TRACK #6 MUSIC:

🎵 "Three Libras" - A Perfect Circle

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TRACK #6 - FALL

"Three Libras" - A Perfect Circle

I floated through the weekend on Cloud 9. My thoughts hadn't strayed even for a minute from Brock and our date. His AIM handle had been idle all day on Sunday, so I didn't bother to message him. I wasn't sure what the appropriate etiquette was for contacting someone after a date, anyways. Did messaging him mean I was trying too hard? I made a mental note to attempt to slyly ask Emma during PE on Monday morning. It turned out to be too hard to sneak a moment alone with her. As we exited the gym, I sped up to walk with her on my way to math but was cut short by an overbearing voice.

"Hey, Emma!" a boy called out to her over the crowd of students, effectively stopping our would-be conversation. He was waving his arm, but it wasn't hard to spot his lanky frame in the sea of bodies. Mostly because of his bright red hair, but also because he was literally pushing people out of his way over to us. My face instantly scrunched. What a jerk move.

"Hey, Liam. What's up?" She smiled at him as he approached, but I could tell it was only as a courtesy. Liam? Was this Brock's best friend, Liam?

Liam spared me a fleeting glance while he adjusted his backpack. I didn't personally know this kid, but I also couldn't ignore the uneasy feeling I got as he leaned against the locker next to hers. I watched while he looked her up and down approvingly. She shifted uneasily, and he cleared his throat once he noticed I was watching him. "So, you heard that I broke up with Jessica, right?"

"Oh... yeah... I did," Emma muttered, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. "How are you holding up?" she asked politely. I would have told him to buzz off by now.

"I'm doing okay. I just couldn't take her lies anymore. How she was always cheating on me..." Liam flashed her a wicked grin. He brought his face closer to hers, and she jumped slightly. "But the real reason why I broke up with her was because of you."

"What does that mean?" I interjected, despite the comment not being directed to me. Emma tried to back away, only to bump into the lockers behind her. I heard the bell ring, indicating the start of the next period. The halls were already cleared of students, but there was absolutely no way I was leaving Emma alone.

"Isn't it obvious?" His teeth shone as he answered me anyway, oozing the kind of confidence that only true sleazeballs could. "She's gorgeous." He grabbed her hand and entwined his fingers with hers.

I bristled while my whole body tensed, ready to smack him away like the annoying bug he was. "And also taken," I added, though I was pretty sure he didn't want my input. I didn't know Emma's boyfriend, Adrian, very well, but he seemed like a good guy from the stories she told me.

"I don't mind if she doesn't," Liam dismissed the idea as he brought Emma's hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Ew. What was with this guy?!

Emma squirmed as she quickly removed her hand from his grasp and turned to close her locker. "I'm sorry, Liam, but I am only dating Adrian." She looped her arm in mine, and we took a step forward, only to be blocked by his arm.

"C'mon, Emma," Liam began. "You won't regret it. Just one date–"

"I believe that you already have your answer," a deep voice cut in. We all turned to see who interrupted our conversation. Liam appeared annoyed, while Emma and I were entirely grateful. Moving with both grace and purpose, Elijah stepped forward and placed himself in between us, his eyes never once breaking contact with Liam's.

"Elijah," Liam addressed him curtly.

"Liam," Elijah retorted. On the outside Elijah's demeanor seemed calm, but as I glanced up at his eyes, I was able to tell that he was anything but calm. There was an intense, burning fire there that I had never seen before. It screamed of both danger and warning, like Liam chose to mess with the absolute one thing he was never, ever supposed to upset. It made sense to me that Elijah was being protective of Emma, even more when considering how long they'd known each other and how close they were. But this? This seemed like another level entirely.

The two boys glared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Elijah's fists tightened at his sides. "Whatever," Liam scoffed as he slid his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. He walked away, giving Emma one last glance over his shoulder.

Elijah's eyes followed him until Liam rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. Only then did Elijah turn around and look at Emma. My eyes flicked between the two of them, and I watched as he took a few calming breaths while his eyes searched hers. He lifted his right hand, his fingertips gently touching her cheek–

"Ms. Stewart. Mr. Walker." Mrs. Taylor approached them, her heels clicking against the tiled floor. Elijah quickly dropped his hand before turning around. "And Ms. Gray," she added as she got closer. "I believe the bell rang. Please get to your respective classrooms." She seemed much less kind than at our first meeting.

