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12
The days of the week fly by quickly and insignificantly. Mason doesn’t seem any different, so I guess that means Annalisa kept her promise to stay quiet about the affair. But that also means Brian hasn’t said anything to him either.
I’m getting ready for school Thursday morning when I get a text from Aiden.
I’m picking you up this morning. Be there in 10.
A giddy feeling rises within my chest. A morning with Aiden? Fine by me.
Since Monday’s encounter with Ryan I’ve been wearing long sleeves that are tight around the wrists so that they won’t accidentally ride up and reveal the bruise on my wrist, and Kaitlyn’s been doing the same. Not that we talked about it. She’s doing her damn best to avoid me, while still managing to be a bitch. How? I have no idea. It must be her special talent. Some people can juggle bowling pins while riding a unicycle; Kaitlyn can be a bitch while not even in the same room as you.
I study the ugly bluish-yellow bruise in the shape of a large handprint wrapped around my wrist and scowl. At least it’s fading.
A loud car pulls up in my driveway and I peer out the window. It’s a black Challenger. I practically squeal out loud.
Grabbing my bag and jacket, I run down the stairs and out the door, locking it behind me. Aiden’s standing in front of the car, a grin on his face. It softens all his expressions and makes him look younger than he normally presents himself. He looks his age.
“You have a Challenger again!” I call out to him and open the passenger-side door, peeking inside to see if anything’s different.
He sits in the driver’s seat, his excitement almost palpable. “It’s the newest model too. Even faster than my old one.”
Once I’m seated, I throw my bag in the backseat and put my seat belt on.
“It’s pretty, but I’m going to miss the minivan,” I joke.
“I am not.” He groans. “I’m especially not going to miss all the stupid jokes. If Noah called me a soccer mom one more time I was going to lose it.”
He pulls out of my driveway and drives down the street, and it’s painfully obvious that he’s trying his hardest to do the speed limit and not test out the car’s engine.
“You’re still coming with me tonight to the interview, right?” he asks as he takes a turn unnecessarily fast.
Another news station has asked to interview him about his relationship with Andrew Kessler, and basically remind everyone that Andrew is a shitty human being who doesn’t deserve life outside of prison, never mind be the governor of an entire state. Aiden hasn’t done any interviews since leaving Torywood Springs after everything blew up, but he accepted this request, and asked me to join him for the first time.
“As long as I don’t have to be on screen.”
“Yeah, you’ll just sit on the sidelines and cheer me on. You can even scroll my social media for a bit while they set up.”
Since I don’t have social media, sometimes Aiden indulges me and lets me browse through his to see what’s going on out there. It’s fun, pretending to be normal. Even if his is currently littered with a mix of moral support and death threats. I usually block those people for him before he sees what they’re saying.
“Then you got a deal,” I reply, spying my favorite button on the car’s console.
“Oh look! The butt warmer!” I reach to press the button when Aiden suddenly brakes a bit too hard.
“What is that?” His tone serious, harsh.
“The butt warmer? You know, you press it and it warms up your seat?”
He safely pulls over on the side of the road, grabs my hand, and shoves up my sleeve. The one that’s covering my bruise.
“No. I meant this.”
I automatically yank my hand out of his grasp. “It’s nothing. You’re overreacting.”
Aiden narrows his eyes at me. He’s deathly calm, his gray eyes cutting right through me.
“It’s not nothing. That was the shape of a hand—finger imprints.”
I cradle my arm defensively as my pulse speeds up, wondering if he can hear how loudly my heart is racing. “You didn’t even get a good look at it. You can’t possibly tell what it looks like. And that’s because it looks like nothing. It’s just a bruise, I’m clumsy. You know this.” My words come out shaky. I’m doing a very poor job making this lie believable, and he knows it too.
He takes a deep breath, trying to steady himself. His jaw clenches. I can tell he’s trying his hardest to stay calm and not erupt in anger.
