Remodelling the Wreckage of My Past

“Now that everything is said Aiden, you can hate me. But that’s alright buddy, because I don’t expect anything else from you. Not anymore.”

Her last words were hanging in the air as the door closed behind Adeline. She left, and deep inside everyone knew she wasn’t joking. She meant every single word that had left her mouth.

Aiden took the guitar case, his bags and hurried to the spare room he was staying in. The door slammed shut.

Angelina was comforting her little sister who was asking why her mother had left. Angelina wanted to go upstairs and yelled at her brother, but she knew it was useless. Her mother had already done what needed to be done.

Brian knew better than to go and yell at Aiden. He didn’t knew him enough to do so, sure he was his father, but he never really lived with Aiden. Until now…

Nathalie stayed silent, her gaze glued on the door. She admitted that she didn’t like Adeline at first, with the bar fight, her history with Brian and the way she came back into everyone’s life. They were being civilized to one other, and they both did it for everyone’s sake. The few times she got to talk to her, she noticed that Lyn would do anything for her children, it was written on her forehead, she would go to hell and back. She knew it took a lot from her to confront Aiden and to basically deny him, and she respected her now.

Aiden was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at the guitar case, his eyes red and puffy. Yes, he was crying. He opened the guitar case and looked at the guitar. He felt his heart tightening in his chest. It was exactly like he wanted. And his mother even bought a purple strap to match. He swallowed the lump in his throat and took it. He put the strap over his shoulder and rested the guitar on his lap.

He strummed lightly, his thoughts wandering back to what happened a few minutes ago. He had never heard his mother shout, or rarely and today had been no exception. She said everything very calmly and it was worse than if she had raised her voice. Just remembering his mother’s face when she handed him the guitar case was enough o make him let out a sob as more tears cascaded down his face.
He brought his hand up to his face and wiped his tears with the sleeve of his hoodie.

He placed his hand on the neck of the guitar and with the other, he started strumming lightly, humming to himself. He remembered when his mother used to sang this song to him, lulling him to sleep with ‘When I Come Around’.

Aiden realized that all his childhood had been lulled with Green Day.

For the first time in years, he realized that his behavior hadn’t been the one of a good son. He had done nothing to help his mother, always trying his best to make her life a living hell. She didn’t deserve it…

He was going to change, he needed to…

**

“What are you doing?” asked Matt as Lyn came back with her duffel bag in hand and a stern look on her face.

“I’m going back to Baltimore for a couple of weeks.” She simply said as she opened the front door.

“Why?” he asked.

“I need to get away from here, everything is getting out of control. I need some time with just me, myself and I.” she explained as she rubbed her face.

“When are you coming back?”

“I have no idea Matt.” She replied, dropping her gaze to the floor as he was holding the door open.

“You have to understand… Nothing’s holding me here. Everything has changed. I lost my marks. Nothing’s the same as it was fifteen years ago. Brian is fiancé with a girl who has taken my place! She’s Brian’s girl, she is in Perfect Nightmare, she plays guitar and sings, she is even taking my lyrics and no one is here to stop her! Hell, Aiden likes her better than me. I don’t belong here Matt, that’s just it. It’s not jealousy, I’m stating the facts. And Aiden wanting to shoot me is just an other thing to add to the list. I’m done here.” She said, taking a step outside.

“And what about the kids?”

“Kids? I don’t have kids! I’m a bad mother! It just took me fifteen fucking years to come to that conclusion. Aiden is Brian’s kid now, not mine. Angelina is staying there too. Celia will be staying with her father in L.A, Nicole will take care of her.” She said, running a hand in her hair and then grabbing her bag from the floor.

“I gotta get going now. I need to see Billy before taking the flight that will bring me back home. Because my home is in Baltimore now, not Huntington.” She took a step closer to her brother and hugged him. “Bye Matt.” She whispered, letting him go, before she turned around and walked to her car, throwing the bag on the passenger seat and starting the engine.