Caught

Chapter Twenty-Seven

He's acting like it never happened.

I didn't pick up before but now I noticed: Aidan was acting like the kiss between me and Tyson never happened. Things were so tense before, the escape - even mostly through. He barely spoke to me, unless he was telling me to move my butt. Otherwise, things were quiet between us.

And here we were, walking with his arm around my shoulders. A smile on both of our faces, with no known awkwardness between us. It's either he's acting like it never happened or he just moved on.

Aidan thought it would be better if we had somewhere to sit while we talked, preferably inside before the cold does - if it can, catch up on us. He led me to a nearby cafe, somewhere that he says was one of my favourite places to go when we were younger.

The small coffee shop on the corner of the street near the high school - at least, I think that was what Spencer said was where the high school was - was pretty crowded. Teenagers mostly, were hanging out with friends on this cold winter day.

We were able to find an empty booth at the very back of the store, away from all the chaos. Aidan ordered two hot chocolates before he told me to speak.

"I feel stupid," I say at first. "I mean, I'm claiming that something will happen based on a dream. I sound stupid."

Aidan tapped his fingers on the table. "You don't sound stupid. When did you have the dream?"

"Why are you so curious?" I asked him, a bit harshly.

He drew in a deep breath. "I'm testing a hypothesis. Based on something-" He said the rest in a quiet voice, expecting me not to hear. "My mom said."

"You still trust her?" I asked. He never actually said that he straight up hated his mother.

Aidan shrugged. "I mean, yeah I guess. I get where your hate towards your mother comes from, with everything she's done and all those secrets hidden from you. But my mom actually told me everything, right at the start. I can't hate her for loving me, you know."

I remembered walking into his and his mom's quarters at the Institute, being able to feel the warmth and the love from the room. The pictures on the walls and the Christmas decorations, too: she tried to make it feel like home. And she's telling him secrets from the Institute, there's probably a lot of trust in their relationship.

I took in a deep breath. "It was... it was actually while we were unconscious from chase, before Princess Taylor's voice woke us up. I didn't really remember it when I woke up, but then pictures started popping into my head, and somehow I knew it was from the dream."

"Did anything trigger them to come back?" Aidan asked as our drinks arrived. He offered to pay for both, being the gentleman he was.

"Well, Mr. Therapist." I took a sip of my drink, whipped cream covering my nose. "Most of them came when you mentioned the ball. Then everything came flashing back."

The sound of someone clearing their throat a little too loudly made both of us turn around and see who it came from. Next thing we knew, three girls were approaching us.

"Lauren? Aidan? What are you two doing here?" The first girl asked. She looked like the definition of a mean girl - long, light blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, big, blue eyes and clothes that were way too short for winter. She was chewing on gum, blowing a huge bubble in front of us.

Way to go for the cliches, girl.

"Umm... hey Beth, Jade, Amber," Aidan greeted, looking a bit nervous. "Nice to see you again."

I met his eyes, confused as heck on what was going on and who these real-life cliche book characters came from. The most reasonable choice was that they were former classmates.