I'm back with an update. It's hardly worth the wait (if anyone was waiting) of a month, but I've been busy/lazy. I'm probably never going to be able to update regularly and quickly, but I'll keep trying. This one's not too long at all, sorry.
"So…" Aiden started, but trailed off.
"So what?" Glen said impatiently. He was beginning to get angry. Aiden had done something to hurt his sister, and he wanted to know what. Glen glared at Aiden.
"Uh," Aiden sat down and stared down at his feet, clasping and unclasping his hands. Why am I so scared? He thought to himself. The dude's in a hospital bed.
"Spit it out, or I'm calling Ashley and asked her." Glen threatened.
Damn. Aiden thought. "Okay, uh, well, it happened at prom—"
"No kidding." Glen sneered. "The longer you stall, the closer I get to calling Ashley."
"Fine," Aiden said quickly, "well, I asked to dance with Ashley, you know as friends. So we were dancing and then a slow song came on, and…" Aiden looked down, quite shamefully. Glen had a feeling he knew what came next. Aiden sighed. "I had to tell Ashley how I felt, I couldn't stand it anymore. I told her I was still in love with her. I told her that if she wasn't in love with me, I'd walk away." Aiden paused. "Before she could answer, Spencer came."
Glen's anger had been steadily increasing. When he heard the last bit, he teetered near the edge, but held himself back.
"I told Spencer what I said. We started arguing and she got upset and started to leave. Then the drive by…" Aiden trailed off and looked up. They made eye contact for the first time. When Aiden saw how furious Glen looked his eyes widened. "Look, I'm sorry—"
"You asshole!" Glen yelled at him, gutting him off. "My sister was happy, HAPPY. Ashley's not my favorite chick ever and the whole gay thing's kinda weird, but she was freakin' happy with Ashley." Glen didn't know where he was getting these words, but they kept pouring out. "You ruined that? I mean how could you say that? Didn't you see that they were happy and in love? If they broke up over this, you're dead." It was true, Glen had blamed Spencer's relationship with Ashley for their parents' troubles, but his mom had told him about her change of heart earlier and we was coming around too. In fact he came all the way around when Aiden told him what happened. He continued glaring at Aiden and saw him guiltily look back at his shoes and then up at him. "No," Glen shook his head, "tell me what happened."
"Well, they're not exactly together." Aiden said meekly. Glen exploded. He tried to hit him, but Aiden was just out of reach. Glen continued flailing his arms in attempt to hit Aiden, but was unsuccessful. "Look man, I tried talking to Ashley; she doesn't want me, she wants Spencer, okay?"
"You mean you went back to her and tried again?" Glen screamed. "ASSHOLE!" He tried again to his Aiden.
Aiden stood and backed up. "Whoa, dude. I'm sorry, okay?" He turned to leave.
"Don't come back!" Glen yelled at him and threw a Jello cup at him. Aiden turned around and gave him a dirty look before leaving. He nearly ran into Spencer and her mom on the way out.
Spencer looked to her mom, ignoring Aiden. They looked angry, but amused. They had heard the last part of the exchange and caught a glimpse of Aiden being pegged in the rear with a strawberry Jello cup. The two giggled a little and Aiden just walked past them, obviously embarrassed. Despite her newfound contempt for all things Aiden, Spencer found the sight of him walking out of a hospital room defeated by a boy with his leg in a sling lying in a hospital bed funny and strangely cute. She shook off the feeling, knowing one day she'd stop hating him. After all, he'd been her first crush in LA. Kind of. He'd been her first pseudo-crush she'd had in order to distract herself from Ashley. That had to mean something, right?
"Hey Glen." Spencer called out as she entered his room.
"Spencer," Glen face was serious, "I'm sorry." He saw Spencer open her mouth to interrupt him, but he shook his head to stop her and continued. "Look, I was never supportive of you, in fact I brought you down a whole lot since we moved. And I'm sorry. You're my baby sister, I love you for whoever you are okay?" Glen smiled warmly at her.
"Thanks, Glen." Spencer said softly and went to hug Glen. The feeling was bittersweet and reminded her of her exchange with her mom earlier. She was happy that Glen accepted her and supported her, but she and Ashley weren't together anymore. She sighed and hugged Glen a little tighter.
Paula was watching her son and daughter hug and grinned. The awful incident at prom had brought on some truly wonderful things. She was interrupted in her thoughts by Glen telling his sister that the hug had lasted long enough. Paula chuckled to herself.
southofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowhere
Ashley wandered into Kyla's room. "Hey." She said glumly.