“When were you alone with Ryan?”
I’m taken aback. I try to read the expression on his face but he’s put his guard back up. My heartbeat is the only noise in the small space. “How did you know it was Ryan?”
He studies me, his hands clench into fists. “You do remember that I’m actually very smart, right? Plus, you just confirmed it.”
Damn it!I can’t believe I just fell for the oldest trick in the book.
This is the last thing we need right now. I can’t have Aiden defending me by picking a fight like when he found the bruise Dave left on my stomach after that time at the Tracks. I need to defuse this situation before he does something stupid. “Aiden really, it’s not that bad.”
“It’s not that bad? Jesus, Thea! There’s a literal handprint on your wrist from where he grabbed you!” He pauses as his eyes widen. “Where else did he hurt you? Let me see. I swear to God if he—”
He moves to, I don’t know, take off my sweater to check for more bruises, but I push him off of me. “I’m fine, Aiden. Really. You’re overreacting.”
He studies me with an expression I don’t like seeing on him. His eyes are alight, and there’s a fire in them that promises pain.
“What happened?”
“He was being rough with Kaitlyn and I intervened. It’s fine, I’m fine.”
His eyes narrow. “You swear to me he didn’t do anything else to you?”
“I swear. It’s fine, Aiden.”
Suddenly, he puts the car in gear and roughly pulls back onto the road. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. No one hurts my girl and walks away without paying for it.”
He’s not doing the speed limit this time. Not even trying.
“Aiden! Stop!”
He says nothing as his knuckles turn white from gripping the steering wheel, only relaxing his grip when he needs to shift gears.
“Aiden we’re almost in a school zone and you’re in fifth gear! Slow down!” I’m not scared of Aiden, but I am scared for Aiden. What is he planning on doing?
He doesn’t say anything and the determined look on his face doesn’t falter, but he does slow down to the speed limit. Unfortunately, he still makes a scene with his loud car as he screeches into the parking lot haphazardly and turns the engine off. He gets out, his back rigid and his muscles taut as he scans the parking lot.
“Aiden, seriously, listen to me. You need to calm down.”
I’ve caught up to him now by the driver’s side of the car, but it’s too late. He’s already zeroed on the target. Ryan’s just pulled into the parking lot some distance away to drop off Kaitlyn. Noah, Mason, and Annalisa come up to us.
Noah looks between me and Aiden. “Hey, what’s with the I’ll slit your throat for breathing in my direction look on his face?”
Aiden ignores him, ignores all of us, and steps around me, calmly walking toward Ryan. But I know better. This will be anything but calm. I run in front of him and put my hands on his chest, trying to stop him.
“Aiden, stop. We’re in a school parking lot. You’ll get expelled.”
His calculating eyes meet mine, the thinly veiled fury in them meeting me with full force. He glances at my hands on his chest, at my bruised wrist since my sleeve rolled down again.
Shit.Stupid mistake.
A muscle in his jaw ticks. He puts his hands on my hips and gently moves me out of the way, then continues walking toward Ryan.
I run around him again, shoving my sleeve down this time and stopping in front of him.
“Stop! Please. We all know you can beat him up without breaking a sweat. He knows what you can do. But I don’t want you to do that for me. I’m begging you. Just leave it.”
Something I say must reach him, but the anger is still there. “I can’t just let him get away with doing that to you.”
“We won’t. But this won’t solve anything. You’ll get expelled, and then what? He still wins.” I lower my voice. “We don’t know how much time I’ll have left with you. I don’t want to waste it on Ryan. Or us not being able to be together in school.”
I sense an opening. He’s still pissed, but he’s listening. I grab his hand and lead him in the opposite direction, toward the school, and away from Ryan and the impending fight.
Aiden lets me guide him to the school, but his attention is still locked on Ryan’s car until he pulls out of the parking lot and speeds away into the distance, unaware of just how close he came to swallowing all his teeth.
