Riley did not relish the idea of meeting anyone outside of school, especially at his home, especially her.
"We should try to finish this as quickly as possible, preferably in class" He replied, appreciating the change of subject.
Turning back to the table, remembering he left the scratchy drawing of a bleeding eye open on his notebook, he quickly shut it and sat back in his chair, watching Daniel try in vain to lengthen the project's time frame
"Alright, that's fine with me," said Aspen. Before he could properly close the notebook, she saw the drawing on his page. "Did you draw that? It's amazing," she said truthfully. He was truly talented.
Aspen herself possessed very little artistic talent. She was alright at singing, but any form of visual or physical art stumped the intelligent girl. She couldn't even take a good photo, sans the occasional selfie. "Can I see it?" she asked politely.
Kicking himself for not catching the drawing sooner, Riley wondered what about this girl so threw him off his usually controlled actions. Riley thought for a minute, then opened the book back to the eye and slowly slid it over. He hoped she either liked looking at Tim Burton's nightmares or she didn't change the page.
Riley again sat back, studying Aspen's face as she received and looked at the notebook.
"Wow ... " she said in awe. "It's amazing, it really is. It looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie. I love Tim Burton, he's one of my favourite directors. Practically everything he's done is phenomenal, and almost all of them have Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and they are perfection. Sorry, I should probably shut up." She smiled bashfully. "I'm a huge movie buff. Anyway, this drawing is great, it really is." She handed his book back to him.
Riley wondered if she was always this talkative or if was to advance some social agenda. Jesus Christ is she trying to befriend me? Flirt?
The cacophonous bell that signaled the end of not only 6th period, but the end of the school day, sounded throughout the building. Muttering an expletive to himself and rising to his feet, Riley asked Aspen when she would like to continue their fantastically productive work on the project.
As Aspen walked alongside Riley out of the classroom, she slipped two of the question sheets Mrs Oliver had somehow failed to hand out. She gave one to Riley and read through the questions in fifteen seconds.
"How about you do the first six questions, and I'll do the other six?" Aspen suggested as they walked.
"Hey, Aspen!" called a voice. It was Brooklyn, or Brooks, the captain of the football team -- and Aspen's ex boyfriend. Brooks Carrow grinned. "You coming to the party tomorrow night?"
"Um ... " said Aspen. She significantly dumbed herself down on the spot, as she often did with popular kids. She did this for two reasons; one, she wanted to feel accepted by her friends, and two, she felt her intellectual side would simply confuse the popular kids. "Well, maybe ... I mean, I have this project for psychology, I might need a lot of time for it ... "
"Alright, see you later," said Brooks.
Aspen rounded the corner with Riley and let out an audible sigh of relief.
Riley pulled his phone out of his pocket, cycled through an extensive collection of grunge rock music, deciding on Pearl Jam's Why Go and began unraveling his earbud. As they, Aspen appeared to be matching his stride, rounded the corner and generic male #1 moved away, Riley asked where the "It's my favorite subject" girl went.
Riley recognized when someone was switching masks to fit different situations, he was now wondering which was the real Aspen, or if he had yet to see her.
ASPEN◊ CARSTAIRS
Aspen shook her head. "Sorry about that," she said. "You probably think I'm awful, changing myself for them ... they don't like even the most remote form of intelligence. Anyway, you alright with the questions?"
They reached Aspen's locker. She opened it, putting her books in her bag and barely glancing over the pictures stuck to her door. A photo of Aspen and her brother at Disneyland, a selfie of her and her best friends, Bronwyn and Violet, and multiple Sigmund Freud, Nietzsche and Harry Potter quotes.
Nietzsche, Freud, and Rowling. What am I supposed to do with an analytical nihilist wizard
"Yes the questions are fine, it'll be done by next class. No need to take time away from your party" Riley said in cold sarcasm.
