Innocence

It hadn't really occurred to me that I would meet a genius. I mean, does anyone ever think, "I'm going to wake up today and spend sometime with the smartest guy in my graduating class?" Of course not! And maybe that's why I was so surprised when Aiden knew the questions to 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' better than I did. I had watched most of the reruns and watched the new episodes as if it was my religion. Still, Aiden answered before me, knew the answer when I didn't, and could tell me how far the person was going to go through the game just by looking at their faces.

My mouth hung open in a large ‘O.’ “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Aiden pointed to the television screen where Regis was beaming at the man in the hot seat on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Aiden had gotten yet another question right.

“How can you not know that?” Aiden teased.

“Because I’m obviously not as much of a literature nut as I thought.”

Aiden sat on the floor, his head close to mine as I lay across the length of the couch. He turned his head to look at me. The smile hadn’t left his face all night. “You’re a literature nut?”

“Don’t make fun!”

“Next question for $250,000!” Regis screamed at the crowd. Everyone in the crowd cheered on the stranger in the hot seat, including me. Aiden seemed amused by my enthusiasm for the show.

“See if you can get this one…” I challenged.

“I bet I can before you can.”

I sat up immediately, leaning toward the television taking the challenge.

"What was the imaginary line called that separated the Union from the Confederate states? Was it: The East-West Line, The Yankee-Dixie line, The Civil Line, or The Mason-Dixie line? Come on Harley, what do think?"

"It's D, The Mason-Dixie line." Aiden said confidently.

The man on the screen chose to use a lifeline.

"Why do you think that?" That did sound right…

"Because it's right."

Two answers were taken away from the board. All that was left was C and D. The man chose D, and the crowd cheered for him.

"It's right isn't it?" I asked Aiden.

He nodded. "I'm always right."

"Harley," Regis said, his face slack, "You've just won 250,000 dollars!" The crowd erupted into loud cheers of joy for the man. "We'll be right back to see if Harley will get the 500,000 dollar question." The theme music rang from the speakers. After a few seconds, a toilet paper commercial with a puppy running around came on.

I stood from the couch. "I'm getting hungry, you want anything?"

Aiden shrugged, "I'm fine."

I left him on the floor in the living room, and sped toward the kitchen. There was a lone girl in there, sitting on a stool by the counter with a huge cook book in front of her. She hoped down off the stool. "You need something?"

"No," I answered, "Just coming in here to breathe." I took refuge on the stool next to the girl and covered my face with my hands. I couldn't stop smiling. This was such a weird night. Aiden, the guy that was bipolar, even made me bipolar, was sitting in my living room showing off his mad Millionaire skills.

I laughed. What was I doing? I should be kicking this guy out of my house. It was almost midnight and I'm hanging around Aiden Westcott in my pajamas. I laughed again.

"What's so funny?" the girl next to me asked. She sat back down on the stool.

I rubbed my hands over my face a few times to snap out of it. "Nothing, just…me I guess."

"You mean, what by that exactly?"

I stood. "No idea."

Aiden had moved from the floor to across the room where a wall was taken up by a few pictures and a small table holding a vase of flowers. Aiden was inspecting one of the smaller pictures in the middle of the group.

I stifled a groan. The picture was of me when I was seven, holding Mike's hand. He was leaned into me, his lips pressed against my cheek. My eyes were closed when the picture was snapped. I looked so odd there. When I was real young, I had blond hair. As I got older, it grew in darker and darker, eventually turning into the chocolate brown color I had now.

Mike was the real different one. His hair was cut short, and spiked up in neat little peaks. His face and arms were covered in little freckles from all the hours we spent outside in the sun.

"How old were you then?" Aiden asked.

I whispered, "Seven." We seemed too close together to speak in a normal voice.

Aiden turned to look in my direction. "And that little boy…"

"A friend of mine."

"Mike?"

"Ah--"

A loud shrill beep flew threw the air, making me jump. My phone on the end table by the couch beeped again. I grabbed it and brought it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey Candace. Did you see the email? I think I finally got the emailing thing down now."

I glanced toward Aiden. He was watching me with curious eyes.

