Aria never expected Rayleigh would leave like that, making her a laughingstock in front of the whole cafeteria.
She had thought he would mostly say something rough to her or shoo her away but instead he just left with an expression plastered on his face that screamed, 'her presence is making me sick'. Aria just wanted to be friends with him. Since he had saved her earlier, she thought he would be different, that he would not judge her by her looks or her being the "bully-victim" history.
"But he is the same, they all are," Aria thought as her heart became heavy while a bitter smile formed on her lips.
Aria had been ignored, insulted, bullied all her life but this time, it felt worst.
People around her are murmuring and laughing, as Aria walks out of the cafeteria keeping her head low. She balls her fists and tries her best to keep the stubborn tears from coming out of her eyes.
She can't cry, she has never shed tears in front of other people. No matter how much she was bullied, she has always tried to put a strong face in front of others. Only the pages of her diary, her empty room and the washrooms of this school knows how much pain she has gone through.
Aria feels her heart getting heavier with each step she takes forward, mockery and giggling echoes through her ears as her vision turns blurry with tears. But she keeps consoling herself and motivates thinking," Come on, Aria. A few more steps and when you are out of here, you can run directly for the washroom."
But God seems to be in the mood of being cruel today.
A pair of shining high heels appears in front of her obscure view. Aria gulps as she tries to overtake the person in front of her while keeping her head low. But the heels imitate her movement and keeps standing in front of her.
"Of course, she isn't going to let it go." Aria sighs and blinks a few times so that the tears would go back and her eyes would seem normal when she looks up.
"Well, well. Cry baby Aria or should I say leech Aria? How about whore Aria, who starts gluing to any boy that comes in sight?" Vivien laughs, her three minions following her, as if she has said something utterly humorous.
Aria looks up with her blood shot red eyes and sneers, she is not in a mood to answer back today. She is mostly afraid, cause deep down she knows if she opens her mouth there's a huge possibility that she would start sobbing vigorously and there's no way that would be better than keeping mum.
A wicked smile breaks into Vivien's face making her look more sinister when she sees Aria sneering.
Vivien takes a step forward and stops, confusing Aria with her move. Vivien keeps looking at her with a sinister smirk that sends a chill down Aria's spine. Aria is sure Vivien is up to something but what?
Before she can think it through, Vivien suddenly pulls Aria's spectacles and steps away. It happens so unexpectedly and so fast that Aria can't even try to retaliate or get it back.
"Look at her red eyes, are you angry, Aria?...ouch…my mistake, W-H-O-R-E," Vivien plays with Aria's glasses as she keeps throwing attacks at Aria with her words, smirk never leaving her lips.
"Please, Vivien. Just give it back," Aria grits her teeth and says in a raspy voice.
"Or what? Going to go and whine into your brother's ears? Ups... Remind me girls, what did she say this morning?" Vivien looks behind her and winks at the girls standing there.
"I fight for myself," Reyna replies in a nasal voice mimicking Aria's almost crying voice and starts laughing, others join her.
Aria's whole face turns crimson and two drops of tears slide down her cheeks, as she attacks on Vivien to get her glasses back. Vivien had expected an outburst, so she was quite ready and moves away just in time. Vivien kicks Arias's legs, and she lands directly on the floor ahead. All the people around her starts laughing hard, some even captures the fall in their cell-phone's cameras.
Tears start streaming out of Aria's eyes as she stands up quietly, tolerating the ardent pain in her knees.
Her face twists as she swats her right hand with all her strength, directly on a laughing Vivien's face.
"PAAAK!"
This time, it happens so quickly that nor Vivien or her minions get any time to retaliate.
Vivien's whole body wobbles as, she feels her left cheek burning. The slap on her face buzzes continuously in her ears as if it was shut inside down.
She doubles for a moment and Aria takes the chance to snatch her spectacles from Vivien's grip and runs directly for the door.
When Aria is at the door, she looks back to see Vivien still in daze. A triumphant smile takes over her lips as she screams back,"Aria Chase always fights for herself, you bitch."
