change the world Do anything we want. We could stop for hours, just staring at the stars. They come down to show us.)

Meanwhile…

Marlen was at Aishah’s house doing who-knows-what and just laughing about it all the way to the movies. Marlen and Aishah heard that there was going to be a special appearance of some actor from this new movie that was premiering. Marlen calls Arlin to rub it in her face. Aishah laughs.

“Hello?” Arlin answered her phone.

“Hi!” Marlen said.

“Hi…?” Arlin answered back.

“Guess what we’re doing?”

“…Uh, what?” “We’re going to see that British guy, Skandar…”

“What???” She took a deep breath. “Where are you, right now…wait a minute, you’re trying to trick me!” Arlin doubted the girls.

“Okay…? But he looks just like that guy and he TALKS just like that guy…and he,…hangs out with…” She stared with a shocked face, “NICK JONAS?!!!”

“What?? Too bad Darlenys…never mind.”

“What?”

“She went out.”

“Com’on and see him for yourself, if you want!”

           Arlin thought. Marlen interrupted her pensive state by asking, “Where are Joe and Kevin?” “Having a life-how should I know?!” She looked for her key, some money and her phone. “Where are you guys again?”

          As Arlin walked to the Phantom of The Opera Cinema, she noticed all of the full parking lots from stores nearby. The lights, the crowd, everything-extremely crazy!

“Wow! Those little girls were right!” She actually said out loud.

(She spoke to herself, in other words.)

           Arlin barged through those doors, cutting through people like a butter knife.

“That was fast!” Marlen said to Aishah.

“Yeah!” She responded.

           Arlin found Marlen and pointed in her direction.

“You! Alright! I’m here! Where is he?”

Skandar was across the hall from all of this teenage-escapading from all around the state! He, who had been in a room full of girls, could only focus on the one with the shiny, long, black hair. (In case you’re wondering, a hint would be that Arlin was one of the few brunettes who had shiny, black hair.) Skandar was seriously about to go over there to meet Arlin; and trust me, that’s all Arlin wanted to happen.

“OMG! He’s coming this way! What should…Is…Does my hair look okay?” Arlin asked.

“Marlen! Is her hair okay?” Aishah snapped her fingers in front of Marlen.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Perfect!”

“What are y…”

“Don’t turn around and just pretend we’re talking about something funny.”

           They all fake-laugh their target, well, Arlin’s target.

“Hello! I’m Skandar Keynes; From, Chronicles of Narnia…”

Ch.6 (Skandar Keynes)

“Yes, I know! I loved both of those movies to death!”

“Oh really? Thanks! I’ll be sure to tell the cast!” Arlin laughed.

“So, what’s your name?”

“Arlin K…Salazar.” She starts to say his last name.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“Arlin. Just Arlin!” She tried not to laugh.

“That’s a nice name you’ve got there.” He played that over and over again; same as Arlin with what he had said.

“Well, the movie’s about to start.” Skandar said.

“Yup.” Arlin responded.

Awkward-Seconds-Silence.

“Is it okay if I sit with you…?” He asked ARLIN.

“And us?!” Marlen piped (?).

“Oh, Hi!” He said.

“Hi! I’m Marlen! This is my friend, Aishah!”

“Hello!…Well, Arlin?” He almost put out his hand.

          Arlin was trying not to “break a sweat,” but then again, Skandar Keynes…And out of nowhere Nick Jonas decides to join them! And I was on what had become the best night of my life! I’m finally going out with Perry Delloplane! And then, out of nowhere, Nick Jonas seems to be available, and in the area? Great!

Going Back To PerryLenys…

          He took me to a carnival that had been in town for about two weeks. It had rides, games, concession stands and all that good stuff! We went on the classics; bumper cars, Ferris wheel, and carousel. Perry couldn’t keep up with me on the bumper cars! I was definitely on a roll! Then we bought a bag of cotton candy and shared it. My fingers were all sticky but he held my hand either way.

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

“ What?” He looked confused.

“My sticky, cotton candy-smelling fingers?”

“I ate some too!”

“Hmmmm…?” I was confused now.

“Look, it doesn’t matter if your fingers are: long, short, sticky or clean; I care about how much I’ve waited for this to happen.”

“Really?” I stopped.

“Yeah.” He stopped too.

“This has been amazing! I love it!…All of it! This, here, and you and me…I’m making no sense…” I said.

“Yes you are! That’s exactly how I feel right now! I, actually, didn’t think that there’d be anything more perfect than this.”

“What do you mean?” I took some more cotton candy.

“That’s exactly it! I mean, that is what I mean? I’m trying to make sense here, if that’s ever going to happen.”

I laughed. “Apparently not!”

          He laughed too, his deep blue eyes glistening against his white skin. Then, that strand of hair…it covered his right eye-my favorite eye-because every time I did something stupid on that first date, that right, blue eye would right away tell me that it was okay. Cute, even.

          As he went on and on about something that ,clearly, didn’t interest me at all, I just stared at him. Then, he realized that I wasn’t listening and stared at me, smile on smile.

“So, what else do you want to do?” He asked me.

“I don’t know. We’ve gone on almost every ride in here!”

“Almost every ride…” He thought, getting out of his pensive trance and now pulling me to the one ride that I had said ‘no’ to.

“Oh…com’on! Please!!” His eyes begged me, his arm pulling mine.

“Uh, NO! I don’t think so!”

“Why not?” He stayed still.

“…Be…-Cause!” I set my foot down.

“For me?” He bashed his long eyelashes.

“You promise to hold on tight?” I gave in. He smiled.

“I promise!” He held my hand.

I blushed a little. “Oh Crap!” My feet stiffened.

“What? I told you I’d promised?!” He said.

          After about ten minutes, he decided to let it drop. I felt so embarrassed, but I’m extremely afraid of roller coasters. Instead we went on all of those nauseating rides that, for some reason, I was completely comfortable about!

Ch.7 (Sparks)

Now Arlin and Skandar…

They were watching the movie, (a new chronicles…movie that he had starred in, if you must know!), feeling the least bit uncomfortable. Marlen and Aishah were so intrigued by the movie, that they had completely forgotten who they were with to even pay attention.

Several times, Skandar tried to pay attention to anyone but Arlin’s reaction to the film, but she was all he could look at.

“What?” He said.

“What?” Arlin asked back, confused and laughing at the same time.

“Uhm…are you liking my movie?” He finally got it out.

“Yes. I loved the first one, why wouldn’t I like the sequel?”

“Hmmmm…good point.” He patted her hand, softly brushing the layer of skin as an excuse to touch her.

“Your hand is so soft!” It slipped from his mouth.

“Thanks…? It’s an off-day to not hear a compliment on the softness of my hand!” Her sarcasm boomed. He laughed, sighing.

As Skandar pulled his hand away, Arlin felt how cold she instantly got.

When the movie was over, everyone went from complete and utter darkness to the plain, fluorescent lighting of the mall.

“Ah!” Arlin’s sensitive eyes screamed to be closed.

Nick had the same reaction. They practically mimicked each other.

“Oh my…” Arlin blinked a couple of times. “All better!”

“Are you sure?” Skandar worried.

“Don’t worry!” Marlen reassured. “She’ll be fine!”

“Okay then.” He smiled.

Arlin was about ready to go on, when Skandar grabbed for her hand.

“What are you doing (not that it’s bothering me)?”

He chuckled. “Dancing with you in the mall, what does it look like?”

Arlin’s face was puzzled; enjoyably-puzzled.

Then she heard clearly, that melody…Twilight! It was Bella’s Lullaby!

“You read Twilight?”

“Yes I do!” He laughed a little, trying to get out the words. “Edward Cullen is dazzling!!!”

Arlin laughed as she swayed in Skandar’s arms. She rested her head on his shoulder.

“So, how is this happening, exactly?!” She finally spoke.

“What’s happening?”

“No offense, but, when there’s music like this, or any type, we Americans just walk around, humming and shopping. I didn’t really think that THIS would be going on!”

“Well, I have a few connections!”

Okay! Arlin thought to herself.

Suddenly…

“Arlin!”

“Keyra!…AND JOE JO-…”

“JONAS; yeah, I know. Hi Arlin!”

“Oh, hello. I’m Skandar Keynes.”

“Hey Joe.”

“ ’Sup, Nick?!”

They did their handshake.

Keyra rolled her eyes at how long it took for two brothers, who TOUR all around the world together, to do a handshake.

“So, what are you guys doing here?” Nick finally says something!

“Oh, you know, walking around, getting chased by fans, stuff like that! HAHAHA!” Joe responded.

Keyra laughed. “So, I chase you around?? Is THAT who this is??”

“Hey, HEY Baby! No, no, no…” Joe apologized.

“Haha! You should have seen your face!” She pointed.

“HA!” Joe said.

“Arlin, are you hungry? Because Joe and I were just about to go eat something…” Keyra waited, holding Joe’s hand.

Skandar whispered in her ear, she nodded and he explained their…“situation”. (They decide to go eat, just not in the mall, but at some pizzeria!)

“We’re actually going out…” Skandar began; Keyra interrupted.

“Congratulations! You guys look so cute together!”

“What?!” Nick was shocked. “You go out to see one movie and now you’re going out?!”

Marlen and Aishah laugh. It all happened so quickly! Arlin hid her ‘blushing’ from Skandar.

“Oh, wh…not yet!” He smiled at her, gripping her hand tighter.

Arlin looked up at him a bit too quickly, almost feeling offended. Skandar held up Arlin’s chin with his thumb and index finger. Keyra covered Joe’s eyes. Nick laughed at his brother. Skandar sealed the last moments of silence with a kiss.

“Now, we’re dating.” He smiled down at her.

Arlin smiled cheezily, as always.

“I love it when you do that.” He smiled back at her.

She blushed.

“Well…that was nice.” Joe interrupted. Keyra shoved him.

“What?” Arlin asked.

“Nothing, nothing.” Keyra said.

Meanwhile, Noriette, my best friend from grade school, was at the mall with a couple of friends. She passed right by the scene of people and superstars…backing up in the process!

Nick, part of the ‘scene of people and superstars’, was barely paying attention, feeling left out, almost.

Hey! He thought.

Oh my GOD! It’s Nick Jonas! Okay…okay! Stay calm…even if he’s coming straight towards me…

“HE’S COMING STRAIGHT TOWARDS ME!!” She screamed under her breath.

Noriette was standing next to a gumball machine. Nick was inches from her.

“Oh, gum!” (?) Nick used the excuse of gum to get closer to her.

“Hi.” He said.

Noriette froze in her tracks.

“H-hi.” She responded a second later.

“You know who I am, don’t you?” He asked.

“Uh…No?” She nodded sarcastically.

He laughed. “You’re pretty AND funny? Nice!”

She blushed slightly.

“So…how’s it goin’?” She started up some small talk with him.

“…” He took the moment to laugh at that, “Oh, you know, walking around the mall, getting chased by fans…Usual stuff.” He laughed.

“Oh!” She laughed.

They laughed. (Basically, there was a lot of laughing going on at the moment.)

Nick’s friends were all wondering why he was taking so long at the gumball machine-and then noticed the pretty girl that he was talking to, then called to him and said they’d meet him outside when he was ready-which wasn’t going to be for a while!

Anyway, Let’s finished up PerryLenys’s date, shall we?

So, as we had left off, Perry and I were out with Keyra and Joe, bowling and kicking butt as we did it! Perry and I had our big strike (kiss.) Joe was extremely jealous of that- And the fact that Keyra had wont the game. HA! Then, Perry and I left to start our date, where he surprised me, once again, with how sweet he was! The Carnival on a first date was the most perfect of perfect first dates! The roller coaster-not so much! I guess since I’m a girl (and I really HATE stereotypes, but I’ll have to make an exemption) that I should be a wimp! We rode the death trap.

“Hey! Hey, it’s okay!” Perry comforted me. He hugged me, stroking my hair and face.

I nodded hesitantly. “I’m okay! Well,…that’s embarrassing!”

He laughed. “I’m sorry! If I’d known you’d get like this, I would have dumped the idea.” He was hugging me tightly to his chest. My arms were wrapped around his neck, fingers intertwined. I giggled softly, whispering softly in his ear, “Take me home?”

He nodded.

He gave me a piggy ride to the car.

ARLIN WAS IN OODLES OF TROUBLE IF SHE DIDN’T GET HOME SOON!

I got a phone call on the ride home, one of my missed calls of the night!

“Aren’t you gonna get that?” Perry asked me. (Silly boy!)

“No.”

He shrugged. After a minute or two, he asked how I was feeling.

I nodded. “I’m fine. Just overwhelmed was all.” I smiled at him.

He smiled back. “Good. Because…there was one more thing that I wanted to show you.”

I looked at him, confused.

“Don’t worry, there are no roller coasters at this place.”

“HahaHA!”

He kissed me at the stoplight, since he was the one who had to drive.

Ch.8 (Just Kiss Me.)

We passed by the cinema, where they were giving a movie with Skandar Keynes in it. That’s when it hit me. Because we ALL know that Arlin could not resist!

“Hello?” She answered right away. She’s good!

“Hey Arlin! How are you holding out at the house?”

“Oh, good. Eating something.” It was totally quiet.

“You went out, didn’t you?!”

She started to speak, but I cut her off.

“We’ll talk about it when I get home!” I said, hanging up first.

“Oh crap!” Arlin thought out loud. She stood up, startled.

“What?” Skandar asked; He did the same.

“You have to go, NOW!”

“Why?!…I mean, I wouldn’t want to go now!”

“I’m sorry! I had a great time!”

“Me too!” He grabbed her face gently into his hands, bringing her closer to him. He smiled at her first, making sure that she’d be okay with that. Although it was obvious that she was!

          He kissed her lips gently. His tongue slipped into her mouth, where hers awaited anxiously. (They were kissing passionately. It had to be done! Surprisingly, Skandar and Arlin knew exactly how to do it.) Skandar touched her face, feeling the smoothness of her cheeks. Their tongues had their own battle inside their mouths. Arlin wrapped her arms around his pale, white neck. Finally after about ten minutes, Skandar pulled away, sadly, making it end all too soon. Arlin’s mind was clouded. Skandar was breathing heavily, his forehead against hers. He smiled at her, said “bye,” and then left out the door. Arlin was sitting on her bed, then laid down, mesmerized as soon as he left. She practiced her breathing.

Meanwhile, PerryLenys…

“Where are we?” My eyes were shut tight.

“Step inside.”

“With my eyes closed?!” I didn’t want to fall.

“I’ve got you, it’s okay.”

“Yes, it is,” I muttered.

He ignored me.

We walked inside. My eyes were still closed. It was warm inside the dark place. It smelled like…vanilla?

“Mmm…’ I took in the sweet vanilla. He scrambled around.

“Okay; open your eyes.”

It was bright. There were frames hanging around. Paintings. Artsy.  The view was amazing. The shore. The waves were coming in and out. The window was enormous! There was even a boardwalk leading to the beach. Some backyard!

“Wow!” I gasped at the view.

“I know. But you have no idea how amazing it looks right now!”

He stared at me as I stood in front of the window, the wind blowing in my face. My hair blew wildly.

I blushed. He had no idea how amazing this was for me too!

“…I, um…want to show you something,” He walked around, looking for something, “Please, make yourself at home!…Um, do you want anything?”

You. “Nothing. It’s fine, thank you.” I said.

“Okay.” He bit his lips, smiling. He went on, coming back in a couple of minutes.

“…I tend to think a lot, and well, I draw what I think about.” He came to sit down next to me. He handed me a paper from the top.

“This one took me awhile…I wanted to get it down perfectly.”

It was…me. I was being drawn by my boyfriend! crazy!

“ Oh, my gosh!” I observed myself in the drawing. It was like staring into an animated mirror; “Wow! These are really good!…It’s , amazing, actually!…” I turned to him.

“You didn’t tell me you could draw!” I accused him.

“It slipped.” He shrugged.

“Perry, what I meant to say was, ‘You didn’t tell me you could mirror your thoughts!!!’ These, everything about you,….ahh! You’re amazing!”

I gave up explaining what he was to me. Only because ‘amazing’ didn’t just cut it! He was: glorious, sweet, smart, caring, passionate; the exact replica of the Perry I used to dream about 24/7. He was all of that and so much more.

He smiled at me. “You’re everything I always knew you’d be…” He took that pause to touch my cheek with the back of his hand, “and so much more.” He leaned in closer towards me. I went forward, mirroring his actions. He stared into my eyes; I stared into his deep, blue eyes; He brushed my bottom lip with his index finger. I blushed uncontrollably. Perry smirked at my blushing, not enough for me to notice. He pulled me in to begin one of the greatest kisses of my life! The want, the need, the desire: all the same but all there, differently expressed.

Perry’s kisses had never been so intense, but all at once, it was just as sincere as the first; only longer, and more passionate and longer. When he pulled away to catch some air, I practically fell to the couch, where we had picked up where we’d left off. His tongue softly traced the outside of my lips. I was hyperventilating. I opened my eyes, knowing that I was killing the moment, but needing to look at him. His eyes were watching me. I nodded an “okay” and his tongue found mine. My fingers wove into each other around his neck, moving up to knit them into his pitch black hair. This time, I pulled him away to catch my breath. I rested my head back, onto the couch. He grinned at me. I looked up at the ceiling still learning how to inhale and remembering how to exhale. My hands were shaking, I didn’t know why, but I hope it was because I was hyperventilating.

Perry tried not to laugh at my reaction to…that. He tried to help the situation by doing the same, later realizing that he truly needed it! He looked at me, head still rested on the couch. I looked at him. He smiled. I returned the gesture. Then he spoke.

“Let’s take you home.” He reached for my hand.

Ch.9 (Mm-hmmm;D)

When I finally got home, Arlin was sleeping. I was too mesmerized to even argue, not to mention walk or even think straight.

The Next Day…

Sun was brightly shining into my window and trying to get through my eyes. I wrenched them open, screaming, almost completely falling off of my bed! Arlin had apparently been staring at me sleep.

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” Arlin and I screamed at each other.

She laughed, watching my reaction. My heart was drumming in my ears.

“Hi.” She said.

“…uh, hi?!” I was annoyed at my wake-up call.

“How’s it go-…”

“This is not a conversation over the phone! I’m right here…”

She laughed. “Sorry.”

“Speaking of…”

Uh-Busted!

“Okay, so maybe I left the house, but I was being mocked by your little sister and her friend. AND it just so happens that he DID notice me and he DID kiss me and I AM his GIRLFRIEND!!!” Arlin shouted out.

I waited, then spoke when I could feel her skin cool in her face.

“Are you done?” I asked calmly.

“Yes.” She waited for me to shout back at her, only differently.

