Crescendo

Chapter 4

Aiden turned almost as red as his hair; then again, that wasn't hard with his pale skin. He was the only one of us to get the ginger hair gene.

Mom and dad took the bait and turned on Aiden. He tried to send me a look equally dangerous as the one I'd sent him, but nothing could strip him of the title of baby of the family.

The rest of brunch was a breeze. With mom and dad expressing their concern over Aiden's late night partying, I was able to swipe more pancakes and bacon without being grilled for every minute detail of my life.

On the way out, Aiden and Danny shook dad's hand and kissed and hugged mom goodbye before going out to wait in my car. I bent down to give mom a kiss on the cheek, but she wrapped her arms around my chest. I knew it was important to her to hold on a little longer whenever I left the house. When she let go, her right hand rested against the left side of my rib cage. It always did.

"Everything's okay?"

"Course, mom." I tried not to squirm under her touch; even though it had been seven years since those scars made their everlasting mark, I still didn't enjoy the feeling of someone else's hands on them. Not even mom's.

"If you ever need to talk about things—"

"I don't. Everything's fine."

"I worry about you, Theo."

"Nothing to worry about. Promise. Okay?"

She dropped her hand and looked into my eyes. "No more dangerous excursions okay? Find yourself a nice girl; I promise, she'll add all the action to your life you could ever need."

"Mom."

"Oh! Not, not like that! I just meant—"

"Sorry, mom, you walked right into that one. I know what you meant." I bent to give her one last kiss on the cheek and slipped out the door.

***

Over the next two weeks, try as I might, I couldn't get Jules out of my head. I've never been one to just bring girls home. Granted, I have brought girls home and they have stayed over and I have had to call them a cab in the morning, but I didn't make any sort of hobby out of it. It's happened two, three times max. But none of them have given me a rush like Jules.

What was more confusing was that I couldn't pinpoint what it was about the night that gave me that rush. It wasn't like some scene you'd see out of an X-rated movie; for fuck's sake it may have been the most delicately intimate one night stand in history. There was something about her that didn't call for such animalism in the act; something about her made me want her to feel good, feel special. It felt nice to hold on to someone as we slept.

But she must not have felt the same, or if she did, she panicked.

***

I had the weekend following my meeting with Jules off, but then I was back on the next Saturday. Before leaving the house, I threw in a load of wash, and as I was pulling articles of clothing from my hamper and throwing them into the machine, my fingers grasped the Celtics shirt Jules had worn when she stayed over. I held it in my hands and closed my eyes. Either help me forget the whole thing or throw her my way again.

I didn't know who I was talking to until I felt a small tug in my side. Before my mind turned darker, I dumped the rest of my clothes into the machine and set it to its usual cycle.

Aiden was in the living room playing some game on the console connected to the TV; part of me wondered if he'd ever gone to bed given how early it was. I walked right between him and the TV to grab my keys to head to the station.