Epitome

Chapter 11

"Wait, you know my full name? I don't know my last name. What is it? What's yours?" Delaney asks.
I grab her hand. "Gabe Bailey and Gina Zola." I say. "So I looked us up and I found out that we both died somewhere around 20 years old."
"That young?" Delaney asks.
"But here's the thing-no one knows how. They don't even know that our deaths were connected. Our bodies were both found in different locations. Yours was in your apartment, and I was found in a ditch."
"Do you think that our causes of death will help us figure out why we were reincarnated?" Delaney asks, and I nod.
"Alright, we'll continue this later." Delaney says just as Riley walks up to our table. He shoves his hands in his denim pockets and leans casually against the table.
"How's the English project, Laney?" He asks. I try to send subtle eye hints to Delaney explaining the situation. I feel like I'm more just awkwardly winking with a tiny squint in between glares.
"Good! We were just exchanging our opinions on the Paul McCartney conspiracy theory. I'm a huge Beatles fan, but not so much in tune with conspiracies." Delaney smiles. "Gemma, on the other hand, is a BIG conspiracist. How about you, Riley?"
I glare at Delaney. She really has been exercising her first amendment rights lately.
Riley's eyes widen a little bit. "Oh, I didn't know that, Gemma." He says.
I try to look innocent and shake my head towards him.
"Just kidding," Delaney says "she more just collects them, rather than believes in them."
Riley laughs. Which helps reassure me that he doesn't think I'm the next Hitler or something.
"Okay. Well Aden needs her, so do you mind if I take her off of your hands?" Riley asks looking at me.
"Sure." Delaney says. Riley grabs my hand from Delaney's and leads me to wherever Aden is.
We walk down the hall.
"So what does he need?" I ask. I couldn't help but feel a little strange. I see people whispering as we walk by and I want to scream at them; he's not my boyfriend!!!!! Then I just feel like a hypocrite and wonder why I'm in such denial. He's holding your hand, Gemma.
"I don't know, but he looked pretty concerned." Riley says looking ahead. Like how could he not be annoyed by all the annoying people at this school? With their stupid smug looks on their faces. I can't take it.....must...hyperventilate...........
"Gemma. Finally. Thanks Riley." Aden says as he approaches us.
Riley let's go of my hand. Which I try not to look relieved.
"Anytime. Hope everything is ok." He waves to me before he turns around and disappears.
"We need to talk." Says Aden as he pushes me towards the entrance of the building.
I swear if mom and dad knew just how much school we've been missing I think they would send us all to boot camp.
He ushers me to his car. I get in obediently.
"What is going on?" I ask him. He just reverses the car and ignores me.
I shift in my seat. Aden is rarely this quiet.
I pick the leather seat with my fingertips. I watch as my blue nails go deeper and deeper in the seat. The tension is all consuming. I can see the sponge in my mind as it slowly squeezes together and releases in relief. So much control. The car is quiet, which is rare usually there is some kind of music on.
Finally we arrive somewhere and Aden gets out of the car and opens the door for me. We walk inside and sit down in a booth. The waiter comes by and smiles at Aden. Aden smiles politely back.
"Gemma, what kind of ice cream do you want?" Aden asks me.
I'm a bit caught off guard.
"Vanilla." I say looking at the wood grain in the wooden table we are sitting at. The lines vary in different colors and that interests me today for some reason.
He orders and they come back pretty fast with our ice cream and he hands a white cold bowl to me with a spoon and he says 'thank you' to the waiter. He starts to eat his ice cream.
"Aden....what's wrong?" I ask him. I can hardly stand it anymore. It's so uncomfortable. The stress. The tension. The uncertainty.
He sets his spoon down on the black napkin on his right.
"What does Delaney like?" He asks me.
My eyes squint at him. I want to rip him apart. If we came here just to talk about how he can get in good with my best friend then this is a HUGE waste of time and fake excuses.
"Is that why we are here, Aden? To talk about Delaney?" I ask him bewildered.
"Well, yes and no." He says with that mysterious look he has.
"I don't have time to play games. I had a history test today, I'm missing it." I say frustrated.
"I'm sorry, you can make it up. It's just, I really like her and I don't know what to do, you understand right?" He asks me. His blue eyes pleading with me.
