He was a Boy, She was a Girl

Callies POV

I tossed and turned the whole night trying to get the bad thoughts out of my head. What was going to happen to me? To Joey? Tristan couldn’t possible get custody, could he? Suddenly there was a tap on the door and then it opened. My eyes were shut still, trying to get as much rest as I could. The arm, to which I presume belongs to Aiden, tightened around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I felt him sit up a little, meaning that he was awake. I squint open my eyes then and look out the window, noticing that it was still pitch black outside. What the hell?
And then it hit me, Alice was here. I sat up fast and jumped over Aiden, more like tripped over him, running to the figure at the door. It was her alright. She had gotten her hair cut short, like a pixie cut, and was currently in her pajamas. I hug her tightly, not wanting to let go.
“he-hey.” She says, trying to breath from my tight hug, “it’s good to see you too, but could you loosen your grip some please?” I let go and drag her further into the room.
“Ai-den” I extend his name, whispering into his ear. He groans and puts the pillow over his head.
“go sleep on my sofa Alice, I’ll meet you in the actual daylight morning.” Aiden grumbles.
Alice laughs, “this is the sweetest boyfriend ever?” she questions to me.
“yeah, well, he has his days.” I reply, smiling.
“actually though, could I crash on the sofa? I’m exhausted and my parents took over the guest bedroom.”
“sure, go right ahead.” I say and hand her some extra pillows from under Aidens bed. Alice falls asleep almost instantly as she gets comfy. I change out of my jeans and into a pair of Aidens pajamas before slipping back under the covers. Once again, I tried my hardest to really fall asleep, but couldn’t.

I woke up to the sun shining into my eyes, making me realize that it was well past noon. The room was empty, to my dismay, and so I made my way downstairs. Alice had Joey in her arms, playing with him, while Aiden was watching some movie with Mike. The adults were talking in the kitchen, having what looked like a good time.
I sit down next to Aiden and he looks over at me, “hey.” He says quietly.
“hey.” I reply, leaning my head on his shoulder, “what time is it?”
“just after three.” Mike answers. I nod my head slightly.
“you were out cold.” Alice comments. Bouncing little Joey on her knee while he smiled like a fool. I shrug and turn my head to face Aiden.
“does everyone know?” I ask. I didn’t have to tell him what I was talking about, I knew he knew.
“everyone who matters.” He answers. “how about you and Alice go do something fun. I can take care of Joey for a couple hours.”
Without hesitation, Alice hands Aiden the kid and walks straight to the door. I laugh and quickly kiss Aiden before following her. We walked around town some, catching up on little details before stopping at our favorite little café.
“so, I’ve gotten texts and calls and all, but what went down this past year?” she asks as we sit at a small table by the windows.
I laugh a little, recalling the past eight months or so. “more than you can imagine.” I say.
“well, I want to know every last bit of it.”
“where to start?” I joke.
“start from the beginning.”
I think for a second, “well then, it all started when Aiden and Mike were jumping over my car…”I continued it from there, talking about the whole year, “and pretty much last night sums it up.”
“wow.”
“yup. Reilly should be here in about a week and yeah, I don’t know what’s going to happen with me. I’ll either be living with Tristan or my grandparents.”
“you can’t move to Tennessee!!!” she screams, earning us some stares from around the room.
“I’m not going to let that happen,” I say. “how has California been?” I ask.
“okay, I guess. Not the same as it is here.”
“I’m sure it’s not.”
“but I’ve made some friends, captain of the cheerleading team next year, and my boyfriend seems to be pretty damn amazing.”
“BOYFRIEND!!!???” she didn’t tell me about this.
“yeah.” She laughs nervously, “last time we talked it was still in between and now it’s official. He’s really sweet, even wanted to come with me when I told him I would be gone for who knows how long. Although I said it wasn’t the best time to meet everyone.”
“oh my god! That’s so exciting!”
“yeah, yeah.” She says as if it’s nothing. “Aiden seems like a great guy.”
“he is.” I say, forcing a smile. The thing is, Aiden is great. But he still has that secret he won’t tell me and the longer I don’t know, the more worried I’m getting.
“you don’t look so assuring.”
“There’s just something he isn’t telling me.” I say.
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe he has like a sixth toe or something.”
I laugh, “I would have noticed that by now Alice.”
“well you never know…”
“come on, I feel like we’ve been gone a long time.”
Alice smiles, “four hours seems long? Where have you been?” she jokes as we slide out of our chairs.
We took a taxi back, not feeling up for the forty-five minute walk.
“where are my parents” was the first thing Alice asks when we arrive back at the house.
“they decided that you guys would be staying at Callies for the time being. Oh, and wanted you over there when you got back.” Cathy answers genuinely.
“right.” Alice turns to me, “well, I’ll see you later then love.” She says and leaves.
