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“I’m fine. I have a slight concussion and needed some stitches, but I’m feeling good. Really. I don’t even need to be here anymore, but we’re waiting for some test results. I should be discharged soon.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” I say.
“Why didn’t you come to visit me earlier?” Noah asks.
“I—I was scared.”
“Scared of what?” he asks.
“She was scared you’d be mad at her,” Charlotte explains. “She thought it was her fault you’re here and that you’d hate her.”
Noah looks at me, looks at Charlotte, then looks back at me, and bursts out laughing. “What? I’d never hate you, Amelia! And this isn’t your fault. It isn’t anyone’s fault. The Silvers hate our guts and are always starting fights.”
Charlotte gives me a look, as if to say Told you so.
“So you don’t hate me?” I ask in a small voice.
“Never! I’m glad you’re not hurt, or any more hurt since the rest of us jumped in.” Noah says, indicating the forming bruise on my cheek. “Where did you get the idea that I’d be mad at you anyway?”
“Aiden—” I look down at the floor, ashamed of myself for being so easily convinced by him.
“Aiden’s just really protective of the people he cares about.” Noah sighs. “He didn’t mean it.”
Letting the subject drop, the three of us talk and laugh until Aiden walks into the room.
“What are you doing here?” His eyes narrow at the sight of me.
“I came to see my friend,” I say confidently, done mop
ing around and blaming myself.
“Seriously, Aiden. Don’t be all hostile right now. I’m happy she’s here,” Noah says.
Aiden glares at me, and then tosses Noah a fast-food bag before taking the seat on the other side of the room.
“You have just made me the happiest man in the world!” Noah exclaims and digs into his burger.
Aiden rolls his eyes, but I don’t miss the small smile he’s trying to keep from forming.
Mason walks in slurping from a fast-food cup. “K-bear!” He hugs me and Charlotte, and sits down next to Aiden.
“Hey, that reminds me!” Noah announces and looks at me. “Maybe hospital trips can be our thing? You were here last time, and now me.”
Out of the corner of my eye I see Aiden tense up.
“Maybe we should keep looking?” I say and everyone laughs, releasing any tension in the room.
Later that night, I’m sitting at home making some dinner in my empty house.
My mother’s been so distant ever since that incident last year. She grows even more distant every time it happens. I know deep down she’s tired of how we’ve been forced to live because of me. She’s moved from mainly flying domestic and being home more regularly to doing more overseas and long-haul flights. She’s avoiding me, avoiding this life, avoiding the reasons why we had to move three times in the last year.
As I’m doing the dishes, the doorbell rings and I tense. It’s almost ten on a Saturday night; who’d be coming here?
He wouldn’t be ringing the doorbell if he found you, I reason with myself. Despite knowing this, I grab a metal baseball bat from the closet beside the front door.
Opening the door slowly and peeking out, I breathe a sigh of relief as the crisp autumn air greets me. Aiden’s standing there, his flat-black Dodge Challenger sitting in the driveway. He’s looking at me with a questioning expression, eyeing the baseball bat in my hand. I quickly lean it against the wall behind the door, out of his inquisitive gaze.
He raises his eyebrow. “Really? A baseball bat?”
