Author's note: The following chapter is in Aiden's POV. The important events of the whole story is written in his POV. This could be a little disoriented if you are reading just this chapter for judging purposes but I'm sure you'll find Aiden's character sketch, his intentions and the flow of the story crystal clear.
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DENIAL CLIFF & NEGATION PIT
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The next day, as promised, Verena Arevalo was promptly at my house. Verena had told me that there were towering odds that Margo could be in danger by the ghost's touch and promised to help her for me. Margo seemed afflicted by Verena's presence in the beginning, but when I came back to the room with Verena's tea, they were chatting like gal pals in hushed tones. Verena left, reminding Margo to block her thoughts.
I asked Margo to write a poem about love. It had been so long since I heard one of her poems. She agreed to write one as a congratulatory gesture for the scuffle I was involved in last night. A mismatched correlation, but as long as she wrote one, that was good enough for me.
When Verena called with a really important information, it initially annoyed me.
"Verns, I just learnt that I should never let Margo alone with you." I got out the basement with my laundered clothes. My mom was busy with my sister in Ironwyn who had a baby on the way.
"Hey, I was just helping."
"By meddling?" I stretched across the couch.
"My meddling had found some juicy information."
"I thought you were here to read her mind about the impact of the ghost's touch."
"Turned out to be more. Do you want to know or do you want to know?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Well, you could hang up."
"Spill, Verns."
"I saw your interesting walk home with her in her mind. Mayflowers and ice cream."
"Spell privacy, Verns."
"Shut up and listen."
I huffed in a slight exasperation. "As much as I want to know what she thinks of me, please don't invade her privacy."
"Well, you could opt out now." Her jesting beat was off.
"Spill..." I pressed.
"She is blocking your thoughts."
"That is the opposite of what I'm trying to do."
"Negation works, Aiden. Patience. She has been blocking your thoughts because she is confused. She doesn't address to herself if she likes you or not and jumps to blocking. Meaning her feelings for you are warming."
"Nice theory."
"It's a very promising theory. I even told her your venture with Kyle the day that picture was posted."
"Verena, why would you do that?"
"You should have seen her face."
"Tell me that was all you said."
"Nope. I told her you have a crush on her."
Crush was a very far, dim backdrop in the past, in contrast to what I felt now. I have grown something more abysmally strong recently. "I'm letting you off the hook because you have supernatural powers."
"Trust me, she likes you." She sighed.
"That explains her weird behavior after you left. She wouldn't even look at me."
"I thought she was always weird."
"Your big toe just crossed a line, Verns."
She laughed briefly. "Thank me later."
The next few days, I knew Margo was confused a lot. When I caught her wrist to impede her disastrous tripping, I swear I could have painted the whole school pink with her blush. It only confused her more and in an invalid way, I liked her confused, but I also wanted everything to be clear because this wasn't a game to me. She was ravine-deep important to me. I needed to make it lucid as soon as possible because if Elec didn't wedge herself between us when I had her by her wrist, I would have messed up all and any chances with Margo by kissing her. It was all I could think of when she was that close to me. Margo Fawn had the effect of bringing out involuntary reactions from me a lot. I was infuriated when she thought I had something going on with Fiona.
"What was that with Fiona?" As much as I liked her getting all worked up like that, I did not like her thinking that I had something with Fiona. Fiona made me uncomfortable. That was what I had with Fiona, a series of uncomfortable encounters.
"What do you think?" I asked frustrated. I had been waiting to tell her what I felt for more than a year. I had gotten involved in a really debasing scuffle. I had to keep Fiona out of my way all the time. I had the right to get infuriated.
"I mean, I saw the pictures of you and her. You were very cozy in it. She was leaning in on you." She fired.
Wretched pictures! "Yes... she leaned in. She leaned in for a kiss. She was too drunk." I took a swig of water, as if throwing water on fire. "That doesn't mean I like her." That was the closest I could get to tell her I like her when I was raging like this.
"What?" She shook her head in an adamant frustration. "I thought you like her. If not, then why did you go to the party she invited you for?"
"I told you... I went to punch Kyle straight in the face." My tone had rapidly changed to extreme ice. "Wait... who else do you think I like? First Verena, now Fiona."
"Aiden, you blush every time Fiona flirts with you." This frustrating tension between us wasn't doing any good for any of us, including Elec and Irsia. They were equally frazzled.
"I blush? Really?" My involuntary reaction kicked in and I leaned on my elbows in the table. "She makes me uncomfortable."
"So you don't like her?"
Her dead-set denial got me in the last nerve. "You know what, Margo. You are so dumb. You just can't see what's right in front of you, can you?" I stormed out of the cafeteria. If I had stayed there one more minute, I would have either broken my hand punching into the table or I'd have kissed her. I preferred the latter by every inch of my being, but wrong timing had been ruling me.
When she sent me the poem, I knew the unknown number was hers. She was the only one who could write poems like that. I decided to write one for her. That was the way she deserved to be loved.
I knew I did well with the poem when she got ready to take off. I was trying to figure out a way to stop her from leaving and goad the truth out of her because this denial game had been messing with me for weeks now and I wanted to end it my way. When she stamped on her raincoat, one of my favorites of her accessories, I knew she would trip and probably fall. I had a surge of reflex to grab her before she could end up falling in front of my eyes. Also, I had to be careful of where I grabbed her -I didn't want to come off as a pervert. The stars aligned my hands to the small of her back, helping me get a slight grip of her waist. I shut the cupboard door behind her back with the full intention of caging her. That was the only way to get her out of this cagey trance that she had set herself in.