Tristan, as I had noticed, didn’t stop by today and I also realized that Aiden, Joey and Mike weren’t around.
“they went to the park.” Robert answers for me before I could ask the question. I smile and nod, taking a seat across from them at the table. “which is good, because we have something to discuss with you.”
“um, okay.” I say hesitantly.
“we were discussing living options for you and Joey last night and came to the conclusion that Tristan wouldn’t be taking custody.”
“uh, why not?”
“because he’s dead.” Cathy says.
“oh, right. So that leaves my grandparents.” I groan slightly. I love them, but Tennessee??
“which we decided would be a terrible move for your senior year.”
“so?”
“so, if you would be alright with it, Cathy and I would like to propose the thought of us becoming you and Joey’s guardians.”
My straight face turns into a smile, “you’d really do that?!” I ask all excited.
They both nod, “we won’t adopt, so nothing much will change, we’ll just be your legal guardians. You will be allowed to keep the house, of course, since when you’re eighteen everything goes to you, but if you don’t feel like living there by yourself, we’ll easily make room here. We were thinking of making the guest room into a nursery to keep Joey and then Reilly when she comes. That way Aiden won’t have to live with two kids.”
“oh my god! I don’t know how to thank you guys!! This is great!” The door opened in the midst of my outburst but that didn’t make me stop.
“you told her?” I hear Aiden guess as he walks in holding Joey in his arms.
I run up to him and hug him, “careful darling, baby right here.” He says in a joking manner. I kiss Joeys forehead and then take him from Aiden.
“I love you.” I say, poking his nose softly. Joey coos and smiles. I look over at Aiden, still grinning. He stayed silent, “and you.” I say, poking his nose too. I laugh as I see Aidens expression brighten a little, “I can’t believe you were jealous of the infant.” I say, kissing him on the mouth.
There was a cough behind us and I knew it came from Robert, “oh, like you don’t kiss Cathy every five minutes in front of us.” I say.
“we’re married. Luckily you two aren’t.” Cathy swats him with her rolled up newspaper.
“why don’t you two go out for dinner, you haven’t done that in awhile.” Cathy offers.
Aiden tightens his arm around my waist, “we will defiantly take you up on that offer.” He says. I quickly hand Joey off to Cathy and run upstairs to change, Aiden came in shortly after.
“I can promise you that I don’t have any dresses that will fit you. your chest is just, well, bigger than mine.” I throw a pillow at him, hitting his head.
“you may not have a dress, but my cell phone was up here. Gosh. I’ll see you in thirty, kay?” he nods and quickly kisses me before I head over to my house.
At precisely 8 o’clock, the doorbell rang and I run to get it. “being civil now, are we?” I joke. Aiden shakes his head laughing and takes my hand in his. Alice, though bored out of her mind, insisted on just me going. I had invited her along since she didn’t have anything to do but she said that she still knew people in town. Which is true, she hasn’t been gone that long.
“so where are we going?”
“That, is a surprise.”
“Starlite?” I guess, knowing him and his love for their food.
He sticks his tongue out at me while continuing to drive, “you know me too well.”
“or not at all. Depends on how you look at it.” Suddenly, Aiden does a U-turn in the middle of the street, going to opposite way.
“okay, not Starlite.”
“think. What food is better than any other.”
“sweet, bowling. We should actually play a round this time.” I say.
“whatever you want.” Aiden replies and smiles over at me.
Aiden pulls into the parking lot and gets out, opening my door.
“so, one round?” I nod eagerly as we get shoes at the front desk. “ladies first.” Aiden says, motioning for me to take my turn. I stick my tongue out at him before picking up a bright purple bowling ball.
It slowly rolls down the lane and knocks all ten pins over. I turn to face Aiden and smirk. His jaw dropped in shock as he stared at me. “you’re turn.” I say, taking the seat next to him.
In the end I won, almost with a perfect score. But either way I still won and was proud of it. We slipped off the bowling shoes and then went looking for Melanie.
“My, my, look who’s here!” we hear her say behind us and we turn around to face her, smiling.
“Hey Melanie.” Aiden and I say at the same time.
“what brings my favorite couple here?”
I shrug, not really knowing how to answer, “needed to get out.” Aiden answers.
“well then, it’s good to see you. take a seat, I’ll have a great meal in minutes.” Aiden pulls me to a table near the back and pulls out the chair for me.
“so, you’re living with us now?” I nod eagerly, taking a sip of my water.
“but you parents don’t want us sharing a bed every night.” I say.
“what they don’t know won’t hurt them.” He replies slyly.
“can we stay here tonight?”
“I don’t think so Callie. Last time didn’t go over too well with anyone and we have two things to plan for.” I pout a little, making Aiden laugh. “maybe after this all cools off. We’ll come back before the end of summer. Okay?”
