❝A change in latitude would help my attitude.❞ -Unknown

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She clutched the phone tightly in her hands, stunned as his abrupt, hurt words rang through her mind. One last, frantic "Tinkerbell!" escaped her lips before it was replaced by a gasp of desperation as the beep signaled the dead call.

Frustrated, she flung the phone in the general direction of her bed, sinking her forehead into her hands desperately. A furry shape brushed her legs as Missy, the tabby cat slunk into her lap and rubbed against her chest, seeking comfort.

The phone rang, and Aria immediately seized it, shoving it to her ear without even a glance at the caller ID. "Tinkerb--" she began, the caller's voice abruptly cutting her off.

"Aria?" She recognized the voice with dismay; in contrast to Tinkerbell's slow drawl, the speaker spoke in quick, sharp, almost hurried words.

"Oh... hey, Kale," she managed, exhaling somewhat raspily as she dropped onto the bed, her dejected frame sinking along with her spirits. Maintain self control, she thought. Keep that heart rate steady.

"M'kay, so Airheads, I was wondering if you'd be interested in dropping by the team fundraising event tonight?" he continued, again tacking on his common nickname for her; she had never had the heart to tell him that the name "Airheads" left quite a few derogatory implications regarding her intelligence.

"Kale, I really don't know..." She sank her teeth into her lips, racking her brain for a handy excuse which she could use as a detour. Tinkerbell's last words to her, bombarding her so heavily yet seeming so stricken and sad on his part, were still scalding her mind painfully, demanding to be processed. "I really... uh..." she stammered helplessly as the meaningless words fled her withdrawn mind.

"We have pizza!" Kale persisted weakly. "C'mon, Aria..." He sounded so pleading, so desperate. Aria felt a tug of guilt at her heart; yet, the word 'pizza' emerging from Kale's mouth still made her stomach recoil as much as it ever did.

"Kale, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm really not in the mood for any of your weird vegan pizza."

"Hey! At least my mom knows how to make it right," he objected, failing miserably at concealing the edge of dismay in his voice. Aria squeezed her eyes shut as the remorse flooded her, shifting the contents of her stomach around. And this time it wasn't entirely in response to the thought of the excessive garlic, the lack of pepperoni, or the vegan parmesan that was a sore replacement for mozzarella. Her chest tightened at the thought of Kale, and the regret she felt for always finding herself unable to grant him the time he wanted. The time, she supposed, she ought to give him.

"Kale, I--I can't," she sputtered, falling back horizontally onto her bed and staring blankly at the glow-in-the-dark stars that had been plastered to the ceiling since third grade. "I'm at.. at therapy."

"Fact check, you're in your room," snapped an unexpected voice, causing Aria to jump upward and turn to glare at the individual in the doorway.

"Lyndsey?" she croaked. "What are you... doing?"

The girl walked into the room, arms crossed over her slender, four-foot-eleven figure and dark eyes fixed unblinkingly on Aria. "Your mom said you were upstairs." Her eyes trailed from Aria's cluttered desk, stacked high with papers and dog-eared science textbooks, and over to Aria herself, sprawled on the bed in sweatpants, her curly hair tied into an unceremonious bun. "She said you were... studying."

"Well--what do you think I'm doing?" Aria stammered defensively, shoving the phone underneath her pillow as there was a confused interjection on Kale's end of the line.

Lyndsey's expression remained static with a frustrating permanence. "Aria, listen to me--you need to get out of here occasionally and give that boy some time."

"What are you talking about?" Aria demanded, shifting to a sitting position, hovering almost defensively in front of her phone as Lyndsey's eyes darted suspiciously in the device's general direction.

"You know what I'm talking about, Ari," Lyndsey stated, her lips settling into the no-nonsense, almost parental look which could only reflect the annoying fact that she would be eighteen in a few weeks. "You're in here all the time doing who knows what-- well, Missy knows, I guess," she added, glaring at the tabby curled in the corner.

"Just--you know--studying," Aria sputtered dubiously, avoiding Lyndsey's eye.

"You need to get out more," Lyndsey stated firmly, sounding painfully more and more like her mother with every sentence. "There's a guy out there who cares a lot about you, and by ignoring him all the time, you're just creating more problems for--"

"He said he would stop talking to me," Aria mumbled vacantly, her words hovering somewhere between a direct answer to Lyndsey and her own reflection.

"What?" Lyndsey's brow knitted in confusion. "Kale said that? When? Didn't he want you to come to his hockey fundraiser tonight?"

"No--I mean--never mind," Aria pressed defensively, almost shuddering for a moment as she tried to divert her mind from the Tinkerbell boy with the soft, slow words, like rays of warm sunshine with just enough pineapple smoothie in his voice to leave an aura of freshness in her own heart.

"Aria, are you okay?" Lyndsey's tone temporarily abandoned the strict mother approach for a persona of concern. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing," Aria managed, shaking her head as a sudden, completely unpredicted rush of tears seared her eyes. That was the worst part about tears--how unexpectedly and relentlessly they could attack, leaving their victim helpless and subject to unwanted pity from the surrounding parties.

"Aria," Lyndsey sounded serious again. "Do you like Kale or not?" Right to the point.

"I don't KNOW, why?" Aria shot back evasively.

"Oh, maybe it's kinda relevant?" Lyndsey fired back, her tone fringed with equal salt. "Ari, your relationship is going to fall apart at the seams if you don't take the time to hold it together."

