Tailor Made

Chapter Nine

All three of them were silent. Aria nervously glanced at her friends, and saw that Elise looked indignant and ready to fight, but Mat looked as calm as ever. “I’m afraid none of us know what you’re talking about, Ms Reid,” he cut across Elise smoothly. “If you would please excuse us, we would hate to keep the Theatre club waiting.”

Aria and Elise followed Mat out silently, and didn’t say a word until they were well out of earshot.

“What was that about?” Elise exclaimed. “Did she just become crazy scary then?”

“I told you she remembered me! Us. What do we do?” Aria asked desperately.

Mat shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. She could tell the school about it, but they’re not savages here. She’s not a teacher, so they wouldn’t be able to just take her word for it. Without any proof, they wouldn’t do anything. They certainly wouldn’t keep us from the R-fad.”

“If you sure,” Aria said uncertainly.

“I am. Now let’s shuffle. I wasn’t joking about not keeping them waiting.”

It wasn’t a far walk to where the Theatre club held their meetings in an indoor, well, theatre. When they entered they found most of the club was up on the stage speaking with Chris and Jarod. Aria frowned at the sight of Ruby standing next to Chris, but brightened when she spotted Alton. He beckoned them forwards and they mounted the steps.

Aria was immediately surrounded. “Oh, she does look just like Alton!” were some comments. “Oh, I bet with a wig and a dress Alton would look just like a girl, this is amazing!” “I bet we could use a twin in a show somehow. Have you got any acting experience?” Aria was immediately frazzled and looked out to Alton for support.

“Calm down everyone,” he said, striding into the middle with Aria. “Aria’s instead going to work hard making sure those on stage look their best. Didn’t we just have a meeting of not pressuring people into participating?”

Many of them nodded and backed off, almost moving as a collective. Aria glanced about, recognising the looks of adoration from both the girls and boys directed at her brother.

“We should get back to rehearsing and let our director work with the Coutur… Couturier club, that’s a really weird name,” Alton said.

“It doesn’t roll off the tongue, does it?” Mat commented.

Alton indicated for one of the members to come forward, but at that moment Nora entered the room and Aria was distracted. Nora had a look unlike any Aria had seen before on her face. It was uncertainty. Worry. Somehow with her eyebrows pushed together Nora looked much younger and more vulnerable.

“Is something wrong?” Aria asked.

Nora shook her head. It was not to say no, but instead not now. Of course, Aria recalled, Nora would never talk about something wrong in front of others. Aria would have to find a moment alone to ask.

“Nice to meet you!”

There was suddenly a guy in front of her offering his hand. Aria looked up suddenly. She’d missed it all, what was happening? He seemed nice enough; he had a rounded face that wore a welcoming smile, but Aria was distracted by his black hair. It wasn’t that short, maybe two inches, and yet somehow he managed to make it stand up quite a bit.

“Um,” Aria said.

He raised a hand to his head. “My hair isn’t that intimidating is it?”

“No, no! I just, I missed all of that,” Aria admitted. “Who are you?”

“Liam,” he replied, “Director enthusiast.”

“Oh, of course. I’m Aria. Sewing enthusiast, I guess?”

“Is your enthusiasm normally so tentative?” he asked. “Cute. But don’t worry, I know who you are. You’ll be horrified to hear that Alton talks about you a bit.”

Aria raised an eyebrow. “Does he now? Now who’s missing who?”

Liam smiled, and asked the club to follow him back stage. But first, “Can you all run through Act 2, Scene 3? Evelyn, you’re nailing the lines, but I was thinking you could maybe aim for more ‘confident i***t’ rather than ‘uncertain i***t’? Remember the point of this play is that you’re a bad actress, but you don’t know it. And Ryan, I know I keep suggesting you project your voice, but perhaps now you’ve gone a little too far and are starting to look a bit strained by the effort? Maybe cool it back down again. Just a little. Whatever you think is right.”

Liam led them back stage and Elise, Chris, and Jarod gathered around the clothing rack to have a look through. Aria couldn’t help herself commenting. “If you think I’m tentative about my enthusiasm, I can say the same for your directing. Aren’t directors usually more ‘do this, do that’? That was all ‘maybe’ and ‘perhaps’.”

He laughed in embarrassment. “Yeah, I know. It’s silly really, but I feel guilty trying to control people. Because hey; maybe they know better than me. They’re actors after all. But it’s a flaw, I don’t deny that. But it’s not going to stop me from doing what I enjoy. In fact it’s a great opportunity to work on that part of myself.” Liam moved past Aria and pulled out some of the garments from the rack. “We’ve treated these terribly, it must sting to see garments in this condition. We mostly just need patch jobs, but the leading lady needs something a little more unusual. Perhaps we could get advice on how to make a simple costume for them?”

