The Long Way - 3. Late Night Visitor

A/N: Thanks to Jim for editing!

I don’t know why I set my alarm for six. It wasn’t like I had to be in school. I decided to take a long shower, and afterwards I toweled off, looking at my reflection in the foggy mirror. I looked like a fucking raccoon with my two black eyes. And I seriously thought about getting a haircut. I really didn’t like the way it looked, and I sort of missed my short spiky look. The baggy clothes I’d been hiding behind were getting old, too, but I put them on anyway, instead of my other stuff, and I added a ball cap to shadow my bruised face.

I made my way into the kitchen and reached for the pop tarts but stopped myself. I had lost a lot of weight, and I wasn’t eating as well as I used to. It was my own fault; I just never seemed to clean my plate anymore. This morning I decided to make scrambled eggs. I found a note from Tony reminding me to wake up Chris to go get our schoolwork, but he was hung over and I knew better. So after I finished my breakfast, I made another plate for Chris, set the table, and after cleaning up the rest of the kitchen, I added a note for Chris under what Tony had written saying that I’d go get my work myself.

Outside, I headed down the stairs. Unfortunately, someone else was making their way up them, and neither of us really paying attention, we collided. And we went down. Luckily there were only the three last steps to fall down and I landed directly on top of Aiden with a grunt. I’m pretty sure I knocked the wind out of him. I scrambled off him quickly, offering my hand to help him up.

"I’m sorry," I said. "I guess I wasn’t paying attention."

"Neither was I," he admitted as I pulled him to his feet, and then he got a better look at my face. "Oh man, you look like shit." That was easy for him to say. He only had a small cut on his upper lip, and still looked like a wet dream.

I gingerly touched one of my black eyes and shrugged.

"The other guy looks worse."

"You mean all three of them do," Aiden said, laughing. "At least the ones you got hold of."

"I wouldn’t know," I admitted. "I don’t even know how many were involved."

"Five," Aiden replied. "But I don’t think that all of them planned on jumping in before you got there."

"Yeah, look, about that…I didn’t mean to…"

"Hey," he slapped my shoulder, "it’s cool, man. I didn’t mean to react like that yesterday. I mean, I guess I should be grateful or something; I just wasn’t expecting any help and I didn’t know you. And, I was pissed about my camera. I guess I just got annoyed because I wanted to hit Dennis."

"You can have him next time," I offered.

He smiled. "I’ll hold you to that. So… I was just heading up to see if Chris was up yet."

"He’s hung over," I explained. "I was just on my way to school, thought I’d pick up my shit and save him the trouble."

"You know he’ll go there anyway, just to fuck with Johnson."

"Yeah," I agreed, "but I don’t want to wait for my homework."

Aiden studied me for a moment and then shook his head.

"You’re kind of weird, you know that?" he remarked. "But hey, I’ll tag along if you don’t mind."

"Sure." I shrugged. "I was going to head over to Shadow after that, though."

"Cool, I was going to study there today anyway."

I led the way to my truck and then we were on our way to the school. A block away from the apartments I noticed that Aiden was tightening his seatbelt and looked a little nervous. I gave him a questioning look.

"You’re definitely a Dovan," he remarked. "You drive like your brothers."

"Oh," I said, grinning. "Well, we all had the same teacher."

I guess you could say that both my brothers and myself were ‘swerve-y’ drivers. We didn’t necessarily speed, but we didn’t slow down for sharp turns either. I never really thought of is as a family trait before, but to think about it, my dad was the same way. I did, however, try to take it easy for Aiden’s benefit. And, I really didn’t want him getting sick in my truck.

We made it to school without incident, arriving just after the first bell, so the halls were mostly empty. We passed the gym and then came to the auditorium on our way to the offices, but Aiden stopped and peered into the auditorium where drama class had started.

"Hey," he said, "I just wanna say hi to someone."

I shrugged, figuring that I’d wait for him, but instead he grabbed my arm and pulled me through the double doors with him. And then he shushed me. I couldn’t remember the last time someone shushed me.