A fiery blush spread across Emma's face as Elijah shot her a small smile. He nodded towards me before walking away. Emma's breathing was heavy while I began guiding her as fast as our legs would carry us towards our classes. We remained silent, still shocked over what had just occurred. We both knew that we were already late, but I paused briefly as my fingertips touched the handle of the door to Emma's class. She looked off, and not surprisingly so. I watched as she unconsciously raised her fingers to her cheek and grazed the same spot that Elijah had touched. Catching herself, she smiled weakly at me before lowering her hand.

"I'll see you later." I nodded to her reassuringly, and she gave me a grateful look. I watched her enter her own classroom as if my presence was going to ensure her safety. It might have seemed premature of me, but between her feeling like a close friend the instant we met and the craziness of what I just witnessed in the hallway, I felt extremely protective of her, too.

I slid into second period, hoping not to get into too much trouble for being late. To my surprise, there was a substitute teacher. Phew.

"I'm so sorry," I plead with the sub. "Mrs. Taylor wanted to speak to me. She said you could check with her if I was too late." It wasn't entirely a lie. I did see Mrs. Taylor in the hallway, but I bent the truth just enough in hopes that the sub would let me slide. It wasn't my usual style, but I really didn't want to get in trouble.

"It's fine. Take a seat," she said. She must have sensed the overwhelming amount of embarrassment oozing from my pores. My nerves relaxed while I peered around the room to see an empty seat next to Noah and– Adrian? That was new. He wasn't in this class before. In fact, now that I looked at it, there were a lot fewer empty seats than there used to be. I didn't normally sit next to Noah, but there was a substitute. I could sit there just for the day, right? Without asking, I slipped beside him and sat down purposefully. A playful smile spread over his lips as he caught on.

"Alright, I'll take attendance and your assignment is on the board," the substitute announced. We all dutifully took out our notebooks and opened the textbook to the correct page. Precalculus was probably going to be the least of the sub's worries for the day.

Once idle chatter began to fill the classroom as everyone multitasked, I turned to face Noah and Adrian. I was slightly taken aback to see Adrian up close. He was much more handsome than I originally thought from the glances I was able to steal in the hallway. He was tall and lean with dark tousled hair, gray eyes, and defined cheekbones. A beanie was folded in the back pocket of his ripped jeans, which explained the obvious hat head. I opened my mouth to mention the exchange with Liam to Adrian, but the image of Emma's blush while touching her cheek flashed behind my eyes and made me pause. I winced as I wondered if he should really know. Either way, it was probably better if she told him, right? I sighed heavily. There really should be a manual for these things.

"Did you see what Emma was wearing today?" Adrian lightly moaned while he leaned back in his chair dramatically. "She's trying to kill me..."

Noah began to violently shake his head in warning as my own eyebrows raised in astonishment.

"My Emma?" It came out of my mouth defensively before I could stop it. Adrian might have been dating her, but saying something like that about her in front of me was not going to be okay, especially after what just happened with Liam.

"Well, I usually refer to her as my Emma, but I have a feeling we're talking about one and the same," Adrian said composedly, voice smooth as satin. Noah bore a defeated grin on his face as he eyed Adrian apologetically, signaling to him that Adrian was going to have to fend for himself. Adrian, meanwhile, nodded at Noah in mock thanks before turning back to me. "I don't think we've officially met. You must be Aria."

"Well, it's nice to officially meet you, Adrian," I returned. "But now, I'll be watching you, sir."

Adrian's mouth gave way to a natural, easy grin while he threw up his hands in an innocent manner. "Sorry. I'm a guy! She's just too beautiful for my own good." His response elicited a strong eye roll. Nice try, Fabio.

"All of us are," I informed him with a confident smile. Noah immediately burst into laughter.

"Ah, yes..." Adrian let out a small chuckle. "The sass. You know, I've heard a lot about you..." Adrian's face twisted playfully while he gave Noah a sideways glance. Noah met it with a hot glare as he abruptly stopped laughing.

"I didn't realize you and Noah were friends..." I quickly tried to deflect the conversation to spare Noah's feelings. Who knew what Adrian was trying to pull? "And when did you join this class?"

"Our schedules got rearranged when Mr. Sanders abruptly left for another job," he supplied, casually waving his hand in the air to explain the additional students. "And we're cousins, actually, but we don't get to hang out as much now that I made assistant captain of the hockey team. Luckily, we're both in the drum corps, so we at least see each other there," he explained.

