Dad and I are watching the game show channel when we see headlights hit the windows from behind us. "Who's here?" Dad turns his body around to look outside.
"It's Aiden. I'm sorry Dad. I forgot to tell you. He wanted to hangout since I was gone all weekend." I give him my puppy dog eyes, and he just rolls his, and sighs.
"Staying in, or going out?" he asks.
"I think out... if that's okay with you?" my face doesn't change.
"Fine. Since he's here, but Mora... you ask in the future." He stands up and starts to walk upstairs, and I jump up and throw on my hoodie, and start to run to the door but quickly stop half way out the house when I hear my dad. "Mora, don't forget your curfew... and Mora... in the morning we need to talk about you and Aiden." Oh my gosh. I want to die right now.
"Dad! No!" I shriek.
"Do you want to keep him waiting, or would you like me to invite him in now and we can all discuss it?" He looks down from the top step , and I can feel my face flush.
"Okay dad. Tomorrow." I say.
"Be safe." he says, and I just close the door so he can't say anything else.
Aiden is outside leaning on the side of his jeep, and I can't help but run to him. I missed him so much this weekend. I jump up and I can hear him giggle as I pull him into a tight hug.
"Miss me?" he teases, and I lean in to give him a kiss, and he kisses me back intently. "I missed you too." he buries his face into my hair and neck.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"I don't know. Want to come over to the house, and we can watch a movie?" he's pulling on my hands in a dancing way.
"Sure." I smile and he grins back.
"Mora, you're so cute." and my smile grows ear to ear, and I can't help but feel knots in my stomach as I jump up in the jeep. I can take Aiden's compliments every day for the rest of my life.
As soon as we pull out of the driveway he brings up the weekend that I had momentarily forgot about for a good reason.
"So did you guys have fun this weekend?"
I can feel my heart start beating faster. I shouldn't be afraid of his reaction because I didn't do anything wrong, but I am. I guess it's now or never.
I start with telling him about Con and Scarlett. Start with the easy stuff first. "Well, it went okay... until Conner told me that Scarlett cheated on him." I look at him, and his face is full of shock and his mouth is wide open.
"You're kidding!" he gasps.
"No, and it was with Josh." I say slowly, and he slams on his breaks. Thankfully no one is driving behind us. Now we're sitting in the middle of the road in my subdivision.
"No way. I don't believe it! He would have told me."
"I guess not. Scarlett broke down after and told Conner everything. Supposedly they kissed and other stuff at a party." he's still staring at me in disbelief. It warms me to know that he didn't know about it.
"Shit! Is Conner okay?" he asks, but doesn't give me a chance to answer. "Wow, I can't believe that shit."
"So I'm guessing you didn't know?" I ask him, and he tones down his response.
"No way Mora. I would have told you if I did. I promise I had no idea." I can tell he's not lying.
We sit there for a second, then someone honks at us from behind, and we both jump. "Oh shit." he starts to drive again, and I know now is the time to tell him before we get to his house.
"Aiden can you please pull over for a minute." I say right before my stomach drops. He curiously looks over at me before putting his eyes back on the road.
"Why?" he hasn't pulled over yet.
"Please. Just pull over for a minute." I say, and he doesn't hesitate for another minute. He pulls over on the curb next to the community pond at the entrance of the subdivision I live in and before he can say anything I start to tell him what happened. "So Conner and Scarlett aren't the only thing that happened this weekend..." My voice is weak, and I'm having a hard time finding my words.
"Okay..." his eyes burn into mine.
"So after the game Conner took Ross and I to a party, and..." I pause again. I can feel the heat in my face start to rise and his loss of patience is too apparent. "Mora, just tell me what happened." his jaw hardens as he waits on me to respond.
"Ross kissed me." I spit it out quickly, like ripping a band-aid off. His eyes remain on me, but the color in his face starts to fade, and his hands slowly start to grip the steering wheel tightly. So tight I can see the indentions from his hands pressing into the wheel.
"What?" His question is slow but solid. I can tell he wants confirmation so I repeat myself.
"We were in the kitchen. I was getting a drink, and he told me that he had feelings for me, and then he kissed me." I can't look at him any longer, so I look down at my hands. He doesn't say anything for what feels like forever, but then he finally breaks the silence.
"What did you do?" I look up at him, and he's still staring at me.
"I pushed him away, and told him to stop..." I hesitate before I continue. My heart is racing so fast I swear it could jump right out of my chest. "and he tried to kiss me again, and I had to shove him again before Conner walked in. He made Ross leave." I admit to him, not holding anything back.
He's furious. "That prick has a lot of nerve. I'm going to beat his fucking ass." I've never heard Aiden's voice or tone so dark before. It's almost scary.
"Aiden, just leave it alone."
"Ha!" he snorts out loud. "You have to be kidding me!" He wasn't even this upset the night he had to save me from that party.
"I'm not kidding. I took care of it Aiden. I told him that I didn't like him like that, and to not do it again." I go to grab his hand, but he yanks it back before I can.
"Mora, the asshole better stay away from me. I won't be able to keep my mouth shut around him." His anger is obviously towards Ross, not me but it still hurts that he won't let me touch him.
