Fighting For Life (published)

Emotionally drained- Aiden's POV

Aiden's POV-

When the plane started its decent, I felt like throwing up. I honestly thought that the two hour flight would have been enough to calm me down. Instead, my hands stayed damp the whole time, the giant lump in my throat only got bigger, and my nausea increased as we got closer to the ground.

It was a bit of an extreme reaction. After all, we were just going to be there from very early morning Wednesday to Thursday evening because my mom had to be back at work on that Friday. It wasn't like we were spending all break with them or anything. Still... I was not ready to face them. The last time I had seen them, my grandma was broken down crying about her only child's death. Her cries still sometimes echoed through my nightmares.

I hadn't seen them it what seemed like forever. It had only been a year and a half or so, but it still seemed like so long. Especially considering everything that had happened after my dad's death. It had been the catalyst of all the fucked up stuff that had began.

I had hoped that Grams and Gramps were the same as they always had been. I wasn't sure if that was possible though, they had lost their only child. Parents weren't supposed to bury their babies. They weren't supposed to outlive their kids.

Before my dad passed, we hadn't ever missed a Thanksgiving with them. However, the year before was hard. No one wanted to celebrate. We all needed time to grieve, and we all just needed a break. We had all taken my dad's unexpected death quite hard. We needed a beat to get used to the fact that everything was going to be different... I didn't think that it was ever something that we could get used to.

I had missed them so much. My grandma's homey-ness. My grandpa's storytelling and bad jokes. I was nervous though, What if they couldn't even look at me? The resemblance between my father and I was uncanny. In fact, most of the time my own mother couldn't bear to look at me. How did I expect my sweet grandma to look at me? The ghost of her deceased only child. I couldn't get the thought of her broken sobs from the funeral out of my mind.

I knew that it was going to be a disastrous holiday.

For some reason, right then, Aubry popped into my mind. It had barely been four hours since I had seen her. I couldn't shake the thoughts of her though... I couldn't stop thinking about the way her eyes had darkened when Owen had slammed her. Those had been the same eyes that had been so bright when I brought her unfinished food to her that she had to leave behind. It was comical how happy that the small gesture made her. It was the first genuine smile that I had ever seen from her. It was one of the most beautiful things that I had ever seen.

I immediately admonished myself for thinking like that... However, it was true. I didn't even mean 'beautiful' in the traditional sense that would normally have been said about a woman. I meant it more in a sense of the beauty that a wonderous sight in the world would be described as. Her very rare smile was like a rare sight that one would marvel at.

Soon enough, we were out of the plane and on our way to meet my grandparents who were picking us up. It was sweet, they insisted on picking us up even though it was one in the morning. They wouldn't even entertain the idea of us taking a cab to their house like my mom had tried to insist on.

As soon as we got down the escalators, my grandparents were there waiting on us. They were so cute  with their hands interlocked and a giant sign that read "our wonderful grandchildren and daughter" in glitter pens. I smiled slightly and relaxed a little at their bright smiles towards us. I just hoped that it was going to be a good short little visit.

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Hope had proven once again to be pointless. I wanted to say that I was surprised about how awkward and emotional seeing my grandparents after so long was, but I already knew that it was going to be a train wreck. I had just somehow deluded myself into thinking otherwise.