My heart swells with pride at Aiden trying to be the bigger person, even if he didn’t say it in the nicest way, and even if he did just try to rearrange Ryan’s face with his fist.
Ryan spits again. “Fuck you, Parker.”
Kaitlyn must not like the scowl on my face, because her icy, blue eyes narrow at me and she says, “Have something to say?”
“It’s funny how obsessed with Aiden you all are. Like, I get it, he’s great. But seriously, this is getting very tiring and I’m done with wasting time on dealing with this stupid bullshit.” I walk over to Aiden and take his hand confidently in mine. “Let’s just go.”
I don’t give anyone time to protest—I drag Aiden with me, hoping that the rest of our friends are behind us. A few seconds later, Charlotte falls into step with me, Noah and Chase right behind her, and Mason just a few steps behind them.
“Amelia’s house,” Aiden says as we all get into our respective cars.
Julian’s truck is gone, so he’s presumably off somewhere consoling his girlfriend, so Charlotte gets in the back of Aiden’s Challenger, while Noah and Chase go with Mason.
“Always have to get right in the middle of a fight, don’t you, Amelia?” Aiden sighs as he pulls out of the parking lot.
I turn on my butt warmer and sigh, looking at my hand, which I’m still cradling. I really hope Ryan’s face didn’t break it.
“If drama didn’t find a way to insert itself into my life, it wouldn’t really be my life,” I answer.
As Sweetie’s recedes in the distance, I watch Ryan’s Mustang pull out and head in the opposite direction. Maybe we’ll be given a break, and this branch of drama can be cut down and out of our lives forever. Maybe we can actually spend the rest of my time here just us friends, completely drama free.
When we get to my house, I get out of the car and pull down the seat to let Charlotte out too. Mason’s SUV stops beside Aiden’s in the driveway and we all meet up on the porch. So far, Aiden hasn’t yelled at me like he normally would for getting in the middle of a fight—or for technically initiating it. Other than that comment in the car, he’s remained pretty quiet.
Charlotte has basically hailed me as her hero. “I wish I had the balls to punch someone right in the face!” she gushes. “Did you see how useless I was hiding behind Mason?”
She pauses, considering what she said. “Okay, maybe I’d never punch someone, but at least I wish I wasn’t so scared of confrontation. Like, my locker neighbor keeps spraying this god-awful cologne every time I’m there, and I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to it. But will I ever say anything to him? Nooooo. Because that would involve confrontation.”
She frowns, and I feel like she’s talking more to herself now than to us. I unlock the front door and we all pile in, out of the chilly winter air. I check the garage and find my mom’s car missing. I shoot her a quick text, asking when she’ll be home, but don’t expect a reply anytime soon. She probably went to her new boyfriend’s house—the one I’m not allowed to know anything about—instead of coming home.
“Who’s your locker neighbor, Char?” Noah asks as we take off our shoes and jackets, and head into the living room to sit. “Is it Lakerman?”
Charlotte sits cross-legged on the floor, facing the couch, and Chase sits beside her. Noah sits on the smaller couch, and Mason and I sit on the bigger couch. Aiden heads into the other room, presumably to call and check on the twins.
“Yeah, Peter Lakerman. Every time he sprays it, my neck and chest break out in hives,” she explains, subconsciously rubbing her collarbone.
“After the Christmas break when school starts again, I’ll talk to him,” Noah promises.
Charlotte’s blue eyes widen with alarm. “Oh, no! It’s fine, really. You don’t need to say anything.”
“Charlie, you’re breaking out in hives. Clearly it’s not okay,” Chase emphasizes, giving Noah a look laced with some jealous undertones. Chase is in love with Charlotte. I’m assuming it bothers him to know that she never stands up for herself, even if it is just asking her locker neighbor to spray the cologne after she leaves so she won’t break out in hives. Is he jealous that Noah stepped in to play hero before he got the chance? Noah doesn’t even feel the same way Chase does about Charlotte, he’s just being Noah.
“Lakerman is cool. I’ll just tell him you’re allergic and to switch colognes, or at least spray after you get your books and are long gone,” Noah explains, smiling like he just solved a Rubik’s Cube in under thirty seconds.
