Gaijin No More

Aiden's POV

Cody looked distraught as he sat on my bed and gnawed his lips. I wasn't surprised. His mother suddenly comes back after eight years and wants to take him away. To Chicago.

I felt a sudden wave of strong anger and jealousy. Who the hell did she think she was? She just marches back into Cody's life and tries to take him away from everything he knows and loves. More importantly, she was trying to take Cody away from me.

Then I felt ashamed. She was Cody's mom, for Christ's sake. I had no right to be so selfish. No matter how strongly I disapproved of the way she left Cody and Bruce, I really had no say in the matter. This was about Cody's family and it was hardly any of my business.

That thought saddened me, but I decided to be strong and support Cody, whatever happened. If he went to Chicago with his mom, well, I guess I would have to let him go.

We had been silent for a quite long time, both of us lost in our thoughts. I turned my head so I could observe Cody. He had this faraway look in his green eyes and his face was blank. Slowly he moved his head to look at me.

“Why did she leave, Aiden?” he asked in broken voice. “Why did she leave me and dad?”

“Oh Cody...” I murmured and gathered him in my arms, hugging him tightly. His body shook as he cried against my shoulder. I held him close to me, trying to ease his pain the best I could. Eight years he had kept those tears bottled up inside, so it was about time he let them out.

“Why? Oh God, why? Did we do something wrong? Didn't she love us enough to stay with us?” Cody sobbed quietly. I knew he didn't expect me to answer. After all, the only one who could give honest answers to his questions was his mother.

After a while of sitting there holding Cody I lost the track of time. Cody cried himself to sleep and when I was sure he was completely passed out I gently laid him on the bed. The right side of my t-shirt was soaked, which wasn't such a big surprise. My shirt had just absorbed eight years worth of tears.

I rose from the bed and quickly shed my shirt before grabbing a new one. Then I got back on the bed and pulled Cody close to me once again. I fell asleep within minutes.

A loud knock on the door woke me up a little later. I glanced the alarm clock on my nightstand before yelling the person behind to door to come in.

“Are you boys hungry? I thought you might – oh, sorry! I didn't realize you two were sleeping,” mom said, lowering her voice so she wouldn't disturb Cody who was still out cold.

I waved my hand dismissively. “We'll eat something later, okay?”

My mom nodded before walking out of my room and closing the door gently behind her. I yawned and lay back down, letting myself fall asleep again.

We slept soundly through the whole night. I was a little disappointed, since now we had wasted most of the time sleeping. I could think several better ways to spend time with Cody.

Cody was still sleeping like a corpse. I decided to be selfish so I woke him up. His eyes were still slightly red, but other than that he seemed to be just fine.

“What time it is?” he asked, his voice hoarse from sleep.

“Ten thirty,” I answered and bent my head to kiss him. He tangled his hand in my hair as our lips were locked together. I slipped my hand beneath his shirt and caressed his soft skin tenderly.

“How do you feel?” I asked once we broke apart.

“Like something heavy had just dropped from my chest.”

I smiled, feeling a bit proud of the fact that I had been able to relieve his pain. But then I got serious again.

“I don't want you to go to Chicago.” It was a terribly selfish thing to say but I couldn't help myself. I wanted Cody to know my opinion of the situation.

Cody regarded me with sad eyes. “I know. I don't want to go.” He inhaled deeply. “But I'm not sure if my opinion matters.”

I frowned in confusion. “Why wouldn't it? It's your life.”

“But she's my mom. Can't she force me to go with her or something?”

Oh. I hadn't thought of that.

A lump grew in my throat. Could she really take Cody away without his consent? I didn't know shit about the whole law business. What if it was possible for her to just take him?

I buried my face in Cody's hair and mumbled something indefinite.

“But even if she could take me, I wouldn't go. I'd run away,” Cody stated like it was the easiest thing in the world. I couldn't help laughing at this.

We were silent for a few minutes before Cody spoke again. “I think I should go home. I want to know what happened with Allison and dad yesterday.”

I didn't want Cody to leave but I knew he was right. The sooner we got some sort of a solution to this, the sooner we could figure out what to do.

“Okay. Do you wanna go now or can we make out a bit longer?” Now it was Cody's turn to laugh. That sound was always welcome in my books.

“Yeah, I think we could make out a bit more.”