“Remember the mayor running for governor whose commercials we keep seeing? Mayor Kessler? It’s him and a bunch of reporters,” Mason explains. “Apparently, there’s this whole controversy about his platform being based on being a family man and loving children, but he’s having an affair or something. Vivienne Henfrey, the reporter from Channel Five News, especially hates him.”
We all turn to look at Mason like he just announced that he’s pregnant with the child of Satan.
“Why do you know that?” Julian asks what we’re all thinking as Aiden goes back to studying the mayor.
Mason shrugs. “Jason and I are just sitting here, eating our food truck samplings. It’s not my fault the drama is happening right in front of me and I happen to overhear it.”
I follow Aiden’s gaze as he looks over at the crowd. From what I can tell, the mayor is actually a pretty good-looking guy, with an easy smile that could effortlessly charm the pants off of potential voters. He seems very well put together, talking to carnival goers while also trying to disarm the reporters throwing accusations at him.
“What are you guys looking at?” Chase asks as he and Jackson join the group, taking a seat at the picnic table with us.
Mason fills him in quickly, but the conversation turns to Chase and Jackson’s narrow escape from being hit in the face with puke on one of the rides.
“Some of the puke got on Noah and Charlotte, though! It was soooooo funny!” Jackson laughs, blissfully remembering the incident.
“Of course that’s something that would happen to Noah.” I laugh, feeling bad for them but also seeing the humor in the situation. “Where are they now?”
Chase breaks off a piece of Mason’s giant pretzel, earning him a glare from his friend. “They walked back to the house to change.”
Charlotte must not have been happy about getting puked on, but at least she was with Noah, who I’m certain made her feel better about the situation by cracking stupid jokes.
“Did you guys win any prizes at the games?” Jackson asks Aiden, but he doesn’t hear. His eyes are laser focused on Mayor Kessler with an intensity that only Aiden can make look threatening.
I answer Jackson for him, and the conversation moves along, no one quite noticing that Aiden’s calculating eyes are narrowed on the mayor.
“Is everything okay?” I ask Aiden softly as the conversation goes on around us.
He doesn’t answer me, almost like he’s zoned out of everything that’s happening around us, and all he sees is the mayor. I don’t even know if he’s actually seeing the mayor, or if he’s been transported somewhere else in his mind. That’s how intense his gaze is; it’s almost scaring me.
“Aiden—”
I’m cut off when he suddenly gets up and strides toward the mayor like he’s on a mission, a palpable hate heavy in the air. I stand up, too, taking a couple steps to follow, but not going after him, instinctively knowing that this is something he wants to do alone. Everyone else notices, too, all conversation stopping as we watch Aiden, the muscles in his back tensed and his hands clenched into fists, with curiosity and alarm, holding our breath for whatever is about to happen.
Aiden doesn’t slow as he steps around people and ends up right in front of the mayor. Aiden has a big presence; people just can’t help but feel drawn to him, so it’s not a surprise when the mayor stops talking to a reporter and looks right at him.
Mayor Kessler says something to Aiden that I can’t hear, but I swear there’s a flash of recognition in his eyes before Aiden does something that sends a shock through the whole crowd.
He raises his arm and throws a right hook that would make any boxer proud, sending the mayor sprawling to the ground.
There’s an audible, collective gasp in the air as people realize what just happened, then rush to the mayor’s aid as reporters turn on Aiden.
I hear my friends swearing and Jason’s gasp of alarm in the background, and already know they’re getting up, getting ready to disappear before men in suits descend on us. The mayor looks up at Aiden as Aiden calmly shakes his hand out, sends him one last glare, and turns around to casually walk back to me. I’m sure my eyes are bulging out of my face and my jaw is almost to the ground, but I shake it off long enough to grab his arm and haul ass out of the carnival before we’re arrested for assaulting a political figure.
We walked to the carnival, which ends up working in our favor since we need to get out of here ASAP, and don’t have time to sit in traffic trying to get out of the parking lot. We make it home in record time and go around to the back of the house instead of going inside. Other than our friends, no one else followed us.
Aiden didn’t say anything on the walk, and no one asked him, since we were too concerned with getting back home. He sits down on the back-porch couch leisurely, like it’s any other day, and we all stand around him, completely perplexed and wait
ing for answers.
When he doesn’t volunteer an explanation, Annalisa says what everyone else is thinking. “Aiden, what the hell! Why did you just punch the mayor?!”
“Because he deserved it.”
“But you don’t even know him,” I add.
“Exactly.”
His cold response takes me aback. What the hell does exactly mean?