Engaged
The months have gone by really quick. Aiden has been better since Zaid left, and now he’s been back to his normal upbeat self.
He’s taken up his game.
Both in basketball and in bed.
My legs are sore as I walk outside. The air is cold, freezing my nose, but I don’t complain. It’s better than the unbearable heat. Aiden’s had an amazing first half of basketball season and next year they’re hoping to go to the state tournament.
I wrap my arms around myself to keep in some of the warmth.
Winter break is next week, and all I can think about is Zaid.
It makes me feel guilty. That I’m excited that he’ll be in town. I’ve never had a pleasant experience with him, and I should hate him, but just the thought of maybe seeing him again…
I shudder.
Sometimes I get this gut feeling that he’s watching me, but when I turn to face the corner
of whatever room I’m in, he’s never there. Of course he’s not.
I hate myself for missing his charms, even though they annoyed me, even though he tested every inch of my sanity when he was here.
I can’t explain the way his face haunts my dreams.
That I sometimes think about him, even when it is Aiden deep inside me.
I shake my head, trying to push the thoughts away. I shouldn’t feel this way. I’m with
Aiden.
Zaid is his brother, and whatever chemistry there was between us before he left is
nothing.
But I still haven’t gotten Aiden to talk about the night Zaid got arrested. Every time I
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bring it up, he shuts down, changes the subject, or tells me it doesn’t matter anymore.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, pulling me from my thoughts.
A: Come over now. It’s urgent.
I frown, my fingers almost numb as I type back a message that I’m on my way. He never texts me like that and I know immediately that something is off. I stuff my phone back in my coat pocket and head in the opposite direction, toward his house instead of mine,
When I get there, Aiden opens the door quickly, as if he’s been looking out the window and waiting for me to get home. He doesn’t say anything before he pulls on the straps of my backpack and takes it off of my shoulders.
“Aiden?” I annoyingly question him, twisting as he harshly pulls the bag away.
His eyes are wide as he shakes his head and I frown at him, feeling strange. He looks upset, running a hand through his hair before looking at me.
“I’m sorry, Alina,” he says, his voice quiet, almost hesitant.
I frown, stepping further inside. “Sorry for what? What’s going on?”
Aiden sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. “I didn’t know, okay? I had no idea.”
He takes me by the elbow and walks me into the hallways. Confusion unfurls inside me and I have half a mind to pull my arm from his touch. “What are you talking about?
Didn’t know what?”
He stops at the entrance to the living room, his shoulders tense. “My dad… he got engaged.”
I blink, the words not quite registering at first. Jake. Jake is engaged. It’s been almost three months since I’ve seen him, three months since we’ve….kissed.
There should be no reason for my stomach to twist the way it does.
I frown, trying to rein in the panic fluttering through me. “Engaged?”
Aiden doesn’t answer right away. Something else is wrong, deeply wrong.
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I step past him, into the living room, and my heart stops.
There, standing in the middle of the room, is my mother.
And next to her is Jake.
The room spins for a second, my breath catching in my throat as I try to make sense of what I’m seeing. My mother… engaged to Jake?
My eyes drop to her finger, an enormous rock glinting beneath the room light.
Nausea rolls through me.
Jake smiles at me, the movement not reaches his eyes and he places a hand at my mother’s back. O
“Alina,” Mother smiles warmly, waving her hand at me as if I could have missed that rock
from across the room.
I feel Aiden behind me, his hand at my lower back, as if offering comfort.
My eyes dart between Jake and my mother, the uncomfortable tension filling the space as they stand there, clearly waiting for us to react.
“What…” My voice cracks, and I clear my throat, trying to regain some control.
Jake clears his throat, that terrible smile still on his face.“We wanted to tell you both
before the holidays, so you weren’t caught off guard.”
“Too late for that,” I mutter, still reeling.
Aiden steps beside me, his face pale, his jaw clenched. He’s horrified, too. I can see it in his eyes, the way he can’t even look at his father.
My mother takes a step toward me, her hands outstretched. “Alina, sweetheart, isn’t this
wonderful news?”
“Wonderful news?” I scoff.
Jake flinches.
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Mother frowns at me. “Why are you acting like that?”
Aiden clears his throat. “It’s not very nice to hear that your father is engaged to your girlfriend’s mother. We’ll be step–siblings. It’s weird.”
My eyes dart to Jake, only to find him already looking at me. Right.
That’s what’s weird about this. Aiden. My boyfriend.
Not the fact that I will now be able to say that I lost my virginity to my stepfather.
That I have feelings for my stepfather.
Mother’s tuts her tongue. “It’s not too bad.”
She laughs, stepping closer to Jake and placing her hand on his chest.
Jake keeps his eyes on me.
Aiden speaks, his voice low and full of anger. “This is messed up, Dad.”
I tighten my hands in fists and look directly at Jake. “Did you know?”
He lifts an eyebrow.
“Did you know she was my mother?”
Aiden tries to calm me down, whispering my name. “Alina.”
But I ignore him.
“I did not,” Jake answers, but he swallows, thickly, and I know he’s lying right through his
teeth.
I can’t even look at them anymore. My chest tightens as the reality of it sinks in. My mother is marrying Aiden’s father. Zaid’s father.
And Zaid is coming home.
I don’t know why that thought lingers in my mind like a dark cloud, but it does. Maybe it’s because I know things are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Maybe it’s
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because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since the day he left.
I need to get out of here. Away from this madness. Away from the tangled mess of my life that just got even more twisted.
