CHAPTER 29: Aliens

It's been four days. Four fucking days since the parking lot fight and Sage still hadn't talked to me. It's not like I haven't tried to to talk to her. I've seen her at school. Whenever I went up to talk to her, she'd weasel out! For a girl with short legs, she sure could run.

There was one time, early at school, when I spotted her out the hallways. Her blue eyes widened when she saw me. She panicked, threw her books in her locker - literally - and ran away. I ran after her, yelling that I just wanted to talk. I swear I was about to catch up. But she locked herself in the comfort room. The male's comfort room.

God, what a dork.

I knocked. I talked to the door. She didn't answer. "Sage, I have to pee!" I lied. She still didn't answer. I decided then that it was hopeless.

I didn't even know why she wouldn't talk to me. Was it because of the poem? Or because she saw me getting knocked out after a single punch?

The questions didn't leave me, even at lunch time.

"You okay?" Louie asked, chewing his sandwich.

"Hmm? Oh -- yeah!" I tried to sound casual about it.

"You're not a good liar."

I rolled my eyes.

"She still won't talk to you?" he asked.

"Nope." I sighed. "I don't know what I did wrong. I thought she warming up to me after that incident in the theater. I mean, you guys said it. She even came to the hospital."

London pursed her lips. "Maybe she just needs a bit of time. The whole ordeal with you and Diego must be hard on her."

I slumped down on the table. Pushing away my food tray, I sighed even louder. I didn't have the appetite to eat.

I didn't picture it out to result in this. After that poetry thing, I thought I'd finally be able to return the diary. I'd finally be able to get Sage. But the diary was still in my backpack. Sage still wouldn't talk to me.

At that moment, Kaye passed by our table.

An idea hit me. It wouldn't have been enough to get Sage to talk to me again. But at least I'll finally be able to return her diary.

I shot up. "London, you get a pen?"

"Mm-hmm," she mumbled with a mouth full of noodles. She reached down on her handbag and extracted a pink pen with a fuzzy ball hanging by the end. Despite its utter girlishness, I snatched it away.

With a paper napkin, I drew a makeshift coupon that said, "Free theater help". I remembered I haven't kept up my end of the bargain with Sage. She lent me a motorcycle, but I never helped at her theater.

I grabbed the diary from my bag and flipped to an empty page. I racked my brain to remember the date of when I almost ran over Sage. It was the day before my date with Emma. It was a Friday, I remember. December 2nd!

I wrote the date down on top of the page. I've never written a diary before. I didn't know how it went. But I just went with my gut. I recapped that day.

"December 2, 2016"

Hmm... how do I start? I got it!

"I almost ran over a dwarf today.

My car broke down because I swerved to miss her. So if you think about it, that dwarf's responsible for wrecking my car. But I forgive her.

This day didn't turn out the way I expected it to. I just found myself running away from two complete strangers as the already mentioned dwarf clung to my arm. It was scary, I'm not gonna lie. I thought I was gonna get beat up.

But I didn't. Instead, I ended up in my living room, playing video games with the dwarf. We must've played for hours! I don't really remember. Time didn't exist with her.

Come to think of it, she's the only girl (except Donnie) who's been at my house without some hanky-panky. Yet, it was the most fun I've had! Could you believe that?

Hell, it's already December so it's not too early to make wishes. I wish this day would repeat itself. I wish I get to spend time with her again."

I didn't know what else to write after that. So I just put the coupon. I also put in the poem that I (well, we) wrote for her, Elephants and Noodle Arms. I tucked both pieces of paper in between the pages of the diary.

I rushed towards Kaye's table.

"Could you hand this to her?" I straight up asked without greetings or whatever.

Kaye's brows edged close to each other."Uhm--"

"Please?" I begged.

There was sympathy in Kaye's eyes. She knew what was going on. She took the diary with a sad smile. "I'll try," she said.

"Thank you."

×××××

It was the week before Christmas break and snow fell hard. Dad got time off work for the weekend. We were doing our Christmas shopping. Dad took Lally with us. We rarely took her shopping. It's hard to say no to her when she asks to buy something. If we took her every time we bought stuff, we'd have no money at all. But we had to take her that time. She was sulking.

After my fight with Diego, Lally told me she hadn't been able to talk to Paolo. She didn't cry. God, no! The only thing Lally ever cries about is mom. But it was no secret that she was sad. She didn't let me braid her hair anymore. Her shoulders would always be slumped when she got home. And it was like she lost her smile.

"I think he found other friends," she said, looking out the car window. "Better friends. Like friends from his planet -- er, I mean country."

"Better friends?" I scoffed. "That's stupid. Who could be better than you?"

"Then why won't he talk to me?"

I didn't answer. I thought it was unfair that those little kids had to be involved in teenage drama. Diego's an ass to get his brother involved in this. I'd pummel him if I could. But we all know that I couldn't.

"Because he's a stupid boy," I said, one third-meaning Paolo, one third-meaning Diego, one third-meaning me. Yeah, we were all just stupid boys.

When we got to the store, dad let us wander by ourselves, telling us to meet him by the counter in a few minutes. Of course, Lally headed straight for the candy aisle.

"Lally, wait up!" I yelled when I lost sight of her, disappearing into the next shelf. "Lally?" I called again when I still didn't see her. Shit! I ran around the aisles, trying to find her. I took a sharp turn towards the toy section, then skidded to a stop.

Lally was playing. She was playing with a certain curly-haired boy.

Lally looked so happy. Paolo had a smile on, too. They were talking, Lally in English and Paolo in Italian. It's funny. Neither of them understood each other but they seemed to understand each other just fine.

Footsteps approached beside me.

"Hey," a voice said.

I flinched when I saw who it was. But Diego put his hands up, saying, "I'm not looking for trouble."

"Then what are you looking for?"

"I was looking for my brother," he said, then pointed to our siblings. "I shouldn't have told him to stop talking to your sister. It's fateful that they meet here, no?" His eyes lingered on the kids again. Then, he sighed. "Trevor, I apologize for knocking you out. I'm even more sorry about what I said about Lally. She's a good girl. She's my brother's only friend. It's just that I-- I was angry." With a dry laugh, he added, "That's an understatement. I just... thought that now that I've come back, Sage would be with me. I realize now that I've screwed up too much for her to take me back. She's better off with you."

I blinked. How does this guy switch from a good guy to an asshole to an even bigger asshole back to a good guy? But I saw it in his eyes that he meant what he said. Which made it even more ridiculous.

"What's funny?" he asked when I started to laugh.

I shook my head. "Sage is better off without either of us."

"What do you mean?"

"She's been avoiding me."

"Oh," he remarked. After mulling it over, he shrugged. "She'll come around."

"I hope."

It must have been hard for him to utter the next words he said. "Be good to her, man. She deserves it."

Then he walked over to Paolo and Lally. After a few minutes, they left. Lally came bounding back to me. As we walked to the counter, I couldn't help but think. Be good to her? Diego said it as if he were sure Sage would still end up with me. God, I wish.

Next and (probably) last chapter coming up next week! I'm still working out the kinks. Are you ready to say goodbye?