Spoiler! :
I got a text from Cassie early Monday morning to say that she needed to speak to me urgently. Thinking it was just another Cassie style emergency, where the emergency was actually her having trouble deciding which shoes to wear, I replied saying I’d meet her outside the front of College like usual. I tried ringing her on my way there, but I just got her voice mail. That scared me for a second; Cassie always answered her phone. But then I rationalised, and decided that she was probably using both hands to apply the last layer of make-up before College started.
I knew something was wrong, however, when I spotted her pacing around outside the entrance to College. She was hunched over, her hands deep in the pockets of her purple trench coat, with a pained expression on her face. When she saw me the look grew.
“Harriet. I need to speak to you.”
I nodded and let her pull me to what was fast become our gossip bench. “Go on.”
“It’s bad news.” Her eyes were flitting between me and the point behind my shoulder so rapidly that I almost turned around to see if anyone was behind me.
“Tell me, Cass. You’re worrying me.”
She managed to smile then and I almost decided that she was going to tell me something meaningless like Mike getting kicked off of the football team, but then the smile disappeared again.
“Cass?”
She pulled at the zip of her coat, dragging it up and down, up and down. “My mum found out about my belly button piercing.” Her voice was devoid of all emotion and I was confused. I’d at least been expecting her to go off on one about how horrible her mum was, but then when the silence followed her words to the point that I could hear the birds and the other students, I frowned.
“What happened?”
She sighed and blew the hair off of her face. “I was getting changed and Mum walked in on me.” Her expression clouded over then and a feisty look appeared. “I’ve always told her that I wanted a lock on the door but she’s all about safety and ‘we don’t have secrets, Cass.’”
“So she saw the piercing and then flew off the handle?”
She nodded. “That’s an understatement though. She went crazy, saying how I was dishonest. That’s bull for a start. I never, ever, do anything wrong and the one time I go behind her back, she starts treating me as if I’m some huge disappointment.” She gripped the side of the bench so hard her knuckles turned white, making her pink nail varnish even bolder. “It’s so unfair! If she’d just let me have it done in the first place then I wouldn’t be in this mess and she wouldn’t have had to give me a massive lecture on trust.” She blew the hair out of her face again with another sigh. “She’s so annoying.”
I rubbed her arm. “It’s not that bad. At least she knows about it now.”
Cassie snorted. “She says I’m not allowed to keep it but I told her tough. I’m not a child anymore, H. I’m seventeen!”
I nodded sympathetically. “She’s just angry because it’s the two of you.”
“Because I’m an only child?” Cassie shifted on the bench so she was facing me again. “Or because Dad walked out?”
“You’re all your mum’s got, Cass. Maybe she’s sad that you kept it from her.”
“I had no choice,” she replied. “She wouldn’t let me do it, so I had to go behind her back.” She patted the material of her coat over the piercing as if it were something precious. “I’m not getting rid of it.”
“I’m not saying you should,” I said, trying to give her a reassuring smile when on the inside I knew by keeping the piercing she’d only make things worse. “I’m just saying you should maybe apologise and…”
“Nope.” Cassie shook her head hard. “I’m not apologising. Not when she’s grounded me.”
“Cass.”
She turned away from me again. “She’s ruined everything.”
“No she hasn’t,” I replied, not quite sure what Cassie was referring to, but not wanting to sound like I wasn’t being supportive.
“You’re not listening,” Cassie said, her voice quiet. “I’m grounded, H.”
I shrugged. “So? I’ll just smuggle you in some supplies. Magazines. Brownies.”
Cassie whipped around to face me, a tear tracing a line down her left cheek. “It means I’m stuck inside for a week. She’s only letting me leave the house for College and that’s it.”
I bit my lip. She was overreacting a tad. It wasn’t like she’d been grounded for months or locked in the basement. If I’d done that to my mum then I’d have been grounded for a year. Maybe two.
“We’ll just have to take the long way home so we get a chance to chat. No biggie.”
Cassie sighed for the third time, looking like she wanted to throw up. “But what about Thursday night?”
I frowned. “Thursday night? Did we have plans?”
“The gig.” She spoke so quietly that it was almost a whisper.
“Oh.”
All dreams and expectations for the gig suddenly shattered in my head. No way could I go if Cassie wasn’t going to be there to help me. It would only be a matter of minutes before I did or said something stupid without Cassie there to reign in my awkwardness. A picture flashed in my mind of me wearing bright blue eye shadow. I grimaced.
“I’m so sorry, H.” She leaned in to hug me and the smell of her perfume comforted me for a moment until she pulled back and reality hit me again.
“You have to promise to give me extra coaching this week,” I said, holding onto her arms and looking her dead in the eyes. “Please.”
She pushed me off of her and nodded, a smile appearing on her face. “Course. I wouldn’t let you go without some extra training. I don’t want all of my hard work ruined. You’re going to be the first example of how amazing I am at getting the girl the guy. I’m going to do a huge blog on it and link it to Zelda King.” Her eyes glazed over. “I can’t wait to be famous.”
