Comment of the Chapter:
about that comment, it would be more like I take Ur anus, to have and to hold... I like how this one was a response to the other comment of the chapter. And I can't get
enough of Uranus jokes. Thanks to StuckInMyOwnWorld for the comment.
Chapter 21: Post Hardcore
I groaned as I stomped down the stairs. Someone had rung the doorbell at seven in the morning and Kurt refused to get it. My dad couldn’t get it because he was already at work.
Once I reached the front door, I looked through the peep hole to make sure it was someone who didn’t go to my school. Much to my surprise, Holly was standing with a bright smile on her face. How the hell is she so happy in the morning?
I opened the door somewhat begrudgingly and was hit by the morning’s coldness. “Why?” I groaned as a greeting to Holly.
“Good morning, sunshine!” Holly, unfazed by my rude hello, chirped cheerfully.
“Holly, not to be rude or anything, why are you here at seven in the morning?” I asked, opening the door fully so that she could come in.
“I wanted to do something with you before school starts next week,” she responded.
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” I had basically wasted my break by being sick and staying in bed all day. I just fully recovered yesterday. “What did you have in mind?”
“Trent told me that you like theater-y stuff, right?” Holly looked like she was going to explode with excitement as she said the next part.
I paused a moment wondering who the heck this ‘Trent’ person is and how I knew him. Oh wait . . . That’s Uranus. “ . . . Yeah?” I answered uncertainly, not sure where this was going and slightly shocked that Uranus would remember anything I told him.
“I got us three tickets to see a show produced by this theater group. Apparently they’re supposed to be really good. Like really good,” Holly enthused as she waved the tickets in front of my face. “And the best part is that it’s two towns over and you don’t have to wear you fat suit since probably no one there will know you,” she continued, the smile growing on her face.
It touched me that Holly would go through all of this trouble to spend some time with me, but I couldn’t really hear anything after she said ‘theater group’ and ‘two towns over’.
“Holly, what town is this in?” I asked, but already knowing the answer.
“Uhh . . . I think it’s in Elmswood or something like that. It shouldn’t be too far away—it’s like an hour and a half drive there, but I think this will be worth it.”
I bit my lip at the mention of Elmswood, but the look on Holly’s excited face made me feel bad about declining the offer. “Holly, I can’t come,” I muttered, feeling guilty.
“What?” Holly’s grin turned into a frown. “Why not?” she inquired, pouting.
“I-I-I-uh- I needed to do something today,” I answered vaguely. I could slap myself right now. I’m usually great when it came to improvising excuses, but my conscience was interrupting today.
“Well, can it wait for one day?”
I looked at Holly in misery. She was putting me in a predicament. I cringed at the thought of going to Elmswood, but I didn’t want to upset Holly either.
“I guess,” I murmured, knowing that I would regret this.
“Ha! Trent owes me five dollars!” Holly shouted in victory. “I knew you would say yes.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just let me go back to sleep now before I change my mind,” I grumbled, my morning bitterness coming back.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you’d still be sleeping at this time,” Holly apologized genuinely. “Let me just give you my number so that you can tell me when you’re ready to go.”
“It’s fine,” I accepted her apology as I went into the living room to get my cell phone and gave it to Holly.
Holly grinned slightly as she flipped open my phone (Yes, I still have a flip phone).
“What?” I questioned suspiciously.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you and Liam are going out?” Holly asked me, her smile growing as she showed me my phone.
It was the picture of us sleeping on the couch.
I felt my face flush. “We’re not dating,” I denied as I snatched the phone out of her hand. “My brother must have changed my background as a prank or something,” I explained to her, embarrassed. “What’s your number?” I asked her, deciding to do it myself before she found any other humiliating things on my phone.
“Still, it must have happened for there to be a picture.” She raised an eyebrow, knowingly. After that comment, Holly let the subject go thankfully and told me her number.
“Okay, well, I’ll see you later then,” I told her as a way of saying goodbye so I could get some sleep already.
