Two Of A Kind

14. Cats out the bag Pt.1

Aiden's POV~

     10, 9, 8... The seconds on the buzzer were descending rapidly as beads of sweat trickled down the side of my head. The bleachers were suffused by teens and parents full of school spirit, as they chanted the lowering digits on the clock in unison.
     The time was not only running out for me to make the shot, but also signified the amount of time I had left before spilling my mother's devious secret.

7, 6, 5... I stared at the ball in my hand, I was close to the goal already. All I had to do was back spin off number 25 -someone on the opposite team- and make a simple layup to seal the game. If I didn't make it, Cam's arms were up, ready to assist.

4, 3, 2... Back spin. Shoot. The basketball rolled around the rim a couple of times, the crowd was silent. Dead silent. Until it dropped in the net defeatedly with a discrete swish sound. The crowd on the other hand, was not so quiet.

They roared loudly, stomping their feet's on the bleachers, clapping their hands, and pumping their fists in the air. There were even a few extra attendees who decided to make signs. Any other time all the chaos would've excited me, but knowing what I had promised myself I'd do after the game was over, hovered over my excitement like a dark cloud.

My eyes scanned the tiers of the bleachers frantically, stopping when they found what they were looking for. My dad had surely kept his promise, holding up a sign with my last name and jersey number that his secretary most likely made. He had a gigantic proud grin on his face as he chanted with the rest of the crowd. That grin would soon be replaced with something else.

As much as I hated to admit, I really didn't want him to show up. Out of all the games he'd missed, out of all the games I'd begged him to come to and he failed, he showed up to this one. The one where he would start of in a good mood but end in a shitty one. I didn't want to do this. I hated breaking bad news to people I cared about, but I'd learned the hard way of what would happen if I didn't. Besides, it was best if he heard it from someone he could trust. Right?

I took a deep breath and looked to the left of him, and then I noticed her. No not that her, the other her. The one who put me in this compromising position in the first place. The one who I did not ask to be here. Mother dearest. Of course she came. It wasn't unusual for her to be here, she showed up to most of my games. Especially when she knew my dad couldn't. For some odd reason though, I couldn't shake the feeling that she'd shown up only to monitor me and what I would say to my father about her sneaking around on him.

I wasn't an idiot, of course I wouldn't reveal this to him at my game. Where hundreds of people from my school could hear, and wouldn't mind gossiping about it the following week.

So why did I want my dad here so badly and wanted him gone at the same time? I came to two conclusions. One was because it was the game that determines if we made it to play offs and I most definitely wanted as much support as I could get. And two, I kinda hoped that my victory tonight would soften the blow that was about to hit him.

Now that I thought it over, that logic did sound ridiculous. How would winning a basketball game take away from the fact that his wife had cheated, and gotten pregnant?

I sprinted off the court, getting ready to do what everyone else did. Well kind of. Instead of greeting my family and receiving congratulations, I would be greeting them with devastating news.

Just as I was about to head towards my parents, I saw her racing towards me. Yes, now I was talking about that her. Rider. And she too had kept her promise. Wearing my jersey that she had also went a extra mile on and added a old picture of us on the front. I had a cheeky smile on my face while she kissed my cheek. If anybody who didn't know us saw it, they'd think we were a couple. But at the time we were only best friends. Me having more feelings for her that I was to afraid to share at the time, and her not even thinking of me that way because of her relationship with Cameron.

Rider didn't waste anytime engulfing me in a bone crushing hug, and making a squealing sound that implied she was happy at our teams success.
"You were sooo good. Congratulations." She gushed.
"Thanks." I replied, not bothering to fight the smile that started to appear.
"So, how should we celebrate." I took it that she forgot our conversation in the cafeteria the other day, so I motioned my head slightly in their direction. They stood patiently, waiting for me to come over.

"Ohhhh, right." Was all she said. Rider was almost never speechless. She always had a comeback, was always ready to speak her mind to whoever wronged her, and always knew just what to say to make a tough situation better.
"That bad huh?" I queried, one eyebrow raised. She ignored my question.
"Would you like me to go with you or.."
"No no, this is something I have to do alone," she looked at me pitifully
"If all goes well, I'll call you and we can hang tonight. Sound good?" At that her eyes were suddenly gleeful.
"Sounds great." I gave her another hug, not wanting to let her go anytime soon before I turned to leave.

"Oh and Aiden?" She called, forcing me to turn back around.
"Yea?" Ears perked.
"Good luck.." she said reassuringly before meeting up with Cyn on the other side of the gym.
I was going to need more than luck.

"Sweetheart you were amazing out there!" My mother enthused. I gave her a look but not to the point where my dad could notice the tension. She was just trying to butter me up. A final attempt to get me to change my mind.
"Yea son, I just knew you wouldn't disappoint. Scouts are going to be all over you." Scouts? What was he talking about? I was sure he wanted me to go into marketing so I could help him at his firm.

When I looked at my mom for confirmation, she just shrugged her shoulders with a smug attitude.
"Your mother told me how passionate you were about basketball. Said you didn't want to work at the firm." Although that was his dream for me, I could tell he cared about what I wanted more. I gave my mom another glance. What game was she playing here.
"I didn't say I didn't want to, I said I wasn't sure about what I wanted."
"It doesn't matter. Whatever you want, we'll support one hundred percent." My mother stated firmly.

Was this supposed to keep me from telling my father on her? Because if it was, it was working. If she cared this much about him finding out, then maybe she really did want to fix this. Maybe she did deserve a second chance.

'Come on Aiden! Don't be stupid.'
My brain induced subconscious intervened.
'But she's still your mother, and you know she loves you...even though she has a funny way of showing it."
My heart induced subconscious interrupted.
'She's obviously trying to save her ass.' Brain: 2 points.
'Let's say you don't tell, and she just continues this charade.' My brain was winning. Was that a good or bad thing?

"Come on, let's go home. I'm gonna whip up something extra special." My mother had entered round two of this game we were playing. Pulling out all the last minute stops because she knew her time was almost up.

This was gonna be a long night.