Page 35 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“Thanks,” Aria said. “I only spoke the truth.”

Arden snickered. “Hell yeah you did.”

“Holy shit. Does this girl have a death wish?” Hannah asked. I turned around, expecting to see her angry or at least concerned, but she was fighting back a smile. “Ceradi got like nine likes on her last post and didn’t stop talking about it for like three days.”

I couldn’t stop myself from staring at Aria with a smile. Suddenly, I was beginning to think Hannah was right, it was a good thing I was leaving Aria alone. Not because it was good to maintain the status quo, but because Aria deserved someone much, much better than me.

13

Aria

Igave Arden a high-five as she passed me on her way back to her seat. It shouldn’t have surprised me that she’d be able to throw together one hell of a science project, but even I had to gawk at her beautifully organized tri-fold display and self-functioning, rotating mobile of rock formations. The teacher looked like she was watching a professional perform a dissertation.

She was gonna get an A for sure.

Students had the option to do this particular project alone or in pairs, but Arden and I were just starting out, so we both opted to go it alone. About a week into the project, however, we realized our mistake and started working on our individual projects together. I was glad to have her because while I could research my ass off and create a beautiful written report, I wasn’t creative at making things look nice, and that was where Arden excelled. Thanks to our collaboration, we’d both be getting high marks on the assignment, which was good, because I was generally pretty garbage at science.

“Well done, Arden,” the teacher, Miss Piotte said. “I believe that just leaves Tristan and Hannah.” She motioned out and Tristan and Hannah slid out of their seats and started setting up their project in the front of the classroom. “Oh. A Powerpoint. I do love it when you all make the best use of our school’s incredible technology. It certainly costs enough.”

This pulled muted chuckles from the class, but I was too busy trying not to get caught up in staring at Tristan to respond one way or the other. His chosen outfit for the day was a plaid shirt in different shades of red, with the sleeves rolled up to three-quarters length, a pair of black jeans with designer rips, and a pair of black, athletic shoes. His hair was a little more unkempt, but it gave him a rugged, laid-back look that, alongside his knockout smile, had me a little gut-punched. Hannah made a joke as he was loading their presentation and he chuckled, tightening up my stomach.

Could he just lookbadfor once? That’d make getting over him much easier.

Hannah stood next to him in a pair of maroon leggings, and a sweater dress that drifted down to mid-thigh. Her blond hair was hanging in loose waves on either side of her face and her makeup seemed like it had been done by a professional. She hovered near him with a comfort I was jealous of. I’d heard from Arden and a few other people that they’d dated in the past and I wondered if she still liked him.

Did he still like her?

They were so close, and whenever Tristan was most trying to avoid me, it was with Hannah at the crux of it. It was possible that maybe the way he treated me suddenly had nothing to do with my appearance at all, and had everything to do with the fact that he was hoping I could be a secret side-girl while he was with Hannah more publicly.

Not that it made him that much better of a person, but at least I’d know he didn’t really think I was fat and ugly. Then again, the way he made out with me at his party already seemed to suggest that. Every time I thought about it, my body tingled all over and I wished I could just take a quick trip back to that moment. I’d skip all the stuff afterwards—it wasn’t pain I needed to suffer through again—but at least I could have his lips on mine again, if even for just a few moments.

There was a flick at the back of my neck and I knew it was Arden who’d caught onto me staring at him longingly. I shoved my hand behind my head and held up my middle finger, and Arden snickered. She was just trying to be a good friend, I knew that, but it wasn’t like I could just drop Tristan as if there was nothing between us. Maybe if he hadn’t been so excited to see me again when we first reconnected or if we hadn’t fallen so easily into each other in the basement at his party, but I’d been allowed to indulge a little bit, and just like most drugs, though I knew it was bad for me, I wanted more.

“Well, saving the best for last, Hannah and I focused on astronomy and did a study on how the stars can be used to track everything from directions to the tides,” Tristan began with a smile. His eyes gazed over the room and eventually landed on mine. He gave me a warm smile that sent a shiver down my spine. I smiled at first, but then averted my gaze.

Stop it, Aria.Tristan was a popular asshole concerned with appearances. He openly mocked me to his friends. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just write him off like other people?

I’d give anything to remove the stop gap, even if it involved invasive surgery. I just wanted my own thoughts back and to not have him on my mind all day every day.

Hannah flicked to the next slide and I kept my eyes off of Tristan as much as I could. In spite of this, I frequently felt his eyes lingering on me, and would occasionally lose myself and flick up to meet him. Each time it happened, it was like I was walking into a trap and only justbarelymanaging to back out every time I had to force myself away.

There was a tap on my shoulder and I looked back to see Arden holding out a small piece of paper. The teacher was fairly engrossed with Tristan and Hannah’s project, so I reached back and grabbed it, before unfolding it as close to my body as I could for subtly.

Don’t be stupid,Aria. You’re too beautiful for that.

I knew that already.Didn’t she get it? I knew it was a mistake to hang on to Tristan, I simply didn’t know the way out.

“Oh my gosh!” Miss Piotte said.

I looked up and saw that they’d flipped to a slide that had a hand-drawn, unwrapped globe with different constellations all over it. Thanks to the large projector, the drawing spanned the entire wall like a beautiful mural. It was like being in an observatory, even more so when Hannah started to scroll the mouse over different info-nodes on the powerpoint and started talking about each of the constellations that were detailed there.

One of the kids leaned forward and noticed there was a small signature in the bottom, left hand corner of the drawing that was indisputably Tristan’s signature. “Hey, did you draw that, Tristan?”

I studied the lines of the drawing and they put me in the same mind of the sketch of me that Tristan had done. There was no doubt in my mind that it was his work.

“You drew this?” Miss Piotte asked. “It’s marvelous, Tristan.”

At first, Tristan seemed flattered, but then one kid further back in the room started to laugh. “He’s been talking like a real poindexter this whole presentation too. Captain of the football team, or underground nerd?”

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