Singing Sight

AN: Thanks for your patience! Read the authors note in chap 3 if you dont know what happened... but here it is. Some of it.


Chapter Three: Estimation.

After listening to the Specials for the rest of the drive, Caine swung the car into a driveway of a large, three story grey house with a big front porch and welcoming air. With one final lurching stop of the car, he put the gear in park, undid his seatbelt and turned off the ignition. I unbuckled my belt and hopped out of the car, pulling my black messenger bag along with me, and slamming the door closed. Rachel clambered out of the backseat, Caine grabbed his bag from the trunk, and smiled at me charmingly before walking towards the house. \"This is us,\" he pointed out unnecessarily. I smiled softly, my knees feeling a bit weak. He just got cooler and cooler every second in the fifteen minute car ride back to their house.

\"Come on, Aria.\" Rachel said, tugging my arm in the direction of the house. I nodded and walked up the hollowy steps of the front porch and up towards the door, which Caine unlocked with another key. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. We stood in a wide hallway, with open doorways heading off to a comfortable looking front room and a dining room where newspapers and half full coffee cups sat from the morning. A wide staircase went up directly in front of us, and so did a doorway to what looked like the kitchen. Caine tossed his keys down on the front table and dropped his backpack on the wooden floor with a loud thud. Thud. Rachel\'s. Thud. Mine. Rachel kicked off her sneakers, and i stepped out of my flip flops and saw Caine start to head into the kitchen.

\"You guys hungry?\" He called.

\"Aren\'t you meeting Jake and Trey?\" Rachel called back as she headed through the dining room and into the kitchen through another door. The kitchen was large and airy, with glass doors heading out to a back porch and a backyard.

\"Not up for smoking pot right now. Bad habit to get into on the first day back.\" He said as he reached up and grabbed a box of honey nut cheerios out of a cupboard. He poured them into a bowl already sitting on a long counter and poured in milk from the refrigerator, both of which he kept next to him before hopping up onto the counter and digging in.

\"The same could be said for smoking pot in general.\" Rachel pointed out.

\"Do you smoke, Aria?\" Caine asked me. I turned towards him a little shocked. \"Not judging, just curious.\"

\"Uh, I have before. I liked it, but I value my singing voice. I drink.\" I shrugged. He nodded, and before he could swallow and open his mouth,

\"Ha! Caine could have used that mantra before he destroyed his. He used to be in BB\'s, the a cappella group, with Jake and Trey. But his voice got completely screwed.\"

\"That sucks.\" I said.

He shrugged. \"I like tech better than skipping around on a stage begging for attention.\"

I smiled, trying to picture Caine frolicking in a musical. \"Nah, doesn\'t seem to be your thing.\" He smiled and licked his lips.

\"Are you going to audition for BB?\" Rachel asked, hopping up on the counter opposite Caine with a bag of pretzels.

\"Uh, I think so. Singing and dancing is more my thing than anything else, so I\'ll stick with the musicals for extracurricular theater.\"

\"You\'re not auditioning for Two Gents? Why not?\" Rachel asked.

I laughed. \"I\'m not comfortable with the Shakespeare language.\"

\"It\'s really not that hard once you\'re used to it.\" Caine pointed out.

\"Well, I understand it and everything, I just can\'t say it. I love reading the Bard, but I just can\'t perform it.\"

He shrugged casually again and nodded. He looked so adorable sitting there, birkenstocks dangling a little off the floor as he sat on the counter with a cereal bowl. I could get used to seeing that.

\"You want anything to eat? I probably should have asked you before.\" Rachel said.

\"Oh, no, I\'m fine.\"

\"Thirsty?\" She asked again.

\"A little.\" I admitted.

She gestured towards the refrigerator. \"Go for it. Nuestra casa es su casa.\" It felt that way, too. I\'d been hanging out with these people for less than an hour, known them less than a day, and yet I felt as much a part of their life as though I\'d known them forever.

I grabbed a diet coke out of the fridge and leaned against the counter Caine sat on. \"Pull up a counter.\" He said, patting the spot next to him. I had to hide my smile as I hopped up onto it and let my legs dangle higher than his. Stupid height.

\"Like the fake sugars, huh?\" He asked with a smile, poking the can through my fingertips with the back of his spoon. I giggled. I NEVER giggle.

\"I just started drinking my mom\'s diet coke when I was little and now the taste of regular coke is just weird to me. Plus, I don\'t need the extra sugars, I eat enough junk food as it is.\" I smiled and elbowed him in jest.

\"You could use the extra sugars,\" he smiled, nudging my knee with his thigh in reference to my size.

\"Yeah, really. What size are you, like, double zero?\" Rachel laughed. Actually, I was only five foot three and a size two.

