This chapter is dedicated to the lovely labyyrinth- . She designed the beautiful new cover for TBTD. I absolutely LOVE it! Thank you, hon :)
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After I got my mint Aidan drove us to Chic-Fil-A for lunch. When we sat down with our food I pulled out my phone, and saw I had five texts. Two from Majesty, two from Kenzie, and one from Deacon. They were all from the previous.
I sat back in my seat and read the messages asking if I was okay from my friends. They must have heard about the scene in Lit. Deacon's message was particularly long and basically stated that the whisperings about my whereabouts better be false, and that I was not ditching with Aidan.
I sent him a simple smiley face, and then assured my friends I was fine. I set my phone done so I could start on my Asian Salad.
"Are you sure that's all you want?" Aidan asked, pointing to my salad while chewing on one of his chicken sandwiches.
"This is very filling," I stated spearing a piece of chicken with my fork. "And it's good for you."
"I'll never understand the fascination with salad," he said, picking up a fry. "I get it in moderation, but some people live off it, and I have no idea why. It's just washed grass, you know that right?"
I glared at him. "And what about what you're eating? I might being eating 'grass', but at least it won't result in a heart attack at the age of thirty five."
He scoffed. "At least I'll die happily and with my tastebuds satisfied. I mean come on, you don't even have any dressing on it. Doesn't that taste weird?"
"Dressing is fattening and defeats the whole purpose of salad and healthy eating."
"Who wants to eat healthy?"
I made a face and continued eating my food. I reached over to grab one of his fries sometime later, and he immediately withdrew his large sized box.
"Can I help you?" Aidan asked with raised eyebrows.
"I just want one," I begged.
"Weren't you just lecturing me on how this food would cause a heart attack?" He asked with a hint of superiority in his voice.
"I was talking about meat," I reminded him. "Please? Please? Do I need to get on my knees?"
Aidan snickered and stared down at his food. I frowned, confused, and then I quickly came to understand the childish response. I rolled my eyes and gave him an annoyed look.
"Are you serious? You are so immature. That's not what I meant! Get your mind out of the gutter," I chided him.
"Here," he smirked, sliding his fries over to me.
I picked up one and scowled. "Don't smirk at me."
I placed the fry on my tongue and sighed in pleasure. I picked up another and stuck it in my mouth. I was so going to regret all the salt intake later.
"Let's play a game," I suggested.
"What game did you have in mind?" Aidan asked, starting on his next sandwich.
"Twenty questions," I said eagerly.
"No thank you," he said shortly.
"What? Why not," I whined.
"Because it's stupid, and I don't like games," he said flatly.
This guy could be such a Debbie downer sometimes. Who didn't like playing games? They were epitome of a good time.
"It is not stupid. It's a way to get to know each other better," I huffed. "And who doesn't like games?"
"Me," he said, picking up his drink. "That's who."
"I wanna know more about you," I pressed. "Don't you want to get to know me?"
"No, not really," he said, taking a drag from his soda.
I felt myself instantly deflate at his statement. I lowered my eyes and stared at my food. My face, along with the rest of my body, heated up in embarrassment.
I couldn't help but become extremely bothered by the fact that he didn't want to get to know me. I knew I wasn't one of the most exciting people to be around, but with the all the hints and partner like activities that happened throughout the day I thought we were on the road to becoming friends. He did say to work for it. So how was I supposed to do that if he pulled back?
I traced my finger along my cast and tried for a look of nonchalance which I guess didn't work because Aidan let out a sigh before retracting his statement.
"Demi, I didn't mean it like that," he started.
I shrugged, not answering.
"I'm sorry," he apologized. "It came out harsher than I intended."
Another shrug.
"I do want to get to know you," he insisted, leaning forward on his arms that were resting on the table. "Let's play the twenty questions game."
I looked up, smiling brightly. "Really? Awesome! You're the best, Aid! Can I call you Aid?"
