Picture of Elliot in especial chapter!
Thanks for reading!
Mamma Mia - ABBA
"Mamma mia, here I go again"
Chapter Three
Carrisa
"What are you doing?" Gwen asked me looking puzzled as my elbow touches my screen. Gwen's unannounced presence makes me jump out of my chair. I screamed for a whole minute.
I'm a very jumpy person.
I turned to her as I breathed out with my hand across my chest, "How the ham in a sandwich did you get inside my house?" I cried as I glanced around trying to find an open door, or even a window.
Gwen grinned, "Yeah, you're lucky this isn't some slasher film cause you would be dead."
"You're luckly I didn't have a pan in my hand or I would killed you."
"You don't cook." She said as she took a spoonful of my fruity pebbles.
"Hey! Get your own bowl!" I growled as I took it from her hands and sat back in the sofa. I couldn't help being annoyed I was at the peck of comfort, I was in the living room wearing my pijamas delightfully watching cartoons. It was a great ending to such a magnificent Saturday.
"Anyway, what were you doing?"
"Twitter and cartoons."
"And your elbow was against your screen...because?" She raised her eyebrow.
"I was trying to retweet with my elbow, duh." Gwen approached me and glanced at my phone, where the tweet was displayed. She gave me an approving nod and proceed to sit besides me.
"Okay, well get dressed. It's almost eight." She points out at her clock, "We're going out," She said with a smirk.
"Gwen," I began patiently. "I just had the most bizarre and miserable Saturday in my entire existence. I was covered in different jams and I smell like a freaking My Little Pony. So excuse me, if I want to sit on my couch and watch the second season of Rick and Morty for the fifth time in a row."
"Wait, what?"
"I don't want to talk about it, I just want to watch entertainment without any educational value." I sang as I sat in the couch.
"Okaaay," Gwen began. "I'm not going to argue my way through that."
"Thank you," I said heartily.
"But," Gwen began and I rolled my eyes. Just when I thought I was finally getting my peace and quiet. "It would be great to get one thing straight in this freakishly Saturday, wouldn't it be? Like say, finally giving Aiden his jacket?"
"N—"
"—You said it yourself that jacket is so much responsibility! It's his trademark jacket, you're holding his hold identity in your bag!"
"W—"
"—Besides, if you don't follow my plan god knows when you'll see him at school. Maybe, he won't be at school tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow and the day after and after and after...Can you live on with that kind of anxiety?!"
"Well—"
"You may not stain it today, but who knows what the future holds? At least with my plan you're 100 percent avoiding any further confrontation."
"But—"
"—And If you don't feel sure then let's make a deal, you trust me, we follow my plan, we give Aiden his jacket and if you want to leave, we leave. They would be even a safe word...let's say...Papaya."
I opened my mouth to speak, but then narrowed my eyes at her and stop. I made a movement with my face. Gwen nodded at me feeling satisfied with her previous statement.
"It sounds very tempting," I said sarcastically, "But you're forgetting I'm an introvert, so that sounds like an absolute nightmare." I was done arguing until she did the thing with her eyes. I rolled my eyes. Gwen was gazing at me with the power of a thousand sad puppies.
I immediately placed my hands on my eyes. "No, that won't work."
"Please," she begged.
I breathed out exhausted, "Why do you want me to go?"
"Fine," she said. "You leave me no choice. I use my no questions-asked-favor-wild card."
Mothertucker.
"Nothing too crazy," I begged her.
***
"This IS crazy!" I hissed at Gwen. We currently driving in King City. I stared both amazed and scared, I had never been so far from town before. Or even this far up in the city. We rarely visit the city since we had everything we needed, school was the only reason why we visited the city.
We walked out of the car and before us was a gigantic concrete wall that encircled identical buildings of endless apartments. The structures gave off the impression they had been constructed a long time ago, but no one bothered to renew them.
What impressed me the most was the concrete wall. It was full of graffiti. But it was actually looked artistic. It was sprayed on with a mixture of colorful colors. It was like opening a bag full of skittles. There were different shapes drawn into the wall, like names or signs and even cartooned animals and people.
It made a huge contrast with the red brick buildings, but yet somehow matched harmoniously since some of the apartments had signs hanging out the balcony, mostly of job seeking proposals like window repairman, or hot meal services.
As we drove by, I could see there were multiple local stores, like small fresh fruit supermarkets, boutiques, laundry stores, computer reparation, restaurants and 99 deal stores.
It was startling to see how much this area of this area contrasted with what I usually saw in town. It felt we had traveled to a whole different country.
Our neighborhood was graffiti free, the houses were enormous, they were not apartments buildings bigger than about a fourth floor. They were also limited to four residencies per floor. While here, they were about five residencies per floor. We had big store corporations. Mostly everyone owned a car, the streets were impeccably clean and I understood why my parents never allowed me to go to King City expect for school.