"Yeah I saw it. Sorry I didn't respond. I had friends over."

There was a few seconds silence. "Oh, sorry."

Now he's upset. "Don't worry about it. They're gone now." No need to tell him only three of them went home, leaving me with one.

He perked up. "Oh. So you watching Millionaire?"

Sure enough, the show was back on, but I hadn't noticed. The guy had obviously taken the money, Aiden said he wouldn't get the 500,000 dollar question. He was always right.

"Ah…oh, yeah I am."

Aiden's mouth turned up in a half smile. My heart skipped a beat, my gosh he was cute. He shook his head with laughter that was silent, still, odd in the silence of the room. He headed for the door with his head down, that smile still on his face.

"Hey," I called after him. I held a finger up when he looked my way to let him know I was just going to be a second.

"What?" Mike responded on the other line.

"I have to go. Can I talk to you later?"

"Oh, are you entertaining?"

"No, I just have a ton of homework that has piled up."

Mike sighed. "You have never let your homework pile up. Ever."

I turned so I was facing the wall, not letting my face show anything to Aiden. "I'm grounded Mike." I was getting irritated now. "And my parents are supposed to be home soon. So unless you don't want to talk to me for another week, I would suggest letting me go."

There was silence on the end. About to ask if Mike was still there, he hung up.

I cussed under my breath, slamming my phone on the table next to the couch. What was up with him? Calling every few hours, emailing more than three times a day on top of that? I brushed my hair out of my face and turned back to Aiden.

That half smile was replaced with crushed brows, a squinting stare at the ground, and an odd sigh. "I'm confused."

"So am I."

"I thought. Well, I thought that Mike was your friend."

"He is." That was a punch in the gut. "What? Just say it."

"I think I should go."

I couldn't help but scream.

Aiden froze, turning back around to look at me.

"You make me so frustrated." I stormed up to him, standing up as straight as I could.

Aiden only stared, waiting.

I growled unintentionally in his face. "You are so bi-polar!"

That same dang smirk appeared on his lips, but he wiped it away before I could say anything about it. He moved his face closer, so we were just an inch apart. I could smell his cologne, see the frown lines on his forehead, and I could see the flecks of gold in his eyes. His closeness had me flustered, but the words that came from his mouth seemed to slap me right in the face.

"Just because you are angry with your parents for making you move away from your home and all your friends doesn’t mean that you need to take it out on everyone else. Its not like I'm making you stay here and neither is Mike. So I think you need to just chill out and figure out who you should be mad at."

Aiden left, closing the door as quietly as he could. He didn't seem to be mad, just disappointed. In me? The person he didn't know?

My anger simmered into a dull thump in my head. Maybe I was the one who was bi-polar. How many times had I acted like that around him just because he didn't get angry like I wanted him to? I buried my face in my hands.

My phone was at my ear before I knew I wanted to apologize. And I never did that. The phone rang twelve times before I hung up. I ran to the computer and typed up an apology to Mike, sending it to his inbox. Twenty minutes later there was no response. And he was always waiting for me.

I needed to shape up. I needed to learn how to interact with people, learn to channel my anger, and be nice to people who deserve it. Or I would wind up with no friends and hating Maine even more than I did.

I went into my closet and grabbed a pair of my tall boots, slipping them over my feet. My coat was hung up by the front door and I curled myself into it, anticipating the cold outside.

"Where are you going Candace?" Gloria stepped in front of me, her face set. She took one look at me and softened. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But I'm going to apologize to a friend. Can you move please?"

She stepped aside. Gloria even opened the door for me.

The wind whipped my face with harsh needle points of ice. It was snowing again. Just another reason for me to turn back. But I won't. I need to be a better person. I need to become someone that people will look up to. A person that I will actually like to be.

The wind wasn't as bad on the road. Most of the trees blocked it from my face and hands. But I had pressure in my chest I had never felt before. And my stomach was turning in a million different directions. I felt like I was going to vomit.

The lights on Aiden's porch were on shining on everything around them. I slinked toward the door, avoiding snow dunes and a car in the driveway. The doorbell was so quiet I couldn't hear it where I stood in front of the door.

