Sidney Berry had her life planned out: after high school go to culinary school, become a world-renowned chef and marry her childhood sweetheart, Aiden. But after a tragic incident that shakes her world at the end of her senior year, her plans derail...
"Wakie wakie. Sid... Sid? Get up." Sid felt something soft pelt her face and she grimaced. Her brain was mist floating around in her skull. She sat up. The empty Nutella jar rolled down from her chest and landed on the floor with a barely audible thump. Her phone hit the floor not long after.
She remembered talking on the phone with Phil last. They meandered through the most insane subjects. Flowing from one random thing to another. Talks of their neighborhood and family-led easily to conversations about Nascar and Brexit. Sid tried to remember if her phone died and she fell asleep after or if she drifted off to the sounds of Phil's voice long before the battery lost power. The thought brought a smile to her face. Even in these circumstances she still felt giddy about staying up all night talking to a boy. It calmed her that some of those simple and beautiful things could happen even in the middle of pure chaos.
"I'm up. How can I help you, Tomi?" Sid threw out an attitude even though she wasn't really in a bad mood. She didn't want to offend Tomi by somehow being happy in the middle of a shit storm that she had to help her out of. It would have been a bit much.
"AJ's father is on his way up."
"What? How did he know I was here? And he doesn't usually drop AJ off until right before dinner."
"I told him. He called me saying he's been trying to reach you all day. And...it's right before dinner."
"No fucking way!" Sid popped up from the couch and felt her ankle twinge in protest. She was certain she never let that thing properly heal. She rushed to the bathroom to try and pull herself together. Aiden was the least of her concern. Her mind was on Phil. He was stuck in the same clothes he had been in since yesterday and was probably blowing her phone up wondering where she was. Fuck. Her stomach lurched and she brushed her teeth quickly, while willing her phone to come to life. She heard the front door open and the sound of giggles immediately. Tomi and AJ were regular fools around each other. She pressed random buttons on her phone but it was still dead.
"Shit." Sid squeezed some moisturizer in her hand and raked her fingers through her kinky mane before leaving the bathroom. AJ and Tomi were on the floor in the living room. Tomi laying stiff as a board on the floor as AJ used her body as a ramp to jump a miniature race car over. It looked new. Another toy that he didn't need but Aiden insisted on buying. AJ spotted her and a moment later barreled into her.
"Hey, baby love."
"Daddy got car." He told her. It blew her mind that his sentences were forming and getting longer and longer right before her eyes. Was time really passing this quickly? She lost track of most days but AJ reminded her that time was steadily moving. Time she could never get back.
"I see it! It has lights?" Sid pushed a button and lights along with revving engine sounds filled the apartment.
"Yes!" AJ giggled and pushed the button over and over. Aiden hovered in the corner and Sid knew that she ignored him for about as long as she could without it getting awkward.
"Hi."
"Hey."
Okay. It was still awkward. Tomi sensed the awkwardness.
"AJ, I have new paints. Want to see?"
As AJ's small steps trailed Tomi into the room Aiden circled to the couch where Sid had talked to Phil all night. That was something that they used to do.
"So, you're crashing with Tomi now?" Aiden launched right into the meat of things. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He was stressed and Sid didn't know what could possibly be stressing someone who probably hadn't checked his bank account this year. Someone who had never been in a jail cell. Never been shot at.
"Just temporarily. I'm looking for a new place for me and AJ. Since things are a bit more settled now."
"Are they really?" He had a bite to his voice.
"Yeah." Sid crossed over to the kitchen. It was the furthest point from him but she could still keep her eyes on his stoic body. She could tell he wanted to say something and it was so heavy that it was crushing him. Her defenses shot up. She put down the bread she was fiddling with and turned toward him.
"Say what you have to say Aiden." She crossed her arms over her chest. He shook his head like he hoped somehow he wouldn't get this version of her today. Like he wouldn't get the hard defensive Sid that had materialized over the years. Perhaps the Sid from the night before her father died would come back.
Well, he was shit out of luck. She watched his shoulders drop and his face harden.
"On the weeks that AJ is with you I hoped that you were really spending time with him but Whit said he was over there with her and your Mom three times last week. And Roma told me you got some dude staying at the hotel late last night."
Of course, Whitney ran her damn mouth. Sid fumed as she specifically remembered telling Whitney to stop playing besties with Aiden for precisely this reason right here. He only had a right to know what Sidney saw fit to tell him about her life.
"I missed how any of this is your damn business."
"It involves our son, Sid. I have a right to question these things. You just got this job and you're already using it for favors?"
"Tomi told me it was...you know what? It's actually none of your business Aiden."
"I just want some stability for AJ. It's bad enough he has to be shuffled back and forth between us."
"And who's fault is it that he has to be shuffled back and forth?" If there was an elephant in the room, he would be dead center between Sid and AJ. Their tension and disappointment swirling all around him. But just that quick, as the words left Sid's mouth that elephant dissipated into nothing. Sidney turned back toward the counter and reopened the bread bag that she just closed. Her nerves were creeping up her back and settling on shoulders. She caught sight of herself in the reflection of Tomi's stainless steel microwave. The hard-line etched in her forehead. Her permanently raised brow. Hard set lips always ready for trauma to rear its ugly head. She tried to look deep and conjure an image of her at seventeen. Carefree, loved, with the whole world in front of her. A light emanating from her that she'd never appreciated before. She looked dimmed now. She turned from her reflection and forced herself back into the living room. Back to being face to face with Aiden.
"It's not my fault Sid. I don't care how much you believe that. It's not my fucking fault." Aiden used curse words like water in the desert. He rationed it out for when he really needed it. If he felt like he really needed them now then they were on the verge of terminal dehydration.
"I think I should take AJ. Full time. Until you figure out...you." Aiden stood and made his way to the door. Sid spun around ready to throw whatever words she needed to at him to stop him from doing this. But the words she needed to say, whatever they were, got stuck in her heart and wouldn't come out. Aiden stared at her with those big doe eyes and she saw him flinch. Like he knew he was on the verge of destroying her again and it pulled him back.
"I'll stop by tomorrow. We can talk about it more then." He offered her that much but she couldn't respond. The thought of losing AJ pushing in on her from all sides. The front door was closing a minute later and she was in that living room alone. Surrounded by all that furniture that her best friend put together while she desperately tried to keep herself from falling apart.
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I'm feeling snazzy so I'll post ANOTHER new part tomorrow. **Listens for applause**. Whyyyyy THANK you sweet people of wattpad! lol. See you tomorrow!
