6 - TRUCE
It was a short kiss, but my belly tingled. His lips were as soft as the cloud and it ignited me. I was surprised, but now there was something else.
“Cheryl – who’s this?” Marty’s voice came through, his face now puzzled and contorted in confusion.
“Aiden Scott, I don’t think we’ve met” Aiden said instead with a steady smile and offering his hands for a handshake which Marty did not take by the way. “Cheryl’s my girlfriend”
I nearly choked on my spit, but I managed to keep my cool but only because I was enjoying the look on Marty’s face.
“That’s not possible, she’s married to me”
“Not anymore as I presume” Aiden said “Last I checked, you starred in a truckload of porn movies, nobody wants to stay married to that”
I chuckled silently.
“Cheryl is this true?” Marty looked at me now, the panic and anger in his eyes brought instant satisfaction to my stomach and I wanted nothing more than to strike him further, I wanted him to feel a portion of what he put me through, stumbling on those videos – it was etched in my brain forever.
“Yes, he’s my boyfriend” I said back
“Really, he seems way too out of your league if you ask me” he intended to hurt me but Aiden fired back before I had a chance to speak.
“Well no one asked you and if you don’t mind, I’m going to ask you to leave and never show your face around here again”
There was a cold hard stare between the two of them before he flickered my own share of his hate and then he left, I waited until he was out of sight before I withdrew my hands from Aiden and I looked at him.
“I didn’t need your help” I said, I turned to storm into the house while he was right behind me.
“Yea right, he called you a big dull dud, there was no coming back from that”
“Do you think that? That I am one big dull dud? I mean of course you did, you bullied me for years because of it”
“Okay look Cheryl, I know just apologizing is not going to cut it but it’s been years ago. I’m no longer that kid that got his high from being popular and bullying people. I’ve been through life, I’ve seen life to get to where I am today. I’m a different person now and you have to at least give me that chance
He held my gaze for a second, as if sensing my falter “no you’re not a big dull dud – you just don’t let the fire out”
“Well I don’t think someone is called a big dull dud because they’re full of fire – there is no fire to let out” I said
“Everybody has a fire, they just need the right person to bring it out or the right situation”
“Can I ask you something?” he said again and I nodded my head
“Whatever happened with your painting, you really liked that stuff”
I gave him a look of surprise “How did you know about that?”
I loved painting in high school and since I was the only who mostly painted, the art room was all mine and that was where I hid most times if I wanted to be alone with my clothes and face smeared with paint all the time.
“You were the one kid from our school that won the Art Grant scholarship – what happened with all of that”
I stayed silent for a while, pushing the resurfacing memories back down but it was too late, they were brimming to the surface, forcing to be let out.
“Well mom fell sick, my father had run off with another woman and I felt guilty having to leave her. She died two weeks after I declined the offer of the scholarship and by then it was too late, they had picked that pink faced girl that always wore her hair in pig tails”
“Damn”
“Sometimes I wondered if I took the scholarship anyways or maybe if she died earlier, it was a fucked up thing to think – “
“Trust me I get it” Aiden said over me, his gaze meeting mine tenderly and I decided to hold it, it was the closest thing I have to had to empathy in a long time “You know after my parents divorced, I had to move with my dad some place else, somewhere on a farm. My father hated me but he was stuck with me and my mom couldn’t get custody because well she didn’t have a job. He beat me half the time until I found the courage to run away and I’ve been my own man ever since”
“And you came back to your childhood town because?”
“I needed to find my mother” he said “I didn’t set my eyes on her since after the divorce, no calls, no text, not even a damn letter, it was like she fell off the face of the earth so I moved back her you know, just in case I could get some answers”
“Any luck so far?”
He shook his head, as he took out two beers from the fridge and handed me one “Well the most I’ve gotten was that she struggled with a drug addiction, lived on the street for a while and then nobody ever saw her again”
“That’s – ”
“Crazy I know” he completed for me as I corked my beer open
“So truce?” he said, with a smile
“Truce” I smiled back.