Gaijin No More

Cody's POV

I had lost the track of time as we sat in the car, me on Aiden's lap. His head was still pressed against my neck, and his tears had made my shirt damp. I didn't care, though.

To be honest, I was a bit scared. I had never seen Aiden like this and now that we were in this situation, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

So I decided to follow my instincts. I let him cry on my shoulder, my hands slowly stroking his head and the back of his neck. It felt much better option than trying to comfort him with words.

It was getting dark, the day slowly turning into evening. I wasn't sure if Aiden was still crying or not. He wasn't the type to sob loudly and dramatically. In fact, to any outsider it would've looked like we were just having an affectionate moment.

“Aiden?” I dared to whisper. “Are you alright?”

Again he tightened his grip around me a bit before taking a deep breath.

“Promise me something Cody,” he started, his voice hoarse. “Promise me you'll never try drugs. Never.”

My hands stopped stroking Aiden's hair as his words sunk in. I knew he got the impression that I was going to actually take that needle.

“But Aiden, I wasn't -”

“Promise me!” he said again, more firmly this time. He lifted his head from my shoulder and looked into my eyes. His face was wet from the tears. The look in his eyes held such seriousness it shocked me.

“I promise,” I said softly. “But I want you to know I didn't have any intentions to take that drug,” I told him quietly.

Aiden just stared at me for a moment.

“Cody, I understand you are curious of the drugs but -” I silenced him by placing my finger over his lips.

“I most certainly am not curious about drugs Aiden. I was just messing with Kirk! Just before you came I was about to let that drug drip on the ground,” I exclaimed, wanting to shake Aiden to emphasize my words.

Aiden started intently at my eyes, searching for any trace of dishonesty. Apparently he didn't find any since he hugged me close to him yet again.

“I was so scared Cody,” he whimpered, his lips slightly touching my neck as he spoke. This little movement sent shivers down my spine, waking up the butterflies in my stomach.

“Why were you scared?” I asked and continued to stroke his hair.

“Because I knew you were in trouble. I wasn't the one who sent the messages.”

“If it wasn't you who sent the message, how did you know where I was?” I asked, wanting to figure out how this mess got started.

“I was deleting my old messages and then I found two messages I hadn't seen before. Somebody has had to use my phone while I was in gym. I bet it was Kirk.”

“That makes sense. But why would they want to offer drugs to me, and use you to lure me into meeting them?” My mind was so full of questions I was sure I'd have a headache.

“Because they are assholes.” I'm not sure why, but it felt like there was something more in that matter. But I decided not to press it.

There was a short silence between us before I asked the question which had been bothering me ever since Aiden pulled me onto his lap.

“Why were you crying?” I got nervous when I felt Aiden tense. Had I crossed the line?

“Because these events brought some very bad memories back into my mind. And I was afraid history would repeat itself.”

Okay, Aiden's answer only confused me more.

“What do you mean?” Aiden let out a deep sigh before speaking.

“It's a long and complicated story, but I need to tell it to you. You deserve to know.”

I didn't like it where this conversation was going. Something in Aiden's tone scared me.

“A couple years ago I first met Kirk. I thought he was cool guy so we hung out a lot. But then he offered me drugs,” Aiden paused and gulped. He was obviously nervous.

I tried to soothe him a bit by moving my hand to rub his shoulder.

“I thought it would make me look so bad ass if I tried them so I accepted. That was the beginning of my career as a drug addict.”

My eyes were probably wide as saucers. Aiden had been a drug addict? No way. It couldn't be possible. Not Aiden. My sweet Aiden.

“There wasn't a weekend when I wasn't stoned. I got drugs from Kirk without having to pay much. This kept going for over eight months.”

My hands had stopped their movement, the shock making my body immobile.

“Then one day our usual group was once again gathered together to get high. Kirk had some new stuff with him and we all were eager to try it.” Tears started again falling from Aiden's eyes.

“There was this one guy, Derrick, who wanted to try it first. So we let him,” Aiden choked out, the memory was obviously painful to him. “It surprised us when he started having convulsions. He was having hard time to breathe and before I even knew it he was dead.”

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Things like that were only supposed to happen in movies, not to someone who I knew.

“But the worst was how calmly Kirk took it all. He just asked who wanted to have the next fix. I started screaming at him, saying we had to call an ambulance or something.”

I wrapped my arms around Aiden and hugged him tightly. I couldn't even imagine the pain Aiden had gone through in his past.

“After that day I decided to never again use drugs. I was in rehab for a while. I'm so fucking grateful to the people who helped me to get rid of my addiction.”

I felt how a few tears slipped through my eyelids, sliding down my cheeks and disappearing into Aiden's hair. Never in million years did I thought that Aiden had had to witness someone's death.

“I thought I was going see you die too.” Aiden was now sobbing against my shoulder, his frame shaking slightly. I tried to calm him down by cooing sweet nothings into his ear. “When I saw the needle in your hand I was so scared I was going to lose you.”

“You don't have to worry about that Aiden,” I whispered. “Drugs will never take me away from you.”

We held each other in silence, both of us thinking of the recent events. A part of me was glad this day had happened. It felt like we were much closer now than before. And it made me feel good.