Shift

8. Max

"Your boyfriend hates my guts. Amazing!"

"He does not. He doesn't even know you." Aiden's retort was meek, his brow furrowed as he stroke the soft fur on Cricket's back. He knew I was right.

"I know. That's the amazing part."

"If you were being obnoxious as per usual, it doesn't surprise me," Delia said, laying three mugs of hot chocolate down on her - our - coffee table.

My sister had had the brilliant idea of inviting Aiden to stay with us until John was released from the hospital so that he wouldn't feel lonely at his place.

Normally, I would approve everything about being in close quarters with any hot guy. Aiden, however... I had mixed feelings about this.

I took my mug and leaned back on the soft armchair.

"I wasn't. He just looked at me and... it was like love at first sight, only in reverse."

"John did act odd..." Aiden admitted. Cricket stretched her back and decided to abandon his lap for mine.

Delia sat beside Aiden on the couch. "He just woke up from a coma, not remembering what happened... Acting a bit odd is expected, no?"

"Yeah... yeah, it is." Aiden rubbed at his face. The bags under his eyes were deeper and darker, his skin lacked life, his mouth was still relearning to smile, his golden hair was turning into a greasy mess.

And yet, I wanted to crawl onto the couch, cup his face and kiss him.

I took long gulps of the chocolate, trying to drown the urge. I half gasped, half choked. The thing was called hot chocolate for a reason.

"Careful!"

My sister admonishment came too late, as most admonishments do.

"Ach!" I laid the unfinished chocolate back on the table, disgruntled, as if it had willingly hurt me. "I'm going upstairs, play a bit of LOW before sleeping."

"LOW? As in Lands of Witchcraft?"

I stared at Aiden, surprised. "You play too?"

"Once in a while."

"I can't believe it. You too?" my sister uttered. "I thought you were past those childish games."

"They're not childish!" I protested.

"No, it's actually very challenging," Aiden provided. "You have to work hard to earn your coin, and your skills, so you can keep progressing in the game."

Delia scoffed. "Oh, yeah? I know a game just like it. It's called 'Real Life'".

"Ah! But do you get to fight wicked harpies in this 'Real Life' of yours?" I asked, drawing the quotation marks in the air.

"Yeah, nearly every day. Ward number two."

We all laughed. Aiden's laughter was something else.

No it's not. It's just laughter. Plain, regular laughter. Your stomach just doing back-flips because of the burning hot chocolate you just poured into it.

"I'm in the middle of this quest on the Southerlands. Wanna join?"

Terrific. While trying to avoid the company of temptation, I ended up inviting it into my very bedroom.

"I... sure."

My bedroom didn't have a lot of furniture or decoration yet, just a simple twin bed, set to the center of one of the walls, and a small TV table, with my game console underneath, set in front of it. I piled a few pillows at the head of the bed so we could lean on while we played. There was really nowhere else to sit on.