“Rennnnaaa, make me food,” Kurt came crying into the room. “I pooped out the hugest crap ever and now I’m hungry,” he said bluntly, but then he noticed Holly, who looked amused by this, and quickly saved himself, “I mean I worked out so hard that I need protein.”
“Nice save,” I complimented sarcastically.
“I regret nothing!” Kurt yelled as he fast walked out of the room out of humiliation.
“Anyways, I’ll see you at like three-ish?” Holly confirmed as she headed for the door.
“Yup,” I answered as I yawned. I needed more sleep.
“Okay, see you then.”
“Bye,” I said goodbye tiredly and shut the door after her.
Now I have to go hide the Dr. Pepper again so Kurt wouldn’t bother me while I’m sleeping peacefully. And I wanted him suffer for changing my phone background.
:::x:::O:::x:::
“Kurt, let go of me,” I told him for the tenth time.
He found the Dr. Pepper.
“No! I’m proud of you, sis. You’ve gone from an antisocial caterpillar to a beautiful, social butterfly. Spread your wings, Rena. Spread your wings!” Kurt finally let go of me to “fly” and “spread his wings”.
“Kurt, you shouldn’t be drinking this much soda while playing a sport. It just slows you down—physically and, in your case, mentally,” I stated, knowing that it was useless to get him to quit. Kurt would never give up his Dr. Pepper.
“I believe I can fllllllyyyyyyy. I believe I can touch the skkkkky. I believe I can sooooooooarrrrr---”
I rolled my eyes as I left Kurt in the kitchen singing to whatever song that was so I could have some quiet while I called Holly.
She didn’t pick up the first time I called. Nor the second. Nor the third. I was beginning to hope that this meant that I didn’t have to go anymore, but on the third ring of the fourth call Holly finally picked up.
“Hello?” Holly answered, sounding stressed.
“Hey, it’s Serena,” I told her. “You sound kind of stressed. Is everything alright?”
Holly gave a long sigh before she spoke. “Um, my grandparents are getting a divorce, which really sucks because they’ve been together for, like, 27 years. Why the sudden divorce now? Seriously, it’s probably about something stupid anyways like my grandpa not putting the toilet seat down or something.”
Even though Holly was just babbling, I could tell she was upset by this.
“Do you need me to comfort you or something?” I offered, upset by the fact that she was upset.
“No, it’s fine. My family is going to fly to them and see what’s up. Like I said, they’re probably fighting over something stupid. Old couples tend to do that, right?”
It sounded as if Holly was trying to comfort herself, but I nevertheless said, “Yeah, you’re right.”
“Anyways, we’re at the airport now. I left the tickets with Trent. And please, Rena, even though I know that Trent isn’t your favorite person in the world, just go. I really want all of my friends to be friends with my boyfriend.”
I mentally groaned. She’s doing that thing again where I can’t say no because my conscience won’t allow me to. “Fine,” I agreed, not wanting to add any other stress to her life.
“Thanks, Rena,” Holly said gratefully. “Trent should be on his way by now. And if he isn’t, hit him for me, okay? I have to get through the security checkpoint. Bye!”
With that, the line went dead and as if on cue, the doorbell rang.
“I got it!” I yelled, making sure Kurt wouldn’t attack whoever was at the door in his drunk state as I headed over to the front door.
I looked through the peep hole to see that Uranus was standing there with a scowl on his face. Well, that makes two of us.
“Do you think there’s any way she would find out if we decided to ditch?” I asked Uranus once I had opened the toe door, not bothering to greet him properly.
Again, as if on cue, something from Uranus’ pocket gave a small chime. He fished whatever it was out, revealing that it was a phone.
“I think she would,” Uranus stared at the phone in amusement and then held it out so that I could see.
On the screen was a text from Holly saying, “You guys better not try to ditch this just because you think I won’t catch you.”
“Creepy,” I commented, slightly amused by the text as well.
