“Do you just genuinely enjoy being an annoying prick?” I ask Lake the next day on our way to school. “Or is it just like, an instinct or something?”
“I’m not such a prick, Ari,” He grins at me. “It’s just so much fun to irritate you. It’s just you in particular.”
“Gee, I’m just so flattered by that,” I mumble sarcastically. This morning, Lake decided to hide my toothbrush and also my toothpaste and deodorant. I don’t know what he thought that he’d accomplish by doing that but it was really annoying. It’s a good thing that we have more than one bathroom in this house and, unbeknown to Lake, I have all three of those things in every one of the bathrooms. It was annoying though, because I had to go all the way to the first floor to get ready this morning and I just have a problem with him touching my stuff.
“As you should be,” He nods at me confidently.
“You are so unbelievably arrogant,” I snap at him even though I’m pretty sure that he already knows just how arrogant he is and he just doesn’t care because that’s how arrogant he is.
“You love it,” Lake informs me, farther proving just how arrogant he is. I didn’t know that it was actually possible to be so full of yourself but Lake sure is full of himself to the max and I don’t understand it at all.
“Asshole,” I mutter, parking in the school lot and throwing my school bag over my shoulder. “You are such an asshole, Lake.”
“Wow, you’ve never told me that before,” He laughs sarcastically as he follows me towards the doors of the school and I push the lock thing on my beeper and my car doors lock with a honk.
“That just shows how much of an asshole you are,” I fire at him. We’re running late (because of Lake) so I have to hurry up to my locker which is nice because at least I don’t have to spend any more time with Lake. He is seriously getting on my nerves this morning. I get into my first period class just before the bell rings which is a miracle because if I really was late, I would probably end up murdering Lake for making me late for the first time in all four years of my high school career.
“I really hate that I’m such a nice person,” I inform Leda in pre-calc. “If I was a little bit more heartless, I could just kick him out without caring at all but I am a really amazing person and I just can’t get myself to do it. It’s so unfair that the good people have to suffer.”
She laughs at me while teasingly rolling her eyes. “You’re so dramatic, Ariel.”
“You say dramatic, I say practical,” I defend. “I really don’t see why you couldn’t just be friends with like, some nice boy with pretty eyes and a funny accent or something. But Lake freaking Quincy? You have terrible taste in friendships, I’ll have you know.”
She laughs again as we’re writing down our notes. “I’d like to point out that you are my best friend, Ari.”
“Okay, you have a point there but Lake? What were you thinking when you agreed to be his friend?”
“He’s funny and he’s nice. Well, not to you, I guess, but just in general, he’s nice and he’s really cool to talk to. Maybe if you guys weren’t so busy bickering, you’d actually see that you’d be really great friends,” She suggests but I know that she has to know how futile that effort is. I will never be friends with Lake Quincy. That is seriously the most disgusting thing she’s suggested except for her insane theory on how we’re going to get married because that one is pretty insane as well. “And then once you’re friends, you’ll fall in love and it’ll be perfect.”
“I don’t know why I chose a delusional crazy person to be my best friend, but I really should reconsider that decision,” I inform her but I’m obviously just joking. Kind of.
The bell rings that signifies the end of first period so we both pack up our notes and stand up to leave the room. “You’ll see,” Leda assures me with a mischievous grin on her face as if she knows everybody’s secrets at all times which is actually kind of creepy and I don’t like it.
“No, you’ll see,” I counter with another eye roll. “I’ll see you at lunch.”
She waves a cheerful goodbye as we have to split paths because I have to turn left in the hallway to get to physics but Leda has to go straight. In my physics class, I sit down at my counter desk that seats two people but the girl who usually sits next to me, her name is Emma, isn’t here today so I’m just sitting there alone. That’s totally fine because Emma has this thing where she habitually talks about famous pop bands and although she’s nice and I don’t mind it too much, it can get annoying sometimes. We aren’t doing any partner work today anyway, so it doesn’t really matter that she isn’t here. We’re just taking notes on the relationship between force and acceleration and we’re learning some new formulas.
