'Best Friends'

ｂｏｎｕｓ ａｉｄｅｎ ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ

ｂｏｎｕｓ ａｉｄｅｎ ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ
(𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝟥𝟨 & 𝟥𝟩)

Waking up on Christmas morning was a whole disaster. He had multiple things to worry about—he had told his older brother about his stupid crush on his best friend, his relatives would be over in several hours time, and he didn't know where his relationship stood with Cadence. Aiden wanted to roll back into the dream he was having about Toad and Dry Bones, but he had to face the day at some point. So, he rolled out of bed around nine and ate breakfast alone.

At the kitchen table, he stared at his phone that was dark and sitting beside his bowl of cereal. It had bugged him that Cadence hadn't texted him at all since their friendship-ending kiss some time back. It was weird to not wake up to memes and Instagram posts sent to him from the kind boy, but here Aiden was sulking about his notifications being empty. Even so, he curled his lip at the device and pushed it away, turning it over so the screen was against the tabletop instead of mocking him.

Footsteps descending the stairs caught his attention and he was met with a sleepy Max who was rubbing his eyes. He'd grabbed a bowl from the table—Aiden had pulled out enough for all the Balm brothers to use in the morning—and made himself a bowl of cereal the same as Aiden's. The older brother wanted to complain about him copying him, but he chose not to bug his brother so far.

Their breakfast was quiet for the most part, Max turned on the tv to watch cartoons and Aiden joined him even if he complained about the shows. They were terrible and the teen didn't know how his brother could stare at the tv for so long, ingesting whatever was on. But, the longer the shows were on, the more invested Aiden got.

A couple hours later their grandmother broke them from their spell, ruffling their hair, and Aiden ducked away. He hated people touching him and there were no exceptions now. Cadence had been that one, but seeing as how he reacted before to Aiden initiating some type of contact, Aiden went back to his ways from before.

"Good morning you two. Some cousins will be over for lunch, but you don't have to eat with us if you don't want to," Marlene informed the two. The latter part was probably for Aiden, but he didn't try to figure it out.

He put his bowl in the sink to be washed and walked to the basement for some alone time. He didn't want to be around his brothers and what better place than the basement where it was silent and no one really went? Aiden dropped onto the couch, eyeing the jacket that was left behind from one of his brothers or cousins, and pulled out his phone. He remembered the troubled duo's words to just say merry Christmas to Cadence to see if that would get him to talk, yet Aiden didn't want to seem desperate; he'd already texted before and was left on read. It's been a couple days since then and Aiden's ego was still bruised.

So, the teen distracted himself by watching a Christmas movie from the recording on the tv in the basement, curling up on the couch and possibly dozing off towards the end.

.
..
...

Aiden woke up when his grandmother was calling for him to help with the food. He enjoyed cooking or baking since it calmed him and his overthinking brain, and could really use it. He took a cautionary glance towards his phone and saw a text at the top of the notifications that was sent hours ago, but minutes from the 'merry Christmas' text he'd sent before dozing off again, an emoji at the end of the name. And despite Aiden not wanting his body to have a reaction, his lips pulled into a small smile and his heart pounded in his chest.

Cadence 🥸                   11:42am
Merry Christmas

He joined Marlene in the kitchen, quickly washing his hands before touching any food. He heard the voice of Jasper behind him and wanted to groan. The older guy annoyed him to his bones and never seemed to realize that Aiden didn't want to be around him or his brother, who was attached to Jasper's hip like a conjoined twin.