Seduction in Blood

“We talked, Johnny,” Aria hissed, slamming her green locker door shut. Swinging her pink backpack onto her back, she walked down the hallway towards the front entrance of the school. The day could not have dragged any slower and what made it worse was Johnny, her ex, following her around. He kept asking her to talk to him and forgive him for his mistake, but she refused him every time. “We talked for three hours last night, two hours the night before that, thirty minutes at lunch, fifteen minutes during gym, and now here we are again, talking.” Aria looked to Johnny, his soft hazel eyes staring right into her sharp blue ones.

“I just don’t think you understand, Aria,” he replied, trying to reach for her soft hand. Just as his rough skin brushed against hers, she pulled it away. Hugging her binder to her chest, Aria sighed and shook her head slowly. “I apologized so many times, please just forgive me.” He gave her a pouty lip and puppy dog eyes, but that would not be enough. His childish tactics were no longer going to sway her, she was a young woman and demanded to have respect.

“You’re a pig! I understand completely!” Aria snapped, finally having enough with his irritating pleas. It was like he believed that he was the best thing that ever happened to her, but that was the farthest thing from the truth. Johnny looked flabbergasted by her tone, but she only scoffed and turned on her heels. The blond haired, surfer boy from Florida chased after her. Just as she was about to push the red double doors open, she heard the screech of Johnny’s black and white sneakers on the white and blue linoleum floor. “Stop it, Johnny, you cheated on me with Taylor.”

Moving around him, Aria pushed the doors open and felt the summer heat burn her exposed skin. Trotting down the stairs, Aira’s chocolate locks bounced on her shoulders and poured down her chest. Johnny stood at the top of the stairs, but Aria never turned around to say anything to him. There was no point in forgiving him or Taylor, they had done her wrong and that was not okay. She may not be friends with them ever again, but she did not blame them. That was just the type of girl she was, Johnny obviously didn’t think twice about her, so she wouldn’t extend him the same courtesy.

“So is the black shorts and black tank top a sign of your depression?” Samantha, a redhead with a fiery attitude, chimed as Aria walked down the front sidewalk of the school. Turning her attention to the redhead, Aria rolled her eyes and her plump pink lips curled into a smile. “Let’s go see a movie tonight, it’s Friday and you could use a girls night,” Samantha sugguested. She was a thin girl with pale skin and shimmering green eyes, but she always wore her heart on her sleeve and could turn any frown upside down.

“I can’t. I have to work tonight, but how about Saturday night, I have the morning shift so I get off at like four.” Aria and Samantha began walking down the street together, they only lived about a mile away in a quaint little subdivision that looked like it had been plucked out of the Victorian era and tossed into their little countryside town. Samantha agreed to that and pulled her phone out of her back pocket. Her jeans were so tight on her petite figure if she had a penny in her pocket, you could tell if it was heads or tails.

The two girls talked about their day and plans for the weekend, well Samantha talked and Aria mostly listened and daydreamed. Her eyes ventured the streets and small homes all of them beautiful and chic in their own way. Some had lavish gardens, some were just an emerald green lawn, and some were colored brown and filled with weeds. She looked up at the sky, the sun’s violent rays were turning her fair skin a warm honey brown. It worked in her favor though so she wouldn’t look pasty when she and Samantha went to the water park for the summer. School would be over in another two weeks, for now everyone that was a senior was partying it up for graduation. Aria, on the other hand, was studying her butt off; she was going to be a doctor one day.

Her parents wanted her to be a doctor or a lawyer, but if she was being honest with herself she would be an artist. She loved to paint, sculpt, and design dresses. Her sketchpad in her bag was almost completely done and would soon join her collection in her bedroom that consisted of ten other filled sketchpads. Cars zoomed by at the intersection they had to cross to get to their subdivision. She watched as the yellow school busses filled with rambunctious students roll on by along with the few cars holding a business man or woman. Running her fingers through her hair, Aria noticed the sign change from the orange hand to the white walking person.

Samantha was still rambling on, but Aria didn’t pay her any mind. The redhead was all about the who’s who and what’s the latest gossip in the town. There weren’t many people in the town to begin with maybe 3,000 to 4,000 people. Of course, they weren’t far from Seattle, Washington, so a lot of people worked there and lived out on the countryside. They had finally arrived at the gates of their subdivision. Aria typed in the gate code into the keypad and glanced at Samantha who was staring at her phone with an open mouth. She lifted her sunglasses and gasped.

“What?” Aria asked, completely curious about what was so fantastic and jaw dropping on Samantha’s sparkly cased phone. “Sam?”

“Just read it,” Samantha said simply, handing Aria the phone. Furrowing her brows, Aria took the phone and saw that Samantha had been looking at Facebook statuses. As she scanned the page, her eyes landed on Johnny’s name.

“Aria Thorne, I cheated on you because you are bad in bed and you are a fat bitch.” Her stomach churned and her eyes watered, but she brushed the matter off and handed Samantha her phone. She wanted to cry there was no doubt, but she told herself that he was not worth those tears. There was no denying that he had just gone for a low blow and it hurt. For years Aria had struggled with body image, she had lost nearly forty pounds since her sophomore year and had joined the track team to keep it under control. “I gotta go Sam, I’ll see you later.”

It made her sick to think that Johnny was a decent kid, he was a scumbag. She just wanted to yell at him and call him out for what he truly was, a selfish, rotten, pig! How could he have publicly displayed something so personal about her? Aria didn’t know what to do, she just wanted to lay in her bed and straighten out her bubbling thoughts and memories of who she thought Johnny was and what he really is. Biting her lip, Aria began walking down her street, wanting nothing more than to be alone.

“Hey,” Samantha called out before Aria was too far away to hear her. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Don’t worry about me, Sam, I’ll be fine.” Aria waved to her and faked a bright smile before walking down the street. Samantha watched her go for a few seconds and sighed, walking on down the street to her own house.