| Fan Fiction |
by Hibiscus
“You could just not answer the phone, y’noe.” Ceci said one day when Ariel had bitched about how infuriating he was.
“I’d feel too guilty.” Ariel muttered. Truth be told, she used Arron as a way to track Chun’s movements. Ariel knew that he would take revenge for the insult she had done to his pride. For the words she had spoken so callously in the heat, in the passion of the moment.
“I haven’t seen Mina in a while.” Ariel said to Patience.
“I think she’s been keeping late hours. None of us have seen her.” Patience replied.
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Chun remembered each and every detail from that night. The moonlight gleam of her skin in the light, the wetness of her lips, his immediate response, the hunger. Then her words, the sharp acrid words which had sealed his fate and hers, intimately linking them together. Two months had passed and the damn incident refused to fade back into an unpleasant memory. No one besides him and Ariel had been present at his humiliation, no one had seen her reject him, and no one had seen her insult his manhood. No one that is, except the walls, the seedy grey alley and himself. He still remembered the bitter taste her words had left in his mouth; it had been a physical slap. No one woman had ever treated him thus. No other woman dared to. What was so different about her that she was immune to his attraction? And why did he want her so much, why did he still want her so much that now every woman he took had her face, every body he touched and lingered over was hers.
“You are not man enough for me. You never will be.” Over and over these words repeated themselves. Over and over. Burning into his conscience, into his mind, into his very skin.
A cold anger had fluttered to life. A cold anger, just as potent as that hot desire and just like that desire, it demanded action, it demanded satisfaction. It wanted to hurt and it wanted pain.
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It was 7 p.m. Dusk had taken over the world, gradually leeching colour from the day preparing for the advent of the night. The streets were spicy with just a bit of the chill that usually accompanies autumn. People walked these streets rapidly, some wishing they had to bring jackets while others huddled together in groups. It was busy and brisk out there in the young night.
Ariel dragged her attention back to the cappuccino machine. She was at work at the café, which because of its proximity to the campus was patronized mostly by students. Patience, Ceci and Rosa sat at a table waiting for Ariel to go on break. Mina wasn’t there. Ariel noticed and frowned. It wasn’t like her to miss their weekly girls’ night out.
“John, I’m going to take a break.” Ariel said to the shift supervisor who nodded his acquiescence before returning his attention to where he was brewing an espresso. The café was busy tonight.
Ariel walked over to the table and flopped down in one of the two spare chairs.
“I’m pooped.” She said sighing loudly.
“Mmm…” Ceci was purring.
Rosalinda smirked. “She’s drinking that coffee as though it were manna from heaven.”
“I have magic fingers.” Ariel preened.
“Actually John made it.” Patience pointed out and Ariel shot her a dirty look. Then clearly exhausted, she flopped her head down on the table.
“You are off in twenty minutes. Then we can go see a movie and chill.” Rosalinda said patting Ariel on the back.
Ariel sighed contentedly. Then a thought occurred to her and she sat up. “Where’s Mina?”
“She said she had something to do.” Patience replied.
“She’s been acting really secretive lately.” Ceci said and Rosalinda nodded.
“Whatever, we’ll just go see the movie ourselves and be happy.” Ariel returned to flopping on the table.
“I’m coming with!” Another voice charged into the fray. The girls cooed delightedly over Arron and Ariel stifled a groan. “Weren’t you out of the country?” She asked dragging him down into the empty chair beside her. She didn’t want to attract the attention of his crazy fan girls.
Arron threw his arms around Ariel and gave her a bear hug, lingering over it. Ariel squirmed out of his embrace and glowered at him.
“Yes I was and yes, I missed you desperately.” Arron beamed and the girls chorused “awws.”
“Whatever.” Ariel muttered and Arron looked so wounded that Patience reached over and tapped Ariel on the shoulder none too gently.
“Okay, okay,” Ariel grumbled. “I thought of you once when I was buying groceries,” She said grudgingly.
“You thought of me!” Arron had stars in his eyes.
“Once,” Ariel reminded him.
“You love me!” Arron chortled to himself.
The girls grinned. Ariel sighed. Loudly.
Later…
“Christmas is coming! What are your plans?” Ceci asked the others as they walked to the movie theater.
“Home.” Patience replied with a fond smile, the word speaking of a wealth of emotions.