Riley turned down the hall and began to walk away, slower than his usual pace. The familiar itch of nicotine was nearly unbearable, forcing the idea out of his mind and focusing on the music playing in his ears.
ASPEN ◊ CARSTAIRS
Aspen let Riley go without a fuss. She didn't want to press him or make him upset with her. He was probably disgusted with her changing her personality for the popular kids. She would probably have been disgusted with herself too.
Aspen finished the questions on schizophrenia in record time -- it only took her about fifteen minutes to type detailed answers on her home computer. She printed the answers, slid the sheet carefully into her notebook and then proceeded to read some Nietzsche.
The next day, Aspen saw Riley around school occasionally, but didn't speak to him until psychology class. She sat in the same seat as the day before, handed him her sheet of answers and said, "How's that? I could go into more detail, if you like ... "
When Riley got home, his mother wasn't there. That wasn't too surprising, she was often out very late. Even when the morning came and she was still gone he wasn't phased. It was when the police chief pulled up the long dirt driveway that Riley started to get nervous. The chief explained to him that his mother had made some mistakes last night and that she would be staying with him for a while. He explained that Ms Stonewright had abused several drugs and run over a local citizen on her way home. It was still unsure if the victim would live or die. Rather than being shocked or upset, the only thing in Riley's mind was a slideshow of people being run over.
As he walked to and went through school, the images faded but the trance like state did not. A few times he saw people he would normally at least pretend to feel something toward and just walk by them, without any acknowledgement whatsoever.
When he reached psychology, he didn't notice Aspen sitting next to him until he was already sitting down. Without turning his head he mumbled a hello and sat down, sliding over a minimalistic but still intelligent answer sheet to half a group project.
ASPEN ◊CARSTAIRS
Aspen read through Riley's answers, nodding to the short responses. "This is great," she said. "Good job. Did you want me to collate it all on a Word document? I don't think the teacher can read my handwriting ... "
Aspen looked to Riley and noticed he seemed a bit distracted and distant. It was probably nothing -- he was most likely worried about schoolwork or something normal. "You okay?" she asked gently. "You seem a bit distant ... "
Riley sat down and mummered something in the affirmative of Aspen's question about Word documents. He audibly laughed a bit when she said he seemed distant. "When do I not?" he asked.
He was wondering what this girl wanted from him, if anything at all. Perhaps she was simply being the kind, sociable person that a high schooler should be. But there were bits and pieces that suggested something more than how she interacted with Generic Male #1 from the day before. Nietzsche, Nirvana, apparent actual interest in psychology... All of which could be explained away, Nietzsche is often misunderstood, Smells Like Teen Spirit is their most popular song, her mother is a psychologist.
That presented a problem all its own, how would that dynamic play out if his relationship with Aspen progressed. Wait, what the hell was that thought? Progress to what? Why do you want that? Do you even want that? What the is that in the first place?
ASPEN ◊CARSTAIRS
Aspen opened a fresh Word document on her Apple laptop and began fervently typing. She could touch-type perfectly, and her near-eidetic memory allowed her to read over the work the two students had compiled and type it onto one Word document without looking at their answers again. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she kept her eyes trained on the screen, never actually looking at the keys.
While Aspen typed, she thought, not about the work but rather Riley. He had always been distant, but polite towards Aspen, never opening himself up to her and always answering her questions with the simplest possible answers. Aspen concluded that this could be because of a variety of reasons; they had only just met the day before, after all, so she couldn't expect them to be best friends. She recalled a Nietzsche quote she had read the night before: 'A man of knowledge must be able to not only love his enemies but also to hate his friends.' But that couldn't be applicable in this situation; they weren't even friends, really.
Another thought occurred to the blonde; Aspen's mother was Riley's psychiatrist, after all. Maybe that could be deterring him from her, making Aspen seem unapproachable and threatening. She did look and act a lot like Dr Carstairs, as everyone had told her, and she consistently expressed an interest in psychology, her mother's field of unchallenged expertise. She was probably too much like her mother, and that caused Riley to be careful around her. No one wanted one psychologist constantly drilling them, let alone one.
