3
My house is quiet when I unlock the door and step over the threshold, Aiden following close behind.
“Mom?” I call as we close the door and take off our shoes and jackets. “Hello?”
No response. Guess she went out. I resist the urge to look at Aiden and let him see the excitement all over my face. We’re home alone.
“Did you pick a movie yet?” I ask Aiden as we walk down the hallway.
“Of course. But I’m going to keep it a surprise.” I already know it’s going to be a movie that scares the shit out of me.
“You set it up, I’ll grab some snacks.”
“We just ate,” he calls after me, but I ignore him. He’ll be the one who eats most of the popcorn, I already know it.
After I pop the popcorn and dump it into a bowl, I grab some drinks and find Aiden on the couch. As I suspected, the screen is full of movie options that all look terrifying.
“Admit it, you’re picking a scary movie so you can put your arm around me, aren’t you?” I tease as I settle beside him on the couch.
“I don’t need a scary movie as an excuse to put my arm around you,” he says.
Aiden puts his hand under my jaw and tilts my head up as his eyes draw me in like quicksand. They’re unguarded and readable, which is a treat from Aiden that I can’t get enough of. You can tell that he’s happy. He’s genuinely and truly happy, and that makes my heart soar.
He leans in and brings his lips to mine, and even though we spent a good chunk of this afternoon kissing, the way I feel when he kisses me still takes me by surprise. We can’t get close enough. The taste of his lips is addictive, and so are the shivers that run up my spine as he deepens the kiss and parts my lips, running his hands up my back under my shirt. My fingers tangle in his soft hair, so at odds against the rest of him since nothing else feels that way. He eases my shirt collar over to expose my shoulder and trails kisses across my neck, making me melt into a pile of nothingness at his touch.
The front door swings open, and my mom’s distinct laugh rings through the house before it’s suddenly cut off.
Aiden and I jump a foot apart on the couch, my heart racing frantically as I rearrange my clothes and make sure my hair doesn’t scream that we were making out. Why does Mom need to be home right now of all times?
As we glance into the hallway, toward the front door, my jaw drops to the floor. My mom is aggressively kissing Mason’s dad as she hops around and throws her heels haphazardly onto the floor. Mason’s dad just pulled my mom’s shirt off.
I’m going to puke.
Jumping up, I run into the hallway, making my presence known. “Mom!”
Brian Evans and my mom jump apart in surprise and stare at me, both breathless from earlier.
Gross.
“Oh . . . Amelia. Shouldn’t you be in school?” Mom asks, reaching down to find her discarded shirt on the floor.
Aiden comes to stand beside me, his expression neutral and not giving anything away, and I’ve never been as envious of his ability to hide his emotions as I am right now. My shock and horror are definitely written all over my face.
Aiden and I both know about my mom and Mason’s married dad, but they don’t know that we know. And we certainly haven’t ever witnessed them groping each other. That’s something I never, ever, ever want to see again. Ever.
Mom pulls her shirt back on and looks pointedly at us. “You skipped school to fool around with your boyfriend?”
“I’m not the one with my shirt off.” I provoke her with narrowed eyes.
“School ended about twenty minutes ago.” Aiden tries to smooth over the situation, but his steely eyes are locked on Mason’s dad. Brian took Aiden and his brothers in. He’s known Aiden for years. I wonder if he feels guilty now that Aiden, his son’s best friend, knows about his infidelity to his wife, who, from what I can tell from my only interaction with her before our vacation, is one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met. I try to fix my face to be neutral like Aiden’s.
“Yes, he’s right, Caroline. Time must have gotten away from us,” Brian says, adjusting his blazer and addressing my mom by her fake name, the one they gave her when I became Amelia.
Brian is a good-looking man, like an older version of Mason, with tanned olive skin and dark hair. I’d be proud of my mom if not for the fact that he’s married. He’s literally still wearing his wedding band as he’s cheating on his wife, the mother of one of my best friends.
“Listen kids,” Brian says, “I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but it’s complicated, more so than it may seem. Sometimes things just happen, and they need to be kept a secret for a reason. We wouldn’t want to start a lot more trouble for everyone unnecessarily, would we?”
Aiden and I stare at each other with the same is this guy for real look.
“We’re not five, Brian, don’t talk to us that way.” Aiden takes a step closer to him, this man, who before all this, was basically our hero. He stepped in when Aiden was arrested and got a lawyer for him. He managed to get custody of Aiden and his brothers so they wouldn’t be separated in the system when their stepfather, Greg, died. He suggested we get away for the break to de-stress from everything that went on and found us a beach house for free in the town Aiden suggested. He never gave us reason to doubt him—at least, not until I walked in on him with my mom when I forgot my sleeping pills. But I never told anyone about that, only Aiden.