My Bad Boy

Chapter twenty eight

Damn, I am on a roll you guys! 

Anyways, I can't decide if I love Julio or Aiden more, just saying(; Though, Aiden will always be my first little bad boy baby right along with Tucker. (If you haven't read my book How it Happened, you have no idea who that is)

But, but! This chapter. THIS CHAPTER. 

ah! So much emotion! <3 

Okay! I'm done fan girling over my own characters(; 

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shit.

And in case that wasn’t clear enough, I curse again under my breath and Mason shoots me a look. I ignore it as I take the bowel of gravy from his eager hands and pass it to my mother.

She accepts it with cold regard and the whole system starts again. This time with a thing of green beans.

The reason I was having my inner monologue is because I was currently living the exact definition of a Thanksgiving from hell.

Next to me, Mason chomps his food obnoxiously and my mother was lightly dabbing her lips with a napkin, her eyes watching Mason with disgust.

Kayla showed up ten minutes late, nursing a hangover. My mother gave her the coldest look I have ever seen but Kayla didn’t seem to mind. Not even now as she tried to keep her head from falling into her mash potatoes.

Ever since we showed up she has been going out for the past two days. Staying out all night doing who knows what. I tried to talk to her earlier, but she shut me out before I could even try.

I let out a tense breath as silence descends on the table. Usually Mia, or Mia’s dad, could keep up the conversation but today was different. Mia looked a mess and she kept running her fork back and forth over her plate.

The longer I looked at her, the more I wanted to punch Aiden. I’m not usually one who condoned violence, but seeing my best friend so miserable, I was starting to reconsider my morals.

My mother finishes patting her lips and sits her napkin in her lap, her hands fanning out the wrinkles. Mason rolls his eyes and I look ahead, trying my hardest to not show how uncomfortable I was.

“So,” My mother starts, her hard voice cutting through the silence. Everyone turns to look at her, even Kayla.

My mother just had the kind of voice that demanded to be listened. She folds one hand under her chin and looks at Mia under her nose. “How are you and that young man fairing?”

Mia must be stronger than I gave her props for because she didn’t even flinch at the question. Instead, she pushes a piece of limp blonde hair behind her ear and swallows.

“We aren’t doing so good.”

She cuts me a look and I wish I could have reached over the table and squeezed her hand. Instead, I give her a small smile telling her everything was going to be okay. No matter what happened, I was going to behind her decisions every step of the way.

Of course this is the time when Mia’s mother steps in.

“It is down right horrible, that’s what it is!”

Unlike my mother, Mrs. Hastings was the polar opposite. Her short blonde hair was a tangle of curls and her outfits were civil yet daring. She expressed herself to the fullest and I think she was were Mia got her attitude from. Mrs. Hastings shoots Mia a concern look before looking at my mother.

“I just want my baby to feel better. I was hoping for grandchildren and...”

And then she starts to cry. Everyone at the table groans, even my mother. Mia’s mother was the most emotional women I have ever had the chance to meet and she usually cried at the weirdest times.

Mason wipes his mouth on his napkin messily and smirks at his mom.

“How come you never cried when my girlfriends broke up with me?” Mrs. Hastings lifts up from her husband's shoulder and narrows her eyes at Mason. She clicks her tongue almost comically.

“Because you are, I’m sorry son, a man whore to the fullest. Maybe if you found a suitable girl and married her, then I can-”

“Ugh, never mind.” Mason cuts her off. Mrs. Hastings shoots him a look and I look from them two and then to my mother.

She has a slight frown on her face. She wouldn’t outright tell Mia’s mom that she disapproved of the language, oh no she was too civil for that. I’m sure later I would get an ear full.

Before my mother can get even more disappointed, or someone brought up Aiden again, I grab my spoon and raise my voice to be heard over Mason.

“Mother, why don’t you tell us about the garden you plan on creating?”

It was all I heard about for the past two days and although I would rather stab myself in the eye with my spoon then hear it again, I wasn’t about to make Mia’s Thanksgiving worse than it already was.

Mia catches my eye and she shoots me a grateful smile. I salute my spoon full of potatoes at her and smile back. My mother launches into her plans of hiring someone to dig up the back yard and plant a flower bed for her.

According to her plans, a garden was what every young women needed. It was regarded as respect and control. I have no idea how a few flowers growing from a patch of dirt signified control, but I wasn’t going to fight her on it.

Kayla closes her eyes while my mother drones on and Mason digs further into his food, ignoring every word she is saying.

Mia’s dad is nodding along, like he actually cares, and Mrs. Hastings his dabbing at her eyes, no doubt crying again.

Looking at everyone around me I wonder if this is what I want. Do I want to sit here three years from now, ten years from now, pretending to be something I wasn’t?

I was so use to keeping my feelings to myself, my ambitions bottled away. I never let anyone in close enough to care and some times I could be a real bitch about things.

As I see my mother go on, I realize ... I don’t.

