Daddy's Favorite (ManxBoy)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"I made an early dinner, but we can go out to eat or something if you want." He said nonchalantly.

"No!" I exclaimed. It would just make it ten times easier for Tyson or Aiden, or both, to find me. Shit, Aiden was going to be so pissed.

Why did I do that?

It was too late to turn back now and from the way I just screamed at Kyle, he probably thought I was crazy too. "I mean...I'm not really in the mood to be out in public. And you made dinner right? Is there enough for a friend to share?"

He raised his eyebrows and folded his arms. "Oh, so now we're friends?"

Wow.

His arms unfolded almost immediately. "Hey, Ace...I'm just kidding." My silence had probably made him uncomfortable, but he was right. I hadn't been being a good friend. "I'm sorry. I totally have enough for a friend."

"No, you're right. I haven't been a good friend, but send me your address and I'll make it up to you."

I heard a beeping noise on my end, meaning that I had an incoming call. I was 1000% sure that it was Aiden. I had blocked Tyson before calling Kyle, but I hadn't thought to block Aiden. "You got it. You should get my text in a few minutes."

After hanging up, my home screen was immediately replaced with Aiden's contact photo. He was calling again and instead of ignoring him, I actually answered. "Hello?"

"Ace, what the actual hell?" His voice was unsurprisingly even and unwavering. When he was extremely pissed, his voice was always calm and that pang of guilt hit within my chest all over again.

But if I was going to get in trouble, it wasn't going to be for attempting to be let off my leash.

"Look, I'm sorry, I really am and I feel bad, but I need you to just let me have this day."

"Ace, you don't understand-"

"What I understand is you've been smothering me. I can't even breathe around you anymore and I just need one day to myself. I promise I'll be home in a few hours, but can you please give me one day? Please?" I didn't want to be so blunt, but I was begging at this point. I really couldn't handle another day in that house. Personally, I wanted to move, but I didn't want to offend him. It was his house after all.

I mean, it was our house, but it wasn't like I could pick us up and move us altogether.

"Fine." What?

"Are you serious?" I breathed. I was two seconds away from pulling over to make sure that I'd heard him right.

"Yes, I'm serious. I'm never going to deny you your needs. You know that...even when you're blatantly disregarding the rules. I mean, you left Tyson."

Well, now I definitely felt like shit.

"I'm sorry."

"Not as sorry as I am."

Aiden P.O.V.

I didn't think that I was smothering him and he never brought it up to me as a concern, but now that I looked back on it, I could easily see how he felt that way. I had been so sidetracked with Jason and his bullshit that I had been disregarding Ace and how he felt about the situation. Yes, I would have liked Ace bringing up his concerns to me, but I knew Ace and that wasn't the way he did things.

He liked to be as inconvenient as possible...except it just made things more inconvenient.

But I knew that and I loved him all the same, which is why I found myself telling him the opposite of what I wished that I would say. "Fine."