April's POV
A week has passed and I'd barely seen anyone around – Aiden has disappeared off the face of the earth and Diego and Emma avoided me like I had the plague. Maybe they avoided me because I flinched every time they came near me – I was trying to quit that but the whole 'werewolf' thing still disconcerted me.
Kayla had also missed whole days of school and when she was here, she'd avoid me. It was Friday now and a whole week had passed. I looked in the mirror, like every other day and cringed. The mark made me feel self-consciousness. Granted, it was fading and could only be seen when it caught the light, but it was disconcerting. Maybe because it made me feel a certain way looking at it.
I slung my bag over my shoulders and headed out the door – my car had finally broken down, albeit dramatically, on the way home from school. It was safe to say I was the laughing stock of the school when it spluttered to a slow death in the school car park.
The school day wasn't any better. Miss Rosalinda, my Spanish teacher, had to pull me to one side in class to discuss my abysmal grades - I wanted to do well in class, but my brain just did not want to learn.
Thankfully, the rest of my lessons went in a blur and I was left unnoticed until lunch. I had an hour to revise for this Spanish test and if I failed, I was going to be stuck in a damn detention with Miss Rosalinda.
"Hey Ap. What are you up to ?" Nina asked, slipping into the seat opposite me.
"Revising," I replied, not looking up at her as I highlighted a phrase. "What's up?"
"I have a date," a smile broke out across her face, "with Matthew Jordan, you know the captain of the lacrosse team? He's in the year above?" I nodded. "Well, we're going to the Cafe after school today to hang out – are you going to be working?"
"Yeah, I've been working all week."
"That's perfect... I was wondering if you could - well - maybe do me a favour?" Ah crap. "Well, you know Matt has a younger brother? Jeremy? In our year? Matt wants him to open up a little this year. You see, Jeremy finds it difficult to socialize with girls and poor Matt just wants to help him. I - I kind of offered to let him hang out with you because you and Jeremy are so alike."
She gave me a bright smile at the end, as though that would coax my anger.
"Are you serious, Nina? I'm not going on a date with Jeremy Jordan. Are you crazy? You have to be crazy Nina." I muttered, shaking my head to myself.
"April please! If you do this for me, then Matt will think I'm perfect. He cares about his brother and I admire that - I just want to show him that I'm nice. It'll be rude if I suddenly retracted my offer."
"You don't need to impress someone like that Nina, you're fine the way you are. Plus I have work and you know I need the money."
"Look I'll make you a deal." I frowned at her. "If you do this one favour for me, then I will not ask you to go to any parties or set you up with anyone else for the rest of the year. And as for work, you're only covering for someone - you're entitled to say no to them sometimes."
"This is my first date and you're making me spend it with Jeremy Jordan? You are crazy Nina."
"Say yes and I won't annoy you for the rest of the year."
"You always annoy me."
"Fine, I won't bug you about going to any more parties for the rest of the year. And hey, I only annoy you because I love you," she cooed, slapping me across the back of my head. I scowled and shoved her slightly.
Then I paused for a moment – Nina bugged me about going to parties I wasn't invited to happened nearly every other week – it took all my energy to say no to her, so maybe this deal would be better for me in the long term. I mean an hour wouldn't kill, would it?
"So if I say yes, I am saying yes to 'hanging out' for an hour tops at the Cafe where you and Matt will be too?"
"Hmm-hmm."
I made a small strangled cry and finally nodded. Jeremy Jordan is the quiet snob of Falls High School. He does not speak to anyone apart from a small group of intellectual beings. He doesn't even know who I am. Nina whistled lowly.
"Oh God, that boy is so damn fine," she said raising her eyebrows at someone behind me. I shifted to see who she was referring to, grinning at her tone. Aiden was standing with Diego besides him, both turned slightly so we could admire their side profile.
Who was she looking at? Diego or Aiden?
