How You Get The Girl | An Aruden AU

Eight | The Lucky One

"It was a few years later I showed up here, and they still tell the legend of how you disappeared..."

Aru and Aiden were sitting in a restaurant. Not on a date. Well, they were if you asked anyone. In reality, they were planning out what they were going to do every day Aiden's grandma was in Seattle. They needed an excuse for each day, and they had to actually do them, considering she was going to be going around the city.

"Why does your family even want you to visit her so badly?" asked Aru, sipping on her lemonade.

Aiden's response came out in a question. "She kind of disowned my mom?"

Okay, Aru was not expecting that. "Oh."

"I think that she wants me to actually have a relationship with her instead of having her being a stranger I'm related to." Aiden was twisting the lens on and off of Shadowfax. Aru noticed he did that whenever he mentioned his family, like there was more than he was letting on. But it wasn't her place to know. She knew him for two weeks.

"Wait, if she disowned your mom, how did she find out she's coming to Seattle?"

"She kind of stalked her website," he responded. Aru opened her mouth, and Aiden quickly added, "Please don't ask why my grandma has a website."

Aru closed her mouth.

Just then, the waiter came with food. They had gotten pizza, because it was the only thing that wasn't a variation of a hamburger the two of them could agree on. Aru quickly grabbed a slice, but it was too hot and she dropped it on her plate.

"Shit! That's hot," she said, looking up at Aiden. "The pizza. Not you. You're not hot. I mean, I'm sure you are to some people, but not to me. We're only doing this because of your grandmother. Um, what are our excuses for when she's here by the way?" Aru took another sip of lemonade, hoping it would cool her burning face.

"Ok..." Aiden responded, taking his own slice of pizza. He, unfortunately, did not drop it and made an embarrassing remark. "I can probably tell her that I have homework a few times, but other than that we need actual plans."

"I also need time to work on my project with Poppy. We can go to that cafe a few times. The one where we first met."

"I can also say I'm hanging out with Brynne and Rudy." Aiden thought out loud.

That sparked a question in Aru's head. "Wait, why doesn't your grandma want to talk to Rudy? You guys are cousins, right?"

Aiden sighed the signature my-Desi-family-is-so-big-I-don't-even-know-half-the-
people-I'm-related-to sigh. "Technically, we're second cousins. His mom is my mom's cousin on my grandpa's side. I think..." he paused, "Basically, he's not her grandson, so she doesn't care."

Aru figured saying damn wouldn't help his situation.

"Poppy also is hosting a party in, like, two weeks," she offered instead. "We can go to that. Would your grandmother be okay with you blowing her off for a college party?"

"Probably not, but I can tell my mom I'm getting the full college experience." Aiden took a sip of his water.

They finished the entire pizza pie and planned out their fake dates for every night that Aiden's grandmother was going to be in town, and eventually the waiter came back.

"Check, please," Aiden told the waiter, opening his wallet and pulling out his debit card, but something else fell out.

It was a picture of Aiden with a woman who looked a lot like him. His mom. The thing was, Aru recognized her too.

"Is that Malini?" the waiter asked, excitement lighting up their eyes. "The singer from the 90s that went missing? How do you know her?"

Aiden quickly snatched up the photo and stuffed it back into his wallet. "That's my mom."

The waiter's eyes widened, but they left and later came back, telling them they were good to go.

"Tell your mom I'm a really big fan!" the waiter told Aiden, handing him back his debit card. Aru was too stunned to say anything. He nodded with a tight smile and they left the restaurant. Both of them were silent.

"Is that why your grandma has a website?" Aru eventually asked.

Aiden nodded. "She used to help my mom manage everything. Mom was one of the era defining singers in the 1990s. After she left, my grandmother made that to get signed records and things like that."

"If you're okay with me asking, why did she leave?"

He sighed. "She met my dad. Mom didn't want to drag him into all the fame, so she left and moved to New York. Not the city, a random suburban town. Nobody heard from her since. She's like Taylor Swift. But without a Reputation era."

"You listen to Taylor Swift? Can you help me understand what the folklore love triangle is? Poppy keeps mentioning it and I pretend I understand her but I really don't—sorry. Not the time."

Something else clicked in Aru's head. "Is that why your grandma disowned her?"

"Kind of? My grandma said that if she went off with my dad, then they couldn't talk to them anymore. She was kind of a famous singer too, not as big, but big enough she would still be seen. So she left. She gave up everything."

This time Aru really did say damn.
Aiden nodded, and Aru noticed there were tears in his eyes. She suspected there was more to the story, but she had already pried enough.

"Do you want a hug?" she asked.

He shook his head, so Aru silently walked next to him, giving him company as they traveled back to campus.

"How you took your money and your dignity and got the hell out..."