Hundreds of thoughts were racing through my head in the speed of light, and I could sense Aiden could tell, as he didn't say anything cheeky, he just waited for my response. My head was about to burst, my heart too, and no, it wasn't from happiness, In fact, I was pretty sure if I was feeling something, it was anger.
I took a deep breath, then a laugh, then another breath. "I don't get it. Do you enjoy torturing me?" I said semi-sarcastically. "If this whole time you've felt those things about me, why the fuck did you not say anything?" I said, pausing for a moment.
"You act like you hate my guts in school, you bring Lindsay to rub her in my face when you know how I feel about you, and then you tell Jagger this? What the hell is going on in your head? This isn't a choice game where you get to fuck with the characters."
I told him, realizing I had almost confessed my feelings for him somewhere along the way. "You see? I wasn't scared to tell you I feel something. Why couldn't you do the same instead of letting me feel like a piece of shit?" I told him, waiting for his response.
He ran his hands through his hair, groaning slightly "It wasn't as simple as that, and you know that" he said, making me go borderline crazy "No, no, I don't know, I don't have a single clue what you're talking about. This is it for me, Aiden, if there's anything you want to say, anything you want me to know, tell me now, because I'm not waiting any longer" I told him, taking a seat in the living room and crossing one leg over the other.
Briefly, a thought went through the back of my head; I reminded myself of my mother, whenever I took too long to get home after a night out. She always waited for me like this, in the living room, her stare shooting daggers at me.
For once, I was the one doing the shooting.
He sighed, fisting at the roots of his hair, and I could tell a thousand thoughts were going through his head all at once. I knew his position was difficult, I did, but I couldn't wait any longer for him to get a grip of the situation, I had given him way too much space already.
He took a seat on the couch placed on the other side of the table, hands on his knees, face hidden behind his palms. I wanted to reach out to him, remove his hands from his face and tell him everything would be alright, but I couldn't guarantee that.
I loved him with all I had, I was certain now, but he needed to make up for his -recent- unacceptable behavior. "Say something, please" I urged him. "I-" he started but stopped himself for a second to think about his words. "I don't want to be your friend. I never did, hell, I've wanted you since I can remember" he started, his eyes capturing mine, and I instantly felt my cheeks heating up.
"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked, thinking about how different things would have been if he had. I wasn't sure whether or not that difference would've made things better or worse, but we've reached a point where it really can't get any worse.
"When? When I watched you get screwed over again and again and wonder if there's anyone out there that will ever treat you right? I was there through all of it, yet you never turned to look at me as anything other than a friend. What was there to say?"
My mind wandered to the moments he was referring to, and he was right. He was with me through every heartbreak, -if you can call it that-, but not once had I thought of him as anything other than a friend.
"I-... you hooked up with every girl in our school, we went out and all eyes were on you. You were always out of my league, Aiden, and everyone could s-"
"Who gives a fuck what they think? I sure don't." he said and my heart fluttered for a moment, before I remembered things had changed since then. "Aiden, I still need an explanation." I reminded him, and he nodded.
"I don't want Lindsay. There's not a single thing on her that I like and she's a plain pain in the ass." He explained. "Then why are you dating-"
"She's George's daughter."
He said and he blood froze in my veins. I hated the answer he gave me, because I knew how -more- complicated that made things. "But George is dead" I said. Something still wasn't adding up. "She runs the infamous family business. She's no different than her father, Evelyn, she won't hesitate to have her boys cut me in half" he explained, a frown settling in my face.
"If you give her her money and break up with her..."
"...I still die. When I met her, I thought I was the one running the game. She didn't know who I was at the time, and I used that to my advantage. I thought I could get her to fall for me and use it so that I could learn about George's moves and potentially have her on my side if things went bad." He continued, pausing for a moment to run a hand through his hair.
"But things went south" I finished it for him, and he nodded. "Exactly. She knew who I was and she figured out my plan without me knowing. She went along with it so that I wouldn't suspect anything and then she hit me with it. 'Break up with me, I hand you over to daddy'. 'Go home, I hand you over to daddy'. That's all she ever said" he explained.
I hid my face in my hands, closing my eyes in an attempt to give my brain a second to register all the information.
"I want this to be over with. You have no idea how much I hate the power she has over me. She knows I don't want her, she's just fucking with me because she can." He said, sitting back, his jaw locking as he got visibly angry talking about her.
"Now that I'm back here, she's suspecting that something's going on between us, and she hates it. That's the only reason I've been acting cold towards you, I'm scared of how far she'll take things if she gets jealous."