“I’d be happy to help with that,” Chris said, “But if the others could have someone to walk them through the parts which need fixing?”

“No worries. Imogen,” Liam indicated to a thin girl half hiding behind a set wall, “She’s our costume and set designer. If you could take Chris through your ideas; that would be great.”

“I’ll join you,” Nora announced abruptly. “I want something more interesting than just stitching up loose seams.”

Nora stomped off after Chris and Imogen, and Imogen looked extremely worried by the dark look on Nora’s face. Aria wondered if she should follow too. But maybe designing an outfit without the strain of the competition would calm her down.

Liam quickly pointed them through the stack of costumes and there wasn’t too much wrong with them. A few tears, but they were all neat; indicating the tears came from moving the clothing beyond its reach, rather than ripping through wear. “This shouldn’t take too long,” Elise commented.

“Great,” Liam breathed a sigh of relief, “I’d hate to ask too much of you all at the moment, Alton told me you guys are prepping for a competition. We’re really grateful you’re willing to do this for us. Feel free to get comfortable wherever you like, there are plugs just over there for your machines. Or if you’d like free entertainment, please join me watching my guys get to work. I’m going to head back to the stage now, so if you have any questions don’t hesitate to find me.”

Liam left and the group got to work sorting big tears from small. The smaller rips weren’t even worth using a machine on, so Elise instructed Aria to practice her hand-stitching on them.

Aria had just sat down with her needle and thread when there was a crash from where Nora and Chris had disappeared to with Imogen. A moment later Nora’s voice was screaming out. “What?! What is it you want? I can’t hear a word you’re saying! It’s like you’re determined to infuriate me with your mumbling!”

Aria didn’t wait to hear more, she was up on her feet and into the next room in a flash. Chris was standing in the way of a furious Nora, while Imogen was cowering back and holding up a small bag to shield herself with. Aria grabbed Nora’s arm and wrenched her back, staring into the hellfire burning in Nora’s eyes.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Aria shouted, pulling her away. As angry as Nora was, Aria was still able to yank her back, trying to redirect Nora’s anger away from the other girl.

For a moment the two of them were locked in a silent battle of wills. Nora’s eyes shined unnaturally as if there were tears in there just waiting to fall. Nora’s hand dropped but her fierce gaze remained as she stomped off.

Chris glanced wide-eyed at Aria and moved to rescue Imogen from her hiding place. There was the sound of hurried footsteps, no doubt to investigate the commotion. With a worried crease upon her brow, Aria followed Nora. At a careful distance.

She followed Nora outside and watched her plonk herself down on a bench heavily. Nora sat there for the briefest moment before her shoulders suddenly slumped and she buried her face in her hands. Careful not to meet Nora’s gaze and aggravate her again, Aria sat down next to her and stared at the extremely dull wall ahead of them. The school could really do with a splash of colour.

“Dare I ask what happened to cause that reaction?” Aria asked.

“It wasn’t anything Imogen did,” Nora mumbled behind her hands.

“I guessed that much. Something to do with your odd look earlier?”

Nora nodded.

“Am I going to have to pry this story from you?”

Nora nodded.

“I should have brought my sewing… Was it bad news?”

Nora nodded.

“To do with the competition?”

Nora shook her head.

“Oh that’s easy then. The only other thing I’ve seen to upset you is your mother.”

Nora nodded and thankfully began to speak. “I stupidly let slip to my mother that I’m having a ballet recital in a few weeks. She’s decided she’s coming into the school to watch.”

“The problem is that you have a doting mother?”

“You’re hilarious. No. You know my mum wants me to be a dancer. And when she sees how well I dance at the recital she’ll never stop pushing.”

In spite of herself, Aria burst out laughing. “Seriously? Your problem is that you dance too well?”

Nora looked hurt.

“Why not just do poorly?” Aria suggested.

“Cause that won’t raise any confusion with my Madame. She’s been watching me all semester and knows I can dance anyone in that class under the table.”

“Isn’t that expression usually used for drinking?”

Nora ignored her. “Ok, so yes that would be awkward for Madame but she’d get over it. The problem is… my mother is a s**t about me becoming a dancer, but I still love her and want her to be proud of me. I don’t think I could face her look of disappointment.”

“Alright, fine, I understand that reason. Parents are tough. Still, I have a suggestion that just might blow your mind,” Aria said.

“It’s going to be something stupid, isn’t it.”

