The Confidence of a Nerd

Chapter 15 (EDITED)

I was at my house getting ready to start a fight when I got a text message from Aiden. He usually doesn't text me at this time because we're both pretty busy on weekends. I have my fights at Adrenaline and he visits his mom in the hospital. We hang out mostly after school and he usually spends the night at my place if mom isn't here or if we don't have a fight. Aiden's been hinting that he wants to know more about me and I guess I've been putting it off. I know I'm going to have to tell him about what happened and why I'm so insistent on working at Adrenaline, I know he deserves to know the truth. It's just hard to talk about and I'm scared that he'll judge me.

I go over to my phone and when I open the message, I gasp. He put a tracking app on my phone?! Does he really distrust me that much? Have I really been that terrible to him? I know that lately I've been really busy trying to put my life back together. I didn't know I was hurting us in the progress though. A tear falls down my cheeks as I question what made him do something like that and why someone would even be following him in the first place. I try to pull myself together, I send him a quick text to see if he'll respond. I doubt that anything bad is really going to be happening but I want to make sure that he's actually safe.

'Are you okay? Where are you?'

I send the message and I throw my phone onto the couch. I've never met somebody who understands me as well as Aiden and yet... I've made him lose trust in me. I've been so caught up in myself that I haven't been listening to Aiden's worries and because of that I put him in danger. He's been telling me that I need to be more careful about what I do at school and I just haven't been listening.

I sit myself down on my couch and grab my phone, my hand shaking. Aiden isn't the kind of person to ignore my texts. Even when we're arguing he doesn't do that nonsense, he always responds. I look at his scary message and I start to get really worried.

'Hey! I'm trying to get into contact with your brother and he's not responding. Did he get back home yet?'

'He left home about an hour ago but he hasn't gotten back yet.'

'Okay, thanks!'

I wince, my leg shaking as my pulse starts racing. I haven't been this scared about something in a long time. What did they do to him? I start biting my nails as I open the tracking app he downloaded onto my phone and I log in with the information he gave me. Nothing is showing up, they might've turned his phone off or something because his phone isn't showing on the app.

My laptop is at Aiden's house, I need to find a new way to track his phone. This app is too unreliable. I think if I try and track where he was when he sent the text message I might be able to find him. I hate to go into mom's room because it's always nasty. The last time I went into her room I found used condoms on the ground as well as moldy food and empty cans of beer. It's like she completely forgets that there are garbage cans inside of the house.

Quickly, I walk into that horrid women's room in search of her laptop. Like I expected, her room's a complete atrocity. This time there are torn up underwear on the floor and rotten food under her bed. I walk around all of the nasty men's underwear and I pinch my nose to get rid of the nasty smell of semen and I open her closet with the other hand. Hiding underneath her neon dresses, I grab her laptop and rush out of her messy room.

I go back to the living room and I place the laptop on the table. I don't know a lot about my mom besides she's a compulsive liar, she cheats, and she goes to parties all the time. It might be hard to figure out what her password for her computer is. I hate thinking about my mom because ever since dad left all she's done is neglect me while she invites strange men into our house. There were times that those men would try to hurt me and thankfully nothing ever happened but I know without a doubt that she wouldn't have cared if anything did.

I tried dad's name as a password and it didn't work and then I tried her birthday and it also didn't work. A hint pops up saying, 'Something I love and my birthday.' She actually loves something other than herself?

I typed in, 'Beer1973' which ended up being the correct answer to my surprise. I guess I know my mom better than I thought I did. I scowl, connecting my phone to the laptop I open the tracking forms.

All I end up getting is a street address that points to a local CVS, which isn't helpful at all. How am I going to track him at this rate? I'm not a genius and I don't know a lot about computers. At this rate, I'm going to need to call the police. It honestly seems like the only way. They would know what to do more than I would. I text Max and tell him that I'm not going to be able to come in today and I stare at her laptop some more. What should I do? This is all my fault.

Before I could shut the laptop, a call came from my mom's skype. As it rings, a feeling of discomfort starts to boil in my stomach. For some reason, I felt this urge to answer. I click the green button, maybe it's wrong to do this but something is making me feel very suspicious. Her business is her own, but after everything that has happened, I wouldn't put it past her to do something to Aiden. There isn't anybody in the background yet, there's a pile of chains on the cement ground and I hold in a gasp. I didn't click add video because if I did then he'll know it's not my mom but he can still hear me so I try to be as quiet as possible.

I hear shuffling in the background and then a man shows up on the camera. He's wearing a mask covering his face so I can't tell who exactly he is. He's got a bit of blood on his shirt and I stare at it in horror. Why is my mom talking to this creep? I think about Aiden and how lately, after he visits his mom, he would train a little bit at Adrenaline while he waits for me to get off. He said he was doing it so that he could protect me in case anything bad happened. At the time, I just laughed and put it off believing that I didn't need to be protected but every time I did that he would just sigh sadly.

I get it now. He just wanted to protect me and instead of telling him that I'm grateful that he was trying so hard for me and instead of opening up and talking to him about my life, I just waved him aside. I made those blue eyes that would bore into me look so sad and now I'm just feeling so much shame. Everything he says and does makes me either laugh or cry in happiness and I put that special person in danger. Not only did I put him in danger, I worried him so much he felt like he couldn't talk to me about anything at all. All I can do is stare at that cold looking floor and hope that Aiden isn't over there. I watch as that man shuffles closer to the camera and listen to his gruff sounding laugh and hope and pray that they didn't capture my boyfriend. Hope that the blood on this strange man's shirt doesn't belong to Aiden.

"We have the boy, Ma'am, what do you want me to do with him?" The strange man says and unable to control myself, I gasp. So it was my mom who made this happen? Really? Why would she do this to me and how did she even find out about Aiden in the first place. I hang up, not wanting to hear anymore and not knowing what else that I can do. How could she? How could my mother take away the guy that I lo- like away from me like this? I look down at my phone and I start dialing the police. At this point, all I can do is tell them all of the information that I have and if they can track where the Skype call came from, hopefully they can find him.