I got up and started pacing back and forth, my hands in my hair "You should've told me about this Aiden! What are you going to do about her now? She'll have you as her hostage until someone kills her and then what? A crazy cousin will want revenge? This isn't Marvel, Aiden, you are no Superhero. I had every right to know about this. How are you going to get rid of her now?"
"I'll have her locked up. I know what she's done, I know things that incriminate her, for fuck's sake, she's running a gang and passing around drugs as if it's chewing gum. I just need proof." He said, getting up to move after me in the large space.
"How exactly are you going to do that?" I asked, still not facing him. "Well, I might need your help with that" I frowned. "How can I help?" I asked, my mind not being able to figure out any way I could be useful, since, for the most part I was the one creating the problems with Lindsay.
"I'll need you to be open minded, and listen to me first, before jumping to conclusions, okay? Yell at me If you want to, but hear me first" he suggested, and took a few steps forward, putting his hand in mine and leading us to wards the couch. This time, he took a seat next to me, his hand still in tact with mine.
My head was in a haze, due to the unexpected contact, but I quickly pushed away any thoughts I was having. "I need you to speak to Cole. Get him to tell you about the things he did in Brooklyn, related to Lindsay"
My first thought was to take my hand away from his and curse him out for touching on that topic again. But I didn't follow it. Something told me to listen to him this time and decide later whether I believed him or not.
"Cole wasn't in Brooklyn, Aiden, he was in Texas, I thought we were passed that." I said. I wasn't sure who I believed anymore, but if I was going to trust Aiden with this, I needed proof.
"And I thought you were passed the point of not believing me" he said. Our words were definitely coming out heavy, but our tones remained calm, soft, as the intimate position we were in was not allowing for anything else.
"Help me believe you" I begged and he sighed, his hand leaving mine. Instantly I wished it never had. "It's not personal, Aiden. This whole situation is messed up in more ways than one, and I have people all around me trying to manipulate me".
He thought about it for a second, his eyes trained on his shoes. "Alright. So you want proof?" he asked, and I nodded. "That won't be a problem" he said, getting up. Confusion took over my face when he swiftly moved towards me, taking my hand in his and guiding me to the front door.
My various protests and scattered questions didn't seem to be working, because he walked out the door anyway, not bothering to reply. We reached the front door of his house, where he reached for his keys, settled in his back pocket. He fished them out and looked through them with the hand that wasn't holding mine. When I asked what he was doing, he simply said "Getting you proof" and I hoped that in his head that didn't translate as 'i'm going to hide you in my room until you cooperate'.
We walked in and he threw his keys somewhere on the counter, his hand never leaving mine as he lead us to his room. He walked in and closed the door behind us, only letting go of my hand to fish out his phone. He called someone, his foot tapping the floor as he waited for the person on the other end of the line to pick up the phone.
"Who are you-" he cut me off, bringing a finger to his lips to signal for me to be quiet. The ringing stopped, and was replaced by a female's voice. "I need you to bring me the file" he said, and the voice was quickly cut off as she -whoever it was- hang up.
Less than ten minutes passed, and the doorbell rang. On the other side of the door stood...Bailey with a folder in her hand? "Took you long enough" she spat out and handed -correction almost threw the papers at Aiden. She hugged me tightly "Call me" she said and left without another word.
I felt utterly stupid, this encounter with Bailey was just another reminder of the fact that everyone knew about this long before I did. I pushed the thought to the side -get answers first, scream at them later.
Me and Aiden went back to his room, to prevent Catherine walking in on us having such a lovely conversation. The door closed, and Aiden took a seat on his desk chair. I avoided taking a seat just yet. "Why did Bailey have these?" I asked, crossing my hands over my chest. "It wasn't safe for them to be here, Catherine would've found them." He said, opening the folder and getting out some papers from there.
"Eve, when did Cole start college?" Aiden asked, looking through the files as I took a seat on the end of his bed, close to his chair, so much so that our legs were touching. "Um, around a year after you left" I told him and he nodded.
Wordlessly, he handed over a series of papers to me. "These should be enough for a start" he said, opening a pack of cigarettes and putting one in his mouth. I took the papers from his hands, putting them on my lap.
"Tell me, Evelyn, if Cole was in college, in Texas, may I add- How did he commit crimes in New York?"
My eyes were running, scanning every inch of the papers in front of me, unable to comprehend what I was reading. Had I really been that stupid to blindly believe Cole, or was Aiden just that goοd at forgery?
Being the mind reader that he is, he said "Your mum's a lawyer, I'm sure she could run the papers against the registry if you're unsure." He suggested, and I immediately rejected the plan before he could finish the sentence. The last thing I wanted was for my mum to find out about all this and warn Cole before I could figure out what my next move should be.