As the teacher is righting down one of those new formulas on the SMART board, the dark-haired Becky that sits in front of me turns around and smiles, looking directly at me. I know that she’s looking at me because I sit in the back row and the only thing behind me is a bank of sinks that I’m assuming aren’t very exciting to look at. Since I’m writing in my notebook, I pretend like I don’t notice her until she actually speaks up.
“Hello, Ariel,” She chirps in a friendly tone.
I look up and offer her a small smile. The last time that we talked, she was asking me about Lake and our living situation which kind of makes sense because they used to date but I just hope that she doesn’t expect us to continuously talk about Lake in this class. This is one of the very few classes that I am free of any Lake-like thoughts and it’s really nice, even if I have to deal with Fangirl Emma. “Hi.”
“So, you’re still living with Lake, right?” She wonders, confirming my suspicions that this was about Lake. I don’t know actually what happened between those two but I know that it happened sometime last year because Leda talked about it to me sometimes.
I nod and continue writing down the notes. “Well, he’s living with me but yeah,” I confirm.
“Great!” She grins at me. “Is he single still or do you know?”
“Um… I think he is? I don’t actually know,” I shrug at her uselessly.
“Okay, that’s good,” She nods. “Is he talking to anybody?”
I shrug again. “I really don’t know.”
“Does he still like those Snickers Bites things?” She wonders. “I’ve been trying to get him a gift.”
“We don’t really talk that much,” I inform her before she starts asking me a bunch of stuff about Lake. “I don’t know a lot about him.”
“But you live together,” She reminds me as if I’ve forgotten in the past few seconds. “How do you not know this stuff?”
I let out a breath through my nose. “We’re not friends or anything.”
“So you’re sleeping together then?” She asks me without any hesitancy at all as if she just asked me what color my shirt is or something.
My eyes widen and I start to shake my head quickly back and forth. “Gross. So gross. Ew, no. I’m just doing a favor for a friend. Not him, another friend. I hate Lake and Lake hates me and we try not to cross paths all that often.”
“I heard that he got you pregnant,” Becky’s friend and lab partner, Cameron, informs me as she spins around to join the very awkward conversation. “I don’t actually believe it but that’s just what I heard.”
If my eyes were wide before, they are saucers now and my mouth gapes open. “Where did you hear that from? It’s the most untrue thing that I have ever heard.”
“Um, I think I heard Lake talking about it,” She informs me. “Yeah, I overheard Lake and David talking about it.”
“But it’s not true, right?” Becky wonders even though that’s exactly what I just said.
“It’s definitely not true,” I confirm with a nod, trying to figure out why Lake would be talking to somebody about me being pregnant with his child. That is wrong on so many levels and I really can’t completely comprehend it.
I try to think it through for the next two periods but I still come up empty. When I get to lunch, I’m still completely confused about what Cameron had told me in physics so when Lake sits down across from Leda and I, I shoot him a glare that’s more irritated than normal.
“Are you telling people that you impregnated me?” I demand of him before he can even say anything at all.
He looks at me with slightly wide eyes and he opens his mouth to speak and then shuts it again.
“What?” Leda wonders with a small laugh. “You’re pregnant?”
“No!” I snap at her as I munch on my fries in an angry fashion. “Lake, answer me.”
“Ari, we were just joking around, okay?” He finally says with an awkward chuckle that doesn’t come off as confident as I think that he’d hope. “How did you even hear about that?”
“Oh, I had this lovely conversation with Becky and Cameron this morning and you little shit. That’s just a joke to you?” I snap, obviously incredibly pissed off. I mean, I’m usually just irritated when I talk to Lake but now, I’m seriously pissed off. Like when he mixed up my paints or when he hid Max on Adan’s room. I’m that mad right now.
“Shit,” He mumbles at the mention of his ex-girlfriend’s name. “I didn’t know that you were friends with Becky. That makes things extremely weird now.”
