She's With Me

by Jessica Cunsolo

  There’s also a picture of Aiden with the boys. One is climbing on his back and he’s holding the other one upside down. I smile at the genuineness and playfulness of the three brothers in the picture, committing the rare, carefree smile Aiden’s sporting to memory.

  The more I learn about Aiden, the harder it is for me to think of him as that asshole who crashed into me on my first day of school and fireman-carried me up the stairs. Every day I spend with him, the more I think of him as this loyal, intelligent, and resourceful guy who’s a fierce protector of the people he cares about.

  I pull off the photo of the smiling, carefree Aiden and his brothers, and smile fondly at it.

  There’s still a lot I don’t know about Aiden, but I do know that I trust him more than I’ve ever trusted any other guy, and that he’s dangerously close to breaking down all of my armor and leaving me more vulnerable than I’ve ever been. It’s all different, and I haven’t felt this way before—any secrets I shared with friends back home feel silly now, worrying about gossip or petty, cliquey school politics. Tony is real. The twins are real. And Aiden and I are both totally different people because of them.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! The pounding at the door jolts me out of my thoughts.

  “Amelia! Can you let Mason in?” Aiden yells from the other room.

  “Got it!”

  As soon as I open the door, I’m enveloped in a protective and warm hug.

  “K-bear, are you okay? Aiden didn’t tell me any details, just said something went down at the school and you were involved.”

  I wrap my arms around him and rest my cheek on his solid chest, heartened by his concern and protectiveness over me.

  “I’m fine, Mason. My car, however, is not.” I step out of his embrace and he looks at me questioningly.

  “What happened?”

  We close the door and walk back to the kitchen, where we sit as I explain about my keyed car, slashed tires, and accidentally leaving all of our things in the locked school.

  “That bastard!” Mason spits, his knuckles white from how hard he’s clenching his fists.

  “I can’t believe the two vilest teenagers on planet Earth found each other. It’s weird how life works sometimes.”

  Ryan and Kaitlyn are actually the perfect couple: they both have dark, maniacal, demonic creatures where their souls should be.

  “What’s the next step? We have to get him back. No one screws with my k-bear and walks away from it!”

  “There is no next step,” Aiden announces as he walks into the room and tosses me a sweater of his.

  “What do you mean there’s no next step?” Mason asks, growing angrier as he states the facts. “They slashed her tires and keyed her car! That’s not a small thing! That’s vandalism and damage of property!”

  “There is no next step because I’m going to handle it,” Aiden clarifies.

  He ushers us to the door, which he closes and locks, and we head to Mason’s Range Rover, parked in the driveway.

  “We’re going to drop you off at Charlotte’s, I already called her. Mason’s going to take me to school so I can pick up my car and wait for the tow truck, which should be on its way,” he says.

  “What do you mean you’ll ‘handle it’?” I pull his sweater around me as he opens the back door for me and closes it once I’m seated. It’s cold outside, considering it’s probably almost midnight, and I’m instantly grateful that Aiden thought to give me a sweater.

  He gets in shotgun and Mason starts the SUV. “I mean what I said. I’ll handle it.”

  “They messed with me. I should help, or have a part in your plan to ‘handle it.’ Or at the very least know what it is,” I assert, getting slightly annoyed with his reluctance to let me help, or even tell me what his plan is.

  “I want to help too.” Mason sticks up for me. “And I’m sure Anna is just dying for an excuse to break Kaitlyn’s nose.”

  I smile at the mention of Annalisa. She would so love to do that.

  Aiden glares at Mason, clearly peeved that he didn’t take his side. “I’ll handle it, tomorrow,” he emphasizes.

  As if Aiden just revealed his grand plan from those few words, Mason’s eyes widen in realization. “Oh.”

  “Why? What’s tomorrow?” I ask, oblivious to whatever just happened.

  “Nothing.” Aiden dismisses my question.

  “Clearly there’s something!” I exclaim, getting frustrated.

