My Boyfriend's Best Friend

Chapter Five

Aidan

I slammed the door shut as I entered my massive house. I heard the boom echo but I didn’t give a crap. Mum and Dave wouldn’t be asleep at 11:30pm on a Friday night anyway. I felt my stomach rumble and I made my way to the kitchen. I was supposed to eat at Rylie’s place but I hadn’t and now my body was protesting. I opened the kitchen door and wasn’t surprised to see Dave sitting at the counter reading a novel. He looked up at my entrance.

“Hey, man. What’s up?” I didn’t answer as I stormed over to the gleaming stainless silver fridge and looked for something to eat. I saw some leftover Bolognese and put it in the microwave. I took a seat next to my stepdad and he put his book face down on the counter. He flinched slightly when he saw the foul mood I was in. “I take it things didn’t go to plan at Rylie’s?”

I gave him my best ‘what do you think’ look. “I was supposed to spend the night,” I reminded him sharply.

“Yeah, I know.” There was a momentary pause. “Uhh, did you maybe wanna talk about it?” I could tell Dave was slightly uncomfortable about this conversation as we’d never really had a serious talk before. He left that stuff to my mum or if the case called for it, my real dad. Dave was more like the older brother I never had rather than my stepdad. It didn’t help that he was ten years younger than my mum – putting him only twelve years older than me – but I didn’t care. He was a professional chef and any man who can cook that bloody good is allowed to be with my mum. We got along great and I honestly preferred the brotherly relationship. It meant he wasn’t trying to replace my dad.

“Not really.”

He looked relieved and turned back to his book. “Okay.” He obviously didn’t want to deal with a moody teenager and I couldn’t blame him.

I could hear the microwave slowly humming as my food warmed. I felt a warm hand land on my shoulder and someone place a kiss on my cheek. I winced as it got me right on my bruise. “Ow!”

“Aidan! What happened?” I heard my mum say, rotating my head so that she could see the damage. She frowned at the sight of the blue and purple mark. “Did Rylie do this to you?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“I’m serious, Aidan! It’s not always the man in the relationship that does the abusing,” she scolded.

“Mum,” I said firmly once I had stopped laughing. I looked into her deep brown eyes. “It wasn’t Rylie.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Good because I’d hate to have to break you guys up. I really like her.”

I had to grin at her words. “I know. I really like her too.” I heard the microwave beep and I jumped up to get my food out but my mum pushed me back onto the barstool.

“I’ve got it.”

I sat back down and waited impatiently as Mum walked over to the microwave. Despite the late hour, she was dressed formally in a black dress that stopped just above her knees and made her long brown hair stand out. She always wanted to look her best. Mum put my food in front of me and gave me the appropriate utensils before sitting next to me. I dug in quickly and it was as delicious as it had been the previous night.

“So who hit you then?” my mother questioned. I groaned. There was no getting out of this one. I shovelled a heap of mince onto my fork.

“Connor,” I answered truthfully before putting the fork in my mouth.

“Johnston?” I could hear the surprise in her voice. I nodded.

“He got back today and decided to surprise us,” I clarified through a mouthful of food.