"No."
"I'm gonna call you Aid," I sat back and sipped my water. "Did you want to start?"
"Sure," he paused for a moment. "What's your favorite color?"
I rolled my eyes. "What's my favorite color? Really? What a waste of a question."
"It's not a waste," he argued. "I want to know."
"Pink and black," I said.
"I'm sorry, did I misspeak? I thought I said color without the plural."
"I can't say one without the other," I explained. "Pink and black go together for me like peanut butter and jelly goes together for the rest of the world."
"Alright, fine. Your turn."
Aidan looked a bit wary when he said it was my turn to ask something. As if he was nervous about what it was I would want answers about. I decided to start with a simple question to ease some of his nerves.
"What's your favorite color?"
"Didn't you just say that's a waste of question?" He scoffed, but nevertheless looked relieved.
"I feel we should start light," I explained.
"My favorite color is brown," he said.
I raised my eyebrows. "Brown? Really?"
"Mhmm."
"Can I ask why?"
"You could, but keep in mind that would be your second question."
I forced myself not to pout and shrugged instead, spearing my lettuce with my plastic fork. "Another time then. Your turn."
He thought for a moment. "Okay, what's the craziest thing you've ever done to date? Now, I know there might be a lot, but just the number one."
"Very funny," I said drily. "The craziest thing I've done to date...," I trailed off in thought. "Well, one time I, er," I pursed my lips. "I ran down the street at night with my top off."
Aidan snorted into his drink and coughed loudly as he shook with laughter. "You what?"
"It was one time!" I said, immediately on the defense. "I was drunk out of my mind, so I can't even be held accountable for that."
"What do you mean by 'top off'?" He questioned, looking intrigued. A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Just your shirt was off or your bra too?"
I blushed, looking out the glass window to my left. He did not need to know all the details.
"So bra too," he nodded, grinning.
"Shut up," I hissed. "I never said that."
"Remind me to get you really drunk one of these days," he said, eyeing my chest for longer than what was appropriate, as he took a slow sip from his drink.
He was incredibly lucky he put the drink down so quickly because I was about to smack it out of his hand from the bottom.
"My turn," I said a little sourly. I chewed on my salad thinking. "When you see someone from the opposite sex, what is the first thing that you notice?"
"Their breasts," he said promptly which caused me to blush all over again.
"You're disgusting," I snapped, feeling ridiculously flustered.
"What? It's just an automatic thing," he shrugged, not looking the least bit apprehensive, which I felt he should. "It's instinctive."
"Oh, it's instinctive?" I rolled my eyes. "You should probably try to work on that problem," I suggested.
"No, I think I'm good."
For the next hour we went back and forth asking each other questions, neither of us noticing the time flying or that we had passed twenty questions sometime ago.
"Tell me about your first crush," Aidan said.
He was staring at me with such intrigue. You'd think he was talking to the most interesting person in the world and not me.
"My first crush," I pressed my lips together. "Well, it was in kindergarten, his name was Chris, and he was also my first kiss," I recalled with a fond smile. "He was so nice to me. We dated for like a day and a half."
"A day and a half?" He snorted. "Why so short?"
"I don't know," I shrugged. "I wasn't good enough for him I guess. He said I was boring, and that he'd rather not be my boyfriend anymore."
The whole ordeal was traumatizing for me. It was the first in the long string of my heartbreaks. I got over it pretty fast though. We had oatmeal cookies and milk for snack that day, and it left my mind fairly quickly after that. I ate away the pain.
"He said you were boring?" Aidan shook his head. "You're a lot of things, none of which include boring. You're probably one of the most entertaining people I've ever met."
"Really?" I asked, smiling before become cautious. "Or are you just saying that?"
"I swear," he held up his hands. "Chris seemed to be lacking in brain cells."
I giggled and shrugged. "Well, he did turn out to be a druggie and a high school dropout."
