“You know she’s my girlfriend, right?” He spoke at the boy in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
“Jaidas, we have a science project to do,” Aira replied like he was being ridiculous.
“I’m just saying.” He smiled at the boy, making sure he knew not to get to close, then he got up and walked back over to his friends. They had been fifteen at the time, it was an innocent kind of act. Aira loved his unintentional charismatic personality. It made her smile, but sometimes it could also get really exhausting.
Two years have gone by, and they’d had their ups and downs. The older Jaidas got, the more handsome he grew, and he loved the attention he got from many girls. It became the biggest problem between them, causing arguments, and a lot of breakups. He became so involved with himself that he only gave her enough of himself to keep her around, and even though she couldn’t prove it, she knew there was no way he was being faithful. Perhaps she stayed with him because he was familiar, comfortable.
Over this past summer they had argued, which ended up in them spending most of their time apart. She wouldn’t talk to him, having grown tired of his games.
Two weeks ago, somehow, he once again convinced her to give him one more chance.
Aira let out a small smile, hopping out of her bathroom into her room and into her tight fit jeans. She grabbed her book bag and ran downstairs.
Maddy, her mother, was in the kitchen eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and reading the newspaper. Their kitchen was light and airy. The table was round and made from dark maple. It had four chairs around it and a crystal fruit bowl in the middle. A glass sliding door led out to their large back deck.
A 52” television that sat on the floor blared at her nine-year-old brother who sat in front of it.
They had a huge, dark-brown, micro-suede couch in the living room and a Lazy Boy chair sitting right by their large living room window that looked out to the front yard. Aira lived a few minutes outside of town in a small neighborhood surrounding Kawkawa Lake. Her mother and Barry had bought the house only a year ago, because it was average priced, modern, lived in, comfortable.
Maddy was a lot like Aira — soft-spoken, loving, happy, very real. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was beautiful for her age, and wore her years well. The only other difference, other than the color of their hair, was that Maddy was more of a realist. Aira wasn’t. Aira was a deep thinker, a day-dreamer. She’s always been that way, even as a little girl. Perhaps she did it now to escape the repetitiveness of the mundane town she had been born and raised in.
Aira was about to run out the door when her mother spoke up. “Aira.”
Aira stopped, turned around and walked into the kitchen.
“Are you not even going to eat? You know breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Maddy spoke at her daughter in a playful way.
“I’m gonna grab something when I pick up Avery,” Aira answered, seemingly in a rush.
Maddy smiled, reached into the fruit bowl in the middle of the kitchen table and threw her an apple.
“Thanks.” She smiled at her mother and walked out to her truck — her grandfather’s truck which he had left her in his will.
It was a beautiful day. Being September, there was a warmness in the air. There was still some life left of the sun, but it would only last so long, then fall would shortly make its presence felt. She loved these days, but she loved the smell of autumn more.
She realized she had forgotten her keys hanging in the kitchen, and when she turned around to go back inside, she dropped all of her books on the ground. Irritated by her lack of having it together, she walked back into the kitchen, and with an embarrassed look on her face she grabbed them and walked back out.
Maddy shook her head and let out a light laugh.
“David, please go grab your bag.” She spoke over the sound of the television and took another drink of her coffee.
Outside, Aira picked her books off the ground, opened the truck door, threw in her books and phone, and drove to Avery’s.
Avery lived in town. Half way between town and Aira’s house was a bridge she had to cross. A couple years prior the town people had decided to tear down the old wooden bridge and build a new one. Aira missed that bridge, it was sentimental in a way. She used to walk over it when she was younger to go to her grandmother’s, and she would stop in the middle just to watch the river pass.
If one turned right after the bridge towards town, he would go down a small hill onto a nature trail. Eventually the trail led out to a street, up a large hill, reaching another small trail that came out at the train tracks that divided the town. To and from town, that was the path she had always taken.
The bridge has always been her half-way marker.
As Aira pulled up to Avery’s house, Avery came out waving excitedly to her. Avery was very beautiful. She had long ginger hair and brown eyes. Sometimes she wore glasses to read, and most of the time she wore a ponytail. Avery’s house was also a two story home, white with green trim. They had a lot of sleep-overs there.
Avery opened the truck door and got in.
“I’m starving. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, besides, if I don’t eat like right now, you know how cranky I get – why don’t you fix this?”
Aira smiled as Avery as fought with the seat belt that seemed to need a hundred yanks before it clicked in.
“What do you feel like? We have twenty minutes.” Aira pulled out of Avery’s driveway and started to drive downtown. Wallace Street was the main drag. Down each side were random small shops and stores: the Buy and Save grocery store, one of only two grocery stores in town, the CIBC bank, Memorial Park, the cinema, a few restaurants and The Blue Moose. The Moose was a local coffee shop where they all hung out. It was across from the town hall and the park and had a small gated covering with chairs and tables outside. The main drag was right there. Hope wasn’t large, so seeing someone you knew was guaranteed.
“What the hell is that sound?” Avery asked, looking around. The truck windows were rolled down and all you could hear was womp, womp, womp.