“Yeah,” Ceci and Rosa nodded at the same time.
“I’m going to Jamaica with my entire family.” Arron said happily.
“What about you, Ariel? Are you going back to Canada?” Rosa asked Ariel who seemed to be lost in thought.
“Why would I go back to Canada? There’s nothing for me there.” Ariel said shortly, her face turned away from the others.
“Family?” Arron suggested.
“I don’t have one.” Ariel said curtly.
“Where are they?” Arron persisted.
“Dead.” Ariel replied flatly.
A silence fell over the group, one that no one knew how to break, what to say, whether to comfort or joke it away.
Ariel held herself tightly, not wanting or welcoming any consolation.
“Look, we are here.” Ariel said suddenly. They walked into the theater, the moment of tension evaporated with the bright lights, the smell of popcorn and the happy chatter.
“What are we watching?” Patience looked quizzically at the others.
“I want to watch this.” Arron said pointing a poster of a movie with two bare-chested men, holding swords and covered in blood.
“I can feel my dinner traveling back up.” Rosalinda muttered.
“And what exactly do you have against blood?” Arron demanded.
“Nothing when it’s where it belongs, inside the body.” Rosalinda replied tartly.
“Hmph.” Arron grouched and moved closer to Ariel.
Ariel yawned.
“Well I want to watch a chick flick.” Ceci said.
“Me too.” Patience added her two cents to the debate.
“Me three.” Rosalinda smirked.
“Ariel what do you think?” Ariel had started to doze off, using Arron’s shoulder as a pillow.
“What?” She dragged her eyes open unwillingly.
“Hey, is that Mina?” Ceci spoke up nodding to the entrance of the theater. They all turned and looked.
“Is she with a guy?” Rosalina craned her neck to see better above the crowds.
Arron taller than her turned and looked too.
“Yeah she’s with a guy.” Patience said with an odd look at Ariel. Ariel’s eyes narrowed as she perceived the look.
“Eh, who is it?” She asked Ceci.
“I can’t see. She’s leaving.” Ceci replied.
“That girl was Mina?” Arron asked. Ariel nodded.
“Huh, I’ve seen her at the house a couple of times. She’s with Chun, didn’t she tell you?” Arron clarified.
The world screeched to a halt.
“What did you say?” Ariel said in a low tone.
“Yeah, Chun’s been wining and dining her for a while now. I didn’t know she was a friend of yours.” Arron said unaware of the turmoil his words created in Ariel.
Ariel frowned. She wanted to believe that it was all incidental. That Chun had no nefarious plans for Mina. His beef was with Ariel and not Mina, right? But why would he be going with Mina then? After thinking that, Ariel immediately chided herself. Mina was an attractive woman, was charming, had lots of good qualities. There was no reason Chun wouldn’t find her desirable. But Chun used women and then threw them away. Surely Mina could see that, realized that. Yeah right, Ariel answered her own question. She was completely in love with him, crazily infatuated by his face, by his fame, by his lifestyle.
Arron shook her and Ariel came to her senses realizing that she had been standing there thinking extremely hard for the past five minutes.
“Huh?” She said blinking rapidly.
“So it’s decided then. We will watch the chick flick.” Patience said leading the way to the ticket seller.
If someone had asked Ariel later what the movie was about, she wouldn’t have been able to answer. Her mind had been whirring throughout the movie, her attention focused on the Chun/Mina relationship, entertaining and rejecting ideas, trying to outthink Chun.
After the movie, they split up, Arron and the girls. Arron insisted on giving them a ride to the house because “a man takes care of his women.” Rosalinda teased him about trying to make moves on all of them using Ariel as a decoy and he blushed.
“All right, I’m going to bed.” Ceci said as they entered the house.
“Yeah me too.” Rosalinda yawned.
“I get the shower first.” Patience ran to grab her toiletries and Rosa and Ceci ran after her laughing. Ariel smiled a half smile at their antics and then went over to her room and grabbed her books. She had an essay to write.
After everyone else had retired for the night, Ariel checked Mina’s room. And as expected it was empty. She glanced at the clock. 11 o’clock. At 1, Ariel finished her paper and closed her laptop. No Mina. Pulling her feet close to her chest, Ariel curled up on the sofa and settled in to wait. She turned the main light off and left the lamp on.