“…What?” I asked.

“You’re not yelling. Aren’t you mad?”

“No. I’m not mad.”

“But you’re going to yell…”

“No.”

“Why?”

I stared at her, bewildered, then smiled. “Keyra called me while I was on my date and she had told me about you and Skandar when she had left a message. I know everything there is to know about him. He’s a pretty good guy. I trust you, too!” I scuffed up her hair.

“Hey!” She readjusted her long, black locks.

“You’re still just a teenager. Don’t screw this p and make it go too fast!”

“Ha! Of course not! What am I, stupid?!…Don’t answer that!” She put one finger in the air.

I waited a minute or two before we both burst into laughter.

“Don’t worry about it! I trust me too!” Arlin said, ungrammatically correct.

“I’m going to ask Marlen if she’s ready, because I’m picking her up from Aishah’s house! I’m going to go get ready.”

As I’m Getting Ready…  

I haven’t forgotten about Marlen, don’t worry! I sent Arlin to get Marlen, who was picking out some cute boys (Marlen, not Arlin!) with Aishah.

Arlin’s confused at why they were pointing at random little boys until she understood everything!

“Oh, wow! Dylan and Cole Sprouse…huh.” She said, staring at Marlen and Aishah. “This should be fun.” She sat down somewhere and stared, almost too casually.

15 Minutes Later…

“Arlin, Arlin! Guess what?” Marlen jumped up and down.

“What?” Her mouth tried not to hang too open.

“Cole and Dylan invited us to go see a live broadcasting of their show!”

“They couldn’t have said, ‘a movie’ ?!”

“That’s so, so much better than a movie!” Aishah stated.

“Well, duh!” Marlen said.

Marlen and Aishah talked on and on about their double date with the twins, and Arlin just looked at them as she walked them home. Suddenly, her phone saved her from hearing any more details.

“Hello?” She answered.

“Arlin?” Skandar answered back with his deep English accent that made her swoon.

“Hi.” She smiled, showing her mouthful of grillZ (braces).

“Hello.” He replied.

Moments of silence, a breath or two inhaled and exhaled almost too harshly.

“So…?” Arlin started.

“I missed you.” Skandar told her.

“I missed you too.” She said, smiling again.

“Why is she all ‘smiley’?” Marlen asked aloud.

“Are you talking to you…” Aishah stared at Marlen.

“BOYFRIEND?!” They said together.

Arlin smiled nervously.

“Tell them it’s a ‘yes’.” He told her smoothly.

“Okay.” She did as she was told.

“OOOOOH!” Aishah and Marlen yelled.

“ANYWAY…!” Arlin said.

“Meet me, today…I…need to see you.” Skandar told her.

It was quiet.

“Okay.” She giggled.

“Cool. Stop by my house, here, then.” He said. He gave her the address, too.

“Okay.” She had it written down and ready to go.

At Skandar’s…

Arlin did seem to notice that she had no idea what his house had ever looked like. He didn’t even live in the United States! Suddenly, she found the place he had said was his “house” and knocked on the door.

“Skandar?” She called.

The door opened. He motioned for her to come inside.

“Thanks.” She said.

He closed the door quietly.

“Why is it so dark?!” She yelled, nervous.

“Calm down, Arlin! I’m just trying to be romantic!” He took her through the dark room, over to the dark dining room with the candles down yonder.

“Oh my gosh! Skandar!” She slapped his arm lightly.

“What?!” It confused him to see her react to what he did. Normally, Arlin would usually just gasp, not hit him.

“I’m sorry!” She laughed, “Did you do this all for me?”

“For US. I wanted to see you tonight because I have to spend as much time with you as possible.” He said.

Arlin was a bit shocked. She really wanted to ask him why, but she held it in. Skandar stared at her, waiting for her to ask him something.

“What?” She stared at him, confused at how awkwardly silent it was, not so much the things he was saying.

“Nothing.” He grabbed out for her hand. Suddenly, he got up, pulling Arlin with him.

“What are you doing??” Arlin whispered, smiling slightly.

“SHH!” He took Arlin’s hands and wrapped them around the back of his neck. He put his hands on either sides of her waist. Arlin blushed slightly. They danced to the city sounds. It was pretty quiet throughout the rest of their time together. Arlin got extremely comfortable and laid her head on his chest. Skandar rested his head on hers. Arlin closed her eyes and drifted into her own ‘La La Land’ as Skandar held her in his arms.

Moments like these are never to be wasted. There’s always a way to keep it all together and stay ‘in sync’. We’re young now, but what if you let time pass you by? What if you love someone now, but not forever like you’d promised? I mean, sure, it happens. We’re only humans; we only have desire on our minds; we only like to live for the moment not knowing it’s all we have; it’s all we care for. That’s exactly true about Skandar. He was only human. He could only live in the moment as a rushed life of Hollywood and fame; he could only want so much as to what was given to him; he would only love as much as he felt he was loved back. But with Arlin…It was all very different. This terrain was very foreign and new. She was his want, his need, his moment; except he didn’t want anything to do with the lack of time to appreciate it. Skandar knew how much he loved her. He knew how much he wanted to be with her. From the beginning of it all…the black haired beauty from the cinema, that was his calling of desire.

After Arlin turned around and noticed him-the expression on her face, just what he had hoped for- his face lit up more than he’d ever known possible.

For as long as he had known, he’d always been happy with his early start in his career. He adored the Narnia fans. His cast had become one of his greatest buddies. Somehow, someway he felt empty; unamused. It was as if he was waiting for that meteor to shoot across his sky; As if he was waiting for Arlin to catch his eye all along.

“Why are you so quiet?” Arlin asked him, lifting up her head to stare into his eyes.

Skandar returned the look. “No reason. I just don’t find that there is anything to say, really.”

“…Oh?”

“Well, yeah. I just thought that you could hear everything I was saying.”

Arlin was confused. “Skandar, maybe it’s just me,…but I’m no Edward Cullen!” Arlin laughed to herself.

Skandar joined in. “What I mean is: ‘When it gets really quiet like this, I just feel like we can hear each others’ secrets.’ ”

Skandar came close to her left ear and whispered, “Close your eyes. Empty out any thoughts and listen carefully.”

She did as she was told. Skandar began to whisper in her ear.

“You are one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen, do you know that? That’s exactly what I was thinking that day that I thankfully noticed you out of all of those insane girls,” he laughed, “No offense, but fans get pretty crazy!

Okay, okay! Seriously, though… Pretty is just when you were turned around and your back was facing me. I never told anyone this, but, as soon as you turned around, I forgot how to breath. You were literally breath-taking!”

Arlin giggled. “I hope I ended up being breath-returning!”

“Oh, but of course!” He continued whispering in her ear, “And thanks to you being breath-returning, I spoke to you! I was clearly at the point where, and don’t laugh, but, either you were going to act like a fan and attack me with your endless shrieks or I was going to faint!”

“WHAT??” She covered her mouth.

“SHH! You can tell me your secrets when I’m done!”

“Okay! Fine!” Arlin said. She laughed at him.

“Com’on! I’m being serious!” He laughed, almost too quietly to try to be serious. “Okay,” He whispered, “So, I was thinking, as you were staring at me staring at you, that you thought that I was some kind of idiot or something.” He laughed, cocking his head back, “I was hoping you’d say ‘yes’…”

“Why…” She stared at him, starting to ask a question.

Skandar lifted his head up, looking at her. He smiled, letting her speak.

“Why wouldn’t I have said ‘yes’?”

“…I…don’t know.”

Arlin shrugged her shoulders.

Ch.10 ( GEEZ SKANDAR!)

They stopped dancing after a long discussion that they were having about their first impressions of each other. Skandar and Arlin went out to the balcony and sat on the stairs that were their own part of the boardwalk to the beach.

“Oh my gosh!” Arlin was flabbergasted.

“What?” Skandar asked her.

“It’s all so…” Arlin almost couldn’t continue.

“Beautiful?” He finished her fragment. “Yes. I always thought that you were.” Skandar touched her cheek lightly with the back of his hand.

“It’s all perfect. Everything. You. Me. This…place! I love it!” She told him.

“So, you really liked everything?”

She nodded.

“That’s good. I hoped you would.” Skandar told her, brushing her lips with his finger.

“Mm-hm!” She started cracking up.

“What?” What did I say?” He asked her.

“It was in Prince Caspian…” She paused to laugh, “I was watching the movie with the audio commentary…”

He stared at her, raising his left eyebrow.

“Uhm…yeah…you said that.” Arlin blushed with embarrassment.

He tried to remember, failing in the process. He laughed anyway to ease her embarrassment.

“Mm-hm!” He said for her to hear in person. Arlin laughed. She kissed him on the cheek. He said it again.

Arlin laughed, then gave him a sly look. He returned it. The stars were attempting to shine throughout the sky, but it just seemed like there were enough lights in the city, so it didn’t really matter!

Arlin actually searched his face for a kiss this time! Oh man! She was smiling as Skandar came to stop at her lips. Skandar touched her face, cupping his hand to the shape of her jaw. Arlin’s eyes were closed. Skandar started to stand up; Arlin started to pull away; to her surprise (actually, not really!) Skandar didn’t let her!  He tripped backwards, landing on his back. Good thing the sofa was right behind them! Arlin gasped. Skandar barely budged. Geez, Skandar!!!

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?”

“Better!” He really wanted to continue, but remembered the reason why he had told her that he wanted her to spend as much time with her as possible…He kissed her lips one more time, pulling her closely to his chest on the couch.

Arlin breathed heavily against his chest, clouded in her head by Skandar’s sweet kisses, as always.

“Arlin…this is too much! And it’s going to be harder to do anything that I wanted to accomplish.”

“What are you trying to accomplish…exactly?” She lifted her head and rested her chin on his chest.

“I’m going to miss you so much…” Skandar mumbled to himself.

“What are you talking about??” She almost shouted.

“Arlin, you don know that I haven’t given up my career and I pretty much do this for a living…Well, I sorta have this movie that I something, and , well, movies take a while to get worked on…”

“Okay…” Arlin tried to understand.

“Well, yes, um…I’m pretty sure that I’m getting picked for someTHING in this movie and I really want US to be okay; I want you to be okay with this, the whole ‘me going away for a wildly long amount of time’ thing…I’d really miss you if I ever had to go away too long! You know?” He stared deeply into her eyes.

“I, well, you know…what are we going to do about that?” Arlin faked a half-dead smile on her face.

“Don’t give me that.” He looked at her.

“What?”

“Give me a real expression; one that you’re actually feeling.”

She stayed with her choice of a half-dead cheezy smile. Skandar grabbed her face and tried to make more acceptable facial expressions with it: angry, sad, infuriated, jealous…etc.

“There.” Skandar finished rearranging her facial expressions.

“What do I look like?” She asked, curious.

“You look,…upset…,a bit understanding…and in love.”

Arlin blushed. Skandar looked all around her face, searching for anger. He reeled her in, closer to his lips, her face was still in his hands.

“I will NEVER forget you. It’s impossible to do that…” He brushed his nose up and down from her nose to her lips, then back to her nose, “I love you too much.”

Arlin kissed him, her saltwater tears escaped her eyes at an acceptable pace. Skandar felt his cheek getting a hint of moisture. He stopped kissing her, looking at her eyes. Arlin tried to look away.

“Don’t cry, Arlin.” He wiped away her tears.

“I’m happy for you…,really!” She wept on his chest.

They were still lying uncomfortably on the couch. Skandar didn’t say a word. Arlin let everything out that night. She fell asleep, curled up on Skandar’s chest.

“Don’t worry Arlin, I’ll figure out when I come back. I’ll be with you soon enough.” He kissed the top of her head.

Ch.11 (Nickette)

So Nick, what’s the deal with you and Noriette?!

The last time these two ever saw each other was at that mall outing where the both of them happened to have been with their friends. Nick, with his brothers and their girlfriends, where Kevin and Yas had gone to get some coffee and talk. Noriette was with her buddies and along came Jonas! She had been standing next to a gumball machine for some apparent reason (?) and Nick was walking straight towards her. He had purchased a gumball as an excuse to talk to her…And, well…they talked, alright!!! They asked each other questions about movies, music, life, friends, family, any other interests besides the apparent (Nick and Noriette were definitely on the same page with the interests!) So later on, they exchanged information, Nick’s info being a little more limited to phone number and e-mail address, and decided to make plans.

“Hello?” Noriette answered her phone as she sped down the stairs with her bag.

“Hey, it’s me.” Nick said.

“I’m walking out the door right now…!” She trailed off as she saw what was waiting for her from outside her house.

“Hi there.” Nick was outside, in some nice, tight jeans, a really cool graphic t-shirt and his green, white and black checker-laced converses.

“Um, you look great…,as always.” Noriette told him, hoping that he didn’t hear her. He smirked at her, slightly. He heard that!

“You look great, too! From what I’ve seen so far!”

“Uh!” She patted his arm lightly.

He laughed, getting a little red. “That didn’t come out the way it was supposed to!”

“Oh really, now?!” She interrupted him.

“Um, seriously though, I’ve only seen you about two times in my life, this one included, and you’ve looked really great every time!”

Noriette felt a little dumb, “Oh…um, thanks.”

He laughed. “Com’on, let’s go!” He grabbed her hand.

Noriette and Nick went to the car, where Big Rob was taking over the car as chouffer. Nick and Noriette talked on their way to the most amazing miniature golf course ever!

“Aaaaaawwwww!” Noriette shrieked.

“Do you like it?” Nick asked her.

“Yes!…But, um, I’ve never been to one of these mini-golf places.” She confessed.

“It’s okay. I have been to a couple. I’ll show you the ropes.” He winked at her.

Noriette blushed.

They stepped out, rented their clubs and started off. Nick demonstrated and Noriette looked more than attentive.

“Com’on, here…I’ll show you.” He grabbed her hand, stood behind her and positioned that same hand on the club. Noriette “pretended” that she couldn’t do any of it properly as an excuse for Nick to have to touch her even more! (wink, wink.) Nick, not being born yesterday, automatically knew what game she was playing, and asked her to try it on her own so that he could see whether she was paying attention or not. Noriette was actually paying very close attention so she wouldn’t look stupid and she scored a bit too perfectly for just a beginner.

Nick was in awe. “Are you sure you’ve never played this game before?” Nick smiled at her.

Noriette smiled at him and nodded.

During the rest of the game, obviously Nick was in the lead, him and his love and patience for golf, but Noriette was right behind him. They were practically competing against each other! Afterwards, they summed up the scores, with Nick, of course, as the winner. He did his little “victory dance” and Noriette stared at him. Nick cleared his throat and stood still.

“Are you hungry?” Nick asked her.

“Um…actually I have to probably start heading home…Can I get a ride?” She asked, seeming embarrassed.

“Did you really actually consider the thought of you walking all the way home, by yourself?” Nick asked her.

“Oh, right.”

“I’ll take you, of course!” Nick said, grabbing her hand.

At Noriette’s Front Porch…

Nick got the chance to quickly get her home, safe and sound. They were standing right outside her house. Noriette and Nick were both staring away from each other, at the sky. Noriette turned back to look at Nick, who was still staring at the sky. Noriette stared at his face, his lips, and his hair-every bit of perfection. She had the sudden urge to touch him, his face, his lips-more so with her own- instead of just his hands.

Nick finally came to look at her, right when she attacked his lips as quickly as she could with her own! She was too embarrassed to pull away, and she didn’t want to, so she kept kissing him. Nick, of course, being a guy, didn’t just stand there taking it all in for himself, he also kissed her back, which made Noriette very happy and she felt a lot better when she kissed him because she knew that he was kissing her back! Noriette’s sisters were coming to the door, Noriette tried to become unresponsive towards Nick’s kisses. It worked to the point that he stepped back slightly to ask her what was wrong. The door opened.

“That.” Noriette simply told him.

“Hi!” Nick greeted the girls.

“Mmmmmmm!!!” They screamed in muffles. (They were covering their mouths.)

“…Okay, then. I’ll see you later, Noriette.” He let go of her hand, hers slipping out of his grasp.

Can’t really tell you that hat was the last time that they saw each other…because it wasn’t.

Several Days Later…

Nick called Noriette, who was working at the time, but she couldn’t just avoid him because of that fact. She picked up and spoke as quickly as possible.

“Meet me on my lunch break, maybe?” She asked.

“Of course!”

Noriette was biting her lips on the other end of the line.

“Gotta go, bye!”

‘Love you, bye!” Nick hung up.

Noriette sighed, and when she took a good look at the clock, went back to work.

The day dragged and Noriette was organizing products and other things. The clock tolled. Nick time was getting closer.

Ch.12 (Home at Work)

Meanwhile, PerryLenys…

Ah, yes, the primary couple of the whole story shows up! Well, they’ve been busy, what with Perry getting promotion and Darlenys’s work was catching up with her. Much more time to be inseparable!

The thing is we don’t let things get in the way, we just take advantage of them and help each other get through them.

Today, I was super-busy with a couple of logo-designs for three or four big and new companies! I had no time for almost anything, not even Perry! -Or so I thought. Perry would usually try and calm me down when I got all “angsty” when it came to work. I was lucky enough to work at home, that way I could spend some time with the girls, Marlen and Arlin. This fact also allowed Arlin ,the oldest of my “roomies,” to have a life. Lately, she’s been hanging out at Skandar’s place. Every time I ask, call or even talk to her, she just simply stares back at me and then-nothing. She tells me everything’s okay with her and Skandar-whenever I can get something out of her. Other than that, he’s here with her at home. It’s nice that Arlin has Skandar. I really appreciate him keeping her occupied. And he’s really smart, so it’s nothing like that! He never seems to bring her down or anything. She’s just been a little,…melancholy. My phone rang.

“Hello?” I said, almost breathless when I saw who was calling.

“Hey.” Perry said, “Are you okay? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages! How’s the logo-de-…”

“Don’t say it!”

He paused.

“It’s…I got one done. I’m on my way to the second one. Arlin’s been worrying me. I don’t know what I’ve been doing lately because I can’t remember and…UHH! My head is spinning from how crazy life’s been!”

“Hey, hey! Calm down, Darlenys! Look, do you need any help? I just finished locking up and I have Chinese!”

“Hmmm!” I sighed, chuckling. “Okay. I mean, will you? Could you, really?” I thought about what he had said about locking up. “Wait, you said you just locked up NOW?”

“Yeah. There’s this huge inspection of the café and I’m in big trouble-the fired, kind- if I don’t make sure that everything’s perfect!”

“Oh. That sounds tough!”

“Ehh, not really. Now, let’s say we help you out. Let me in.”

“You’re here already?” I walked to the door.

“Well, yeah. It sounded urgent.”