Gwen ignored my pleading, "You said nothing too crazy. This is only crazy."
"I hate when you play with my words," I concluded.
"Relax," Gwen squeezed my cheeks as she smiled energetically. "Think of it as a Rick and Morty adventure!"
I officially freaked out, "That is not comforting! Rick and Morty's adventures always GO REAL BAD. And if this were to be a Rick and Morty adventure, I would clearly be Morty whom always gets into deep cheese."
Gwen paused, she placed her fingers against her lips and contemplated me as if I was some kind of alien. "Okay, your refusal to curse is reaching beyond me."
"Gwen, did you just hear a word I said?" I tried to reason with her. I signed, "Okay fine, just answer this," I tried to thing in the most horrible place I could think of. "Did you bring me to an abandoned psychiatric hospital? Or a haunted mansion?"
Gwen looked back at me, "What?" She scowled insulted. "Carrisa, you said not too crazy , that's super fun. We should totally go to one in halloween night! Carrisa, you're so good with ideas! I Would've never come up with that!"
Did I just dig my own grave? Okay, one thing at a time.
"Where are we going?"
"The tracks," Gwen smirked.
"Is this like a secret door to the Harley Davidson Universe?" I asked her a little bit frighten. There were so much motorcycles, sunglasses, black clothes and tattoos going on.
"This is where Aiden and his friends hang out." Gwen limited herself to say, and seeing my reaction she muttered; "Stop staring at people's stretchers, Carr."
"I can't help it; they're everywhere, it's hard not to look and just wonder 'how?'" I said.
"What the fuck are you looking at, Barbie?" A random girl with piercing in her cheeks from afar hissed at our direction. Her remark made Gwen and I jump out. I guess my pastel purple backpack did contrast a lot with the environment I was currently in.
"Okay, if we don't find them in five minutes, we get the hell out of here." Gwen mumbled pulling my hand as dash off just as intimidated as I was.
"Oh, so now you aren't feeling as adventurous as before, huh?"
We kept pacing until we finally caught sight of Elliot and his friends. One guy lazily leaned against his ride as he drank beer from a can. While, Elliot joggled with four cans of beer, someone threw a can at him. Which thankfully missed, and exploded into the ground spraying a little bit to our side making us shriek.
As soon as Elliot caught sight of us, he immediately adjusted his posture and walked towards us with an even wider smile. "Gwen?" He asked surprised, but definitely cheerful.
"Elliot!" Gwen shouted displaying her usual cheerful smile. She wrapped her arms around him. I frowned confused, since when were they this friendly? Then again, this was Gwen we were talking about. She could turn a rock into her friend.
"What are you doing here?" he asked shocked.
"Well, since you guys have gone M.I.A at school, we came to give this back." She pointed out the leather fabric sticking out of my Marc Jacobs plastic pink purse.
"Oh, you're looking for Aiden?" he questioned, his brown eyes set on me. I could only nod silently. He scanned over his surroundings, "He's still in the middle of a race right now."
"A race?" I echoed confused. "Like an egg-and-spoon race?"
He bursted into laughter loudly, "What? No."
Before I could inquire further, Gwen interrupted the conversation. "Is this your bike?"
"Do you want to ride it?" Elliot smirked at Gwen's question. I knew Gwen's brain had gone vacant when she had her eyes buried at Elliot's bike. Her eyes widen at his response, her response came out in a half breathed; "I have never ride one before, is it dangerous?"
"If you ride with me you're safe, but I can't speak for someone else." He shrugged which only made Gwen's eyes sparkle even brighter.
We heard a loud chuckle that redirected our attention. It came out of Leon's mouth. He shook his head, "The only ride this guy has is his 2001 Toyota 4runner." He locked his head with his right arm and rubbed his knuckles against his skull. Elliot tried to break free from the grasp.
"Oh, my dad has the same car!" I said as I process the information fully. This only earned me a weird look from everyone, and cackle from Aiden's friends except Elliot who seemed a little bit flustered. "It's a really cool car...we went to a lot of roadtrips..." I said trying to amend whatever mistake I wasn't aware of.
"That's okay, Carrisa." Gwen mumbled into my ear.
"You hear that?" Leon asked with a grin.
"Anyway, Leo." Gwen sounded in between friendly and flirty. "We're here to give Aiden's jacket back."
"Oh!" Leon said and I could picture a little lightbulb turning on. "Jesus, you're that girl!" Leon was now looking straight at me, he bursted into laughter. He looked back at his group of friends and shouted; "She's the girl who stained Aiden's jacket!"
