Aiden's POV
I woke up in a fright. I swear every time I get a nightmare it's awful. I always wake up with my heart beating fast against my chest. I'm shaking and trying to catch my breath and come back to reality. I'm doing exactly this right now.
I tighten my grip on Claire, pulling her closer, but not hurting her. She shifts a little and then her tired eyes pop open. She looks down at me and I turn and sit up and try to act normal. I've never told her about the nightmares and I don't know how or if I can. It just might be a little too much to explain how I felt 5 years ago. I don't think I'll ever be able to let it go. My mom has tried to get me to open up, and I think that's why I pushed her away and became the person I was before Claire. My mom wanted to help me, but it just made me hurt even more. It made me do stupid things to temporarily forget.
I feel the bed shift from beside me and then a hand stroking my back. It slowly calms my racing heart down.
"You okay?" Claire's gentle voice asks while continuing to stroke my back. She gently strokes it in a circular motion. I sigh and shake my head. I feel her shift on the bed again and then her thumbs are pushing against my neck and shoulders, massaging away the tension.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks while pushing down on muscles. I slightly tilt my head back, enjoying the massage I'm getting.
"No," I mumble while scooting back and leaning against the headboard. Claire turns around, facing me, with her knees pointing towards me. She takes one look at me before leaning forwards and wrapping her arms around my torso. She pulls me closer and I wrap my arms around her, pulling her into my chest.
"Can I ask you a favor?" I ask while leaning my head against hers. She turns her head and looks up at me.
"Depends on what the favor is." She says while resting her head on my chest.
"Can we just imagine I didn't do anything stupid? Like I never messed up and we're a couple right now? Can we just imagine that you're 'my girl' and nothing is going to get in the way of that? Like I can hold you tonight and it mean more than just friends cuddling together? Like I get to call you mine for once?" I ask, just above a whisper. She'll probably say no, but I might as well ask. It never hurts to try. right? She won't say okay cause I'm just me and she's perfect. She could get any guy eating out of the palm of her hand, and she doesn't even know it. She doesn't know how much she's wanted.
"Okay... One night... Just for now..." she mumbled while shifting off of me and onto the side of me on the bed. She curls up on my side and hides her face in my neck. I pull her up onto my chest and lock my arms around her waist. She doesn't fight it and just embraces the hug.
"If I wasn't so stupid would this be a reality?" I ask while running my fingers up the side of her arm. She lightly shivers and sharply inhales.
"Most likely." She frowns and pushes her face farther into my neck. I feel her eyes flutter against my neck. After a couple of minutes I feel her breaths start to even out, indicating that she's fast asleep. I don't have as much luck as her as falling asleep. I don't want to fall asleep either. This might be the only shot I'll get.
I look down at Claire and kiss her head. She stirs a little and groans before stilling and sighing. How did I even get her to be my friend? I was such an ass and such a jerk. Why did she become friends with me? She's too nice and perfect. She wasn't even on good terms with me and she was still there. I wonder if she remembers what she did that night. I sure did.
I stumbled through the streets with a bottle in my hand. I managed to trick an old man at the gas station a couple of blocks back that I was over 21 and I just forgot my license at home. It took him a little convincing but I got it.
I almost trip over a crack in the sidewalk, but I caught my feet before I go tumbling down the small incline on this block. I continue to walk and then stop and look around. I don't see anything familiar and I think I'm lost. I recheck my surrounds and it just confirms it. I groan and run my left hand through my hair. I sit down on the sidewalk and right in that moment a cop car started coming down the street. It started to slow down when it got closer and closer, before it stopped right in front of me. Two cops got out approached me.
"You look a little young to be drinking that." One cop said while the other walked around me and stood in the back. The circled around me, but didn't come forward and snatch the bottle of vodka out of my hand.
"How old are you anyways, boy?" The other cop said while emphasizing the word 'boy'. I took a swig and muttered, "21," getting annoyed at them and just wanting to punch them in the face.
"You look 19 maximum. Do you know how much trouble you're in?" The first cop said. I heard the second cops keys jingle from behind me and then the bottle is being pulled out of my hand and I'm being pressed into the hard, gruff sidewalk.