"Hey." Kyla said looking up at her from whatever she was doing at the computer. "You sound so down."
"You sound so peppy. Why?" Ashley said with a hint of joking bitterness.
Kyla laughed. "I don't feel that bad. Don't' know, it's like I just suddenly realized that losing Aiden isn't that huge of a deal. I mean, we had fun and I really liked him, but we weren't quite at the love stage yet, you know?"
Ashley nodded. "You think you would've gotten there?"
"Maybe," Kyla said. "But I'm not worried about what would've happened." She paused. "I don't want to be worried about it."
"Good mind set. So, you ready for school tomorrow?"
Kyla groaned. "Don't' even mention school to me." They both laughed lightly. "Hey, wild child, shouldn't you be out throwin' back shots and partying your ass off?"
"You would think so, huh?" Kyla nodded with a faint smile. She knew the reason why Ashley wasn't out. "Ever since Spencer, you know? I don't want to go back to the person I was before. Especially because if I do, it'll be even harder to get back with Spencer. Plus, it would just prove everybody right, and you know how I hate that." Ashley and Kyla laughed at her last remark.
Kyla reached over and hugged Ashley. "I'm glad you're doing the right thing." Ashley hugged back. When they pulled away, she had a disgusted look on her face. "What?" Kyla asked.
"We must look like the family from Full House or something right now. Cue the bad hair and cheesy music." Kyla just laughed, having the perfect TV family wasn't all that bad.
southofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowhere
When dinner time came around, all the Carlins gathered in Glen's hospital room. Glen sat in his bed with a smile of his face. He looked around and realized the rest of his family had matching smiles on their faces.
Arthur and Paula seemed more united as parents and shared a few smiles across Glen's bed. Paula had raked a break for dinner and Arthur had brought dinner to the hospital. They were having a family dinner.
Clay sat next to Spencer, smiling like the rest. He had been able to reassure and comfort Chelsea, and the two felt as if they'd returned to their pre-pregnancy state of blissful love. Things were going well.
Spencer was smiling too. Despite her current state of heartbrokenness, she was genuinely happy to see her family getting along and spending time together. She felt like a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders now that Glen and her mother accepted her for who she was. Although she wasn't with the girl she loved, she could figure everything out without the additional stress of Glen and her mother's anger and intolerance.
Glen looked around one more time. He was happy. His family was happy. His family was together.
Twelve hours later, Clay and Spencer were walking through the kitchen grabbing a quick breakfast before heading to school. They were both in a chipper mood as they got in the car. About a minute into the car ride, Spencer started to feel anxious and nervous. She knew she'd see Ashley; they had a class together and saw each other during passing periods throughout the day. She sunk down in her seat a little and sighed.
southofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowhere
At the same time, Ashley and Kyla were getting in to Ashley's Porsche. They both began to ask each other something, but stopped when they realized the other was talking.
"Spencer?" Ashley asked, guessing what Kyla was going to ask. Kyla nodded.
"Aiden?" Kyla asked and received a not from her sister. They both laughed sadly. "Well," Kyla started confidently, "I for one am not gong to let Aiden further ruin an already crappy school day."
"Good luck." Ashley said a bit sarcastically. "I," she matched Kyla's confidence in her tone, but it quickly dissipated, "have no idea what I'm going to do."
southofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowhere
Aiden looked in the mirror one last time and sighed. He grabbed a bagel on his way out and then got into his car.
southofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowhere
Clay pulled into a parking space and turned to Spencer. "You gonna be okay today?"
Spencer put on a small smile and nodded. "Thanks." She said softly.
"The torture begins now." Ashley said as she reached for the door handle. Kyla looked at her sympathetically and smiled.
southofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowhere
Aiden parked his car and sighed one more time. He grabbed his backpack and opened his door.
southofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowheresouthofnowhere
Spencer stepped out her car door and found herself face to face with Ashley. They both froze.
"So, no game plan still?" Kyla's voice wafted over the car. Upon hearing no response, she walked around the car to find Ashley and Spencer standing a few feet away from each other awkwardly and looking down.
"So, I'll meet you here after—" Clay said as he got out of the car. He looked up and saw Ashley, Spencer, and Kyla standing awkwardly next to the car.
A Nissan Xterra swung into the parking space facing the Carlin's car. A tired looking Aiden stepped out. He shut the door and looked up to see Clay on the driver's side of the Carlin car looking at Spencer, Ashley, and Kyla all on the other side of the car.