\"Can we not talk about my size?\" I joked. I had a sudden impulse to take the spoon out of Caine\'s soft looking hand and take a bite of his cereal to flirt, but i squashed it. That would be too weird. He probably just thinks I\'m a little kid anyway.

\"Yeah, makes me feel bad about my own.\" Rachel added with a smile.

\"Oh shut up, Rachel, don\'t be such a girly girl.\" I kidded. She laughed and threw a pretzel at me, which I dodged to the side. When I did, I leaned towards the side that Caine sat on, my shoulder brushing against his. It let me catch a good whiff of his scent, kind of spicy and comforting, before I leaned back over in my proper spot. I had a soft smile on my face, I knew. But I couldn\'t help it! He just looked so chilled out and messy and sexy and older... I just couldn\'t help it.

\"Yeah, really,\" he added. With half a mouthful of cheerios, he turned to me and asked in a high voice, \"Aria, does this shirt make me look fat?\" I laughed and patted his shoulder. Any excuse to touch him, really.

\"No, Caine. You\'re beautiful just as you are.\" He was, really. So naturally sexy. Not. Fucking. Fair. Please, look at me, I silently begged.

\"Gee, thanks, Aria!\" He smirked.

\"Anytime, buddy.\" I said, taking the spoon from his hand and taking a bite of his cereal before putting the spoon back in the bowl and leaning back. Again, I couldn\'t help myself.

\"Yes, Aria, you can have a bite of my cereal and infest me with herpes.\" He said, looking at me in a comically harsh way. I laughed softly again.

\"Sorry.\"

\"Want a bowl?\" He asked, and I shook my head no, my hair falling over my shoulder. I pushed it back and ran my hands through it before twisting it behind me and putting it over the opposite shoulder, so the exposed side of my face was the one closer to him. Rachel watched all this flirtation silently, but I could tell as she winked at me she was a bit uncomfortable.

\"Then why would you eat mine?\" He continued.

\"I dunno. I was gonna take some of Rachel\'s pretzels, but they were across the room. Your Cheerios were right next to me.\"

\"Oh, I see. Thanks for the herpes, babe.\" He laughed, filling up the bowl again with fresh cheerios.

\"Anytime.\" I replied. I just wanted to kiss those sexy lips. Lucky cheerios. They got more action from Caine\'s mouth than I ever would.


~*~


Her gaze was burning me up, she was probably laughing at me on the inside because I was blushing. She was just so pretty, sitting there on the countertop next to me, tiny feet with blue toenail polish dangling from her legs next to mine. Her hair smelled good, and it was just so long and sexy... I wanted to run my fingers through it and kiss her full, pink lips she licked every so often before talking. I thought about her pretty eyes when she smiled, and the sarcastic and clever things she said, how frail her arms looked when she gestured with her hands and her soft pink lips while I had a cigarette out on my roof.

Her hands were really soft. They\'d kinda brushed a little bit when she took my spoon and ate my cereal. We were kind of flirting... but it was weird. I mean, she was Rachel\'s friend, and two years younger, and definitely a cherry... that would be breaking every moral responsibility I had as a senior. Pedophiling underclassmen is not at the top of my list of things to accomplish by the end of this school year.

I took another long drag on my Newport and held it in with my eyes closed before finally letting the smoke waft out of my mouth gently. I licked the taste off my lips and smiled gently. Nothing like a good cigg.

\"Caine? What the fuck are you doing?\" A voice shouted. I jumped with a start, nearly falling off the roof.

\"Shit, Rachel!\" I shouted before stubbing out the cigarette on the roof tiles.

\"Me, shit? What about you? Smoking on the roof? You idiot! Get back inside!\" I saw Aria standing awkwardly in the hall behind her, smiling gently, her big, pretty eyes glancing up softly.

\"Ahh... sure.\" I clambered back in the window.

\"Fuck it, Caine, what if you fell?\" Rachel screamed.

\"I wasn\'t gonna till you screamed your fucking lungs out at me. What the hell, Rachel?\" I snapped back.

\"Oh, don\'t even START!\" She began, and I tuned her out as I slumped onto my unmade bed. I kind of stared a bit at Aria, looked up from her tiny bare feet up her long, perfect legs, shapely ass, tiny waist and perfect breasts, nice shoulders, soft looking, delicious smelling hair, all the way up to her beautiful face. She bit her bottom lip with two perfect front teeth, and I smiled softly. Her eyes caught mine and she smiled, I smirked back. Pedophilia? Who cares?

They left the room, and I just kind of sat there and did homework. But I couldn\'t concentrate on the algorithms in front of me, I could only think about that laugh. That sexy, gentle laugh.

I tossed my pencil down on the desk and rubbed my temples. I turned up the music and just sat and listened, pulling off my reading glasses.

