•Before I Let Go•

•Chapter 15•

"If you have no plans on sticking around, you gotta go—you have to leave, now." Alida insisted.

Cory was put on the spot. He gazed into Alida's eyes thinking of conjuring a lie to stall for time. This was it—this was the moment he ran out his welcome—this was the moment before he had to carry out the inevitable.

Cory began to explain. "I don't have anyone, Alida. I've pushed everyone away. I came back here to tell you the truth- to tell you why I left. It's the only way I could let go."

"So you show up after all these years to... what? Apologize for running off?" Alida scoffed.

Then, Cory said it. "I killed Aidan. It's my fault he's dead. I-I killed him."

Alida stood like stone. She didn't flinch upon hearing his words, it was as if it had been old news.

"No you didn't, Cory."

"We were arguing when it happened. He wasn't paying attention to the road, he-"

Alida rolled her eyes, "It's not your fault, Cory. No matter how much you think it is, it was an accident."

"We were fighting... about you. He found out about us and didn't want me being with you—he said I didn't deserve you." Cory admitted.

He thought relief would follow his admission; however, Cory still felt the same—ashamed and guilty.

"You think I don't know how Aidan felt about us? Aidan knew for a while. It wasn't until-" Alida stopped.

She suddenly remembered that Cory didn't know. After years of thinking that he had, Cory hadn't known that she was pregnant with Zora when he had left.

Alida recalled Aidan beating on her bedroom door—he was banging on it so hard that the center would bow each time his fist struck it.

-§§§-

Alida rushed to open the door before Aidan had a chance to break it in half. She had started to make a comment about his use of steroids, but lost her ability to speak when Aidan marched through the doorway, towering over her so close that she had to step back to keep him from bumping into her.

"The fuck are you gonna do, Ali? The fuck are you gonna do?" Aidan's voice boomed, ricocheting off the confines of her bedroom walls. "Who's is it?" Aidan continued to scream; his wide blue eyes merely an inch from hers.

Alida pushed him away, trying to get him out of her face.

Alida had told Gretchen she missed her period the month prior. When Heidi's pregnancy tests came up missing from under their sink, Heidi went straight to Gretchen for an explanation.

Scared, Gretchen admitted that Alida was pregnant. Heidi then of course, told Aidan, her cheating boyfriend at the time that his little sister was pregnant.

"It's none of your business who it belongs to!" Alida screamed back; she wasn't about to tell him—not until he calmed down.

"What's Mom and Dad gonna think? You don't even have a boyfriend, Ali! Everyone's gonna call you a whore after this."

"I do too have a boyfriend! And so what, I don't give a shit what anyone thinks!"

"I'm not asking anymore—you're gonna tell me who's bastard that is!" Aidan demanded; and with that, Alida smacked him—right across his stupid, angry face.