“Lake, you told people that she’s pregnant?” Leda wonders with raised eyebrows, obviously not seeing the humor in that either, which is fortunate for me because I’d lose my mind if she thought that was a funny joke as well. “Come on, that’s really not cool.”
“I didn’t spread a rumor like some gossip magazine,” He defends. “I just told a few people this morning because it’s funny. Nobody actually believes it. Come on, Ari, do you really think that people will believe that we hooked up?”
“No. No, you don’t get it at all,” I inform him as I start to panic a little bit more. “Because it just takes one dumbass to believe it and then it really spreads and then the whole school will think that I’m pregnant. That might be some kind of sick victory to guys but to girls it’s really not, okay? And then when people start to believe it, my brother will find out because he still knows people that go here and he has friends who have siblings who go here. One of his old high school friends is a freaking student teacher here! And do you know what happens if my brother thinks that I’m pregnant? Because we will both be dead. As a freaking door knob.”
“Ariel,” Leda says my name and puts her hand on my shoulder. “Calm down. He only told a few people so he can just go to those people and tell them that it isn’t true. Right, Lake?”
“Seriously, it’s not a big deal. Your brother doesn’t scare me, Ari,” Lake decides with a shake of his head.
“You are such an asshole,” I breathe as I put my face in my hands. I’m about to tell him that I don’t care if he’s afraid of my brother or not (although, he seriously should be considering how muscly and terrifying and protective my brother is) but I’m freaking out because I don’t want my brother to like, hate me for something that isn’t even true. He’ll probably tell my dad too and then he’ll probably disown me or something. I’m about to tell Lake all of this when I decide against it because he really doesn’t give a shit and I should go call Adan just so in case he does hear it, he hears from me first that it isn’t true. I know that I’m just being paranoid because, since he’s in Afghanistan, he really only talks to a few of his friends so it’s very unlikely that he’ll ever hear about this but I just can’t be too safe.
I stand up from the table and leave the cafeteria as I take my phone out and dial Adan’s number. He’s busy a lot of the time and other times, he’s not allowed to use his phone so I’m not sure if he’ll answer but I just hope that he does. That’s what happens actually, he doesn’t answer the phone and it goes to his voice mail that I know very well.
“Hey, Adan. I know that this might sound weird but I’m not pregnant. No matter what you hear, just know that I am absolutely not pregnant. Okay, well that’s all. Love you, bye.”
I hang up and put my phone back in my pocket. I don’t want to go back into that stupid cafeteria but I left my food in there so I kind of have to go back and when I do, Leda is talking to Lake about something. As I approach, she doesn’t stop talking but I don’t think that Lake sees me approaching because his back is towards me.
“You need to not do shit like that,” Leda tells him. “I’m all for a good prank, but that kind of thing will seriously fuck her up. I mean, seriously Lake? She’s already doing so much for you and in all honesty- would you have done the same thing that she is doing for you if the roles were reversed?”
“Probably not,” He shrugs.
“Absolutely not,” She corrects him. “I try to defend you to her all of the time but it’s when you do shit like this that I can’t defend. That is seriously so messed up after all that she’s done for you, you know.”
“Are you finally convinced that he’s a terrible person?” I wonder as I sit down in my spot beside Leda. “Because it seriously took you long enough, Leda.”
“He’s not a terrible person, Ariel,” Leda sighs. “He just has an exaggerated sense of humor and he’ll apologize for what happened this morning, won’t you, Lake?”
“I don’t want him to apologize. It doesn’t matter,” I shake my head as I eat my food. “And I called Adan so he’ll know that it’s not true if he hears the rumor. I don’t really care.”
“That’s the spirit, Ari,” Lake grins at me and I just flip him off because he’s so incredibly annoying.