This was the first time I'd Aiden in a week and it was affecting me a lot more than I thought it would have. His eyes brushed over me completely as they assessed the canteen calculatingly - not even pausing once. It was as though I didn't even exist, the jerk.
"Which one?"
Nina fell silent. I looked over, slightly bemused. She shook my head at me, muttering that she was only joking, but I felt her eyes flicker in that direction again, and I was certain it wasn't Aiden she was staring at.
********
I'm pretty sure I was stuck in a detention – all lunch I was distracted with thoughts of Aiden and Jeremy and Nina and Kayla and I hadn't been able to revise properly. But try telling your Spanish teacher that. I stalked over to the Cafe, hovering at the doorway awkwardly.
Someone grabbed my shoulders from behind and I had silent heart attack as I turned, arms raised to punch someone. Nina snorted.
"Oh, I got you good!" Matt, her date, grinned down at her before smiling at me kindly.
"That wasn't funny," I muttered under my breath. "I could have seriously messed you up, Nina. I've been learning MMA, you know?"
"Oh come on Ap, it was a joke. Getting ready for my Halloween scare!" Then she grew serious. "And you learn off YouTube Ap, how good can you be?"
"Good enough to fight you," I joked.
Matt addressed me now. "April? You're the one my brother's going on a date with?"
"Yeah, she's the one," Nina replied for me, winking when Matt wasn't looking. I rolled my eyes. We aren't going on a 'date' – we're 'hanging out.' He gave me an approving nod and grinned in the distance at someone. Jeremy Jordan walking towards us, an unhappy grimace plastered on his face. He ignored me and Nina completely.
"Why the hell am I here Matt?" Jeremy asked quietly.
"April here is going on a date with you," Matt replied, pointing at me.
"No way." He replied, sniffing and doing a mini hair flick.
Well I don't want to be here either. After 10 minutes of Matt and Jeremy having 'words' which resulted in Matt raising his voice and Jeremy sticking his hand up at Matt and telling him to 'talk to the hand' they came back to me and Nina.
The next hour of my life was singly and most possibly the most awkward ever. We avoided eye contact and barely made conversation, so we sat in silence slurping our drinks and playing with our napkins instead, watching the time go by.
Matt and Nina had strict orders that we stay for an hour and half tops; they were sitting two booths down from us meaning we had no chance to escape without being seen. Jeremy had made me feel especially uncomfortable when he quizzed me about my social life. A lot of the hour was also spent him questioning my English accent and arguing with him about why Watson is not a better accomplice than Robin.
A shadow appeared over us and we both jumped, startled. Jeremy was playing Crossword on his phone whilst I was trying to count the amount of squares on the table cloth. Yes, we were really that bored. Aiden's voice interrupted our pointless activities.
"So, two little love birds are on a date?" He mocked, leaning his hands against the table. I heard Jeremy straighten up – his mouth opened and closed when Aiden glanced over at him for a moment, but he held his ground.
"So?" I challenged.
"I'm just saying, why are you getting so defensive?"
"I'm not being defensive!"
"Well, you two seem to be getting on just fine. Maybe I'll just go now and leave you to it." Jeremy muttered, raising his eyebrows at me, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"You don't need to leave already, do you?" Aiden sung playfully, slipping himself opposite me.
"Actually, I do." Jeremy replied. I grinned to myself at the sass he showed Aiden. Yes, Jeremy. "See you, April. Can't say we'll ever talk again, but have a nice life."
"Thanks? You too?"
I glared at Aiden now ignoring the weird sensation I felt being so close to him made me feel. He pouted at the silence between us and leaned back stretching his arms out behind him.
"Are you ignoring me Cruella?" He said, leaning down so we were eye-to-eye. I narrowed my eyes at him and muttered a no.
I paused. "Aiden I need to ask you a question." I said seriously, dropping my bag to the floor.
"Shoot," he replied, leaning back on his elbows.
I paused, biting my lip, figuring how to say this. "The mark you left on my neck," I began awkwardly, watching his expression carefully, "is it going to stay there forever? Why doesn't Emma have one like mine?"
