Through the Dark

Chapter 24

When we first heard what Margaret was saying, all of us were dumbstruck. Even before I was able to understand the thing that was going on, Aiden went up to Margaret with great fury and took away the mic from her.

"Don't spread rumors about things you have no idea to," Aiden whispered to Margaret with nothing but anger and abhorrence. Though it was a bare whisper we could hear it as the mic was not far from him. 

Margaret was singing a verse which she was making on the spot while the other people present there seemed to enjoy the show. On any other occasion, we would not have given it a thought but that time she was talking about Finn for which we were outraged. She was making up things about his father being in jail and was telling how Finn was the son of a criminal. How she knew about his father, we had no idea.

Under normal circumstances it would not be such of a hit as nobody really hyped with Margaret. However, that time most of the people, who were cherishing the show, were probably drunk and did not even understand the words.

Aiden came down with the mic in his hand while Margaret kept on smiling slyly. She was probably doing all of it on purpose because that was Margaret and she would go to any extent to get attention.

Aiden kept the mic in another room before the three of us, Aiden, Addison and I came outside the house in an attempt to leave the party and to go home before any other damage was done.

"What is wrong with that girl?" Addison began to shout as we stood there under the open night sky.

"Let's just go home," Aiden stated. There had been enough drama for the night and he was clearly frustrated about it. We began to walk towards the place where our cars were parked. The three of us were walking silently until Addison stopped midway.

"What happened?" I asked her as she stood there while looking at her phone.

"Finn just texted me," Addison said with a frown.

"What did he say?" Aiden, who had the same puzzled look as mine, inquired.

"Finn is accusing me of telling Margaret about his father being in jail and all that shit," Addison barely whispered. She stood there on the exact spot and kept on reading something from her phone, which I assumed was the message Finn had sent her.

"When did he come? I didn't even see him tonight," Aiden whispered to me while Addison stood in the distance.

"As far as I know, he was supposed to come. Maybe he was late and when he entered he saw that chaos and went home again," I reasoned out.

"Finn is telling me that he heard it was me who told about his father to Margaret," Addison mentioned with a recently developed umbrage. 

"Addi, Finn is not in his true state of mind," Aiden tried to explain.

"If he can believe those rumors and not trust his best friend then he can live all by himself because he has proven he doesn't need anyone else," Addison snapped all of a sudden and rushed to her car. She looked furious and had a look on her face and both Aiden and I knew not to mess with her any longer. Without saying another word to us, she swiftly left the area while Aiden and I stood there dumbfounded.

"What just happened?" Aiden asked a question more to himself than to me.

"Why would Finn believe all the rumors?" I asked once I was out of the daze.
"And who even started it that Addison was the one who let the cat out of the bag?" I shrieked.

"I know as much as you do," Aiden sighed.

Without saying another word, we got inside my car and I ignited the engine.

"Since when did you know about Nathan?" I asked Aiden just as soon as the engine revved. The question that was running in my mind for a long time. 

"The beginning of this year," he replied looking down uneasily.

"Eight months? Seriously Aiden it's August and you have known this from the beginning?" I asked which made him fidget in his seat. All of us friends were extremely close with each other and every topic would come on the table on its own accord. However, from all of them, Aiden and I shared a different brother-sister bond that was different than the others. Thus, after I learned that Aiden had kept such a huge thing a secret, I was rather disappointed.

"Nathan made me promise to not tell anyone about it," Aiden put into words as I kept looking at him with wide eyes.

"I felt like Joey Tribbiani you know. I was aware of his feelings and could not tell any of you. It was so difficult," Aiden stated which made me chuckle.

"I just hope that, the things end well for all of them," I added after sometime.

"What if it doesn't?" Aiden inquired and turned his head to face me.

"What do you mean?" I asked even though I knew exactly what he meant. 

"The last time Thea asked out Nathan, it took them weeks before all of us could hang out like the good old days. What if this time it gets more complicated than before?" Aiden asked.
"That thought did cross my mind," I replied honestly.

"And the main problem is that both Thea and Nathan are stubborn in their own ways," Aiden said with which I agreed completely.

"And now Finn and Addison are not on good terms too," he added.
"That's just a communication problem. I don't suppose that will last more than a day. Once Finn listens to our side of the story he will know that it was not us who told Margaret about it," I asserted.

"Yeah the main problem has arisen between Nathan and Thea," Aiden agreed.

"You know from us friends, you and I are probably the ones who always want to maintain a social distance from drama," Aiden said and began to laugh.
"And yet we fall in the middle of it almost every time," I added in between my laughs.

"Vianna?" Aiden called me after a long silence.
"Yeah?"
"We were the only ones who knew about Finn's father right?" Aiden asked.

"Yeah. Finn was not even comfortable telling us. I doubt that he even mentioned any of it in front of others," I declared.

"And I am certain that none of us said anything about it either. But how on Earth did the news spread?" Aiden questioned reluctantly.

"I am utterly unaware," I replied.

It was already late when I dropped off Aiden at his house. Afterwards, I had to drive another couple of minutes in the dark to reach my place. It was a hectic night for all of us and I was bone-tired. Even though I did not have to do anything physical, mentally I was left exhausted. As soon as I entered my room, the sight of my comfortable bed gave me the longed pleasure as I thought about sleeping peacefully until late the coming day.