With that Aria pulls the door open and steps out of the cafeteria quickly. She walks taking busy steps until she is inside one of the toilet stalls. Aria sits on the closed lid of the commode and sighs. The next moment, she feels tears starting to threat her again. This time, she lets them flow out of her eyes, as her heart burns in agony.
"Why does everyone have to be so cruel with me? Why me?" Aria clutches the hem of her sweater as she cries hard.
The bell rings, declaring the break is over. Aria wipes away the tears and splashes water on her face several times before getting out of the washroom. The hallway, full of everybody storming back to their respective classes, makes Aria go incognito in the crowd again.
The next few classes for that day, passed by quickly for Aria because luckily, she didn't have Vivien in any of them. As usual, Aria had kept her head low while entering each class and also left the classroom the same way. During the whole class, she was focused on the teacher only. This was her own way of staying out of trouble, that she had invented with years of experience.
When the last bell rings, Aria quickly gets up and tries to walk as fast as she can. But because of the twinging pain in her knee, her pace becomes slow. When she manages to walk into the parking lot, she turns her stealth mood on as she hides behind a pillar and scans the whole place.
As expected she finds Vivien and her minions standing right next to her truck.
Smirk forms on her lips as she slowly sneaks past the cars, and grabs her folded kick scooter from her secret place at the garage.
Unfolding the kick scooter, she rides on and kicks back. When she is at the end of the parking lot she screams back,"Catch me if you can bitches!!"
Aria finds herself giggling as she sees Vivien's shocked face turning into a furious one. She breathes like an Anaconda as she stomps off towards her car kicking.
By the time she starts the car, Aria is already out of the sight, long gone.
Being, frustrated Vivien slaps the headboard, and almost burst the air-drums of her minions as she screams,"Damn it! What are you all? Blind? Why didn't you see that whore grabbing her kick scooter?"
Her three minions knows better than opening their mouth as they remain silent, tolerating Vivien's frustrated screams and curses as she drives in an incredibly high speed.
"That little squirt. I will see her tomorrow," Vivien thinks as she pushes the accelerator hard making the car run faster.
Aria laughs her soul out on the way back home, since she has decided to retaliate three years ago, beating these bullies in their own games have become her most favorite thing in the world. It's always fun to watch them getting bullied.
Aria's laughter dies as she enters the forest- mountain area, which she calls 'DWZ' in short for "Dangerous Watch Zone".
She kicks the ground faster forgetting her pain from earlier as she tries hard to pass the area soon.
Once she takes the sharp right that leads to her locality she finally finds herself sighing in peace. There's something onus about that area which always gives her a bad feeling every time she passes that road alone, a gut feeling of being watched grasps her while a chill rises to her spine making all the pelage on her body stand up.
At the beginning she used to look back to check if someone was actually there or not but now she just pushes away that impulse and moves forward gnashing her teeth together.
She still remembers that day from five years ago, she was in junior high that time. As usual, on the way of riding this very kick scooter home she got that feeling.
That day, the fact her best friend Vivien was with her gave her the courage to stop there and look around.
That's when she saw it, a huge creature which had fire-blazing eyes. It quite looked like a bear, except it had wings.
She clearly remembers, how Vivien had pushed her in front of it and ran away.
And that was the last thing she remembers from that incident, before she screamed her lungs out and fainted.
Later when she was found and was admitted to the hospital, she told her parents about what she saw. Nobody believed her, they called Vivien, but she said Aria went into the forest alone, and even tried to scare Vivien with a made up demon story about that forest. So, Vivien ran away from there. She didn't see anything.
By those words and because of the impossible humorous description she had given, Aria was proved to be the liar.
She was sent to get professional help from psychiatrists, and they tried their best to convince her that it was just a delusion of hers. Nothing as such existed.
But a question lingered through her mind from that date to today,"Was it really just her hallucination?"
Deep down Aria knows and believes,it was something more than hallucination,it was as much real as her own existance is. She has just stopped trying to convince people around her about this....
Some things were better hidden...maybe it was just the same.