“I don’t know… I don’t even care.” Aira was already frustrated with all of the other things wrong with her truck.
Avery laughed.
Aira’s phone began to vibrate. Avery was sitting on it, so she pulled it out from underneath her.
“I wonder, is it Jaidas?” Avery asked, slightly waving the phone around, bugging Aira.
“I don’t know,” Aira replied not seeming to really care. She wanted to avoid the conversation. She knew Avery couldn’t stand him. Avery hated the way he negated Aira’s feelings and how his apologies had become more of a habit rather than being sincere.
“Aira, I really hope he’s trying with you this time. He’s such a jerk. You’d think after all these years he’d realize it does nothing for his character.” Avery stopped and looked at Aira. She knew Aira hated being in the middle of them, but sometimes Avery couldn’t help herself.
“I’m sorry, I promised not to be so skeptical, its just —”
“I know… it’s okay.” Aira pulled into a parking spot across from The Moose and turned off the truck.
“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about crashing a wedding anytime soon. I’ve never even heard you mention the word love, like ever. Do you love him?” Avery asked tentatively while she rummaged through her backpack to find her purse.
“I guess that’s where I’m skeptical. What does that even mean?” Aira let out a small smile.
Avery laughed, opened the truck door and got out. She looked back in at Aira. “Well, you better love me.”
Aira smiled and shook her head, opened her truck door and got out. They walked across the street to The Moose, went in, quickly grabbed something to eat and drove to school.
Hope Secondary School was home to the Mustangs. The dark reddish-
orange building trimmed in blue and cream beige was surrounded by a parking lot and large playing field. Behind the back side of the school was the mechanics shop.
When they pulled into the school parking lot Jaidas was standing by his car, a black 1969 Charger in mint condition, with four of his closest guy friends and two of their girlfriends. Harlem Cross, Sara Braney, Jessie Gatta, Chelsey Kuris, Logan Cottee, and Cory Loric.
Harlem had dark brown hair, was a little thicker than the others, husky, but he suited it. A good looking kid. He was funny and liked to make fun of Logan all the time, mostly because Logan was full of himself and it made Harlem laugh. They were buds, though.
Logan had sandy blonde hair, light green eyes and was very fit. He also came from wealth. He always wore shorts and a hoodie. He liked to rough house and gloat, and he was very proud. He was also a smart ass.
Cory’s hair was deep carrot red, and was a jogging pants and T-shirt kind of guy. He was very laid back and peaceful to be around. He had the body of a rugby player. He worked out, but he wasn’t hard and full of muscle, more husky and filled out in a comfortable way.
Jessie was more slender. He worked out too, so he was pretty toned. He had light brown hair and brown eyes. He dressed like a skateboarder: backwards hat, ripped jeans, simple T-shirts, and pull-over sweaters. He also loved tattoos. He has one sleeve he’d been working on for the past year, as had Jaidas.
Sara was Harlem’s girlfriend. She was very pretty, sociable, and very, very smart. She had an innocent look to her. Though she looked innocent, she didn’t take crap from anyone. It was definitely what drew Harlem to her. They really loved each other.
Chelsey was blonde and had the perfect body. She was an avid volleyball player and both she and Sara were straight A students. Chelsey was taller than Sara, 5’8, maybe even a bit taller. She was always happy and loved people. Her presence was very magnetic. She has been Logan’s girlfriend since eighth grade, but surprisingly had fallen completely head over heels for Jessie in tenth grade. Fearing that it would end their friendship she had said nothing, but six months ago Jessie couldn’t hold back his feelings anymore. He told her how he felt about her and they have been secretly seeing each other ever since. Everybody knew except Logan, but even he had his suspicions.
Out of all of them, Harlem was Jaidas’s dearest friend. Partners in crime, so to speak. Harlem’s father had been pretty rough on him growing up. He used to be quiet, his spirit pretty beat down. When him and Jaidas became friends in middle school all that seemed to change. It was like Jaidas took him under his wing. He became a less self-conscience, panicked-filled kid.
Aira had been with Jaidas the day that Jaidas had had enough and grown tired of Harlem’s father. He had driven to Harlem’s house and told her to wait in the car. Harlem was at the part-time job he worked to help support his family, though everyone knew it was because of his father’s bad habits. Jaidas had walked right into the house, he hadn’t even knocked. He’d closed the door and had some words with him. Whatever Jaidas said to him was enough that Harlem’s father did a complete 180. He’d never laid another hand on Harlem, or spoken down on him ever since. It was strange. Perhaps the reason Jaidas felt drawn to Harlem was because of the shortcomings of his own life at home. Though his father was never mean to him, his father was all about business and too busy most of the time to pay much attention to him. Jaidas harbored a lot of unresolved resentment.
The one thing all of the boys had in common was that they loved hockey. They played together since they were little, for the Hope hockey team at the Hope & District Recreation Center Arena.
Aira pulled into a parking spot, and they got out of the truck.