"What do you want me to do?" I finally said, and his eyes lit up. He put out the cigarette and pushed his chair forward so that our bodies were touching and his hands were on my knees. "Talk to him. These papers incriminate him, Evelyn, but he's not the one we want in jail. Well, not you, at least" he said, earning a smack on the forehead.
"As I was saying" he said and rubbed his head. "All the things you see here, were done because of Lindsay. Cole wasn't part of her gang, he only used it to stay safe after the people he knew dumpted him. I need him to tell you what her part was in all of this, so we'll have something to hold on to" he explained, and my brain was slowly burning out, trying to grasp onto the newly found information.
"That won't work. He's been gaslighting me for so long, there's no way I can get him to tell me these things even if I present myself as an ally. " I said, putting the papers somewhere on the desk and throwing myself back on the bed, my legs hanging off the edge.
Aiden picked up his cigarette and put it back on his lips, taking a long drag and closing his eyes when the nicotine went to his lungs. I ran my hands through my face, sighing. A few hours ago I was certain that my brother was innocent, pursuing the education he worked so hard for and that we were all so proud of him for achieving, and now I was trying to find ways to get him to confess his crimes.
I didn't doubt the criminal records Aiden showed me were real -although I was concerned about how he managed to get a grip of them- after learning about the record and its true nature, and knowing Cole played it to possibly hurt me, I didn't trust him the way I used to- hell, I'm not sure if I trust him at all anymore.
As time went on my life started looking more and more like an action movie, and the thought was messing me up in more ways than one. That's when I did the unexpected.
"Hey, could I...um...maybe... have a cigarette?" I asked him, the question not being able to slip out of my mouth. I hid my face while waiting for the answer, and I was sure he would burst out laughing any time now. The laughter never came. Instead, he took one final drag out of his cigarette and motioned for me to get up. When I did, he gave it to me.
I took hold of it, putting it between my lips, as Aiden studied me intensively. I inhaled, feeling the poison travel through my throat and finally reach my lungs. I felt an awful burning sensation and in seconds, I was coughing like crazy.
Aiden shook his head and smiled, his hand reaching out to take hold of the cigarette, but I shook my head. Being the emotionally unstable person I was in the moment, and looking for relief in any form I could find It, I was determined to put this damn drug in my body until I felt it.
Aiden raised his arms, letting me go on with my little experiment. I took a second drag and although it wasn't as bad as the first one, I wouldn't call it good nor would I describe myself as relieved at that moment.
Right when I started coughing again, Aiden made a run for the kitchen -laughing- and came back with a glass of water which I was very grateful for. I handed him the stick of death and chugged on the precious liquid, glad to see that in contrast to what I had put in my body a second ago, this didn't make my insides burn.
Aiden quickly finished and then discarded the substance, right when I finished my water. "Please don't start smoking now" he teased. "I thought it would help me, okay? You make it seem nice, I guess" I stated and he chuckled. "What do you need help with?" he asked and I shrugged my shoulders "I don't know" I answered.
"I do" he said and got up, making a 'pop' noise come from the chair he was sitting on. Soon, he had walked over to the bed, and was taking his shoes off. He lay back on the pillows, resting against the headboard. He made a 'come here' motion with his fingers.
Part of me thought this was an awful, awful idea. A bigger part of me, though, the one I listened to, told me I didn't give a damn, I was too emotionally drained to tell wrong from right, I just wanted something to soothe me.
I removed my shoes quickly and shyly climbed over to Aiden, who was waiting for me with open arms. Realizing I was too scared to move, he looped his arms around me, gently guiding me to join him. I delicately rested my head on his torso, my hand touching his chest. I closed my eyes, trying to hold on to the moment for as long as I could.
The last thing I remember before I fell asleep, is Aiden's hand on my waist, running circles under the material of my shirt, and another hand on my head, caressing me, before he leaned in to leave a feathery kiss on my forehead. "Sweet dreams, Eve".
~~~
BEFORE U LAUGH, I really tried to make Cole's record seem realistic -apart from the pics obviously LOL-, but being my little european self I have no idea how law works in the us, so i went by what i found online.
if there are any mistakes in what I mentioned, feel free to let me know
i put a LOT of work into this chapter so i hope u enjoyed:)
also no, i'm not trying to promote smoking, i just wanted to give things a realistic turn. reminder, evelyn is a very confused teenager, it's normal for her not to be able to make the best decisions always.
regardless, for ur own sake, please avoid smoking, and if you are smoking and are having a hard time with quitting hit my dms my dudes id love to be of help<3
c u later aligator