“yeah, that works.” I sigh, “you know what’s going to suck? My parents memorial. Half the people that are going to show up either were hated by my parents or hated my parents.”
“and the other half will want your money.” Aiden adds, “but lets forget about that for now.”
I nod and before I could say something more, the food came. Some time into it, Aiden checked his phone and then looked up at me, “the gang is at your house. Want to head there next?”
“sure.” I say.
He types something back and then hits send. When we finished, Melanie brought out a slice of chocolate cake. Just one slice. Aiden and I both stared at her like she was crazy, “what’s with this generation!? You feed each other, it’s romantic!” she shrieks and then walks back into that kitchen.
I roll my eyes and take a bite on my own, Aiden does the same. “feed each other!” we hear Melanie call from the kitchen. Aiden laughs and holds the fork in front of my mouth. I smile and open my mouth, taking it.
“this is so romantic.” I joke with my mouth full.
“oh yeah, you talking with your mouth full totally turns me on.” Aiden laughs.
“oh shush it Baker.” I say and flick a piece of cake at him. It lands perfectly between his eyes.
Aidens mouth drops open as he stares at me, “did you-did you just flick cake at me?”
“hmm, I think I did.”
He smirks and takes a bit of the cake onto his fork, flicking at me to which it hit my hair. I gasp.
“you did not just get that in my hair!”
“wanna bet?” this started a food fight that only lasted a couple minutes since there wasn’t much food to fight with. Melanie walked back in and stared at us.
“you’re kidding, right?”
“it was romantic?” I tried but failed to give a good reasoning.
“what will be romantic is you two cleaning this up.”
“Aunt Mel, you really wouldn’t do that to us, would you?”
she laughs, “no, actually I wouldn’t. but your mom called aiden, she wants you two home in half an hour.” Melanie walks away and I stare at Aiden, confused.
“how did they know?”
“damned if I know. Ready to leave?” I nod and we walk out to the car.
It was weird, last night all I could think about was my parents death, and now I was totally fine without. Well, not fine. But I’m over all the shock and sadness, there’s nothing I can do about it now.
Cathy and Robert were sitting at the dining room table and Joey was bouncing up and down on Robets knee.
“you called…Melanie?” Aiden asks as we take our seats across from them.
Cathey nods, “we didn’t want to interrupt you two.” Wow that was so not as subtle as she thought it was.
“right…” I say, “so, um, what do you want?”
“well, since you two,” she points between Joey and I, “are moving in, we need to go shopping tomorrow to turn the guest room into the nursery.”
I shrug, “okay.” Was that so important they had to interrupt our date?
“although, the construction people can’t come until the 21st to do some remodeling on Aidens bedroom, so you two will have to share until then.
Uh-oh. I quickly glance at Aiden as he does the same to me. The talk was about to happen.
“now we trust you both but it still seems necessary that we-“ did I ever mention how much I love Joey? Well I do. Especially right now when he decides to have one of his screaming bloody murder fits. Best. Little. Brother. Ever.
Cathy sighs, “we’ll have this conversation later.” She says, taking Joey from Robert and walking out of the room. Robert follows her and I turn to Aiden.
“I want to watch a movie.” I say and hop out of my chair and into the living room. I could hear Aiden laugh before he followed me and tossed in a random movie. He takes a seat next to me and lifts my legs so that they’re lying on his lap.
I smile, “what did you put in?”
“John Tucker Must Die.” He answers, skipping all the previews.
I just about choke from laughing, “you do know what that movie is about, right?”
“some stupid horror movie I’m guessing.” This just made me laugh harder. “what’s so funny?” he asks. By then I was laughing so hard I couldn’t answer.
Finally, I caught my breath, “it’s about breaking the heart of the heartbreaker. Teen girl love story.”
His face drops. “oh.”
“good movie, didn’t know you liked that kind though.”
“well if you like then we’ll watch it.”
I lean up and kiss his cheek, “how sweet.” I say. I set my head on his shoulder, keeping my legs on his lap since he was giving me a foot massage at the moment. Sounds pretty uncomfortable, but years of gymnastics and cheerleading have made this position pretty tolerable.
We were about half way through the movie when Aiden blurted out the words I least expected him to say.
“I love you.”
“what?” I ask, shocked.
He looked down at me wide eyed, as if he didn’t mean to say that out loud.
“did I just say that out loud?” he asks and I nod, “shit.”
I laugh a little, trying to make the situation less awkward, “well, it’s not that bad. At least it’s out there now, right? I mean, you were obviously thinking about it, now you don’t have to worry.” I say.
“of course I have to worry.”
I roll my eyes, “And why would that be?”
“because you have yet to say anything in response.” This made me laugh again. I lean up and kiss him passionately on the lips.
After about a minute I pull back and lean my forehead against his, “I love you Aiden Baker.”