Aiden ✔️ NOW PUBLISHED!

29

♥️

The weekend passes uneventfully; with the exception of visiting my father today.

I put on a light blue dress I had stuffed in the back of my closet and head out the door. It takes about a ten-minute drive and I the entire way I'm so nervous to talk to him, I already know I'm going to tell him everything. He always listens.

I stop by my mom's shop on the way and grab a dozen yellow roses. When I arrive, I gently place them on the grass at the bottom of his tombstone. I shed a million tears while I hug the cool marble slab that now tells me where my father lays.

I wanted to admire the yellow roses while I talked to him. Every Friday when he got off of work he would go to my mom's store and buy a dozen roses from her. She would always check him out and blush when she asked, "For someone special?" And he would always respond with "Only the most beautiful girl in the world." He had them set in a vase when she got home every Friday without fail. He would always take out one solitary rose for me and place it in a small vase. They did this for twenty years.

While I play with my solitary rose, gently plucking the yellow petals off in a childish game of 'He loves me/He loves me not' I tell him everything about Aiden and Ashley and what had happened to us. I pray for him to show me a sign of what I should do, I know he wouldn't want this life for me. He was the lead detective in his department so the fact that Aiden is tied up with criminals would be a problem, but I don't think he would hate Aiden. He would hate what he got himself into, but my dad was an understanding man. He would get that Aiden was just trying his best to build a life for himself with the shitty hands he was dealt.

I've never told anyone that didn't already know what happened to my father, Ashley doesn't even know what happened to him. I think she can guess, but I can't bring myself to talk about him. I know I should, but it breaks me into pieces every time.

Before I leave, I place my hand on his tombstone. "I love you, Dad. So much." I say, before walking through the cemetery and back to my car.

**********

It's around three when I get back home, I pull into the driveway and park. I decide it would be a good idea to check the mail for my mom. It wasn't a good idea.

As soon as I close the lid on the mailbox a familiar voice shouts my name. My eyes roll dramatically into the back of my head as Caleb makes his way over to me.

"Em! I didn't know you were home." He smiles while pulling his blonde hair out of his face. I stare at him for a moment, our families grew up together as we had so I don't want to be rude. I still need to be cordial even though I want to punch him in the face.

I fake a smile. "Hey." I manage not to contort my face with the simple greeting. Go Emma.

I'm not jaded about what he did, it was how he did it. On my birthday, he told me he was too busy with work at the tackle shop to hang out so you can imagine my surprise when I caught the rudest girl In school straddling him in the truck with her tongue down his throat a few hours later at a bonfire.

It is what it is now, it was years ago, and I harbor no feelings towards him, good or bad. I just can't stand a cheater.

As I turn on my heel to walk away, he steps in front of me, blocking my path to freedom. This time, I visibly rolled my eyes.

"What's up, Caleb?" I asks in a disinterested voice.

"Just curious what you're doing back. I thought you had a place at college now." He smiles and I want to tell him how stupid he looks but I bit my lip instead. It's summer you idiot, is what I want to say.