"Pauses, then says, 'You're my best friend.' And you knew what it was..."
In five minutes, it would officially the worst day of the year.
Aiden wasn't the best at sleeping. Especially not tonight. February 13th, 11:55 pm. He lied awake in bed, already dreading whatever event were going down the next morning.
Rudy was not dealing with the same feelings. He was fast asleep on the other side of the dorm, snoring loudly, which wasn't helping Aiden's restlessness.
Tomorrow, he and Aru were going out to a restaurant. It went against everything Aiden stood for (celebrating Valentine's Day) but Aru had picked the restaurant, and she had wanted to hang out with him, since the rest of their friends would be paired off.
"It's not a gas station," she had told him. "I promise."
Besides, he and his friends had planned out her entire birthday for the day after Valentine's Day. That was a day he could enjoy. He just had to get through tomorrow.
With Aru.
For some reason, that seemed to invoke a very odd feeling inside of Aiden. It shouldn't have been like that. He had known her for a while now, but it hadn't been like this in the beginning. It was probably just him getting more used to her. Yeah, that was it. He was just getting more comfortable around her.
The sun rose a few hours later, with Aiden getting barely any sleep. Rudy woke up when Aiden shook him awake, because he didn't wake up to his own alarm clock. Typical.
"Happy Valentine's Day," Rudy yawned, rubbing his eyes.
"Hmmm." Aiden responded.
His cousin seemed to take this as I don't want to talk about it, which meant that he was able to read the room for once.
Aiden seemed to move through the day on autopilot, whenever he saw a couple together, he bit his tounge and kept his mouth shut. He smiled politely when people said "Happy Valentine's Day" to him, and he said it back. And he tried really, really hard not to talk about his parents.
He mostly succeeded.
In a few hours, it was time to go out with Aru. The one part of the day he could handle.
"I cannot handle this."
Aru rolled her eyes. "You're going to be fine."
"This place is more crowded than a high school hallway."
It was true. The place was packed, mostly with couples and a few families. Waiters buslited around, and a huge fountain took up the space at the entrance. Aiden didn't even know Aru was physically capable at place this fancy. Or how two kids in college could afford it. It was a major upgrade from the gas station (although, after the food at the gas station, he learned to not judge the food in restaurants based on how nice it looked).
Aru shrugged. "It's popular. Come on, the waiter says our table is that way." She pointed to a man with red hair, walking ahead of them.
They sat down at their table, pushed into the corner of the room. A family was next to them, with two loud kids. Still, it was better than being sat next to some of the couples in the room, who seemed to have no problem with PDA.
Ugh. The menu had Valentine's Day specials. Why was this stupid holiday even so important?
The waiter came back.
"Would you lien to drink?" he asked, holding a small tablet in one arm.
"Uh...I'll have lemonade, please." Aru answered with a smile. The waiter marked it down and turned to Aiden.
"I'll just have water." He said.
As soon as the waiter left, Aru looked at Aiden and grinned.
"What?"
"I'll just have woatuh." Aru imitated him earlier.
"I'm from New York! That's how we say it!"
"But you're not from Staten Island."
"Well, my dad was." As soon as he uttered the words, he clamped his mouth.
Don't say anything, don't say anything—
"Why did you do that?"
Aiden kept a blank espression. "Do what?"
"Dude, I heard your teeth smash together when you closed your mouth. You don't have to tell me anything." There was something else in her voice, like she understood whatever he would say.
Well...Aru was her friend. She kept the secret that they weren't really dating, but she wasn't a liar either. She was trustworthy. Besides, friends told each other things like this. Brynne knew. Rudy knew. Aiden trusted Aru enough to confide in her.
"No, its fine, I'll tell you. I mean, you're one of my best friends. It's probably something you should know about me."
Aru simply nodded in response.
Aiden took a deep breath. "So, you know my mom was a celebrity..."
"He is in love..."
—
You will notice that this chapter is a few hours late. Why? For the last 30 hours, I have traveled around the world, which is a very long story involving blood, bonding with college kids about turkey burgers at an airport at 1 am, a fake ghost, and lettuce.
Anyways the important thing is that I am alive (please applaud. I have gotten 6 hours of sleep in the last 30 hours).