“No fat suit today?” Uranus attempted to make small talk as I stepped out of my house and locked the front door with my key.
I looked down at my normal-fitting jean-clad legs and my hoodie. Holy crap. I’m outside of my house and I can see my feet! Yup, there they were—tucked in my red converse. It still felt weird to me to be outside dressed like this. Plus, it was a whole lot colder without my layers of cotton surrounding me.
“No shit, Sherlock,” I couldn’t help but say snidely as I walked into my driveway to see a blue truck. It wasn’t anything special, but it was nice.
“For that, you’re riding in the back,” Uranus said as he pointed at the bed of the truck and headed around to the driver’s side.
“But . . . it’s a truck,” I stated stupidly, looking at him in disbelief. Would he actually make me ride in the back?
“Just get in,” Uranus ordered, annoyed.
“Are you okay?” I questioned, truly worried about him, as I got into the truck. He seemed a little more on edge than usual.
Uranus looked his side-view mirrors as he backed up into the street. “No, not really. I’m being forced to watch some stupid play with a smartass,” he said in a somewhat joking manner, brushing off the matter.
I scowled as I put on my seat belt. “Your face,” I muttered in response and slumped in my seat. It was going to be a long ride.
“You should really get a new comeback. This one’s getting old.”
“You should get a new face. It’s getting uglier.”
“Okay, that was pretty good, but otherwise you need to stop.”
“Your face needs to stop being ugly,” I muttered instinctively.
“I can’t hear you.” Uranus attempted to get me to shut up as he turned on the radio and turned up the volume.
My face twisted into disgust as some demented noises blasted through the speakers.
“What is this?!” I had to yell to be heard over the horrible noises that were coming through the speakers.
“Post hardcore. Too hardcore for you?” Uranus asked giving me a smug look whilst turning down the volume a bit.
Pssht. As if having the ability to condone this type of music is something to smug about. I bet he doesn’t have the ability to sit through an entire opera without falling asleep or making a snide remark about the lady’s Viking hat.
“If it’s post hardcore, then it’s one step after hardcore, because ‘post’ is Latin for ‘after’, and you’ve landed yourself in the demonic zone,” I retorted, giving him a smugger look.
“Okay then, since you’re such a music expert, what do you consider non demonic?”
“You know . . . ones that you can actually understand what the heck they’re saying. ‘Cuz honestly all I’m hearing is . . .” I paused for dramatic effect, and then I screamed in his ear.
Startled by the sudden sound, Uranus swerved the car into the other lane. Luckily, there were barely and cars in the road at this time of the day. But it still scared the crap out of me.
Note to self: Uranus is as easy to scare as a girl scout. Not that I’ve ever screamed at a girl scout before . . . though they deserved it for making me wait two months for my damn thin mints.
“What the hell?!” he shouted as he gained control of himself again. “We could’ve been killed. Geez. There is something wrong with you,” he muttered as he stopped at a red light.
“I swear that it’s the music. It releases the inner demon in me,” I made up an excuse whole simultaneously trying to get him to shut off the music.
“Oh, I thought that that was just being yourself,” he mocked, not getting my hint that he should turn off his crappy music.
“Just turn off the goddamn music!” I yelled at him, making sure not to be too loud because, after all, he’s as easy to frighten as a girl scout.
“Okay!” he yelled back and, much to my relief, turned off the music.
I relaxed in my seat a little more now that the music was off and the car was silent, well aside from Uranus quietly cursing me.
After fifteen minutes of silence and the occasional “Don’t touch that” from Uranus, I got bored and tried to sneakily turn on the radio to my station.
“How is this good music?” Uranus asked, insulting the work of Ludwig Van Beethoven. Uncultured asshole.
“Don’t insult my musical idol.”
“Why? I mean, how can a guy who went death produce good music?”
“How could Helen Keller learn to speak being deaf and blind?” I countered, frustrated that he couldn’t see the beauty in Symphony No. 9. “You’re just jealous of his talent.”