  “Don’t worry about it, Amelia,” Mason adds.

  “No, tell me!” I demand.

  “Leave it, Amelia.”

  “Just tell me, Aiden!”

  “It’s better if you’re not involved.”

  “Mason?” I plead.

  “He’s right. We’ll handle it.”

  “What?! Now Mason gets to be involved? Are the other boys going to be involved too?”

  They share a look. Their action and silence confirming my question.

  “Great! So everyone gets to be involved except the person their vandalism directly affected!”

  We pull into Charlotte’s driveway, and she opens the door, waiting for us on the porch.

  Aiden gets out of the SUV and opens my door for me, his intense gaze meeting mine. “Messing with you affects all of us.”

  I ignore the butterflies and stand my ground, sliding out of the SUV. “But it still—”

  “We’ll talk more in the morning, okay?” Aiden smoothly interrupts me, probably more to shut me up than anything.

  “But—”

  “I’ll get to the school early to get our stuff and I’ll meet you at your locker,” he says as he closes the door once I’m out of the car.

  He gets back into the passenger seat. “Good night, Amelia,” he says, and Mason repeats this as well before Aiden closes his door and Mason reverses out of the driveway.

  I watch them drive away as Charlotte comes down to meet me.

  “What’s going on?” she asks, concerned.

  I narrow my eyes at the receding Range Rover. “I don’t know. But we’re going to find out.”

  15

  Despite being exhausted from the day’s events, I don’t sleep much at Charlotte’s. Not only do I not have my sleeping pills, but my mind is whirling with possibilities of what Aiden and Mason meant by “tomorrow.”

  Which is today. Meaning something is happening today. And I still don’t know what it is. But I do know that I’d rather have nothing happen. Of course, deep down, I really wish I could tear Kaitlyn and Ryan a new one for messing with me, but I can’t. I had all night at Charlotte’s to think about it while I couldn’t sleep, and I’m positive that the best thing to do is to leave it alone and let it go.

  There are bigger things at play here, and I don’t want a stupid high school rivalry to ruin—and quite possibly literally end—my life.

  If I retaliate and do something to Kaitlyn and Ryan, they’ll just hit back bigger and harder. It’ll become a never-ending cycle until I lose; and I know for a fact that I won’t win this war. There are hundreds of things they could do to end me, especially since I’m not even Amelia Collins. Then it’d be only a matter of time until this stupid teenage drama drew Tony to me, and then it wouldn’t be just stupid teenage drama anymore. It would be a serious battle for my life, and innocent people could get hurt.

  The last time Tony hunted me down, he was so hell-bent on destroying me that three innocent people died. That’s three innocent lives ended because of me, and I will live with that heavy burden on my conscience for the rest of my life. It’s so painful even the passing thought of it is too much, so I push the past out of my mind and concentrate on the here and now—this isn’t a game. This is bigger than some teenagers getting caught up in a heated rivalry. It’s bigger than my hatred for Kaitlyn and Ryan and their hatred for me, Aiden, and the Boys. This is my life and the lives o
f the people I care about. So this has to end now before Kaitlyn and Ryan retaliate with something worse than slashing my tires and keying my car.

  Determined to tell Aiden to drop any idea about retaliation, I meet him at my locker like he instructed, and just as he said, he got here bright and early to get our stuff before anyone else could touch it. Despite his promise that we would talk in the morning, we did no such thing. He hands me my stuff and practically sprints away from me before I can even think about pestering him for answers. Fine. But he can’t avoid me all day.

  I plan on bothering him in second period calculus, but Mr. Fidiott gives us a sample test of the one that we’ll be getting on Monday, so no talking allowed. Plus, Aiden gets out of there before I can catch him, leaving Julian behind to give me an apologetic smile on Aiden’s behalf.