“My baby,” Jaidas spoke walking over to them. He was wearing a low-cut white T-shirt and jeans. He picked up Aira and spun her around, and as Jaidas spun her, Aira caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar boy sitting in his car, a grey, 2014 Lexus IS350, with his head down reading.
His dark, ashy-brown hair highlighted the lightness of his ivory skin. His pointer finger and thumb of his left hand played with his subtle, dusty-rose-colored lips as he concentrated on what he was reading.
Jaidas put Aira down.
“Avery,” Jaidas spoke with a grin.
“Jaidas,” she replied with no enthusiasm.
He smiled because of Avery’s pessimistic attitude towards him. His friends walked over and instantly started being obnoxious and laughing about something. They were always rowdy and loud.
The new boy tore his eyes away from what he was reading and looked over at them. His eyes were piercing and intangible blue. Mysterious, he was beautiful— the kind of beauty you want to lay your head on. The moment he looked up, he saw Aira and smiled. His smile was warm and inviting. In the moment that they locked eyes, there was a sound of rolling thunder. Everyone looked up, and a slight streaming bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.
Aira rubbed her left wrist on her tummy by her hip as she looked at the boy. The feeling in her stomach became like weightless butterflies.
Jaidas and his friends were too busy talking about the `great adventures` they had had over the summer to even notice Aira staring over at him and that he was looking back at her. But Avery sure did.
The first bell rang and Aira came back to reality. Jaidas grabbed Aira’s hand and they started to walk towards the school.
Avery noticed the boy she has secretly loved since elementary school moving things around in the trunk of his car a ways down the parking lot. His car was nothing special, modest, a dull, flat, faded black, and always a mess. He had worked all summer to buy it.
His name was Joshua. He wore black, quirky-framed glasses, but only when he needed to read, and his hair was light sandy brown. He was very intelligent looking and, especially to Avery, very good looking. Even though he knew a lot about somethings, other things he was just clueless about. He and his parents had moved to Hope when he was in grade six. They had family here and wanted to be closer. Avery had instantly liked him. Joshua was shy, sort of, but he usually kept to himself. When he did come out of his shell he became the life of the party. He was charmingly funny and witty. The thing she loved the most about him was that he never conformed to anything, always staying true to himself. His family was pretty well off, but as a typical eighteen-year-old boy, it didn’t really show. His lack of motivation to keep anything in his life together apparently took too much energy. He lived for corny horror movies and had great taste in music. His locker and desk were also always a big mess, but he always dressed well and he did smell amazing!
He also had a thing for Avery, but neither dared to say anything.
“Hi, Joshua,” she spoke softly and nervously.
Joshua turned around and smiled at her.
“Hi, Avery.”
Avery bit her lip and skipped quickly to catch up to Aira.
Jaidas walked both Avery and Aira to their lockers, as they were side by side. The halls were crowded with frantic and overly-enthusiastic teenagers.
“What’s your first class?” Jaidas asked somewhat distracted, looking through the halls then back at her.
As Aira opened the lock on her locker, he tried to peek at her combination in a joking way. She moved so he wouldn’t see it. They were subtly playing.
“I’m not sure,” she replied, opening it.
Avery rolled her eyes to herself.
“Alright, well, I’m gonna drop my bag off.” He kissed the top of her head and walked away.
Aira started pulling things out of her backpack and putting them in her locker as Avery started to talk.
“Did you see the new boy? Of course you did, I saw you staring at each other. Do you know him or something?”
“No, I don’t know him — and no, I wasn’t staring at anyone.” Aira stopped and looked at Avery, trying her best to look convincing while she continued putting her stuff away.
> “Yea, right Aira, I’m your best friend, I see everything.” Avery shut her locker and smiled at her. “I’ll see you after class,” and she walked away, giving her a quick hip bump.
Aira smiled and shook her head at her best friend’s ridiculousness. She pulled out a piece of paper from her bag and quickly looked up for a second. She noticed the new boy was walking down the hall towards her. Her heart started to pound, and the closer he got the more nervous she got. The whole time neither of them broke eye contact. He smiled and then turned into a classroom.
Aira took a deep breath of relief, almost like she had stopped breathing as he was walking towards her. She looked down at the paper in her hand, trying to figure out where her first class was. HI 12—History12 it read. She moved her head and looked to the room he had just walked into, and looked at the paper again. “Great,” she said to herself. She pulled some books out of her locker but was so nervous she dropped two onto the floor. She bent down and slowly put them into the crease of her arm trying to take her time. She was dreading going into the room, mostly because she already felt like a complete mess around him.
As Aira stood up, put her backpack in her locker and closed it, Jaidas walked up behind her.
“History?” he asked.
Aira, a bit startled, turned around and looked at him. She took the tips of a strand of her hair and put them across her chin and gave him a light nod turning to walk to the classroom.
“Well, let’s go,” he smiled, giving her a quick pat on the bum.
They walked into the class. It was full. There were only two desks left, singular desks, one in the front beside Logan, and one in the very back beside the boy.
Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga Page 2