The lights in the auditorium seemed low but the stage was lit up. The class seemed to be scattered everywhere, just talking amongst themselves, and I had one of those eerie feelings you get when you end up somewhere you’re not supposed to be. Aiden waved to someone, but I couldn’t tell who until a tall, thin girl with short brown hair ran towards us and wrapped her arms around him.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded. "I thought you were suspended."

"We are," Aiden replied. "Just stopping by for homework." He stopped abruptly and turned to me. "Oh, Owen, this is Janie. Janie, Owen."

"Hi." She smiled sweetly and shook my hand, but for some reason I immediately didn’t like her. Maybe it was the way she was hanging on Aiden, I’m not sure.

"Hi," I replied.

"So I guess you were in the fight too." She stated the obvious after taking a good look at my face; and then she turned her attention back to Aiden, but he was still looking at me.

"Janie, you know Chris and Tony, right? Owen’s their brother," Aiden explained. And boy, did that brighten her up.

"You live with the wonder boys? Wait, wait…" She stepped closer, really looking at me under the ball cap. "I guess I can see the resemblance."

Aiden smirked. "Uh-oh, look out, Owen,"

"Huh?" Yep, that was the cleverest thing I had to say.

"Janie’s in love with your brother," Aiden informed me, and in response Janie playfully punched him.

"Which one?" I asked curiously.

"Both of them," Janie said, like it was supposed to be obvious, and then regarded me curiously. "We’ll see how you add up once those raccoon eyes go away." And then she winked at me! It wasn’t like a girl had never hit on me before, but something about Janie doing it was creepy. I felt like I was being appraised, and I hated when people compared me to my brothers.

I was suddenly very uncomfortable, and I’m sure I was blushing.

"We’ve gotta go, Janie," Aiden announced, thank god. "I just wanted to say hi."

"Fine, call me," she replied, and then kissed Aiden’s cheek. Despite the way she was appraising me a moment ago, it seemed I wasn’t worth a second glance when she walked away.

I gave a small wave anyway and then Aiden was grabbing my arm again, pulling me towards the door. I really didn’t mind him dragging me around, I guess I just wasn’t used to it. But I didn’t say anything, and soon we were walking side by side down the empty hall again.

"So that was Adam’s sister?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "Janie’s a junior like us; Adam’s only a freshman, you know."

Two things in that sentence surprised me.

"Adam’s a freshman? You’re a junior?" I sounded surprised on both counts.

"Yeah." Aiden laughed. "What did you think we were?"

"Well, I really didn’t know about Adam," I honestly admitted. "And I figured you were a senior."

"Why’s that?"

"Aren’t you in some senior classes?" Oops. I think I just admitted that I’d noticed him. Luckily, if Aiden noticed he chose not to comment.

"I’m in a few advanced classes," he replied. "But yeah, Adam’s a freshman. He’s a cool guy though. You know, when your brothers said you were moving in, I offered to show you around but they said you’d want to get to know things on your own. I mean, I was cool with that and all but I was totally curious about you. I guess I was always too nervous to come up and knock when I figured you’d be home. And what’s weird is I never even saw you at all, except with Adam, so I actually figured that you might be a freshman, too. A large freshman." He smiled. "Honestly, I didn’t make the connection between you and Chris and Tony until yesterday--and how the hell can you tell them apart like that?"

"It’s a sixth sense," I said, laughing. "I’ve always been able to do it."

"Yeah, well that’s cool. You know, they talked about you a lot."

"They did?"

"Since the first day I met them," Aiden replied, nodding. "They’re really cool guys, both of them. Like yesterday, they just let you know you can count on them, you know? I wish I had a brother like that."

"Do you have a brother?"

Aiden shrugged and his expression suddenly darkened. I guess he didn’t want to talk about it, and I wasn’t about to push the issue. I knew what it was like to have things that you didn’t want to talk about. And it didn’t escape my attention that Aiden had not once asked why I’d moved in with my twenty-one-year-old brothers. I wondered if he already knew.

But even if he did know some of it, I doubted he knew all of it. If what Tony had said about coming out to Aiden the night before told me anything, it was that Aiden didn’t know everything. I think I was just fine with that, and I was willing to let the subject of brothers drop. Unfortunately, that left us with an awkward silence. Our silence didn’t last long though; it was suddenly interrupted with a familiar voice that made me wince.