“Thank you, so much!” I hung up, running to hug him.

“Hi, there.” he said, his face near my hair.

“Hi.” I smiled at him, looking into his eyes.

“So, how’s about that work?”

I looked down in disgust.

“I’m just kidding. You look like you’ve been at this all day!”

“Pssht! More like all week.” We went inside after standing at the door in each others’ arms.

I sat on the couch, tugging on his hand to follow me.

“Uhh! I have no idea how I’m going to finish or how I’m going to live with myself if I don’t and…(blah, blah, blah…)”

Perry grabbed my lips with his thumb and index finger, pinching them almost.

“Hey! Calm down! You can definitely finish and, I mean, when it comes to how to finish, you did the first one, what’s so much if you do two more? Something nice and simple, right?”

“Hmm?”

Perry laughed; grabbing the left side of my face to reel me in closer to his lips. He unpinched my lips, only to press them against his own.

All the anxiety definitely went away. I was calmed. Perry handled me gently, weaving his fingers into my hair. I felt my hands moving up his chest, around his neck. He stopped, catching his breath.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled. “Now, we should really get to work.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re here; after an extremely long day of work, you’re tired, and yet you come here to help me on something that I’ve apparently failed at doing myself.”

“And?” Perry questioned me.

“What? You’re not tired?”

“I’m here to help you. The last time I checked, you were desperate.”

I covered my face. “UHH!”

“Are you okay?”

“Overly-stressed disorder. I invented it.”

Perry laughed. He hugged me, rubbing my back.

“It happens to everyone.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Whatever that was, back there.”

“I forgive you.” He smiled at me.

We got to work straight away. Perry spent the last four hours trying to figure out how to help. Thanks to him, I finished. The scary part would be presenting and hoping the boss likes it.

“Oh my gosh!!!” I kissed him. He picked me up. I said, almost crying with relief, “Thank you, thank you, thank you so, so much!” I kissed him again.

Perry smiled, laughing at me. “Sure, anytime!” He kissed me.

“You should get home. You’re probably really tired.”

“Um, well, yeah, but it’s okay.”

“Thanks again. Oh, and I’m sorry for going all ballistic on you back there.”

He laughed, remembering, “It’s okay. You look adorable when you’re mad, by the way.”

“Do I, now?” I said, sarcastically.

He kissed my lips one more time, hugged me and left.

Ch.13 (It’s The Best Day Ever!)

Finally, some Skandarlin…

Arlin and Skandar have been spending all their time together. They’ve be remorsing Skandar’s soon-to-be-departure. Skandar was told that he had to leave for a big movie and Arlin’s left to mourn over the fact that she doesn’t really hang out with anyone but her boyfriend, meaning, Skandar. (Meaning, this is not New Moon.)

Skandar hates seeing Arlin this way which is why he’s decided to keep as much contact with Arlin as he possibly can.

“Arlin?” Skandar knocked on the door of her room.

He had come to see her.

“Coming!” Arlin unlocked the door.

“Hey.” She said.

Skandar stared at her with steady eyes. He got closer and touched her lips with his finger.

Arlin hyperventilated.

“Hi.” His face was inches from hers; she could feel his breathing under her nose.

Arlin stood perfectly still; Skandar stepped into her room. He’d never set foot in it before. He shut the door. Oh mannn.

Arlin was frozen. Skandar came back to her. Arlin stepped back, wary.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re leaving today, aren’t you?”

Skandar looked away. He went to touch her face, his thumb lightly stroking her cheek.

Arlin looked away from his gaze.

“Tomorrow.”

Arlin bit her lip. She squeezed her eyes shut and laid her head against his chest. Skandar laid his head against her head. Arlin began to cry. Skandar lifted his head from hers and took her chin in his hand.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

“Huh?”

“I came here to have the best day ever with you!”

“How can I not cry if I only have TODAY to be with you?”

“It’s possible. Just think, I mean, of course I’ll miss you so much that I’ll eventually go crazy, but if we fantasize about today, it’ll keep us happy to the point that we’ll pay attention to that, and not the days you haven’t seen me, or I you.”

“What are you talking about? That’s not even as good as me touching you or kissing you?!”

“Well, no. But I’m sure it will suffice.”

“Skandar…”

“Just try. I mean, we could have an amazing day today and I’ll try and keep in touch whenever I’m not doing anything.”

Skandar looked at Arlin and she just nodded, slowly, but it was still a nod.

Skandar smiled. “That’s my girl.” He kissed her once. (Wow, that was very macho of you.)

“So…What are we going to do?”

“You’re serious? You can’t think of anything to do?”

She shook her head.

“Arlin, I’m here and you’re here.(and there’s furniture;D justkiddingg!) To me, there’s always something we can do.”

“Huh?”

“We can be with each other, silly.” Skandar explained, touching the tip of her nose.

“And do what?” Arlin was obviously already hyperventilating.

Skandar raised his eyebrows slyly. He kissed her. Arlin wrapped her arms around his neck. Skandar picked her up and carried her to her bed. Skandar kissed Arlin with a passion that should be illegal in fifty states. Arlin tried not to pant as she breathed, but it was utterly impossible not to! Skandar’s hands ran through her hair; Arlin’s hands as well. Skandar kissed Arlin like he was never ever going to see her again. He lingered on her lips, his, then moving hastily towards her neck. Arlin got a chance to breathe. Skandar turned so that he was hovering over Arlin’s body. Skandar and Arlin stared at each other in astonishment, or rather, catching their breaths. Skandar kept looking at Arlin. She attempted to breath, but as soon as she inhaled one deep breath, Skandar’s mouth was on hers. Not complaining, but, needing a breath otherwise, she responded to his keenness. Their bodies laid on top of one another’s, touching ever so slightly, yet they could both feel the heated warmth, even through their clothes. Now, they weren’t going to be stupid and screw everything up, but a little “making out” wasn’t going to hurt anybody-or could it?

Skandar stayed with Arlin for as long as he possibly could. They both knew that  they would have to leave each other eventually, but they tried to fit in as much time as they possibly could.

They laid next to each other, staring at each other, trying to memorize every possible facial expression that each of them made. Skandar was willing to leave, of course for his career, but not without memorizing his beloved girlfriend’s face. Only on opposite day would a movie be more important to him than Arlin.

Ch.14 (Skandar’s Departure)

Today was the day. Skandar stared at Arlin as she slept and played idly with her hand. It was almost four in the morning; Monday. Arlin started school today and Skandar started working on his acting and memorizing lines for shooting, etc. He’d spent all night thinking of ways to keep in contact with Arlin. He came up with I.M. and video chats. It was perfect!…except for the time-zone problem.

Arlin moved around , still feeling to see if Skandar had left.

“I’m here, Arlin.” He reached for her hand, sliding his fingers through her hand.

“Oh my gosh!” She wrenched her eyes open and threw her arms around his neck and cried. Skandar rubbed her back, resting his head into her neck, kissing it.

Arlin calmed down after a few seconds and came to the realization that they could always call each other, or e-mail, or even I.M.

“Skandar?” Arlin started to ask.

“Yes?”

“Will you-would you still love me, even if you had to stay longer than necessary?”

Skandar didn’t hesitate in answering back. “Of course I will! Arlin, there are phones and computers in England! And I’m even going to change my cell phone plan and switch to your phone’s company, so that we can talk for as long as we please and not get charged for it! Who knows? I might like it better than my crappy cell phone company!”

“Let’s hope so!” Arlin’s face lit up, “That would mean that I’d get to talk to you all the time!”

“Yes, and it wouldn’t be that bad, staying up late so that you can get a good night’s sleep! I mean, you’re starting school, now, and I’m a little used to staying up really late, so I really don’t mind!” Skandar told her.

“Well, yeah, I mean, if that’s okay with you, but I really don’t think that those teachers of mine would appreciate me drooping my head and eyelids in their classrooms!” Arlin laughed.

“Yeah, me either. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble because you’ve been staying up all night talking to me!” Skandar laughed as well.

“Oh, and we could text each other! I always have my phone with me!” Skandar offered.

“Okay!” Arlin seemed eager to be on her phone 24/7, texting Skandar non-stop. Skandar was happy that she was happy; enthralled, more like it.

It was five forty-five in the morning and Arlin and Skandar were going on and on about the ‘brick in the middle of their road’ and how they were apparently going around it.

“Okay, I now this might sound a bit absurd, but, would you mind if we did video chats? I mean, I wouldn’t want to miss a thing about your life while I’m stuck in in England, away from the best, most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me! Would that be okay, I mean once in a while?” Skandar’s eyes were pleading.

Arlin tried to hide the smile that seemed to be forming around the edges of her lips. “Sure, Skandar. I’d love that!” She smiled, looking at him.

Skandar exhaled a long-held breath. “Oh! Thank goodness! I thought that it was going to be weird or something!”

Arlin laughed at his reaction. Skandar actually tried to hide the slight embarrassment that he felt. Arlin kissed him on the lips, after having seen that it was time for her to get up either way.

“Arlin?” Marlen called from the bathroom.

Arlin and Skandar panicked and Skandar then, thought quickly.

“It’s your turn!” Marlen burst  through the door to tell Arlin to get ready for school.

“Thanks, Marlen!”

Marlen went, closing the door behind her. Skandar came out from behind the door and went to Arlin’s bed again.

“I’ve got to go! I’m not sure that I’ve packed everything! I’ll text you as soon as I can! Bye Arlin!”

Arlin ran over to Skandar and practically jumped on him. He caught her, staring at her lips, that we already, so remaining space between their faces.

“Okay, okay! Go…pack your bags! I’ve got to go to school, Skandar!”

“You’re so mean!”

“What?”

“Just kidding?”

“No.” Arlin laughed

“I guess not.” Skandar agreed, giving her one last peck on the lips.

“Arlin! Are you done yet?!” I called after her.

“Yeah!” She said.

“Skandar, how are you going to get out of here?” Arlin asked him.

“Don’t worry about me! I don’t want you to get in trouble this early!” He said.

“If Darlenys catches you here, you will get me in trouble!”

“Er, right.” Skandar waited a little, then started to sneak out quietly.

“If someone finds you, I had nothing to do with it!” Arlin whispered, trying to almost shout quietly.

“Okay!” Skandar said sarcastically.

Arlin’s first day of school dragged on and on. New teachers, new school, new faces. There never seemed to be anything old, recognizable. It was around math class that she’d wished that there were some way to be able to sleep with her eyes wide open, but not obvious like she was in some trance.

“Hey,” If it weren’t for Skandar and the way that they altered each other irrevocably, and irrationally also…

Arlin turned to hear the voice that would get her through math class…Hayden Christensen. Of course any creature with a name like that would have the face and body to go along with it.

“Uh, yeah?” Arlin responded, then tried to get a grip on her ridiculous reactions,-sweating, breathing almost too unevenly, staring- or at least trying not to.

“Skandar wouldn’t do the same,” She thought immediately.

Her phone sent a vibe through her whole body.

“Can I borrow an eraser?” Hayden, the god from above, asked Arlin.

Smoothly, she frantically reached for her pencil, almost throwing it at him, from how eager she was for him to erase all of his mistakes.

Arlin focused on her phone’s sudden thorough massage throughout her body. It was Skandar. Suddenly, the Hayden reaction seemed almost absurd.

Skandar wrote: “What are you doing right now? I miss you like crazy!!! I’ve boarded a train and a plane so far. Help me!”

Arlin laughed slightly. She texted him back, writing: Pssht! You help me!! I’m in math!”

Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she saw Hayden, the god from above, Christensen looking at her with the biggest smile that the heavens could have ever put on his face. Arlin tried not to get clammy fingers as she texted Skandar, but it was inevitable. He was just so….Oh, look, Skandar!

Skandar texted Arlin back: “Hahaha. Well, I guess you’re right. Good luck!”

Arlin sighed when she heard the bell ring. Finally!

Arlin texted him back: “Gee, thanks.” She picked up her stuff, getting ready to leave, only to find out that she still had history to deal with. Ugh!

In History,…

Arlin sat down next to her friend Jessica from Spanish. Jess was known as the gossiper and nothing more. (This included her talent for talking for a brief period of time non-stop.) Then, as soon as it was unfortunately possible, Christensen sat down next to her friend Jessica.

“Hey there, beautiful.” He sat down smoothly.

Jessica rolled her eyes, yet still managed to giggle. Arlin noticed the way that they were obviously flirting and was instantly comforted. “No more Christensen!”  She thought.

It’s not that he annoyed her. He had barely said more than a sentence-a question, actually. So why did his existence bother her so much? He gave her emotions. Not just any emotions, but the kind that made her feel like she was betraying Skandar’s love and affection towards her. It was as if she were untrustworthy towards herself for doing this to Skandar. Like she were ever capable of doing such a thing.

“Are you going to mind if I sit somewhere else?” Arlin said to Jessica.

“You don’t have to leave!” Christensen’s eyes were agonized.

“Yeah, I do, actually…I sit over there.” Arlin pointed near the door. She got up form the right side of the room (close to the windows) and sat in her seat.

She texted Skandar, “School’s okay, but, I still miss you,” and closed her phone, waiting on the final minute or two.(The bells didn’t always work.)

The bell was taking a little too long and Arlin was getting restless, moving in her seat, opening and closing her phone, twirling her hair….etc. Hayden, the god from above, Christensen, was watching her from across the room. He was sitting near Arlin’s friend Jessica, until Arlin looked in that direction and the seat’s empty. He was coming towards her to sit in front of her. The teacher was pretty strict on seats, but there were like five minutes left and he had left the room to copy some papers for the overhead on tomorrow’s lesson. Great! Arlin thought to herself.

“Hi, new girl.” He said, slyly.

“Hi, new guy? What, I don’t have name?”

“Well, apparently, neither do I!” He smiled the most dazzling of all smiles. Apparently, he thought he was Edward Cullen. He was wrong. He was Jacob Black; the way he tried to drive Arlin off of her road to Skandar, who couldn’t really do much since he was in England. She didn’t want to sound like a little school girl, wining to the teacher about this annoying kid who was pissing her off at the moment. She was just going to have to learn how to deal.

“Why don’t you tell me what I should call you?”

“I like Arlin for me, and hey, annoying kid for you!”

“Oh, Arlin. Hmm, that’s nice.” He smiled, “But, if it’s okay, I’d like to change my name…”

“Sorry, you’re going to have to take that up with whoever’s in charge of the name-changing business. I, for one, can’t help you, annoying kid.”

He smirked at her, then smiled. “Okay, so how’s about a nickname?”

“I’ll bite.”

He laughed. “I’ll go by Hayden,” the god from above, “Christensen.”

The bell rang and everyone was getting up from their seats.

“So…can I, you know, help you with anything, you know, since you’re new and all.”

“When I come to you for something, then we’ll see what you can help me with.”

Hayden tilted his head.

“See you around, Christensen.”

“My nickname’s Hayden.”

Arlin walked out the door.

Ch.15 (You just don’t get it?!)

The teacher dismissed the class, finally and Arlin sighed a big sigh of relief when she had been dismissed. That meant that she could finally leave!

Arlin was so disoriented and tired! She just wanted to go get any other papers other than the first five she’d already been given (school info and general papers that are just “reading” and signing to approve of certain concerns.) she planned to head straight out the door and just lie down. As unbelievable as it was, today had been the longest day of her life!

As she walked home she was feeling a bit self-conscious of the cars. Apparently, there was one following her! She froze and turned around to sigh a sigh of aggravation when she took a look at the designated driver. It was Hayden Christensen. He rolled his window down and smiled at her.

“Hey new-I mean, Arlin.”

“Why hello, Christensen!” She smiled sarcastically.

“Need a lift? You seem tired. I could get you home quicker.”

“Thanks, but, really, I don’t live far from here.” She tried to be as sympathetic as possible. She wasn’t having the best day of her life to be able to feel many different emotions.

“Oh. Are you sure? How far away is it?”

“Um, I don’t know. Two or three minutes away from where we are now.”

“I can make it in one.”

She rolled her eyes. “Really, now?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Arlin started to have flashbacks of all the possible different ways to say that phrase. She immediately started to walk home as fast as she possibly could.

“BYE?!” Hayden yelled, suggestively.

She waved her hand back at his direction violently.

“What had I missed?” Hayden wondered to himself.

Arlin unlocked the door and dropped her bag next to the entrance and went straight to her room as soon as she entered the building where my apartment was.

She turned on her radio and put The Beatles on repeat on her ipod. She kicked her shoes off and got her laptop and turned it on. Arlin took a big sigh and went into her closet to pick out some shorts or sweats or anything that was loose enough or breathable in. She headed straight for her personal bathroom and took a hot shower. When she was drying herself off, she heard a beeping sound coming from her room; her laptop. She put her clothes on and looked to see what was wrong. There was some sort of video chat. She pressed “Accept” and screamed, forgetting that her microphone was on.

“Nice to finally hear you, Arlin.” Skandar smiled widely.

It was really him! Skandar Keynes. Her boyfriend. And he couldn’t wait to talk to her!!

“Arlin?” He said. “What’s wrong?”

Arlin was staring back at the screen, mesmerized. She hurried to fix her hair so that she wouldn’t look stupid once he saw her on her camera.

“Hi Skandar! I’ve missed you!” She said as soon as she was on her camera.

“Hi, Arlin! I’ve missed you more!” He said.

“I doubt that.” She replied sourly.

“Why?”

“You’ve probably got a lot of things on your mind, what with the movie and all. I don’t think there’s room in there for me.”

“Stop that! Of course I’m not going to say that I don’t already have a lot on my mind, but none of that’s pushing out what’s already been there.”

“Well in that case, then you win.”

“So, how was school?”

“Uh! Annoying!”

“Really?…You don’t mind if we don’t talk about it, then, do you?”

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”

“Well, I was just wondering if some day that you’re not doing anything…”

“Like today for example…” Arlin interrupted. Skandar smiled at her eagerness and continued.

“Well, if we could just talk, or stare at each other…?” He thought over what he said, but it still sounded really awkward and a bit psychotic.

“I’d love that, but…” She hesitated, trying not to be eager. Skandar started to speak but Arlin got in her last word.

“Could we actually do that today?”

“Um, sure.”

Arlin and Skandar talked on and on and on. Eventually, I came home and Arlin’s book bag was near the door. I figured that either she just left it there or that she was still excited about high school. That nerd. Whatever it was, because with Arlin you could expect either of those, it was nearly six thirty (p.m. of course!)

“Marlen? Arlin?” I shouted as I entered the apartment, laying my stuff down near the door.

Marlen ran over to greet me.

“Hey, Neni!” She wrapped her arms around my waist.

“Hi, Marlen! Did you have dinner yet?”

