I scream internally. Great timing everyone. You couldn’t have waited a couple of minutes?
The doorbell rings a couple more times, our friends either freezing their asses off in the cold December air or anxious to see Aiden.
Aiden suddenly seems so far from me. I gesture at the hallway. “I think that’s for you.”
The doorbell rings some more.
“I guess I should get it.” Aiden chuckles and gives me one last look before moving to the door.
He opens it, and he’s instantly tackled by Annalisa, the force catching him off guard and causing him to take a few steps back.
“I knew you didn’t do anything. How dare you scare us like that being all mysterious and brooding and not giving us any answers?” She releases him from her tight hug to scold him. “I mean, seriously? ‘Go home and stop worrying, everyone?’ Do you even know us? Is it ever possible to stop worrying about you?”
If you didn’t know Aiden, you’d think he was annoyed by Annalisa’s scolding, but we can all tell he’s loving her pestering.
“Next time I’m arrested I’ll remember not to order you to go home.” He smirks.
Annalisa gasps before she fixes a death glare on Aiden, made even more intimidating by her signature black smoky eye and red lipstick. “There better not be a next time, Aiden Parker.”
Everyone laughs as the rest of the group hugs Aiden and expresses their gratitude that he’s not in jail anymore.
Noah’s the last one through the door. He smiles at Aiden and raises his arms as if to hug him. “Bestie!”
He moves toward Aiden, but then at the last minute pushes him aside and engulfs me in a bear hug.
“I missed you so much,” he says as I laugh and return his hug.
“I always miss you, Noah.”
Aiden shakes his head as he closes the front door.
Noah releases me and turns to Aiden. “Oh, Aiden. Didn’t see you there. Back from betraying your best friend, I see?”
We all look at Noah with confusion.
“What are you talking about, man?” Mason asks, and we all follow him into the kitchen, where he, Julian, and Chase put down the pizza boxes they were holding.
“I mean, I thought we were all bros. We were supposed to be sitting in jail together. Not sitting there watching you get arrested,” Noah says.
We laugh as Noah and Aiden hug. Noah’s making jokes; of course, humor is his only setting.
“Honestly, out of any of us, I would’ve thought Noah would be the first one to get arrested,” Julian admits as we all sit around the table and grab a slice of pizza.
“What? Why me?”
“Come on, Noah,” Mason says, “you’re the most likely out of all of us to do something stupid and get arrested.”
“What? I am a perfect, law-abiding citizen! I’m a good boy when the cops are involved.”
“Oh really?” Mason challenges. “What about that time you got pulled over for speeding and the cops asked if you’d had anything to drink, and you thought you’d be funny and reply ‘Just the blood of my enemies who are currently stuffed in my trunk, if that counts.’”
We burst out laughing, Charlotte almost spitting out the water she was drinking.
Noah raises his hands innocently, a pizza slice in each one. “In my defense, I thought he’d know I was joking! Not ask me to get out of the car and do a search of it!”
I smile affectionately at Noah as we share stories about the stupid things he’s done.
My kitchen seemed so big and empty just a few moments ago, but not so much anymore. Looking around the table, eating pizza with everyone, laughing and joking and having a good time, I can’t help but feel like this is where I belong, especially after having just relived the past couple of places I’d lived, or even the crazy events of the last twenty-four hours. None of the previous towns have truly felt like home, not the way King City does.
Julian, Chase, and Mason argue over who gets the last piece of pizza, and Annalisa decides that she, in fact, is the most deserving of the piece. Noah’s doing an impersonation that makes Charlotte laugh so hard she’s gasping for air, and Aiden’s looking at me with a smile that reaches his eyes and fills me with such joy. My stomach twists when I think about how I’ll be leaving soon, that I’m keeping that part to myself, selfishly wanting to feel safe and normal for a few more days.
After all the pizza has been devoured and jokes about Aiden’s time in jail gotten out of the way, the conversation progresses to a more serious matter: why Greg was bruised and bloody, found dead in front of Aiden’s front door, with Aiden’s lost cell phone at the crime scene.
