Begin Again

14 | Breaking Habits

"Change like healing will take time." - Unknown

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"Phenomenal job." I tell Aiden in a dry tone, who's examining his finished product across from me.

We were wrapping our Christmas presents or at least trying to. I was great at many things, but wrapping was not one of them. I still looked forward to it every year, even though I was lacking a little holiday spirit this time around.

Aiden was the first to arrive, because he had to leave early for practice. Hazel and Shai were on their way over and would probably arrive any minute now.

"At least I did better than you." He curtly responds with narrowed eyes and I look down at my own masterpiece.

"And I embrace the fact that I'm a terrible wrapper." I said and he cracks a smile.

"That you do. If you think about it, bad wrapping is kind of your signature. Whoever opens it, will know that's from you." He claims and I whack him with one of my pillows.

"Shut up." I said.

He catches it before it hits him and lowers it to his lap to show his smiling face. I get back to work and reach for a gift tag sticker, selecting a cute one with a Christmas tree on it. After labeling the sticker, I push the gift to the side and decide to take a break.

"You're coming to my match Friday, aren't you?" Aiden asks, sneaking a curious glance at me.

"Of course I'm coming to your game. Wouldn't miss it for the world." I promised, bringing my knees up to my chest as I look at him. "Ben's playing right after."

"Yeah, he told me." Aiden mumbles, breaking off another piece of tape to play with.

My phone lights up with an Instagram notification and my stomach sinks when I read that it's a friend request from Roy. I'm suddenly reminded of a situation I hadn't thought of. Roy and Aiden would both be at the match Friday. Aiden had no knowledge of my current relationship with Roy, and I wasn't sure how he'd react when he found out.

"Ava? You there?" Aiden asks.

"Yeah, I'm still here." I said, glancing at him.

"You didn't answer my question." He said, standing to his feet to sit beside me.

"What'd you ask?" I look to the tv screen, when my phone screen goes black.

"It doesn't matter. What's up with you? You seem distracted." He points out, nudging my shoulder.

"Nothing. It's just been one of those days." I said, which was kind of true.

I pull my phone closer to me in case Aiden tried to sneak a glance, and look at Roy's friend request sitting in my notifications. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't occasionally checked Roy's Instagram profile. It had always been private and now I had a chance to see what his life had been like over the past years. All I had to do was accept his request, but that also meant he could look at my posts from the previous years. Posts that I might be embarrassed of. Like the one of me trying on a hotdog costume at Target.

"What are you looking at?" Aiden asks, causing me to look at him.

"No-nothing. I got one of those weird spam calls." I lie, deciding to push my decision to later.