  By now my friends all know about what Ryan and Kaitlyn did, and they are all pretty pissed. Their show of solidarity and level of anger on my behalf really make me feel like I belong. Like these are my true group of friends, and when one thing hurts one of us, it hurts all of us. Except no one really knows who I am; I’m lying to everyone. Like the thoughts of Tony and my life before, I push this out of my mind, too, and try to concentrate on the conversation flowing around me.

  “I still think we should go with my first suggestion and just break her nose,” Annalisa states, licking yogurt off her spoon.

  Everyone but Aiden and Mason is sitting at our table in the cafeteria, talking about what happened to my car.

  “Babe, we’ve been through this many times. You aren’t allowed to break her nose.” Julian chuckles at his girlfriend.

  She mumbles something about Julian not letting her have any fun.

  I look longingly at the seats usually occupied by Aiden and Mason. Does their absence have something to do with “tomorrow”? Or did they mean tomorrow as in tonight? I hope I’m not too late to tell them to drop it. Shit. I should’ve tried harder to get their attention. I knew something was happening today and here I am, not making finding Aiden and Mason my top priority.

  “Oh, hey, Amelia,” a sarcastic, nasally voice says.

  We all look at Kaitlyn, who’s walking past our table with her mindless followers. “I noticed you didn’t drive here today. Still having car problems?” They laugh as they continue on their way.

  Annalisa abruptly stands up, looking ready to start a fight, but Julian immediately pulls her back down into her seat.

  She glares at Kaitlyn’s retreating form. “If karma doesn’t hit her soon, I fucking will.”

  “I’m really counting on that.” Noah chuckles.

  “What are we going to do?” Charlotte asks.

  “Honestly, guys, I think—” I try to tell them to leave it alone, but no one’s paying me any attention.

  “Something that would really piss her off,” interrupts Chase.

  “No, guys, really I think—”

  “It has to be worse than what she did to Amelia’s car,” interrupts Noah.

  “But I’d rather—” I say.

  “We should break into her house!” Annalisa suggests.

  “And put hair remover into her shampoo bottle!”

  We all look at Charlotte.

  “Really, Charlie? We just suggested breaking and entering, and the worst you can think of is hair remover in the shampoo?” Chase jokes.

  “Sorry, I’m not good at this revenge thing,” Charlotte admits shyly.

  “Hey, hair remover in the shampoo bottle is pretty diabolical.” Noah defends Charlotte’s idea. “I mean, can you just picture Kaitlyn’s face when all of her hair falls out?”

  “We are not breaking and entering. As much as I hate her, I don’t want to break the law,” I assert, finally getting a word in. “Guys, I don’t want—”

  “Whose house are we not breaking into?” Mason interrupts as he arrives at the table with Aiden.

  I instantly perk up when I see them. If they’re here, that means I’m not too late to call this off.

  “We were just talking about how to get back at Kaitlyn and Ryan, which Aiden was supposed to tell us about,” Charlotte says while Mason takes his usual seat on my left, and Aiden sits on his left.

  “Why is Aiden in charge of revenge?” Noah protests. “Why can’t I ever be in charge of revenge?”

  The table erupts into laughter at Noah’s suggestion, still too excited about this to pay attention to my protests.

  “Noah, honey, you’re way too sweet to be the mastermind of a revenge plan,” Annalisa explains.

  “Fine. I won’t be in charge. But we should come up with a plan together. We should have, like, a group vote! It’s only fair!”

  “No, guys. I don’t—”

  I’m interrupted again by everyone talking together at once, all throwing out suggestions and ideas.

  “Guys!” The conversation stops and we all look at Aiden, waiting for him to continue. When I look at him, his observant eyes are trained on me, as if he can read my mind and personally feel my frustration.

  “Amelia’s been trying to say something.”

  “To be honest, I’m really just sick of all of this. I don’t want revenge. Think about it. I get her back. She gets me back. It’s a never-ending cycle. Someone has to be the bigger person and end it somewhere.”

  The table erupts, everyone protesting and talking at once. The only person not saying anything is Aiden.