I don’t want to be like my mother. Divorced and cold. I don’t want to sit in a room full of people and feel alone. I want to break out of this shell and sitting here, looking at the people that mean the most to me, I realize this whole dinner ... was bullshit.

Everyone was pretending, well not everyone, but everyone was afraid to open up in front of my mother.

Even Mia looked like she was scared to mourn her loss as if she was afraid my mother would scold her for it.

This is it. I feel myself standing on an edge and all it takes is one step for everything to change. All I have to do is close my eyes, hold my breath, and take the step.

I don’t know what’s going to happen, or if it will even be better, but I know I won’t regret it.

What my mother didn’t know, what most of these people at this table didn’t know, was I had a few things to say.

And dammit, for once in my life, I was going to say them.

And I was going to be heard.

I take in a deep breath and lay my spoon down next to my plate. This is the moment I have waited for. I close my eyes and I feel myself step off the cliff of self control. I’m free. What is left is undecided and at this moment I know something has changed.

And I loved it.

I start to laugh.

And oh, it wasn’t one of those small little laughs you can easily stop. No, this was a full blown laugh. Kayla jerks awake and looks at me like I might be going crazy.

Hell, maybe I was. Mia leans back a little and gives me an odd look and Mason stops eating. Everyone is now looking at me and I continue to laugh, realizing this is what I wanted. Right?

“What is so funny?” Kayla asks when I am finally able to force the giggling to stop.

My mother looks me over and I can tell she was a little mad that I stopped her garden discussion You know what? Fuck the flowers! No one cared anyways.

“Mom,” I say instead of answering Kayla.

My mother meets my eyes and this is the moment. The moment that I wasn’t going to let my mother hold me back anymore. I wasn’t going to let life hold me back anymore.

“I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore. No, actually, I never wanted to be lawyer. I’m changing my credits the first thing after break. I’m going to be a teacher.”

If I expect my mother to react I would be wrong. Instead, she folds her hands together on the table and gives me a leveled look.

“And what made you decide this? Was it Kayla? I to-”

“No,” I cut her off before she can even finish the sentence. “This has nothing to do with Kayla. This has everything to do with me. Mom, I never wanted to be a lawyer. Heck, I don’t even like arguing for Christ sake!”

“I don’t know where this is coming from, but we will discuss this later.” My mother says in a hard tone.

If she thought she could dismiss me like she has done so many times before so easily, she was wrong. I started and I didn’t plan on stopping. She goes to grab for her spoon and I feel everyone's eyes on my mother and I.

I don’t look at anyone as I say my next words.

“No, we will talk about this now.”

My mothers spoon freezes halfway to her mouth and she actually looks a little shocked. Hell, I was shocked myself.

“Not only do I want to be a teacher, but I met someone.”

I hear someone make a sound and I look over in time to see Mia close a hand over her mouth, no doubt hiding her smile.

“You met someone?” My mother repeats, her words are so low I have to strain to hear them. I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear and meet her calculating gaze.

“Yes and you know what mom? He makes me understand myself more than any other man has. He’s the exact kind of guy you would disapprove of but guess what mom?I don’t care. I care about him more than I have anyone else in my life.”

“Oh don’t be ridiculous!” She says loudly, waving her hands in the air. “You can’t possibly care for someone that much in a matter of months.”

“You are wrong. Because I do.”

“Kelsey-”

“And I don’t care if you don’t agree with the things I do. I don’t care if you don’t approve of my actions,”

I stand up, my chair screeching against the floor behind me. “ I don’t even care about this dinner. I have someone I have to go meet. I’m done pretending.”

I go to take a step to leave when a new voice cuts through the whole thing.

A voice that I would know from anywhere.

A voice that was able to make my heart beat fast and make my mind think crazy things.

A voice I would have done anything for.

“So I guess this is the wrong time to ask to join the festival, huh?”

My gaze jerks up and I see Julio leaning against the dinning room wall, his hands jammed in his pockets. A stressed leather jacket fills out his shoulders and his eyes sparkle with humor and something else.

And those eyes were looking right at me.

I open my mouth, to say who knows what, when another person enters the dining room. Aiden walks in fast, his eyes searching for only one person. When he finds her, he takes a step forward and stops as if it pains him.

My mother starts to stand up, wondering how the hell they got into the house, when I see Julio smile at me and lift a bobby pin in the air. I clamp my mouth shut to hide my smile.

Oh, my mother was going to love this.

“What's going on here?”

My mother looks wildly from Julio to Aiden. They both don’t say anything. Instead, Mia lifts up slowly from her seat, her eyes only on Aiden. My mother must realize something is going on because she doesn’t say anything else.

“Aiden?” Her voice croaks a little and I watch as he smiles tentatively, threading his fingers through his belt loops.

“Yeah, it’s me Kitten.”

“What,” She swallows slowly, “What are you doing here?” She tries again.

He lets out his breath and lifts his hands from his loops. I hear someone start to cry and I don’t even have to look over my shoulder to know it was Mrs. Hastings going through another one of her fits.