"Lynn, since when should you be the one telling me about my relationship?" hissed Aria, turning to glare at Lyndsey.

"I'm trying to help you, Ari; I'm your friend--out of everyone, I should be the one making sure you're okay," Lyndsey responded, her ashen face reflecting the pain within her words. "Aria, why won't you tell me if something's wrong? Is it about Kale?"

Aria forced her face forward into her hands, feeling her eyelids press against her palms, holding back the tears which held the secrets she was so hesitant to release. It wasn't about Kale... yet it was. The constant relationship pressure, his idolizing attention... it was all beginning to wear her down, and ever since Tinkerbell had entered her life, the situation had only grown more complicated.

"So if it isn't about your boyfriend of three months, then..." Lyndsey's voice trailed off expectantly. "What's going on, Aria?"

Lyndsey had this uncanny habit of assuming the role of the "protective friend," which could sometimes be comforting, but generally resulted in a sort of demand for all others to bequeath their struggles for her. Aria remembered with a tinge of shame that Lynn was the only person she recalled having openly broken down in front of. There was a certain inevitable level of understanding that had been forged between them since, but she still could not completely disregard the level of hesitation she felt at having to sacrifice her dignity for the truth, however inescapable that was at this point.

"There's another guy." The truth, so hard to stomach, slipped out almost unintentionally over three bleak words. The memory of just who that other "guy" was, and the last words he had spoken to her, filled her stomach with a painful ache, and she swallowed hard.

Lyndsey's face showed no signs of shock, almost as though she had interpreted the whole story from the beginning. To Aria's mild surprise, she abandoned her consistent habit of resorting to words, instead reaching out to rub Aria's back gently.

"Tell me more about 'Another Guy,'" Lyndsey stated, resorting again to her interrogative approach.

"He's... funny. Sweet." Aria stammered lamely, trying to wrap her mind around the boy who somehow filled her mind with his smooth, oblivious words, removing her from her own tumultuous words within seconds, as though he were slowly smothering her with sand while she was too relaxed to notice.

"Funny. Sweet. Doesn't sound too different from Kale," Lyndsey observed matter-of-factly.

"He's nothing like Kale," Aria interjected almost immediately, mentally evaluating the two boys against each other. Although she did not know what Tinkerbell looked like, she was sure that Kale, in his skinny khakis, pastel button-downs, and boxy glasses, not to mention his snobby personality and pessimistic attitude, even remotely resembled the easygoing, lazy beach bum who occasionally sent her fruit.

"So, Aria," Lyndsey asked pointedly, fixing her eyes directly on Aria's, "just how serious is 'Another Guy?' Should Kale be expecting competition soon?"

Aria's heart sank, as it always did when Kale's name was introduced. She could see him at the hockey fundraiser, trying his best, in his nerdy-hipster way, to coax the money out of his patrons in exchange for the undercooked vegan pizza which he openly boasted as "homemade," a title which unfortunately only won the favor of a certain fraction of the crowd.

She didn't really know why she had originally decided to date him, or just what it was that had sparked in her heart when he had first asked her out. A desperation for a relationship? The undeniable bond they shared over advanced physics? Whatever that "love" had been, its thrill had been swiftly shaken out with the onset of Tinkerbell's enlightening phone calls.

Though she hated to admit it, sometime over the course of the last few months since they had begun going out and calling it "dating," Kale had unintentionally become a burdensome crate she was obligated to drag around wherever she went, ignoring her own discomfort over the horrifying thought of initiating a breakup that, at least externally, seemed unnecessarily cruel.

But Tinkerbell was gone. He had left her himself--voluntarily, although she tried to ignore the fact that it must have been partially caused by her; her words of frustration to him the other night, when she had accused him of wanting her to fail, now resurfaced in her mind, stinging at the all-too-fresh wounds with guilt.

Tinkerbell had no reason to call back.

Tinkerbell had no reason to call back.

"Hey, Aria." Lyndsey's hand was waving hesitantly in her face. "I want to help you."

"I... um... yeah," Aria murmured, blinking briefly before settling her eyes with dissatisfaction at the hands folded in her lap, their whitened knuckles wedged against each other. Lyndsey was still staring at her, undoubtedly anticipating a lengthy description of the Tinkerbell character who had so drastically consumed her mind, yet who no longer had any obligation to her.

Forcing a smile, she turned back to Lyndsey. "You still want to help me? Let's go bake some cookies to take to Kale's sale."

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hey guys; i know it's been forever! these past couple weeks have been probably been some of the hardest of my life--it's complicated--but i'm trying to get back on track, which includes putting together another description chapter for you guys! so here you go: a bit of aria's perspective on the most recent events. what do you guys think? it sounds like nicholas and aria BOTH have things to hide from each other. what do you expect will happen next?

be sure to leave lots of votes and comments! i've missed writing this, but i'm excited to start again!

lots of love, tina

p.s. #27 in short story ahhhhhhh you guyyyyss!! thank you so much!! i would be so pumped if we could make it to #1 eventually, but seriously, i'm so grateful for all of your support. i definitely could not have made it here without you guys!

alsooooooo two people so far have nominated me for the short story category of the literary awards 2017! i have no words; this is the first time this has ever happened to me. regardless of whether or not i ever win, thank you all so much! i appreciate your support so much <3