Page 38 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

Hannah frowned. “That’s what I did with Arden. I didn’t want to see someone I cared about so much get mocked.”

“She doesn’t really seem like the kind of person who would be easily ruffled by something like that though,” I said. “Just like Aria.”

“She’s not,” Hannah said. “Her and Aria are a good pair.”

We sat in a frustrated silence for a while then, just working on our sandwiches and coffee and trying not to feel as shitty as we did. Every time one of us opened our mouths to say something, we stopped short and didn’t. Was that really it? I had to just give Aria up even when I knew what I was fighting for was meaningless?

What kind of life was that?

“Why do I suddenly feel like a bad guy?” I asked.

“I think we’ve always been the bad guys, we’re just finally realizing it,” Hannah said. “Whatever. It’s better than being the victim.”

I glanced up at her. “Youdorealize that’s a lot of supervillains’ logic, right?”

Hannah looked across at me in pained seriousness. “I guess we’d better pick out our supervillain names then.”

Sleeping on the information Hannah and I had unearthed at lunch was not an easy task. Every time I fell asleep, it was only to find myself face-to-face with visions of myself as an evil guy dressed all in black with a curled mustache and Aria looking like a damsel in distress. At the last minute, when I was finally about to defeat her, she’d stand up for herself and send me falling into a black, endless void. Sometimes Hannah was there as an evil partner, or Arden would show up like a knight in shining armor.

Could I really just be okay with being the bad guy in Aria’s story? I wanted to be the love interest. The one who swept her off her feet and carried her off into the sunset. Was this really how our tale was going to go? A guy too spineless to admit when he was wrong and just let the possible love of his life slip through his fingers.

No. I wasn’t okay with that.

It took seeing Aria and Arden all day for me to muster up the courage, but finally when school was out and I saw them headed to debate, I ran up and stepped in front of them.

Arden wrinkled up her nose at me. “You’re awful.”

“I deserve that,” I said. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry, to both of you. Without going into too much detail, Hannah and I spent most of yesterday lamenting the people we’ve become and that we let you down. I can’t speak for her, but for me, I just have to say from the bottom of my heart… I’m sorry.” Aria and Arden exchanged glances, clearly not expecting that. Aria gave me a curious look, and I could see the interest, wondering if this was a step in the right direction, and I was hoping that it could be. “Um, Arden, would it be okay if I spoke to Aria alone for a few minutes?”

Arden looked at Aria, who nodded, then she looked back up at me, taking a menacing step forward. “Fine, but if you hurt heragainI’ll hurt you, and I will leave scars.”

I swallowed hard. “That’s a terrifying threat. I’ll be good.”

She narrowed her gaze at me before rolling her eyes and walking around me to head into the debate room. I wanted to step closer to Aria, but resisted the urge. This was going to require finesse. I needed not to rush things. “Arden seems like a good friend.”

“She is,” Aria responded.

“Listen, uh, I was wondering if—”

“Aria!” I looked over Aria’s shoulder and one of the guys I’d seen her and Arden hanging out with a lot, a guy named Devario, walked up to us. He looked me up and down first, almost like he was sizing me up, then he stepped right between us and turned his attention to Aria, holding out a couple of comic books in her direction. “After we talked about Poison Ivy the other day, I thought you might want to read this. Theyarelimited editions, but I trust you.”

“Whoa!” Aria yelped, her face lighting up. “Thank you. I’ll be careful with them, I promise.”

“Maybe when you’re done reading them, I can buy you dinner and we can exchange notes,” he said, and the flirtation was obvious.

It was probably stupid of me to assume that Aria didn’t have anyone else looking in her direction, but I thought it was a safe assumption that she hadn’t moved on yet. But she looked up at Devario with a romantic smile on her face and her eyes batting like a girl from a movie and my heart shattered.

“I’d really like that,” she replied.

“What?” I said.

Devario looked back at me briefly, ‘back off’ shooting across at me from his steely gaze, but then returned to Aria’s attention. “Great. Let me know when you’re all done.”

“Okay,” she responded.

Devario seemed rather proud of himself as he turned around, gave me a final glare, and then walked off towards the debate room.

I watched him go, not necessarily wanting to face the answer to the next question I couldn’t stop myself from asking. “So…” I looked at Aria, praying that she gave me better news. “You and Devario… Is that a thing, or…?” The jealous sludge in my stomach threatened to turn it inside out.

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