Spoiler! :
They were sitting on opposite ends of the room when Cassie pushed me into the lounge. Leanne had a magazine propped up against her knees, her feet on the chair, and Sonny was texting. They both looked up when Cassie coughed to signal our arrival.
“Uh, hi,” I said, trying to keep my eyes on Leanne, though they kept straying to where Sonny was now watching me, hovering on the threshold. “Can I have a word?”
Leanne dropped the magazine to the carpet and sat up straight, moving her feet to the floor. “What’s up?”
I suddenly couldn’t find my words, knowing that Sonny was looking at me with his lovely brown eyes. “Uh. Where’s the rest of you?” I dug my nails into my palm, knowing I sounded stupid. “I mean, where are Roz and Warren? And Aiden?”
Leanne smiled and beckoned me into the room. Cassie pushed past me, heading right for the seat next to Sonny.
“I’m Cassie, Harriet’s best friend.” She stopped right at his feet, almost standing on his toes, and offered him a bright smile. “Harriet talks about you all the time.”
The only thing stopping me from running back up the stairs, was the warm smile that Sonny was giving me. It was almost as if he liked knowing that I spoke about him to Cassie. I felt myself blush anyway as I slipped into my dad’s favourite arm chair.
“Aiden’s in the kitchen,” Leanne said, frowning over at Cassie who was still giving Sonny a freakishly friendly grin. “And Roz and Warren had to go home to look after their brother.”
“It takes both of them?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going so Cassie didn’t have an excuse to embarrass me again.
“This is Warren and Roz we’re talking about,” Leanne replied with a laugh. “They’re about as organised as a pair of headless chickens.”
I nodded. “I suppose.” I quickly glanced over to see that Cassie’s smile was a lot less scary but now she seemed to be interrogating Sonny about something. I felt suddenly sick. “Uh, excuse me a minute.”
I got up from the chair so fast I bumped into the coffee table, almost sending my mum’s favourite lamp to the floor. I steadied it with my hand before slipping from the room. I thought about darting up the stairs to the haven of my bedroom, but I knew that it was too dangerous to leave Cassie alone with Sonny for long, so I headed to the kitchen instead.
Aiden was just finishing up making some lunch when I dived through the door, my palms sweating and my pulse rocketing. He turned to look at me as he returned the butter and the ham to the fridge.
“You look flustered,” he said, regarding me with raised eyebrows.
I nodded. “Cassie is just about single handedly blowing the whole Sonny thing.” I jerked a thumb towards the lounge. “It looks like she’s giving him the third degree in there.” I wanted to hit my head against the cupboard for need of a distraction.
“I thought she was trying to help you?” he asked, moving to sit down at the breakfast bar so he could eat his sandwich. I watched his every move, wondering why he could be so relaxed when Cassie was in the other room, irritating the socks off of Sonny. The guy she was supposed to be helping me get a date with.
“She is,” I replied. “But she’s gone in too strong like she usually does.”
“She is a bit intense,” Aiden agreed, chewing on his food. “She scares me sometimes.”
I couldn’t even laugh at his admission. It felt like someone was strangling me and I was finding it hard to breath all of a sudden. I could never, ever, face Sonny again if Cassie told him about my crush. Not when I was suddenly unsure whether he liked me at all in that way or not.
“This isn’t funny,” I said finally, pulling out the chair opposite him. “Cassie’s ruining any chance that I had with him. I just know it.” The sick feeling returned and I folded my arms over my stomach, desperate to calm myself and rid the urge to throw up all over Aiden’s lunch.
“What did she say exactly?” he asked, setting his sandwich back down on the plate, giving me his full attention. “Did she actually say, ‘Harriet loves you’?”
I could feel my cheeks turning pink. It was weird, hearing Aiden say the ‘L’ word. “Umm, no. But she might as well have.” I leaned in closer to him, focusing on the look in his blue-green eyes. He seemed too composed for my liking. He should be freaking out like me, seeing as he’d promised to help. “She told him that I always talk about him.” I grimaced at the memory. “It was so cringey.”
Aiden looked like he wanted to laugh; his mouth twitching and his eyes crinkling in the corners. “Cringey or not, she hasn’t said anything bad.”
I frowned. “Are you even listening to me?”
“Yes.” He sighed. “It’s not a bad thing to say to him at all, actually. You know, I’d be pleased to know that a girl talked about me to her friends all the time. I’d feel flattered.” He was speaking in a matter of fact tone as he reached for his lunch again. “I bet that’s how he feels.”
I tried to agree with what he was saying, but the voice at the back of my head wasn’t having any of it. “He probably thinks I’m a psycho now. A psycho who never shuts up about him.” I got the ‘I want to hit my head against the cupboard’ feeling again.