"Did you really write that for me?" she asked, with my wired hands around her.
Fine, I could say it out loud one more time if it would splinter her repudiation. "Margo Fawn, I like you and I know you like me too." The change in my breath and voice was unintentional. She had that effect on me. Being that close to her made me do a lot of unintentional and instinctual things.
"No... I don't." Who was she kidding? We all knew she couldn't freaking lie.
"Oh! Really? Why haven't you moved away then?" I would do anything to just get her to admit it. A strand of her hair wandered on her right temple, down her ear.
"What?" Catching her in a lie was real fun.
"If you don't like me, you would have punched me in the face now or would have used your pepper spray on me. If you don't like me, you wouldn't block my thoughts. You would just address those and move on. If you don't like me, you wouldn't react like you experienced a jolt of electricity every time I touch you accidentally." I pushed her a little further on the denial cliff by giving the reasons. I knew Margo. I knew her well that she wouldn't allow her to be in a situation like this. She had always hated the feeling of being trapped.
"How do you know I blocked thoughts about you?" Damnit. She caught me there. If it weren't for Verena, I wouldn't have come this far on this denial game.
"So, I am right? You have been denying yourself that you don't like me." I brushed off her question with my question and also provided an answer.
"More like I was blocking your thoughts, not to get confused." That was her first step out of the negation cave, but I knew she wouldn't take another step because Margo's stubborn and I have always loved it.
"Are you confused now?" I asked with the ice on my heart that had been there for some time now and it wasn't icing my pain, just hurting me slow and miserable.
"Maybe," she said, standing on the ridge between her denial and my misery. I started to smile at my small victory.
"Am I confusing you now?" I took an infinitesimal step toward her because anytime now she could fall off the cliff.
"Am I confusing you now?" What was she doing to me with her brown eyes, playing satirical with my misery? And yet I had the desire to not let her go.
"Margo, you have no idea."
Christ! Did she not have a clue of her effect on me? How badly I wanted her to be mine and how badly I wanted to kiss the truth out of her impeccably pink lips. I was closer that I felt her breath change gears. If I let her out, she would plummet straight into her negation pit. There was no way I was going to let that happen. That one digressed strand of her hair on her glowing olive skin beckoned the tips of my fingers to tuck it away. She presented goosebumps to my touch. I took her cheeks, molding into my hands, bringing closer to my lips. My control seized when she kissed me back. Glad that she took the leap from the cliff and fell into my feelings. I was ready for this. So I grabbed her tight against my chest and kissed her more like her lips were the ticket to a place only I was allowed and I was addicted to it already. Something fiery began to tumble out of my lips and body. A side effect of keeping the feelings under control and hidden and I pulled back. I couldn't kiss her like that, could I? I wasn't the impulsive type, but lately that's all I had been and though I liked it to a level that scared me, I wanted to hear her say she wanted it.
"I am sorry." I said, taking a moment to catch my breath. "I am sorry," I said again to make sure she heard me through my laboured breath.
"Why?" she asked, taking a step toward, and it took a lot of everything in me not to sprint toward her.
"I kind of lost myself there." I pointed at the cupboard. "I am sorry if I have offended you. I've liked you for so long now. I've wanted to kiss you for some time now," I admitted the maniac desire I had loaded in me.
"Then do it...," she said. Her breathy voice was all the motivation I needed to pin her pressed against the cupboard and my body.
Her skin enticed my fingertips and I let it wander slow and light. The instinctual action kicked in and I let my hands wander around her torso. She gasped at my instinct and I consumed it by going deeper with holding her face and slightly, her neck. Her neck was irresistible, but I had to not go for it. Not now. Not today. To keep my control in check, I tried leaning down more, pulling her fragile softness tight and tighter. When she hooked her fingers in my hair, the desire in me came out as a gruff. Just her fingers slightly tugging against my hair was enough to thaw the ice in my heart.
Irsia called both our phones. She freed her lips from mine. Good thing she did, because I don't think I had it in me to break the kiss.
"We should stop," she said with a really cute, coy giggle.
When she packed her things to leave, I asked her to wipe off the smudged lip stain that she wore every day. I didn't want Elec and Irsia to know about us. Not yet. Elec would probably kill me. She had always hated me because she thought I was a potential threat and that I could break Margo's heart. How do I tell her that my only intention was keeping Margo safe and just mine? Selfish of me? Maniac of me? A mad obsession? I just couldn't find a measure of what I had for her and I wasn't going to draw a line, circle or anything geometric. I couldn't mark it into any geometry or map it into a geographical boundary. There was no boundary. I wasn't going to be a loser who lost her.
"There is the Aiden Wilder I like." Finally, she relented. The thawing was set to a speed, with a slow-burning fire around my arteries.
Later that afternoon, I found a jewelry store at the other end of the town. I waited for the designer to engrave our initials to the tiny turquoise heart that danced in the silver bracelet. I first had my eyes on something rose gold. My sister always loved everything rose gold. Then I saw that silver bracelet with a turquoise heart dangling in it, there was nothing that Margo would love more than turquoise. The designer brought the bracelet to me with the initials MA on it. Now, I just had to figure out which was the right time to give her the bracelet.
END OF AIDEN WILDER's POV
**THE END**
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