A Dare With The Bad Boy

Chapter 3: The Crush

Those deep ocean blue eyes, Luna felt like she was slowly getting hypnotized by their beauty. 

The first time she saw those eyes, never once did she forget about them ever again. She always thought Aiden was the kindest man because for the first time, she felt like he didn’t treat her like she was this fat and ugly person. 

Nonetheless, because Luna was still shy and uncomfortable with all her insecurities, she always just admired Aiden from afar. For years all she did was just look at him from a distance and daydream about being close to him knowing full well that someone like Aiden who was always at the top of class and was a star football player would never in a million years even think of dating her. 

Yet here they were, in a position she would never have thought she would be in, right in the arms of the one and only Aiden Harries. 

Luna felt her heart beating like crazy, almost as if she was going to have a heart attack. The proximity between Aiden’s face and hers would undoubtedly be seen as too close to other people and this made her feel even more nervous, thinking about the other students in the bus and what they would think about a girl just being in the arms of someone who had a girlfriend, and she clearly wasn’t that. 

What was more unusual was that Aiden found himself looking into the eyes of this girl who seemed familiar to him but he couldn’t wrap his mind around it. All he knew was that there was something about her green eyes that sparkled and made it hard for him to pull away from her. 

Aiden wasn’t planning on taking the bus today, but due to unforeseen circumstances, also known as Cody trashing his car on the last day of summer, he had no choice. Theo had offered to drive him and they said they were going to meet up at the bus stop, but it didn’t come as a surprise to him that he was late and Aiden couldn’t be late to school if he wanted to keep his attendance record, so that’s why he had no choice but to ride the bus. But right now, while looking at the girl in his arms, he felt like it wasn’t so bad after all. 

The two are taken out of their reverie when the bus driver honks the horn and they both jolt away from each other. 

“Get back to your seats!”  The bus driver exclaimed rather unamused.

Aiden hurriedly sat down on the chair next to him, while Luna who was flustered and had no seat since the younger students got to it first, tried to hold onto the railing above her, but failed to do so.

The bus driver steps on the go pedal and naturally, gravity pushes Luna towards the left side and before she knew it, she found herself sat right next to Aiden. 

“Oof!” She muttered after landing quite roughly on the chair. 

Aiden, out of instinct perhaps, put his arm forward her body in order to stop her from leaning forward and hitting her head on the back of the chair in front of her. 

Luna cleared her throat and recomposed herself after the bus began to move in a much more smoother way. 

“S-sorry… and thank you.” She said shyly without even turning her head to look at Aiden because she felt too embarrassed.

Aiden let out a soft chuckle and this confused Luna, wondering what was funny about what she said. She immediately felt conscious, thinking she might have actually said something wrong. 

“Don’t worry about it. These bus drivers could really get reckless sometimes.” Aiden replied to her. 

He turned to face her, but Luna who was too shy just kept her look on the ground. 

“I’m Aiden, by the way.” He put his hand out right in front of the ground Luna was staring at since he wanted to make sure she saw it. 

At this point, the first thing in Luna’s head was why in the world was he introducing himself to her? Then it hit her. If she could barely recognize herself, what more with other people? Aiden barely even saw her and spoke to her like twice, there was no way he would even know who she was. 

“Um… Luna. Luna Valentine.” She muttered under her breath as she softly took his hand and shook it gently. 

Luna instantly felt a tingle the moment her hand got into contact with his. She didn’t know if it was just her or if it was normal in the first place, but she oddly felt a connection and she was trying so hard to keep it all together.

“Nice to meet you, Luna. Are you new here?” Aiden replied as he tried to lean his head closer so that he could see her face clearer. 

He found it unusual as to how much this girl next to him was trying so hard to cover her face. It was as if she felt shy about it, but Aiden didn’t understand as he thought she looked beautiful when he saw her. 

“What?” Luna looked up from the ground, slightly taking Aiden aback from the sudden action as he pushed himself back as well. 

“What… what do you mean?” Aiden asked confused as he looked at Luna with furrowed brows.

Luna tried to process if what she heard was right. Did Aiden really just introduce himself to her? Did he really not know who she was? Luna wasn’t sure if she was going to feel offended, but she tried to justify that she had been trying her best not to stand out, so that was probably why. 

“Um- uh, nothing. Sorry. I’m not new.” She replied, still confused, but had no choice. 

“Oh, that’s odd. I don’t think I have seen you around before.” Aiden replied while trying to think of all the girls in the school. 

Aiden thought if there was a beautiful girl like Luna in the same school as him, he would have known a long time ago. 

“Uh…” Luna scratched her neck, unsure of how to answer Aiden’s question. 

She didn’t know if she should just flat out say that it was her, that she was the girl that was so overweight and had a ton of acne all over. She was the girl that his group used to bully all the time. But who else would she be besides that? It was not like she could invent a whole new person out of nowhere. 

Luna was about to speak up when the bus driver instantly stepped on the brake and she almost hit her head on the chair in front of her again when Aiden’s reflexes let him push her back. 

“That was close.” Aiden turned to Luna with a smile and it instantly melted her heart.

“These bus drivers, huh?” He let out a light chuckle before turning to the window and realizing that they had already arrived. 

“Oh we’re here, Luna. Come on.” Aiden stood up and motioned for her to stand up and before Luna realized what was going on, she had just followed him already. 

Aiden didn’t know what got into him, but when he saw her after standing up, something in him said to grab her. 

