The Fate Of Broken Hearts

Chapter 32

"Yeah, absolutely! I'll be waiting at the bench right near all the cars."

"Great, I'll see you soon," He said and ended the call.

I kept my phone on my lap and skimmed my eyes over the parking lot further. That was when they landed on Aiden, standing with all his friends who laughed and made jokes around his car. I recognise everyone there, finding myself relieved when I didn't find that blonde girl, Aubrey. Myra was there too, leaning on Lars as he put his arm over her shoulder.

However, when I focused on Aiden, I was surprised that he wasn't looking at his friends nor laughing with them. On the contrary, he couldn't have appeared more bored to be there. He kicked rocks with his shoes, checked his phone multiple times, and threw his keys in the air so they would land on the palm of his hand every time.

It was Myra who spotted me first. She waved at me, informing Lars too, who did the same.

In mid-throw, Aiden followed Myra's line of sight and quickly spotted me. His keys landed flatly on the ground next to the tire of his car.

"Hi." He mouthed with a smile and then leaned over to pick them up.

"Hi." I mouthed back.

Within minutes, he excused himself from his friends and was walking over to me. He was taking large steps, not caring that he got in the way of other people - and while they cursed him for doing so, he ignored them and continued to make a beeline for me.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" Elijah brushed his hand on my back to get my attention, but it got Aiden's instead, causing him to come to a halt. His smile faded, replaced by a scowl while he grew stiff.

"Uh- yeah..." I stammered, looking between the two of them.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late. I hope you weren't waiting too long." He flashed me a smile, one I took very little notice of.

"No... not at all."

"Emma, can I talk to you?" Aiden asked blandly.

I glanced at Elijah. "I-I can't right now."

Aiden narrowed his brows on the two of us, then at the car keys Elijah was holding.

"Where are you two going?"

Elijah stepped forward, their height difference larger now that they were closer – Aiden being the taller one.

"I'm giving her a ride."

He remained composed.

I felt the need to explain.

"Elijah helped me get this job at the public library and he offered to take me there on my first day."

Aiden's expression was unreadable as his gaze slid back and forth, and then it rested on me with a weak frown.

"I can take you if you want,"

Elijah made a scoffing sound beside me.

"Thank you for offering, Aiden, I appreciate it but we already made plans to go together."

"Look at you, Blackwood." Elijah smacked his lips together, beyond amused. "Who knew you'd ever be so desperate for a girl to go as far as offering her a ride! You've really outdone yourself."

Aiden spoke in such a thin, vile tone that I grew cold.

"You have eyes, good for you. What do you want, a fucking sticker?" He scoffed and looked him up and down.

The more I observed, the more I noticed how dead Aiden's eyes had turned. Elijah, in spite of this, purposefully tried to wind him up further, and I winced every time he spoke.

I fully expected Aiden to hit him any moment, or perhaps to become enraged... but he didn't. The opposite happened, actually. He was poised and still.

This made Elijah angry.

"This is why no one fucking likes you, Aiden. You're a piece of shit."

"And you're a waste of space," Aiden added with a forced smile.

Elijah was about to say something else but I quickly interrupted, sick of their twisted back and forth.

"I think we should be going now. I wouldn't like to be late on my first day. Thank you again for the offer, Aiden. Have a good day."

Aiden looked Elijah up and down, repulsed while he nodded. "Fine. If you need anything just call me."

Before we knew it, he had walked back to his group of friends and I was left staring angrily at Elijah.

"That was uncalled for. You didn't need to be so mean."

He cringed at my words and guided us to his car. We both climbed in and clicked ourselves into the seats. In seconds, we were down the road.

"I know, I'm sorry, but it's not like he doesn't deserve it."

"People deserve certain things all the time, but that doesn't mean we lower ourselves to their standards."

"Tell him that," He rolled his eyes and went on, "Did you know he's such a tight-ass that we don't make it a habit to joke around while he's in the room?" Elijah saw the confusion on my face and explained, "Here's an example. One time, the guys and I were throwing around a football while Aiden was reading on the couch. One of us threw it and hit him by accident. You want to know what he did?"

I chewed on the insides of my cheek and nodded.

"Instead of just throwing us back the ball like a normal human being, he got up, walked over to the kitchen, took out a large knife from one of the drawers, and punctured multiple holes in the damn thing. Then he threw it back at me with the smuggest look on his face and told me to shove it up my ass."

I covered my mouth as a few chuckles slipped out, and the harder I tried covering them up, the harder I laughed without meaning to.

"That sounds exactly like something he would do," I said.

"Yeah, we never threw a ball around him again." He smirked. "Good luck to whoever unlucky girl ends up falling in love with that bastard."

My giggles withered into a thick silence.