He's Back

31 - Heart Eyes

*Check the A/N in the end boi*

The talk I had with Ivory definitely helped me a lot, as it helped me make up my mind as to where I stood with the whole Aiden situation. Walking to school, I kept my chin high, confidence coursing through me. I was not a little girl Aiden could just manipulate into thinking what he wanted me to think. I could make up my own decisions, and I was going to show him that. 

First period started, and this one I shared with... no one? I scanned the room, looking for any of the guys but none of them were there. Aren't Noah and Parker supposed to be here?

Class was boring as usual, but I found myself being able to concentrate more on what I was hearing. This time I was sure of myself and sure of where Aiden stood, so I didn't have to try and guess what he wanted and what he didn't. 

It was finally lunchtime and I was as excited as ever to finally get some food In my system. Needless to say- I was hungry. But for once, food wasn't the only thing I was excited about. It was my time to mess with Aiden.  He's been tormenting me since he came back, it was finally my turn. At the same time, though, I was nervous to see my friends after so long of not speaking to them. 

I reached the cafeteria and looked around, it wasn't long before Ivory found me and waved at me like crazy. "Over here girl!" she said and I smiled, moving towards her, making Aiden's head snap my way, his eyes lingering on me. She enveloped in me a tight hug, and I giggled, before greeting her, "Hey you". 

Ivory released me from her death grip, Jagger being the first to greet me next, beating Bailey to the punch and messing up my hair "Where have you been!" he laughed and hugged me as well, a hug I very much had missed. "Missed your ass, dude" he said in my hair and I nodded "Missed you too J". Bailey came next, then Noah and Maya. Aiden looked at me expectantly, and in his eyes I could see that he was waiting for me to make a move to go hug him, but I simply waved and turned my attention back to my friends. 

"I believe we have a lot to talk about" I started and they all nodded, taking a seat. Maya seemed a bit confused as she was the one less informed about the whole situation, but she stayed quiet, letting us get to it as she knew how much it had affected the group. No one spoke, they were all hanging from my lips, waiting for my next word and if I'm being honest it felt good.  I was the last person whose words they took into consideration and for the first time, I had control. 

"I want us to be okay and I want to have you guys as my friends but I can't do that if all you do is lie." I barely got a sentence in before all of their mouths opened to protest, but I cut them off, already knowing what they wanted to say. "I know, you did it for my safety and all you wanted was to protect me, I've heard that more times than I can count. Thing is, as much as I appreciate your efforts to protect me, I find it extremely unfair that whatever is going on it, my name is involved but I have no say in it, nor am I allowed to know more about it. Whenever I speak to you guys there are things you know about, that I don't and it's a collective thing, so I feel really, and I mean really fucking stupid" 

They all nodded and I felt like we were having some sort of team meeting after an unsuccessful game and I was the coach letting everyone know what they did wrong. Aiden had his arms crossed over his chest, listening to me intensively while Jagger was looking down at his arms. 

No one took the lead to speak so I took that as my queue to continue. "I understand things took a turn and things aren't going very smoothly so you all tried to do what felt like the best to do, but in the process of it all I felt completely useless, It was like I was some damsel in distress that's so stupid that can't handle the truth and needs people to get things done for her. So either you come clean now and tell me what's happening or I think we're done here." I explained.