Julian rubs the back of his neck. “The only information we have is that Greg’s time of death was around six o’clock. We don’t know anything else about what happened yesterday night.”
Annalisa’s phone vibrates on the table for what must be the fifth time since we started eating, and like every time before, she looks at the caller ID, scowls, then ignores the call. If it wasn’t for the hard set of her jaw, I’m sure someone would’ve asked her about it.
“What was the timeline they established for you, Aiden? Do you remember anything suspicious?” She sets the phone down on her lap under the table.
“Nothing. I dropped off the twins at their friend Tyler’s, got to Mason’s around four thirty, we left to pick up the pizza, and got to Amelia’s around seven. Just a normal night,” Aiden says.
“Until you got arrested,” Chase adds.
Annalisa’s phone vibrates, and again, she ignores the call, but whoever the caller was leaves a sour expression on her face.
“Anna? Maybe you should just get the phone. It seems important,” Charlotte suggests, pulling the open ends of her knit sweater together.
Annalisa huffs and turns her phone off. “This caller hasn’t been important to me since he ran off when my mom died and chose heroin over his own sister.”
We look at her in stunned silence. She’s talking about her older brother—or half brother—Luke. It was just a few days ago when Luke approached Annalisa at the Tracks, begging to talk to her for a moment, wanting back into her life. That had left her raw, him showing up, clean for the first time in years, wanting to be a part of her life. She’s kept quiet about it, and after yelling that he had killed her mother and storming off, she hasn’t mentioned him since, and we haven’t pushed.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Mason asks gently as Julian pulls out his own vibrating phone.
Julian looks at the caller ID and sighs, a look of resignation on his face paired with a clenching of his jaw. He holds up his phone to show Annalisa who’s calling, and her kohl-lined eyes narrow into slits.
She grabs the phone from Julian and answers it, not giving the caller the chance to speak. Her voice is hard and threatening. “Leave me the fuck alone.”
She immediately hangs up, stopping herself seconds before slamming her boyfriend’s phone onto the table.
Noah bites his lip as if to stop himself from talking, trying to take a cue from the rest of us, who remain deathly quiet, and fails. “I’m sorry, Anna. We’ve been trying to ignore the fact that you’re very pissed off at someone, but it’s hard. Like, you’re angrier than my mom when she’s just home from work and I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer like she asked me to do hours before.”
The only indication Annalisa gives to show that she finds Noah amusing is that she doesn’t roll her eyes as forcefully as she normally would.
“It’s Luke,” she says.
We look at her expectantly, having already pieced that information together ourselves. When she doesn’t elaborate, Julian continues for her.
“He’s been calling her all day. We haven’t really heard from him since that night at the Tracks.”
“And you’re not going to answer? What if it’s an emergency?” Chase squirms in his seat under Annalisa’s intense stare.
“The only reason I haven’t blocked his number yet is in case I need
blood or an organ or something. But even then, we don’t have the same father, so maybe we won’t even be a match,” Annalisa deadpans, no hint of joking in her voice.
Poor Annalisa. Other than Luke, the only family she really has are the people sitting in front of her right now. I can relate to that. My mother is absent the majority of the time and even when she is around, I still feel like we’re miles away. The people crowding my kitchen table right now are the ones I feel I can call when I need help; the ones I can depend on.
I’ve never asked Aiden about Annalisa’s past because like her, I also have things I’d rather keep a secret, things that I don’t want anyone knowing. I understand secrets and messy pasts, and this is one that Annalisa should have the right to tell me and Charlotte about or not, since we’re the only people at the table who don’t really know her story.
“I mean, who does he think he is? Just calling me up like nothing ever happened?” Annalisa rants.
“He’s sober now, Anna. Maybe he wants to make amends,” Mason says softly.
Annalisa looks at Mason like she’s trying to use her brain to make his head explode. “You’re supposed to be on my side, Mason! Why are you sticking up for him?”