\"But are you afraid,
you always said the world would never last,
know that I\'m not afraid,
if a star wiped all your past away
and the sun goes one more day,
Lola, Lola,
will the world see me and you?
Lola, Lola,
no we\'re never gonna make it through.\"

\"Caine!\" Rachel\'s voice shouted through the door.

\"What?!\" I barked back, turning the volume down.

\"Can you drive Aria home?\"

My heart rate picked up. I pictured for a second, her crawling onto my lap in the drivers seat, my car parked somewhere dark, kissing me and sinking down onto my-

\"Well, can you?!\" FUCK YOU RACHEL!

\"Yeah. Tell her to get ready, I\'ll get my keys.\" I had to sit and breathe for a minute. Could I do this and keep my hands off of her? Could I ask her out? What should I do? What to do...


~*~


I waited for Caine downstairs, slipping into my flip flops and swinging my bag over my shoulder. I finally heard him trot down the heavy wood stairs, and he picked up his keys from the front table. \"Ready?\" He asked me in that sexy, hoarse smoker\'s voice.

\"Yep.\" Yep?! What kind of a loser says that?!

\"All right then.\" He smiled. Rachel dashed in and gave me a hug.

\"We\'ll hang out tomorrow at lunch, Ari. Bye!\"

\"Bye, Rachel. Thanks for inviting me over.\" I said politely as Caine headed out the door into the warm air.

I followed with a wave, and Rachel closed the door behind me. I headed down the stairs after him, and he unlocked the front door with his keys. He opened the door, hit the unlock button, and I dumped my backpack on the floor and got in. I sat, he sat. I closed the door, he closed the door. Seat belt, seat belt. He smiled wistfully at me and turned on the car. He ejected the CD and turned on the radio.

\"The radio sucks, but I can\'t take any more 80\'s ska.\" He smiled.

\"It\'s chill.\" I smiled.

\"Yeah.\"

He pulled out of the driveway and we started out. \"Where do you live?\" He asked me.

\"16th and Englewood.\" I told him. \"On Englewood.\"

\"Ah, gotcha.\" He smiled. We drove in silence for a little while.

\"So.\" He said softly.

\"Yeah.\" I replied.

\"Like it here?\" He asked, as though our entire kitchen flirtation hadn\'t happened.

\"A lot, actually.\" I replied honestly. \"I mean, I thought it was going to suck having to readjust and that everyone would be all hostile and bonded and I\'d just be a loner. But I mean, this school is just... everything I could have ever wanted. I didn\'t even know a place like this existed! It\'s amazing.\" I sound like such a melodramatic idiot, I thought, but he laughed and smiled.

\"Yeah. I hated school until I got to the high school. I was always kind of a geek, I loved working and learning and stuff no one else did, but I really had zero friends. No, I had Trey. But Trey went to a different school.\"

\"That sucks. I mean, I\'ve always sort of had friends. But the kind that you just see, and hang out with, but you know if you were to admit to some fault or flaw, or do something weird, they\'d be outta there fast as they could.\"

\"People at BSOTA aren\'t like that. Everyone\'s really chill.\"

\"Yeah, I\'ve really noticed. I mean, even today, don\'t think I\'m weird or anything, but I just felt like I\'d been hanging out with you and Rachel forever.\"

\"Yeah,\" He smiled. \"I know what you mean.\"

There was silence, and the radio. The Killers, Pearl Jam, Bush... finally, we got to my house after a Beck song ended.

Caine turned off the ignition and turned to me as I unbuckled the seatbelt. \"So, uh, I don\'t want this to come off the wrong way...\" He began. I felt my heart plummet and pick up at the same time.

\"Won\'t judge you on it, don\'t worry.\" I smiled. He did too.

\"Well, Friday night there\'s this show of some local bands, at the Lion\'s Den. It should be really cool. I\'m going with some friends, I don\'t know if you were interested in coming along with us, maybe? They\'re really cool, Jake, Trey... you met them, Julie, Beth, some others. It should be good.\" He said, with a slight hint in his voice.

Did that really just happen?! Shit!

\"That would be really cool. I\'ll have to ask, but for the most part I\'m sure.\"

\"Really? Wow, this is awesome. Wow. Well, I can drive you, there and back, if your parents are comfortable...\"

\"Right. That would be great.\"

\"Great.\"

\"Yeah.\"

\"So, I\'ll see you?\"

\"Yeah.\"

\"Great.\"

\"Yeah.\"

\"Bye.\"

\"Bye.\"



AN: Sorry that\'s short- the original version of the chapter had this whole other thing, but I didn\'t want to retype it here and I just wanted to get SOMETHING up. So hopefully soon \"Oh, Professor\" and this will be updated again. But for the meantime, please review! I love reviews, they fuel my proverbial fire. But next chapter, we have the show. Which should be good.