Finally at a quarter to three, the sound of a car woke Ariel from the light sleep she had fallen into due to sheer exhaustion. There was a low voice, deep and intimate and answering breathless girlish laughter. A pause, meaningful in its length and then the slam of car doors. A hushed call of goodbye and then the sound of a car driving away.
Ariel heard footsteps climbing up the steps to the porch, then a key turn in the lock. She braced herself for the inevitable confrontation.
Mina entered the house, humming under her breath. She didn’t see Ariel when she came into the living room through the kitchen.
“Hi Mina.” Ariel said in the gloom of the half light of the lamp.
“Ariel!” Mina said breathing fast and looking flustered. “You scared me!”
“Did I?” Ariel smiled, in apology perhaps, Mina couldn’t tell.
“Yeah.” That breathless laughter. “Well, it’s rather late…”
“Early.” Ariel cut her off.
“What? Oh. Yeah. Early.” Mina smiled nervously. “I’d better turn in.”
“Won’t you sit with me a minute? I haven’t talked to you in a while.” Ariel’s tone was deceptively soft; her silhouette looked frail and harmless in the dim light of the lamp.
“Oh.” Mina reluctantly sat in a seat opposite Ariel’s. “Yeah. So how have you been?”
“I finished my job with Fei Lun Hai.” Ariel watched Mina’s face carefully. She was trying to do this delicately.
“Oh? Good.” Mina’s hands weren’t still. They fluttered from her knee to her hair to the arm of her chair and back to her knee. And she wasn’t looking at Ariel.
“Why are you not looking at me, Mina?” What the hell. Ariel had never been particularly good at being delicate.
“What do you mean?” Mina stilled.
“We’ve skirted around the point long enough, don’t you think?” Ariel sat up straight. “Who are you with who takes up so much of your time, so much that you are barely home, barely attend lectures?”
“That’s none of your business.” Two spots of colour appeared in Mina’s cheeks.
“I thought we were all best friends, Mina. Best friends don’t keep secrets from each other.” Ariel raised an eyebrow.
Mina’s eyes immediately filled with tears. She leaned forward and clutched Ariel’s hands. “I’m so sorry, Ariel. I’m a bad person.”
Ariel frowned. Somehow she hadn’t expected the confrontation to go quite like this.”What do you mean?”
“I knew you liked Chun but I still agreed to go out with him.” Mina sniffed miserably.
Whoa. Whoa. Back up. Ariel liked Chun? Since when?
“Who told you that?” Ariel said tersely.
“That you liked Chun?” Mina asked in a wobbly voice. Ariel nodded. “I saw it myself when he held your hands and then kissed it."
Oh. That. “He asked you out? When?” This was important.
“Two weeks ago. He came to buy books in that bookstore I work at and he recognized me as your friend and oh Ariel, he was so nice. So courteous.”
Uh huh. Right. “And he treats me so nicely. So even though I knew you liked him, I…I saw him again and again.” Mina burst into tears and Ariel stared at her dumbfounded.
“I know you will want me to give up on him but I dunno if I can do that, Ariel. I think I love him.”
“Mina. The man is a snake.” Ariel said.
“No he’s not! He hasn’t even asked me for a kiss.” Mina defended Chun hotly.
Ariel felt a peculiar tightening in her chest. “He uses women.”
“I know you want me to give up on him but you don’t have to talk about him like this!” Mina looked outraged. Ariel sighed. She should have known Mina wouldn’t listen. It was all so perfect really. You read about this and you saw about this and now she was living through this.
“K, I won’t.” Ariel got up and stretched.
“You won’t?” Mina looked surprised.
“Yeah. If I tell you he’s going to crush your heart into pieces, you won’t believe me. If I tell you he collects broken hearts and your adulation of him is like ambrosia for him, you won’t believe me. Will you?” Ariel looked over to Mina who ducked her head.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. So go do whatever you want. I’m not wasting my breath trying to talk you out of dating Chun. But I will warn you. This man will take whatever you give him but he won’t give anything in return. Not when it matters. Especially not when it matters.”
“You don’t understand him. He’s a good person, Ariel, he really is.”
Ariel smiled cynically and turned to Mina. “When it comes to the world and men Mina, all you are is prey. You will realize this. Sooner rather than later. I’m sorry.” She nodded at Mina and walked away; leaving Mina huddled in her chair.
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Author's Note: Sigh.