“No he doesn’t.”
“I bet he does,” I insisted, rubbing my palms across the knees of my jeans. “I bet he thinks I take photos of him when he’s not looking and put them in the shrine I keep under my bed.”
Aiden did laugh this time. “You’re nuts.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Now Sonny thinks that too.”
“He knows you, Harriet.”
“Not enough to know that I’m not a crazy obsessed stalker.” I sighed dramatically. I knew I was probably over reacting in a big way here, but I’d never realised how much I actually liked Sonny. It wasn’t until the prospect that Cassie was ruining any chances of me and Sonny getting together came up, that I understood how much I actually wanted to be with him.
“I know you,” Aiden said, dropping his sandwich back to the plate. “And you’re not a crazy obsessed stalker.”
Even though I didn’t feel like it, I could sense a smile on my lips. “Thanks,” I said. “That means a lot.”
Aiden chuckled. “You just need to show him that you’re cool, not scary like you seem to think he’ll think you are.”
“Simple,” I said, sarcasm heavy in my voice. “Seeing as Cassie’s in there now, making me look like a sad loser who has no chance with him at all.”
Aiden rolled his eyes. “Did you actually hear Cassie say anything to him?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but Aiden cut in.
“Not including the thing you’ve already mentioned.”
I bit my lip, realising that, in fact, I hadn’t. “No.”
Aiden shook his head and pushed his hair out of his eyes. “Really?”
“I know. But honestly, I know Cass. She’s probably in there now, telling him about the time I said he looked like Mr. Hunky.”
Aiden raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Hunky?”
I flapped one of my hands about for a second. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Right.” He looked down at his lunch before resting his gaze on me. “So let’s go and see what she’s talking to him about then.”
Panic shot up my spine, making me grip the table. “No!” I exclaimed. “I can’t face him now.”
“Well I’ll go alone then,” he said, getting up from his seat and grabbing his plate.
I watched him with wide eyes.
“Coming?”
Reluctantly, I got up and followed him to the door. I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting in silence when Aiden was in the next room, trying to find out what Sonny now thought of me. I didn’t know how I felt about Cassie now. I still loved her to pieces, for reasons unbeknownst to me half the time, but I didn’t know if I could trust her anymore. Not if she had in fact ruined my chances with Sonny, all because she was overzealous and full on.
“By the way,” I said, trying to put my mind off of the fact that I wanted to throw up. “Who said you could make a sandwich?”
Aiden turned to me, wearing a smug smile. “Leanne. She said, ‘make yourself at home’.”
“That doesn’t mean you can use up my packet of ham, though,” I replied, a touch of humour in my voice.
Aiden must have heard it as his smile grew. “I doubt Cassie’s said anything. She may be strong willed, but I don’t think she’d intentionally sabotage your chances with you-know-who.”
He finished speaking just as we reached the lounge. Cassie was still sitting next to Sonny, and they were still talking. The difference was, Leanne was in on the conversation now too. My stomach filled with dread. I couldn’t live another day without being teased if Leanne knew as well.
I tried to inconspicuously take my seat again as Aiden dropped down next to Leanne, finally taking a bite of his lunch once more. His arrival, however, broke the intense chatter that had been going on.
Eyes moved from Aiden to me almost immediately and I squirmed in my seat. My breathing started accelerating again and I did everything I could not to look at Sonny. My gaze was on the curtains, the rip in the cushion that Leanne had thrown at my dad while drunk last Christmas. The lamp on the coffee table. My shaking hands.
“I wondered where you’d gone,” Cassie said, eyeing me with a look that said, ‘thanks for leaving me on my own.’
I gave her an unsympathetic look in return and waited to see who would start laughing first. I chanced a glance at Leanne to see her smiling and waving something. At first I thought it was a gig poster, but then I spotted the ballerina in the top corner of the piece of paper.
“When were you planning on telling me about this?” She was trying to sound annoyed, but the smile she was wearing told me she was anything but angry at me.
I shrugged, moving my gaze back to Cassie. She was wearing a smug expression.
“I knew you’d try and back out of telling them about the competition, so I took the liberty of doing it for you,” Cassie said. “I nicked the flyer from your desk.”
“What competition?” Aiden asked, wiping crumbs from his mouth.
“A dance competition.”
My nerves rocketed at the sound of Sonny’s voice and I turned to look at him for the first time since I’d re-entered the room. He was wearing a strange expression again and I looked back at Aiden to settle myself, feeling confused yet intrigued.
“Are you entering?” Aiden asked.
I shrugged again. “Not sure.”
“You have to!” Leanne said. “You can’t pass up the chance.”
I noticed her handing the flyer to Aiden.
