Hallway Meetup (Tag - Ariel)

Tahlia never thought walking into someone could be so pleasant, but the girl she had plowed into was a unique looking thing with her adorable red and black leopard print fluff dress and red bow to match stuffed up into her dark curls. She was a vision really, an animated one at that. Lia watched as the girl spoke to her, introducing herself as Ariel. It was actually a bit difficult for Tahlia to stay focused on anything by the swaying of the girl’s body as she seemed to be jiving to the moves of the song she had been listening to. Tahlia could hear the song from the loud music coming out of the buds, but it did not at all ring a bell. She would have asked about it, but the girl was far too enthusiastic about the music from just hearing it. Tahlia couldn’t imagine actually discussing it with the girl.

Just as the name finally registered to Lia, she gave the girl a smile which unintentionally seemed to match the girl’s own happy grin. ”Like the Little Mermaid?!” It was a rather dumb comment most likely, but it had been the first thing to come to Lia’s mind when she heard the name Ariel. And it was Disney! She couldn’t help it! ”I’m Tahlia,” she said introducing herself now. ”And unfortunately my name was not yet used in a Disney movie.” Tahlia kept smiling. Oh god, stop acting goofy, she thought. Why did every single social encounter she have end up with her feeling like a complete idiot? It was just a proven fact that Tahlia felt uncomfortable around people who seemed much more outgoing than her which this girl expressed greatly.

Tahlia could see the girl’s eyes wander to her head, and at first she thought that maybe there had been something sticking out of it. It made her rethink her schedule this morning. Had she made time to brush her hair this morning? She immediately felt the urge to bring her hand up to her head but refrained as the girl complimented her on the color of her hair. ”Oh! Thank you. It’s natural. I am so against dying the hair. It is horrible for it for one, and two, it is chemicals that are just not at all good for the scalp.” she smiled at Ariel. And the awkwardness keeps on comin’, she thought as she watched the girl. She had no idea if Ariel knew anything about hair dye or if she had ever dyed her own hair before, but there had been no need to actually bring hair dye into a conversation with something that she had just met. How did that at all make any sense? It didn’t.

Tahlia decided that maybe it was best to go onto a more neutral and situation fitting topic. She cleared her throat and began. ”So, are you in any after school activities or something? Is that why you are here later? I just work at the tutoring center down the hall a ways. Science and Math.”

Tahlia pursed her lips and nodded as the girl retorted that she looked nothing like Ariel and that she was named after the Ariel from a Shakespeare play which fortunately Tahlia knew nothing about. English, especially Shakespeare, was not at all her fortay. But it was true. Although the girl was gorgeous which was definitely Disney Ariel all the way, the girl was missing the signature hair, the big boobs, and not to mention the fin. There HAD to be a fin. But Tahlia didn’t look much like Ariel either really except for the hair of course which even then was much lighter than Disney Ariel. But Tahlia took it as a compliment. Ariel was her favorite Disney character to pretend to be when she was growing up. She and Toby would go for a dip in the pool in the backyard, and she would always be Ariel while he would pretend to be Sebastian and tell her what to do. That specific memory made her feel sad and happy both at the same time.

That feeling left her completely though becoming nausea as Ariel mentioned that hair dye made her ‘vom’. Just the thought of vomiting made Lia feel the queasiness, a weakness she could not at all avoid ever. The girl continued talking about a guy named Trent. ”Oh your da…” Tahlia hesitated and cut herself off shaking her head as the girl continued and mentioned that this Trent guy wouldn’t play with it if she got her hair dyed. ”….boyfriend! She recovered with a nod. Please, please, please be talking about your boyfriend, she thought. Of course the girl hadn’t been talking about her dad. But it sounded like it from the beginning. Tahlia was used to her father telling her she couldn’t do things. It wasn’t THAT much of a misunderstanding really. ”Oh wow, married, huh?” Tahlia watched as the girl looked elsewhere as if she were in a dreamlike state. Oh yes, definitely not daddy. But even as that realization took over, Tahlia had a hard time fathoming that this girl even knew who the hell she was going to be ‘marrying’. She looked to be no older than 16. How did she know at all what love was or knew what she would be getting herself into if she did end up getting involved seriously with someone. That whole situation was something Lia never thought about in fear that it would just get in the way of what she really wanted out of life….or what others wanted for her. But this girl had everything planned out. Right down to the damn pink champagne.

