Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 22:37:04 EST
From: Macncheezaroni@aol.com
Subject: Opposing Forces, Chapter 11 (HS)

Opposing Forces, Chapter 11
by Jeff
macncheezaroni@aol.com

Author's Note: This will mark the eleventh episode of this saga, I hope this
installment is fulfilling...we're looking at new love, old love, and
everything love...

    "Clarissa," I said. "I don't know if I like this idea..."
    "C'mon, please...just ONE date..."
    "No, Clarissa," I said. "The guy's a freakin' pervert...well, a man-nizer
I guess."
    "He's really a good guy," she pleaded.
    "You barely know the guy," I said, giving her a look. "Send Ryan."
    "No," she replied. "Aaron has his eyes on you, I know it. Girls know
these things."
    "Yeah, well, you don't know about Aaron McDonald, he's bad news."
    Clarissa dropped her pencil frustratingly and closed up her trigonometry
book.
    "I'll give you twenty bucks to go on this date," she said, taking out a
crisp twenty from her wallet.
    "Forget it, you're not paying me to go out with him."
    "Thirty," she took out another bill.
    "No."
    "Fifty," she said.
    "NO!"
    "Sixty-five," she said. "That's all I have."
    I gave her a smirk and took the money, "Deal."


    "I can't believe Clarissa paid you sixty-five bucks to go out with
Aaron," Ryan said softly.
    "Me neither," I said. "But it's just dinner and a movie, I figure I'll be
talking for maybe ten percent of the time."
    "Unbelievable," Ryan said.
    "Let's go get some ice cream," I suggested. "I'll treat."
    "Sweet," he replied. "Let's roll."
    "Can we make a pit stop at my locker?" I asked. "I could really unload a
couple books."
    "Sure, that's fine," he said. "I just have to be home by dinnertime."
    Ryan and I chattered idly while we traveled to my locker, and I stopped
dead in my tracks.
    "Oh, look who's here?" Ryan whispered mischievously.
    Aaron McDonald was standing in front of my locker, with his hands in his
pocket, striking an idiotic pose.
    "Aaron," I spoke up. "What are you doing here?"
    "I got out of school and I had nowhere to go," he said. "Thought we could
go grab a bite to eat."
    "Would that be our date then?" I asked.
    "If you want it to be," he answered.
    I looked at Ryan, he glanced at his watch, "Oh, I forgot to go pick the
film for my mom."
    "What film?" I muttered under my breath.
    "The film, ok?" he muttered back.
    "Am I interrupting something?" Aaron asked, confused.
    "No, no," Ryan said, giving me a silly grin. "I just have to go run some
errands, you two can just run along and have a grand old time."
    "I don't really think that's great idea," I said. "I didn't think our
date was until Friday."
    "Fine," he said, rather tensely. "We'll move it up."
    "Fine."
    "Well," Ryan said, walking backwards toward the door. "I will catch you
guys later, call me Dway."
    I could hear Ryan's snickers as he walked down the empty hallway towards
the exit.
    "Where do you want to go?" I said.
    "I was thinking about this diner I saw on my way here," he replied.
    "Let's go there."
    We walked towards the parking lot, and I realized we had two separate
cars.
    As if reading my thoughts, he suggested, "How about we take my car? We
can come back to get your car."
    "It's your gas," I mumbled.
    I unlocked my car and dumped my backpack into the backseats, grabbed my
wallet and keys and locked the car up. I walked slowly to Aaron's truck. I
climbed in, and he started the engine. Within minutes, we were on the
freeway, driving away from home. We sat in awkward silence, and Aaron reached
for the CD player. He turned up some Tim McGraw, and he started to sing to
it. I couldn't help but laugh at his pathetic attempt to sound like Tim
McGraw, but in reality, he was nowhere close to becoming the next American
Idol.  He looked at me and gave me that stupid, silly grin. I turned away,
focusing at the passing landscape outside.  Twenty minutes later, we arrived
at a quaint diner named Parker's.  We got out of the car, and we went inside.
 The hostess placed us in a booth close to the back.
    I unfolded my menu and started to look at my selections, a waiter came to
take our drink orders.
    "So, how have you been?" he asked politely.
    "Ok," I responded.
    The waiter came back with my ice tea and his Sprite, then the waiter took
down our order of fries and burgers. The waiter walked away, and Aaron spoke
up again.
    "How's school?"
    What a conversationalist!
    "I'm doing ok," I said, still lacking enthusiasm.
    He leaned in closer to the table, his face almost touching mine and said,
"Why do you despise me so much?"
    "I don't despise you," I said.
    "Well, you sure act like it," he commented.
    I said thoughtfully, "I just think you're a rotten scumbag who has no
moral conscience."
    "Nicely put," he said.
    "I thought so," I replied arrogantly.
    "You don't even know me," he said.
    "I know enough about you," I said. "I don't need to know anymore."
    "Like you're a saint yourself," he said, giving me a dirty look. "Taking
bribes to go out on a date with someone."
    "I…uh…um…" I replied, rather flustered.
    "What?" he said, giving me a smirk. "Surprised? How stupid do you think I
am? I know Clarissa put you up to this to make Brad happy."
    "Leave her out of this!" I yelled, a little too loudly.
    A few customers turned to look our direction, we just smiled wearily to
assure that everything was all right.
    "Well, it's true!" he hissed. "Otherwise, you'd never go on this 'date'
with me. So don't sit here and call me a scumbag with no moral conscience,
that would just make you a hypocrite."
    I was fuming with anger, probably because Aaron was right. Aaron gave me
a satisfied looked, a look you give when you've won an argument, and then our
food arrived. The waiter placed our food down, and we devoured our food to
fill up time and awkward silence. He kept looking at me, but I just looked
away. I wanted to finish up this "date" as soon as possible to avoid anymore