For the rest of the day, I feel like everybody is staring at me for some reason and it’s very bothersome. I know that it’s all in my head though, which makes it all so ridiculous but I can’t help it. Then, in eighth period, I realize that only the stupidest of stupid people would ever believe that I would ever hook up with Lake. Even if I ever was that stupid (which would never happen) I would be 125% positive that we were protected because the last thing I want on earth is to procreate with that jerk. Nobody will ever believe that stupid rumor and if they do now, they’ll probably be convinced that it’s not true in a few months when my tummy stays the same size that it is right now.
However, when I get to my locker and Lake is there and he tells me, “I need a ride home today,” I just glare at him. He says it so nonchalantly like he just expects me to give him a ride. After he potentially just started a wildfire rumor about me being pregnant with his child, he just knows that I’ll give him a ride. It makes me so mad.
“That’s irrelevant to me,” I inform him, grabbing my bag before I shut my locker and start to walk away.
“Ariel,” He sighs heavily, following me down the hallway.
“Seriously, it’s not my problem,” I shrug, remembering what he said in the cafeteria that if the roles were reversed, he wouldn’t do what I’m doing for him. Maybe I’m just too nice sometimes so I’ll put an end to that lickity split. “Figure it out yourself.”
“Why are you still mad about this? It was just a stupid joke, Ari,” He tells me, obviously annoyed at my dramatics which is ironic because I’m annoyed by his face.
“I’m not mad about anything,” I say honestly. “I just don’t like you and apparently, I’ve been too nice so no. I will not give you a ride home, Lake, and I hope that when you are making the five mile walk to my house that your feet fall off. Be sure not to get blood on the porch.”
That gets him to stop following me and I’m thankful for that so I just continue down the hallway by myself until I get to the exit and find my car. Usually, I walk out with Leda and sometimes Dana but since Lake bombarded me at my locker, I just left and I’m sure she’ll understand.
When I get home, I park in the garage and make my way into the house but I make sure to leave the front door open for when Lake finally does find a way here, he isn’t locked out. I’m not completely terrible… even though he is. I let Max outside to go to the bathroom and then I go upstairs to start my homework. Max sits on my lap while I’m at my desk doing math which is unusual but he does that sometimes so I don’t mind it, I just pat his head a few times while I stretch over him to write down the answers and tap on the calculator.
Even after I finish my homework, I’m still so irritated at nothing in particular because that’s just the type of day that I’ve been having.
“Max, life is definitely not beautiful today,” I tell my puppy with a sad sigh. “Let’s go eat.”
When I say his name, he eagerly jumps off of my lap and we walk downstairs into the kitchen together as I pour him some dog food and I just make some buttered toast for me because that just sounds good for some reason. As I’m sitting in the kitchen eating, I hear the front door open so I lean through the doorway to make sure that it’s Lake just to make sure that it isn’t some robber or something. Even though I’d kind of prefer it to be a robber as opposed to Lake, but it is unfortunately, Lake Quincy who is walking through my front door.
I’m surprised that he got home so soon but I know that he has a lot of friends so I guess it probably wasn’t too hard for him to find a ride. That makes me wonder why he doesn’t just get one of his friends to give him a ride to school every day too and I remind myself to ask him about that when I’m in a better mood.
“Are you still grumpy?” He asks me as he comes into the kitchen.
I glare at him through my blonde bangs which only causes Lake to laugh.
“I’ll take that as a yes then.”
I scarf down my toast so that I don’t have to stay in this room with him for much longer and I decide that I want to go for a run which is a nice way to blow off steam. Usually, when I’m in a bad mood, I’ll go into my studio and paint but today is a nice day because it’s pretty much spring now and I just have too much energy to stay in one place.
I stand out of the chair that I’m sitting in and call for my puppy. “Come on, Maxxie!” He follows me upstairs where I quickly get changed in shorts and a tank top that fits tighter than I would prefer but it’s not uncomfortable it’s just not something that I’d wear in public so I don’t change. I grab Max’s leash and collar which I don’t put on him unless I take him out of the house and so when he sees it, he gets really excited because he knows that we’re going on a walk.