Suddenly, it felt like the world around Luna had slowly vanished as she watched Aiden walk in front of him while his hand stayed on her wrist. Luna swallowed the lump in her throat while she tried her best to contain herself from completely melting right then and there. She couldn’t believe that right now, her crush was holding onto her in public.

Luna didn’t even notice where they were until Aiden stopped walking and let go of her. She could have sworn her heart stopped beating for a split second when the feeling of being close with Aiden suddenly disappeared. 

Luna found herself staring at him as he stood there, his hazel hair looked lighter as the sun shined down on him like it was a spotlight and Luna’s heart was beating like crazy. 

The students passing by were waving and greeting him and every time he smiled, Luna felt like she was getting more and more hypnotized. 

In a few seconds, she hadn’t noticed how her body was already moving towards Aiden. Closer and closer, it was like her body had a life of its own and before she even knew it, she was already a few inches away from him. 

Aiden turned around and instead of being startled, he just stood there. At the side of the grass area by the entrance of their school, the two stood in front of each other like there was an invisible magnet in between them that was pulling them together. 

“Aiden!” 

The two are once again snapped back to reality and Luna looked in surprise as Emily wrapped her arm around Aiden’s shoulders. 

“I missed you today. Why didn’t you ride with me? Or…” Emily leaned closer to whisper something into Aiden’s ears and Luna felt uncomfortable, thinking that Emily most likely must have said something indecent. 

Luna decided that that was her signal to go and was about to turn around when Aiden moved away from Emily to take Luna’s arm. 

“Wait.” He said before pulling her back.

Luna jumped a little, surprised by the sudden action as she instantly pulled her arm away back to her chest. 

“Sorry.” Aiden said as he lifted his arms up in apology, not realizing his gesture was going to surprise her that much.

Emily turned to look at the person in front of them. She walked closer to Luna and eyed her up and down.

“Who the hell are you?” She hissed at her with no remorse, visibly angry as Aiden pulled away from her because of another girl. 

As Emily looked closer at the girl in front of her, she began to realize who it was. 

“You have got to be kidding me. Luna Valentine?” She exclaimed in surprise and utter disbelief. 

Emily couldn’t believe who the person was that was in front of her. The girl who was the biggest in their school. The girl who had acne all over her face and body. Emily remembered how Luna barely fit into jeans and now she was wearing ripped ones. She was finding it completely hard to believe that she began to poke Luna all over to see if she was real.

“Did you get plastic surgery?” Emily commented angrily at Luna and this made her feel embarrassed. 

Emily kept poking at Luna trying to see if she could find a spot that would make it obvious that she did have something done. Emily, having done one or two surgeries herself, knew exactly what it felt like when something was done and to prove her point, she continued to touch Luna quite aggressively.

Some of the other students began to look at them as Emily’s voice began to get louder. Luna began to feel uncomfortable but she just stood there frozen and in shock, nervous and unable to figure out what to do. 

For a long time, Luna opted to hide herself from people’s eyes. She always disliked being the center of attention, but right now, she felt everyone’s eyes looking directly at her and almost piercing through her. She clenched her fists tightly and bit her lip hard to the point of a metal taste in her mouth. 

Emily was starting to get even more annoyed. Ever since she was younger, she always got what she wanted. It didn’t help that she had become the school’s queen bee and so most students praised her for everything and this just increased her pride and ego even more. She was not going to let Luna, the ugly duckling, steal Aiden away from her. 

 “So? Did you?!” She shouted louder as she shoved Luna, almost tipping her to the ground. 

Emily was about to shove Luna harder and Luna closed her eyes, not able to keep them open from fear and nervousness, but before Emily could reach to shove Luna, her hand was stopped by someone. 

“That’s enough, Emily.” The voice that was deep and serious said. 

Luna opened her eyes to the hand of Emily only a few inches away from her shoulder while another hand was holding onto it rather tightly to stop it from hitting her. 

As she moved her eyes up to see whose hand it was, she was surprised to see the person standing beside Emily and looking at her intently. 

“What the hell, Theo? Defending her now too?” Emily scoffed angrily as she pulled her hand away from Theo’s hold. 

“Has everyone forgotten who she was or is?” She added before walking away, or rather stomping angrily. 

Luna locked looks with Aiden, but before he could say anything, Emily went back to pull him away and he was gone in a second. 

The students who were watching the little fiasco earlier had now dispersed and were back to doing their own things, luckily for Luna who felt more relieved. 

Although there was one thing in her mind that confused her. 

Why did Theo Donovan do that? And what was he still doing in front of her?

Luna who was still feeling shy kept her look on the ground. 

“Why-” She was about to ask Theo’s reason for doing such a thing when she was cut off. 

“Here.” Theo said softly as he put a handkerchief towards her. 

Luna was surprised as she stared at the black handkerchief in front of her. She didn’t know why he was giving her that and Theo must have noticed that as he opened up to explain. 

“Your lip.” He pointed it out without looking at her.

“Oh, right.” Luna exclaimed in surprise. 

She was so out of it from everything that had happened that she absolutely didn’t even notice. 

Luna put her hand up to take the handkerchief.

“Thank y-” Before she could finish giving her thank you, Theo had already started walking away from her. 

With his back turned from her, Luna stood with her brows furrowed in confusion trying to figure out what had just happened. 

Did Theo Donovan, the person who she considered her worst enemy, just defended her?