Growing Up and Other Tall Tales

Chapter 5

They say that endings are hard but beginnings are impossible. It is often in the first line that most of us give up unable to quite fathom the sublimity of the momentous task ahead of us.

It's when we press the delete button more often than actual letter keys that the driving urge to write and to create rots away into a bittersweet metallic tang of what could've been if we could just do better, be better.

The thing with comparative adjectives is that they do not define possible limits. Rather, it develops a yawning gap where words like "enough" should be.

I never could never start anything. Because despite what we are told in every romance novel, one thing cannot change everything. It's the little things that draw us away. Draw us in. Nothing tips us over the edge. We just jump.

"Who the fuck are you?" I blink

He raises his eyebrows, "That how you greet all of your guests?"

"You are not a guest, you are the dude who is ringing the bell at 12:30am."

He pauses clearly not accustomed to such unwarranted hostility. He slides his hands into his pockets and pushes past me, crashing his chest against shoulder, into the living room.

"Does Diana live here?"

"Excuse me, but I'm pretty sure that's illegal," I say in disbelief, "Or at least, really fucking rude,"

"You are excused," he mutters absently looking around with his hands still in his pockets. He throws me a sideways glance, "So, Diana?"

"Why is there so much—Capo?"

I look at Diana who comes into the living room in a towel and a toothbrush in her mouth. Her shift had finished late. She blinks at the guy and then chokes a little realizing that she is probably swallowing toothpaste and a little bit of the toothbrush which is just unhygienic. Gross.

"You know him?"

He is still looking at her and Diana clears her throat awkwardly before mumbling that she will wash her mouth and come back.

Meanwhile, he switches his gaze to me, looking me up and down and frowning. I glare at him steadily.

"Are you her girlfriend?" he asks carefully

I sputter, "Excuse me,"

He looks back at Diana emerging from hers and HyeRin's room.

"Your girlfriend is really protective." he comments and Diana raises her eyebrows

"You've met HyeRin?"

He sticks his finger out at me. And I'm too amused to correct him.

Diana squints at me, then at him and then at her towel. She sighs, "She's not my girlfriend, dumbass,"

"No?"

"Definitely no," she says in confirmation and laughs a little at the thought. Then, more seriously asks, "What are you doing here, Aiden? I thought I said I never want to see any of you again,"

Woah, that sounds like a conversation I shouldn't be third wheeling.

"I'm just gonna—bye," I chuckle nervously and point almost accusingly at the darkened couch and the TV screen area because no one should watch Doctor Who in a brightly lit room.

I take a giant step in that direction when—

"Stay," Diana warns me

I gulp and retreat awkwardly, "Staying,"

"What." she places her hands on her hips and looks up at the dude glaring

"Mother wants to talk to you," he says and starts to move around the living room comfortably

"I don't want to." She says and then a little less petulantly, "I left home, moved far away as my bank account allowed me to. What part of that doesn't scream stay the fuck away?"

"You are a fucking idiot," he snaps. I open my mouth indignantly when he rams on, "She needs to talk to you,"

Diana clicks her tongue and shakes her head at him, "You know why she's keeping you. She is using you; she is using all of you."

"I'm her son," he lowers his voice and leans into her

"Her soldier, you mean,"

He looks at her and then shakes his head, "Stop being so stubborn, Dia. Just come talk to her. Something happened."

"You can't make me, Aiden," her face morphs into a look of sympathy, "Are you sleeping properly? You look tired—"

"Your mother came looking for you," he cuts in. "She's being looking around for you and you know what would happen if she finds you,"

Diana takes a step back, her mouth open but soundless.

"I—" and then stops. She looks down at her bare feet and a visible shudder runs across her.

"Think about it," he says and then turns around startling me as I was standing right behind him. My face crashes against his chest and I'm pretty sure something broke.

"Choose a more decent time to visit next time," I clear my throat, "Or better yet, never come back."

"I won't have to, if she chooses to be smart for once in her life," Aiden says looking over my shoulder at Diana who was now sitting on the couch with her head in her hands

"Why don't you choose to fuck off?" I say angrily

He looks at me and squints a little before turning his nose up. He shakes his head as if he needs to further establish himself as a condescending asshole. I look back at Diana who was rubbing her shoulders nervously and I turn to glare back at him only to see his retreating back disappearing down the hall.

And I am in a completely unprejudiced state of intellectual retrospect but,

"What a douchebag,"