"See? You dodged a bullet," Aidan smiled.
"I guess everything happens for a reason," I agreed, smiling back. "Okay my turn."
"Go for it," he nodded.
"Hmmm...okay," I sat up straighter. A good question popping into my head. "If you had Harry Potter's resurrection stone, who would you bring back to life? Personally, I would bring back my dead goldfish. His name was Philip, and I accidentally fed him to death which, I mean, wasn't my fault. Nobody told me you could even overfeed a fish. What about you?"
I watched as Aidan's entire composure changed in an instant. His smile melted away and was replaced with a hard look. He had visibly tensed, his hands curled in fists. He sat back in his seat, and it was as if he was, quite literally, drawing back from me. Mentally and physically.
I blinked at him, gauging his response. I was taken completely off guard by his very sudden reaction. I grew wary as an awkward silence enveloped us.
I tugged at a strand of my hair. "Umm...are you okay?"
Aidan didn't answer. He just continued staring at a point behind me. I could feel the table shaking and when I took a glance under, I saw one of his legs shaking.
"You don't have to answer that if it makes you uncomfortable. I'm sorry," I apologized feeling horribly guilty. "I don't know you well enough to ask something like that. I shouldn't hav-"
"My mom," he said in a low voice.
"What?" My eyes widened a little. "Your mom? So your mom is de-"
He stood up abruptly and grabbed both of the trays of empty food containers. "We have to go."
And just like that the walls were slammed back up.
"But-"
He walked away, dumping the trays, and then exited the restaurant. I stood up quickly and grabbed my bag.
I was incredibly disappointed to the abrupt end to what had been an amazing conversation. I was really getting to know who Aidan was as a person, and then I went and ruined it. I just had to go poking and prodding at things that shouldn't be poked at nor prodded.
I rushed out after him and walked up to his bike which he was already on.
I took the helmet he held out for me and put it on. "So, um, are we going back to school?"
He didn't reply until I was on the bike, and my arms were around his torso.
"No, we're going to go pick up my sister," he started up the engine.
"You have a sister?"
Hmm I probably should have asked him about siblings in our lengthy interrogation.
"Yeah," he checked the time. "She should be getting off school right now."
"At twelv-"
He revved the engine, efficiently cutting me off, and drove out of the restaurant complex before speeding off.
We reached John F. Kennedy Elementary School in mere minutes, seeing as it wasn't too far away from where we ate, or the high school at that.
I climbed off and took off the helmet. I combed my fingers through my hair and sighed. "I don't like wearing this," I whined. "It's messing up my hair."
Aidan got off the bike and took the helmet from me. "Better your hair then your head when you hit the pavement."
He walked off, and I followed him, quickening my pace to catch up.
"How old's your sister?" I asked.
"Five," he answered shortly, not seeming to be in the mood for anymore questions.
"Aww so she's in Kindergarten? How cute," I smiled. "What's her name?"
"Briella," a small smile tugged at his lips at her name, and I smiled even wider at the sweet reaction.
"Briella? That's a pretty name," I stopped at the brick wall by the front doors where other parents were gathered to pick up their kids. "I've never heard that one before."
"My parents got creative," he shrugged. "My mom wanted Brianna, and my dad wanted Gabriella. After months and months of argument, my mom decided to just mash up the names."
"I like that. Briella," I tried the name out on my tongue. "It sounds so elegant."
He nodded in response, not offering up anymore words.
"So, do you usually pick her up?" I asked.
"Everyday," he leaned against the wall and propped his leg up against it.
"Everyday?" I looked at the time on my phone to see it was 12:25 noon. "At this time? Shouldn't someone else come and get her? I mean, you should be in school right now, right?"
"There's nobody else to come and pick her up."
Going by his flat voice you'd think he couldn't care less about the matter, but looking in his eyes I saw a flicker of anger that diminished just as quickly as it had appeared. So quick, I wasn't even sure I saw it.