“A while ago, actually. I don’t know about Arlin, though. She’s been in her room since we got home from school.” Marlen told me.

“Okay. Thanks. You all set?” I asked her about her homework and chores.

“Yup.”

“That’s a first.” I muttered.

Marlen went back to her doll-playing. I walked over to Arlin’s door and knocked.

“Arlin?”

“Oh my gosh!” Arlin whispered, shifting her weight carefully and adjusting the volume.

“Yeah?” She shouted at the door’s direction.

“Can I come IN?” I shouted back.

“Its open!”

I opened the door and looked around for a while. She looked around as well and wondered what I was looking for.

“Hi?!” I said to her. “You’re alive?!”

“Healthy as a horse. Why?”

“I haven’t heard from you. Bad first day?”

“Um, something like that. No, really, it was just longer than I was prepared for.”

“Have you heard from Skandar?”

“We’ve been texting back and forth since this morning.”

Arlin smiled at the memories this morning had given her to ponder about.

“Oh. Sounds…FUN?!”

Arlin rolled her eyes.

“Oh. Kay. I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be bathing and Marlen’s playing with her dolls if you need anything.”

“I’m fine. Just tired.” Arlin said.

“Kay. I’ll probably go to Perry’s later. Want to go with?”

“No! But tell him I said, ‘hi.’ ” She smiled.

“Okay, then! Don’t jump out of your seat, now! Geez!”

“GO SHOWER!”

“Fine! Geez!”

I went straight to the bathroom and took a shower. When I was wrapping my towel tight under my arms, I heard Arlin, talking. She was talking to someone, but I didn’t remember hearing the doorbell ring. Funny.

“Oh my gosh! Really? That’s so cool!” Arlin said from her room.

“Yeah. It was pretty cool, but I’ve really missed you. Everyday, I feel kind of empty, like something crucial in my life hasn’t happened. I haven’t seen you in a while!”

“Skandar, it’s been 21 hours. It hasn’t even been a whole day yet!”

Skandar? He’s in England! How could that be? ��

I changed quickly into my robe, brushed my hair and ran out of the bathroom.

When I was about to go straight towards Arlin’s room, the doorbell rang. I went to the door, opening it in shock, and secretly, adulation.

“Hi. How may I help you?” If this kid was selling something, I was definitely buying. I examined what was the cutest guy since…and then I instantly thought of Perry. He had blond hair, short, but grown out a couple of inches from his scalp. His eyes were green, he had big, perfectly shaped lips. He was tall, almost as tall as…Perry. A bit younger, I assumed. A bit cute, also…Too young, too young.

“Um, Does Arlin Salazar live here?”

He was Arlin’s friend. But what about Skandar…?

“Um, yeah. She’s here….Do you want me to send her a message?”

“I’m sorry, I thought you said she was here.”

“Yes, she is. She’s talking to her boyfriend right now. He’s in England.”

“England? Hm. I didn’t know she was into that long-distant relationship crap.”

“Well, no. He had to go there for work.”

“What does he do?”

“I’m a little busy, right now, and apparently, so is she. Could you come back later, maybe?”

He glanced at me. I was in my robe. He raised an eyebrow. I knew how busy he thought I was.

“Whoah, whoah! I just took a shower! It’s nothing like that!”

“Wha-…”

“She noticed.” I whispered, shutting the door. I sprinted to Arlin’s room, aggravated by her little friend.

“ARLIN! One of your friend’s who was at the door, and was very good-looking, I must say, was very rude to me! And he kept on asking about you!”

“Oh CRAP!”

“What happened?” Skandar spoke.

“OH MY GOD! SKANDAR! ARLIN, SKOOT OVER!”

“Oh my gosh!” Arlin muttered under her breath. “Darlenys, seriously…com’on. Get out of here!”

“Well excuse me, you’re not the only who made friends when you met him!”

Skandar stared at us while we argued about him. “What? Okay.”

“I’m sorry, Skandar. You’re girlfriend was being a little rude! So, how’s your movie going?”

“It’s okay. She tends to do that!”

“EX-CUSSSE ME?!”

“Oh! I’ll talk to you later, Skandar.” I left the room so that they could hack it out on their own and changed into clothes.

“Arlin, I’m so, so, sooo sorry! I didn’t mean that!…I” He rambled on and on.

“FINALLY! Alone again!”

“So, you’re not mad at me?”

“Of course not! As long as you really didn’t mean that, then we’re good!”

“Of course not!” There was a pause, then Skandar spoke. “So, who was at the door?”

“Crap!” Arlin said, under her breath. “It was some kid from my school. His name is Hayden,” the god from above,  Arlin thought, “Christensen. He has a slight interest in me.” Arlin made air quotes.

“Oh, really??” Skandar said.

“Don’t think too much about it.”

Skandar made a sad face. He had thought about it.

“What is it?” Arlin asked him.

“…If you had to consider him, would you?”

“Who, Hayden?” Probably thinking that she would, Arlin thought of a lie, for Skandar’s sake. In truth, she had known better than to think of Hayden that way, but she just couldn’t help it! He was quite dazzling. It was like he came into her life as a distraction form what she really wanted, Skandar.

“Yes, whatever his name is.” Skandar muttered that last part under his breath.

“Well, no. Not really. And besides, what good would it do? I’ve already got everything I could ever ask for.”

“Well,…good.” Skandar muttered.

“Skandar, I’m hinting a bit of jealousy, here.”

“Well, no. Not a bit.” He said, scratching his head.

“Honestly, I’m not going to let it get anywhere NEAR far.”

Worry-wart.

“Fine. If he as much as tries to even…”

“Jealous!” Arlin sang.

“I’m calm, I’m calm.”

“You okay, there?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

Arlin giggled at Skandar’s reaction. It was silly of him to feel this way. He didn’t even know what Hayden looked like! Then she thought about again and skipped the ideas that were practically jumping off the walls of her head.

It got a little quiet. Skandar sat in his chair, laid back and breathing easily. Arlin stared at him. Then, the most crucial of questions popped into her head.

“So, how much longer am I going to have to live without you?”

“A couple of months; three, I believe.”

“Are they trying to kill me??!!” Arlin was fuming.

“You’ll be fine. Just make some friends. I hear those help you through the rough times. Stay busy. I’ll be back in no time.”

“How do you cope so easily?”

“Easily?! I’ve got a lot to do here, and I know that the sooner it’s over, the sooner I’m back in California.”

“That sounds pretty hard to me!” Arlin muttered.

“Look Arlin. I miss you like crazy and I love you just as crazily, but if I think about that in that way, I’ll be stuck missing you for a while!”

“In a crazy, twisted way, that makes sense!”

“Of course it does! You‘ll see! In no time, you‘ll be in my arms and I‘ll be in yours! Just find something to do! Try out for some kind of sport! What about cheerleading? You told me you loved that!”

“Oh, that.” Arlin’s love for cheerleading had been substituted for her love for Skandar Keynes as soon as that first kiss happened on that group gathering ages ago!

“Yeah, that! Just keep busy, like me, although I have no choice! You’ll see how fast time flies.”

Ch.16 (Effort)

Meanwhile PerryLenys…

“I’m here!” I called from the buzzer so that Perry could let me in.

“Okay.” Perry pressed the button, unlocking the door.

When I got up to his door, he opened it and took me by the hand.

“Well, hello.” He said, smiling almost ear to ear.

“Hiya.” I said.

Perry came closer towards me, his lips lingering on my jaw, down to my neck. I gave the door a little push, closing it successfully. Perry started to suck on my neck. I pushed him away a little.

“What?” He actually sounded hurt. Aw!

“What are the girls going to say?” This was for Marlen’s sake. (wink, wink.)

“You have long hair, you know.”

“Shut up!” I nudged him. “Is this what I came here for?”

“Is this what you wanted to come here for?” He stroked my cheek, all the way down to my neck.

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously!…No, not that I mind…”

Perry’s lips crushed against mine. I couldn’t fight against him this time. Feeling weak, I wrapped my arms around him. He grabbed my hands gently and locked them around his neck. Never detaching his lips from mine, he picked me up and I wrapped my legs around him.

We were headed to his room. I managed to gulp. His lips left mine, only going behind and under my ear. I bit my lip and rolled my eyes to the back of my eye sockets. My head went back, and all of a sudden, when I thought that I would hit it with the wall, it was against something soft, and now Perry seemed shorter than everything else.

Perry sucked on my jaw, going to my neck again. I considered my long, black hair again and sighed. (Cover up wasn’t going to do anything, so I sighed about my alternative.)

My hands were like slick around his neck. I fumbled for a place to set them, just letting them slide down his neck, onto his chest. He stopped kissing me and looked at me, sighing.

“Do you want to go out? Because we can…”

I sat up, rolling my eyes, and kissed him on the neck.

“Guess that’s a ‘No’.” Perry stated obviously.

“Really, now? Is it?” I said sarcastically.

Month one is behind us, especially for Arlin and Skandar.

In a month: friends have been made, relationships have boomed, and everything’s pretty sane.

Arlin took to Skandar’s advice and has been making new friends here and there. She’s been in and out of the house with Jessica, from Spanish and Math. Perry and I are pretty satisfied with the outcomes of that advice. It really killed me to see Arlin that upset about Skandar leaving to England. Perry was upset that I was upset, but nevertheless, he knew how much I cared about my roomies. I used to have to leave the house because Arlin was so depressed, but it really shows that Skandar cares. He still, to this day, I.M.s with Arlin, giving her advice and encouraging her that they’ll be together soon enough. It’s absolutely adorable!

At school…

Homeroom, Arlin went to her locker, Jessica tagging along, and discussed about school-related activities.

“So, how’s Skandar?” Jessica asked, not really caring but wanting to make conversation.

Arlin rolled her eyes, knowing this. “He’s fine. I’ve got two more months until we are finally together! I miss him so much!”

“Wow! You are so lucky!”

“Really? How?” Arlin asked sarcastically.

“Well, you’ve got a great boyfriend and he’s just as in love with you as you are with him!”

“Jess, I’m just lucky, but, I mean, you have half the guys at school waiting on you to say, ‘yes’ to them! Now, if that’s not really, truly lucky, then I don’t what is!”

“Well, yeah! But I don’t’ have the guy waiting for me!”

“Okay, who is ‘the guy’?” Arlin made air quotes around Jessica’s exact phrase.

“Hayden, from Spanish, or math.”

Arlin closed her locker with a little more force than necessary. She sprinted back to homeroom, just minutes before the bell rang. Jessica like Hayden?? Of course! She just had to! It was perfect! Now, she would have no distractions, other than the obvious onsets.

“So, have you tried to ask him to hang out or something?” Arlin asked Jessica.

“Are you crazy??!!” Jessica threw her hands up.

“Apparently.” Arlin mumbled sarcastically. “What’s wrong with that, Jess?”

“Well, everything! It will ruin my vision.”

“Your…vision? Of what?”

“Well, being the hopeless romantic that I am…,” Arlin rolled her eyes at Jessica’s words, “I’d want him to ask me out.”

“So get his attention somehow,…talk to him, you could start off as friends and go from there, hopefully.”

“So get his attention somehow,…talk to him, you could start off as friends and go from there, hopefully.”

“Hmm…” Jessica said stopping her class, “I’ll text you so ideas. You have study hall today.”

“I do?”

“I checked for you.”

“Gee, thanks.” Arlin went to her class.

So Hayden liked to make people like Jessica sit around and worry about him? Typical teenage heart throb. Arlin would have to be blinded by some kind of voodu curse to ever feel that way about him while her and Skandar existed together.

A Couple Of Days Later…

There’s a school trip, a type of recreational trip to the beach. Everyone’s invited! Plus the additional invites, there are some chaperones needed. Other than that, it’s a fun, co-ed trip where almost anything can happen.

“Finally, math!” Arlin sighed, sitting down.

“I know, right?” Hayden Christensen said, sitting down in the seat in front of her.

“Oh, boy. Hi, Hayden.” Arlin grumbled.

“Hey, no Christensen today?” He noted.

“Sorry. I’m having an ‘off’ day today.”

“Really? Why is that?”

“It’s Friday! I’m just…tired.”

“More like exhausted! Do you sleep at night or are you too busy talking to your English boyfriend online?”

Arlin stopped breathing altogether for a second. “What did you say?”

“Oh, yeah. I went to your house one night, ages ago; I don’t think you’d remember.”

Arlin had flashbacks for a couple of minutes.

“Oh, yeah. I remember.”

“So,…Was that, what, an excuse not to talk to me?”

“No, not really. I mean, I wasn’t lying. I really was talking to my boyfriend…”

“Your boyfriend, from England?”

“AIM?”

“AIM? Really? Why are you taking so much effort into lying to a guy who really likes you?”

“Hayden…”

“Just, save it, or better yet, tell your ‘boyfriend’ about it.”

Arlin couldn’t wait for math class to be over, now.

She felt really sympathetic towards Hayden Christensen. He really was just trying. If only he could try with Jessica. She was crazy about Hayden! Arlin thought of the best idea she’s ever had in a long time! It was bound to work!

Arlin looked at Jessica, who was obviously trying NOT to stare at Hayden, the god from above, Christensen. She decided to text her, so as to not make it obvious that she was staring.

Arlin’s text read: “Come to my house after school. TRUST ME, THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!”

Jessica got the text in seconds and stared at Arlin with huge eyes. Jessica texted her, accepting her invitation.

Ch.17 (Planning)

Afterschool…

“So, what was all that about?” Jessica asked curiously.

“I’ll tell you when we get to my place.” Arlin replied.

“Okay…You’re really scaring me, here, Arlin!”

Arlin simply smiled.

When they got to Arlin’s apartment, they went straight to her room and closed the door behind them.

“SPILL!” Jessica said, dropping her stuff on the floor and sitting on Arlin’s bed, next to her.

“Hayden knows about Skandar!”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It really shocked me, because he made me feel all bad and stuff and then he was like, ‘Are you lying to me because…’ “ Arlin didn’t continue.

“Because?…”

“Jess, don’t get mad, but…he likes me.”

“But you love Skandar, right?!”

“Er, right. Still, I felt bad.”

“Yeah.”

“But that’s why I instantly thought of hooking him up with someone who likes him more than he thinks he likes me!”

“Who?”

“Jess, seriously now!”

“Oh, right.”

“Anyway, so I pretty much came up with the perfect plan.”

“And this plan is…?”

“I’m getting there! Anyway, so, you and I go to the school bonfire trip at the beach, and I try to get Hayden to relax and make him think that I’m letting him get closer to me, when I’m actually hooking him up with my friend.” Arlin shoved Jessica lightly and winked at her.

“Oh! I like!” Jessica laughed.

“Yeah! This has got to work!”

Arlin and Jessica spent the weekend plotting and scheming to be ready for the big day. With all of the careful planning, this was bound to work.

On Monday…

There are two weeks left until the trip to the beach and two weeks of Arlin trying to convince Hayden that she’s given him a chance. So much work had to be done without over-doing it or not doing enough. Jessica was telling Arlin everything about Hayden that she could so that Arlin could talk to him without upsetting him-AGAIN.

“Oh god, are you sure?” Arlin asked Jessica if she was okay with this. It was getting a little weird to stalk a person who you were trying to seduce and then give way to a friend.

“Arlin! Don’t worry! I’ll be fine! I mean, as long as you guys don’t, like, kiss or start holding hands-I’ve wanted to do that for way too long! It’s almost embarrassing!” She stated matter-of-factly.

“Er, of course not.” Arlin felt a little vision popping into her head the minute Jess had mentioned kissing or holding hands with Hayden, the god from above, Christensen. She also saw Skandar, pulling Hayden away from her and punching him in the mouth. Yikes!

That night…

Arlin invited Jessica to sleep over, more to plan than do mani-pedies, but still having fun. Time was running out and Arlin still wasn’t sure how to flirt with him-Not that she didn’t know how-without falling for him. She knew what her priorities were but lately, all the talk about Hayden was dangerous for her. She was cautious of Skandar too. She loved Skandar almost irrationally, and he loved her that way too. It would be pure torture if she would ever act so stupidly as to falling into temptation with Hayden; and she’s not much of a masochist.

Arlin was quiet throughout most of the evening, keeping mostly everything to herself. Jessica was looking at a couple of magazines, wondering what to do with her hair for approximately two weeks from now. Arlin stared at her computer screen, just scrolling up and down, listening to music. Suddenly, a window popped up. It was a video chat from ‘SkantheMan’. Arlin smiled and accepted.

“Hey!” Skandar greeted her.

“Long time no see! Hi!” Arlin smiled.

“Oh, definitely. I’ve been dying over here-literally! In the last scene, someone knocked me out in a battle!”

Arlin laughed. Jessica slide out of the room, hoping to find a better place to concentrate on cute hairstyles. She went to the bathroom.

“So, how’s school?” Skandar asked.

Arlin hushed. “School’s…kind of there!”

“ ‘Kind of there’? How?”

“Well, there’s this school recreational trip to the beach, so school’s not so completely horrid.”

“Horrid? Arlin, it can’t be that bad!”

“Well, it sort of is! I mean, I’ve missed you so much…”

“Haven’t you been distracting yourself like I told you?”

“Oh yeah, my friend Jessica is sleeping over tonight. We’re planning for the trip. I can’t wait! I love the beach!”

“When is it?”

“In two weeks!”

“Wow! That was close!”

“What?”

“Um, I have great news!”

“I’m coming back a week after your trip!!”

Arlin screamed. “REALLY?!”

“Yeah!”

“In that case, I REALLY CAN’T WAIT FOR THAT TRIP!”

“So, who’s going on this trip?”

“I don’t know…the whole school, I think. Why?”

“Just wondering who will be there.”

“Skandar, are you acting jealous again?”

“No, I’m not acting. I’m off the clock at the moment.”

Arlin laughed. “You are hilarious!”

“Am I?” He said in a prosaic voice.

“Yeah.”

“And why I am so hilarious?”

“Because you’re being really jealous over something so silly! Tell me exactly what are you worried about?”

“That kid that likes you.”

“Hayden? Oh, you definitely don’t have anything to worry about there!”

“Really?!” He said in the same, uninterested voice.

“Yeah, because my friend Jessica and I are planning a little hook-up with her and Hayden.”

“Well, in that case, I am a little calmed down.”

“Good.”

“Skandar?” Arlin asked.

“Yes?”

“Do you know if you could get done two Fridays from now?”

“Um, I’m not sure. Why?”

“Well, I couldn’t possibly think of anyone that I could hang out with at the beach than with you.”

“I’ll try to figure out when I’m not needed anymore.” Skandar smiled.

Ch.18 (Filling Up The Stash)

Suddenly, Jessica popped in the room.

