Chapter Five

At the outlook, we took our usual spots. Although this time, Aiden produced a thin plaid blanket from his backpack and laid it out for us to sit on. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Aiden Hill, did you plan this?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips, surprised and feigning suspicion.

"Oh, no," he replied sarcastically. "I always keep a spare blanket in my bag."

As we were watching the sun set, we talked more and more. There were no awkward silences, and as the colors played on the sky he told me about his life. Aiden had it rough, and I'm not going to sugar coat it. He had seen his mother in her worst moments, laying on the couch with a needle sticking out of her arm, barely moving. By the time he was four he had learned to tilt her head to the side while she slept so she wouldn't choke on her own vomit. He explained how when his mother was ever arrested, which was a lot, he would live with his dad, which was somehow harder for him. With his mother, there was no structure. He was free to come and go as he pleased, he would fend for himself for dinner or if he could scrounge up enough money he'd order a meal from a fast food restaurant. With his father, however, it seemed almost too much structure to handle. There was a curfew, he was to come home straight after school and sit at the kitchen table until all of his homework was done, and only after that was he allowed to go out. He was expected to be home by seven for dinner, and in bed every night by nine thirty. His dad always seemed sad, and some nights when his father would drink he would reminisce about the 'good old days' when he was with his mother, before she got into drugs. They were happy, and once the drug habits started, his dad thought he could control it, help her get clean. It never worked though, he would often come home from work to find her passed out on the floor or the couch, young Aiden crying and in diapers, and one day he couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stand to see the woman he so deeply loved hurt herself so much. They divorced and he tried to get full custody of Aiden, but his mom pulled some last minute miracle and showed up clean and healthy to the court house, so she was awarded custody. He told me how every time she came back from jail she was clean and made empty promises not to start using again, and Aiden would come home, sometimes even that same night, to find her passed out again. The very few times she was clean, she was happy. She and Aiden went out and did fun things together, they acted as if they were a real family. But it would never last. Aiden was the one who found her. He had come home later than usual, and found her blue, she had choked on her own vomit. When his dad heard the news, he wasn't the same. He had blamed himself for leaving, and for not being there for her and trying harder to get her clean. He had never found another woman he had loved more than her, and in his grief, hung himself from a beam in the kitchen. Apparently, a nosy neighbor saw him hanging there, lifeless, through a window, and called the police. Aiden came home from school to three police cars and two ambulances, and one of the officers asked if there was any place he could stay. Aiden said no, he'd never met any family besides his parents, and a week later he was living with his only living relative left, his mother's sister. Aunt Ivy didn't know Aiden existed, either, but welcomed him in with open arms. She was only thirty five, and was not prepared at all for a teenage boy, so Aiden tried his best to be on good behavior and help out as much as he could around the house. It turns out he did live in the trailer court as I suspected, and he had been thinking about getting a part time job to help out with bills before Aunt Ivy told him to forget it. The best thing about Aiden was how we really understood and listened to each other.

The sun was moving lower and lower in the sky, and I just now looked at the clock on my phone.

"Shit," I mumbled. I had to get started on dinner.

"I'll give you a ride," Aiden said automatically.

Once we got to my house, Aiden walked me to the front door. It felt awkward with us just standing there, I felt like he was going to try to kiss me again and I was not ready for that, so I invited him inside, to which he agreed. Once we walked through the front door, Livvy's head popped out from the living room, looking from me to Aiden and back again.

"Sorry I'm late," I said. "Did you eat yet?" She shook her head. And then she mouthed, 'Rachel's here.' Great.

"Hey ma," I shouted into the room as I was taking off my jacket and shoes in the hallway. Aiden was copying me. "You mind if we have company for dinner?" That got a response. Ma came out of the living room and her face was torn between inviting and scornful. It was not a pretty mix.

"Hello," she said as warmly as she could, "You must be Aiden." She continued with her welcomes, offering a tour. I gave him a look that said, 'Sorry,' as I headed into the kitchen to make dinner.

Looking in the cupboards, it was a tie between chicken dumpling soup and another casserole. Soup it is. As I was working on the dumplings, Aiden came up next to me and took a seat on the counter.

"Your mother is a very interesting woman," Aiden said.

"She tell you all about her job as a gynecologist?" I teased, a smile showing up on my face.

"All about it," he said, starting to laugh. We continued to talk until dinner was done. I grabbed a sleeve of crackers from the cupboard and scooped up four bowls of soup. It felt strange. There was never more than three people in this house at a time since dad, and it felt uncomfortable and nice at the same time. We had to pull up an extra chair for Aiden, and we sat and talked at the dinner table as we ate. Well, Aiden mostly talked as he was being bombarded by questions from both ma and Livvy. How his grades were, if he was making any friends, mostly all of the questions were about school. I was grateful to them for steering clear of the family questions. They understood and they knew that he probably wouldn't want to talk about it. After dinner, I moved the plates to the sink.

"I should probably get going," Aiden said, following me.

"I'll walk you out," I said, giving my family a look to say that they were not to follow. I walked him out the front door and to his bike, where he took a seat and looked up at me.

"Your family is really great," he said, "They were super nice."

"Oh they're probably already judging you," I teased with a smile. Then I did something I never thought I'd do, and I didn't even think about it. I leaned down and kissed him. The smell of coffee and fresh cut grass entered my nose and I felt a strange feeling in my gut. Is that the butterflies everyone talks about? Aiden grabbed the back of my head and deepened the kiss, making me sigh out a moan softly. I pulled back, embarrassed, and met his brown eyes with mine. Am I imagining things, or was there a look of excitement in them?

"Okay, see you tomorrow," I said, barely audible through my smile.

"Tomorrow," he said, revving up the engine and pulling a wheelie before speeding off. I laughed.

Turning back towards the house, I saw the eyes of both my mother and my sister looking through the window and staring at me. I groaned. I went back into the house and headed straight upstairs, going into mine and Livvy's room and closed the door. Not long after, I heard heavy footsteps running up the stairs and Livvy forcefully shoved the door open and started squealing and jumping on me.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god was that your first kiss oh my gosh he's so cute!" she continued squealing inaudible sentences and I was smiling, laughing and even giggling with her. I'm not much of a giggler myself, but what can I say? I was in a terribly good mood.