Tahlia had gotten so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn’t realized the girl had finally stopped talking and had asked her a question. ”Oh! Prince!” Lia said averting her eyes for a few seconds to come up with the words to say. But Lia didn’t even have time to answer before the girl kept on going with the words. Just listening to Ariel was overwhelming. So….much….TALKING! She had never met someone so talkative. Maxi was her own breed of talkative, but this girl surpassed that. She was like 20 Maxipads all combined and chattering at the same exact time. That was how Tahlia felt at this very moment. Lia was so absorbed by this girl’s personality that she couldn’t even fumble through her own words.

Finally! The girl had stopped talking for a few seconds as she apologized for being so excited. Tahlia took the opportunity to throw a few words in there….maybe phrases or even sentences if Ariel would let her. ”No, no, no, don’t be sorry,” Lies! she thought smiling. ”Oh, thank you, but yeah…..I don’t have one actually. A prince I mean. And I don’t want one thank you.” She declined as politely as possible. And she would have declined the invitation to go shopping as well if she hadn’t gotten the inkling that she actually wanted to go. When people asked her to go out and do things with them, most of the time the conversation would end with them rolling their eyes and saying ‘fine, go have fun with your textbooks’. But maybe it was those puppy dog eyes, or her crack in her sweet little voice that made Tahlia just want to go hang out with her. ”Um….okay.” Tahlia nodded with a smile. ”Yeah, it will be fun.” It will so not be fun, she thought as she continued watching the girl as she began talking AGAIN. She was so not a shopper. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that everyone in the stores were rude and did not at all realize that the store was not just a space for them. There were others occupying the same exact area, and they needed to learn how to share. She hated squeezing through those racks of clothing and getting her own clothing caught and snagged by them.

”Wait, we are going now?!” Tahlia asked. She really hoped not. She had a quiz to study for, and she needed to be prepared for lecture tomorrow so she could ask questions about the material she hadn’t understood from the reading the night before. But for some reason, even if the girl did say ‘yes, right this second’, Lia would still find herself agreeing to it which was something completely out of the ordinary for Tahlia.

Tahlia smiled brushing her long red hair out of her face. ”Yeah, maybe,” she said more catering to this girl’s own illusion of love instead of her own understanding of it. Even though this girl seemed so sure about this Trenton guy, Lia had a hard time appreciating it. So young, and yet so absorbed in someone already. Why did people let themselves get to that point when there was so much else in the world to focus on that was probably much better for you in the long run anyway. But she didn’t go any further with it. As love struck as Ariel seemed to be, Lia knew it would be a battle she would not win.

The girl had grown quiet, and Tahlia figured that her attempt at concealing her overwhelm for Ariel’s constant talking had not worked out so well. She watched as Ariel smoothed her very loud dress and explained to Lia that she wouldn’t be THAT impulsive to just randomly decide to go shopping right this second. The girl took into account Lia’s schedule which surprised Lia greatly. Not that Lia meant to be judgmental at first with Ariel, but the girl DID seem impulsive, the type that just decided something right away without thinking it through. Clearly Tahlia had been wrong with her assumption. ”Oh, well we could always exchange numbers? We could get together another time. My schedule is usually pretty booked solid, but I’m sure we can find a good time for the both of us.”

The girl apologized for her chattiness, and Tahlia immediately felt bad for making this girl feel like she had to apologize. The girl was outgoing, social, and seemed very happy with the life she was living at the moment. In the scheme of things, none of those characteristics were at all bad to have. In fact, some of them, Tahlia deep down found herself wishing she had. If she did, maybe she’d have more friends than just Jericho and a small handful. And then the girl had continued to explain why she was talking so much. Medications? Tahlia thought. It was an immediate curiosity for Tahlia. It was strange how that worked. Most of the time, it was like a complete switch. One minute she felt one way about someone and then she would find something out about them and feel a completely different way about them. In this case though, Tahlia already had a unique curiosity for the girl. Now the interest had simply built on top of the interest that was already accumulating. ”Oh medications? Is everything alright?” It was a bold thing to say. But if the girl didn’t want to talk about the medications, she probably wouldn’t have mentioned them. And besides, Tahlia wanted to know!