"Dovan! Knightly!"

We looked ahead to see Principal Johnson in front of his office, looking less than friendly. He continued his tirade as we continued to approach him.

"You boys are suspended! Do you know what that means? I should have you escorted off school grounds."

"Sorry, Principal Johnson," Aiden spoke up. "We’re just here for our assignments."

"If you’d like us to go I could ask one of my brothers to come back," I added. "But I don’t think either one of them would be too happy about it."

"Your assignments are in the front office," the older man replied gruffly. "Get them and get out; I don’t want to see either one of you until next Wednesday. One week!"

He stormed off, and shaking our heads, we moved towards the office to pick up our homework.

"I hate that guy," Aiden muttered. "He dated my mom last year and ever since she dumped him he’s been on my case."

"Seriously?" I asked.

He nodded glumly.

"Still, I’m glad she dumped him."

"I would be," I remarked. "I’m on his shit list too. Ever since I transferred here."

"Let me guess, Chris made the type of impression he left yesterday?" Aiden smiled. I laughed at that.

"No, Tony kept him under control then. It was more because I didn’t want to join the football team."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." I shrugged. "I guess it didn’t help that I took the captain of the football team out of this week’s game either."

"I guess not. So, were you any good?"

"What?"

"Football; were you any good at it?"

"I guess. But I was never really into it. I’m still not."

"Hey, works for me." Aiden grinned. "If things had worked out differently, you might have been on the other side of that fight yesterday."

I thought about that. I didn’t agree. I don’t think I ever would have picked a fight with Aiden.

…………..

The Shadow was in a two-story brick building that didn’t look like much until you got inside. When the lights weren’t flashing, the music wasn’t blaring, and it wasn’t packed full of people, it could be a quiet enough place to study.

It wasn’t one of those days. The club was equipped with a stage, and often featured live music, so to turn more of a profit, Chris occasionally rented it out during the day to bands looking to rehearse or audition new members. One of those bands happened to be playing when Aiden and I arrived.

There were a few people working, taking inventory behind the bar and making all of the mirrors on the walls and the metallic purple tables shine, but we didn’t have any problem getting in. Everyone knew who I was and didn’t ask questions when I showed up on a school day to do my homework.

I was surprised when Aiden said that he had never been in the club before, but he seemed as impressed as I was when I first saw it. We set up our homework on one of the tables away from the stage. I had a particularly light load and an advantage because most of the classes I was taking now were covering things I had learned at my old school just before coming here. The problem was the band.

I could study, listening to loud music. Actually, I often did, and I wasn’t really bothered. It was a metal band and they weren’t half bad, but I’m pretty sure Aiden disagreed. I’d just breezed through my History assignments when I noticed Aiden ripping a napkin in half and sticking the pieces in his ears. He looked ridiculous. I took that as my cue to stand up and shake his shoulder, not bothering to scream over the music.

Aiden looked at me questioningly and I motioned for him to follow me as I gathered up my assignments. He did the same and I led the way towards the back of the club, through a door and up the stairs to the second floor.

Upstairs had a smaller stage and more tables; it was usually used for private parties, and it was a lot quieter than the first level. I flicked on the lights and Aiden looked around as he pulled the paper from his ears and dropped his books on a table.

"Sorry I didn’t think of this before," I said as I dropped my books across from his. "I guess I wasn’t thinking."

"How could you think with all that noise?" Aiden remarked.

"They weren’t that bad," I said, laughing, as I walked around the bar. "Do you want something to drink?" When I didn’t get a response I looked up to see Aiden giving me a look, clearly saying: Are you out of your mind? I frowned at him. "Pepsi? Coke? Chris likes Coke and Tony likes Pepsi, so they have both here. Or, there’s lemonade, Sprite…"

"Coke, please." Aiden smiled.

I grabbed two cokes from the cooler and moved back to the table, handing one to him. He thanked me and we were able to continue our studying in a more peaceful environment. I had figured one week’s worth of homework would have taken me at least a few days to deal with, but most of my teachers had just given me one assignment for their class to make up for it. Some were larger assignments, but I figured that if I got down to it, I could be finished by tomorrow, have Friday free and go camping over the weekend.

