As I sat at home, I reviewed what had happened. Tuesday was a dud. I groaned and fell backwards on my bed. I was so sure that things between Aria and me had changed but it seemed that all of Sunday had been a huge waste. To be honest though, I really couldn't pinpoint what I'd done wrong. Did I work her too hard? That couldn't be it, she still talked to me after. Did I ask too many questions? Nah, she answered them all without problem. The only time things seemed not to be going well was at the bus stop when I offered to be her friend.
ARGH!
I wished I could just ask her without the risk of embarrassment like in the lunch room.
And then... I remembered I could. I snatched my phone of the bedside table and sifted through my contacts. Right there, fourteenth number, Blaze, Aria. I opened the text field. There was only my address and her 'kk'. I started tapping out a message but stopped halfway through. Texts were simple but she could always ignore me. I blocked my caller ID and dialed in the number. It began to ring.
"Hello?" on the third ring, someone who was definitely not Aria picked up.
"Um... Is Aria there?" I asked.
The voice immediately got happy. It immediately began chattering thirty words a second but the only ones I picked up were 'Are you Aria's boyfriend?'.
"Adagio! Aria's got a boyfriend and he's on the pho-" I hung up.
Oh crap! If that wasn't Aria and she was calling Adagio, that meant it was Sonata. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap! Well, anybody that wasn't Aria was a bad thing.
First you see me riding on a sonic boom
I looked down at my phone.
BLAZE, ARIA
Shit!
I stopped the call and turned my phone off. Yeah, I definitely messed up.
"Sonuvabitch!"
Snips, Snails and I were at Sugar Cube Corner where we usually met on Wednesday's for our Starswirl's Demons card tournament. Pinkie Pie was in a heated argument around the counter with Snip's sister, Sugar, about whether candy corn or licorice was the best Halloween candy. The grade schoolers, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom were having some kind of club outing three tables down from us. All that didn't stop Aria from storming in and calling me all kinds of bastard.
"My boyfriend?" she yelled after she'd finished her string of curses, most of which I'm sure aren't from Earth. "You called my sisters and said you were my boyfriend!?!"
"Not cool dude," Snails made known. He snatched up his ultra rare Starswirl the Unbearded card as if my lameness would rub off on it.
"I didn't," I tried to defend myself. "I called and Sonata thought I was your boyfriend and then she called Adagio and-"
"So then you called after I told you not to?" she started again with the strange mix of Earthly and Equestrian curse words.
"Aria, I'm sorry," I apologized. "I wanted to figure out why you were so hostile to me."
"Hostile?" she looked shocked. "You thought that was hostile."
Everyone was looking at us.
Her eyes began glowing red again.
"I was trying to be nice before, 'cause you helped me out," her voice got louder and started to fall out of sync with itself. "But I want you to leave me alone! Stop trying to talk to me! Stop trying to sit with me at lunch! Stay out of my way and out of my sight! I don't need your pity and I don't need your friendship, got it?"
I nodded slowly.
"Give me your phone," she commanded.
I knew that she wanted to delete her number. I shamefully handed her my cell while everyone watched in anticipation. Even Mr. and Mrs. Cake who ran Sugar Cube Corner came out to see what was up. Aria took the phone and in her one hand, crushed it. She let the pieces of metal, plastic and glass trickle down on the table before me. She stormed out, her boots making indents in the tiles as she walked away. Sugar ran to push the door open for her knowing full well that, in that rage, she would have torn it off the hinges. As soon as the door swung shut, all eyes turned to me.
I sat there, no words in my throat, no words in my mind. To avoid eye contact, I looked at the pile of dust that used to be my cell.
"Duuuuuude," Snips drawled. At that moment, I couldn't agree more.