A final thought entered Aspen's brain; he simply didn't like her. Not in a romantic way -- but just in general. She could be quite annoying at times, with a high-pitched laugh and a tendency to babble on when she talked about something she was interested. She was considered hyperactive and difficult to keep up with; her father and brother just gave up on trying to understand her sometimes. Riley could be like that. And she didn't expect him to change his personality and mindset to suit her; after all, 'Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.'Kurt Cobain.
The class progressed at a crawling pace. Aspen had turned away and was typing up the project answers, probably extending his less than extensive answer. She was typing at an incredibly pace. It seemed like every movement she made was opposite of his own. She moved quickly, spoke loudly, smiled openly. On the surface, she seemed like she was designed as a collection of qualities that would usually repulse him.
And yet... he was staring her as she worked. Her hair fell over the side of her face so it covered her eyes from the side. It looked like soft, airy gold.
What drew him to her? He wasn't even sure if he was drawn to her. Hell it's been... wait how long has she been a part of his life? Two days? She seemed to have literally fallen into his recent life and ever since her face and her perfume have been in the back of his head. His train of thought was cut short when Aspen looked up from the screen of her laptop and his eyes met hers.
ASPEN◊CARSTAIRS
Aspen turned over a few more Nietzsche quotes, mixed in with some Harry Potter and a few extracts from a psychiatry textbook she had sneaked from her mother's study, running the words through her head while she typed. When she finished, she looked up and met Riley's eyes.
"Did you have anything else you wanted to put in?" she asked quietly. In the middle of a loud cacophony of high school students, she didn't want to disturb the quiet she and Riley had kept themselves in.
He had a nice face. His bone structure was strong, and his skin wasn't as pale as hers. She was basically albino; Riley had a light golden undertone. He had blue eyes, like hers, but his were brighter, piercing.
Riley physically heard the question, but her eyes pulled away any thought that might have come to his head. There were no pictures of death, no slideshow of violence, no pile of faded memories. His mind was empty and all that was left was the blue of her eyes.
ASPEN◊CARSTAIRS
Aspen waited for a few seconds for his response. When he said nothing, she turned back to her laptop and saved the document. "I'll take that as a no," she said. Her eyes flickered back to his, catching the blue with her own. His eyes were gorgeous. "So, um, did you want a copy of it ... ?"
"Oh. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention, I don't think I need a copy, is there anything else you need me to do for it?"
He slowly stood up and for a brief moment he contemplated offering his hand to help her stand but he let the opportunity slip away with nothing more than a twitch of his hand. He walked slowly out of the classroom door, strangely wishing she would give him an excuse to stay.
Riley simply did not understand why this girl made him feel so different. Different than anyone else in the small school. He wasn't used to wanting to interact with anyone. Riley wished he knew how he was supposed to react in such situations.
"Aspen, we didn't see you at the party last night." Brooks was right after Aspen in the lunch line.
"Yeah, sorry, I didn't feel good." In truth, Aspen didn't show up to the party because she was too busy finishing her advanced physics homework, which she feel she aced, not wanting to watch Bronwyn and Violet vomit in a flower pot and, ultimately, thinking about Riley.
"Aw, that sucks." Aspen could practically feel Brooks' eyes trained on her ass. "You wanna sit with us?"
Aspen normally would, but she had too many thoughts circulating in her head and she would probably say something very intelligent, which would result in social suicide. "No thanks. I still don't feel good."
Aspen collected her lunch and sat at an empty table on the opposite side of the room from where Brooks, Bronwyn and Violet sat with her brother. She pulled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out of her backpack and began to read from the chapter The Silver Doe. Occasionally, Aspen would look up and search for Riley. When she finally saw him, she wondered if he would sit with her. No, she hoped he would.
