Dangerous Game

13 - Dammit, Adrian!

Aurora
"You should just kiss him already," Poppy grinned. "Don't even ask him. Grab his face, and kiss him like this no damn tomorrow. Then, make me the Godmother of your future children."

I glared at her. "You're delusional, Poppy." We were having a monthly sleepover at Poppy's. We usually do it at mine, but dad claimed he was too tired to endure the wrath of hormonal teenagers. According to him, all we do is talk about boys and stuff our faces with pizza. Which isn't true. We also dance around my room in our pajamas, belting out whatever comes on the radio until 2am. Or whenever my dad orders us to go to sleep. Whichever comes first.

Since Poppy's family is vegetarian, much to my dismay, we are left with cheese pizza to devour until we feel like we're on our period. And that, guys, is a girl's sleepover in a nutshell. So, if you don't want to deal with a bunch of groaning, then don't climb through our window at midnight. Just stay at home, and eat your Buffalo Wild Wings.

"I'm not delusional. You're just fucking stubborn. It's that simple," she told me, devouring her slice of cheese pizza like a damn animal. That's just Poppy being herself, though. That girl will eat an entire pizza by herself. At one point, her dad swore up and down that the hospital was lying when they declared she was a girl. For that, he was smacked upside the head with a mixing spoon, courtesy of Aditi herself. Even Hunter says that she eats like a pig, and he's very much a guy, at least that's what Emerson has told me.

"So, have you spoken to your mom yet?" Poppy asked, a grim expression on her face when she mentions her existence. With a mouthful of pizza, I mumble some incoherent sentence. "And they call me a pig. Allah!" Swallowing the last of my pizza, I laugh. My dad has called me a pig on numerous occasions. He isn't wrong, though.

From what I've heard, Allah is a god in Muslim culture. However, I'm not a very reliable source, considering my family is not religious. Sure, we believe in God and Jesus, but we haven't been to church in a while, ever since my younger sister passed away from lekuima. Mom had refused to step foot in a church after that. She claimed that if God actually cared about humans, then her baby girl wouldn't have died. Poppy's family, on the other hand, participate in many church services.
Her mom helps out with donations and giving away food to those in Haiti.

Mom would use that excuse anytime Aspen and I wouldn't eat our food as kids. She'd throw her hands up in the air, and tell us that we're causing the starvation of those in Haiti. Which, by my father's standards, was not true. He said that children in Haiti would still be starving, regardless if we are our food. But, I still felt bad, and finished my dinner, anyway. Aspen didn't. He'd feed his dinner to Carmen, the dog we had at the time.

Throughout my childhood, Aspen had always been stronger than me. If I fell on the playground at school because he pushed me, he'd laugh, and tell me that I am too weak. I believed it, too. I had cried myself to sleep that night because I knew that he was telling the truth. In freshman year, I started to work out. I joined the gym, and signed up for a self-defense class. I ran a mile every morning, in an attempt to stay into shape.

I didn't think I was fat, necessarily, but I saw myself as weak. If Aspen tried to fight me now, I'm sure I could take him. His friends are a different story, though. Whenever they would play rough with me, Aspen would brush me off, and tell me to grow up. At one point, one of them tried to sleep with me. In the end, they never ended up sleeping with me. All they received was a kick in the groin and a restraining order from my dad. I smiled to myself at the memory of Nate, Aspen's friend, muttering curse words under his breath and holding himself. It was pathetic, to say the least.

"So, five bucks say that you'll be moaning Adrian's name by the end of the month," Emerson grins, flicking her auburn hair over her shoulder. I can't believe her. What happened to my innocent best friend? In freshman year, she didn't know what the birds and the bees was referring to until Adrian made it his life mission to tell her.

Speaking of which, I never killed him for that. I should kill Hunter for possessing my best friend, as well. Okay, I'll kill one of them, and possibly kiss the another. If he'll stop being a jackass.

Later, we were lying on Poppy's bed, scrolling through Pinterest, when my phone buzzes in my pocket of my ripped jeans. I smile when I discover who had sent it. A certain blue-eyed devil, of course.

Adrian: Hey, um, want to have dinner at my house tomorrow night. Laura wants to get to know you.

My heart beats erratically in my chest as I type a response. Does he mean this is a date? Does he want it to be a date? Do I want it to be a date? Only one of those questions can be answered.

Like, on a date? Anxiously, I wait for a reply. It takes him a little over a minute to begin typing.
I release a breath I didn't know I was holding as I read over his message. Disappoint floods through me when it finally sinks in.

Adrian: No. Why would it?

"That asshole doesn't deserve you, anyway," Poppy tells me. I didn't even have to ask to know she was definitely looking over my shoulder. She said that Adrian wasn't worth my time many times.

It kills me to realize that she was right. He doesn't care about me. I'm just a game to him. I should have listened when Poppy told me that I was playing a dangerous game. Then I would still
have my heart intact.

How do you feel about Adrian saying that it wasn't a date? Why do you think he invited her over for dinner? Do you think it was purely because
of Laura? Do you think Poppy was right?

See ya in the next chapter. Whenever I post it.