Aiden uses the hand that’s around my shoulder to rub my arm. “What’s wrong?” he asks gently.
“We shouldn’t retaliate.”
“What? Why the hell not?” Annalisa asks.
“They almost got us all arrested, Amelia. Arrested!” Noah emphasizes.
“Not to mention that was how we made our money! Aiden has kids to take care of! What’s he going to do now? He can’t even make a quarter of that much by working part time for minimum wage!” Mason counters, growing more enraged with the situation as he lists the damage.
“Getting him back won’t make me money,” Aiden reasons calmly.
“What? Aiden, this affects you more than any of us. You should be the most pissed. You can’t tell me you don’t want to get him back,” Julian says.
Aiden looks down at me, briefly making eye contact and seeing the desperation in my eyes, then he looks at everyone. “We don’t know it was him for sure.”
My heart swells, knowing that Aiden’s containing his anger for me. His unfaltering ability to perceive the truth in situations is allowing him to see that I’m uncomfortable. His calculating and intuitive nature is telling him that I don’t want revenge, and he’s putting my concerns before any of his own needs for revenge.
“Whether he did it or not, we can’t do anything to him,” I explain, trying to convince them to see my point of view. “I said it before, but if we get him back, he’ll get us back, and it’ll keep going until we get hurt. It’s already serious. He broke the law to vandalize my car, and now he called the law and tried to get us arrested. Seriously, the next step is stabbing us or something. Can we please be the bigger people and let it go?”
Annalisa snaps, “I’ll file his shinbone into a shiv with his teeth and cut off his man bun if he tries anything.”
“I agree with Amelia, this is getting out of hand,” Charlotte says quietly.
“What is wrong with you guys? We need to hit back harder!” Annalisa states, growing more visibly angry and frustrated.
She clearly hasn’t calmed down from her confrontation with her brother. Sure, she’s aggressive, and I know that she’s not all talk—she actually would fight Ryan—but this anger is probably rooted deeper than just Aiden’s asshole ex-stepbrother.
Julian seems to pick up on it as well. “It’s late. We’re all tired. Why don’t we get some sleep and talk about it later.”
A chorus of approval is heard through the group. Tonight has been long and stressful as it is without having a debate. I hope I can convince them that revenge isn’t a good idea. Not only for my sake, but for all of theirs.
19
After saying good-bye, my friends head to their cars to go home. Aiden hangs back, not making a move to go to his car. Mason stalls for a moment, too, but when he notices that Aiden isn’t making any move to leave, he slowly turns and heads to his SUV.
“I’m just gonna—um. I’ll meet you upstairs. Good night,” Charlotte says, quietly slipping inside.
I sit on the porch steps, and Aiden follows my lead. With everyone gone and Charlotte inside, I’m suddenly hit by the serenity and calmness of the cold winter night, so different from the night’s actual events.
“You really don’t want to get them back?”
“Don’t you think this has gone far enough? I know that you’ll never get along with Ryan, and I’d never ask you to,” I say. “I just don’t think that doing something to get back at him will get us anywhere. We all got out safely, and you still got four grand out of him. I think we came out on top in this situation.”
He nods, looking out at the quiet suburban street at nothing in particular. I know that he’s pissed at Ryan. Aiden already has his own reasons to hate Ryan, but now he directly attacked Aiden and his friends.
“We’ll give everyone time to calm down,” he says after several quiet minutes. “They’ll change their minds.”
I nod again, relieved that Aiden is willing to put his anger aside. Putting this behind us isn’t just about me and Tony, it’s about everyone. Ryan will end up escalating this situation until it gets even worse, and it’ll turn into a full-blown war instead of a stupid high school rivalry.
“What happened with Jonesy and all the others from the Tracks?” I ask randomly.
“I didn’t see who got arrested, but if Jonesy or the other guys figure out Ryan called the cops, he’ll have bigger things to worry about than just us anyway.”
I nod. Despite Jonesy’s short height, he has some massive muscle—definitely not someone I’d want to piss off.
“What are you going to do about money now?” I ask quietly.
He looks back out at the street thoughtfully. “I’ll figure it out.”