Note: This DOES take place before Arius visits Gem. In fact, it's an hour earlier.

It started almost randomly; the dates Aris took me on. He just loved knowing he made me happy. But then after a while, I realized there was a pattern. They would always be at six o'clock ad they'd start getting farther and farther away. He has a method to his madness.

That's what made me think he was taking me out on a date tonight; because where we were headed matched those descriptions.

"Where is it tonight?" I asked, smiling hugely at Aris.

He looked at me and shrugged. "Not a date, tonight, sorry."

I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't disappointed because I was. I liked going on dates with him.

They always brought out the best in him.

And tonight the moon was hitting him just right through the window. His red eyes all but glittered in the moon-light. The light reflected easily off of his blonde hair. His toned arms seemed perfect.

But his grimace set me off-track.

He looked mad for no reason. And with him, he could mad over a number of things.

"So then, where are we going?" I ask, letting my hopes stay down and lie low.

"Just need to meet up with Arius," Aris drives forward, his lights illuminating trees and there's a lurch as the car goes onto a dirt road.

A dirt road? I check the time— ten at night— and realize that we've been driving for forty five minutes.

That sounds a lot like directions to the beach.

I smile as the smell of sea-salt his my nose. He continues driving and soon I can hear the sough of the ocean.

"The beach!" I yell. "I've never been here before."

Aris looks at me as he parks the car. "Really? You've never been to the beach?"

I shake my head. "Nope. I've always been to busy."

I run my hands through my hair, tipping my head over to put it up in a messy bun.

"Well... we can chill for a bit while we wait for Arius." Aris says and gives me a smile, even though he seems troubled by something.

I decide to ask him about it. "What's wrong?"

He gives me a shocked look. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. And I don't want to worry you." He answers.

I don't push the subject further, I know he'll deal with it and if it was important he'd let me know... hopefully anyways.

We take a seat in the sand and he wraps one arm over me. "We should go skinny dipping."

I give him mock disgust and smack his shoulder. "We should not!" I laugh. After a couple moments when I've regained composure, I add, "Plus it's against the rules."

"If there are no rules, you can't break them. So technically, rules are made to be broken." He smirks at me.

I tilt my head at him and nod. "That's right, huh? You make a good point."

He agrees with me by quickly kissing my cheek. I realize that he's never actually given me a full kiss. Never on the lips.

We sit without speaking.

With Gem it's never quiet, and I don't hate it, she's always fun. But with Aris, it's just the right amount of excitement and calmness, and that's perfect.

We watch the waves slowly wade in and out, listening to nothing but each other's heartbeats.

He disrupts the silence. "Hungry?" He asks.

I shrug. "I could eat."

He pulls out a granola bar from his pocket and hands it to me.

"Why, thank you, my knight in shining armor." I open up the granola bar and eat it in little tentative bites.

Car lights suddenly illuminate our perfect, quiet darkness, lighting up the bad angels of my face. If there were such a thing, anyways.

Aris stands up and brushes off his pants as the car stops running.

Arius hops out and walks towards us.

"Seriously, you brought her?" Arius asks.

Aris shrugs. "So be it. Yeah I brought her."

Okay. Act like I'm not standing right here, Arius.

Jerk.

"New car?" Aris asks.

Arius nods. "Yeah. Chevy Volt. It's an electric car." Aris's face is barely visible in the moonlight, but I notice some bruising forming.

"What happened?" I ask. "You're all bruised up."

Arius nods. "Yeah. That's what I came to talk to Aris about. You know that... project... I'm doing?"

Secrets. Always secrets.

"Yeah. The perfect class?" Aris says, shrugging. He looks and me and smiles. "She's gunna find out sooner or later."

Arius scoffs. "Fine. Whatever. But Gem can't know. Not yet, anyways. I need this transition to go smoothly."

I hold up my hands. "Woah woah woah. Is this a drug deal or something?"

Both of the boys start laughing out loud. "No. This is something on a much larger scale." Arius says, still laughing.

I take a step back. "Like, what? What's the perfect class?"

Arius sighs. "You know the elders?"

I nod. "Who doesn't? They are our leaders... our future... our past. What do they have to do with this?"

Aris grabs both of my hands and looks deep into my eyes. "Everyone dies. Nobody lives forever. Not even the elders. They represent what each sign should strive to be; complete perfection. They hold every quality associated with their sign. No more. No less. So does everyone in our class. When we graduate... we'll become the new elders."

I suck in a deep breath. "No. That's not possible. I have things I want to do. I have a person I want to become."

Aris envelopes me in a warm hug. "I'm so sorry. I wish it didn't have to be this way."

Aris looks back at Arius. "So why? Why are you beat up? Please tell me, I did not miss my reservations at Pic's to hear things I already knew."

That's why he was mad. He's missing his reservations. He got us reservations at Pic's? That's amazing. Pic's takes months to get into.

Arius looks at the ground. "Because. Cor and Gem were spotted almost kissing on the beach. And if Cor and Gem kiss... well we all know what happens. They fall in love. So, I paid the consequences."

I narrow my eyes. "What? No. She doesn't—" I remember how she would always longingly stare at him during class.

How she would perk up whenever she walked into the room.

I shake my head. "They'll hurt her just like they hurt me."

Memories are painful too. And as long as I don't think about them, nothing can happen.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. I start counting up, focusing on numbers.

"Are you okay, Leona?" Aris asks.

I nod. "Yeah. Just worried now. Do they not realize what's happening? Why don't you tell her. They will hurt her, Arius."

Arius nods. "Yeah. I know. I guess... I'll go see her and tell her."
~~~~~
Holy mother of whoever gave birth to the Hemsworth brothers.

Was that not intense? I found that intense. So now the secret is out (even if some people have already guessed it) how many chapters do we have left?

I'd say at this point we're halfway through.

Halfway? Really? It seems like we're almost done?

No. No. No. Ha, I still have more ppl to fall in love. I still have more curveballs to throw. And of course, I still have Ships to sink like I'm playing battleship. Lives to ruin. And I have a list of zodiacs I haven't even begin to cover!

The joys of being an author. ^^^

Like— what happens to Virgina? Who knows Cor's secret besides Pi (to which I will say that if you have been playing close attention, the answer is in the book already)? And well... what exactly happened between Leona and Leo?

WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!!

I would also like to say this— I'm currently watching 13 Reasons Why on Netflix so... updates might be a little slower. Plus I'm running for a state office in one of the clubs I'm in for High School so yeah, that's stressful.

But all I can think about is this dang book. Wth?

The car pictured is Arius's new car. It is also a perfect fit for an Aquarius. I was just going to give him a Fiat 500 like I did Aquaria but I could not bring myself to make him drive that😂. It would be terrible and just... no. It was either this one or a prias. No thank you.

I hope everyone has a nice night— I have school tomorrow and it's 12:19, I should be sleeping— and....

As always, stay happy, stay gold
-Dani_Kail