Someone flung the door open so fast I jumped back from it. Trevor stood in front of me, a small smile on his face as he saw I was at his house.

I swallowed, trying to clear the lump in throat. "Is Aiden home?"

"He's not here."

"But he left my home almost half an hour ago."

"He's not home."

Trevor was pushed to the side by someone else. "Hey!" he yelled at the person.

The door shut and Aiden was beside me holding a big wool blanket. "Sorry about that." He tried to smile, but it faltered and fell. "You okay?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tissue, handing it over to me. "You're crying."

I hadn't even noticed the wetness on my cheeks.

"And you're shivering. Here," he wrapped the wool blanket around me and lowered me onto the front step.

I hid underneath the blanket, welcoming the warmth and the sanctuary away from his comforting eyes. "You're too nice to me."

Aiden was laughing. "Not everyone can be mad at anyone who walks by."

"Hey,"

"You can't deny it."

"Oh yes I can." I took the blanket off my head. "I'm not that bad."

He shrugged. "Whatever helps you sleep at night." He started to laugh. "I'm just kidding. I get it. It’s a defensive thing."

"Doesn't mean I should act like a jerk to anyone who walks by."

Aiden shrugged his thick shoulders. "Maybe not."

Aiden seemed to be carefree right now, even though we seemed to have been fighting only minutes before. "Why are you happy?"

Aiden met my eyes for the first time since I had shown up. "Why shouldn't I be?"

"You never are. Unless you aren't around a lot of people. Like at school. You completely ignore me like I don't even exist."

"You like to put it out there, don't you?"

"I'm sorry. It just came out." I hid my face in the blanket again.

The blanket began to peel itself away, very slowly, and yet I couldn't keep it over my face. Aiden was close to me, his face right next to mine.

"Maybe it’s because I don't know what to do when other people are watching."

I sucked in a breath to respond.

Aiden continued, "Maybe it’s because I'm not sure if you want me to notice you. And I'm not sure if I want you to notice me."

My breath was a misty fog as I responded in a whisper. "But I do--notice you I mean."

Aiden's face twisted from the strain of keeping from smiling at my comment. His voice lowered like mine had, letting his words fill my ears. "Then I guess I should return the favor."

I still responded in a whisper, not having the courage to speak any louder. “I wouldn’t mind it if you did.”

Aiden leaned in close, his breath mixing with mine, and his cologne filling my nose for the second time tonight. He took a deep breath and leaned in so close I gasped in surprise. He smirked at my response, but stayed close. So close in fact that if I leaned forward an inch our lips would touch…

“So you want to be friends with me?” he chuckled at a joke I didn’t understand. “I think that can be arranged. He guided his hand under the blanket to my hand and took it in his.

Aiden’s smooth skin felt like marble in my delicate hand. His grasp was soft yet there was strength and precision in every move he made. It seemed as though he was moving with deliberate slowness. His skin was frozen to the bone, like I was holding a bag of ice. It shocked me into clarity. He was touching me. And in kissing distance.

My stomach swam with butterflies without my permission and blush crept up my neck and filled my cheeks. I suddenly wanted him to kiss me. More than I had wanted anything before. He chuckled again at the sight of my reddening cheeks, leaning away and finally allowing me to breathe.

Aiden helped me to my feet and held onto my hand for a moment longer before entwining his fingers with mine. “You want me to walk you to back to your house?”

“I think I can manage”

He let go of my hand and put his hands in his pockets. “So I’ll see you tomorrow then? We can do friends stuff.”

It was my turn to laugh. “And what do friends do exactly?”

His eyebrows furrowed together. “I’m not so sure. I’ll think of something.”

“I’m counting on it.” I handed the blanket back to him, making sure to keep my distance. I wasn't sure I could control myself if I got closer. My body itched to be closer to him. And it was a scary feeling. “Goodnight Aiden.”

Aiden broke the distance I was keeping between us and placed a very delicate kiss on my cheek. His lips, as hard and cold as his hand, moved by my ear, “Goodnight Candace,” Before I could do anything else he was inside his house, closing the door behind him.