"Oh," I nodded.
I fell silent after that, deciding I would leave him alone which he seemed to be grateful for as he had visibly relaxed.
I tapped my foot on the pavement, getting a little antsy with the stretching silence. For some reason silence drove me absolutely insane. There had to be something going on for me to distract myself with otherwise I was left to my own thoughts which wasn't very appealing at any moment in time.
"So, do you usually take her on your bike because that seems really dangerous if you ask me," I said after a minute of silence.
Aidan snorted and looked at me. "That was a new record. Fifty five seconds of no talking on your part."
"I can't help it," I brushed my hair behind my ear. "I don't like silence. It's empty."
"I suppose," he allowed. "But sometimes silence is good."
"And sometimes it isn't."
He shrugged. "To answer your previous question, no she doesn't ride on the bike. I'm not an idiot, Demi. She could get hurt. I walk her to the house, and then come back for my bike."
The heavy black doors sprang open and a flood of little kids poured out with two teachers guiding them. Aidan straightened up and looked around the crowd, searching for his sister.
Moments later a little girl with a plastic tiara resting on top of her long brown hair came running up. She was dressed in a cute pink and white polka dotted dress matched with a white light weighted sweater.
"Aidan!" She sang, in a high pitched voice.
"Briella!" Aidan exclaimed with the same enthusiasm. He crouched down and held out his arms for her.
Briella ran up to him and leapt into his waiting arms. She wrapped her own arms around his neck as he stood up stretch and kissed his cheek, smiling so widely I could see two of her teeth were missing. I almost melted on the spot at the sight of them and had to suppress my coo.
"I missed you," the little girl said with a sweet smile aimed at her brother.
"You missed me? You saw me four hours ago, Bri," he said, smiling nonetheless.
"I know, but I still missed you. I made you a picture," she said with a hint of pride. She held up the paper she had clenched in her hand. "It's of me and you at our tea party."
I put my hands to my mouth, giggling. The picture of Aidan in his own plastic tiara and a tutu crouching down at a child's table with tiny tea cup in hand popped into my head.
Aidan shot me a dirty look, and Briella looked at me, tilting her head.
"Who are you?" She asked, wiggling in brother's grasp. He set her down on the ground carefully.
"I'm Demi," I smiled, holding out my non-casted arm for her to shake.
"I'm Briella, but you can call me Princess Briella," she said seriously, shaking my hand.
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Princess Briella."
"It's nice to meet you too," she stared at me with her penetrating hazel eyes. Her irises were so light they resembled that of honey.
She studied me with such an analytical look that it had me shifting on my feet. Clearly the five year old had picked up the way her older brother surveyed people because that happened to the look he was always giving me. That, or it just ran in their family.
"You're really pretty," she decided. "You look like a princess. I like your eyes, they're so green."
"Oh, you're so sweet," I said with a blush. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. What happened to your arm?" She asked, zeroing in on my cast.
"I broke it."
"Duh," she rolled her eyes in a manner that had her resembling Aidan so closely it was actually eerie. "I meant how."
I studied her trying not to laugh. "Umm I got into an accident. It's a long story, but I'm fine which is all that really matters. You know, your brother actually saved from that accident."
"Really?" Her eyes widened. "Like Superman and Spiderman?"
"Exactly like Superman and Spiderman," I smiled.
Briella glanced at Aidan who was watching the exchange in amusement. "That's really brave of you."
"Thank you, Bri."
"Did you save her because she's your girlfriend?"
Aidan made a face, and I huffed taking a lot of offense to his reaction. Being my boyfriend wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen to him.
"No, she's just a friend."
"A quarter friend," I reminded him.
"What's that?" Briella asked curiously.
"Nothing," Aidan shook his head and motioned forward. "Come on."
She handed Aidan his picture before taking off, forcing us to break into a jog to catch up with her.
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Vote and comment please :)
xxx,
Jess