~15~
Aiden had gone to meet his dad once again at the park that day after school. Ever since then, he began spending more time with his dad. I questioned him about it several times and he told me that he was on the path of forgiving his dad, although, not completely.
Apparently, Aiden's dad had gone to south to Florida to reestablish himself. He got a job and bought a house and was planning on having Aiden come down whenever he could. He told him that the only reason he never contacted him was because he was so ashamed of himself and was scared of the way his son thought of him, that he couldn't come face-to-face with him.
Aiden, I guess, had understood that and began to see is father every day after school, postponing our after school rituals. I was happy for Aiden to have finally made peace with his father, but I couldn't contain it inside of me that I was also distraught by the fact that he never was there to keep me company anymore.
"Don't worry," he said to me, "He'll be going back to Florida in a few days and then we'll be back to hanging out as usual again; my house on Mondays and Wednesdays, the library on Tuesday and Thursday, and the mall and movies on Friday."
It made me just a little more happy to see that Aiden was also a little upset that we weren't spending every waking moment joined at the hip.
Once Aiden's father went back to Florida, we got back to our usual schedule, enjoying our care-free ways and getting more entangled in each other's lives.
It had been a week since Aiden's dad had gone back to Florida that the one event happened that would change the rest of my life and Aiden's, even though I didn't quite realize it at the time.
I was on my way to second period, ready to show Aiden the new article I found about scientific theories and mythological creatures. Aiden was a science nerd and he was the type of person who would eat up that stuff so I knew he would appreciate it. Living as vampires in isolation from the human population, I guess we don't pay attention to the local news or newspapers very often, otherwise, I would have seen what was coming.
The whole French class was silent and sad, staring at Aiden's seat which was empty. I didn't know what was going on. Where was my best friend and why was everyone so upset?
"Ronnie," I motioned to the kid who sat next to Aiden and one of his science club buddies, "Where's Aiden?"
He stared at me like I was stupid or like I was speaking French to him. Even though it was French class, the kid knew nothing of French. Comprenez-vous?
"Didn't you hear?" he said glumly, staring at me while the rest of the class was silent.
I stared back at him. "Hear what?" I demanded. I was suddenly scared for my life as thousands of scenarios ran through my head. Where was Aiden? Was he okay? Was he hurt? Was he—I couldn't think of the worse. Aiden had to be alright, he just had to be. I needed him too much.
Ronnie gulped, taking a deep breath and muttered, "His dad's dead."