Gaijin No More

Aiden's POV

I was so fucking relieved when Cody called and said he wasn't going to Chicago. Once he had left I had imagined every possible scenario and practically worried myself to death. So you can imagine how I felt when I heard no one was going to take Cody away from me.

I was on my way to my next class when Cecilia grabbed my arm and stopped me.

”Oh hey Cecilia, what's up?” I asked. I couldn't remember when was the last time I had spoken to her. Or anyone of my other friends. Oops, I have been a shitty friend lately, haven't I?

She had a somber look on her face. That made me little worried. Had something bad happened?

”We need to talk,” she finally said and started pulling me towards the bathrooms. I resisted a little when she opened the door of the girls' bathroom, but she shot me a glare so I quickly stopped my struggling.

Once we were inside I noticed that Sheila and Lauren were in there too.

Cecilia locked the door behind us and I looked at my friends with confusion. What was so important that I had to be dragged into girls' bathroom? It was not a place where I wanted to be seen.

”So...” I started, getting tired of the awkward silence.

Lauren was the first one to open her mouth. ”Do you know what day last Saturday was?” Her tone was cold and accusing.

I searched my brain for anything important that might have happened on Saturday and I came up with nothing.

The girls rolled their eyes.

”It was my birthday,” Cecilia said. ”And what is our tradition on my birthday? What have we done every year during that specific day?”

I hung my head in shame. Cecilia liked being outdoors and every year once her birthday came, all of us went camping together. I can't believe I had forgotten our tradition that had been going on for seven years.

”Lia, I'm so sorry, I --” my apology was cut off as Cecilia lifted her hand as a signal to stop me.

”Don't Lia me Aiden.” I could hear she was really mad. ”Do you have any idea how disappointed I was when you didn't show up? Or even call and tell us what was going on? Hell, Aiden, what the fuck is going on anyway? You never hang put with us anymore. We haven't heard from you in months.”

Okay, that made me feel really bad. I had been neglecting my friends and there was no good excuse for that. Sure spending time with my boyfriend was important but that was no reason to abandon my friends.

”I'm sorry girls,” I apologized again. ”I guess I was so caught up spending time with Cody and experiencing new things that I kinda... forgot to think about you.”

”Here we go again,” Sheila finally opened her mouth. ”No one of us even knew that you were gay! We had to find out when you started dating that Adams kid. As your friends we expected that you would tell us if you were gay. It's not something you keep as a secret.”

”I'm not even sure if I am gay,” I said, ”I don't feel attracted to other guys. Just Cody.”

”Fine, you're bisexual then. But that doesn't change the fact you should've talked to us about it.”

I frowned. Weren't they being a little too harsh on me? ”Well, maybe I didn't feel comfortable telling you about it because I knew some of you wouldn't have taken it so easily. Look at Dan and how he's been calling me a fag.”

”Dan can be an asshole, you know he doesn't really mean that. He is just hurt that you would so easily walk away from us and not let us in.”

Of course I knew Dan could be a really big asshole when he wanted. He had never been able to talk about feelings and such openly. He hid all that stuff behind his tough exterior and even I as his best friend couldn't always get through him.

I sighed. I had really messed everything up, hadn't I? Being with Cody was amazing but now that I thought about it, I really missed my friends.

”I'm sorry. I know what I did was selfish. Can you forgive me?” I put on my puppy eyes and I knew it was hard to resist me when I did.

The girls looked at me skeptically, but then they all smiled.

”Only if you promise to start treating us like your friends again. And no more secrets.”

I nodded my head vigorously. ”I promise. From now on I'll be the best friend anyone could ever have.”

I kept my promise. I started spending more time with my friends and though Daniel was a bit cold towards me in the beginning, he soon warmed up and we were back to our old routine, trying to beat each other at everything from tennis to drinking. I had missed a lot of things apparently when I was occupied with my new relationship.

Brady, for instance, had gotten himself a girlfriend. She was a pretty sophomore with reddish brown hair that reached her shoulder blades and bluish eyes. Her name was Julie.

Todd had crashed his mother's car and had been grounded ever since. He kept complaining how the punishment was unfair since there had only been a small dent on the side of the car and nobody got hurt. I rolled my eyes at this. It had to be something bigger than just a small dent since I knew Todd's parents were really easy-going.

And my personal favorite, Katie had gotten together with Fred. The whole thought of them being together was absurd, but I guess it made sense in a way. Fred was dark and scary looking for most of the time while Katie was really bouncy and talkative.

I still hadn't forgotten about Cody, even though I now had less time to spend with him. I think this actually was a good thing, since now neither of us would feel suffocated. I'm sure some time away from each other would do some good for both of us. Absence makes a heart grow fonder and I guess it's true.

Cody had been understanding when I told him about my conversation with the girls. He even felt bad for hogging all my attention though it was my fault for being so inconsiderate. Sharing my time between my friends and boyfriend was surprisingly easy. I had promised I would spend more time with my friends and I kept that promise.

Though I soon had to notice, the differences of spending time with Cody and my friends were remarkable. Both of them offered such a different ways of having fun that it was inevitable I started to enjoy the other more.

Being greedy is never a good thing and I would soon have personal experience about the matter. There is a calm before the storm and my storm would be a real disaster.