"I understand that both you and Tyler like her, but we don't need this to be a competition. In fact how about you guys just let her pick." I say annoyed. I pick up my chrome-looking spoon and dip it into my ice cream. I watch as it slowly dips into the white vanilla ice cream. I scoop it out and let it melt in my mouth.
Silence.
Beautiful silence.
"Gemma, I've never felt this way before." He says as he breaks my beautiful silence.
I roll my eyes annoyed at him.
"Don't you always start a relationship with that?" I ask him.
"No." He says too quickly.
I raise an eyebrow.
"This is just because Tyler likes her isn't it?" I ask him.
There is a tiny shift in his eyes, which confirms everything I would need to know.
He picks up his coat and motions to the waiter. This was the wrong kind of silence. I didn't want this kind. He pays and leaves a generous tip on the table. We walk out together. As we drive back to school and I started to pick at the seat cover again I came to a realization about human nature. We always have something we want to beat or go against, but is it a worthy goal?
What are our reasons for wanting to beat someone at something?
Are they right?
Are we all that competitive that we don't realize what's important?
"Aden, I promise you that you are wonderful. Someday you will make someone the luckiest person alive and I'm not saying that, that person won't be Delaney. I'm just saying that you should be yourself because if you do, you will move mountains." I say to him.
"Thank you, Gemma." he says. It sounds genuine, but you never can be sure.
We get to school and it is lunchtime, in fact right when we get into the door the bell rings.
The doors in the hallways fly open and multiple bodies start flooding them.
So many people.
It would be so nice to just get lost in it all. To just be lost in all the bodies. To not have to face things. To just stand there ignorant, but I can't. I need to find Delaney.
To my surprise she is sitting at the table with all of Aden's friends.
Well I'm only a little surprised. She really has become our friend. A part of our little family.
Aristotle says that there are three classifications of friends.
One; Friendships of Utility; where you need that person for some reason. For school. For dance. To teach you things.
The second; Friendship of Pleasure; where you just enjoy each other's company.
The last is the strongest.
Friendship of the good; where it is lasting and they have similar values and goals. It is the strongest and the hardest to obtain, but when you have it. You have gold.
We were all Friendship of the good. Our goal?
An unspoken agreement; To trick our fate and live by our own rules. To live intensely. To love with no limits. To win in life. A worthy goal.
Riley sees us as we approach and his face lights up.
Delaney is sitting next to Tyler and is unusually quiet.
I try not to let it get to me. The looks on their faces make me uncomfortable. Like something is wrong. I want to comfort them, but I don't even know what's wrong.
Aden sits down. I go and sit next to Riley. It was just another day at Skyview.
"Do you guys want to hear my report for English?" asks Riley trying to break the silence.
Everyone looks up at him.
"Sure." I say smiling encouragingly. Anything to take away the silence that I don't like.
"This is about the book we read in English. It's called "The Road To The Dead." he says, He clears his throat. "Susan was walking on the street by herself. This was probably her first mistake. There were no cars, street lamps, nothing that would give her aid in what occurred. She was not going to be seen. She wasn't going to be heard and this was something I'm sure he was counting on. I say he because we don't know his name. Even at the end of the book he is still a mystery. It was so easy for him to come up behind her and cover her mouth and watch as she falls to the ground. It was so easy for him to muffle her cries and her screams."
Everyone at the table was finding it amusing, but I was feeling sick to my stomach. I think my inner Gabe was not liking this at all.
I see that Delaney also looks uncomfortable.
I try to swallow, but I think I'm going to choke. I think I see something when I close my eyes. A man. He's tall and thin. Average. Easy to be ignored. To be overlooked. He's standing over me. Standing over Gabe. I shudder.
"Are you ok, Gemma?" Riley asks stopping in mid-sentence. He must have felt my shudders.
"It's not real. Your going to be fine. I'm sorry if I scared you." he says. He holds my hand.
"No, I'm fine. Your just such a great writer I get chills." I try to smile, but that doesn't work. Because I can't get the 1000's of muscles in my face to move.
Delaney gets up from where she is sitting. She is trying hard not to shake too.
"We'll be right back." I say. I stand up and walk over to Delaney and grab her hand and we start walking away. I turn around.
"But don't worry about us. Go ahead and finish it." I say. "Hopefully we never have to hear it again." I mutter under my breath.