“Geez, I was on the mark when I dubbed you Gurthel. This is definitely old peoples’ music.”
“You know what, Asshole? Oh whoops. Sorry. I meant Uranus. The two names just sound oddly similar,” I countered.
“Turn this off,” Uranus commanded, not even bothering to argue with me about the nicknames (I’m too good for him). “I’m going to fall asleep if we do keep listening to this,” he complained as he reached for the knob.
I slapped his hand away. “You got your ten minutes of ‘shitty’ music. Let me have mine.”
“What’s it with girls and hitting me?” Uranus sulked as he gave up trying to change the station and focused on the road.
“Because you don’t look any different from a fly.”
“I liked your ‘your face’ jokes better,” he mumbled. “They were less annoying.”
Ugh…. Another forty-five minutes of this.
:::x:::O:::x:::
I stretched as I shut the door of Uranus’ truck. We were finally here. The rest of the ride consisted of Uranus and I bickering over stupid stuff, mainly of which I deflected with ‘your face’. So when we finally were parked in the parking lot of the theater, I was exhausted and slightly irritable.
“Hurry up,” Uranus hastened me, walking to the entrance of the theater.
I rolled my eyes at his impatience and decided to piss him off further by taking in the sight of the theater. It was called oh-so creatively named “Elmswood Theater”. Man, this round theater brought back memories. They had repainted the outside blue and green since the last time I’ve been here. There were a lot of people hanging around outside, gathered near the fountain that was placed in front of the entrance.
I let out a breath of air nervously. I can’t believe that I was going to set my feet onto the speckled tile of theater again. I thought it would never happen, but here I was . . . with Uranus.
Speaking of whom, the asshole didn’t wait for me. How did Holly end up with a guy like him? I bet he drugged her or something.
I sprinted to catch up with him while he was holding the front entrance door open for an elderly lady. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t that bad, but he was still bad. I nearly caught up to him as he walked through the door, not bothering to look back to see if anyone else was going in behind him.
And because the universe had something against me, I ran straight into the glass letting out a cry of pain. That caught the attention Uranus. He turned around and when he saw that I had run into the door, my face squished against the glass, the asshole started laughing.
I backed away from the door, rubbing my face in pain, whilst glaring at Uranus. Asshole.
Apparently deciding to take pity on me, he held the door open. “Yes, Rena. You open the door. Then you walk in,” he said condescendingly as I walked into the building.
“I’m Uranus and I think I’m cool because I can walk through doors properly,” I mocked him in my generic guy voice, ignoring the fact that it wasn’t a very good insult.
“I’m Serena and I think it’s cool to speak like this,” he insulted me back, mocking my mock voice. Well, I have to admit that it was a pretty good mimic of my mock voice.
Because I didn’t have anything to say that would save me from further embarrassment, I slapped his arm.
“You know, girls are lucky that there’s a double standard for hitting the opposite gender. When a girl hits a guy, it’s acceptable, but when a guy hits a girl, it’s abusive,” Uranus said thoughtfully as we got in line to get into the theater room.
I let silence fall between us as I looked around. The corners of my lips rose slightly when I saw that the inside of the theater hasn’t changed at all. The mural of random instruments was still there and underneath, the concession stand still stood with its neon lights and sign that read “COME EAT IT WHILE IT’S HOT” was still intact, no matter how many ‘that’s what she said’ jokes it brought into the theater.
I had missed this place.
“What’s with the smile?” Uranus asked me, snapping my attention back to him.
“Can’t a girl smile without being questioned?” I asked defensively, crossing my arms over my chest. “Maybe I just like smiling.”
“You don’t have to be so defensive.”
The usher wordlessly gave us the play program and showed us to our seats, which were not too far back and not too close to the stage.
We both thanked the man and awkwardly shuffled past the people who were already in their seats to get to ours.
“Where’s Sam?” I questioned, wondering what they had done with the spare ticket.