“But you don’t have to go through the trouble,” Charlotte says timidly.
Noah frowns and looks at Charlotte like she just told him the earth was flat.
“We’re friends. It would be trouble if I didn’t say anything,” he confidently asserts, making Charlotte blush slightly.
“I wish you would’ve told me.” Chase frowns. “I could’ve done something to help.”
Chase would’ve helped Charlotte right away if he’d known what was going on—he is in love with her, after all. I’m sure he’s not happy that Noah gets to be her knight in shining armor before he got the chance.
Aiden walks back into the room and my eyes are automatically drawn to him.
“It’s okay, Chase, really,” Charlotte says as Aiden crosses the room and sits beside me on the couch. “You know I don’t like being the center of any kind of drama.”
“Speaking of drama,” Noah starts. “What the hell, Amelia?”
“At least you didn’t miss out on any of the drama this time, Noah,” Mason teases.
“I didn’t set out to start anything this time!” I defend myself, but as I think about it, I add, “Not that I did the other times.”
“What happened to all that hippie-dippie make love, not war stuff you always preach? All that ‘I don’t want anyone else getting hurt so let’s stop fighting and sit around braiding people’s hair’ bullshit?” Noah asks with a smirk.
“I don’t want anyone getting hurt on my behalf. Yes, I want the cycle of violence to end, but he started saying all that stuff about Jason and Jackson and I don’t know … I lost my shit.”
Now I have a better understanding of why the Boys automatically want to punch people when they find out their friends have been hurt; you just don’t let people disrespect the people important to you like that.
“You threw the first punch! I was so not expecting that!” Chase exclaims.
“Yeah. It was hot.” Mason winks, and Aiden stiffens beside me.
“Don’t get used to it,” I mumble. “My hand is still throbbing.”
“It hasn’t stopped hurting yet? Why didn’t you tell me?” Aiden demands, gently taking my right hand in his two larger ones and analyzing it.
“I don’t know. I figured it would stop hurting after a while. I’ve punched people in the face before—remember at Noah’s Halloween party?”
“I think we all remember Noah’s Halloween party,” Mason says.
“Some spots are a little fuzzy for me, but I know what you mean,” Noah says, rubbing the back of his head where he got stitches. “I hate those damn concussions.”
“Didn’t your hand hurt that time?” Chase asks me. “I’m pretty sure you hit the guy at the party harder than you hit Ryan today, since you knocked him on his ass.”
I try not to seem too proud of that, but come on! I think it was pretty badass if you think about it.
“I guess it did hurt,” I answer. “The guy at Noah’s party was drunk and caught off guard, but I’ve never hit anyone as hard as I hit Ryan today.”
Geez, I’m such a hypocrite. I go around telling Aiden and the Boys not to go off and hit a guy because he pissed them off, and here I am, doing the exact same thing. Not that I regret it.
“Can you open and close your fist for me?” Aiden asks, still gently holding my hand in his.
I try to do as he asks and study his handsome face while he focuses on playing doctor. Even Aiden took the high road today. Ryan was saying really awful things
about his family, about his brothers, and he didn’t beat him to a bloody pulp. Mind you, he still did knock him on his ass, but I think it was well deserved. He could’ve kept going—he would’ve won the fight—but he chose to walk away, to acknowledge that Ryan was hurting and lashing out, and to try and bring an end to all the unnecessary hate and drama.
He turns my hand over, and I can’t help but smile as I watch Aiden—who’s normally so tough and intimidating—handle my hand with the utmost delicacy and care.
“You can’t straighten your middle finger?” he asks.
I try and then shake my head no.
“Your finger is swelling too—you might have broken something or dislocated your finger. We’ll have to go for X-rays,” he states with authority.
I try to pull my hand away but he doesn’t let me, not done with feeling around it.
“Aiden, please. My hand is fine. You punch people all the time and have never broken your hand. Your knuckles are usually all bloody!” I exclaim, nodding at my blood-free knuckles.
He pauses from analyzing my hand to raise a smug eyebrow at me. “I know how to throw a punch, though.”
