Every Breath You Take

48

If these past months between Kaden and I had never happened, if I still looked at him as a foe and not a friend, none of the emotions I could be feeling right now would ever bubble up in my chest and sink into my stomach as his car drove away.

The mere idea of never knowing Kaden as I did now gave me enough anxiety to consider picking up my phone and calling him just so I could make sure that these past few months had really occurred and I hadn't just imagined it all in some silly Alice and Wonderland dream of mine. I wanted to call him just to hear his voice.

But I didn't pick up my phone to call him. Nor did I wake up from any dream either.

Instead, my brother and I kept waving at Kaden's car until it disappeared in the distance, vanishing into the horizon. It was quiet for a while as the two of us stared down the road, down the same way Kaden had disappeared on before my brother sighed aloud.

Rolling out his shoulders, he sighed again in a very dramatic way that spiked a sibling sort of irritation in me. I glared, "Spit it out."

My brother smirked at his little victory, humming to himself, "Oh nothing..."

"Shut up and speak, dork."

"Fine." He pouted at my words, "That was the lamest goodbye I have ever seen."

"What do you mean?" My brows furrowed.

"God... Woman! How many romance movies have you made me watch with you?!"

"Um... a lot?"

Aiden snapped his fingers, pointing a finger at me as if I had guessed the winning answer for Trivia, "Exactly! And what, my dear, naïve, slightly dumb, baby-sister is one of the most important factors of any rom-com movie?"

Scowling, I shoved an elbow into his side, "I'm not dumb, Aiden..."

"That's not the point. Back to the point! Answer the question!"

"Oh god, okay, let me think for a second..." Pinching the bridge of my nose with my thumb and pointer finger, I closed my eyes for a second as I mulled over the various aspects of Sixteen Candles and 50 First Dates, "The initial meeting?"

"No, God, Woman! Do you pay attention to anything?" My brother rolled his eyes and pointed his finger—a finger I was very much so considering twisting into a painful grip—at the horizon. "The flipping goodbye, Em! The goodbye! When the main love interest is leaving and the main character doesn't know how long he'll be gone for, you're supposed to swoop him into a passionate embrace." My brother scooped up an invisible figure, dipping them back as he puckered his lips, "And then give them a smooch. Come on, get with the cliché, Emily!"

I burst out laughing, "I don't think that's how it works."

"Yes, it is."

"I thought the boy scoops up the girl and gives her a passionate kiss? It's spicier."

"No, woman, the girl can too! I've seen a chick throw her man over her shoulder and run like hell down a street. That can be pretty spicy too if you're into that."

I burst out laughing, the sort that was like some hybrid between a wheeze and a snort, "What the hell are you doing in your free time? Where are you going, is more of the question?!"

Aiden shrugged, a goofy little grin on his face, "You know, the usual here-and-there."

My laughs stopped for a second and I quirked a brow at him, a teasing little grin on my face, "Here-and-there, huh?"

"Yeah, you should've seen her! I think she could've taken down Damien!"

"I swear to god, Aiden, there is no way we came out of the same womb." I giggled, shaking my head at my brother and his crazy run-in scenarios.