Soon his whole group of friends had gathered around me in a circle. "God, that jacket is Aiden's baby." Leon explained. "And when you smeared it in mustard, it was just epic."
"It was the cherry of the worst of day of his life." Elliot leaned towards me, but spoke loud enough for Gwen to listen. "He was shitted on by birds earlier."
My eyes widen and a loud chuckle escaped my lips, I tried to hold back my laughter. "What?"
Elliot nodded with the biggest grin. Leon patted my back, his hand felt quite heavy against my small frame. "You have both terrible timing and luck."
"Wait," Gwen asked with a peaking chuckle. "Did I just hear Aiden Ward got shit on by birds?"
"Fine," Elliot gasped tiredly as if we had asked him a thousand times to. "We were in sports class and Aiden loves sports class cause he excels at it. But only because everyone else sucks. So, obviously, he loves getting all the attention and the girls," he paused to mimicking a high pitched voice; "Oh, Aiden, you're so good." Gwen and I couldn't hide the grin in our faces.
"Even the gym teacher kisses his ass," Elliot rolled his eyes and again mimicked the voice of our gym teacher, who for someone reason sounded like Barney on crack. "Oh, Aiden, you should be in our football team or any team you want."
"This of course is Aiden's favorite part cause there's the dickhole Johnny Hawk in our class."
"You mean Jonah Hawking?" Gwen inquires.
"The idiot that asked Aiden about the orgy?" Leon inquiries back. "Jesus, that story gets me every time." Leon interrupted Elliot. "It's so funny how from all the people he could've said that, and that includes us. He said it to the most hot blooded idiot in this universe. It took the guy longer to laugh at his own joke than for Aiden's fist land at his nose."
"Anyway," Elliot continued, "the point is these two, well, John always wants to do whatever Aiden does. If Aiden is throwing the ball, so is he. If Aiden is playing basketball, so is he. We were doing track, so while the rest of us slacked in the bench, Aiden walked to the track, ready to impress everyone. So does Jonas. They set in position, everyone is watching, and when the whistle goes off," Elliot burst into laughter and every else too. "It just starts raining shit. I don't mean like little bit of poop. When they came back from the tracks they looked like Pennywise."
Gwen looked over at me with this glare that says; I told you so. I did feel bad because I did have some horrible assumptions of these group of guys, they were clearly not as scary as the rumors said. They were nice.
"Look," Gwen pointed out toward the flying motorcycles meters away from us. People were lined up behind what looked to be a finish line, made out of chalk set across the road. We approached, Aiden's group friends strolled through the crowd as they cleared a path for him as if he was VIP. I could make out two motorcycles from where we were standing heading fast towards us. We stood facing a girl with a flag on her hand.
"They are coming back!" Elliot announced, quickly, our surroundings began to pack up. Their friends rushed to where we stood.
"Aiden!" His friends cheer dragged me back to reality. The bikes were head to head and they were racing towards our way. I still couldn't make out who was who as they were both wearing helmets.
"In which bike is Aiden?" I asked feeling a bit of excitement.
"The right one," Leon pointed out and then shouted Aiden's name again. I looked back at the bikes, the right one and the left one were going so fast and the noise of the motor was incredibly strong. It was the only thing you could hear. I was both excited and anxious, afraid they would get hurt and wondered who would win the race.
"Do you guys do this very often?"
"A bit," Elliot probably noticed my face's confusion and slight terror.
"Wait," I said as I tried to process what was going on. "Are they going to have enough time to hit the brakes?" I could see the bikes dangerously coming towards us at full speed. The crowd's cheers were a mixture of name shouts. There was a cloud of smoke, one of the contestants had arrived. He parked his bike and took his helmet calmly. People went mad afterwards, screaming, jumping and shouting Aiden's name.
"Motherfucking Aiden!"
"Motherfucking Aiden!"
"Motherfucking Aiden!"
The crowd opened up to let a jet-haired girl in, she lunged herself towards Aiden.
"Is that the piercing cheeks girl?"
"The one that called us barbies?"
"Yes."
"Do you think it hurt when she did it?"
Her piercings weren't a perk, but they certainly did not obstruct the viewer from seeing the girl's beauty. She was, in fact, very pretty. Her long hair reached her waist and it had silky ends, so soft they almost urged you to touch it. She had the same bronze skin as Gwen. Which only made her prettier. The white milk skin was so tiresome. The amount of precautions it needed was really annoying. Whenever there was an event that involved the exposure to sunlight, even if applied at least three layers of SPF 80, It didn't keep me from turning into a crab.
"You wanna ask her? She seemed quite friendly minutes ago."
I twisted my mouth to the side completely disagreeing with her. The girl's green eyes popped out thanks to the perfectly applied black eyeliner. I liked how confident she looked when she raised Aiden's hands up in the air, driving people wild. She stared at the crowd smirking. They disappeared minutes after the crowd disintegrated.