“I do too,” I mutter. “Or at least I thought I did.”
I sulk as he releases my hand and proceeds to google X-ray clinics, clearly having already decided that I am, indeed, in need of medical attention. God. That would be so embarrassing. Ryan didn’t even have to do anything and he still wins if his stupid face broke my stupid hand.
“Aiden, you should go spend time with your brothers. I know they were looking forward to a movie marathon when you got back to Julian’s,” Mason tells him, looking at him from over my head since I’m sitting between them on the couch. “I’ll take Amelia for X-rays after I drop everyone off.”
I stubbornly cross my arms. “If I want to get X-rays—which I don’t, by the way—I’m perfectly capable of driving myself,” I interject, knowing full well that I’m about to be ignored.
“It’s fine,” Aiden answers, locked in a stare-off with Mason. “I want to take her.”
Honestly, I don’t even know why I bother.
“Really, Aiden. I can take her,” Mason asserts, his broad shoulders set in determination.
I’m torn between trying to figure out if Mason looks like he’s squaring off with Aiden, or if he’s just trying to be a good friend. I don’t think Aiden can decide either.
“I’ll take her. I still need to lecture her about starting a fight, putting herself in harm’s way, etcetera, etcetera.” Aiden waves his hand in a noncommittal gesture. “And I just know she’s looking forward to that.”
Shit. I totally thought I was off the hook.
“I’m not a child, Aiden,” I huff, wishing it was socially acceptable to throw a tantrum—you know, to prove my point that I’m not a child.
Aiden takes his eyes off Mason to look at me. “Yeah, but you get in some kind of trouble, I lecture you about always putting yourself in harm’s way … it’s what we do.”
I can’t help but laugh at that. It’s easy to forget that Aiden actually has a sense of humor when he spends most of his time being all intimidating.
“Wow, so does everyone have a thing with Amelia except me?” Noah huffs, but everyone ignores him.
“I can do that for you,” Mason says to Aiden, not ready to back down. “We won’t even realize you’re not there.”
Aiden doesn’t seem to like that, and I interject just before he’s about to reply.
“Aiden, it’s fine. If I’m going to be forced to have a stupid X-ray, and clearly no one is letting me go alone, Mason can just take me. You go spend time with your brothers, especially after everything that happened. It’s my own stupid fault I threw the punch wrong,” I say.
Aiden looks taken aback that I just chose Mason over him, if that’s how you want to look at it. But he recovers quickly, throwing up a wall of stoic impassiveness and clearing any hurt emotions from his face.
“I guess you’re right,” he says, but now I feel like I betrayed him in some way. I just want him to spend time with his brothers instead of wasting it all with me in a stuffy doctor’s office.
“Perfect. Then I’ll take her,” Mason says, his eyes dancing in victory, while Aiden’s calculating eyes narrow at him. “And you guys can all come over tomorrow. My mom’s making empanadas.”
“Hell, yeah! Natalia’s the best!” Noah exclaims as we all stand. “Hey, Amelia, do you like empanadas? That could be our thing.”
“That can’t be your thing if we’re all there,” Chase says, standing up from the floor and helping Charlotte up as well.
“Fine. We’ll find something else, Amelia, don’t worry.” Noah says, then addresses the group as a whole as he puts on his jacket. “We’ll confer in the group chat about the plans for tomorrow.”
We all pause and tilt our heads at him.
“Confer? Really, Noah?” Chase asks while he puts his shoes on.
“What? It’s my word of the day! I’m trying to broaden my horizons, you know?” Noah smiles, before letting it drop. “Wait, I used it correctly, right?”
“Yes, you used it right,” Mason answers. “Now broaden your horizons all the way to the truck. Amelia’s hand looks like it’s getting worse.”
I frown and look at my hand. Yup, the swelling definitely went up. Fucking Ryan.
Everyone steps out onto the porch and I lock the door. I turn around to say that I’m ready to go, when suddenly Aiden pulls me into him. Before I can think, his hands are on the back of my head, and he lowers his mouth to mine, surprising me with a kiss. What?!