We worked for another hour, and occasionally I would glance across at Aiden. I know I spent the night before drinking with him and my brothers, but I hadn't exactly given myself time to admire him so closely. His dark hair was down today, and it seemed a little shorter than I’d thought, cut just above his shoulders and tucked behind his ears, which I noticed for the first time, were both pierced.

Before, he always seemed thinner than he was, probably because he usually wore dark clothes, but today he was wearing a simple blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans. His arms weren’t overly muscled but they were defined and you could see biceps twitching every time he moved; and I’d learned just how strong those arms were when he had pulled me off of Dennis. And Aiden’s chest also seemed more defined than I would have imagined--I could see that now with the t-shirt clinging to him.

His face was just as perfect as ever. His skin was olive and flawless, and when he studied, his forehead was slightly wrinkled in concentration and his almond eyes would narrow and take on a determined look. And his pink tongue kept licking his full, soft-looking lips. It would flick out teasingly every time he wrote down an answer. I tore my eyes away before my mind had a chance to wander too far. Everything about Aiden that morning screamed sexy, and it was sort of driving me crazy, and confusing me to no end.

The truth was, ever since I ended up in the hospital, I had lost all my teenage libido. I rarely thought of sex, and a morning woody was rare these days. Even when I woke up with one it went away as soon as I peed. I had attempted jacking off once, just to make sure there was nothing wrong with the equipment down there, and it worked fine; but once I got it up I lost interest and let it go away.

I hadn't mentioned this to anyone. I figured that it was a mental thing. Maybe because I was still torn up about Dan. But Dan was a thought I rarely allowed myself to have anymore. I missed him, and he was never coming back. I think I felt guilty about something, too, like I had no right to mourn for Dan the way I wanted to. I mean, he wasn’t my boyfriend. We did things together, and his friendship meant a lot to me, but other than a little sexual exploration, I really had no romantic interest in him.

Maybe the worst part for me was that Dan knew that. And I knew that his feelings for me were just the opposite. He made it clear that he had more interest in me. But I could never return the feelings. I was too hung up on my straight best friend. I guess I felt guilty because Dan died knowing that I could never return those feelings, and somehow I felt like I didn’t give him enough when he was alive.

And then there was my father. That thought was enough to deflate any erection, and every time I even began to fantasize about another guy, all of the cruel things he’d said would pop into my head, and I would feel dirty, like there really was something wrong with my sexuality, even if in my heart, I knew better.

I thought about bringing some of this up with Tony. I was sure that my father must have said some hurtful things to him when he found out that Tony was gay. I wondered how my brother got over it. Maybe there was nothing for him to get over. Maybe he was just stronger than me.

"There you are."

Aiden and I both looked up to see Chris coming towards our table, bearing gifts of Subway, which got appreciative smiles from both of us.

"How goes it?" Chris smiled as he unloaded the sandwiches and took a seat at our table. We both responded with unenthusiastic grunts and Chris laughed. "Thanks for breakfast this morning, Owe; you could have woken me up, though."

"It’s cool," I insisted. "We stopped by the school and got our homework."

"I can see that," Chris replied. "Did you have any trouble?"

"Johnson was a prick, but nothing unusual about that," Aiden muttered.

"Well, cheer up, boys," Chris said, smiling. "I stopped by the school a while ago, just to make sure things went okay. You’ll be glad to know that Dennis and the hooligans were also suspended, and this week’s game was forfeited. Johnson wasn’t too happy about that, so if he gives you any trouble when you go back, make sure to let me know about it."

"Thanks, Chris," we chorused.

"Oh, and Aiden, I spoke to Mr. Lorks, from the yearbook; he said that he’d have a working camera for you before you get back to school."

"Cool." Aiden grinned. "Thanks, Chris."

"No problem," Chris said. "So how’s the studying going? You think we’ll make our camping trip this weekend?"

"I should be finished by tomorrow," I said.

"Me too," Aiden added. "It shouldn’t be a problem."

