Wronged

• 17 •

Quickly, Aiden's putting me into the passenger seat and he's getting into the driver's side. I gape at him as he starts up the Jeep and revs the engine before putting his right arm around my seat and looking behind him. We fly backwards in a jerking motion before he turns around and puts the vehicle in drive, going as fast as he safely can out of the small parking lot.

I yelp in surprise and groan annoyedly. "Aiden! What the hell?!"

He drives us onto a road, going well over the speed limit. We're heading toward the inner, deeper parts of the city, but not too far off from my limited miles away from my foster home.

"Aiden," I say again, this time angrier. "Where the hell are you taking me and why'd we leave Dakota there? Who was that guy?"

"Too many questions," Aiden grumbles, eyes fixated on the path ahead.

"Don't avoid them," I shoot back.

He sighs in irritation, trying to keep from exploding. "I'm taking you to something I need to take care of because I'm not leaving you alone with Dakota the Dickstick and Simon the Shithead." He says it through gritted teeth.

I narrow my eyes to slits. "Your business you mean? I'm not an idiot you know. I can put two and two together."

Aiden rolls his own eyes. "I know you're not an idiot," He scoffs out. "But it's better if you don't know anything. That way if people ask if you do, you can tell them you don't without lying. You know, in case you're a bad liar."

I cross my arms. "Who would ask if I 'knew anything'?" The questions comes out sarcastic and dry as I place air quotations around "knew anything." How ridiculous of him.

"Just a safety precaution," he replies, just as bitter.

"Whatever," I huff and then lean back in my seat. "You should just take me home if you don't want me putting anymore clues together."

"It's getting too late for this deal," He says. "And besides, it's not like you'll remember every single word of any conversation held. Every detail of every surrounding—"

Bet.

"There's no way to place everything together without every detail of the situation."

I have to hold back a smirk because even though I may not know everything about Aiden just yet, he doesn't know jack about me either. He's seen me when I'm weak, sure, but he doesn't know the Why. Why I'm weak. What made me weak. I believe I know more about him than he knows about me.

We drive for another ten minutes and forty-six seconds before we reach a normal-looking building. It's clean. The sidewalks are seemingly fresh. There isn't any grime or filth. It's a confusing thing, because it's not what you'd picture as a place where two criminals would be meeting. At least, that's just the scenario I pictured. I don't really know what's going on.

Aiden turns off the Jeep and lifts himself up a bit to grab his phone out of his back pocket. When the screen lights up, he relaxes and releases a breath, tossing the phone into my lap carelessly and opening his door. I raise my brows as he gets out and shuts it behind him, going to the trunk.

I roll my eyes and set the phone down on the lid of the center console before turning and opening my own door. I have to hobble to get out with this stupid boot, but I manage.

Aiden closes the back hatch and holds a black duffle bag. I cross my arms. He rolls his eyes.

"What's in there?" I ask nonchalantly.

"Stuff."

"Drugs? Guns? What?"

Aiden sighs and runs his open hand through his hair. "Christ, nothing alright?" He glares at me, a few of his locks touching just above his eyebrow.

I scoff. "Nothing is such a meritless word."

"Meritless?" He gives me a look that says, "Are you serious? You're using big words right now?"

It's not like I can control who's stupid and who can understand a simple word.

I glare back at him. "Yeah. Mer-it-less," I articulate my words dryly. "As in, no value or worth. Nothing is nothing. It's meritless."

He rolls his eyes for the hundredth time and slings the bag over his shoulder. "Yeah, well, your presence here is becoming a little meritless." He opens the back door and disappears to get something.

Since he can't see me, I let myself crack just the smallest bit at his words. The truth in his words. I know he's just a little annoyed by my questions and prying and sarcastic attitude, but he really doesn't have any idea how hard that hit home.

Not only is my presence meritless, but so is my whole existence. I shouldn't even be allowed to breathe.

Well, you could make yourself stop breathing, you know?

No.

I can't think about anything like that again. When I got thinking deep into that area of life (or more, non-life), they took me to the "mental institute." It was horrid. I was experimented on once they understood how insanely different and elaborate my brain was. I can't go back. No more slip-ups.

I need to be on my own before Aiden sees me breaking and thinking to myself. I need to breathe. Just breathe.

I cross my arms to give myself some sort of warmth from the weather and begin walking toward a small brick structure with a woman symbol on it, indicating the bathroom.

I hear a door shut behind me. "Anna? Where the hell are you going?"

I roll my eyes and turn around, walking backwards with my arms outstretched to the side.

"To the bathroom! I think the uncleaned toilets will see more merit in my presence than you do!"

•••
A/N:

It's about to pick up all "UH-OH" next chapter, just so you know.