Fine Apple | ✓

c o r a l

❝A change in latitude would help my attitude.❞ -Unknown

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"SO I'LL stop bothering you."

She clutched the phone tightly in her hands, stunned as his abrupt, hurt words rang through her mind. One last, frantic "Tinkerbell!" escaped her lips before it was replaced by a gasp of desperation as the beep signaled the dead call.

Frustrated, she flung the phone in the general direction of her bed, sinking her forehead into her hands desperately. A furry shape brushed her legs as Missy, the tabby cat slunk into her lap and rubbed against her chest, seeking comfort.

The phone rang, and Aria immediately seized it, shoving it to her ear without even a glance at the caller ID. "Tinkerb--" she began, the caller's voice abruptly cutting her off.

"Aria?" She recognized the voice with dismay; in contrast to Tinkerbell's slow drawl, the speaker spoke in quick, sharp, almost hurried words.

"Oh... hey, Kale," she managed, exhaling somewhat raspily as she dropped onto the bed, her dejected frame sinking along with her spirits. Maintain self control, she thought. Keep that heart rate steady.

"M'kay, so Airheads, I was wondering if you'd be interested in dropping by the team fundraising event tonight?" he continued, again tacking on his common nickname for her; she had never had the heart to tell him that the name "Airheads" left quite a few derogatory implications regarding her intelligence.

"Kale, I really don't know..." She sank her teeth into her lips, racking her brain for a handy excuse which she could use as a detour. Tinkerbell's last words to her, bombarding her so heavily yet seeming so stricken and sad on his part, were still scalding her mind painfully, demanding to be processed. "I really... uh..." she stammered helplessly as the meaningless words fled her withdrawn mind.

"We have pizza!" Kale persisted weakly. "C'mon, Aria..." He sounded so pleading, so desperate. Aria felt a tug of guilt at her heart; yet, the word 'pizza' emerging from Kale's mouth still made her stomach recoil as much as it ever did.

"Kale, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm really not in the mood for any of your weird vegan pizza."

"Hey! At least my mom knows how to make it right," he objected, failing miserably at concealing the edge of dismay in his voice. Aria squeezed her eyes shut as the remorse flooded her, shifting the contents of her stomach around. And this time it wasn't entirely in response to the thought of the excessive garlic, the lack of pepperoni, or the vegan parmesan that was a sore replacement for mozzarella. Her chest tightened at the thought of Kale, and the regret she felt for always finding herself unable to grant him the time he wanted. The time, she supposed, she ought to give him.

"Kale, I--I can't," she sputtered, falling back horizontally onto her bed and staring blankly at the glow-in-the-dark stars that had been plastered to the ceiling since third grade. "I'm at.. at therapy."

"Fact check, you're in your room," snapped an unexpected voice, causing Aria to jump upward and turn to glare at the individual in the doorway.

"Lyndsey?" she croaked. "What are you... doing?"

The girl walked into the room, arms crossed over her slender, four-foot-eleven figure and dark eyes fixed unblinkingly on Aria. "Your mom said you were upstairs." Her eyes trailed from Aria's cluttered desk, stacked high with papers and dog-eared science textbooks, and over to Aria herself, sprawled on the bed in sweatpants, her curly hair tied into an unceremonious bun. "She said you were... studying."