Burning Out Bright

Fifteen years old
“Crap. Remind me again why do I have to do this?”

Dutifully, Natalia replies, “Because you lost a bet against me and because you’ve been chickening out on asking him out for around 3 months now.”

Grumbling under her breath, Leonora Aarons sneaks a look at Shaun Sullivan (who is, for once, alone thus presenting Leonora with the best opportunity to do the dare) before turning towards Natalia again, her cheeks flushed. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Of course you can.”

Biting on her bottom lip, Leonora smiles one last shaky, nervous smile before heading towards Shaun and asking him out, just like how Natalia had kept pestering her to do.

Personally, Natalia didn’t completely understand Leonora’s attraction to Shaun. (He was pretty much like the rest of the guys at Briarwood—privileged, good-looking in a manicured way and more than a few French fries short of a Happy Meal.) But Leonora liked Shaun more than any other crushes that she had before (which she didn’t do anything about) but she still didn’t have the courage to voice her feelings. So Natalia couldn’t see the harm in encouraging Leonora to actually do something about it...

...at least until this moment when Shaun gestures towards Natalia and Leonora turns to look at her, embarrassment and anger flitting through her features so quickly that Natalia couldn’t decipher their meaning.

When both of them catch Natalia’s gaze, they look away from her.

Before Natalia could try and figure out why Leonora’s gaze had been so accusing, the bell for first period rings.
***
She didn’t manage to speak to Leonora until after school and even then, when Leonora spots Natalia at her locker, she pivots and marches in the opposite direction.

Baffled, Natalia races after her friend speaking before Leonora could escape again. “What’s wrong? We haven’t spoken all day after you asked Shaun out and... You look...weird.”

“Yeah, I know.” She stops mid stride and turns towards Natalia. Her face is blank, the little emotion that she’d had before Natalia spoke rapidly disappearing. “I asked him out. He said no.”

Feeling guilty for pushing Leonora to ask Shaun out (and perhaps it explained why she’d acted so odd), Natalia places a hand on Leonora’s shoulder. She jerks Natalia’s hand off almost instantly, angrily. Unsure why Leonora is behaving so strangely, Natalia says, haltingly, “I’m...sorry about that.”

Leonora’s features soften slightly. “You don’t have to be. It actually doesn’t have anything to do with you.” She pauses, looking a little ashamed. “I don’t even know why I’m acting like this; it certainly isn’t your fault that Shaun likes you.”

“What?”

“He’s going to ask you out.”

“What?’

“He really likes you.” Her tone is neutral but her eyes are nothing but. Although Leonora hadn’t said it aloud, it is obvious to Natalia that she was, is, unhappy that her crush liked Natalia but chose to give Natalia a chance with Shaun. A worse friend probably wouldn’t have done this and Natalia suddenly feels pissed off with Shaun.

Why couldn’t he have gone out on a date with Leonora and make her friend happy? Why did the selfish brat have to add insult to the injury by telling Leonora all that crap about how much he liked her? Shaun Sullivan hadn’t even spoken to her before and here he is, telling Leonora that he wanted to ask her out?

“You stay put here; I’m going to...discuss something with Shaun.” Natalia forces a calm smile at Leonora but it doesn’t have an effect.

Leonora’s eyes widen. “If you’re going to tell him-”

“I’m not going to do anything embarrassing, Leonora. I promise you that you wouldn’t get humiliated in this discussion.” The only person Natalia intended to embarrass is the jerk himself and nobody else.
***
Convinced that she’s doing the right thing, Natalia heads towards the wing where Shaun’s locker is situated before she loses her determination. She finds him flirting with a brunette there. Smiling grimly to herself (so this is how much he liked her); she walks towards him and taps him on the shoulder.

The brunette looks annoyed at being interrupted but Shaun’s eyes light up when he sees her. It’s clear to the brunette that he isn’t going to pay any more attention to her now that Natalia is here so she huffily storms off, not that Shaun notices. He’s too busy smiling at Natalia to notice.

Unnerved at the amount of attention Shaun pays towards her, she quickly says, “I’m not going out on a date with you.”

He didn’t have the decency to look embarrassed that Natalia had found out about his intentions though his eyes sparkled less. Instead, Shaun asks, simply, “Why?”

Saying that it is because he’d rejected a date with Leonora sounds a lot less reasonable when Natalia thinks about it now. So she comes up with something else instead. “I don’t even know you that well and you turn down Leonora, a girl whom you definitely know much better than you know me, just because you think you like me.”

“I happen to think that it’s better to date someone whom I think that’ll have promise than to go on a date with someone I definitely know I don’t like.” He smiles lazily, a charming grin that Leonora had waxed lyrical about often.

Standing there, seeing Shaun smile that way at her though, Natalia didn’t feel anything at all(none of the butterflies that girls whom actually liked the guys that asked them out described) aside from panic. The conversation isn’t going in the direction that she wants it to. He is supposed to have been chastised and have agreed to go on a date with Leonora just to ‘try things out’ instead of twisting her words around in some sort of horrible truth. “I’m still not going out with you.”

“It’s because of Leonora, isn’t it?” This time, Shaun manages to look unconcerned. “I may have rejected her a tad harshly but I had my reasons. I didn’t think that we’d be good together. You however...you’re rejecting me without a proper reason. I’d say that you’re behaving worse than I am.”

Her mouth agape, she stares at him. He did it again, painting a portrait where she’s the villian when he clearly is.

“If you have anything else to say, I guess I’ll pick you up on Saturday at 7.” Shaun slams his locker shut, smiles charmingly at Natalia again before walking off.
***
"She did what?"

Leonora's nasal voice repeats what she'd already told him again, sounding extremely annoyed. It is really unusual for Natalia's snooty friends, especially the Aarons girl, to call Adam and so he'd expected the end of the world or something on par.

This clearly isn't it.

Apparently Shaun Sulliven had asked Natalia out and having no good excuse for rejecting him, she is forced into a date with the dude. Leonora had also mentioned something about the guy being a bit of an 'ass' and he'd the impression that she had been rejected by Shaun before this. It all sounded a bit like a bad soap opera to Adam.

"Um. Okay. I think I get it now. What do you want me to do about it?"

"How do you that I want you to do something about it?"

He waits a few moments for her to crack and she did. "Okay, fine. I do need your help."

"You should be using the magical word."

Grumbling under her breath (she really is prone to do that), she says, "Fine. Please help me."

"Thank you. Now explain to me how we're going to do this."

"You're not going to like this." She explains her genius plan.

As it turns out, Adam didn't like it at all. "Are you sure you're doing this because of Natalia or because you're pissed that the guy rejected you?"

There is a moment where Leonora is quiet. "I may be a little...bruised emotionally but I'm not doing this just to destroy whatever happy relationship you think they'll develop. There was just something a little off about how smooth he was about the entire exchange. And seriously, you're not at all jealous about the date?"

"Uh...why should I be jealous?"

Laughing, Leonora hangs up on Adam.