“Arlin? Darlenys is going out to the supermarket. Do you wanna go?”

She looked back at Skandar, who was yawning. She smiled at him and typed, “Go to sleep. I’m going out. Love you.”

He smiled at her. He typed, “Is it obvious? lol. Bye. I love you more!”

Arlin smiled and exited out and put her computer on standby.

“Sure. Let’s go!” Arlin stood up.

“Talking to Skandar again??” Jessica sang her question.

Arlin blushed. She nodded.

At the Supermarket…

“I’m just going to get what I need and leave!” I yelled after them as they went straight to the magazine section of the store.

“It’s cool. We don’t need too much time to skim through some magazines.” Arlin said, following Jessica.

“I’ll call you, then.” I said, waving my hand.

“GET ME SOME PICKLES!!!” Arlin yelled.

I stopped in my tracks pausing to laugh.

Meanwhile, Jessica and Arlin were looking at magazines, skimming through pages, when suddenly…

“OHMYGOSH!” Arlin practically shouted, making some customers stop and star.

“What?! What is it? Why are you yelling?!” Jessica asked her, trying to calm her down, but only hyping up her mood.

“Skandar’s movie is going to have a premiere party…WITH A SPECIAL SCREENING IN ENGLAND??!!!”

“Really?” Jessica would never be as enthusiastic as Arlin was about England, or Skandar Keynes.

“YEAH! I have to buy this!!”

As Arlin and Jessica were looking through the magazines, Hayden Christensen was doing a little shopping of his own.

“Oh! Body spray!” (I don’t know; What gets guys excited about shopping…?) Hayden grabbed the body spray in his hand. (Axe, obviously. He’d been watching way too many commercials!)

Hayden was passing the magazine aisle, going back an aisle before it when he noticed his two classmates, Arlin and Jessica.

Arlin was looking at a magazine and Jessica was peering out from hers to look at Arlin’s from time to time.

“Skandar Keynes-of course.” Hayden muttered to himself. Maybe she was just an obsessed fan-sadly, gone too far-and she was “keeping the dream alive.” Hayden shook his head from side to side. He went back into his aisle and waited for them to leave.

Hayden grabbed the magazine that Arlin had picked up and flipped violently through it, ripping out the pages that would give him the dirt that he had been looking for.

At the apartment…

“Oh my gosh, finally!” I said as I ripped open a box of Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds. “I needed this.”

Meanwhile, as I’m going insane with all of these different projects and plans, Perry is just about to get off work. Till then, I’ve got some work ahead of me.

15 Minutes Later…

“Hello?” I said, not even looking at the caller I.d.

“Hey, I’ll be there in like, two seconds.”

“Why t-…” The doorbell discontinued my question. I smiled and got up to answer the door.

Outside the threshold stood Perry; deep blue eyes that were on my face as soon as I opened the door. Lips, the lower one thicker than the upper one, parting at the smirk he was now giving me. He walked through the door, standing in front of me.

“Hi.” I said, standing in front of him. My hair was pretty much everywhere! The makeup that I had  worn was running away from the rims of my eye sockets. I had a t-shirt as long as my knees on, and underneath that were some jersey shorts to create the long t-shirt-effect.

Perry raised an eyebrow at my look, smirking at me still.

“Hi,” He wrapped his arms around my waist, making my over-sized shirt come into my sides in the middle. “Are you working hard tonight?”

“Oh, am I! I had to go buy some thinking food tonight! I ran out! It was pretty scary!” I joked.

“Hm…did it work? “A little.”

“Have you tried this.” He grabbed my chin and pressed his lips to mine for a couple of seconds. He looked at me then.

“No, I hadn’t thought of that one.” I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck, and grabbed a fistful of his midnight-dark hair and rose from the ground on my tip-toes to better reach him. My breathing sped and, a few seconds into the passion, I wasn’t the only one who was having trouble breathing!

Perry pulled me to his chest and then, without noticing, I wasn’t on the ground anymore. He was walking towards my room.

“Wait, wait. We can’t go in there!” I said against his lips.

“Why not?” He looked at me.

“Arlin and her friend are in there.”

“Oh, right.” He looked around the room, pausing to look behind me. “Hmmm…”

“What?” I asked.

“Would you look at that! No one’s sitting on the couch!” He said, sarcastically.

I laughed at his sarcasm. He smiled at me, looking up at me, since I was wrapped around his body; my legs were wrapped around his torso like an octopus, as were my arms around his neck; fingers played with his locks of darkness. Perry charged for my couch, slipping and falling on his back, onto the carpet luckily, with me now sitting on the perfect plains of his stomach.

“Uhf!” He said.

I covered my mouth. “Are you okay?!”

He looked at me and said, “That’s gonna hurt in the morning.”

Ch. 19 (I don‘t wanna be,…Without U.)

Meanwhile, Arlin and Jessica…

These girls have been planning and there are officially only thirteen days until said trip. Arlin’s been eating, breathing Hayden information and she honestly thinks that she’s got it pretty much covered. There’s not much left to learn, thanks to Jessica.

“Okay, so, I think I’m ready.” Arlin said.

“I hope so, because you’ve got a week to get Hayden to start talking to you again!” Jessica told her.

There was a knock on my bedroom door, where Arlin and Jessica were at.

“Come in!” They laughed at their little screen-playing game where Jessica was pretending to be Hayden.

“Hey, guys! Did ya miss me?” Hayden came in and dropped his stuff! (Speak of the hearthrob!)

“Holy snot!” Arlin screamed.

“Hayden!” Jessica screamed.

“What are YOU doing here?!” The girls got up and fidgeted with their hair.

“Visiting. Well, you know, I was around the neighborhood.”

“Uh-huh…” Arlin said, dubiously.

Hayden gave Arlin a face, “Anyway,…I thought I’d, um, come by…”

“Sure. Hayden, what are you REALLY here for?” Arlin asked him.

“Okay! You caught me!”

Arlin and Jessica looked at each other. Jessica nudged Arlin and gave her one of the looks that they’d been talking about.

“Listen, Hayden,” She fidgeted with her fingers, “I’m sorry about Friday in math.” Arlin said.

“What?” Hayden looked dumbfounded.

“When I was talking to you, and I was all irritated and stuff, it was just a long day.”

“Oh, that stuff! Yeah, um. Don’t worry about that! I’m a little too excited on Fridays! It’s kind of weird.” Hayden took advantage of Arlin’s mood by trying to add in talk about the bonfire trip.

“So,…you girls going to the bonfire trip?” He tested his question in his mind to see if it was safe, first.

“Actually,” Arlin pointed at him, inching closer while giving Jess a few glances, “I was thinking that we should all go together! I mean, we’re all good friends here and we’re pretty capable of having a good time. Well, the school’s taking us, of course, by ‘together’ I mean we should, you know, hang out there.”

Arlin tried to sound tongue-tied only to make him think that he made her nervous in a way that she couldn’t make coherent sentences around him.

It worked. Hayden’s ego was starting to look enormous already when he said, “I knew my irresistible charm wasn’t just a rumor.”

Arlin rolled her eyes. “Don’t push it, Christensen.”

“No, ma’am.” He replied. He got up and stretched. “Can I have some juice?”

(Random-much?)

Arlin sighed and said, “Sure. Just go help yourself.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t’ spill anything.”

“I’ll try not to.” Hayden winked. Jessica’s heart fluttered, even though he was obviously winking at Arlin.

Meanwhile, Perry and I…

“You okay?” I asked Perry, as I got off of him so that he could get up.

“I’m fine.” He smiled. I giggled, gasping at the same time that my eyes spotted Hayden, Arlin’s annoyingly-good-looking friend, walk out of my room!

“What?!” Perry tried to look in my direction.

“What are YOU doing here?!” I asked Hayden.

“It’s nice to see you, too, honey!” He went to the refrigerator and got some juice and grabbed a cup to pour it in.

“Who’s that?” Perry asked, pointing while looking really ticked off.

“Oh, that’s Hayden. He’s Arlin’s friend.”

“And so if he’s Arlin’s friend, why did he just come out of YOUR room??”

“Why should I know?”

“Because he obviously came out of your room.”

“What are you trying to say, here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that, ‘if he’s a guest, he knows his way a little too well around your apartment.’ ”

“So? It’s not that hard to find your way around this place!”

I stood up a little more and put my hands on my hips, bringing the sides of my shirt into my body.

“So, Hayden…?” Perry called over to him. Hayden stopped drinking his juice. “How often do you come here?”

“Here? Umm, I’ve only been here twice, but this time, I got to come inside and everything! I mean, I even got to go inside the room!” He smiled stupidly.

I covered my face in frustration, annoyance, and anger.

“Thanks for the info!” Perry said to him.

“Sure, thing!” Hayden took a sip of his juice and went back to the room, right when Jessica came out and asked if he was doing okay.

“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just talking to…uh…?”

“Perry.” Perry said between his teeth.

“Oh, well, just…just making sure, you know.” Jessica walked past Hayden close enough that she somehow spilled the juice on his shirt.

“Oh my gosh!!” Jessica moved her hands frantically, trying to find a place to set them on Hayden’s shirt. “I’m sooooo sorry!”

“It’s okay! Good thing I have another shirt around here somewhere.”

Perry looked at me dubiously, eyeing the size of my shirt. (oh crap!) I knew EXACTLY what he was thinking!

He started to get up and look around for anything he had brought with him. I grabbed onto his arm and stalked after him. He got to the door and stopped.

“I’m leaving.”

“Why? I didn’t even do anything?”

“You don’t have to keep playing along with your little game! I get it! You don’t want me anymore!”

“Whoah! What?! What are you…? Oh my gosh! Perry, that’s absurd! Hayden, right? That kid who just came out of my room, was in there because of the girls!”

“ ‘I’ve got another shirt around here somewhere?’ ” He quoted Hayden while pulling a piece between his thumb and index finger.

“Oh my god! Ew! Perry…he’s like seventeen! And second of all, this is MY shirt!”

“Why would you buy an oversized shirt?”

“I wanted one???”

“You’re lying.”

“What?”

“You’re lying.”

“Really? Are you kidding me?!” I yelled.

Jessica and Hayden looked at Perry and me. I opened my door and we went out to the hall to talk.

“So,” I shut the door, “Do I have to like keep all of my receipts now? And since when are you concerned with the sizes of my clothes?!”

“That’s not even the point! The point is that…” He stopped, took a breath, then looked away from me.

“What?” I grabbed his chin with my thumb and index finger. “What’s the point here?”

“…I’ll never be your first anymore.” He sounded a little ashamed to use such words. It shocked me a little. I’d never heard anyone other than girls say that kind of stuff. He looked at me.

“What??” I felt really annoyed and at the same time, I wanted to start laughing and I had no idea why, but I knew that now wasn’t a good time.

“So,…what are you trying to say exactly?” I asked him, fighting the small, pools of saltwater tears to flow from my eyes.

“I don’t know if I’m trying to say anything.”

“I wish you were trying to say that you believe me.” I murmured, tears already falling down. I caught my breath.

“I love-…” I started to say.

“Don’t say that anymore.”

“Wha-…”

“Look,…I’m,…going to go home,” I shook my head, because I couldn’t find my voice. The words he was going to say hadn’t come out yet, but, honestly, that’s why I was shaking my head. Because I didn’t want it to be true. If he said that he was going to break up with me, then I’d be back into reality and all of the times I’ve had with Perry would all just be dreams; lost, but never forgotten. It’s like I’d just been asleep this whole time and now, slowly, it would all come falling down on me and wake me up. I never wanted to open my eyes up to this. Ever.

Perry left. He didn’t say anything, which gave me hope (but only a smidge.). I walked away slowly, opening my door.

Hayden and Jessica stared at me, then said, “Arlin, we’re leaving.” to Arlin, in my room. I smiled a little at them.

Hayden came up to me and whispered, “It’s my fault, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” I smiled, whispering back.

“Hey!” He complained.

“Com’on!” Jessica pulled him. “I’m sorry.”

I nodded once. She closed the door. Arlin came out of my room. She looked at me.

“You’re a mess.” She said.

I made a face and closed the door to my room once I was inside. I laid down on my bed and pulled  the covers over my head.

Ch.20 (The Not-So-Third Wheel.)

Skipping around to Wednesday morning…

There are officially eleven days until the famous Bonfire Trip at Arlin and Jessica’s school. The ingenious plan seems to be working since Jessica and Hayden have been talking more than Jessica could have dreamed! Arlin’s been feeling like a third wheel from this, but honestly, she could have cared less! Jessica was finally going to be as happy as she was with Skandar, and not to mention, Skandar would finally stop being jealous of Hayden! Hayden, the god from above, was only trying to be a good friend now, as he realized that him and Jess were getting along.

It was lunchtime, finally! Although it would be a quiet lunch period today, what with Jessica having an appointment, today of all the days! Arlin took her seat near the window, longing for the day to be over and stood up , money clenched in her right hand. She took her place in line and stood there patiently, going with the flow of student-body traffic.

There were two girls talking in front of her. Arlin wasn’t trying to listen, but they were talking a little too loud to be standing one in front of the other.

“So, you’ve seen them too?!”

“Yeah! They look so cute together!!”

“Really? Ugh! I think Hayden would look adorable with me!”

“Oh God! Get over it! It seems Christensen’s finally settling down!”

“Yeah, okay! Like you weren’t going to say the same thing!”  The other girl bit her lips.

“I knew it!” The girl kept talking. “You just can’t stare at…at a wonderful creation of GOD like him and NOT fantasize!”

Arlin seemed like she would burst into laughter. She motioned to the two other girls to move forward.

“What’s so funny?” The girl who kept talking said. Her beach blond hair moved with the motion of her walking.

“Yeah?” the girl who bit her lips said. She had green braces and green eyes to match. Her curly-red hair also seemed to fit with the bridge of red-brown freckles across the bridge of her nose. Both very modelesque. Both wearing Hollister, naturally.

“I don’t think you should refer to him as a ‘GOD’. He’s just a kid.”

The two girls made faces at Arlin.

Arlin raised her hand, palms up. “Okay, okay. An exceptionally good-looking guy. But personally, I don’t fantasize about him.”

“Are you blind?” Blondie said, putting her hands on her hips. The curly-haired girl laughed.

“No.” Arlin replied.

“Have you seen him?” She took a breath. “In PERSON?”

“Yeah. All the time. He’s my best friend’s friend. And, I guess he’s my friend, too.”

Arlin got her food, paid for it, and left.

The two girls followed after her. They gasped at the same time that Arlin stopped. Christensen was sitting at a table, staring at Arlin’s things on the table. He looked up, a smile on his glorious face, and greeted Arlin.

The girls gasped even more when they saw Christensen motioning to her to sit down.

“This isn’t your lunch period.” Arlin accused him.

“Oh well. No one’s going to miss me in study hall.” He replied.

“Where’s Jess?” He asked. Arlin’s smile went a little smug, but no for the actual reason at hand: Jessica’s absence.

“She’s at an appointment.”

“Hey, look, I’m sorry if you’ve been feeling…eh, left out. Jess and I have been…”

“Bonding??” Arlin smiled widely. (Teehee.)

“Yeah.”

“Well, that’s GOOD!”

“It is.”

“But?” Arlin prompted.

“But?” Hayden looked puzzled.

“I don’t know. I felt a ‘but’ coming along.”

Hayden laughed. “Well, I don’t know about ‘buts’, but…”

“See?!”

He laughed again. “I guess I’m trying to say that it’s unfair that I’ve been hanging out with one of my best friends more than the other.”

“Best friend?” Arlin murmured between her teeth. Wow!

“Yeah! Of course! I mean, were you expecting something more?” Hayden questioned her with a pleading voice.

Arlin sighed, took a bite out of her apple and said, ‘no.’ Hayden sighed too, looked around and asked, “What’s for lunch?”

Arlin made a face at his nonchalance, intentionally, and said, “Pizza, chicken fingers and turkey and gravy sandwich; at least those are the main dishes. I wouldn’t suggest anything else, so it doesn’t matter.” She smiled a little. Hayden smiled at her and went up to get his food.

When he came back, he was more than excited to eat with Arlin, since he noticed for a fact that Jessica wasn’t here and Arlin was somewhat vulnerable, or so he thought.

“Look, Arlin! They had juice!” Hayden showed her the small carton of apple juice that he had picked up in his hand.

“Oh! Three drops of squished fruit in a carton! Fun!” Her sarcasm made him laugh, which was just what she had been hoping for. It was a bit weird for her to admit, but sh e liked it when she could make him laugh. It pleased her and, honestly, she was starting to think that those girls were right; Arlin suddenly saw herself in a very unfamiliar, barren place, holding hands with Christensen and getting to hear the sound of his laughter very close to her. This plan was working. Arlin was going to get closer to him than she ever really wanted. This was going to be extremely dangerous.

Arlin and Hayden both walked into their math class, the last class of the day. The class cheered as soon as they saw a substitute walk in. It was going to be an easy class period, and it was only Wednesday.

“Listen up, guys and girls, your teacher, Mr. Quin is on an intensive teaching trip and won’t be back until Monday, so I’ll be fitting in. Now, this is the part where you all cheer, right? Okay…”

The class cheered on cue.

“So, all I ask is that you keep it down. You have extra credit work that he left you guys. If you need any help, I’m an English major, so we’ll see what we can do. My name’s Mr. Lucas, so just try NOT to need me, if you know what I mean…”

The class laughed. The few girls that were already huddled into a group in the corner were examining Mr. Lucas. He had on pale-black pants, a decent shirt, converses, and he wore square, small glasses. His hair was long and layered on top of itself, not going past his ears in length. He had a bit of a faint shadow, but nothing unprofessional.

The girls in the back, apart from Arlin, were laughing and giggling about Mr. Lucas’s appearance.

Arlin was barely paying attention.

She definitely noticed Mr. Lucas’s appearance, but it wasn’t the main center of her attention; Hayden was.

“Hey!” Hayden greeted her.

“Hi.” Arlin looked up from her book.

“so, I…I was thinking…”

Arlin looked up from her book again, putting her bookmark inside.

“Yeah?” She asked.

“What?” He interrogated.

“You were going to say something?” Arlin asked him.

“Oh,…um, I forgot.” He stalled nervously.

“O…kay?” Arlin went back to her book.

Class was almost over.

Five minutes left…

“Hey, Arlin?” Hayden asked.

“Hmm?” She barely looked up from her book. Hayden closed her book, and she quickly slipped the bookmark before it closed.

“Are you doing anything weekend?”

“Don’t people usually ask that kind of stuff on Friday?”

“Answer my question.” Hayden said.

“I don’t know. Probably nothing. I only really do stuff with Jessica.”

