Exploiting Realities

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE ANSWER

LORELAI

Aria's consistent absences at school didn't go by unnoticed. People started asking questions, and it was pretty difficult for us all to keep our mouths shut. The whole school was going to find out eventually, and Aria knew that. For now, however, we respected her privacy.

The school bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. I walked out of English class and started heading towards outside. I saw Dillon on my way there and sprinted up next to him.

"Dillon!" I called to get his attention. He looked back and stopped when he saw me running towards him.

"What's up?" he asked when I caught up to him.

"I need you to do something," I told him. Aria had asked us about her school work three days ago and I hadn't yet asked to see if he would actually do it.

"Oh?" he asked.

We began walking and I explained to him that Aria needed help with her schoolwork and that Miranda had suggested that he help her with health.

"Wait, so what do I have to do?" he asked when I had finished.

"You just need to ask Mrs. Carter for Aria's work. Then take it to Aria, teach it to her, and turn it back in to Mrs. Carter for her. She gets graded for it and doesn't have to repeat her junior year. It's simple enough to understand."

"She's really going to be out of school for that long?" he asked me, his eyebrows pushed together in disbelief.

I rolled my eyes at him. "It's cancer, Dillon."

He sighed and shook his head. "I know," he said, "I guess I just haven't completely processed that yet."

I nodded. I understood what he was feeling. I had felt that way two years ago when I had found out the first time, and I had felt it again only a short time ago when Aria had told me again. He was in the same form of denial that I was  in. He wasn't meaning to deny it, he just wasn't fully admitting it to himself yet.

"It's a lot to process," I agreed with him. "I still haven't fully processed it, and she told me the first day."

Dillon scoffed. "Well, you had Alec to process it with you."

I stopped in my tracks and looked at him with wide eyes. How did he know that Alec knew? And that Alec had known before him? Aria wouldn't have ever told him that.

"Yeah," he said in response to my facial expression, "I know about Alec."

"I just..." I stammered, "I just didn't think that Aria would've..."

"She didn't," he interrupted me. "He showed up to visit her while I was there."

I gasped. "Oh frick!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah," he said. "Oh frick."

After I had called Aria telling her to talk to Dillon the other day, Alec had come over.

**flashback**

I had been sitting on my bed answering questions on To Kill a Mockingbird when I thought that I had heard something hit my window. When I got up and looked out of my window, I had seen Alec down under throwing pebbles.

"What are you doing?" I had laughed, opening the window looking down at him.

"Rapunzel! Rapunzel!" he shouted up jokingly. "Let down your hair!"

"O Romeo, Romeo," I replied in a sing-song voice, "wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name or I shall no longer be a Capulet!"