“Just as long as you help me get ready too.”
“Absolutely!” Cassie beamed. “That’s going to be the best part.”
I didn’t know whether to be excited or scared.
***
“Take a seat where you like. I just have to turn my laptop on.”
I heard Aiden follow me into my room as I headed towards my desk. I switched on the computer before turning around to see him sitting on my bed. My stomach turned. It still felt odd to see him in my room and now that he was sitting on my bed, Cassie’s words un-erased themselves and popped back into my head.
I was just telling myself to keep an eye on my behaviour and to watch out for signs of flirting, when Aiden leaned over to my bedside table. He picked up the book I was halfway through reading and tapped it with his finger.
“Any good?”
I shrugged, caught off guard by his question. He didn’t strike me as the type to read. But then again, I didn’t strike myself as the flirty type, but if Cassie was right…
“It’s on my list of books to read before I’m twenty,” he added, turning the book over in his hands to read the back.
“Is it a very long list?” I asked, failing to resist the urge to get drawn into his conversation. I didn’t want to start gushing about the book. Did gushing count as flirting?
Aiden smiled. “Not really. But I seem to have chosen rather large books to read. I mean this one must be what, five hundred pages?”
I nodded. “Almost.”
He let out a low whistle as I picked up my laptop and crossed over to my bed. I made sure to sit a good distance from him, but by the time I’d positioned the computer on my lap, he’d replaced the book on the nightstand and scooted over to me. I almost jumped when his leg pressed hard against mine. I set to work on loading up the webcam to keep my mind off of how close we were. Friends could sit that close, right? Besides, he needed to be this close to see the screen.
“This doesn’t have to be a long conversation, does it? Only, I don’t think she’s my biggest fan at the moment.”
I looked back up from the computer screen to see Aiden raising an eyebrow at me. “Not if we get straight to the point and that means no taking the bait.”
“So I’m not allowed to insult her back?”
“No.” I clicked on Cassie’s profile picture; a photograph of her posing in a black mini dress and bright red lipstick. I caught Aiden staring at the picture and nudged him. “I said no.”
He chuckled. “But she can’t hear me yet.”
When the screen finally loaded we had to wait for Cassie to accept our invitation to chat via webcam and that didn’t take long. Almost instantly her face popped up onto the screen.
“H! Thank God for modern tech, eh? I’m going crazy here on my own.”
I smiled. “I only saw you half an hour ago.”
She sighed. “But it’s still only Monday. I don’t know how I’m going to survive a whole week without shopping and hanging out at yours.”
“Boo-hoo,” Aiden whispered, but Cassie’s keen ears picked it up, even over webcam.
“Oh God. Who invited you?” Cassie’s voice was full of venom.
“It’s nice to see you too.” Aiden pulled on a bright smile and moved so that Cassie could see him properly. Her face darkened. “I love what you’re doing with your hair these days. It’s called ‘the air head look’ isn’t it?”
“I invited him,” I cut in, just before Cassie could reply. “And he’s promised to be nice.”
“Doesn’t sound like it,” Cassie replied.
I turned to Aiden with a pleading look. “Haven’t you?”
He sighed dramatically and leaned in closer to the screen. “Only if shepromises not to call my hair stupid again.”
“After what you just said to me? Never.”
“Cass!”
“He started it!”
“I don’t care,” I replied. “We’re here to help me. Not argue.”
Aiden leaned back again and Cassie rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “But I could have helped you alone. We don’t need him here.”
“Oh yeah? And how much do you know about boys, eh? Bagged Mike yet?”
I could almost see the steam coming out of Cassie’s ears. “Guys! Please. Or else I’ll end up going and messing it all up,” I pleaded.
“Yeah, Aiden. We’re here to help Harriet. Stop acting like a two year old.”
I heard Aiden draw in a breath but I grabbed his arm to stop him from replying. He paused and looked at me with a frown.
“Please,” I said. “Or I’ll end up looking like a prat.”
He laughed. “Fine. What did you want to talk about?”
Hundreds of questions flooded my head and I tried to fish out the most important ones. “What am I supposed to wear? I’ve never been to a gig before.”
I followed Aiden’s gaze to the Haunted Vegas poster above my desk. All of the members were dressed like rock and roll royalty. Denim. Leather. Glitter. I tried imagining the members of The Dead Atlantic in their places, but the image of Aiden in a leather jacket just made me laugh.
“What?” he asked.
“I know the answer,” Cassie said. “You go all out. Like heels, dress, fish nets.”
Aiden laughed. “Uh, no offence Cassie, but we’re trying to make her look stylish, not tacky.”
Cassie pouted. “It’s sexy, not trashy.”
“Do you want to look like a prostitute?” Aiden was studying my face for a reaction and I blushed. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“It’ll work, honest.”
“No it won’t,” Aiden insisted, speaking over Cassie. “Harriet wants to look nice, right?”
I nodded.