“Would you be okay with watching a movie with me? I mean, I’ve tried asking my other friends but they’ve all got plans.”

“Ummm…,” Arlin thought of the possibilities and shook her head.

“Geez, you just had to say, ‘no’!”

“What? No! Not, ‘no, I don’t want to go!’, Uhhh…I meant, ‘yes, I’ll go.’!”

“You shake your head when you’re saying yes?”

“No.”

“Okay, so, is that a ‘yes’,” He nodded, “or a ‘No’,” He shook his head.

Arlin gave him ‘the look’. “Yes.”

“Cool.”

Ch.21 (Movies with Christensen)

Arlin and Hayden have been spending time together; to anyone, they should just get a room; (to Hayden too.) Obviously, Arlin and Skandar, (who really shouldn’t know about this, for the intention of KEEPING Hayden alive), are still irrevocably in love and they are going to be with each other soon enough. Jessica is M.I.A. (Missing In Action), so Hayden can’t really focus on Jessica the way that he was supposed to. It was obvious that his crush for Arlin was only going to get stronger. And as for Arlin, her slight attraction for Hayden was going to grow, whether she likes it or not.

***-Hayden P.O.V.

At home…

“Hayden, you lucky guy! You’re finally going to get to go on a date with Arlin!” I talked to myself. “Yeah, I know, ‘What a weirdo’ Oh crap! She’s just thinking that I’m ‘just a friend’ when I want to be so much more!, “I had just remembered, right when I had mentioned her name.

I walked over to the mirror in my bathroom and gave myself a little confidence boost/ “pep talk.”

“Okay, Hayden! You can do this! You the man! YOU THE MAN! She’s just a girl-a gorgeous, fine, extremely hot girl…Yep, this isn’t working.” I gave up with the self-mirrored talk and just settled for some food to calm myself down.

Why couldn’t girls be like food? They’re so hard to figure out! Food is as obvious as anything else! But, GIRLS!! Sure, they’re beautiful, but they are sometimes a pain in the neck! Food is just, well, pretty obvious, especially if you’ve made it yourself! A homemade sandwich has you ingredients that you decided to put in yourself. IT doesn’t make itself and start packing itself with all of these different concoctions! Unless you make someone else make it for you! It really annoys me when there’s something in my sandwich that I clearly didn’t remember ordering!

That’s pretty much like girls! You don’t always get what you’ve ordered. I guess I could relax by saying that the night is young and I think I could get her to like me in time for the beach trip!

Wow! I never thought that I’d live to “think” the day that I liked school!

***-End of Hayden’s P.O.V*

Honestly, Arlin and Hayden were getting closer by the second, and watching a scary movie had nothing to do with “getting closer.” Arlin had already adjusted to Hayden. After the movies, Hayden walked her home.

They were walking pretty far apart from each other. Arlin was staring at her intertwined fingers. Hayden stared at her in complete silence. Arlin looked nervously at her fingers still, then getting annoyed by the ideas running through her head. She walked a little faster, with her newly-clenched fists at her sides. Hayden tried to catch up.

“Hey! Why are you walking so fast?!” He yelled.

“I always walk like this!” She yelled back, answering his question.

“Uh-huh. Don’t tell me you’re scared of the dark!”

“What? Why do you say that?”

“Because I saw you in the movies! I was sitting right next to you!”

“Oh, REALLY?! So, you think that I’m scared of the dark-BECAUSE OF A MOVIE?! Please! It wasn’t even that scary! I’ve seen worse!”

“Oh,Re…?!” Hayden started, but Arlin cut him off.

“AND, it’s not even dark outside!”

They got to the apartment building and Hayden stopped in front of Arlin and thanked her for coming with him. Hayden hugged Arlin and she melted in his arms, hating the effect that he had on her.

“Bye!” Hayden said, now looking at her; his eyes were obviously twinkling.

“See ya, Christensen!”

He looked at her. She smiled and said, “Bye, Hayden!”

He smiled back.

When Arlin got inside and up to her room, she felt a text that was vibrating through her pants. She looked at it. It was from Hayden.

“You were too scared.”

She smiled, rolled her eyes and got ready for bed.

Ch.22 (You’re Irresistible)

School was getting  weirder and weirder each day! Jessica hasn’t shown up in a while, only because she’s going through way too much for a silly little trip to the beach. Hayden was the one who was getting weird! He was being extremely nice, and sometimes bashful; and he was smiling a lot-practically every time that he saw her.

On Friday, Hayden wasn’t being his usual, cocky self. He was being pretty funny, and as much as Arlin didn’t want to admit, irresistible.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much the same as usual, only Hayden was I.m.ing Arlin instead of Skandar. Skandar was wrapping up the few scenes and any other Narnia-related activity that he was involved in; after that, he’d go to his house (in England) and collapse on his bed. These days, he barely made it to the couch! Arlin had been informed by his late-night texts; and she was occupied with her newest bff, Hayden, who in truth, wanted to be known as her ‘bf’. Arlin couldn’t say that she hadn’t considered it before, because lately, she’s been thinking about a little more than math in her class with Hayden.

That’s when Sunday night allowed her to be able to see him more often than she was unfortunately hoping she would. Hayden had I.m.ed her.

“Oh my god!” Arlin rolled her eyes, smiling a small but slightly happy smile.

She typed, “Hayden?”

“At your service;D” he typed.

“Yeah, okay.” She replied.

Hayden typed a pretty long message. It read, “So, how do you think you’ll do on that math quiz on Thurs.? I think I’m going to ace it! It’s soooo easy!”

Arlin found a reason to panic. “Math quiz. Ohgod! Yeah, you’ll be acing what I’m definitely going to be failing!”

“I could teach you how to do what we’re doing right now.” He replied.

“Now? How?”

“Not on here! At school, Dr. Seuss!”

“hahaha.”

“I’m sorry, but seriously, I could tutor you. It’s not that hard! You’ll see!”

“Oh, yes we will see!”

“Okay, so, would this be better at school or at home? See, because we have to pay attenton at school, and maybe he’ll be teaching the others how to do those problems, and then, maybe you won’t need me.”

Arlin gawked at her screen. What was she going to say to that?!

“Arlin, I would really recommend that you let me teach it to you. Besides, you can trust me more than our own math teacher.” He said.

“Well, I guess.” She replied.

“Good.” He hesitated, then started typing again, “So, starting Monday then?”

Arlin’s mouth had opened involuntarily.

“Um, sure, I guess. Where should I meet you?”

“Um, I’m not sure. Where are you most comfortable?”

“In my room.”

“Then, we’ll meet there! Got to go! Take your math book home on Monday! I could go right after school if that’s okay.”

“Uh, uh…sure?”

“Hayden responded by laughing virtually.

“G2G! Bye!”

“Bye.”

Monday and Tuesday weren’t anything ordinary. Hayden was actually keeping his promise and tutoring Arlin It seemed like he had no more affection towards her as much as he used to. But, unfortunately for Arlin, she’d fallen for him a little too late.

As for me, Perry and I were a bit of a mess right now. If I could really blame anyone, it’d definitely be Hayden, but he didn’t really DO anything; Perry just hasn’t realized that the whole thing is just a misunderstanding.

On Tuesday morning, before work, I was about to head out the door, when I realized that I hadn’t had some breakfast. I hated to admit it, but I really needed to go to Perry’s café. I was in the mood for a croissant and a French vanilla cappuccino in a mug or something; wouldn’t be too bad. To-go. Not because I was mad at him; because I was completely tormented and lost without him. It was honestly because I was going to be late; and I just wanted to see his face in person. Just one more time. It’s been killing me to refer to photographs. The only reason that I hadn’t done this before was because I was afraid that he wouldn’t even look at me. I don’t think he would do that. Would he? I walked over there to see.

There he was, beautiful as ever. He had to at least take my order.

I walked up to the register, since I was going to leave with my food. I took a deep breath and stepped forward, looking through my bag, as if I needed to distract myself already. Staring at Perry was always very distracting. I was at the register, looking to see if I still wanted a croissant.

Just as I’d hoped, he was at the register. I tried not to look at him from the corner of my eye. He didn’t look like he was mad at me.

“Can I come over tonight?” I asked him, pleading deep in my voice. I gave him my money. He handed me my food. He was smiling, but I didn’t know if it was out of habit.

“Sure.”

I stopped and looked up at him in astonishment.

“Look, I’m sorry that I overreacted on you like that on Friday. I’ve honestly missed you like crazy,” Perry looked me in the eyes and whipped his hair out of the way, letting me rediscover those deep-blue small pools of perfection. His eyes twinkled in the light.

“That’s funny. I thought that you would hate me for the whole misunderstanding! I was actually really scared to come over here because I wouldn’t think that you’d talk to me.”

“What?” He started to give me back my change my change. His fingers lingered on my skin as he gave me the folded receipt.

“I was kind of hoping that you’d come.” He smiled.

I opened the receipt. Aside from the $7.39 that I owed him for the food and my change being a total of $0.61, it read: “See you at 7:00p.m.?”

Perry was attending a customer, but he was looking at me with a sly grin across his face. I loved the fact that he wasn’t mad at me anymore. (Not that I wanted him to be mad at me in the first place, but why the sudden mood swing?)

I looked at him and nodded my head.

Tuesday night…

Ch. 23(“I can fix that.”)

***

It was 6:45 pm. I was showered, just in a cami and some underwear, looking for something decent to  wear. (Honestly, all I had to do was change into something more than what I was already wearing, but I just couldn’t decided whether his mood would stay like this or if when I got there, he would find a reason to be mad at me.) I settled with some jeans and a graphic t-shirt. I straightened my hair, though.

I took a deep breath, announced my departure and left out the door.

I rang the buzzer and told him that I was here, just like old times. I heard the buzzing of the unlocked door and went upstairs to his apartment. I’ve only been here several times, but each time made it even easier. It was exactly 7:00 pm. Perry received a ring at the door.

I was so nervous that I might have almost turned for the corner, but I didn’t know what to expect, really. I mean, it wasn’t like he was going to show up at the door, shirtless or something!

Perry opened the door. He was wearing a deep V-neck t-shirt and cargo pants.

I came into the apartment and Perry closed the door behind me. We sat in silence for about three seconds, away from each other, and yet still on the same couch.

I closed my eyes tightly, took a deep breath and spoke.

“Perry,…I’m extremely sorry for giving you the wrong impression. I really wasn’t trying to do that! I…” I couldn’t continue because Perry had interrupted me.

“Look, I’m the one that’s sorry. I overreacted! I’ve been dying to see you! I hated myself after I realized that you really were telling the truth!”

“And when exactly did you realized?!” I turned to look at him, annoyed. “So, when?”

“Sunday,” he sighed. He looked at me, then looked away and continued with his anecdote. “Well, that Hayden guy came over to my café and he came to talk to me about how there was never and never will there BE a ‘you and him’.”

“Wait! Hayden said that?!”

“Mm-hm.” Perry nodded.

“Huh…I’m going to have to thank him for that.” I muttered to myself.

“Me too.” Perry agreed, now looking at me. “I’m extremely sorry and, to tell you the truth, I feel really stupid!���

“Oh, REALLY?!” I asked, hinting the sarcasm. He grimaced.

“Yeah. I completely forgot about everything that you told me you liked and how differently you do the things that you do…” Perry looked at me; I was looking down, as if in a pensive state when I was just bashful.

Perry tilted his head to try to see what I was looking at. I was aware of how quiet it had gotten, but I didn’t look up at him. He sensed a bit of aggravation within himself. Perry searched for my chin with his fingertips. I shivered at the touch. He made me look at him. We were both at eye level. I stared back at his eyes, but tried to keep a serious expression on my face. It was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do; Hid the expression that clearly showed on my face as soon as his blue-eyed gaze was on me.

“What’s wrong? Why are you acting like this?” He asked; I still sensed the aggravation in his tone.

“I’m just acting like this because you are.”

“What?” He was instantly confused.

“You,…” I bit my lips, trying to form a correct sentence structure.

Perry slowly let go of my chin and turned to me. He sat cross-legged and waited patiently.

“You don’t know how much I’ve wanted you; from the beginning,…” I paused, because of nervousness instead of sentence. He was about to speak. I put my index finger  up, motioning to hold on a second.

“I know that I’ve made it look like I’ve screwed up in the past, with someone else, but right now…”I went closer in Perry’s direction, touching up his arm. His eyes went wide, the blue almost crashing like iced water. “I’ve never wanted to make it seem that way before.”

Perry stared at me slightly horrified. I took that as nervousness before I could have been offended by it. He didn’t say anything. I retrieved my hand. He was looking down at his feet, (or so I thought).

“You don’t have to prove anything to me. I believe you, already. He said, still looking down.”

“I’m not trying to prove anything.” Something clicked in the back of my head and helped me realize that he probably was just forgiving me from the misunderstanding, but meant that we really weren’t making that much progress to do this. I closed my eyes and sealed my lips together. “Um,…I’m going to just…you know, go.” I started to get up and leave. I got as far as three feet from the door before he tugged on my arm.

“Darlenys…” Perry whispered. That much made me stop; because I had missed the sound of his voice so much that I turned around just to hear it better. I turned to face him, lips still mashed together. Perry bit his lips; something he would do out of indecision-or seductiveness.

He slowly came closer to me. His hold on my arm loosened, only sliding down to my hand. He held onto it. With his other hand, he reached for the door, barely turning the knob so that it was technically “open,” but looked more “closed” than anything . I was about to reach for the door, when suddenly, Perry turned me around. I was standing right behind the door, staring at a guy who wasn’t making any sense at the moment.

“I love you,” He said as he intertwined his fingers with mine. I stared up at him in marvel.

“And…” He continued. I held my breath; my lips were still mashed together. I didn’t think that I was prepared for what came next; (only because I had no idea that it was going to happen in the first place.)

Perry’s face came closer to my ear. “I want you too,” he whispered. I could have sworn that I almost cried. He bent down to kiss my no longer mashed lips. I tried to help him by getting on my tip-toes, almost losing my balance to begin with. Perry grabbed the belt buckles of my jeans and hoisted me onto his body. We closed the door from being against it. It shut a little loudly. Perry kissed me and for the first time in that whole day had I never felt more complete (or so I had thought). Perry walked with me on his body. We followed the path that the wall was leading to: the kitchen.

Perry looked around and stopped. “Whoops!” I laughed.

“Wait! I’ve got an idea!” Perry said, looking past me, to the refrigerated goods, almost, instead of the refrigerator itself. He sat me down on the counter and looked through the fridge, getting two things: whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

“What’s that for?” I felt human enough to ask.

“In case we get hungry.” He left and came back within five seconds.

I rolled my eyes, purposely waiting until he came back.

“I saw that.” He pressed his lips to mine, smiling widely. I used my legs to reel him in closer. He grabbed my waist to finish hoisting me to his. This time, he kept his eyes open enough as to see where he was going. My arms were wrapped around his neck.

We got to his room, where I froze and looked around. It was amazing how neat his apartment was. Perry looked around with me. He carefully set me down on his bed, kissed my forehead and went to the bathroom. I got off the bed and went to the window. It was my favorite part of his room, especially at night. The moon shone through the window and into Perry’s room. It was so peaceful (and calming.)

Perry returned to his room, where I stood at his window, looking outside. He quietly came behind me and kissed me on the cheek. His touch made me shiver from the shock. He was smiling at me. I returned the gesture. This moment couldn’t have been more perfect! Perry pulled me into his arms, carefully and softly, barely touching me.

“Are you okay?” He whispered.

“I was,” I whimpered.

“Nervous?”

“Mm-hm.” I nodded.

“Don’t be. You’re here with ME.” He said, looking straight into my eyes.

I looked at him, cocking my head to the side.

“You’re all I’ll ever need.” Perry whispered.

I figured that I might have given in. I’m the one who set the field in the first place!

“Perry?”

He looked at me with undivided attention.

“I love you, too.” I kissed him, toying with his dark-midnight hair in the process. I walked backwards, trying to remember where his bed was, then hitting it and bending my knees to fall on it.

“Uhf!” I said.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Boy, doesn’t that sound familiar, I thought.

Perry kissed my neck, stopping and looking at me. Had he noticed how hard I was breathing?

“What’s wrong?” I asked. We still had our clothes on, so it wasn’t a matter of disappointment.

“Am I allowed to..?” He attempted a noise that was close to sucking air in.

“Uh…knock yourself out?!” I really had no idea what he meant. Perry laughed. He sucked on my neck. I started giggling. He stared at me and smiled.

I looked at him, serious now and sat up. He had a mischievous look on his face, although he had no idea what I was going to do. I turned him onto his bed and touched his nose, down to his shirt. He stared at me with a smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes with a replying smirk of my own and instructed him to help me take his shirt off. He went for his shirt, where I gawked at his marvelous body. I pressed my two hands lightly on his chest. My hair came down on his chest, tickling him enough to make him laugh.

Perry sat up and looked up at me. I was sitting on him; one leg on each side. I slipped out of my tee-shirt, left in my bra and jeans. He smiled at me, I smiled back. Eventually we were completely in sync with one another. “It was, in fact, the most erotic moment of my life!” Perry  turned to me.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” I smiled in his arms.

“You hungry?”

“Mm. A bit.”

Perry grabbed the whipped cream carefully, as to not unsettle me from my most comfortable spot. He grabbed the chocolate syrup quickly as well. “Which one?” He raised them both.

“Whipped cream, please.”

Perry shook the can and sprayed some in his mouth, missing COMPLETELY.

“You have terrible aim!” I laughed.

“I know…On the plus side, my mouth tastes better than yours.”

“Because I would want THAT!” I let my sarcasm go.

“Yeah!” He said, matter-of-factly.

He came closer to my face and moved his face from side to side, against mine, trying to get as much whipped cream on my face as possible.

“Hey! Perryyyy! Stop!!!” I laughed.

“I’m sorry.” He laughed quietly. Perry grabbed a hand full of my hair in his right hand as he pulled my face closer, licking off the whipped cream off of my face. I giggled. I laughed when some of the whipped cream was sliding down my neck. Perry stopped it from going any further by kissing it to a halt, then licking there as well.

I looked at him and shook my head, laughing a little. His face was a mess. He had whipped cream all over! On his cheeks, on his nose, on his lips and his chin. I took my finger and swiped it off the tip of his nose, where most of the whipped cream had accumulated. Then, I fed it to him. He sucked on my finger, making sure he had gotten all of it. I bit my lips with a small little smirk. I made him lick himself clean. I didn’t want to lick him, really. His lips were another story.

I sat up on my elbows and stared out his window. What a view! The beach looked great! Of course, I wasn’t choosing it over anything else at the moment. Perry looked at me. He kissed my bare shoulder. That caught my attention, and so I looked back at him.