  “You can’t just let her get away with what she did!”

  “That’d be letting them win!”

  “We have to do something!”

  “At least let me break her nose!”

  “They deserve to pay!”

  “Guys! I’m touched. Really. But I don’t want to start a never-ending war. Ryan already hates Aiden, Kaitlyn despises me. Together they make a ruthless team without boundaries. I don’t want to have to be constantly looking out for the knife they plan to shove in my back. Can we please just be the bigger people and drop it before I’m the target of even more torment?” I plead, disclosing at least half of the truth.

  Charlotte’s the first to break the silence. “But don’t Aiden and Mason already have a plan? Aren’t you guys going to handle it today?”

  “Tonight. We’ll handle it tonight,” Mason clarifies.

  The boys’ eyes all light up with realization, and even Annalisa seems to get what they’re talking about.

  “What’s tonight?” Charlotte asks.

  “Friday is when Aiden goes to the Tr—” Noah is cut off when he notices Aiden sending him a death glare.

  “Friday is when Aiden goes where? Aiden? What is Noah talking about?” I ask.

  “The Tracks,” he says. “Friday is when I go to the Tracks.”

  “The Tracks? What do you mean?” I ask.

  “I race for money. Illegally.”

  “But—how? Like, how does it all work?” I can’t stop picturing scenes from The Fast and the Furious: large crowds, sketchy people, loud music, practically naked girls walking around everywhere. I mean realistically, if that went on every Friday night, especially with such loud cars all gathered together, how did other people and the cops not catch on?

  “We call it the Tracks, but it’s not really a drag strip or anything. It’s about an hour out of town, up north, on the deserted country roads.” Mason fills me in.

  Noah continues, “It’s not like a huge, professionally organized thing. Nothing like you see in the movies and stuff about racing. Yeah, it’s big, but not that big. It’s just a bunch of people who get together and make bets on the racers.”

  “The two or three people racing put money down against each other, but the spectators also make bets on the racers. It’s a great way to make fast money,” Julian explains.

  That makes a lot of sense to me. Of course Aiden would do that. He’s a senior in high school and
guardian of two boys. He has no job but still has to pay for bills and gas and food and other expenses.

  “How much do you make from one race?” I ask.

  “Depends on how much you want to bet,” Aiden says vaguely.

  “How much did you make last Friday?”

  He was there that Friday—that’s why he ignored my call when I needed to get Chase somewhere.

  “Around two grand.”

  “Two thousand dollars! In one night?” Charlotte choruses in disbelief as I almost do a spit take, barely containing the water in my mouth.

  She and I are the only ones who clearly have no idea about any of this. Annalisa doesn’t seem shocked, but I can’t see Julian hiding something like this from her. I’m surprised Chase didn’t say anything to Charlotte. But from how they all act when the subject comes up, I’m assuming it’s something Aiden doesn’t want anyone to know about.

  “Do you guys race too?” I look at the other boys at the table.

  Julian, Chase, Noah, and Mason all shake their heads no.

  “We’re nowhere as skilled as Aiden,” Chase admits.

  “But that doesn’t mean we don’t go to support him or back him up,” Julian adds.

  “Plus, betting on Aiden is a great way to make sure I never have to get a part-time job,” Mason jokes, and the other guys laugh in agreement.

  “How good are you?” I ask Aiden, already knowing the answer.

  “The best.”

  “You ever lose?”

  “Rarely.”

  “More like never,” Mason adds.

  Of course he wins; he has other people depending on him to win. He’s been forced to grow up. He has a lot of responsibilities; more than any teenager should.

  “Who goes to these things?” Charlotte asks.

  “Us and a few other Kings, the Silvers, and some groups of people from some other schools around here,” Noah informs us.

  “When you said you were going to handle it tonight, what were you going to do?” I ask.

  Clearly if the Silvers go to the track, then obviously Ryan does. That might explain why he and Aiden hate each other so much.