“But what if I’m not good enough?” All worries about whether Cassie had told Sonny anything, or if I should just snatch the flyer and walk away, were suddenly pushed to the back of my mind. Nothing mattered to me more than what Leanne had to say next. I watched her with a pleading expression, praying that she tell me what I should do.
“It doesn’t matter. We didn’t know if we were good enough as a band until we played our first gig. Now look at us.” Leanne was offering me a reassuring smile. “I know how much dance means to you. It wouldn’t hurt to try.”
I couldn’t help smiling back at her. “Thanks.”
“Told you,” Cassie said.
I rolled my eyes at her.
“Leanne’s right.” I froze at Sonny’s words. “You’ve got nothing to lose.”
Coming from him, it was almost as if he’d told me I was the best dancer in the world.
“I agree,” Aiden added, flipping the leaflet over in his hands. “You should go for it.”
I felt ten times calmer than I had five minutes ago. Not only did I now know that Cassie more than likely hadn’t said anything to embarrass me, but I also knew that I had to do the contest.
“Okay,” I replied. “How about I give it a serious think?”
Leanne nodded and Cassie clapped her hands together.
“How about this,” Sonny said, leaning forwards in is seat, his eyes trained right on my face. “If you enter, I promise to come and watch.”
Uh, yes please! It felt like all of my Christmas’s had come at once. My heart was booming in my chest and I was wearing a huge grin.
“We’ll all come and watch,” Leanne said. “Right?”
Cassie and Aiden both nodded enthusiastically. I had a sudden bout of confidence.
“Okay.” I forced myself to look right at Sonny, ignoring the pounding in my chest and the sound of blood rushing in my ears. “If you come and watch me, I’ll come and watch your gig at The Rooster.”
Sonny gazed right back at me, making my spine tingle. “Deal.”
***
Cassie and I left the lounge a couple of minutes later. I was tingling all over at the picture of Sonny’s smile. My mind kept replaying the way he’d looked at me over and over again, and it was hard for me to think about anything else. I found myself sighing like Cassie did when she caught sight of Mike without his shirt on last summer; we’d been stalking him in the park.
“Well, what did I tell you?” Cassie asked, giving me a haughty grin as she collapsed onto my bed. She picked up the book that was on my night stand before widening her eyes at the sheer volume of it, and setting it back down again. “I knew he’d want to come.”
I rolled my eyes. The only thing worse than a stubborn Cassie, was a gloating Cassie.
“Aren’t you going to say thank you?”
I sank down onto my bean bag and plastered on a huge smile. “Thank you, my bestest friend in the world, for making the hottest guy on Earth, maybe, possibly, like me.”
Cassie giggled. “Can I be maid of honour at your wedding?”
I threw one of my slippers at her. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself.”
“You know,” Cassie said, twirling a strand of her hair around her index finger. “I might become a professional match maker. I could be famous like Zelda then.”
“You could call yourself Ms. Meddling,” I teased. “I could have asked him myself.”
Cassie scoffed. “Yeah, what, two weeks after the contest?”
I frowned and was about to retort that I’d have told him if she hadn’t have embarrassed me first, when I was interrupted by a knock on my bedroom door. I sat up straight, a tense feeling in my gut. What if it was Sonny and he’d heard everything I’d said?
“Come in,” I called tentatively, eyeing Cassie with a wary look. She shrugged.
The door opened slowly and I waited with bated breath to see if Sonny’s cute face would peer around the frame to look at me. I snapped my head to glance at my washing basket, praying that I hadn’t left any dirty underwear on show.
“Oh, it’s you,” Cassie said, laying back on my bed again, after having sat up eagerly in case it was Sonny deciding to declare his love for me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” came Aiden’s reply as he stepped into my room. His eyes traced the blue walls, resting on my Haunted Vegas poster, before he found me on my bean bag. I scowled at Cassie, who was now rooting through my jewellery box, and then set my gaze on Aiden. He was leaning against the door frame, wearing a smile.
“No times tables poster or homework schedules?” he asked, looking over at my desk.
I shook my head. “Nope. I pride myself of being able to recite the two times tables without help.”
That earned me a laugh. “Go you,” he replied, moving into the room to sit down on my desk chair.
“Who invited you in?” Cassie asked. “We were having a private conversation.”
I was about to tell her to stop being so rude when Aiden spoke.
“Who shoved the stick up your ass?”
I had to bit down on my bottom lip to stop myself from snorting with laughter. Cassie looked scandalised. Her lips were pursed and her eyes were narrowed above her flaring nostrils.
“Excuse me?” she said, sounding like she was two seconds away from flying across my room to slap him.
Aiden was fiddling with the pens on my desk, putting them back into the rainbow pencil pot that my nan had gotten my last birthday. “Uh, didn’t you hear what I said?”