“What time is it?” I tired to look around, but I couldn’t get past his eyes.

His face kind of slumped. “I have no idea.”

“Oh man,” I sighed. “I might have to go to work today,” Not that it mattered, since I worked from home, but everything was at my home, not his.

I paused, not realizing what day it was. “Perry? What day is it?!?!”

He chuckled, “Wednesday.”

“Oh.” I thought this and my times and schedule all in my head. “Actually…I’m free.”

“Ha. That’s great!”

“Do you have to go to work?”

“I’m closing the café.”

“What?!”

“I’m kidding. I’m going, I’m going.”

I rolled my eyes.

Perry and I finally got out of his bed and headed for the bathroom. He got there first, but he let me in (after seeing me pout about it.)

“Um, I need to shower.” I said. I wore one of Perry’s white dress shirts. It was extremely wrinkly, but it had his scent. An unfamiliar musk. Not “man-scented” but perfume-like.

“I know.”

I stared at him. “So, can I…you know, have some privacy, maybe?” I suggested.

“Darlenys, does it really matter anymore?”

“True. Well, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know-brush my teeth or something.”

I shrugged and slipped into the warm shower, stripping myself of his shirt once I was safely inside.

I eventually got dressed and Perry got ready to go to work. I decided to go get some breakfast with him.

Ch.24 (Sometime Around Midnight.)

Arlin was stressing out over the biggest math quiz to have ever existed. It was tomorrow, on Thursday. Then again, there was the trip to look forward to, and today, Hayden would be coming over. Although she couldn’t admit it to herself aloud, she had started to like Hayden, like a guy. Like…

Arlin got up from her bed as soon as she had thought up that little thought and went to the door. He would be coming sooner or later. Arlin was getting extremely anxious, and not because she knew that she’d be failing without his help.

Ah, the doorbell…

Arlin went to answer the door. It was Hayden, alright. Drinking juice. He sipped and sucked on the straw, getting every last drop.

“You done there?” Arlin asked.

“Just about…,” he kept sucking on it. There wasn’t much in there, just sayin’!

Arlin gave Hayden “the look.”

“Can I throw this away inside?” Hayden asked stepping inside after he had finished his fruit punch juice pouch.

“Uh, yeah.” Arlin made Hayden follow her into the kitchen. He threw it away and got to the living room, where he’d dropped his things lightly to the floor.

“Let’s get started!” Hayden said, with a little too much enthusiasm. Hayden caught Arlin in a few of his greenish-blue gazes and Arlin, for some odd reason, always had a writing utensil in her hand which would do amazing somersaults in the air, whacking Hayden on the head! Arlin covered her mouth, trying to hider her laughter, but forming a smile instead.

“Oh my gosh!! Are you okay??!…Again?”

“Yeah. I’m just as fine as the last couple of times.”

Yes. You. Arrrre. Arlin thought, sounding so much like myself.

After about two hours and thirty minutes of “studying time,” Hayden’s phone rang.

“Sorry,” he looked for his phone, “Hello?…Yeah…I’m at Arlin’s house…No. No…”

Arlin stared away from him to give him some privacy.

“No Mom, she’s not my ‘friend’…” He whispered into the speaker of the phone, air-quoting “friend” for his mother to hear the emphasis on her far-off assumptions.

Arlin almost laughed aloud. Yeah right. Hayden, her, “friends.” They could barley be classmates.

“Mom, I’ll call you when I get home.” He shut the phone. “Where were we?”

“Um…”

“Sorry, I mean, if you heard something that you would have thought completely revolting…” Hayden started to apologize.

“Not completely revolting…” Arlin replied in a quiet voice, cutting Hayden off, mid-sentence.

Hayden smiled. “I better get going. I have to be home before dinner.”

“Yeah, sure. Okay. Thanks! I’m so surprised at how easy you make math seem. It’s almost illogical.”

Hayden shrugged. He bit is lip and rove Arlin into an imaginary hospital for about five seconds or so. He grabbed his things and Arlin walked him to the door.

At night, Arlin was on her computer checking mail and listening to music and anything else that could be used to help her stop thinking about… “SKANDAR!!!” Arlin almost jumped off of her bed when she saw the window of Skandar via webcam. She put her hair up, always going for the unimpressive ponytail when she wasn’t looking in a mirror. “Arlin?” Skandar spoke. He squinted through his poor lighting in his room. “Skandar!!” Arlin was instantly partially full of joy. The other parts were full of embarrassment and shame, and not because she had fallen off of her bed.

“Hey! How have you been?! I’ve missed you so much!” Skandar told her earnestly. “Oh my gosh! You have no idea how much I’ve missed you!” Arlin had a crazy thought to show something to Skandar. “Skandar, I’ll be right back!” Arlin shuffled through her things around her room, looking for the specific item that she wanted to show him. “What is it?” Skandar squinted to try to read the letters on the magazine about Narnia and Skandar and his date. “It’s a magazine.” “About?!” “Narnia and the big release date for it to hit theaters. It’s also talking about you and the big premiere party! And…” Arlin gasped at the unexpected little news at the right bottom corner. “You date?” “Date?!” Skandar was confused and taken aback as well. “That’s what it says, Skandar.” Arlin almost sounded mad. “Well, Arlin. I really don’t know what to say about that.” “Skandar…are you dating someone behind my back?” “…No.” He hesitated. “Are you?” He asked her the same question. “Um, no. Why would I?” Arlin interjected just so that she wouldn’t be forced to mention Hayden’s name, for being the closest friend, that just so happens to be a guy. “Exactly! That’s what I’m saying! I’m saying, ‘Why would I have to? It’s pointless if I’m doing this,’ ” He extended his arms and touched the keys on his keyboard. Arlin didn’t catch the drift. “Talking to you through the internet, on a webcam, instead of sleeping.” Arlin knew that Skandar was telling the truth; she was just a little insecure about the rumors that it was getting to her. “Wait! What’s on the cover of that again?!” Skandar pointed, virtually, towards the magazine. “Oh, Narnia, you, Anna, Georgie, William, some Narnians, something about a man living in a car,..” Arlin looked at everything on the cover and named off things that caught her eye. “I have that same magazine! I can’t believe they would write that stuff!” “What stuff?” “The ‘date’ stuff! I specifically told them to keep it a secret…” Arlin gave a disbelieving look. Like paparazzi listen! “Okay, okay. I told them to put in all the things that I had been mentioning about you, and me, and…” Suddenly, Arlin heard a knock at the door where she would have least expected visitors. “Hold on, Skandar. I’ll be right back. Sorry.”“It’s okay, take your time.” Skandar layed his head down on his bed. he didn’t mean to fall asleep. He was doing fine, until he closed his eyes in a very slow blink.“Hayden?!” Arlin yelled in a whisper.

“Open, please?” Hayden signaled by pointing to the handle of the door that led to the balcony and down to the shore. Arlin opened the door, letting him inside.

“What are you doing here?!” Arlin whisper-yelled.

“I came to see you.” Hayden said, with his big, deep blueish-green eyes on Arlin’s face.

“Hayden, you just saw me like six hours ago!” Arlin whispered.

“Why are you whispering?”

“Darlenys is sleeping, and she’ll kill me if I woke her!”

Hayden looked around the dark room and said, “Who’s room is this?”

“Mine.” Arlin told him.He came inside and looked around. “Hmm…nice.”

“Gee, thanks.” Hayden felt a little uneasy about something. he was scratching the back of his neck and head, looking away. “Um, Hayden…?”

“Hmm, what?” He looked at her as soon as she had spoken his name.“Did you come here for a specific reason…? Or can I just go to sleep?”

“Are you too tired? I actually just wanted to, uh…talk to you…about, ehm, something…"Hayden was a nervous wreck.

“Oh, okay. What is it?”

“Can we actually just…you know, take a walk?”

Arlin looked back at her computer. Then she looked at Hayden.

“Sure.” Hayden opened the glass door of Arlin’s balcony and offered for her to go first. She went back to her room and put on her uggs really quickly and put a white delicate dress over her tank and shorts. The dress was basically simple. It had delicately sewn white flowers on it and was a bit short, but she had a pair of shorts on underneath.

“How does she do that,” Hayden was thinking to himself in his mind.Arlin’s heart sped by as she approached the balcony’s glass doors, thus getting closer to Hayden. “Let’s go,” She whispered breathlessly.

“Er, right.” Hayden opened the door a little more and let Arlin go outside first.“So…, what did you want to talk to me about?” She spoke in a normal tone.“What? What about our walk?”“Well,” Arlin’s arms lifted effortlessly and smacked down on her sides, “We walked a little.” Hayden rolled his eyes and grabbed Arlin’s hand, just swiftly putting his hand into hers, without any of the fingers-interlocking-mumbo-jumbo, and pulled her along towards the Fire Emergency walk-way towards the beach streets. Arlin and Hayden’s hands seemed to have stayed together, and Arlin practically forgot. Well, they walking absent-mindedly, so she didn’t FORGET forget. Up until Hayden loosened up a little and started talking about Jessica, Arlin took her hand back, sort of smiling at him. “Um,…” Hayden started nervously.“So, you seem to be holding quite the conversation there, Hayden.” He laughed. He never laughed at anything sarcastic that Arlin had mentioned. Hayden cleared his throat and looked away from Arlin. “So, what ever happened to Jessica?” He finally spoke.“Jessica?” Arlin sounded a little dumbfounded.“You know, that girl from math class who…”“No, no! I KNOW who Jessica IS, I just…didn’t know that you were going to talk about her.” “Well, what did you think I was going to talk about?” Hayden asked. And, as if on cue, a young couple passed by, holding hands, unwilling to let go, causing Arlin and Hayden to make some room on the enormous side walk for the two insignificant people.Hayden was really quiet during the rest of their wlak. “So, how’s Skandar?” He started again.Arlin kind of squinted her eyes at Hayden and then just looked away. “He’s…good. He’s doing good.” Hayden looked away from her, looking straight ahead, at a palm tree that was near a bench, almost right on the beach. All that was missing was the sand, which was a couple of paces away. “You tired?”“Uh, not really…” Arlin responded.“Good. Let’s sit down.” Arlin looked after him confused, and then, in a way she couldn’t even explain to herself as soon as Hayden held her hand. Arlin suddenly found herself sitting down next to Hayden on a bench, under a peculiar little palm tree, a few paces from the beach. “Hayden, what is going on? Why are you acting so strange?”“I have a feeling that we can’t be friends, Arlin.”“What?! And why not?!”“Because I’m attracted to you.” Arlin’s mouth formed a small impish smile, blushing altogether. “And you’re attracted to me…” Hayden continued.

“WHAT?!” Arlin’s face was still a pinkish-red glow on bronzish skin.

“Well, aren’t you?” He said this quietly, getting very, very close to Arlin’s face, making it hard for her to talk. Hayden’s nose was about an inch away from hers.

“Do you mind?!” She said.

“No, not really, thank you.” Hayden smiled.

“So, are you saying that you don’t find me 'attractive’?” Hayden added emphasis on the last word.

“Well..I’m saying that you are not that I think you are.”

“But…thinking that I am is just the same..”

“No, I didn’t say 'thinking,’ I said, 'saying’ that you are are attractive is the same as me thinking it…Wait!…”

“Oh! So you DO think that I’m attractive!” He yelled. Arlin tried to look away. “So, you’ve got to be attracted to me if you find me attractive.”“No.” Arlin blurted out, making sure it sounded matter-of-factly. Hayden raised an eyebrow. “I’m just saying that’s not necessarily true.” Hayden’s nose touched with Arlin’s.“Not necessarily.”

Hayden kissed Arlin. He didn’t know exactly how long he’d been wanting to do this, but he had an idea. Hayden’s lips pressed against Arlin’s ever so slightly. Arlin was sitting on a bench, under a small palm tree, with a boy who wasn’t British, at midnight. And she liked it? Well, let’s just say Hayden wasn’t the only one who was kissing back. Arlin didn’t know what was going on; (Well, she did, she just didn’t want to believe that it was real.) Hayden’s lips, smacked on hers. They were even making those kissy-smacking noises that always happened in the movies! His lips were soft; softer than she could have ever imagine them to be. It was almost surreal how perfect this moment was.

For the moment, she couldn’t remember where they were, why they were, or who they were. All she could feel were Hayden’s lips. Oh yes. She knew those very well. The tips of Hayden’s fingers touched Arlin’s face. It was strange. Arlin tried to pull away (in her mind), but physically she just sat there like Hayden was actually…Arlin almost pulled away then, but Hayden had stopped kissing her, so she didn’t look rude when she stopped; out of nowhere, because GOD FORBID THAT. Hayden bit his lips, looking away a little. Arlin stared at him, but it wasn’t in horror, which should have been her reaction. He cleared his throat.

Ch.25 (Thursday Morning)

Suddenly, Hayden’s phone ran. He picked it from out of his back pocket and looked at the caller i.d. It was Arlin. “Why are you calling me?” Hayden asked her.

“Oh crap! Pick it up!!” She yelled.

“Okay!!” Hayden picked up his phone. “Hello?”

On the other line…

Dark, hot nights were just the kinds of things that usually made me in the mood for some cold cereal,…and gave me the urge to use the bathroom. I could hardly ever sleep when it got hot wherever I was. I got really restless. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom and washed my face with cold water. Then, I went to the kitchen and got some Honey Bunches of Oats; preferably with almonds at the time. I walked around with my bowl and decided to check on the girls. Marlen was fast asleep, in an awkward position, as always. Arlin’s room was a lot quieter than it should have been.

I opened her door carefully. Her computer was still on, which was honestly normal. I went to shut it off and noticed that she had been chatting with Skandar. Apparently, he fell asleep on his keyboard or something. I turned off the computer and looked for Arlin. I looked at the only possible place that she could have been in at 1:22 a.m.: her private bathroom. I knocked on the door.

“Arlin?”

No reply. “Arlin? Are you in there?”

Still nothing.

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play this game? Okay!”

…

“Arlin? Are you okay atleast?”

It just got quieter.

“Ohoho! So it’s the silent treatment?!” I opened the door to a dark, empty bathroom.

I looked around for a phone and called her cellphone. She never went anywhere without it! Or so I thought, as I heard her ringtone a lot closer than I would have expected. I went through her contacts and called her friend Jessica. She didn’t answer. I decided to call her other friend, Hayden.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hello?” He answered back.

“Hayden?”

‘Yeah…this is Hayden. Who is this?”

“Darlenys.”

“Oh, hey!”

Oh my god. “Have you seen Arlin?”

“Um, Arlin, Arlin…” Hayden walked away from her and walked back towards her casually. “Arlin?! Is that…Is that you?! Get , get, GET OVER HERE!!”

“So, you found her?”

“Yeah! Don’t worry Darlenys! I found her!”

“So you’ll bring her back home safely?”

“That’s part of the plan!”

“What PLAN?!”

“Uh!..” Hayden hung up on me and put the phone on silent. Arlin stared at Hayden.

“What was THAT all about?!”

“Darlenys was looking for you!”

“Oh my god! Out of ALL the nights for her to wake up in the middle of it all…” Arlin murmured.

“Com’on. Let’s take you home.” Hayden offered.

“I am SO dead.”

Hayden walked Arlin to the apartment and went through the fire-escape pathway, which was the same way that Hayden had come in through, and they had both left. Arlin peeked through the backdoor to see if I had went off to bed, (and lucky for her, I semi-trusted Hayden, and I had.) Hayden walked in briefly to make sure that Arlin was okay.

“Whoah.” Hayden whispered.

“What?” Arlin whispered back.

“Nothing…I’ve just never been in HERE before.”

“Well, enjoy, because I doubt that you’re going to be in here again.”

“Why is that?” Hayden asked. Arlin looked at him.

“What do you mean, ‘Why is that?!’ ” Arlin said, getting to the point.

“Well,…Hayden,…I don’t…like you-like THAT.” Arlin tried to sound less harsh, but it all just sounded…HARSH.

“Oh, REALLY?! Because I can tell you right now that I wasn’t the only one who was kissing BACK.” Hayden looked her straight in the eyes.

“I know…And I’m sorry.” Arlin tried to look away from his blue-ish gaze.

“WHAT?!” Hayden yelled in a whisper.

She pulled on his hand and they went out to the fire-escape pathway.

“Hayden, I know that I…wasn’t just standing there, but I don’t like you.”

“I can’t believe his.”

“Well, believe it.”

Hayden looked at Arlin and came closer. Arlin just looked at him. Hayden came even closer. Arlin stayed still, looking at Hayden. Hayden looked at Arlin.

“Do it, if you have to, but I’m not lying to you. I love Skandar.” Arlin told him seriously. And it was honestly true. She knew what she was doing. Arlin was completely certain that she loved Skandar. She couldn’t wait ‘til he got back.

Hayden nodded. He took a step back. “Okay. Okay. I understand.”

“Hayden, you’re a really good friend, and I do care about you.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Look, I’m sorry that I wasn’t the one, but I know exactly who is.”

“Who?”

“Just come by my house later in the morning, for school.”

Thursday Morning. Not the day of the bonfire trip. BUTTTT, Skandar’s back!(:

Skandar’s finally packing his bags to come see Arlin again. The day that she doesn’t entirely know about has come!

Arlin was going to go to school with Hayden this morning. She was going to “fill him in” on the little plan that she had been building up with Jessica. “Where has she been, anyway?” Hayden said as he followed Arlin out the door.

“Um, I don’t know. All I know is that she texted me and told me that she’ll be in school today, and that she’s definitely going to the trip!”

“Hmm.”

“Just promised me you’ll make this special for her tomorrow.”

“Of course! You know, this would have been a heck of a lot easier if she would have told me or tried to.”

“Yeah. Right.” Arlin’s sarcasm seeped through.

“Well, let’s go.”

Ch.26 (The Bonfire.)

School was pretty easy that day. Aside from that math quiz, nothing was too stressful. Hayden understood Arlin completely as to the whole reason for her “denial” towards him. Everything was going pretty easy.

Skandar was about two to three hours away from seeing Arlin. It was almost insane! He just had to go through the whole customs and get his luggage and get some real food. (For some reason, no matter what class you ride on a plane, the best kind of food that airlines can offer are peanuts.) Skandar went through about seven bags of peanuts in half of the (8) eight hours or so of flight it took to get from London, England to California itself. Unfortunately, he was too tired to actually go visit Arlin, not that she knew that he was currently in the U.S., not to mention, California, but he wanted to surprise her by video-chatting with her.

12:33 A.M. -SkantheMan would like to chat via videocamera.                                

