Chapter Seventeen: 20 Questions For The CIA
Aria left two days later, early in the morning.
And by morning, I mean at an ungodly time, even for regular people. She's the only person on this stupid planet that could make me wake myself up at four-thirty in the morning just to see her off. Eyes closed, I can almost imagine what happened just hours ago.
"Hey, stop worrying Gill, yer gonna get premature wrinkles." She laughed, the familiar brassy-sounding chuckle lit up her entire face. Her long, bronze hair was plaited back, though a few strands had escaped. I brushed them back, dulled sparks flying at the touch. I pulled my hand back and put it in my pocket.
"Are those blonde streaks new?" I asked, checking the time on my watch: 4:06. We didn't have much time left to talk in person.
"Yeah, Ryder convinced me to get them. She said that it was her 'hair vision', ever since she saw me. Does it look alright?" She said, touching the glittering gold strands insecurely.
"Yeah, they look great." I replied, staring down at my hands. Ryder. I never knew what the fuck to think about her, I don't even know now.
"She's a really nice person. Smart, beautiful, kick-ass - Gilly, what don't you see in her?" She asked, staring at me with her wide, green owl-eyes. I bit my lip, twiddling with my fingers to release some of the excess nervous energy.
"She's nothing like you." I mumbled, keeping my eyes trained on the dirty blue floor.
"I think that's a good thing." She said, her voice hushed so I could barely hear her. "To be honest, I came back so I could try to talk you into coming back with me. I mean, it's not everyday that your on/off boyfriend leaves the country because of you." She paused. "I still really like you a lot, Finn, but that's just the problem. Half the time I want to rip your clothes off, then I want to sit and laugh about my addiction to soap operas with you, and then I want to cry because you broke my stupid teenage heart. This is too much."
I looked up at her, and she smiled, teeth and all, even though her eyes shimmered with tears. "I'm not good enough to break your heart, trust me, Ari. If anyone's going to do that, it's going to be Ryan Gosling, because we all know that you were dying to be Rachel McAdams in that movie." She laughed again, though a tear slid down her cheek.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the overhead announcer beat her to it. "We will begin boarding for Ireland in six minutes."
"That's me." She said, frowning. She stood and zipped up my grey hoody, looking incredibly oversized on her slender frame.
"Thanks. Didn't think it'd be this cold." She said, playing with the white braided cords.
"Maybe my smell will ward off guys with bad intentions." I joked, though a sinking feeling settling in my chest when I thought about it. I won't be the one making sure that Aria got home safely anymore, or the one she watches bad soap operas with, or the one she kisses underneath the stars on the swings. Whoever she chooses, I hope they'll be better for her than I was.
"We will begin boarding the flight to Ireland in three minutes. Please make your way over."
"I guess I better get going." She said glancing around the bustling airport. "Can I ask you something?" She asked, glancing up to me shyly.
"Of course." I replied.
"Can I kiss you?" She asked, staring me directly in the eyes as people around us raised their eyebrows and began chattering amongst themselves in hushed voices.
"Like a last kiss?" I asked. I was never good with endings; exactly the reason why I left Ireland so abruptly and somewhat unannounced. It wasn't the end for me there, at least I didn't want to think of it that way. The reason why I can't get over things easily - it's easier to run away than to face things head-on.
She nodded, just a slight tilt of her head, like she didn't want to say yes or no. "You don't have to, of course. Just a suggestion." She said, the familiar joking lilt to her voice I had become accustomed to throughout the years making a reappearance.
Heart pounding, I took a step to close the distance between us. For a few moments, no one moved. We just stood there, mere centimeters away from each other, breathing heavily. There were so many things I was determined to document, to remember. The weird way she always smelled like fresh-cut grass, the cluster of freckles scattered across the center of her nose, her lips, cracked but still the same rosy pink.
I wondered how this would compare to all the others we had.
"Finn? You've got that distant look in your eyes." She said, her vivid green eyes twinkling. "Are we going to kiss or stand here until I run out of time?"
I leaned in, silently asking if I could. Man, I could probably win the award for 'Most Awkward Initiation of a Kiss' along with my 'Biggest Idiot Ever' award.
Aria just took the hint that I didn't have the balls to do anything and all at once I was kissing her and she was kissing me back.
Everything around us shifted to background music. At first, the kiss was everything I expected it to be, exactly like the dozens of others. The electricity coursing through my veins, the grassy smell somewhat intoxicating, desensitizing, the feel of her soft lips.
