✔️Playing Heroes [a BoyxBoy novel]

Chapter Three

Aiden in the Media

Chapter Three

I guess you could say luck was on my side the next Thursday. When I called Howard that morning, he agreed to give me the afternoon shifts on Thursdays in order to make my tutorial at night, and that matched my schedule almost perfectly seeing as I didn't have classes on Thursdays. But, in turn, that had left my mornings open. So, I decided to do something I had been trying so hard to avoid. Visiting my mom.

I remember it clearly as if it were only yesterday.When I turned eighteen, she was taken away to Kingsons Psychiatric Hospital. She had her good days as much as she had her bad ones, but her condition was getting worse. Until this day, I still didn't understand why her psychiatrist didn't put more effort into making her better. I should know; I accompanied her to many of her appointments. Most they'd do was ask her how her week has been, write some bullshit on a clipboard then send her on her merry way.

It all started when my father left. I couldn't even remember his face because I was so young and my mom didn't have any pictures of him. But he left us cold in the dirt. With nothing. Not a penny to our name as he took everything with him and we had to start over. But that wasn't why Laura Daley had to visit a stupid psychiatrist. No. It was when she insisted to these 'aliens' did she get sent away. She would tell anyone who asked the whereabouts of my dad that he was an alien. Yes, I know, laugh it off, but every time she speaks of it, you can't help that small part of you that really wants to believe her. It was only when she started abandoning her duties as a mother to find some other signs of his alien race, leaving me to practically raise myself, but I loved her. I couldn't blame her for wanting to find answers about my dad, crazy as they may seem.

I hated visiting her, though. She was always too skinny. Always too pale. Black curly hair-where I got my black curls from- looking like straw. There was no resemblance of the bright and happy woman I once knew. Although she was crazy, she was happy. But ever since she got sent there... It was like I was looking at a whole new person.

I walked up to the reception desk, trying to calm my breathing and mentally preparing myself for all possibilities. The doctors had warned me that she had gotten a little... violent over the past few weeks.

"Nick?" A voice said from behind the desk, and my breathing came to a halt. "Of all places, huh?"

"Ashton?" I breathed but I couldn't help feeling a little uneasy. I couldn't put my finger on as to why, but if I had spidey senses, I'm pretty sure they'd be tingling by now. "You work here, huh?"

He shrugged. "As soon as I moved here, I searched for a job. It was either a receptionist or working at some stupid grocery store and stacking shelves at one o'clock in the morning."

I flushed. Well, then.

"Anyways," he said, distracting me from self-doubting my place in the world because of my job. "What can I help you with today, Mr. Daley?" There was a flirtatious tilt to his smirk.

"I'm here to see my mother, Laura Daley."

Ashton typed a few things on the keyboard, clicked his mouse a couple times then abruptly stood up, making me jump in surprise. "Follow me."

So, I followed him through heavy double doors, the bright fluorescent lights momentarily blinded me as we walked into a corridor that came off the reception area. I never liked coming here, not only because I felt uneasy and always on edge there, but of the smell. It always smelt too... clean. Too many chemicals, like the smell itself, was trying to cover the dirt that really hid there- and I'm not talking about physical dirt. This hospital had a reputation for mistreating their patients, but it was the only hospital I could afford, which was stupid as the government said she had to get sent away but I was the one who had to pay for all of her treatment and medication. I guess you could say I definitely held a grudge towards a lot of the doctors here.