Chapter Fifteen
Aidan P.O.V
It had been a couple of days since the class had shown us their little project - the baby room - and I woke in the morning with the sound of a message on my phone. I groaned, rubbing my eyes slightly before picking it up and checking who'd messaged me.
Upon seeing the contact name, my blood ran cold and an unwanted scowl crept onto my face. I wasn't expecting him to message me, so why the hell is he texting me? Taking a deep breath, I opened the message and almost choked on air at what it said.
He had messaged me, demanding to meet my boyfriend as he had visited my mother and made an interesting 'discovery'. Well, shit. She definitely told him, being as my father intimidates her. Hell, he intimidates the whole family after the childhood he gave us.
'Well great, now he knows about Caleb and who knows what he'll try to do to him. He's never let me be my own person, he thinks he can control his entire family...', I thought, nose flaring in rage. I stood from my bed and walked to the bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror. Examining every detail of my face, I stumbled upon the scar he had given me as a child.
Just above my right eye, going through my eyebrow was a jagged line around 3 or 4 centimetres long. He had thrown something at my mother, and I jumped forward to protect her, ending in a trip to the hospital because I had a piece of glass lodged into the part just above my eye. Needless to say, I had stitches for that.
The memory only infuriated me further, to the point I couldn't stand my own reflection. I raised my fist and it made contact with the mirror, small, crystal-like shards flying across the room. 'Okay, now I feel slightly better,', I thought, looking down at my hands.
While my left hand was perfectly fine, my right was a different story. Minsicule shards of my mirror had made their way into my hand, leaving a red liquid to slowly seep out of the wounds. Groaning, I used my good hand to open the bathroom door and leave the room, but only then did I notice someone sitting up on my bed, looking slightly shell-shocked.
"A-Aidan..?", Caleb stuttered, hands shaking as he reached out for me. I was still mad about my dad, and I wasn't thinking straight, so I muttered a small "Go away" before grabbing a change of clothes and storming out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I ran my left hand through my hair and walked down the stairs, regretting my little outburst at Caleb. I'd apologise to him later, but for now, I need to clean my hand up and deal with my father.
As I entered the common room, I turned a blind eye to the looks I was getting, instead just brushing past everyone in my way and going into the kitchen to grab the first-aid kit. After fixing up my hand, I grabbed my clothes once again and changed in the downstairs communal bathrooms before leaving the dorms.
I turned my phone off and walked to the bus stop, ready to finally confront my dad after so many years of letting him walk all over me. ' You may have messed with me when I was younger, but I'm not letting you destroy my children's lives too. Checkmate, you cheating git,'.
Caleb P.O.V
A frown formed on my face as I watched Aidan slam the door behind him, angry footsteps soon following. Why was he so mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Maybe he finally realised that I've ruined his life by getting pregnant.
A tear escaped my eyes, and I found myself mopily walking back to my own dorm room, not wanting to cause him any more problems. After unlocking the door, I flopped down onto the bed and buried my head into one of my pillows, letting it all out. I stayed there for a while, not noticing when the door opened around twenty minutes later until I felt a weight at the bottom of my bed.
I sniffled and lifted my head to see who was there, I was surprised to see Riley sitting there with a worried look on his face. I sat up, sitting cross-legged in front of him before flashing a weak smile his way. He sighed, moving next to me, his vibrant red hair contrasting with my own brunette locks.
"What's wrong? I could hear you crying from down the corridor and Aidan looked pretty angry earlier?", he asked, touching my arm gently. "Did you fight with him? Did he hurt you?", he continued, making my eyes widen in disbelief.
"No! I... no. We didn't argue, he didn't hurt me, I promise. To be honest, I don't know what happened between us,", I sighed, leaning my head against his shoulder. He followed suit, leaning his head atop mine, and we sat in silence for a few minutes until another person walked in.
"Hey, dumbass, what's wrong? I haven't seen you all morning,", Jordan yelled as he pushed the door open. I flinched at the volume he used, still pretty jumpy after the events with Aidan. Riley stood up and walked over to Jordan, whispering something in his boyfriend's ear. "Oh...", Jordan mumbled, taking a seat on the side opposite Riley.
"Hey Jordan,", I said quietly, suddenly finding my hands much more interesting than anything else. He squeezed my shoulder gently and pulled me up to my feet. "W-what are you doing?!", I squeaked, the sudden movement shocking me.
"Getting you to eat and have something to drink. Then, we can watch some crappy movies or whatever the hell else you feel like doing,", he said, dragging me and Riley out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. I smiled, loving how supportive my friends are and how my children will be surrounded by so many good people throughout their lives.
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Now that we'd all eaten, we sat on the common room's sofa, binging all of the Disney princess movies. It had been a few hours, considering it was now dark outside and we'd gotten through four movies. The rest of the class had joined us a while ago, so we were all watching the movies together now, like a group movie night.
At around 5 pm, Felix checked his phone and his eyes widened. Jordan paused the movie, and Felix asked us a question.
"Hey, has anyone seen Aidan? He's been gone for hours now. Did he just vanish or something?", I froze, realising that I hadn't seen him since he stormed out of his room earlier. 'I just assumed he had gone back to his room after I left, but he's been gone for hours...?', I thought wearily.
Riley noticed my uneasiness and quickly tried to reassure everyone that he was okay, but after that, the entire class struggled to relax. We were all on edge, biting our nails and glancing at the door whenever we heard a noise, hoping he would walk back in and we were just overreacting.
Hours passed, but he still wasn't back. Most people had gone to bed, but I needed to know he was okay before I went anywhere. Riley and Jordan offered to stay with me, but I just said I'd call them if I needed them before pushing them up the stairs. My anxiety about the situation had gotten to the point where I felt nauseous and, needless to say, I didn't manage to keep my food down.
I picked up my phone again, glancing at the time. 9:36 pm. He still wasn't back. I pulled the blanket further around me, cradling my stomach as I kept my eyes fixated on the door. I sighed, placing my phone down and resting my chin on my knees. Exhaustion flooded my senses, but I forced myself awake by pinching my arm every now and then
Why isn't he back? Where did he go? Did something happen to him? No, I've got to be overthinking this, right? Maybe he's just spending the night with his siblings. Or a friend outside of school. He's fine. My thoughts came to a stop when I heard my phone ring.
I jolted forward, hands fumbling to pick up the phone. Without looking at the caller ID, I clicked answer and held the phone to my ear.
"Aidan?!", I asked, desperately. A deep laugh followed.
"Not quite, Caleb. I'm his father, Simon Langston. Pleasure to meet you, son.".