"I promise, he won't do it again. He got the message loud and clear." I presume, and I can see his wall start to fall a little.
After a few minutes of allowing him to calm down he finally speaks. "Do you have feelings for him Mora?" His voice is softer now, and I can hear the hurt in his tone.
"No Aiden. I like you..." I gulp loudly. "alot, and only you." I admit, and he pulls my hands to hold his cheeks.
"Mora, this weekend was torture for me." He confesses, and I just sit there and listen. "I'm falling for you, and I don't know what to do with all these feelings because I've never had them before." He starts to move in closer to me, and I go in to kiss him softly.
"I'm glad, because I'm falling for you and I've never had these feelings either."
After a few more kisses, he puts his jeep back in drive. "Let's go watch a movie."
Aiden grabs my hand to hold it as we walk up the walkway at his house. He covers his mouth with his index finger motioning me to stay quiet as he unlocks his front door. "Does your mom not know I'm coming over?" I whisper. I don't want to get in trouble.
He ignores me, pulling me behind him. He turns on the lamp in the hallway once we go inside, and pulls me to the couch.
"She's just sleeping. I don't want to wake her up."
"Oh." I answer, then ask "What's on tonight?"
"What about an oldie?" he asks, and I raise my eyes at him.
"What do you have in mind?"
"How about Armageddon?" He doesn't wait for my response before he's on Netflix selecting the movie.
"Sure. Why not."
Once the movie starts to play, he skips to the kitchen and comes back a second later with two bowls of rocky road ice cream.
"Yum." I express, and he falls onto the sofa to sit next to me. I kick my shoes off and lay them over his legs, and start to eat the ice cream. We're at the scene of the movie where Ben Affleck is singing to Liv Tyler in the airport, and I start to sing along.
"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." he is laying down and just lifts his head to look at me. "I'm standing here outside your door, I hate to wake you up to say goodbye." and his eyes are just smiling at me. I love that I'm so comfortable around him. He's truly become my best friend in the past few months. I start to stroke his hair now that his head is in my lap, and continue to sing. "So kiss me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me. Hold me like you'll never let me go. 'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again, oh babe how I'd hate to go." I finish the corus, and he lifts his head to kiss me.
Before we get deep into kissing, I hear a loud commotion coming from upstairs, and we both jump, and Aiden is standing before I can even blink.
"What was that?" I whisper loudly.
"I'm so sorry Mora." he says, and I'm confused.
"For what?" I ask, and his face goes flat. Suddenly I hear his mom screaming at the top of her lungs, and my breath is taken away from me as Aiden starts to run to the staircase. "Is she okay?" I go to follow, but he stops me.
"Yes. she will be. Just stay down here for a minute." I ignore him, and try to follow but he gets louder and stops me in my footsteps. "Please Mora. Just stay here for a minute. I'll be right back okay." he's begging, and I can tell he's embarrassed. I don't understand what's going on, and now I'm uncomfortable. I feel like I'm intervening in a moment that wasn't meant for me.
As I sit there I hear her yell a few more times, but after about ten minutes everything goes quiet again, and Aiden is back downstairs, and I stand up quickly and face him.
Aiden's face is flushed, and downcast as he walks over to me. "I'm sorry Mora. I was hoping you wouldn't ever witness that."
"Is she okay?"
"Yeah. She will be." he hesitates before continuing. "Since my brother died, she has moments like that. They're panic attacks. I just had to get her some medicine." his voice is limp, and a sudden sorrow for him floods me.
"Oh Aiden." I say and I lean into him to comfort him and he accepts it, digging his face in my neck. I can hear his voice start to crack after taking a big breath. "I'm so embarrassed."
My heart drops at his words. "Aiden, don't be! Seriously. I couldn't imagine how she's feeling. There is no reason for you to be embarrassed. I'm sorry you are having to deal with all this." I look up at him, and stroke his face.
He closes his eyes. "It's draining sometimes." as he mutters the words, I lean into him. We stand that way for a while before a yawn comes from deep in his throat.
"Do you want to go ahead and take me home. It's getting pretty late." I say, looking out the window. He doesn't hesitate nodding, and grabs his keys with one hand, and grabs my fingers with the other.
The ride home is silent. Nothing but the sound of the passing wind going down the road. After we get to my house, I just sit for a minute before saying bye, and he does the same. I think we're both just emotionally drained.
"Wow, what a night." he jokes, and I can't help but smile.
"Yeah. It was something." I say in agreeance, before he leans his head back on his seat. After a couple seconds he looks over at me. "Mora, can you maybe keep tonight to yourself?" he asks, and I can't believe he even felt like he had to ask me such a question.
"I would never tell anyone." I answer and he lets out a sigh of relief. I start to respond, but he stops me dead in my thoughts with his words. "Mora, I love you."
My stomach dips and my heart starts to beat furiously. He looks over at me after I don't respond. "Mora..." he says my name but I cut him off as I crawl over onto his lap. I melt into him as my lips finds his lips warm and ready. There is no one I would rather be with. He starts to kiss me back, until I break away without much breath left in me. "I love you."
We stare at each other intensely for only a few seconds before his lips crash back onto mine.