bickering.
    "Check please," I said, calling the waiter.
    The waiter acknowledged me with our tab, and I quickly glanced at the
total and took out my wallet.
    "Will you be paying your meal with your own cash or your hustling fund?"
    I slammed my money down, and I gave him a glare.
    "Take me home!" I demanded.
    "Fine!" he spit back.
    He paid his half of the tab and tip, and we left in silence. We got into
his truck, and he drove back on the freeway. He took a weird exit, and we
were starting to go up hills.
    "Aaron," I said. "Where are we going? This isn't the way home."
    He didn't respond, he just stared intently ahead.
    "Aaron!" I repeated, raising my voice. "Where the hell are we going?"
    Within a few minutes, we arrived at a vista point. It looked like a
shabby make out point, and I turned back to Aaron and asked, "What the hell
are we doing here? I asked you to take me home."
    Aaron turned to look at me with a menacing look and said, "I'm getting my
money's worth."
    He advanced towards me and started to unbutton my shirt. I pushed him off
me, but he kept bringing his hands to feel my body. I felt cheap and dirty.
    "Get off me!" I yelled.
    "Why? You cheap whore," he said. "You're mine for the evening, aren't
you?"
    "Shut up, you asshole!" I cried back, continuing to push his arms away.
    "How much will SIXTY-FIVE dollars get me?" he said in an eerie tone.
    "Aaron, seriously, cut it out!" I said, punching him in the chest.
    He was taken back by my sudden attempt at violence, and he recomposed
himself. He had a scarier look on his face, and he practically leapt onto me.
He started to fumble with my buttons, and I pushed him aside. Then, he
started to unbutton my pants, and I just socked him in the jaw. The blow
caused him to hit his head on the windshield. The windshield didn't faze him,
he looked back up, and all I could see was sadness.  He had tears welling in
his eyes, and he just opened the door and went outside. I sat in the car for
a few minutes, confused.
    Finally, I got out of the car and called out, "Aaron, please, just take
me home."
    Then I heard sobbing, and I knew Aaron was crying heavily. I found him
sitting on some random log facing the city, his face buried in his hands. I
was confused, I felt like I should be crying.
    "Do you know how it feels?" he began, in between sobs.
    "What? Being raped?" I said, a hint of anger in my voice.
    "No," he said, giving an eccentric chuckle. "Ever really like someone…and
you just pray that they'd like you back?"
    "Uh…sure," I replied hesitantly.
    "God, how nieve are you?" he suddenly yelled.
    "What?" I said, giving him a puzzled look.
    "It's been five days since the party, and I can't stop thinking about
you. I would go to school and think of you, I would go home and think of you,
I felt like I was obsessed with you. I hated the way things ended between us
then, and I debated so many times whether or not I should just drive down and
confront you. Then, Brad tells me that you'd go on a date with me. I was
thrilled. Then I heard Brad and Clarissa talking, and I heard about how she
paid you. I felt so dirty, so degraded. Someone had to PAY you to go on a
date with me, am I that pathetic? Then I thought about how many ways I could
seek revenge and make you feel as dirty as I felt and guess what? In the car,
I couldn't do it. I couldn't even find myself to go any farther. I felt sick
just doing that to you, seeing you squirm. God, I like you so much Dwayne.
And I care for you so much, but you just ripped my heart out and twisted it
in sixty different directions. I don't even know what I see in you…"
    He just broke down.
    "Christ!" he said. "I never cry."
    He wiped his tears with his sleeves, and he tried to regain his
composure.
    "All right," he said quietly. "I'll take you home now."
    I have been standing there, numb, listening to Aaron. I was
flabbergasted, as I tried to re-piece everything from the party until now.
Aaron started to walk back towards the truck, but I found my voice saying,
"Aaron, wait."
    He stopped and turned around, his eyes were swollen from crying.
    "I don't know what you see in me either," I responded, tears forming in
my own eyes.
    "Dway," he said, walking towards me. "You're funny, intelligent, sweet,
and cute. You're a real catch Dway. So forget I said that, I don't even know
why I said it. Must've been temporary insanity."
    He gave a small chuckle to lighten the mood. For the first time since the
beginning of Brad's party, I saw Aaron more positively. He was obviously
passionate, humorous, and not self-absorbed. I chuckled with him, and I
pulled him into a deep hug. I took in his scent, a distinct mix of cologne
and after-shave.  It was intoxicating, and it was comforting. His hands
encircled me tightly, and I could feel his hand touching and caressing my
back.
    "I'm sorry," he said, still sniffling. "I never planned this to get so
out of hand."
    "I'm sorry too," I said. "I should have never accepted Clarissa's money
in the first place."
    "I should have a better impression at the party," he said.
    And I added, "And I should stop making assumptions."
    I smiled at him, and he gave me his trademark grin.
    "Let's start over," he suggested and extended his hand, "I'm Aaron
McDonald, I'm Brad's cousin from out of town."
    "Well, Brad," I said, shaking his hand. "It's nice to meet you. I'm
Dwayne Carmichael, but you can call me Dway."
    "Well, Dway," he said, "It's nice to meet you too."
    He held my hand, and I just pulled him in and gave him a long, passionate
kiss. The kiss lasted minutes, but finally, I had to resurface for air.
    "You have no idea how happy I am right now," Aaron said.
    "I think I may have a clue," I answered, then averted my attention to the
view. "Oh hey, the sun is setting."
    He gave a slight giggle and said, "I though this stuff was overrated."
    "Nah," I responded, hugging him tightly. "Just sunrises."