Pretend (11 page)

I wanted to talk to Aiden.
I needed to make things right before we met up with Crystal. As we pulled up at the park, I got straight
out of the car. I watched as
 
he slammed his
car
door, locked it and then walked off.

             
"Aiden!"
I called after him.

             
He suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around to face me.

             
"Look, I know that I was a bit harsh back there and you didn't deserve that," I said in a guilty voice as I walked towards him.

             
"No, I didn't," he replied, still looking rather annoyed.

             
"I'm sorry, I
was just taking my frustration with Kyle
out on you," I said as I awaited an answer.

             
"I know," he replied, more sympathetically this time.

             
"Forgiven?" I asked.

             
"Yeah but
 
on one condit
ion," he said as a small smile
spread across his lips.

             
"What?" I asked, curiously.

             
"You admit that I am the king of charades," he said as he began to laugh.

             
"Are you kidding me?" I replied as I tried to the force the smile off of my face.

             
"I never kid," he replied as the smile on his face grew larger.

             
"And then you'll forgive me?" I asked.

             
"Completely," he said, staring into my eyes.

             
"Ok...You're the king of
charares
," I mumbled as we continued to walk through the park.

             
"How silly do you think I am? You think
that
I can't tell that you're not even saying charades?" He said as he let out a loud laugh.

             
"Ok fine! You really want me to do this?" I asked in a sympathetic voice.

             
"Yes and your puppy dog eyes don't work on me, angel," he said with a smirk on his face.

             
"Ok, fine!" I said.

             
I took a deep breath and looked down at the floor.

             
"You are the king of charades," I said as quick
ly
as I possibly could.

             
"Now, doesn't that feel good?" He asked as he threw his hand around my shoulders
 
and continued to laugh.

             
"Yeah, I suppose you do need reassuring after how badly, the last game we played turned out," I said as I began to laugh, excessively.

             
"Huh?" He asked with a confused expression on his face.

             
I began to talk as I slowly tried to control my laughter.

             
"Remember when
me
, you
,
Crystal
and
Anthony
were playing dar
es and you got the gum
stuck up your nose and
your mom had to take you to the emergency room?
" I replied as I began laughing again.

             
"Oh you think that's funny do you?"

             
"Yeah I do actually," I replied, still laughing.

             
"I wonder how
 
funny you'll find this," he said as he pulled me towards him and began tickling me.

             
"No!" I scr
eamed as fits of uncontrollable
laughter escaped from my mouth.

             
"Oh, forgot you was ticklish didn't you, good job I didn't," he said as
 
we both
 
fell onto the ground.

             
Slowly Aiden and I stopped laughing as we took in the situation. As I looked up at him on top of me, my eyes were drawn to his. As he stared down at me, a feeling
 
shot through my spine, just like the one that
 
I had felt in my dream.
 
Suddenly everything seemed so quiet.

             
"April," he whispered as he looked down at me with a serious expression now on his face.
My heart skipped a b
eat, I couldn't understand why
but it did.

             
"Yes?" I whispered al
most unable to talk.

             
"I-"

             
"Aiden, April! Where are you?"

             
It was Crystal. Suddenly without t
he need to discuss it
we both jumped up. I began to dust the grass off of my clothes.

             
What just happened?

             
"Oh, there you are.
I have been looking for you everywhere. We went to
 
the shop and then I seen your car on the way back but I couldn't find you and
I couldn’t
call you, so then I started to-"

Suddenly she cut herself off as she took in the strange expression that was on both of our faces.

             
"What is wrong with you two?  Y
ou look like you've just seen a ghost," she said.

             
I couldn't talk.

             
"Ok, so you found us now, come on and stop being
so
dramatic
,
" Aiden replied as they began to walk ahead.

             
I could feel his eyes on me as he looked back at where I was stood but I refused to look at him.

             
"Oh shut up Aiden," she replied.