"You're under arrest for underage drinking and lying to a cop. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." The second cop cuffed my hands in handcuffs and pulled me up from the ground by my forearms.
He walked me to the back of the Chrysler and I groaned when he added unnecessary pressure on my shoulders when he pushed me in. I don't recall being too insubordinate. He slammed the door and through the closed window I could hear him grumble, "I hate teens and there's stupid drinking problems. I can't believe this is what our life has come to."
"Kid, you get one phone call. Make it count." The officer, whom was a lot nicer than the other two cops who arrested me took off the cuffs and lead me to the payphone they had for all the cons in here. I met most of the officers before, but I haven't seen them in years so they don't quite remember me as well as I remember them.
I picked up the phone and though about who to call. Mom? No she would yell at me and then leave me in here for a little bit before coming to pick me up and putting up a bail. Spencer? No he wouldn't answer and would probably just ignore the ringing and go back to sleep. Claire? No she's still mad at me and probably wouldn't come pick me up. She would probably tell my mom or something. Emmett? Yeah Emmett. He'll come pick me up.
"Kid are you going to make a call or not?" The same officer asks. I turn around and nod my head. Which was a bad idea on my part because it just adds to the already forming headache. I shakily put in his number and wait for him to pick up after each ring. After about 5 rings he picks up with a groggy voice, "Hello?"
"Emmett can you come and bail me out of jail? Don't tell my mom or anything. She would kill me. Don't tell Claire either. I don't need her telling my mom."
"You're in jail again? I thought you stopped this habit a long time ago?" He asks while yawning. I involuntarily yawn too and press my head up against the cool metal walls of the jail.
"Can you come bail me out or get someone other than my mom?" I ask while turning and pressing my back against the wall.
"Yeah I'll get someone to bail you out and I'm not telling your mom either."
"Thanks man," I say, sighing in happiness. I hear Emmett mutter, "The shit I do for you," before the line goes dead and the officer takes me back to my cell.
It was about an hour before the officer came back to my cell and opened it before turning and telling whoever came to bail me out that I was pretty drunk and that they would probably have to help support my weight. I got up, happy to be leaving, and started to walk out of the cell. I couldn't believe the person I saw when I got out. It was Claire. She was dressed in black skinny jeans and a shirt that said Nirvana on it. She had two jackets slung over her forearm and a bag that was crossed over her chest and settled down by her side.
"Come on lets go." She says while holding out my jacket and tugging on her own. She walks to my side and swings her body under my shoulder.
"You're lucky to have a girlfriend like her." The first officer I encounter said while she helped me walk out of there.
"You're so lucky I was still up and that I persuaded the guy in the front I was your girlfriend," she muttered before she said, "Yeah he is." She collected all of my stuff from the front and I could see all the cops and felons looking her up and down. She was in some pretty casual clothing, but you could still tell that she had quite a figure. I kind of just wanted to wrap her up and hide her from all of them, although she's not mine.
We walked out of the police station and into... my truck?She unlocks the doors and helps me into the front seat. She grabs the seat belt and reaches over to buckle me in. I stop her hand and grab the seat belt. "I can do it myself. I'm not a baby," I grumbled.
"You sure as hell act like one. Getting arrested? Seriously?" She shouts. She looks around into the eerie silence of the night and then looks back at me. "Look I'm sorry for shouting, but seriously? Getting arrested?" She sighs and gets into the drivers seat before driving off down the street.
"Why did you come bail me out?" I ask while shifting towards her. She briefly looks at me and then back at the road. We're about 10 minutes away from where we live so I still have time to ask.
"Cause someone needed to." She states while keeping her eyes focused on the dead road ahead. She's being very very blunt with me right now.
"But why you? I called Emmett."
"Emmett called me and told me I didn't have a choice. He said I could tell your mom or go and pick you up. I chose to pick you up to save you from your mom's wrath."
"Why didn't you just leave me there?"
"Cause no matter how mad I am towards you, I still care. I'm not going to let you down even if you let me down."
I woke up and found Claire still snuggling into my chest with a tight grip around my torso. I moved and she moaned while moving closer and burying her face into my neck. I pulled away and unwrapped her arms from around me. She reaches over for me with her eyes still closed. Her fingers search for something to hold on to. When she can't find me she settles for a pillow, hugging it close to her body.