I smiled at that. I was growing more and more comfortable in Aiden’s company, and I actually looked forward to a camping trip with him around. Actually, I was looking forward to the trip; just getting away sounded like a great idea to me. Maybe that’s what I needed, some time to get away.

Chris hung out for a while, and after we ate our sandwiches, Aiden and I went back to studying, stopping at around three o'clock. By then Chris was getting the club ready to open and he would be working tonight, but reminded me and Aiden to dig out the tents, which is exactly what we did when we got back to the apartments.

There were storage closets next to the garages. I discovered that Chris and Tony rented two of them, so their camping supplies were a little harder to find, but we managed, and Aiden found his tent easily. We decided to leave them in Aiden’s garage, because he said that his mom rarely ever parked in it. Chris and Tony had one garage, but one of their cars was always in it.

When we were done gathering supplies we went our separate ways. Tony was home by then and asked Aiden if he wanted to come up for dinner, but he said he couldn’t. I was sort of disappointed; I’d enjoyed spending the day with him.

Tony and I shared our usual brotherly banter during dinner and then after a long shower and a little more studying, I was out like a light. It must have been around one o'clock in the morning when I heard something from the living room, followed by a muffled curse. I figured that Chris was home and he’d run into something, but then I saw a light come on from under the crack of my door, followed by more voices and I got curious. Plus, I had to pee.

I climbed out of bed and went to the door, slowly easing it open and headed for the bathroom; but instead of going in I looked down the hall, towards the front door, and was surprised to find Aiden there with Tony. What was more surprising was that Aiden looked like he was bleeding from a cut on his head. If I hadn't noticed the blood I probably would have been more taken with the fact that he was shirtless, barefoot and wearing a pair of gray sweats that hung low on his narrow hips. He was also carrying a pillow.

I was suddenly concerned, but didn’t give myself away as I watched Tony gently speaking to him. Aiden just silently nodded, his head hung low, and then what happened looked rather touching to me. Tony held out his arms and Aiden moved into him, allowing Tony to hug and rock him as Aiden held on for dear life. It reminded me of when I woke up in the hospital with Tony there, the way I needed that hug, that comfort.

I watched for only another second before I forgot about my need to go to the bathroom and I silently went back to bed, wondering what had happened to Aiden. I wanted to go out there, but at the same time I didn’t want to intrude.

Eventually the light went off, but I lay awake for a while, sleep not coming easy, but eventually coming.

………

Usually when I wake up in the morning, I tend to lie there for a while, giving my body a chance to wake up. If anything, to avoid that lightheaded feeling you get when you sit up too fast. But the morning after Aiden’s late night arrival, I was up the moment my brain reached a state of consciousness. I didn’t even go out into the living room until I had showered and dressed, noticing the bruises on my face were already fading.

Tony had left for his morning classes and Chris was still asleep from his late night. Aiden was also still crashed out on the sofa. I couldn’t help peeking over at him. The spare blanket had fallen onto the floor and his arm was draped over his face, but I could see the thin cut on his hairline where he’d been bleeding the night before.

Again I found myself wondering what had happened to him, but I’d already decided that I wouldn’t ask. If I was going to find out, he would have to bring it up. I lingered behind the sofa for a moment, watching him sleep. His long body was stretched out and I could see the dark hair under his arms, and his chest was smooth and clearly defined, from noticeably developed pecs to a six-pack. His sweats were still low on his hips and I smiled to myself because his pants were tented up with morning wood; and from the looks of things, he had plenty to be proud of.

I decided to leave sleeping beauty on the couch and I went to the kitchen to make breakfast for the second morning in a row, only this time I made more than eggs. I didn’t know what had happened to Aiden but I knew that he’d had a rough night, so I wanted to do something nice for him.

I spent the next hour making French toast, bacon, and sausage to go with the eggs. I even made coffee, and I hate coffee. I remembered just how much I hated it when I poured myself a cup and tried to drink it.

I’d cleared half my plate by the time Aiden padded into the kitchen. I tried to appear uninterested, but he definitely seemed nervous as he tightened the drawstring on his sweat pants.

"Hungry?" I asked, nodding towards the stove where all the food was waiting. I thought I’d leave it to him to get his own plate if he wanted it. But honestly, I was resisting the urge to sit him down and wait on him hand and foot. I wondered where all of these nurturing feelings came from. They were kind of creeping me out.