Mason shrinks into himself but holds his ground anyway. “You’ve been holding on to this extreme hatred and anger toward your brother for so long. It can’t be good for you. Don’t you just want to get rid of that and move on? Be happy?”
“I am happy. You guys right here are all I need. I don’t need or want anyone else.”
“Maybe you should just hear him out. See what he has to say,” Aiden suggests. “If you decide you don’t want anything to do with him, at least you won’t spend the rest of your life regretting the what-ifs, and wondering what it was he had to say.”
Family is the most important thing to Aiden. I don’t think he could even fathom the idea of never speaking to his brothers again. His advice sounds pretty reasonable to me, and the others nod their heads in agreement, not wanting to push Annalisa into something she doesn’t want but knowing that it might be best for her in the long run.
Annalisa squares her shoulders. “I will not speak to the man who killed my mother.”
Julian puts a comforting hand on Annalisa’s thigh. “Babe, heroin killed your mother,” he says gently.
Annalisa’s mother overdosed on heroin when Annalisa was sixteen, and then her older brother deserted her, leaving her to deal with everything by herself. So that day all that time ago, when Kaitlyn suggested that Annalisa drop out because she’ll end up just like her mom, Kaitlyn was suggesting … a shiver runs down my spine. Kaitlyn is lower than low.
Annalisa sneers. “And who gave her the heroin? Luke. It all comes back to Luke, and I will not forgive him for ruining my life.”
“You know I’m there for you, always. And I’ll always be on your side, but maybe Aiden’s right. Just hear Luke out, and then once he says what he needs to say, maybe you’ll never hear from him again, until you decide you want to,” Julian advises, tucking a piece of hair behind Annalisa’s ear.
Annalisa moves her head away from Julian’s touch, and his hand falls to his lap. She frowns at the wall in front of her, choosing to ignore her boyfriend’s reasoning.
“Julian?” Aiden asks, looking up from his phone. “What was the number Luke used to call you from?”
Julian reads off the number from his phone, Aiden following along while looking at his phone.
“Well, I think I know why Luke has been calling all morning,” Aiden says, his facial expression cold and hard.
Annalisa sits up straight. “Did Luke message you?”
“I just got this message from that same number,” Aiden answers, then reads the text out loud: “‘Heard what happened. Need to talk to you ASAP. I have information about Greg.’”
Aiden’s phone vibrates again, and he reads the next message: “‘Let’s all meet somewhere public. Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor. Half an hour.’”
He sets the phone down and looks at us expectantly.
“If Luke has information, we need to go,” I say before anyone has the chance to turn the meeting down.
“Do you think he actually has answers?” Annalisa blurts out, her words laced with disbelief. “He’s a manipulative asshole, this whole thing could just be an excuse to talk to us.”
“We’ll never know if we don’t go,” Mason says.
“You guys don’t have to come, but I need to go,” Aiden says, grabbing his plate and putting it in the sink.
I stand up automatically. “I’m coming with you.”
Aiden looks at me, and for a second I’m positive he’ll demand that I stay home, but he doesn’t. I bring my plate to the sink and stand in front of him, on the opposite side of the kitchen island, and he gives me a slight nod.
Mason gets up. “I’m coming too.”
Noah follows his lead, a smile on his face. “I can never turn down ice cream, even if it is freezing outside. Count me in!”
“Looks like we’re all going then,” Chase says, and we look at Annalisa to see her decision.
She looks around the table at all of us, finally sighing. “He’s my dirtbag brother. If this turns out to be a waste of time, I better be there to hit him.”
Hopefully, it’s not a waste of time, and he’ll have some information that gives Aiden some closure.
7
Moments after we make the decision to meet up with Luke, we clean up my kitchen and head straight out the door for Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor, hopping into three cars so not everyone has to drive.