Aiden steps forward fast and soon he’s cupping Mia’s cheek. She leans into the touch and he starts to run his thumb back and forth over her bottom lip. When he talks, his words are full of emotion.

“I’m here to ask the girl I love to marry me.”

Everyone seems to freeze at his words. Everyone, that is, but Mia. I see tears start to fall down her face. She starts to pull away from Aidens touch but he won’t let her. “But you said-”

“Forget everything I said. Only listen to what I am going to say now.”

Before I can blink, he bends down and gets on one knee. He takes Mias left hand and brings it to his lips, laying a kiss on her palm.

“My whole life there is one thing I vowed I would never do and that was fall in love. But, Mia, I realize now I was just scared. Scared of giving a girl my heart. Scared of losing something like that. When my dad died I swore I would never go through that again.” He brings in a breath and tightens his hand around Mias.

“Mia Iris Hastings, my life was nothing until you stepped into it. I thought I had everything figured out, but when I saw you, you shot a hole straight through my heart. I have never wanted something so much in my life. I want to hold you and never let go. I finally know what it means to keep something and I don’t plan on letting that go for anything,” He pulls her a little closer, his words breaking a little.  

“I want to give you a home. With me. I want to make you my wife. I want to have kids with you, I want to grow old with you. I want to be there when you need someone to listen and I want to able come to you, only you, when I need someone to love. I love you, and if I had to, I would start all over again for you. I would relive every argument, every bad moment again, if it meant I had you in the end. Will you do me the incredible honor of becoming my wife? Because you have my heart, my life, my everything. Will you marry me Mia? Because if you say yes, I swear I will be the man you need me to be. I will be your everything.”

My mother must be as shocked as everyone else in the room because a small sound escapes her lips. I don’t bother saying anything to her because this wasn’t my moment, it wasn’teven  her moment.

This was Aidens and Mia’s moment.

Everything Aiden said seems to break Mia out of her spell. She rushes forward and brings her lips to his, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Aiden obligees by wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her up with him.

Mia leans back slightly, her lips still on Aidens. “Yes,” She whispers, giving him another kiss. “Yes, Yes, yes.” She mutters over and over, kissing him between every word. Aiden pulls back and smiles down at her, running his fingers through her hair.

“Now would be a good time to find that ring. I don’t need your mother killing me over not putting it on your finger.”

Mia laughs and shyly raises her left hand and that’s when everyone realizes she already had the ring on.

How we missed it, I don’t know.

“I- uh-” She tries to explain herself but Aiden doesn’t give her the chance. Her grabs her hand and brings the ring to his mouth and kisses it, the whole time his eyes never leaving hers.

“I love you.” He declares with so much force it almost leaves me breathless.

“And I lo-” He captures her lips again before she can finish and Mrs. Hastings shouts, throwing her hands in the air.

“Yes! Finally I’m going to get grandbabies!”

Mason chokes on his food - He was probably still eating during the whole speech- and Kayla smiles and joins Mia’s mom in the celebration. My mother smiles a thin smile and says to the excited room.

“I’ll go get some wine so we can make a toast.”

She disappears to the kitchen and I realize we were going to have to talk later. It was a conversation I was not ready to have, but I knew it needed to be done.

Because the truth is I meant everything I said earlier.

I thank God my mother doesn’t have to pass Julio to get to the kitchen and I end up pushing away from the table, knowing exactly where I want to be. Julio must have the same idea because he kicks off the wall and meets me halfway.

“So,” He says, reaching over and tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “You don’t have to say you miss me. I can see it written all over your face.”

“Is that so?” I say, trying to hide my smile.

“Hmmm,” He drawls, reaching out and grabbing me by my belt loops. He pulls me toward him and drops his voice. “I’m not here to give you a ring, but I got the next best thing.”

“And what’s that?”

Goosebumps pop all over my skin when I feel his breath hit my face. His hand comes out and he grabs my chin, tipping my face up toward him.

“I heard what you said to your mom.” He suddenly says, changing the conversation. The old me would have been embarrassed. But this new me wasn’t scared having Julio know how she felt.

“And” I challenge, raising an eyebrow. He must like the challenge in my voice because he runs his hand up my back and cups my neck. His hands are on fire.

He threads his fingers through my hair and his eyes seem to smolder. This boy was turning me into a puddle right before him.

I’ve told him so much already and I realized that stepping up to my mom was just one step. Now, it was my turn to hold onto Julio and make sure it worked. I was still scared things weren’t going to work out, true, but I was going to take this one step and a time.

He must like my answer because before I can tell him about my mom, he pulls me toward him. His lips meet mine and I drink him in. His hand tightens around my neck and he pulls me closer, my body responding. His tongue comes out and teases my mouth open more and I start to run my hands through his hair.

I can’t get enough of him and soon it’s all over. He pulls away, a smile on his face. With his hand still cupping my neck, he tugs on my hair lightly.

“That,” His says, his voice full of longing. “Is something not even a diamond ring can compete with.”

Yeah, for once I was agreeing.

Not even a diamond ring can compete with the things Julio was doing to me.

Oh boy, I was a goner.