             
I stood frozen.
I just couldn't understand what had just happened. None of it made sense.

             
"Oh
my gosh
. April,
 
will you come on?
" Crystal shouted back at me, impatiently.

             
"Yeah, I'm coming," I mumbled as I continued to stare at the two of them walking ahead.

             
"I'm coming..."

"Found them," Crystal said as we walked towards Jess and Erica.

             
"Where were you guys?" Jess asked.

             
"We just got a bit lost," Aiden quickly answered as he glanced at my blank face.

             
It was as if I had completely lost touch with reality. My mind was racing all over the place and I struggled to keep up with it.

             
"I'm going to catch up with the guys," Aiden said to Crystal, even though his eyes were fixated on me.

             
I felt strange, like everyone could hear my thoughts and knew what I was thinking. Crystal continued to engage in conversation with Erica and ignored Aiden but I don't really think that he said it for her benefit anyway.

             
"Hey, are you ok?" Jess asked as she walked towards me.

             
"Yeah, I'm just tired," I lied.

             
"Where's Jinnie?"

             
"Oh, Erica said that she has some bug, probably twenty four hour. I'm sure she'll be fine by tomorrow," she replied.

             
"Oh, ok," I mumbled.

             
"Are you sure that you're ok?" She asked, staring deep into my eyes with what appeared to be a worried expression on her face.

I knew that saying I was tired again just wasn't going to work.

             
"I got a text from Kyle after the party," I said as I sat down on the bench that was a couple of feet away from where we were stood.

             
"Should I even ask what it said?" S
he replied, looking as though she should expect the worst.

             
"He told me that I needed to move on and then
he
text me today to say
that
he want
ed to see me and can I met him.”

             
"Well that's real nice of him
,
isn't it," she replied sarcastically.

             
"Hmm.”

             
"So, are you going to meet him?" She asked.

             
"No, I think it's time to move on," I said as my eyes fell on Aiden. He was stood with a group of friends, I couldn'
t quite make out who they were
as they were a little too far away now but I knew one thing, he was staring right back at me.

             
"Yeah, that's the spirit. Kyle's a jerk anyway, you deserve better," she said as she squeezed my hand and smiled.

             
"Thanks," I said.

             
"What
are you ladies whispering about?" A
familiar voice asked.

             
As I lifted my head I jumped up in excitement.

             
"Anthony," I shrieked as I threw my arms around him.

             
"Hey kiddo," he replied as he laughed and swung me round.

             
"Hey I'm sixteen, don't you think it's time to stop calling me kiddo?" I asked as a smirk grew on my face.

I looked over at Jess. Her
face was filled with confusion.

             
"Sorry, Anthony, this is Jess, Jess this is Anthony. Anthony's one of Aiden's good friends, we used to see each other all the time when we were little, till he decided to move away and forget about us," I said as I hit him playfully on the arm.

             
"Hey you're making me sound bad," he said before walking up to Jess and extending his hand.

             
"Nice to meet you, you guys really are proving my theory to be true," he said.

             
"What theory?" I asked.

             
"That all of Crystal's friends are beautiful," he said as he looked at Jess.

             
She was blushing of course. I knew that she would like Anthony. He had all the qualities that she always said that she wanted in a guy. Dark hair, hazel eyes, six
pack
, tall, funny and the list goes on. I watched as Jess did her 'flirty laugh' and flashed her long eyelashes all over the place.

             
"Still the charmer I see," I said, looking in his direction.

             
"I just say it as it is," he replied with a smirk on his face.

             
"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked.

             
"I'm staying at my cousin's for a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd sw
ing by and see you guys.”

             
"Well I'm glad that you did, it was a nice surprise," I replied.

             
"Yeah, it was," he replied.

             
"Ok, well I'm going to talk to Crystal, I'll leave you two to err...get to know each other," I said as I winked at Jess and walked off. I knew that it was exactly what she wanted me to do and she would thank me for it later.