“Why don’t you just talk to your mother about all this? You said you’re waiting until the R-fad, but why not get in early. Make her go to the event and see what you’re capable of?” Aria suggested.

“Because I already know mum thinks it’s a terrible idea,” Nora said gloomily. “She’s always complained about me spending my money on project supplies and wasting my time on sewing, rather than practicing. Look, this may be inconceivable to you but I get scared trying to speak my mind with her.”

“Seriously? You have the guts to tell a Hell’s Angel that his fly is down. And yet you can’t be honest with your mother about something that is clearly important to you? Nora, I cannot keep up with what goes on in your brain,” Aria said. “But look, we’re in the middle of club time and we promised to help this group. We should get this done and you and I can discuss what to do afterwards. And you need to apologise to Imogen. Properly. I know you were upset but that doesn’t excuse how you acted towards her.”

“Now who’s the on-campus parent,” Nora muttered.

“I’m not kidding,” Aria said seriously. “This isn’t the first time you’ve blown up at someone unrelated to your issues. You need to stop taking them out on other people. But the first step right now is making things right with those you’ve hurt.”

Nora had been steadily regaining her energy throughout the talk, but sank back down again at that. She pushed the hair back from her face with an awkward glance to the side. “There’s no escaping it, is there? Or there’s no escaping me.”

Aria shrugged, unsure of how to respond to that.

“Can you do me a favour though? I still feel… is there a word for the combined feeling of angry, sad, worried? Volatile, maybe?” Nora said, “Could you stay with me? I just want someone around in case I fall back into all that.”

The two of them returned to the stage, and after finding Imogen, Nora delivered a heartfelt apology that was so smooth Aria wondered if she was often forced to apologise for her outbursts. Maybe her parents knew better how to handle her. Imogen nodded faintly to the apology and seemed to forgive Nora, but it was hard to tell with someone so quiet. Maybe she only accepted because she didn’t want to make a scene. Nevertheless Aria took Nora to sit and watch the stage and fix up the old clothing, rather than set her back with Chris and Imogen.

Aria sat down next to Liam and got to work. The problem with sewing is that it keeps your hands and eyes busy, but just fixing small rips does not engage the mind. Luckily they were given free entertainment by the theatre students. The performance seemed to be about terrible actors putting on a performance about a murder mystery.

Two of the actors, one of whom was Ruby, leaned out a window on the stage crying back and forth that the car of their friend was driving straight towards a cliff, and that the breaks must have been cut. The actor who was supposedly in the car popped back on stage for a moment. “Whoops, forgot me umbrella,” he said with a cheeky wink, and ducked back out. Aria snorted and accidentally knotted her thread.

“Damnit!” she cursed quietly, and set to sorting it out. The thread snapped during her struggles so she had to arrange a new thread. By the time she refocused on the performance, the scene had ended and Chris was on stage and kissing her passionately in passing. Aria’s heart jumped and involuntarily let out an ‘ugh’.

Liam had also been looking down at his notes, and when he glanced back up he called out, “Oi! This isn’t the time for you to get reacquainted! You should all be moving on to the next scene!” He glanced over at Aria while the actors scrambled up on stage. “Too sweet for your tastebuds? That’s fair. But it’s hard to be too mad at them. They look happy, and isn’t that the most important thing in life?”

“Uh, sure,” Aria agreed, taken by surprise by the question. But as she watched Ruby and Chris reluctantly disentangled, she thought about his comment. “Actually, I’m not sure I agree with you. I don’t deny that happiness is important. But the most important thing?” She shook her head. “That probably sounds stupid though.”

“Not at all. Educate me on your thoughts,” Liam requested.

“I just think that happiness is fickle. It can abandon you for no reason, even when you’re doing everything right. And then you become worried because you should be happy, but you’re not. And that fear chases away any further happiness. I find if I focus on other things, it doesn’t matter as much. I mean, when I work on a project I don’t laugh and smile the whole way through. I wouldn’t consider myself ‘happy’ when I sew, but I know I love it. I’m being challenged, I’m being fascinated. When I create something I feel powerful somehow,” Aria explained.

“Interesting,” Liam smiled. “But I would counter that maybe what you feel is still a form of happiness. It’s defined as pleasure or contentment, even if you’re not actively smiling. But maybe I was too absolute with my comment about it being the ‘most important thing’. But I personally feel that happiness powers everything I do, even if it’s subtle at times. Though I would suggest… maybe if you can’t find happiness in all the normal places, doesn’t that mean it’s time to look somewhere new?”

“Such a hard working director,” Nora mumbled from Aria’s side.