I threw on some jeans and a baby blue shirt. I grab my wallet and peek my head into the other room to find Trevor up and looking down lovingly at Ella. I lightly tap the door and his eyes shoot up to my leaning figure.
"Want something from McDonald's? I'm just about to head there," I ask while standing up a little straighter. He looks back down to Ella and then up to me. He reaches up and scratches his head before saying, "Yeah. Could you get me a mocha and some food for me and Elle to eat?" I hastily nod and then walk out of the door and over to the other room.
I stick my head in and find Spencer and Noah, sleeping, with their arms and legs carelessly thrown all over their beds. The sheets messed up and looking like it hasn't been made in days, even though it was perfectly fine the previous day. I turn out the door with a wry smile, slightly shaking my head.
I walk out the door and walk over to the McDonald's right down the block. I walk around with the sun slightly shinning though the small overcast. It's not super early in the morning, but it isn't late either. It's only about seven and I feel drained, but full of energy too. I walk through the streets and into the busy fast food place, people dashing through trying to get their coffee and be out of there and not late for work. I don't know why they just don't go to Starbucks, but it's not any of my business.
I stand in line and wait for all the impatient people to order their food, while I stand there in utter bliss. I don't have the best of everything, but I have Claire, some pretty amazing friends, my sister, my mom, I have all I need. Although I wish some things were a little bit more, Claire, I still wouldn't take what I have for granted ever again.
"Hi, what can I get for you?" The cashier at the register asks. She bats her eyes at me and I muster up the decency to not roll my eyes at her shameless flirting. I avoid that and order things for everyone. When I'm done I don't bother looking at her and just grab my wallet from my back pocket. I open it and see it stuffed with cash. Where the hell did all this cash come from? I swear I didn't have this much cash in here. I pull out $40 and hand it to the flirt in front of me. She takes it and makes sure to have some kind of contact with my hand before withdrawing and putting it in the register and handing me my change.
I walk off to the side and wait for the food and mocha's. When they finish they give me a cup holder with the two mocha's and two bags with all the food in it. I didn't bother with Spencer or Noah. They'll be asleep for a while. I got Claire about 10 hash browns and a McGriddle. I got Kale a McMuffin, Emmett some pancakes, Trevor some pancakes and a McMuffin. I didn't get Syd or Dylan anything because they won't be up till Spencer is up, and that will be hours from now.
I walk back to the motel and walk into the elevator and press for the third floor. I get off the elevator with a ding and walk up to the door and slide the key card into the slot. I opened the door and set the two bags down on the table. I walked into the other room to give Trev his mocha before walking back into the main room and sliding in next to Claire. I remove the pillow from her grip and watch as she reaches over to grab onto something. She reaches over and unknowingly grabs onto my now growing member, making me groan and close my eyes tightly.
"Aiden are you okay?" She asks while yawning. She looks at my pained expression and her eyes go wide. "What happened?" She looks down to her hand and shrieks while pulling it away. I hiss and lean against the head board while trying to think the pain away.
"I-I-I... I'm so sorry. I... I didn't mean to... I..." She frowns and starts to blush. When the pain finally become not so unbearable I push myself up and walk over to the bag with our food in it. I grab it and pull out a platter of pancakes and set it next to the awakening Emmett. I walk over to the bed and grab out Kale's McMuffin and toss it over to him. He barely catches it since he's still trying to wake up.
I sit down next to Claire and pull out a hash brown before handing it to her. Her eyes light up at the sight of it and she eagerly takes it from my hand before taking a huge bite out of the poor, almost devoured hash brown. She finishes it within seconds and looks back at me with bright eyes, a small flicker of vulnerability runs through me.
"How many did you get?" She asks taking my mocha out of my hand, taking a sip while pulling the bag into her lap. She looks inside and jumps a little, a full blown smile now occupies her face. I grab my mocha back out of her hands and take a sip. She takes out another and starts to demolish that one followed by another.
"Are these all mine?" She grins while asking. Her smile falters slightly when I don't respond. Her eyes seem to look a little more duller, her smile isn't as bright, and she just looks deprived.