With my hair in a ponytail and tennis shoes on my feet, I attach Max to the leash and then I leave out the back door. Our back yard is pretty enormous but behind the huge yard, there’s some woods back there that is technically part of our property. Sometimes, there’s deer back there but nobody’s allowed to hunt because it’s private property although people do sometimes. It’s annoying and sad but it doesn’t happen too often. Anyway, it’s pretty private and nobody really goes back there but when Adan was like, 13, he and his friends walked through those woods so much that they actually built trails through it which is really cool because I can walk through it pretty easily now.
“Come on, Max,” I encourage my puppy as I start jogging down my backyard and then into the trees. I thought that I was in the mood to run but it turns out that I hate running which I’ve always known but it sounded like a good idea at the time. Anyway, once I get into the trees, I give up on running and I just start walking. I’ll preserve my workout for Sunday like I usually do. The woods are really pretty because flowers are just starting to bloom and the birds are just now starting to chirp again after hiding for all of winter so I don’t mind just walking around for a while just enjoying the pretty scenery. Max seems to like it too because he finds a bunch of different scents that he has to pee on.
When we loop through the small trail, we walk back up to the house, walking around the in ground pool that’s in the backyard. It’s not clean or anything, the pool isn’t, because the pool people don’t start coming until April and it’s only the beginning of March now. There’s a cover over the water so it’s not like I could even go swimming if I wanted to (not that I’d go swimming in gross pool water anyway).
“Would it help if I said sorry?” Lake asks me as I go back inside.
“For what?” I wonder. “I’m not mad at you.”
“Well, I kind of need a ride to school and stuff so are you going to stop doing that or not?”
I shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Fine,” He sighs. “You’re being very difficult today.”
“You’re difficult every day,” I fire back as I go upstairs to my room where I shower and then get dressed in pajamas since it’s almost time to go to bed and I’ve had a long day so I’m really looking forward to sleeping. I just want to stop having to deal with people for a whole eight hours and then I’m back at it again tomorrow. I’ll probably call my dad tomorrow because I haven’t talked to him in a few days and maybe I’ll try to Skype Adan because he usually calls me back the same day if I call him and he doesn’t answer. I’ll have to talk to him too.
“Goodnight, Maxxie,” I call to my puppy as he trots off into his room (my closet) to go to sleep on his bed in there as I get under my covers before flicking my lamp off and laying down for some much needed sleep.
However, my wonderful sleep is interrupted at about two in the morning when my phone starts ringing on my nightstand. It could be either my dad or Adan since they’re both out of the country so the time zones are pretty wickity wack and I want to talk to both of them so, even though I’m exhausted, I grab my phone off of the stand and press the answer key after checking the ID to see that it’s my dad calling.
“Hey, Dad,” I yawn softly.
“Ariel, have you seen the news lately?” He asks me abruptly, seemingly very upset about something.
“Um, no. Why?” I mumble, taking that as a sign to turn the TV on to watch the news because apparently, something bad has happened that I’ve missed and just as I turn the channel to the news station, my stomach plummets. Or maybe it was my heart. I can never really remember which organ is supposed to plummet but right now, it feels like they’re all plummeting to my feet and I’m now actually just hollow.
“Adan’s in trouble, Ari.”
______________________
*So, I'm going to update the rest of the story in rapid sucession (after today, I'll probably be posting at least twice a day) because I want this story completely posted before I go on a cruise that I'm going on next week*
**Also, Brenton Thwaites is on the side, who plays Lake**
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT
Author: NataliaPereiraBray (she likes dogs and horses)
Title: TheUnbreakable
Genres: Teen fiction, humor
Summary: Emma Stratton, a 17 years old girl that throughout this story will live major changes in her life. From meeting a complete stranger who is able to slip into her and her brother's walls, to dealing with familly issues and the arrival of a new member.
Emma must get to know who are her real friends and stay safe from those who just want to mess her up.