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Is he taking care of his brothers all on his own? How does he get money to pay for everything? Is someone helping him out with the boys or the bills? Is he their legal guardian? How does he feel about all of this?
The more I find out, the more I need to know about him. Everything that Aiden does fascinates me, and I find myself craving more of him. Aiden and I have more in common than we think: We both have a past that we’d rather not have anyone knowing. We both have family issues, and we definitely both have our own dark secrets.
At lunch, I pull out my Nutella sandwich and Mason eyes it. “That looks delicious, Amelia.”
“We remember what happened last time you stole my Nutella sandwich, right?”
He rolls his eyes and lightens his voice a few octaves to imitate me. “‘You take my sandwich, I take your life.’”
“I so do not sound like that!” I protest.
“Definitely have to work on your Amelia impression,” Chase jeers at him.
“But I do remember her saying something like that,” Charlotte adds.
Mason chuckles. “Yeah, that’s my k-bear.” He ruffles my hair and I giggle as I whack his arm away.
“Damn it, Mason! I’ll have to redo this French braid now!” I scold him.
He ignores me and chuckles. “I’m going to buy lunch anyway, be right back.” He gets up from the table and walks toward the cafeteria line, but not before trying to mess up my hair again.
I giggle at Mason as I run my hands over my hair, trying to smooth it back into place, but Aiden’s giving Mason an indecipherable look, a slight scowl on his face.
I suddenly remember that there’s a calculus test in a week, and I could really benefit from some extra study sessions with Aiden before then.
“Hey, Aiden. Do you think you can tutor me a couple of times before the test next week? Maybe tonight or tomorrow?”
He pops the tab on his soda can. “Can’t until Thursday.”
He didn’t even hesitate before offering up his time, and I’m sure there are a million other things he’d rather do than teach me calculus.
“Thursday it is. Friday too?” I ask hopefully. Lord knows I need all the help I can get.
“Busy Friday,” he says cryptically, not bothering to elaborate. “I’ll be there for seven.”
Oh shit. I totally forgot that my mom is home on Thursday before her flight. I don’t want Aiden there while she’s home. I don’t want her to meet any more of my friends. I don’t need another lecture on not letting the truth out to anyone, no matter how much I like them or how hot they are. That’ll just be awkward because I already told Aiden more than I was supposed to.
“Actually, can we go to your house?”
“Library?” he counters.
“Library works for me,” I say.
“Oh, how sweet. Aiden’s doing charity by tutoring the less fortunate.” Kaitlyn comes up to the table and stops beside me. “It must get hard being that stupid all the time.”
“I wouldn’t know, you tell me,” I snap.
Her eyes narrow at me. “Just wait. You’ll get what’s coming.”
She backs up and turns around, walking toward her friends sitting at another table. Mason passes her as he walks back to our table, giving her a confused look.
“What was that about?” he asks as he sits down with two plates of mouthwatering chicken fingers and fries.
“Oh you know. Insults and threats. The usual,” Chase clarifies.
Mason chuckles. “I’d be concerned if it was anything different.”
Wordlessly, Mason slides one of the plates of fingers and fries in front of me, and I simultaneously give him half of my Nutella sandwich, as if we’d choreographed this exchange.