                        ACCEPT OR DENY

After he had spent the entire time sleeping, he could actually stay awake at this time, unlike when he was in England and he had to practically tape his eyelids from closing just to talk to Arlin.

Arlin was just seconds away from signing out, when she saw that “SkantheMan” wanted to conversate. Arlin had just remembered that he would be here tomorrow and clicked “Accept” with a hint of over-excitableness. “Hi, Skandar! You’re coming back tomorrow, right?!” She said. “Hello, Arlin! Yes; yes, I am coming tomorrow! I’m so excited!!”

“I’m so glad you’re going to be home.”

“Me too!” Skandar smiled. “Skandar, I’m sorry, but I have to go to bed; tomorrow’s the day of the trip that I’ve been waiting for!”“Oh, well, I’ll say 'goodnight’ then.” He smiled.

Arlin and Hayden walked to the school bus and stopped to look for Jessica.

“Remember the plan?”

“Yup.” Hayden said.

“Cool.” Arlin said in a very gangster voice. Hayden shook his head.

“She’s coming!!” Arlin and Hayden did their handshake. “Hey, Jessica! We’ve missed you!” Hayden hugged her. Jessica sighed as if she had died and gone to “Jayden” heaven.

“I’ve missed you too!” Jessica mumbled. Hayden broke apart the hug, and Jessica sighed sadly, and then Hayden put his hand through hers, swiftly, in the “friend” way, but Jessica didn’t care! She could feel the blood racing through her veins, and suddenly, everything was gone and it was only her and Hayden. “Arlin!” Hayden called, “Look who’s here?!?!”

Jessica waved. Arlin waved as she walked towards them.

“Hey, Jess, where’ve you been?”

“I don’t know, but I’m glad I’m back,” she said, giving Arlin signals. Arlin looked at Hayden more than Jessica, smiling at him and sending a “good job” signal.

“Hey, let’s go set our stuff down.”

“Uh, sure!” Jessica agreed. She smiled wider as Hayden pulled her along. It meant that they were still attached to each other. Arlin was happy that everything was going exactly as planned. At Skandar’s…Skandar called Arlin’s phone, but it just kept ringing. She didn’t answer. That was weird. He called home. “Hello?” I said, picking up some clothes and putting them in the hamper for later.

“Hey, Darlenys? It’s Skandar!”

“OHMYGOSH! SKANDAR! How’s your movie coming along?!”

“Ha, actually, I’m at my beach house in California.”

“OH!! You’re here?!?! I’m so excited to see you, Skandar!! Arlin’s out right now…” the doorbell rang. I buzzed in my visitor.

“He-…” Perry started to say, but I put a finger on his lips, which he kissed.

Skandar continued, “Yeah. I just finished filming and I’m just so excited to see her!”

“Well, you can come over and wait 'til she gets back if you want…She’s at her school’s Bonfire trip. Didn’t she tell you?” Perry started kissing my hand, up my arm, onto my neck.

“Well, if that’s alright…”

“Of course it is!”“Okay then, bye!” Skandar hung up.

“Well, bye to YOU, too, best friend.” I ended the call.

“Who was that?” Suddenly, Perry was at my ear and had me giggling.

“Skandar!” I giggled.

“Arlin’s boyfriend?” Perry asked, getting away from my ear.

“Yes. He’s back, finally!”

“And he’s coming HERE?” Perry sounded upset. I looked at him and tugged on his hand. He followed me into my room and I went for the closet as he sat on my bed. “Well, until Arlin comes back. They’ll leave…Well. HE will, anyway. Why?”

“I don’t know?”

“What are you looking for?” He asked.

“Something nice to wear.”

“Oh, baby.” I looked at him and laughed. “What?” He asked.

“Nothing.” I snickered.

“You know, I passed by that beach, the one with all of Arlin’s friends, and it seems very ROMANTIC…” Perry got up.

“Perry, you’re a GENIUS!”

“Yeah, I know, ” he came behind me and nuzzled his face into my neck, kissing it.

I turned around and said, “Skandar can go surprise Arlin!”

“Uh, yeahhh…That too!”

I laughed. “I know what you meant. Thanks, babe.” I kissed him. He squeezed my cheeks lightly and I backed up into the closet. He pulled back.

“Oh, I’ll wear this!” I said.

“I love how you look in anything!”

“Yeah, especially 'nothing’.” I said in a low voice. Perry chuckled. I put on my halter-top dress with the delicately sewn flower patterns and my small light brown uggs. Perry held my hand. “Hmm…I think Skandar’s here!”

“He better not be making 'googley’ eyes at you!” “Perry, he HAS a girlfriend, remember?!?!”

“I know, but STILL.”

“You’re hilarious when you’re jealous!” I bit his ear lightly.

“Ow!”

“Oh, puh-lease!” I went for the buzzer and stood by the door. “Hey!” I hugged Skandar. Perry cleared his throat.

“Oh, geez!”

“Com'on, Skandar!”

“Where are we going?” He asked.

“To find Arlin so that she can finally see you!”

At the bonfire again…

The music was playing, and Jessica and Hayden had REALLY started to click. Arlin was really glad for them. She was sitting down, roasting a marshmallow on a stick. She poked at it with her finger. “Hey! Wanna dance?” She looked up to Hayden extending his hand out.

“Where’s Jess?” Arlin asked, staring at him.

“Dancing with David Casper.”

“Hmmm….”

“Oh, Com'on!” “Okay, okay.” She giggled.

Out of all the songs, it HAD to be a Taylor Swift song, and it just HAD to remind her of Skandar. It was their song, “Breathe.” It had barely started when someone came behind them and tapped on Hayden’s shoulder, and whispered, “May I cut in?” in a beautiful British accent. Arlin’s body froze and she started to cry.

“Um, sure…?”

“Skandar.” Skandar said.

“SKANDAR?!?!”

“Oh, so you’re Skandar?” Hayden asked, letting go of Arlin slowly.

“Yes, that’s me. Who are you?” He asked Hayden.

“Oh, I’m Hayden Christensen.”

“…Ohhh!” Skandar just said.

“Well, get to dancing guys!” He patted Skandar on the back.

“Skandar?! You’re BACK?!” Arlin walked towards him.

“Yes, love.” He held out his hand and stroked her cheek with the other, “And I’ve missed you dreadfully.”

“Probably not as much as I have.” Arlin whispered as she was finally swaying in Skandar’s arms.

“Hmmm. I’ll take you up on that.” They finished dancing to their song.

Perry and I danced far from them, seeing a lot of our friends had crashed this little high school trip as well. Keyra and Joe were there, and Noriette and Nick, and even Yasmin and Kevin. Aishah, Marlen and Dylan and Cole were eating melted marshmallows and laughing about who knows what. Suddenly, “Crazier” came on, and Perry and I walked closer to everyone else so that we could hear the music better. Keyra and Joe walked over towards us slowly; as did the rest of the party crashers. Arlin looked at Skandar, and Skandar looked at her too. They put their noses together, also their foreheads. Perry and I were already ahead of them.

“Arlin?” Skandar whispered. She looked up at him, not that she already wasn’t, “You make me crazier.” He kissed her.

Sequel? ;)

#thank god #thank god for cafes and hot guys #fanfic #fanfics #fanfiction #fan fiction #fiction

[gothdaisyjohnson]

amidalleia replied to your post: timehop reminded me that six years ago yesterday I...

thanks for reminding me that song exists i love it

RIGHT such a classic

#amidalleia #replies #I was literally thinking like ''is anyone other than neny and like two other people even gonna remember this''

[the-aro-ace-arrow-ace]

Pass the happy along! When you get this, reply with 5 things that make you happy then send to the last 10 people in your activity!

CZECH EDITION1. Obrození. Bez debaty2. Čumbler a fakt, že se nás tady tolik sešlo. Všem svým sleďům posílám veškerou svou pozitivní energii3. Společné odsuzování Freuda, jak to má být4. Když se cizinci snaží mluvit česky. To vždycky rozjasní den, i když to ve finále ta věta nedává moc velkej smysl, pořád se to počítá5. Sledování, jak zbytek tumblru hoří a div se navzájem neumlátí, zatímco my tady kultivovaně debatujeme o tom jaká marmeláda je nejlepší a jestli ta ryba je nebo neni čerstvá

#Nejlepší je jahoda #nebo lesní plody #samozřejmně domácí #nemáte někdo nějakej dobrej recept na dort? Czech #česky #obrození

[nenilein]

Hello! Apologies for sending an ask out of the blue but considering your familiarity with localisation differences in persona 4/golden, I was wondering if anything comes to your mind regarding this aspect and how the game depicts queerness and queer themes? Thank you!

Heya! Don't worry, I was thinking people would probably ask stuff like this. After all, I already replied to somebody's tags asking this same thing previously, but I know not many people saw that, so let me use the chance to go into more detail:

Unfortunately, Persona 4's treatment of queer themes is not a result of the translation. The only things that were down to translation choices were small things, such as which pronouns are used in which situation (because Japanese does not at all have the same concept of third person pronouns as English, and the way first person classifiers that mean "I" work is very complex and a lot more vibes-based than actually tied to gender.)

But for the most part, everything is pretty much the same. Kanji's reaction to Chie mumbling about something being "off" about how he interacted with Naoto that first time, the tent scene, Yosuke's extreme insecurity in his own sexuality in addition to everyone else's... I think maybe the only thing that's a biiit better in Japanese is that Teddie is kiiinda genderfluid in Japanese, with the artbook outright stating that he doesn't necessarily consider himself "male" when he's in his bear form, unless it's necessary for a joke.

A lot of this can be traced to the really odd relationship the game's director, Katsura Hashino, has to queer themes. In interviews about Catherine Fullbody (a game which infamously has a rather weirdly handled gay romance route which, however, is notably also the only romance route in the game that cannot possibly result in a bad ending), he talks about how he's always admired queer people for being "strong" and wanted to write queer stories, but couldn't really do it until Fullbody because Atlus higher ups were afraid of backlash from the fans.

Traces of this are actually seen in Persona 4 Vanilla's data, where remnants of a surprisingly well done romance route for YOSUKE, of all people, are still present. That route made it far enough into development to have voiced lines in both, English and Japanese. However, it was dummied out in the final game and its script content was removed. Yosuke STILL has the "girlfriend flag" in the code that all the female romance options also have, but in the finished game it only checks whether you can hug him during his social link or not. Everything else was dummied out. You can still find the voice files on the cutting room floor if you want:

And yes, the "I like you" line is unambiguously romantic in Japanese. His wording is very hard to misinterpret.

However, in the finished game and the rest of the franchise Yosuke's bisexuality was reduced to an in-joke of the developers. It's most poignant in Persona Q (the first one), where if you get the "marriage" scene with Yosuke in the second dungeon, his reactions differ WILDLY depending on which Protagonist you are playing as, far more than other male characters. With Makoto Yuki he acts nonchallant and deadpan about it. With Yu Narukami he acts like a blushy Tsundere and panics constantly. So, yeah.

Okay, so, if the director had interest in writing queer stories since before Persona 4, why is Persona 4 the way it is then?

Well, because - and there's no way around it - he sucks at it.

Katsura Hashino has to be one of the clumsiest "gay activists" I've ever seen in my whole darn life. He finds queer people "cool", but seemingly never had any queer writers or sensitivity readers on his teams and it's caused enormous blunders in how these themes have been handled. For example, when after Persona 3 it was pointed out to him that the writing of the female characters in interaction with the male characters was bad, he immediately hired more female writers and gave them free reign for how to handle the female characters from then on out. But apparently the same thing never happened with his mishandling of queer themes. He wants Catherine's Erica and Rin to be empowering figures for trans women and gay men, but makes a lot of blunders in how he has other characters interact with them to the point it buries his good intentions. Erica's boyfriend having gay panic upon realizing she's trans is treated as "funny and cute", even by Erica herself. Rin technically being a monogender alien really undermines his story of becoming more secure in his sexuality. It goes on and on like that.

The intention with Naoto's story was to point out the extreme sexism in Japanese society and how it forces female nerds to find alternate modes of self-expression, but the clumsy choice of including surgery themes in Naoto's dungeon completely buried that for especially western queer audiences. Most people don't even remember Naoto's dungeon was outright modeled after a Kamen Rider villain hideout. They completely shot themselves in the foot with this one. Additionally, the way Naoto is handled AFTER the dungeon makes her (I'm using that pronoun because she calls herself a "woman" in Japanese in the game) seem more like someone who's on the verge of discovering they are X-gender (the japanese word for "nonbinary") than a repressed girl. Like, right down to how she has Rise help her experiment with clothes in the canonical drama CDs only to realize she really is uncomfortable with skirts and go for an androgynous but less restrictive look going forward. The way she dresses in the Golden epilogue and P4D is pretty X-gender core if you ask me. If they had leaned into that they could have genuinely have had something AMAZING, while also presenting the themes of sexism they wanted to explore, but the lack of queer sensitivity readers kind of ruined it.

Same for Kanji. The way they write him makes it seem like he's bisexual or pansexual, rather than straight, but they kinda shove that part of him aside after his dungeon is done, leaving his actual orientation up in the air and wasting a really good chance for representation. NOW, given what happened to Yosuke's social link, it's quite possible the original intent WAS to explore this more and it got cut, but as it stands, we'll never know. The huge problem of the internalized toxic stereotypes his Shadow presented never being reflected on and put into their right context in the rest of the game, when his social link could've given a great opportunity for that is also a huge shame.

All of this happened because of Atlus being unwilling to let their writers go all out with queer themes in fears of alienating a cishet audience AND because Hashino never sat his writing team down with any actual queer writers to sort this shit out and learn how to get across what the team was ACTUALLY trying to say. Now, given, Persona 4 was far from the only Japanese media property with that exact issue at the time, but it hurts especially much in its case because of the game's themes of exploring the truth to its logical conclusion, as well as psychology. These are issues that a remake REALLY would do well to address and correct. I feel like they actually will HAVE to do that, because sensitivity readers have become the NORM in handling these themes now in Japanese media, rather than the exception. You can thank trail blazing mainstream works like Zombie Land Saga for that.

All in all, Persona 4's handling of queer themes is an exercise in frustration that I hope is corrected soon.

#Persona 4 #Neni Replies #Naoto Shirogane #Kanji Tatsumi

[brittneyishhere]

Thand Rakh Lyrics - Himmat Sandhu (2021)

Thand Rakh Lyrics – Himmat Sandhu (2021)

 Description: Song: Thand Rakh Singer: Himmat SandhuLyrics: Bhinda Gill Music: IkkyMusic Label: Basant Music Oh Karta Licence Apply Jatt NeNi Koyi Sunna Ni Tera Reply Jatt NeKarta Licence Apply Jatt NeNi Koyi Sunna Ni Tera Reply Jatt Ne Vairiyan Di Ankh Hunn Bhaida JhaakdiMain Kehda Karne Aa Shoot Goriye Oh Thand Rakh Tainu Vi Pawadu JhanjranNi Ajje Asle Te Phookne Aa Note GoriyeThand Rakh…

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[neni-has-ascended]

Say the investigation team had a P5 style awakening. What would their shadows say to them?

VERY similar things to what they said in their rants in P4, but with an added,  aggressive (but positive) “BUT we can overcome this and break these chains, if we work together!” spin to it.

Except Shadow Teddie. Shadow Teddie would just be like “Well, this is pointless, but I guess we’re doing this. Have fun having a mental breakdown later.”

#Neni Replies #Persona 4 #Persona 5 #xi-virtuous-vices

[neni-liveblogging]

Maybe this was just a coincidence, but I feel that the heavy focus on rumors (Everyone being the subject of one in the main cast, Rumors being a large part of the exposition) felt incredibly reminiscent of Persona 2. I personally am all for more callbacks to p2 even if only accidental ones!

Honestly, rumor have always been a big thing in the series, and for good reasons. It’s true that they’re one of the best ways to gauge the cultural unconscious mind of a given population.

Persona 4 had a huge thing with rumors too, don’t forget that; remember what drove the midnight channel? And I don’t just mean the Midnight Channel rumor itself; I mean everything it showed.

The whole game would have been impossible without Inaba’s rumor-mongering nature. 

#Neni Replies #Persona 2 #Persona 5 #Persona 4 #Anonymous

[lyricsfood]

THAND RAKH LYRICS - HIMMAT SANDHU

THAND RAKH LYRICS – HIMMAT SANDHU

Thand Rakh Lyrics by Himmat Sandhu is brand new Punjabi song with music given by Ikwinder Singh. Thand rakh song lyrics are written by Bhinda Gill while its music video is directed by Parth and Gurdas. Thand Rakh Lyrics Ho karta licence apply jatt neNi koyi sun-na ni tera reply jatt neKarta licence apply jatt neNi koyi sun-na ni tera reply jatt ne Vairiyan di akh hunn bhaida jhakdiMain kehda…

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[bakatenshii]

THE KOIIBTIRIPO & U MY FANS NO I'M UR FANS (I'm boutta have a stroke) but I'm planning on opening a blog but there's so much damn work & all but I wanna write & lewd (sniffle) but ty so much as u can see my horny scorpio brain is clocked in work full time bc I'm always ovulating (idc I make the rules my body my rules I'm always ovulating I'm a baby making machine ready for a good warm up @ kuroo & oikawa specifically) but TY I SHALL DO MY BEST TO PUT MY SLURRY CUNT THOUGHTS INTO WORDS

- neni neni \(^♡^)/

aksnslsk I REALLY FELT THAT ‘im always ovulatin it’s my body i make the rules’ HHNNN LMAO FAT FUCKING MOOOOD oh man

please do!! and don’t feel pressured to Run a Blog the way you’re ‘supposed to’, no stress! If u do pls send me Le URL so I can watch all your Debaucharous Thoughts™️ unfold heheh

rt @ oikawa specifically hi oiks baby I’m here <33

#urusai! baka #baka neni #our fans? #uno reverse make it MUTUAL PINING #KISS KISS #THANKIES FOR ALWAYS SENDING ME SUCH GUD FOOD #even tho im so sucky at replying #taht goes out 2 evry1 whos sent me an ask tho #IM SORRY IM SO BAD AT REPLYING EEEE #i always say im gonna try to reply to most of it but im so bad at time management and then i end up replying to 2 and cacawinf away #fade into the back #anyways i wub u kiss kiss <33

[couldntbcloved]

heathiins replied to your post: matchmaker for fae cos im crYInG

*DEAD LAUGhING* KALLIAN IS HIS ONLY SHIP ATM NO LIE

OOC. here are a few other candidates she considered;

Cassandra Josephine Neni (@elvenmagie) Maevaris (@lucernimaevaris)

#heathiins #;; Oᴜᴛ ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ;; { ᴼᴼᶜ } #// nakoma: hands him a five-foot long list of women