Outcasts

This Will Be Home -Part Three-

Pick Aiden up from Uni. Drive to Madeline's, our favourite little restaurant, more café. It's all rustic and homely, old maple and the smell of pine. We get a table by the hearth, the crackling of fire a melody for a splintered soul. Aiden slurps his banana milkshake through a straw, and I squeeze a lemon into my beer. Just one tonight.

'Why don't you skate anymore?' Aiden asks, taking me off guard. He wolfs down a chip and I take a few seconds to answer.

'Uh... dunno. Haven't got the time. Also, I don't really feel it.'

'I remember you taking me to that abandoned place, with the pipe. It was raining, and you...' he laughs. 'you showed me your heart that night. I could tell, you belonged on that board. It seems weird, I guess, you avoiding it this long.'

I sip at my beer. Then take another when I feel his eyes boring into me.

'Skating,' I sigh, 'is an escape. Always has been. Lots of time I was skating away from shit at home. Not just the dry stuff. Like actual drama that brought out a real nasty and petty side of me. I'd argue with mum then storm off. She knew where I was going, but she wouldn't talk to me for like, a day after.'

'So that's it? You're not running now? Your skateboard can gather dust until we have a proper fight, is that it?'

'No.' I grab my burger and tear into it, bacon grease sliding down my chin. I quickly snatch a napkin and wipe it away. 'Can we not do this now?'

'Alright...' Aiden eats happily for a little while. But I know that look. I know he's waiting for me to lose my guard. I slide back into my chair, folding my arms.

'Out with it.'

'What?'

'Come on, man. Don't BS me. We're doing this.'

'We don't have to do anything.'

I snort. 'You're interrogating me.'

'This isn't an interrogation.'

'I...' I sigh, shaking my head. I almost feel like laughing. 'You still want to talk about Josemy.'

'I just want to know how it ended. If it ended.'

'What the hell does that mean?'

Aiden gestures at me. 'Skating, for example. You associate that with bad memories. You were skating a lot when we met.'

'And you think that was to do with Josemy?'

'How long after he broke up with you was it until you—'

'Whoa. Hold up. He broke up with me? Other way around.'

Aiden smirks, a sly thing. Damn.

I relent. 'Fine. Guess we are going there. And I know where you were steering this. It was five months since we split that I moved here and stumbled into you.'

'Do you still count?' he teases.

'Fuck off.' I wince. 'Sorry.'

Aiden is still grinning.

'Did you use such foul language in your interview?'

'Oh yeah. That's why they loved me.'

'Clearly they did. We're eating here. Special occasion.'

He cuts into his steak and takes a bite, eyes twinkling.

'Maybe I needed the pick-me-up.'

'Nah, don't give me that. If things went bad, we'd have gone to the pub. Or you'd have bought home a six-pack.'