Ariel pulled out something golden and moved it towards Tahlia. Tahlia instinctively leaned in to look at the item in the girl’s hands. It was a picture of a dark haired man who looked to be about Tahlia’s age, even a bit older possibly. He was very attractive, and at first Tahlia thought that maybe he was her older brother or something, but when she realized the man was actually this Trenton guy that Ariel kept mentioning, Tahlia was speechless. She just watched as those lovey dovey puppy dog eyes came back into focus again. Oh brother, Tahlia thought. But the girl returned the key chain to her purse and pulled out her phone so that Tahlia could put her contact information into it. Tahlia took the phone and listened to Ariel as she began to answer Tahlia’s previous question about the medications.

She had already typed in her information on the iphone and handed it back to Ariel when Ariel started to talk about the voices in her head. Voices in someone’s head weren’t all that bad. Sometimes Tahlia would imagine that she heard someone calling her name. Or hell, she would even talk to herself on occasion when she was trying to work through something. But when Ariel started talking about how this ‘voice’ could tell her bad things sometimes, it was enough to scare just about anyone including Tahlia. And this Trent person! What was his deal! Was he even real? Or was he some sort of illusion the young girl had created to help her get through her obvious issues with these bad voices. For a few seconds, Tahlia had wished that she hadn’t given the girl her information. She could be some sort of silent killer who attempted to keep out those bad thoughts but would snap randomly.

As if the girl could sense Lia’s fear, Ariel called her out on it hoping that Tahlia hadn’t been scared of the knowledge of her new friend. And then there it was. The guilt. And it hit Tahlia like a bag of bricks. “I don’t have a lot of friends,” the girl had said and immediately Tahlia was able to connect even after all that she had just discovered. Tahlia had no friends either, and even though she continued to tell herself that it had been her own choice, that wasn’t the whole truth. Tahlia had been so caught up with the life that she was supposed to live, that she had forgotten how to live the life that deep down she wanted to live. A life full of friends, fun memories, and possibilities outside of what her parents wanted for her.

Tahlia gave the girl a soft smile. ”Everyone has issues, Ariel.” She reached out patting the girl’s shoulder. ”I don’t have any friends either, so maybe we can have no friends together?” Tahlia hated that she always felt the need to help people. It bugged her. She was always stressed about school, and she had absolutely no time to do anything but focus on school, yet she always seemed to find time to try and ‘save’ people. And at this moment, Ariel was one of those people.

Tahlia could never see herself being a psychiatrist or a therapist of any kind. She didn’t have the social patience for that. But she did enjoy the field as it always supplied the knowledge and intrigue of the crazed mind. And when Ariel talked about a guy grabbing her and Trenton stepping in to help her out, Tahlia couldn’t help but use that analytical mind of hers and take the place of a psychology researcher wondering if Ariel had killed the guy that had grabbed and pushing the incident onto a panic attack and this Trenton character. A killer? Really Lia?” She couldn’t believe she was letting her mind wander like this. Clearly this girl was not a psycho killer. She was too adorable and innocent looking for something like that.

Tahlia smiled with a shrug. ”Well, I’m not running. I’m at the school every Tuesday afternoon anyway for tutoring. If you are usually waiting for….Trenton, then I’m sure I will see you around.” Tahlia would have offered to drive the girl to wherever she needed to go instead of having her wait for an invisible Trenton, as Tahlia still wasn’t sure if he even existed, but she didn’t want to scare the girl or overstep her bounds. These days one couldn’t be too careful when trusting strangers. And Ariel being a high schooler, she was sure that her mother had told her to beware of strangers. ”You should give me a call or something when you feel like getting together.” She said with a smile. ”Well, I should probably head out. My pounds upon pounds of homework are waiting for me.” She laughed softly. ”See you around?” She asked backing up to walk away. But how long would Ariel really have to wait for her ride? Would it be that horrible for Tahlia to at least offer? Oh crap Tahlia. She hesitated for just a few moments before deciding to stop walking away. ”Are you sure you want to wait? I’m sure your place isn’t too far from the school right? I could drive you home just as easy as Trenton could.”