Cassie leaned back in her chair and frowned before a devilish smirk appeared on her pixilated face. “Are you saying Harriet can’t pull off sexy?”
I felt Aiden tense beside me, his leg still pressed against mine. “Uh, I didn’t say that.”
“Sounds like it to me,” Cassie replied.
Silence followed her words. I kept looking from Cassie to Aiden. They were both staring at each other; Cassie looking smug and Aiden looking like he didn’t know what to say. This conversation was like a see saw. One minute, Cassie was on top, throwing the best insults. But the next, Aiden was winning the insult slinging match. It seemed to be Cassie’s turn on top again.
“Can we just decide on something to wear?” I said finally, not being able to stand the awkward silence any longer.
“Harriet can pull off sexy.”
Aiden’s words made me choke on the breath I’d just taken and I spluttered, snapping my head to the computer screen to see Cassie sitting with her mouth wide open. Then she seemed to recover and her smugness was back.
“So we’re going with my outfit?”
Aiden shook his head, looking at me out of the corner of his blue-green eyes. “No. It’s too high maintenance. We need simple.”
“Not too simple that I blend in,” I added, finally having recovered from the shock of hearing Aiden confess that I could do sexy. I mean, even I didn’t think I could pull of sexy. But coming from a guy, that was a huge compliment.
“No,” Aiden agreed, catching my gaze again. “But not anything too fancy. Sonny doesn’t like girls who try too hard.”
“And how do you know that?” Cassie asked with an air of authority. “Or are you just making it all up?”
“You wish,” he replied. “But no. I’ve seen it in action.”
I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows in surprise. “Seen what?”
Aiden cocked an eyebrow before sending Cassie a smug look that could top all of her smug looks put together. “Coffee shop girl.”
“Huh?” Cassie and I said in unison.
Aiden smiled. “Jessica. She works in the coffee shop down the road from Sonny’s house. We popped in there once, after practise, and she was all gooey eyed and sigh-y. Sonny said he doesn’t like her though ‘cause she wears too much make-up and she tried too hard to get his attention. And she full out stares at his ass. He hates that too.”
I felt my cheeks warm.
“So that’s how I know that Sonny won’t dig the high maintenance look.”
I stared at him in amazement. “And that’s why I invited him here,” I said, eyeing Cassie pointedly.
She pulled a face and stuck her tongue out. “He doesn’t even know what high maintenance is.”
“It’s you,” Aiden retorted. “You’re Sonny’s worst nightmare.”
Cassie flew up from her chair and glared daggers at Aiden. She was so close to her computer that her face filled up the screen entirely. “You are so lucky that I can’t strangle you through this stupid screen,” she spat.
“Sucks to be you,” Aiden replied, pulling on an angelic smile.
I pinched him on the arm and he turned to me, still wearing an innocent expression. “That wasn’t nice,” I said.
“But she walked right into that one,” Aiden replied. “It would have been wrong not to say it.”
We left Cassie soon after that. It had stopped being about me and had turned into who could insult who the most. Cassie had won, but only because she’d turned the webcam off before Aiden could reply. I’d been glad that she had; hearing that Aiden thought she was fat, even when she wasn’t, would have been the final straw for Cassie. I could almost imagine her sneaking out to murder Aiden in his sleep.
“Why do you hate Cassie so much?” I asked, storing my laptop back on my desk.
Aiden leaned back on my bed, his back against the wall. “I don’t hate her.”
“Why do you dislike her so much then?”
Aiden smiled. “Because she always has to be right.”
He had a point. “But that doesn’t make her a bad person,” I said, sitting back down on my bed again, making sure to leave a gap between us.
“She’s not a bad person,” Aiden replied. “She can just be a bit annoying. Like just now, she wouldn’t let you have your say. If it was up to her, she’d dress you the way she wants you to look, not the way you want to look.”
I shrugged. “She’s just trying to help.”
“I get that, ’cause she’s your best friend, but sometimes it seems like she’s your mouth piece.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“She speaks for you.” He shifted in his seat and I felt the bed move beneath me. “You just gotta be careful that she doesn’t control everything that you do.”
“She doesn’t,” I said.
“Yeah, well I bet if she had her way you’d have extensions and crazy make-up like her.”
“Well I haven’t,” I said pointedly.
“And I’m glad you don’t,” he replied.
I felt myself smiling on the inside. “Oh yeah?”
He laughed. “Yeah. The world only has room for one Cassie. And Sonny wouldn’t like you if you were a clone of her anyway.”
“Remind me why you’re helping me again?” I asked, the question leaving my lips as suddenly as it had come to light. “With the Sonny thing.”
Aiden scratched the back of his head. “I thought that was obvious.”
I shrugged again.
“Because I’m your friend, duh. And friends help each other out.”
I smiled although I felt suddenly guilty. I’d told Leanne that we weren’t really friends and I only talked to him because we had a class together, but now, sitting and chatting to him, I realised that that wasn’t true at all. He was actually an alright guy.
Also, I'm excited for the gig. Which is not coming fast enough, if you ask me. 
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