The Story Of Hayden And Kaiden

-Chapter Three-

‘Are you serious?’

‘Yes Hayden, I’m serious.’

‘Dad. We don’t have any spare rooms anymore. Where are they going to sleep?’

‘Sue can sleep in my room and I’ll get a new bed for your room and he can have the other half.’

‘Dad! I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone and now you’re just telling me that they’re moving in. You can’t do that to me. What about mum?’

‘Your mother’s made it quite clear to both of us that she no longer wants anything to do with us and I love Sue and I’m sure you’ll like her.’

‘What about the brother? How old is he?’, I asked, dreading the answer, he had better not be a toddler.

‘Ah he’s going through a bit of a difficult time at the moment. His dad committed suicide a few years ago and he’s struggling with alcohol.’

Hmmm that sounds a bit familiar.

‘What! So you’re perfectly fine with me sharing a room with him? An alcoholic? In my room? An older… wait how old is he dad?’

‘Ah Kaiden. Well he’s just a few months older than you. He’s transferring from his old school and it’ll be up to you to show him around.’

‘Dad! Are you for real?’

‘Yes Hayden I am in fact for real, as you put it. They’ll be moving in in two days and I want you to be on your best behavior. You could always invite some of your friends over so that they can meet Kaiden’

Did my dad live under a rock? Honestly. I have no friends. None at all. Did he not know that by now? I had no one over. I went nowhere with anyone else. The only people that I would ever consider friends are my cousins and they live a long way away. A long way away. And when I say that, I’m talking thousands of kilometres.

‘And there’s nothing I can do is there dad?’, I said rather begrudgingly.

‘I’m sorry honey, but they’ll settle in and you’ll get used to it. I promise it won’t be too bad.’

I spent the next few days clearing a space on the opposite end of my room for another bed and extra furniture such as a desk and a wardrobe. I never met Lucas in the parking lot before school and rumour had it that now that I’d shown him that I was immune to his ‘charms’, he was trying harder than ever to win me over.

I can’t believe this is happening to me. They’re moving in and there’s nothing I can do about it. And I won’t even have any privacy at all because we are actually sharing a room. I’m sharing a room with a guy I’ve never seen before in my life. But all this time, no matter how worried I was, I still couldn’t get the image of the guy from the prison out of my head.

On the day they were supposed to arrive I made myself scarce. I went out to a café for breakfast and then spent the rest of the day sitting on a bench in the nearby park, overlooking the lake.

By the time I got home, I was absolutely certain that they would be there. I walked up the porch steps and opened the door quietly. I hoped that I could slip up the stairs without my dad noticing and not have to meet the ‘arrivals’ today. But no such luck for me. As soon as I shut the door behind me, my dad called out.

‘Hayden. Where have you been? Come in here and meet Sue’

‘Coming dad’

I walked into the kitchen to see my dad busy cooking dinner while a woman in her early thirties sat at the counter with a glass of wine. She was stunning. I couldn’t decided whether or not I wanted her to be nice or not. If she was nice then she might be easier to live with but if she was horrible then it would be easier to hate her, something I quite wanted to do right now.

‘Hello sweetheart! You must be Hayden, how nice to meet you’, she seemed nice enough. I must have been silent for a while as I pondered how to address Sue, as my dad coughed from his position at the stove.

I shook my head and started to answer.

‘Yes, I’m Hayden, nice to meet you. Sorry, I have to go, I’ve got lots of homework, you know how school is.’

‘Oh okay, nice to meet you, bye’

And with that I ran up the stairs two at a time.

I turned the knob to my bedroom and as soon as I stepped inside, I was plunged into darkness. I fumbled around on the wall for a few moments before I found the light switch and managed to switch it on. I was making my way over to my wardrobe when a voice interrupted me and made me jump about four metres in the air.

‘Mate, turn the light off’

‘Oh shit!’, I couldn’t see him or make his features out as he was in bed, facing the wall opposite me.

‘You’re a girl?’, he sounded shocked.

‘Umm yes? That would be correct’, I said sarcastically.

‘And your name’s Hayden?’

‘Yes?’

‘You sound awfully unsure. Is your name Hayden?’

‘Yes you dumbass’

‘Alright, alright feisty one aren’t you!?’

‘What do you want?’

‘My mum said I was sharing a room with Hayden and I thought she meant a guy’

‘Too bad huh?’

‘Nah, we’re roomies. Soon we’ll be like this’, he lifted a hand up and crossed two finger over one another to demonstrate how ‘close’ we were going to be.

‘Sure’

‘Don’t talk much do you?’

‘What do you want?’

‘Turn of the light won’t you?’

‘Right, sorry’, I quickly made my way back to the light switch and switched it off, fumbling my way to my wardrobe, grabbing my pajamas and heading off to the bathroom to get changed. I then stumbled back into my room and collapsed into bed. I still didn’t even know what he looked like.