Cassie glared daggers at Aiden, her face set in kill mode. “Yes. I was wondering why you felt the need to interrupt and start acting like a compete whisk.”
I was biting down so hard on my lip that I was expecting to chomp right through it.
Aiden studied Cassie with a bewildered expression. “Did you just call me a whisk?” He chuckled when Cassie nodded. “Really, Harriet. Did I hear right?”
I nodded. “It’s a Zelda King thing.”
“That pre-Madonna?” He turned back to Cassie again. “I bet you follow all her garbage filled blogs and everything.”
I could almost see the steam coming out of Cassie’s ears. “Why do you tolerate him?” she asked me, sitting up and swinging her legs off of my bed. “Because I have no idea why you haven’t hacked at his stupid hair with a pair of nail clippers yet.”
“Cass,” I said, watching as she got up and strode towards the door, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she passed where Aiden was sitting.
“I’ll be downstairs,” she said, only slowing down so I could catch what she was saying. “I’m going to go and eat loads of chocolate.”
When she was gone, I shifted in my seat to face Aiden. He was staring at the space where Cassie had been two seconds earlier.
“She has issues,” he said, exhaling a huge breath. “I honestly thought she was going to stab me with her hair grip.”
I laughed. “You just have to know how to handle her.”
“And my hair’s not stupid,” he added, pointing to his side fringe that was almost covering one of his blue-green eyes. “It’s cool.”
I laughed again, more out of something to do than anything. It had just hit me that I was alone in my room with Aiden. The last guy I’d had in my room, besides my dad, was Carter, and that had been almost six months ago now.
“Anyway,” Aiden said, bringing my attention back to him. “What I actually came up here for.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Why did you come up here? It wasn’t just to annoy Cass, was it?”
He nodded, before shaking his head. “No, sadly. Although it looks like I’ve put myself at the top of her hate list.”
You’re probably just under Lara, actually.
“Yeah, I wanted to ask you a favour.” He paused for long enough to scratch his head and flick the hair out of his eyes. “Uh, I was wondering if you fancied letting me watch you dance?”
My eyebrows shot up and Aiden seemed to notice.
“I have a legit reason,” he added. “I’m not a perv or anything.”
Thoughts of the first time I’d spoken to Aiden almost made me laugh, but I managed to hold it in.
“It’s just that, as part of my media class, I have to do a short film. I thought about filming the football team train, but then I decided I’d rather get run over by a bus. So, I thought I’d see if you minded me filming you. You know, you seem to love dance, so I thought it seemed like a good idea.” He sounded less confident as he went on and he ended quickly, reaching up to move his hair out of his eyes again.
I didn’t reply for a while. I wasn’t sure whether I liked the idea of being filmed for a class project. I didn’t know who would end up watching it, and whether they’d think I was as good a dancer as Maddi seemed to think. I mean, I didn’t want to end up on the internet under a video titled, ‘Watch this weird girl dance like a clown.’
“You don’t have to. I mean, I just thought it seemed a good idea, but only if you’re up for it.”
I looked up from where I’d been staring at my hands, to see him watching me.
“I don’t want you to feel like you have to help me. You know, ‘cause I’m helping you with the Sonny thing.” He was wearing a cheeky smile and my resistance faded slightly.
“Blackmail?”
He laughed. “No. Besides, you’ve still got the homework thing on me, remember?”
“Yeah” I smiled. “How many people will see it? The film I mean.”
“Only my teacher.” A light bulb seemed to appear above his head then, as if he got what I was worried about. “No-one’s going to leak it to the internet. The whole thing’s being treated seriously, ever since that kid from my class got humiliated on Youtube last year.”
My stomach turned to knots until I noticed the grin Aiden was trying to conceal. “Not funny.”
“Seriously though,” he said. “I promise it won’t get into the wrong hands.”
I pressed my lips into a thin line, trying to think of an answer to give him. On one hand, even though Aiden was pretty sure nothing bad would happen, I was scared it would. But then again, it would be fun to hangout with Aiden and I could even use the footage to help me prepare for the contest.
“Go on.” He was giving me puppy dog eyes. “I’ll put in a good word to Sonny for you.”
“You’re supposed to be doing that anyway,” I replied.
He laughed. “Please?”
I made him wait another thirty seconds, just to be a little cruel to get him back for the Youtube thing, before I nodded my head. “Oh alright then.”
I also love Cassie's little strops, she seems like she's got a pretty strong character. =] Leanne and Harriet have a good relationship, am I guessing right in saying they have a crush on the same person? 
Just a guess. This story is really coming on! It's not too quick, the pace is pretty smooth and the story-line is neat! 
Gender:
Points: 30280
Reviews: 529