“At a friend’s house. He wanted to come with us, but he didn’t want to hurt his friend’s feelings.”
“Oh.”
Then Uranus and I slipped into silence as the theater lights dimmed and the curtains were drawn back, revealing the narrator of the play.
The play was a comedy about a set of long lost twins who search far and wide for each other, but then realize that they were dating each other all along. Sick and twisted? Yes. Hilarious? Totally.
I could even see the corner of Uranus’ mouth twitch upward every now and then, but never a full smile or laugh.
But I couldn’t concentrate on the plot or the dialogue. I was too focused on the actors. I knew every single one of them and it hurt me to remember we were all so close once upon a time. Then I saw Maria, who was playing the part of their mother, walk to center stage.
I could feel myself frowning, recalling all of our memories.
But, before I could divulge into anything my arm was shoved off of the arm rest it was on only to be replaced by Uranus’. I looked up, to see that Uranus turned his attention back onto the play, so I took the chance to push his arm off and firmly plant my arm back on.
Eventually a fight for the arm rest erupted between us and I was thankful for the distraction.
“Stop it,” he hissed as he claimed the arm rest once more.
“I had it in the first place,” I whispered back whilst heaving his arm off.
“You have the other one on the other side,” he complained.
“You do too.”
Someone from behind us shushed us and I sank in my seat guiltily, but refusing to give up, I just ended up putting my arm on top of Uranus’ … that sounded dirty.
I sent a look to Uranus that meant ‘what are you going to do now, punk?’
He just rolled his eyes and gave up, leaving his arm there, and turned his gaze back onto the stage.
I followed suit and realized that the play was about to end. The mother told the twins everything and eventually the twins realized that they liked each other like brother and sister anyways. Pretty lame ending, but at least it was well-preformed.
The actors and actresses came out at the end and the theater lights came back on. I felt another pang in my stomach as I scanned all of their faces, hoping that none of them would recognize me.
When they all had taken their bows and stuff everyone in the audience got up to leave, including Uranus and I.
“Are you okay?” Uranus asked, sounding genuinely concerned, probably noticing my frown.
“Yeah,” I lied as I forced a smile on my face. “Let’s just get out of here.”
“You’ve been acting pretty weird today,” he commented as we followed the horde of people leaving the theater room. “First you’re pissed at me in the car. Then you smile your creepy smile when we get here and now you have a frown on your face,” Uranus observed. “Are you on your . . . period?” he asked in a quiet tone.
I felt my face flush. Going through my teen years with only two guys had made me shy about talking about that type of stuff. But yes. I was on my period.
“No,” I lied, flustered at how he managed to catch on.
He raised an eyebrow. “Sure,” Uranus drew out to word in sarcasm.
“I’m not!” I denied falsely again, this time smacking him in the arm.
“Ow, that actually hurt this time,” he whined, rubbing the spot where I hit him.
I ignored him and focused on the matter at hand. I know for a fact that the acting group always hangs out outside of the theater room to thank people for coming to see their play and I absolutely did not want to seen by them. So, making a split decision, I grabbed Uranus’ wrist and bee-lined through the crowd quickly, hoping to leave without—
Suddenly, a force hit me from the side. The force also had arms that were constricting my air passageways. Shit.
Maria.
:::x:::O:::x:::
Author's Note:
OMG. Some serious shit is gonna unravel. And yeah, I realize it's kind of mean to leave it like this, but I rarely have cliff hangers and the chapter was getting too long. But, I did give you guys LOTS of Uranus-Serena time. Plus, I wasn't even supposed to upload until like next week, so this is a bonus for all of you on spring break/ a gift for those who're going back to school today (yeah, guys I'm staying up this late for you on a SCHOOL night).
Anyways, I REACHED 400+ FANS! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'm getting teary now.
So . . . anyone that was previously Liam x Rena gone to Uranus x Rena?
Okay, night guys. I have to go to school in six hours :(