I recover quickly and kiss him back, the fire from his lips igniting my veins, spreading through my body all the way to my toes. I will never get tired of kissing Aiden. He pulls away and smiles a beautiful, genuinely happy smile at me, and all I can do is blush back at him. I can just imagine the shocked looks on our friends’ faces—I’m almost too scared to look.
Aiden isn’t ready to release me yet, so I just risk a sideways glance at everyone. Yup, we might have just broken our friends from the sudden shock. Charlotte looks like she practically dislocated her jaw from how far it dropped. Well, I guess we just officially came out as a couple to our friends.
“I’ll call you later,” he breathes.
He gives Mason a pointed look before kissing the top of my head and leaving to get in his car. I stand there staring after him, feeling just as shocked as everyone else, but infinitely more embarrassed. What was that about? And why did he look at Mason like that? Was that him engaging in some kind of jealous, primal man-staking-a-claim thing?
Mason is suddenly very interested in the ground, and a lot less happy than before. Yeah, it totally was. Geez, Aiden, be a little more discreet next time. Maybe bang your chest and carry me up a building?
“It’s about damn time!” Noah calls after him, recovering the fastest. “I swear, the sexual tension was so strong it could probably bench press more than me, Mason, Julian, and Chase combined.”
I laugh with everyone else, even though my face is probably as red as a tomato. Aiden looks back at us and smiles before getting into his car and revving the engine.
Before anyone can grill me, I run down the steps and to the passenger side of Mason’s Range Rover. “Shotgun!”
After everyone piles in, we barely close all the doors before Charlotte shares her delight.
“Sooo …. Is no one going to talk about what just happened out there!” she exclaims, her whole face lighting up like a kid who was just told they could eat an entire chocolate cake for dinner.
“Aiden and Amelia, sittin’ in a tree,” Noah starts, and Charlotte joins in to sing, “K-i-s-s-i-n-g!”
“Oh God,” I mumble, wishing the seat would swallow me whole.
“Was that the first time he kissed you?” Charlotte presses. “Because it so didn’t look like it was your first kiss. Damn it, Amelia, if you guys kissed before and you didn’t tell me I’ll be so pissed!”
Mason’
s focused on driving, but I know him well enough to tell that he’s uncomfortable. I wish we didn’t have to talk about this in front of the guys.
“I’ll explain everything later, Char,” I emphasize, hoping that she’ll understand and drop it.
I love Charlotte; she’s my best friend and one of the smartest people I know. But if there’s one word to best describe her, it’s oblivious.
She’s talking a mile a minute. “But I just need to know everything! I’m so happy for you! Oh man, I can’t wait for Anna to find out, she’ll be so excited! Wait, she’ll definitely be excited, but then she’ll for sure be pissed because you never told her. Do you think she’ll hit you? She might hit you.”
Mason’s hands tighten on the steering wheel, his knuckles going white.
I turn around in my seat and look at Charlotte, sitting in the back between Chase and Noah.
“I’ll tell you and Anna together, after.” I try really hard to put an emphasis on it without making it obvious, and exaggeratedly move my eyes back and forth from her and Mason.
Her eyes widen, finally getting the hint, and she nods. Unfortunately, Chase and Noah don’t.
“But we still want to know!” Chase exclaims, and Noah nods in agreement.
Before I can think of a reply, Mason turns up the radio, the music blasting so loud through the speakers the car practically shakes. Yeah, guess that’ll effectively end all conversation.
After we drop everyone off, Mason lowers the radio, and we sit in an awkward silence as he drives.
“How’s your hand?” he asks, glancing at my right hand in my lap.
I give my hand a dirty look. “Who cares, I’m mad at it.”
“You’re mad at it?” he repeats.
“Yeah. That was my supercool, stand up to the man moment, and it will forever be marred by the fact I broke my hand.”
Mason laughs, and the air around us starts to feel lighter. “Cheer up. You don’t know if it’s broken.”
I hold up my hand for him to see—my middle finger is swollen and actually looks a little crooked.
He looks at it and grimaces. “Ohh. Why don’t we just stay positive?”
Stay With Me (A Wattpad Novel) Page 8