Then I pulled her closer. And then everything changed.
A surge of melancholy sent tears rushing to my eyes and I squeezed them shut, willing them to go away. All efforts aside, I didn't succeed. One fucking tear made it down my cheek and Aria pulled back from me, brushing it away.
"Don't cry." She said, stroking my hand softly as more tears made their way down my cheeks. "We aren't closing the book, Gills. We're just starting a new chapter."
"Last call to board Flight 3A to Galway, Ireland." The overhead blared, and Aria gathered up all her bags, letting out a heavy sigh.
"I love you Finn, that green eye is mine, okay? I heard that Adriana had blue eyes, and oh! Shocker alert, so does Ryder. But if you find someone with green eyes, I will fly back and personally murder her. Just kidding. Sort of. Come visit sometime, your parents miss you and so does Porter. Keep in touch Gilly!" She shouted before she disappeared in the sea of people, her voice lost in all the loud conversations.
"Hey, wake up Anderson. The sun is shining so your ass should have been up hours ago." Ryder says, and the other side of my bed dips beneath her weight. I'm too groggy to even ask myself why and how she got in my room.
"No." I mutter, grabbing a pillow and putting it over my head, unwilling to open my eyes. "I asked Daisy if I could skip today."
"You're just lazy. If I have to go to that hellhole then you're going too." She replies, and begins attempting to push me off my bed.
Ha. Good luck.
"You could skip too?" I offer, even though her small little shoves aren't making much of a dent, I'll never be able to fall back asleep this way.
"I don't like skipping. Believe it or not Anderson, I'm a straight-A student." Ryder replies, and I sigh and sit up on my bed, rubbing my eyes. The curtains have been thrown open, and the morning sun shines bright, flooding my room with sunlight. I don't know or really care to find out if she's lying or not. I just want her to close the damn curtains.
"You know I woke up at four today to drive Aria to the airport, right?" I mumble, wishing I could sink back into the soft pillows and go back to sleep.
"Yeah, but that was a choice." She says, her lips pressed into a straight line. No vivid red lipstick today. "If you're not going to go to school today, it still has to be a productive day. I'm not into lazing around all day every day."
"Why don't we do another one of those lesson thingies then?" I ask, yawning. If I wasn't completely drained then I would probably be doing something stupid like sweating at our close proximity.
Her eyes flash, and she nudges me with her arm. I look over, afraid that I did something wrong, and she smiles wide. "That's a great idea! Who knew you could some up with something genius?"
"Gee thanks," I grumble.
She bites down on her lip, but smiles. "Truth hurts."
I feel like I should be offended, but I really can't. She's sort of right, I mean, everyone knows I'm not exactly the next Einstein. But I manage. "Not everyone's a nerd like you. At least I have it better than Porter."
"Who is Porter, anyways? Is he like Aria's new boyfriend or something?" She asks.
"My best mate from Ireland and.. er, I guess he is." I reply, scratching my head as I hop out of bed and draw the curtains, the room darkening until I switch on the floor lamp, letting the artificial sunlight stream through.
"Hmm.. There are so many topics to cover. I mean, no offence, but you have a lot to learn." She says, following me out of the room as I trudge downstairs.
I nearly trip over one of Bruce's water bowls heading to the kitchen when I realize that I forgot to feed him this morning. And since he's definitely like me, he must be hungry. Jeez Finn, way to be a good pet owner.
"Pieter!" I shout, knowing he has the ability to pop up like a freaking ghost. My voice resonates throughout the room, met with silence. "I know you're in here!" I sing-song, sitting down on a checkered stool in the kitchen, grabbing an apple off the basket on the island.
"Should we start playing ze Marco-Polo game?" He jokes, striding into the kitchen with my fluffy Lab at his heels. "Feen, you forgot to feed your dog. Encore. I felt bad for him so I did and now he will not stop following me around." Pieter rests one of his hands on top of Brucie's head, while rolling his eyes at me. "Your dog is crazy."
"He thinks you're going to give him more. Dogs like food, who can blame them?" I shrug. "Thank you for feeding him, I'll make sure to remember next morning."
"I'm going to take him out for a run. Au revoir Finn!" He says, waving as he jogs out the kitchen door to the outside.
"Pieter just jacked your dog." Ryder smiles, and I glance back over to the sliding glass door they disappeared through.