"Yeah, thanks," Aiden replied after a moment of hesitation.

I decided to go back to eating my breakfast. I really didn’t know what to say, so there was silence as he filled a plate and took a seat at the table. More silence. Aiden seemed nervous, like he kept expecting me to ask him the obvious questions, like why was he there? He almost seemed scared, even, that I would ask. I could certainly understand how he felt. There were certain things that I didn’t want to talk about when it came to my life too, and I could respect that.

But I had to say something, anything to lighten the mood. The silence was definitely an awkward one, for both of us. It seemed even worse than asking the questions that I was pretty sure he didn’t want me to ask.

"You wanna study again today?" I asked, "Chris said there won’t be any bands at the club today, so it should be quiet."

There. That was a good place to start. And the relief was visible as it washed over Aiden’s handsome features.

"Sounds good," he agreed with a small smile.

We’d been quiet with each other the day before, but that was fine with me. I was really glad that he would be spending the day with me again. I even felt relieved about it. I knew that I was starting to like him more than I wanted to, but I didn’t care. There was something about Aiden that I really liked, a silent connection or something that I couldn’t explain. I was attracted to him, yes; but more than that, I craved his friendship, and I hadn't felt like that about anyone since I’d first left my previous home.

We both glanced up as Chris entered the kitchen, obviously only half awake. He looked at us sitting together, but acted as if it were an everyday occurrence, even with Aiden obviously in his sleeping attire.

"Breakfast again, Owen?" Chris said with a yawn. "You should make a habit out of it."

Maybe I would, I thought. But I just smiled at him before going back to my food, and then watched a silent exchange between Chris and Aiden out of the corner of my eye. Chris stopped at the table on his way to all the food, looked at Aiden, and then placed a hand on his head, pushing his long hair back firmly as he studied the cut below Aiden’s hairline. They looked at each other, exchanging silent words. Aiden looked sad while Chris looked outraged. Then Chris’s expression softened and he gave Aiden’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he moved on, ruffled my hair, and made his way towards the food.

Once Chris sat down everything seemed normal. Aiden and I exchanged amused glances throughout breakfast when Chris kept yawning and downed six cups of coffee before I told him it was decaf. We got a small laugh out of that, and then after we told Chris that we were going to use the club to finish our homework, he said he’d be in later. After breakfast Aiden ran home to shower and change and then we were on our way.

It was a repeat of the day before; we sat across from each other and silently did our homework. Chris brought us lunch again, but this time we stayed until past five, until we were both finished.

No one mentioned anything about Aiden’s late night visit; it was like it never happened, but he was especially quiet. He didn’t even make the small efforts of small talk like he did the day before, and I didn’t push him. He hardly said anything until I was driving us back home that night. And what he said amused me under the circumstances.

"You’re kind of quiet, Owen."

I glanced over at him with an incredulous expression on my face, because I had just been thinking the same thing about him, and I then I couldn’t help but smile.

"Sorry, I guess all that studying fried my brain," I remarked.

Aiden didn’t smile back. Instead he turned and stared out the window. I was getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, wondering if I’d done something to upset him.

"I didn’t mean just today," he replied. "All the time."

This was getting weird.

"We just met two days ago," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but you were quiet before that, too," he said matter-of-factly, and then looked my way again and saw the inquisitive look on my face. "Don’t take this the wrong way, alright?"

I gave him an uncertain nod, unsure of where this was going. He let out a breath and turned back to look out the window again.

"I watched you," Aiden admitted. "Before I knew who you were." Okay, he had my attention. "I first noticed you with Adam and his friends when I was taking pictures for the yearbook. You know, even when you were surrounded by people, you still looked alone."

That’s exactly how I feel, I thought. But it’s my own fault. People try to be my friends and I hold them at a distance. The only friendships I had now were hollow ones, and I thought that was the way I wanted it, until Aiden came along.

"I guess, what I’m trying to say is," he continued, "is that I tend to notice people. That’s what I do. But sometimes I don’t really see them until after I take their picture--I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. But I took some pictures of you under that tree, with all of those people, and that’s when I noticed."