"Yeah, he's the bass drum that's always a half a beat off," Noah chimed in.

Adrian dismissed him with a shake of his head like the comment wasn't worth a response. "Heard you scored a date with the infamous Brock Miller, huh? Did he take you to an L.J. party?"

My eyebrows involuntarily furrowed as I registered his question. I recalled Brock mentioning the party at least twice on our date, but he didn't end up going that night. I wasn't sure how to respond. "Is that a thing?"

Adrian laughed. "For Brock Miller, it is. He's kind of a manwhore. I had a front row seat because I used to be the drummer in their band before they decided they wanted to drink more than they wanted to play."

"Well, he was nice to me," I responded defensively even while my stomach twisted with discomfort.

"I'd be careful with that one," Adrian warned. First Noah and Elijah, and now Adrian, too? Apparently Brock had quite the reputation. I started to wonder if I dodged some kind of bullet with him. But that couldn't be right; he was nice to me. And we did have a good time. So why did people keep warning me about him? Was it because they were related to Noah? Ugh. My head spun. I definitely needed to think about something else before it exploded. I mused over this a second more before pulling out a bag of chips and other miscellaneous items from my bookbag in search of a pencil.

"Hey, my church is having a lock-in Saturday night," Noah voiced, diverting the conversation away from an obviously sore spot. For me or him, I wasn't sure. "Emma and Adrian will be there. Want to join us?"

"Oh, at Elevate? It'll be weird to go back there again..." I teased as I thought about the church I used to attend in middle school. I briefly forgot that Noah's family was so involved. His father, Kent, was a worship pastor, and the entire family played various roles within the church.

"It's been totally renovated. It looks amazing," Noah beamed while he spoke. He reached across the aisle and snatched the chips from my desk. A glint of silver light caught my eye as it bounced from the small cross dangling from a ball chain around his neck.

"What the crap, Noah?" I laughed at his brashness. I was able to grab the bag back off of him and set it back on my desk. Once I thought the coast was clear, I started scribbling in my notebook, pretending to attempt a math problem. After a moment to think, I responded casually, "Let me check with my parents, but I should be able to come."

"Great." Noah smiled as he stood up to reach over me to grab the bag once again. He quickly opened it and popped a chip into his mouth. I narrowed my eyes at him in mock anger. He responded with a cheesy grin. Then, as Noah met Adrian's eye, Adrian shot him a knowing smirk. I pretended, again, not to notice their obvious scheming, and instead turned back to the math problems. At least those I could figure out.

When the end of class was near, I packed my stuff up to leave and caught Noah and Adrian sharing a quiet fistbump out of the corner of my eye. Boys.

With my parents' blessing, it was settled that I'd attend. I was excited about the outing until Friday morning when I ran into an enthusiastic Brock Miller in the hallway. Save for small waves and subtle glances in the hallway, we hadn't interacted much since our date. I tried not to overthink it since I didn't want to seem desperate, but I would be lying if I said there weren't butterflies in my stomach every time I thought of him.

"Aria Gray." He smiled down at me wearing his orange and black Bridgeview Bears jersey with jeans.

"Hello." I rounded the corner to stop at my locker to grab my Chemistry book. It was one of my favorite classes because I got to sit with Emma.

"Free Saturday?" he asked. I swallowed hard.

"Ah, no, I'm sorry. I have plans." Each word was more painful than the next. Couldn't I just cancel on the lock-in? They'd understand, right?

"Oh, okay..." Brock trailed off. I wondered if he'd ever been told "no" before.

"Next weekend?" I offered hopefully, trying to not be the first one to deny him.

"That should work," he responded as we stopped in front of my class. "Coming to the game tonight? I bet I can throw a few more touchdowns for you."

"Unfortunately not. I'm helping my mom teach piano. She had too many kids sign up, so I'm taking over a few..."

"Well, you'll be missing quite a show," he said confidently.

I smiled just as the bell rang. "I'm sure I will be." I waved to him before slipping inside of my class.

I peered around the room before my eyes landed on Emma. My eyes lit up as I relayed all of the events that just occurred in detail so we could celebrate together. She squealed with delight at all the right pauses in my story and smothered me with a hug at the conclusion. My life had never revolved around a female friend to share in these kinds of moments, but I was overjoyed that it now included Emma.

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