The River Speaks

Chapter Twenty Nine: Go Away

Chapter Twenty Nine: Go Away

I stayed up until five in the morning crying until I fell asleep again.

Now it's one in the afternoon and somebody is knocking on my bedroom door.

"Lilliana, come downstairs right now." Mama orders.

"I'm sleeping!" I yell at the door.

"Right now or Daddy's coming in."

Shit.

Huffing, I shove the covers off of me and stand up.

I peek in my mirror and see I look like trash.

My hair is standing up for forty different directions, my red plaid pajama top looks out of place with my grey sweatpants.

My face looks red and agitated, probably from all the crying I've been doing.

Annoyed, I throw open my bedroom door and make my way downstairs.

Halfway down when the living room comes visible from the staircase, I stop.

Aiden is in the living room.

Shit. Nope.

Nopeity nope.

Our eyes lock for less than a second before I turn around and go back upstairs.

"You can't avoid me forever." He says.

I stop walking.

"Actually, I can."

"Okay, so what then? You're going to just never pay your bills? And you'll leave your truck in the parking lot of your apartment complex forever?"

"Somebody can handle those things for me." I say quietly.

"Who?" Aiden asks. "Me? Your Dad? Noah? No Lily, nobody in this house is going to help you run away."

"I'm not running away." I turn around. He's at the bottom of the stairs and I'm at the top.

"So what do you call this?" He gestures around the house. "You could get fired Lily."

"So? I'm not going back to Boston."

We have a staredown.

"Aiden, you should go."

"I'm not going until you let me talk to you and you actually listen."

I stare at him for a long time before I give in.

"Fine."

I march downstairs and shove my feet into my cowboy boots.

I look like ass but I don't care at all.

I go marching out the front door without a coat and he follows me.

Ew. It's cold.

I shiver, and before I even have a chance to realize I'm cold, his jacket is draped around my shoulders.

"No. I don't want it."

"Well you have it. Throw it in the trash, because I'm not taking it back."

I shut my eyes for a moment and then turn to him.

"This isn't my fault Aiden. You're the one who has feelings for me. We could still be friends. Now you're just some guy."

He looks a little hurt, but he takes a deep breath.

"You're scared." He says.

"What-"

"You're scared." He repeats, a little more forcefully. "You're terrified that you're going to get hurt. I know you care about me. If you didn't you would probably be in Boston right now, at work."