"Well, sweetheart, I was planning on eating one or two, but... I guess you can eat all of them." Her eyes light up like she just won a million dollars from the lottery. Before I can ever comprehend anything she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed the life out of me. She squeals and then pulls away and starts eating another hash brown. She reaches into the bag, without finishing her previous hash brown she pulls out two more before tossing the bag off to the side. She holds on out to me and the other to Kale. We both slowly reach out to take it, looking at each other like, 'Is she really just giving it to us?'
"Do I get one?" Emmett asks with hopeful eyes, just to turn into deprived eyes when she says, "No." Kale and I snicker while he pouts and shoves his pancakes into his mouth.
"Claire!" Ella yells from the other room. I get up from the bed that Claire and I have been sitting on for six hours already and follow her out of the door and into the room Ella's in. Ella motions for Claire to sit on the bed next to her and I stand in the doorway leaning on the threshold. Ella turns to Claire and innocently grins at her.
"So I, uh, got dared to post a video on Vine and to do a cover and post it on Youtube. Do it with me? Please?" Ella said while giving her the puppy dog eyes. Claire groans and falls back on the bed. She pushes Ella off and laughs evilly. Ella staggers back up and glares.
"Why don't you just have Trev do the video with you? Isn't he your boyfriend?" I ask while walking over to the other bed and sitting on it. They're facing me while trying to figure out why I'm here and imputing my thoughts. Before they can even ask why I am I somewhat shout, "Trev where are you?"
After some shuffling from the other room I see him waltz into the room and give me a suspicious look. He looks over to Ella with her laptop set up and tries to turn around and walk out of the room. I get up and grab his arm before he can get far. I pull him back towards the beds and push him down by Ella. I sit down on the other bed and grab the laptop. I adjust it so you can see the two girls and they laugh and tell Trev he can come sit by me.
"He gets to sit out, but I don't? I didn't even agree to this." Claire seethes.
I laugh, "Well I agreed to it for you, sweetheart." She glares and rolls her eyes at me, but doesn't protest any further. She turns to Ella and asks, "So what are we singing? What cover?"
They decided on The One That Got Away by Katy Perry and they just finished. I had to say that I was amazed by both of their voices. It was amazing. I think that vocal talent just might run in the family or something. Now we're trying to film Ella's vine video. I don't know why she just can't do it herself, but she insists on Claire singing with her again.
Ella said that she wanted to not be the only one on camera and so now she owns Claire like a hundred favors — and I thought I owed her a lot of favors. Speaking of which, I wonder if she put the money in my wallet. She had it yesterday when I asked her to hold it in her bag. She would be the only one to get the opportunity to touch it because I wouldn't have trusted anyone else with it. Not even Spencer, and I've known the guy since I moved to town and started going to school in California. We were originally from Florida, but we moved because my mom wanted to be away from my father. Well as far away as she could get. That just so happened to be all the way across the country. I missed my friends from Florida, but I don't regret moving. I think our old house just had too many bad memories.
"Aiden?" Claire calls from the other room. I walk out and see that she's all dressed up to go out. Her hair is in loose waves, spiraling halfway down her back. She has on a floral dress on with nude pumps and the necklace and bracelet I got her. She has a Michael Kors bag on her arm.
"You coming for dinner? We're going to head off tomorrow morning, so why not chill, get some food, and stuff our face?" She asks. I throw on a jacket and grab my wallet before sliding on my shoes and following her out the room. We walk out to my truck and she slides into the passenger seat.
"So where are we off to babe?" I ask while starting the ignition. I look over at her and see her buckling her seat belt. She looks up and turns to me, shrugging. She smirks, "I have no clue. You're the one driving, boss." I chuckle and pull out of the stall and onto the street. I look at her and bite my lip.
"What do you want to eat?" I ask
"Italian or Chinese. Yeah something like that." She says while turning the radio on. Talking Body started playing and see instantly started to nod her head. I shook my head and said, "Okay, then, let's go to the Italian restaurant a few miles away from here. I saw it on our way here and I wanted to go eat there. You fine with that?" I ask while slightly turning to briefly look at her. She still looks so beautiful, even without trying to be. Oh how I wish she was mine. "Okay. That's fine." She says while leaning her head onto the chair.