He tutted and sighed, running a hand through his tousled hair. "So many questions, so little time," Aiden smirked attractively. "That mark will stay on your neck. Sorry," he had the nerve to look sheepish about it. "Emma doesn't have one as obvious as your mark because they are two werewolves and with us it's a human and werewolf. It's not uncommon for a human and werewolf to get together – just very rare."
"So, if I didn't die because we're so called 'mates' then that must mean we... we really are mates. But how can that be? Mates are supposed to be in love. I can barely look at you without wanting to murder you."
He scowled.
"What? It's true!"
"I don't know why that mark didn't kill you – it can't possibly mean we really are... we're too different... you're too innocent for me, too naive..." he trailed off, muttering to himself.
"Look let's not worry about that now. It's obvious we're not like other 'mates' and we'll obviously not fall in love. We're too different, but if you still want to convince your dad then we'll have to act couple-like. I know you stick to your deals so you'll leave me alone after this is all over. So I'm going along with it." I felt strangely empty saying the words, but I couldn't care.
He nodded and slipped out of the booth, gesturing for me to follow. I paused for a moment, hesitant as I glanced over at Nina and Matt, but they didn't seem to notice anything, before I left after Aiden.
"Damn, I still have to revise for my Spanish," I muttered to myself as we exited the doors. I knew I'd failed that damn test - it was pulling my grades down.
"What?" He asked, smiling slightly at my obvious frustration.
"I've failed Spanish and I just know Miss Rosalinda is going to make me re-take." I complained childishly.
"I think you're forgetting that you have a Spanish guy right here."
"You?"
"No, that sexy beast of a man over there," he scowled. "Yes me, you idiot."
"Ew, why would I want help from you?" I scrunched up my nose to empathise my point.
"Because you'll be blessed with seeing this sexy sight every evening. Plus, helping another student makes me look good. I always like to do my bit for charity." He grinned, leaning back against the wall.
I glared at his jibe. "I don't appreciate that comment - but thank you. I need all the help I can get."
"No worries. And anyway, Miss Rosalinda is hot, I wouldn't mind being in her detention." Aiden smirked.
"Aiden, do you go looking for STD's?"
"Stop being so melodramatic," he sighed, and I could almost hear rather than see the smirk that came with that comment. "I'll help you with Spanish. No strings attached. Think of it as an added bonus of me kidnapping you." He grinned. "Do you have a car to go home in?" He blatantly knew the answer to his question. I felt like smacking that cute grin off his face.
I pulled a face. "No, my car broke down. I walked here, I'll walk back."
"Why didn't you use the car I let you borrow?"
"I guess I thought walking would do me some good – plus, I only feel comfortable going in my own car," I retorted, my eyes glazing over with thoughts of my beautiful baby (car.)
"Okay fine, you can stop begging me, I'll drop you home. God, you're so whiny," Aiden sighed. My mouth dropped open to argue but he'd already pushed me into the car before I had time to protest.
"I was not complaining! And I didn't beg for a ride thank you very much – I was fine with walking," I argued.
"Yeah, you were really going to walk home when it was getting dark and god knows what could happen to you out there."
I fell silent after that comment, my heart jumping slightly at the fact that he cared. For the rest of the car journey, I lectured him about Leonardo DiCaprio's timeless beauty - I even ended up rapping an entire Eminem song to him, which resulted in him genuinely laughing. His laugh was cute. If he eased up a little, I might even consider him a decent human being.
He ended up making small, slightly funny (although I would never admit it) comments about me and I discovered his rudeness was hereditary. He couldn't help that he was a twat.
At the end of the night when it was time to leave, I felt my heart soar when I shut the door to him. Although I would never admit it out loud, Aiden was surprisingly funny and sweet. And too damn cocky. Even though we were polar opposites, we somehow understood each - we didn't judge each other's little habits, and flaws, and likes - we just fit.
Maybe... just maybe... we are more alike than I ever thought we were...