No one mentions anything about which car I’ll be riding in. I guess it’s just known that I’ll be with Aiden, and even I just sort of gravitate toward him. Aiden’s always had a pull on everyone, always drawn the attention of everyone in a room without even trying. But the way I feel about him is stronger; I feel pulled toward him, like magnets.
Aiden also expects that I’ll ride in his car. He leans on the passenger-side door of his Challenger as I lock my front door, waiting for me, and opens the door for me once I come down the steps. But I don’t miss the way Mason frowns at us as Aiden closes my door for me. Bundled up in my scarf and mittens, I press the button to turn on my seat warmer. It’s just the two of us.
“Are you nervous?” I ask.
“Why would I be nervous?”
“Because we’re meeting Luke, who may help us piece together why your stepfather was murdered on your front porch?”
“Shouldn’t you be the nervous one?” Aiden answers.
“Why would I be nervous?”
He stops at a red light and looks at me, his expression serious. “Because you haven’t seen him since that day at the Tracks, when he saved you from Dave and you decided not to tell anyone about that part of the attack. Not even Anna.”
My face heats up from his correct assumption about what happened that night. “What—I—how?—No. How did you know it was Luke who saved me? Did Dave tell you when you found out what happened and went all Rambo on his face?”
“It wasn’t that hard to connect the dots, Thea.”
Pleasant shivers run down my spine at hearing him say my real name. The light turns green and the car speeds up again.
“I couldn’t tell you how I really met Luke. Then you’d have found out about Dave and his friend, who held me while Dave punched me, and I didn’t want you to do the exact thing that you ended up doing.”
“Dammit, Thea!” He hits the steering wheel. “You expect me to find out that the bastard was too cowardly to fight me so he targeted and cornered my girl, and then not make sure that he was shitting his own teeth for weeks? I absolutely had to go fight him and anyone else who was involved.” He stops at a red light. “I’d do it again too.”
Feeling bold and high off of his words, I quickly unbuckle my seat belt and kneel on the seat, put my hand on his strong jaw, and kiss him deeply and passionately, my heart beating erratically in my chest, threatening to explode.
&n
bsp; He kisses me back, his hands feeling right at home on my waist. But all too soon I’m pulling away and sitting back in my seat, a stupid smile on my face as I buckle up again, and Aiden takes off when the light turns green.
“Just try not to get into any more fights on my behalf, okay?”
“I make no promises,” Aiden says.
I huff out loud, but deep down, his words thrill me, and I can’t fight the smile tugging at my lips.
At Sweetie’s we find a booth in the back for some privacy and sit down. Only Aiden doesn’t have an ice-cream cone or cup in his hands, which, according to Noah, is a big no-no. Apparently, you can never say no to ice cream, even in highly tense situations, using the cones he’s holding in each hand as evidence. I offer Aiden some of mine, but he shakes his head.
The booth is a little tight but we all fit. The red seat padding is well worn, with a few random patches covering older tears, but it’s still comfortable. Considering it’s winter, Sweetie’s is pretty busy, and the loud chatter around us fills in the silence as we eat our ice cream.
Julian’s the first to spot Luke, but he doesn’t call out to him. Annalisa’s brother looks a little worse for wear, sporting a black eye and a gash in his lip, his clothing covering any other injuries he might have. He heads straight over to us in a no-nonsense kind of way, managing to seem confident even though it looks like he’s limping. He grabs a chair from an empty table and sits at the end of our table instead of in the booth with us. Aiden’s the closest to him on one side, and at the other end of the booth closest to Luke is Chase, with Annalisa sitting directly in the middle of the booth, right across from her brother.
“Hi,” Luke says, presumably to all of us, but never once looking away from his sister.
Something akin to sympathy crosses Annalisa’s face, but it’s gone almost as fast as it was there. She crosses her arms and glares into the distance.
“We’re here. Tell us what you know.” Aiden cuts right to the point.
Luke looks longingly at Annalisa for a couple of seconds before tearing his gaze from her and looking at Aiden.
Stay With Me (A Wattpad Novel) Page 6