Liam didn’t hear though, and was all but ignoring the stage. Aria pushed Nora from her mind too. “I like that,” she said.

“Tell me Aria, what do you do when you’re not studying or sewing?” he asked, not taking his eyes from her.

Aria paused mid-stitch to consider. “Um… hmm, not a lot, really. I read a bit, drawing’s fun when I’m in the mood. Oh, and I enjoy parkour.”

“Really?” Liam asked incredulously. “That’s that running and jumping thing, yeah? No offense intended, but I wouldn’t have picked you as the athletic type.”

“You know, I keep getting that response. Am I doing something wrong?”

“Not at all, maybe everyone’s judgement is clouded because you give off an aura of femininity that makes you seem kind, calm. And parkour seems… not.”

“Are you saying Aria can’t be both?” Nora asked flatly, but Aria shushed her.

“Not at all. Just trying to help explain what people might see. How’d you get into it?” Liam replied.

“Being active makes me feel better when I’m in a sour mood,” Aria began.

“You must need to run a lot then,” Nora muttered.

“Before I moved here I used to live in Forreston. You probably wouldn’t know it; it’s in a different state. Pretty far out, actually, my mum liked the countryside. But on weekends my brother and I would head into the city and meet with his friends and climb anything we could find. For some reason near the entertainment centre was a large open area filled with huge, odd-coloured blocks. Now that I think about it, it was a huge waste of space. What was it even for…? In any case they were excellent for climbing. The guys were always impressed how I could climb up these things which were well beyond my own height.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a lot of good memories with that,” Liam smiled.

Aria shrugged. “I guess. I had fun and I worked hard, sure, but I never felt like it was that important to me. I think I just did it because I wanted friends and I thought my brother’s friends would respect me if I could keep up with them.” Aria paused. “Huh, I really am always following others about.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh, nothing. Just something I talked about last night.” Aria glanced aside at Nora who looked back, but said nothing.

The bell chimed, so Aria admired her handiwork. “One shirt down,” she announced.

“I did ten,” Nora said. “We had, like, two hours. Minus complications.”

Liam stood up and thanked everyone for their work after suggesting a few notes. The group broke up, and Alton moved towards her, but Aria was distracted by the sight of Chris and Ruby leaving hand-in-hand.

“Shall we head back?” Nora asked, but Aria didn’t hear her. She didn’t hear anything until Liam was back at her shoulder.

“I know we’re meant to go study before dinner, but would you perhaps instead go for a walk with me?” Liam asked.

Aria’s gaze unconsciously wandered back to Chris, but she forced herself to pay attention. “Actually yeah, that sounds just what I need now. Nora?”

“What?”

“I’ll meet you back home after dinner,” Aria said. “Have fun.”

Aria and Liam walked out, and they the black look on Nora’s face. Alton didn’t though. When Aria walked right by him he locked eyes with Nora, and together they watched the two leave.

Liam led Aria through the school up to the south end. “You and Alton are new to this school, right? I’m betting you have no idea about all the fun places here.”

“Oh yeah?” Aria asked, “Like what?”

“Little things. Like that huge tree off from the Anderson building. It’s right near everything yet somehow feels so isolated and quiet. I love it up there, it’s where I take a book on weekends. This school also has a hedge maze. It used to be huge, but they had to cut it down because… uh, people went in there in couples. They wanted to discourage that.”

Aria raised an eyebrow with a cocky skew to her grin. “Sounds cosy.”

“It was actually! I mean, not that I- I only knew about it because it was huge when I first started attending the school. I used to hide in there when I got sick of people. That was before I found the tree.” Liam insisted, but a blush rose to his cheeks.

“You really want to get away from people that much?” Aria asked.

“A little. I appreciate the silence in a loud world.”

“And yet you’re working as a director in a club filled with people?”

“I never said I was consistent,” Liam laughed. “I like both.”

“So do you think the hedge maze would be as nice in the approaching dark?” Aria asked.

“Why don’t we go and find out?” Liam suggested.

They strolled over to the maze. Aria was rather exciting as she’d never seen one except in movies. The reality of the maze was actually quite dull. Without a view from above, all they could see was one large hedge wall, which obscured all the walls behind. The entrance, however, was more interesting. It was modelled in a Japanese style; two tall stone lanterns stood either side of the gap in the hedges, and a small pond with a bamboo deer scarer sat to the right.

“It's lovely!” Aria exclaimed.

“I could think of a few things better,” he smiled at her. They entered the maze together. From the look he gave her, there was no denying Liam liked her. He was fairly direct, but she appreciated that. It did however weigh down her heart.