"Yeah. He does that sometimes." I reply, shrugging and taking another bite out of the tart Granny Smith apple. "So professor, what's our focus for this week?"
She plucks the apple out of my hand, takes a bite out of the side, and places it back into my hand, smirking. "We're going to play twenty questions. There are no rules on to what you are allowed to ask, we're not allowed to judge if the question is particularly strange, and you're not allowed to speak of anything outside of this room. You only get to pass once." She says, a smug look crossing her features.
I raise an eyebrow at her as she stares me back, unblinking. "This seems pretty hush-hush, are you sure you're not going to program my responses into some top secret spy agency?"
She rolls her eyes at me, a wry smile on her pink lips. "Anderson, if I were part of the CIA, do you think I'd be wasting my time in boring old Holiday? No, I'd be kicking ass in some foreign country and blowing up buildings and shit."
Very true. I can imagine her jumping off bridges and using her high heels as ninja stars. I don't know much about Ryder anyways, it's probably a good time to find out more about her. "Okay, you first."
She doesn't waste time firing off the first one. "Favorite colour?"
"Yellow. Yours?"
She pauses. "Caught between cobalt blue and baby blue. Favorite place to go in Holiday?"
Only one memory stands out from the thirteen years I've spent in this small town. "The meadow near Brinkley's farm, in the middle of the wild sunflowers." A wave of nostalgia encases me when I think back on the warm memory.
We go on like that for awhile, answering odd and normal questions, like what my favourite ice-cream is (Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, which Ryder makes a face at) and her favourite animal (a close tie between giraffes and dogs).
"First kiss?" She asks, checking off another fuchsia tally mark onto the scrap piece of paper we've scrounged up. Judging by the way the messy stripes have turned into one huge pink blob, we're almost finished.
"Aria." I cringe internally at the memory. A horribly awkward, sloppy kiss - definitely not one for the movies. "Favourite flower?" I reply, fighting back a yawn while I put my head in my hands. I'm afraid that I'll crumple and start sleeping on the granite counter, which would suck a lot, considering the back pain and the fact that Ryder would see me drooling all over the tabletop.
For some reason I don't think that would scream attractive to her.
"As much as I love my hydrangeas - " She pauses, studying my face. I try to look attentive, but she just shakes her head at me, a weary smile on her lips. "It doesn't matter, you don't know the difference between hydrangea and a hydrant. Forget me nots, those are my favorite."
The fuck is a hyderangedea? "I definitely knew what you were talking about before," I bluff, feeling a rush of confidence surge through me. I can't let her call me stupid again, or imply it.
She puts her elbows on the table, propping her chin up on her folded hands. The arrogant lopsided smile appears once again, carving a dimple from the left side of her cheek as she studies me for a minute.
Gulping, I try to stare her back down. I'm really not cut out for this sort of thing. Ryder is obviously more confident, the boldness radiating off her nearly tangible. "Oh, yeah?" She asks, her voice melodic and soft, with the implication of a dare behind it that I can't ignore.
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the exact moment where I screw myself over.
"If you know so much Finn, why don't you tell me what they look like?" She asks, fully knowing that I have no chance of answering correctly. I can't even pronounce the plant's name right.
"They, uh, have lots of petals. Lots. Like twenty of them?" I guess, but she doesn't give any clues away as to whether I'm right or wrong as she gestures for me to carry on. "And they're er, blue?"
She eyes me suspiciously. "How'd you know?" Hell yeah!
I try to act cool and collected when I answer. I raise an eyebrow at her, a full-on grin tugging at the corners of my lips. "What don't I know? Have a little faith in me."
"Considering the fact that you can't pronounce hydrangea correctly, I'm guessing that was a lucky guess, you little shit." She smiles that crooked grin again, and I'm almost convinced that she can't move the right side of her mouth. It looks weird, honestly, but cute. "So now you get to put on your big boy pants and make a decision."
I jokingly look down to my jeans. "I think these are my big boy pants. Don't think I would have fit in these in primary."
She ignores my comment. "So using the information we've garnered about each other during twenty questions - "
"We technically only did about seventeen or eighteen questions." I correct her, shrugging.
She only gives me an uninterested look and shakes her head slowly. She draws in a breath, connecting those azure eyes with mine once again.
"Would you rather I asked you out on a date, or would you like to do the honors?"
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