"You actually came. That's surprising." Aria said. When Joseph continued to look at his shoes and made no reply, Aria said with a sigh, "Oh come on! You are not here to get a scolding from a teacher. Say something."
"I'm sorry." Joseph finally looked up as he said these words. "For?" Aria prompted, she was happy that he was finally talking to her. "For acting like a self-centered, pompous piece of shit that night." he added, now looking at Aria's face.
Joseph watched her expression change and he knew what was coming. So he was ready when Aria exclaimed, "Have you gone completely nuts!!" a little too loudly. But she winced the next second and shut up. "You shouldn't be talking this much. And neither exert your body in your current condition." Joseph spoke up, worried, getting up from his chair to call Miss Anhao. Aria rolled her eyes upon hearing this. At least there was this one action that did not hurt her.
"And who will do the talking if I don't? The person who gets some weird satisfaction with secretly following me around, or the one who is somehow very afraid to talk to his friends. But maybe, wait! Maybe it'll be the person who seems to have hit his head and has absolutely stopped making sense!!" Aria exclaimed. Though she had tried to keep her voice down, it had risen an octave and she was panting by the time she finished.
Joseph, just had no idea how to react to that speech. He certainly hadn't been expecting it! It was very rare for Aria to show even a tiny bit of emotion, except for rage. But last night and right now, she had given full fledged speeches, depicting just how frustratingly angry she was.
Not knowing what else to do, Joseph got up, poured out a glass of water and helped Aria drink it. Mostly because Aria was really out of breath and looked like she needed it, but a little bit also because Joseph had no idea what to reply. And this action gave him some time to think about it.
Finally, after it looked like Aria had considerably calmed down, Joseph fixed her with his dark blue eyes. "Aria . . . " he began, "I meant every word I said before your outburst." He raised a finger as Aria opened her mouth to argue, "Please let me finish first." Joseph said. Aria nodded and continued, "I did. And you can disagree with me all you want, but I know, and anyone else who would hear all the events would agree that I acted like a selfish coward that night."
"And I have no excuses to give. I could have easily heard whatever you came to tell me, and we would have worked out a plan. Maybe you wouldn't have gotten hurt so badly then." Joseph had to pause here and take a deep breath. He had spent the whole night thinking what he would say to her, and now he couldn't stop just because his voice cracked and throat choked up. Aria very badly wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that he wasn't responsible for what had happened, that there was possibly no way he could have stopped it, but she waited for him to finish.