"You took pictures of me?" I asked softly.

"Yearbook, remember?" he replied. "And yeah, I did. Maybe it’s none of my business, but sometimes it seems like you want to be alone. And there’s nothing wrong with being quiet. But I’ve seen you with Adam, too, and you don’t even really know him. Adam is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I’ve never seen one person he’s tried to befriend push him away like you do."

"Look," I started, somewhat defensively, "Adam’s a good guy, I just don’t…"

"Hey, like I said, none of my business," he cut me off. "I guess what’s bugging me has to do with the last few days. I’ve spent some time with you, Owen, and yeah, you’re quiet, and believe me, I have no problem with that. But…I don’t know, something’s different, like, you don’t seem so empty when we hang out together, and you didn’t have to ask me to go down to the club to study together. Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad you did. I like you, Owen. I guess I just want to know why."

Uh-oh. I was getting nervous. I knew I was attracted to Aiden, but was I being obvious about it? I wondered if I’d been perving on him or something, and maybe he was pissed about it. I know that Tony said that I could come out to Aiden and he’d be okay with it, but you never know. Straight guys can be tricky. Sure, there’s tolerance, but even tolerance has its limits for some people. Especially if you’re straight and find out a gay guy has some feelings for you.

"So, are you being so nice to me because of your brothers?" he asked.

What??

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I’ve known them for a long time," Aiden said, sighing. "And I know that they both tend to go out of their way for other people. If they said something; if you feel like you have to be nice to me because of them…"

"No." I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. But it made me think. Were Chris or Tony asking Aiden to hang around because I didn’t have any friends? He’d been hostile towards me after I jumped into that fight. Actually, he didn’t seem to like me at all until he figured out who my brothers were. I ended up pulling off onto the side of the road to look at him. I needed to stop for a second and get my thoughts together. Unfortunately, whenever I ‘stopped’ to do something like that, it was both mentally and physically.

"What are you doing?" Aiden asked.

"Did my brothers say something to you about me?" I demanded.

"No," he insisted. "I swear. I mean, they talk about you, but they always have, even before you got here."

I thought for a minute. I really didn’t think that Chris or Tony would do anything to try and push Aiden and me together as friends. Otherwise, they would have asked him to show me around when I first got there. Aiden was asking why I wanted to be his friend, and I realized that it had nothing to do with me. He was insecure about something, which was hard for me to believe because he didn’t seem like the insecure type. I decided to respond honestly.

"No one is forcing me to be your friend, Aiden," I said. "I mean, I want to be your friend." I sighed. "You’re right about me, though. I don’t like when people get close--that’s the reason I am how I am with Adam. I’ve just got a lot of things in my head that need sorting out, I guess. But I do like you. I don’t know what it is really; I guess I just feel comfortable when you’re around. And I’m not going out of my way to be nice to you. I think you’re real cool; I would even if you didn’t know Chris or Tony. I’ll be honest here. I haven't really made an effort to make any friends since I got here, but I do hope we can be friends, and not for anyone but us."

Aiden was silent for a moment, and then he seemed to cheer up. I was really beginning to like his little sly smile.

"Hey, the feeling’s mutual."

We slapped hands really quick, and then shared a laugh over nothing before I started to drive again. It suddenly seemed like someone had flipped a switch in Aiden; his subdued mood disappeared and he was more upbeat.

"So, have you been to the mall here in town yet?" he suddenly asked.

"No way." I shook my head. "I hate shopping."

"Yeah, so do I," he replied. "But they have a decent theater there. I was headed over tonight to meet some people, just to hang out, you know? You should come, it’ll be fun."

I glanced over uncertainly. I didn’t much like malls, and I wasn’t too sure about getting together with a bunch of people I didn’t know. But Aiden would be there, so I shrugged and smiled at him.

"Sure, I guess."

"Cool." He grinned. "A friend of mine will pick us up in about an hour and a half."

That seemed soon, but I wasn’t going to back out now. When we reached the apartments Aiden and I separated and he said that he’d come get me when it was time to go, so we said our goodbyes and went to our respective apartments, only to meet up an hour and a half later.