Misc RH OC Scraps

[TANYA + AIDEN] Please, Sis

Tanya, can we talk?

Tanya stared at the text on her flip phone screen. It was from Aiden, and she didn't want to talk to him-- not after what he'd done to Penny.

Penny and Aiden had only recently broken up, and Penny was acting very strange because of it, she just wasn't her usual soft self. Tanya couldn't forgive Aiden for stringing her along all year, only getting with her when he was on a break from Dorian, and then immediately running back to Dorian when the chance presented itself. He had treated Penny like a pair of crusty sweats that you would only wear on laundry day.

Did you apologize to Penny yet? She texted back.

Yeah but she didn't accept it

Tanya considered this. If he'd already apologized, then he knew he'd done something wrong. Or possibly he hadn't meant it, or he apologized for the wrong thing. Would talking to him make Penny mad at her? It couldn't. He was her cousin. But she WAS pretty upset.

Aiden texted her again. Please, sis

Only Aiden referred to her as a sister. Even if she still called him her cousin. She'd never had siblings before and it was awkward to refer to her cousins as such. But she did love them, very much, and she felt a twinge of emotion when she looked at the title on her screen.

She would probably regret this.

Alright. Come here.

Tanya put her phone down and begrudgingly ventured out of her room. She let her roommates know that Aiden was coming over, and they would be talking about serious family matters, so she would expect them to be considerate of that. One of them immediately left to go to the library, and the other put her earbuds in and went to her room. She was grateful for them.

When Aiden arrived, he looked awful, like he'd been crying. Tanya was a little surprised. She hadn't really thought that Aiden was taking things... to heart. She let Aiden into her room, and he flopped, face down, on her bed. He didn't say anything immediately. Tanya awkwardly sat down next to him and patted his back.

"...I really didn't mean to use Penny, or anything like that," Aiden finally spoke, his voice muffled as his face was buried in Tanya's homemade quilt, "I liked her... I did."

"But you liked Dorian more," Tanya tried and failed not to sound too bitter.

Aiden turned his head a bit, so one of his eyes was visible. "I tried not to."

"You shouldn't have gotten with Penny until you knew you were over him! That was so not fair to her."

"I know that now. I was just really hurt, he had lied to me, and she was sweet and available and--" the words tumbled out of him, and then he took a deep breath. "How did you get over Kelly?"

The question caught her off guard. "Why would you need to know that!? You have Dorian again, what's to get over."

"No I don't," he hid his whole face again, "Dorian was really hurt. I don't blame him for not wanting to see me."

"Oh." Tanya gulped. "I had assumed that he, um, took you back. And that's why you left Penny."

"I left Penny because it was the right thing to do, since I have feelings for someone else. And now," he sighed, "I have to get over two people. So. How did you get over Kelly?"

Tanya got up from the bed and began to pace around the room nervously. She hadn't really talked about this to anyone before. Who would she have told? Obviously not Kelly, or her current girlfriend Vanessa-- it was so in the past that it was pointless to talk to anyone about it now, anyway. And at the time she'd had no close friends. But now her baby cousin needed the information. She looked at him collapsed on her bed and felt a pang of sympathy.

"Well, I couldn't really avoid her, since we're roommates. I just... acted like a normal acquaintance to her. I never sought her out myself. I baked a lot. It took my mind off of things. It's going to hurt for a while, that's unavoidable, but you can think about other things, and let yourself get used to not being with them. After a few months, I remember, Kelly got mad at me for making a mess in the kitchen, and I got mad at her because I hadn't had time to clean yet-- and then things were back to normal."

Aiden sat up, leaning against the wall and hugging one of Tanya's pillows. "So basically, ignore it."

"You've done all you can, haven't you."

"Yeah. I already told both of them that I'm sorry. Explained everything." Aiden traced the lines on the patchwork quilt, his eyes watering. "If I permanently hurt either of them... If Dorian's not willing to see me ever again... I don't know how I could live with myself. I seriously f--ed up."

"Hey, don't talk like that!" Tanya rushed back to the bed and hugged Aiden. "Yeah, you did f... f... mess up, but you can't go back to the past and change that." She paused, then continued. "I used to treat Bebe really terribly, and I regret that a lot. But I can't change it. And I wouldn't blame Bebe if they cut me off. All we screwups can do is be better in the future." She released her cousin from the hug, but kept hold of his shoulders, looking him in the eye. "You will be better."

Aiden tensed up and nodded.

"Good." Tanya got up, and she motioned for Aiden to get up too. "You CLEARLY need some lemon bars. We can bake them together."

"But Tanya, you know how bad I am at--"

"I'm sorry, did I ASK if you WANTED to?"

Aiden shut up and followed her out to the kitchenette. 

Tanya saw him smile out of the corner of her eye. Geez. How would she explain this to Penny? Her dramatic brother was such a hassle.