Aria didn't want to admit it to Nora or Mat or anyone for that matter, but her feelings for Chris were starting to wear her down. She didn't even understand the feelings anymore; they hadn't spent time alone in ages, and yet she could stop herself from continuing to pine after him. She wanted to just give up her feelings and forget, but her heart refused to let go of that tiny glimmer of hope every time he smiled at her. Maybe the only way to get rid of those feelings was to force them away.

She looked at Liam enthusiastically telling a story about his most recent game of ultimate Frisbee. He wasn't bad looking. He was nice too. And funny. And he was clearly interested. Why not just be with him and try redirect her misplaced feelings in him? She was sure she could learn to like him. He was certainly smart enough to keep her engaged.

Aria tried to think what Nora would suggest now. She could hear Nora's voice in her mind. 'You need a palate cleanser. Use him like the after dinner mint he is!' Aria wasn't so sure Nora would say that. It was callous enough, sure, but outside of warning Aria not to date, Nora hadn't explained much of her opinion on relationships.

She sighed. Thinking of the complications she had between Nora, Chris, and basically anyone she was close to had brought her down.

“What's wrong?” Liam asked, looking at her with concern.

“I don't know. I just feel a bit melancholic. I shouldn't, I'm really enjoying time with you. It just overcame me in a wave,” she replied.

“Is it because of Nora?” he asked.

“What? Why?”

“Your friend's name was Nora, right? I'm not sure she was a fan of me talking to you. She seems a bit standoffish.”

“Sorry about that. Nora is a lot like a cat, I think, she hates people until she wants attention, she had mood swings, and looks like she's constantly judging people. But she's really very sweet. To me. Most of the time,” Aria explained, but she found it hard to completely defend her friend.

Liam looked as if he was struggling to say something nice in response. “Well… I'm impressed by your desire to stay by her despite…”

“Despite what?”

Liam twiddled his fingers uncomfortably. “I hate to speak against your friend, but… she seems a little unstable. The way she seemed to flip between calm and ferociously angry? It worried me. Imogen wouldn't offend anyone, so I can't see why Nora went so ballistic.”

Aria wanted to defend Nora, to explain the extenuating circumstances, but privately she agreed. She had seen Nora be rude to far too many people, and show little remorse.

“I'm just worried for my group,” Liam admitted, “I'm grateful for her help on the fixing project, but I want to respectfully ask her not to return to help us. That'll probably make her happy, to work on her own projects instead.”

Aria looked aside.

Liam wrung his hands anxiously. “Oh no, I wanted to cheer you up but I just made you more upset. Um.”

He looked up. They had been walking subconsciously as they talked, and now the hedges loomed over them from all directions. The soft, round hedges had looked charming in the twilight, but the rapidly falling darkness drew out the odd shapes in them. The hedges looked like gnarled hands reaching out to them from all directions.

“I won’t be scared if you’re not?” he offered.

“Should I lie to you then for both our sakes?” Aria replied. “You’ve been in here before, shouldn’t you know the way out?”

“Not in the darkness. You’d have thought I would’ve considered this when I decided to bring you here,” Liam said ruefully.

Something wet dropped onto Aria’s cheek, and she froze, imagining some huge beast standing over them and salivating in anticipation of its next meal. That’s what would normally happen in a movie at this point, wouldn’t it? Things would naturally go from bad to worse.

“Did you feel that?” Liam asked, proving to Aria that she wasn’t imagining things.

There was a large crack that made both of them jump high into the air, and the heavens opened up and rained down upon them. In seconds they were soaked through.

Liam grabbed her arm, maybe in preparation to run, but Aria burst out laughing. It wasn’t entirely filled with humour, it sounded partly defeated and part rueful. He laughed as well. There was no point in running to avoid the cold, they were sodden to the bone.

“Would you believe that this happens every time I bring a pretty girl here?” Liam said.

“Oh yeah? How many have you brought here?”

“Just the one,” he grinned.

After half an hour of stumbling through the darkness they managed to make their way back to Liam’s dorm room to dry off, and enjoy dinner while wrapped in blankets. They didn’t have to worry about Liam’s roommate; he said something about them being gone for a few days. The two of them thought nothing more of that, and talked late into the night.

Rather than sneaking out of his room at an unseemly hour, the two curled up in bed together. Just as Aria was finally drifting off, Liam asked her a question.

“I want to get to know you better, and I think a great way to do that is by dating. Did you want to be my girlfriend?”

“Why not,” Aria replied. “Now shaddup, I want to sleep.” Though she did kiss his cheek before rolling over and drifting off.