"Hey, so how about that ride?" Leon abruptly asked.
"Would you let me drive?" She asked with a mischievous smirk. Leon's grin grew wider.
I knew that was the precise moment I had to shout papaya. I refused to be left alone, knowing fully his offer was directed to her and only. But following them like the awkward third wheel was just as bad.
"I would love too, but I can't leave Carrisa alone."
I was back to breathing.
"Hey," someone called me out. "Someone said you had something for me?"
I was no longer breathing.
"Oh," Gwen began, "Yes! Carrisa you do have something to give to Aiden?" My lips turned into a thin line. Gwen was a bit too insisting making me feel pressured. "I mean, you could talk while we take a super small ride?"
"Umm," I began, I couldn't bring myself to speak up my damn mind. I was unsure of my answer, my mind went all over the place with questions. How could I be sure that we wouldn't get hurt? Did he had an extra helmet? Did he even own one? Gwen looked back at me with hopeful eyes. I sighed, I didn't want to stand between her motto and her.
"Yes," I lied. Gwen's eyes widen, I could tell she was cheering in her inside. I was simply going to let her go and call an uber. But, obviously wasn't going to tell her because she was probably not going to let me.
"He's super cute," Gwen hissed in my ear. "Use this jacket as your advantage." She winked at me and walked towards Leon's way. I turned back to face Aiden.
"So you brought my jacket?" Aiden asks with a monotonously and unimpressed. I suddenly began to remember why was it that I was afraid Aiden and his friends. Aiden was as Icy as ever. I had unanticipated Aiden's behavior. Especially after the previous comments of his friends.
"Y-yes," I mumbled. He only nodded, there was a pause.
He raised his left eyebrow, "Well, what are you waiting for? An award?"
"An award? W-what?"
He sighed, he got off his bike and walked towards me. I immediately frozen as he approached real close to my personal space. He was mere inches away from me. I had never had a boy this close. I felt my face heating up.
Aiden was much taller in comparison with me, so his presence felt a bit overwhelming. His hand stretched out and I felt the tip of his fingers touching my waistline.
I immediately pushed him away. "What in doctor Seuss are you doing?"
Aiden spaced away. He had smoothly slid his jacket from my purse into his hand. Aiden looked at me like an informercial, bored and about to change channel. "Getting my jacket?" He said in an obvious tone.
"I could've reach for it myself."
"No, thank you, you've done more than enough." He said this with such wave of sarcasm, I was surprised I didn't landed on the North Arctic. "You came all the way here to just give me my jacket? I hope you're not a stalker and put some sort of tracker in it."
"No," I babbled like a baby, I was still embarrassed from before. "Y-you weren't at school so...u-umm, I-I wanted to give to you as soon as possible."
He clearly wasn't interested in what I said. He was too busy examining his jacket. He rose it into the air and examined it closely.
"It smells like lemon mint." I added, but Aiden clearly wasn't listening. "It's a great smell."
Aiden proceeded to take off the jean jacket he was wearing. I felt my breath being cut off. As he stretched his arms to place over the jacket, I saw it. It was the same tattoo as before. The same of the weird guys who had attacked the pie stands early this morning.
The female voice of a familiar person brought me back to reality, "Hey Aiden, give me a ride?" It was the piercing girl. Her jet hair was messed by the wind, yet it looked amazing as it waved around. She was wearing a black shirt, tights, and an olive green leather jacket. Her right and left piercings across her cheeks match her earrings.
Aiden looked back at me with the same bored look, "So you riding or not?"
I was able to speak at this moment, I didn't wish to be close to him. "No. No thank you," I replied politely. Aiden gave her a nod; she smirked at his response and sat in the back of his motorcycle.I felt her eyes on me, "Better luck next time, barbie." She said as Aiden drove away.
I regretted staying back the moment they left. I was all alone. I quickly took out my phone and clicked on my uber app. I tried to pick up an uber, but the thing wouldn't work. I guess I was way out of range. It said to try later. I began to feel anxious as I stood there, in the middle of the road as people passed me by.
"But she's so hot." I heard someone said as the his friend snorted.
"Her vagina stinks, dude!" My eyes open widely at the comment. And my mom wonders why I don't hang out with boys? Thankfully, they were just passing by and I couldn't listen to any more of it because they were out of range and my listening was not as good. I looked at my phone again and clicked on the uber app. It was searching again.
As I waited, I looked around, I could see the racers from afar, flying. I waited for a sign of Gwen but she was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, people started to run back from the finish line. Something makes them go back, turn around, hurry for their motorcycles and throw the beers to the ground. I got this bad feeling and all I could think was, I shouldn't be here.