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A/N This too is a little dull, but I wouldn't skip it, it's sort of explanatory so I'd read it if you don't want the confusion.
Chemicals React.
Bradin sat on his chair behind the study tossing one of those squishy balls meant for stress relievers up and down up and down, watching Aaliyah who was on her bed against the other wall of the room reading her copy of 'The Grapes of Wrath', it looked well kept like the massive mountain of her books, well read, slightly battered, but well cared for, neat and clean, no creases on the spine or the pages but slightly faded.
Aaliyah stared at the same page for an hour.
Look, I don't need relationship advice, least of all from 17 year old who's never been in or Seen a functional relationship
Never seen a functional relationship. That had hit a nerve. He was right of course; Aaliyah was as screwed up as 17 year old could be in that sense.
Her parent's relationship was nothing short of dysfunctional; her mother left when she was young, she left because she wanted her cushy life in New York back, the slow standard life of a non-well off Californian was too much for her to handle. She just packed and left. It wasn't an impulsive move no one saw coming, they were always arguing, and James had loved Aaliyah's mother more than she ever loved him.
Aaliyah grew up with her father in Playa Linda, who never really got over Aaliyah's mother leaving, but growing up with one parent, she never felt like she was left out on anything; her dad had been great, though they'd gotten into some tough spots. But when he died, Aaliyah was 13 and she had to leave Playa Linda to live with her mother but most of her time was spent with her grandmother as Eleanor was never home in New York.
In New York, her mother was remarried, and even that relationship she couldn't make work, and that was to Jace, the most caring, most patient person ever and Eleanor couldn't even make it work. He was a doctor, a busy well off 6 figure paycheck per year surgeon, and Aaliyah would have bonded with him a lot better if he was home more often.
Eleanor had 2 other marriages after Aaliyah's father, those didn't work too well either but she did land a hefty settlement from both the divorce.
It was safe to say that Aaliyah had never seen a functional relationship where her parents were concerned. Her own personal life had been no better either. But that was another story entirely.
Her parent's dysfunctional relationship had had an effect on her, especially when James love for her mother had actually successfully gotten him killed and Johnny, of all people knew that it was a susceptible subject.
Aaliyah had spent the hour staring at a page of the first book she grabbed of the stack of her many books before curling up in bed without reading it, getting up only to unlock the door but flumping back onto bed again after.
For that hour, Bradin who had managed to insinuate himself into the room, sat on his study desk in the room, and thought on how things had changed over the summer while wondering how he was supposed to handle the awkward silence.
He and Aaliyah had not spent a lot of time together, but those few times, it had always been filled with noise, bickering about some things or another, many of which he had a hand in making it happen, but nonetheless, there had never been silence between them.
He thought of Johnny and Ava, how they were all tied up in knots again, and how uncomfortable things were between the two and how it was strange because they were Johnny and Ava.
Apart from that however, nothing much had changed, Susannah was still with Matt, Nikki was still with Cameron, Jay was with Isabelle and baby Lilly, he was with Erika, well more or less, life was good, more or less.
The whole Wave Crashers deal had blown over for which he was thankful for. And he could almost start afresh as a senior in Playa Linda High starting the next day. Almost. Because he'd be doing that with an addition to his life, Aaliyah-Jayne Aurora Lennox-Montgomery. And she was all of the double hyphened expensively long name. She came from money from what he knew, her mother's side, and she lived on the Upper East Side for the whole few years she spent in New York after her father's demise.
For some reason however, Aaliyah was back at Playa Linda now, and Ava who had been close to James before his demise felt personally responsible for her well being and Johnny being her uncle and all, had also insisted that she stayed with them much to Bradin's disdain.
Aaliyah or Allie or more intimately known as Rory to those who knew her better was a 5'6'' with amber brown hair which had now had a lighter honey hued, sun-kissed highlights of blondish-ness since she was back in the sun so much in California, and an ashen, porcelain pallid complexion which had proved to not be able to tan however much time she spent under the sun.
Her piercing ocean blue eyes and modest curves completed the doe eyed Malibu Barbie look.
Because she was too tall to share the attic with Nikki and because Ava and Johnny were not together hence stayed in separate rooms and because Bradin and Derrick did not go well sharing a room, Aaliyah shared the room with Bradin, which was sardonic as the two of them were somewhat volatile when put together.
Aaliyah was witty and smart and seemed to have a wide scope of hobbies from computers to music to movies to sports and reading, they both had a passion for surfing and medicine though they had different styles and contrasting opinions, she was not the kind of wide eyed bambi, label whoring girls compressed into a package of girlish evil as the most of the other girls halfway as pretty as her in school.
Bradin didn't seem to get why they couldn't get along better.
They stayed like that for a while, Bradin by the desk, Aaliyah on her bed, both reflecting two very different subjects.
Silence sitting between them.