“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.