Does everyone hate exposition as much as I do?
Spencer's bedroom often gave Aiden a strange tingling feeling down the center of his back. It wasn't that the place gave him suggestive ideas. It wasn't that it smelled too strongly of flowers. It wasn't as if he was surrounded by pink and purple. What made him feel peculiarly about the situation was remembering that Mrs. Carlin was right below them in the kitchen.
"Seriously, your mom freaks me out sometimes." he commented to Spencer who was hidden from view in her closet.
He warily lowered himself to sit on the corner of Spencer's bed, expecting the older Carlin to pop her head in at any given second. She had a talent for showing up at awkward moments.
"I don't see why," was Spencer's muffled response. "Just pretend she's like your mom but more manipulative and less sincere."
Several articles of clothing came flying out of the closet after Spencer made her proposal, one of which hit Aiden squarely in this chest. When he picked it up to check out what it was, he discovered it was a lacy, see-through top. It was something Spencer would never wear.
"Do you think I should put that on?" taunted Spencer.
As he was about to speak Mrs. Carlin stuck her head in the door. She glanced once from Aiden's face, to the clothing in his hand, at the closet door, and then back again. Spencer stepped out of the closet in relatively tight jeans and a form-fitting top to find Aiden with his hands behind his back facing the door.
"Aid, what are you doing?"
He looked at Spencer guiltily but when he looked back to the door Mrs. Carlin was nowhere to be seen. His eyes darted around the room in an effort to locate the missing woman but it wouldn't do him any good. She was already downstairs, ready to act as if nothing had happened and so Aiden decided himself.
"Nothing, I just, uh… nothing. I guess I'm so tired that my mind is playing tricks on me, is all."
Spencer shrugged, familiar with his eccentric behavior in her house.
"What do you think of this? Too much?" She spun, causing her hair to whisk around her head and her slim arms to flare out briefly.
"I'm sure it'll… cover you, if that's the affect you're going for. But if I were you I'd put something else on. If Trevor is there and he's drunk then you're most likely going to get felt up."
Her face scrunched up in disgust and she disappeared into the closet once more. Aiden sat back on the bed and let his thoughts wander to this afternoon. He wondered if Kyla was thinking about him because he couldn't stop thinking about her. Maybe Spencer would give him her phone number. Maybe he should invite her to the party tonight.
Girls were usually his specialty but all of a sudden he had no idea which direction to take in pursuing Kyla. She looked like the romantic type, if his skill hadn't been thrown off too far, but she also looked like she wouldn't stand for anything fake. If he was going to be romantic he had to believe in it.
And he didn't think that would be a problem.
"Hey, Spence." he called.
"Yeah, Aiden?" she mocked.
"Can I have Kyla's number? Please?" the boy asked overenthusiastically.
Spencer stepped into her bedroom momentarily to toss him her phone only to disappear again. He barely noticed, though, as he effortlessly caught the phone and scrambled through Spencer's contact list. When he found her name, he breathlessly texted her a quick hello and waited.
"Have you two had phone sex already?" Spencer joked when she reentered the room.
This time she wore the same white top as before but with an inviting short skirt. They hugged her hips so thoroughly that where the fabric ended and her skin started was nearly indecipherable. He unmistakably gawked at Spencer's slender legs. At the best of times Aiden never detected Spencer's undeniable femininity but this was one of the few times she had ever revealed her legs.
"Spencer, I thought the point of you changing was to not get felt up." he said with feeling.
Out of nowhere he had been taken over by an instinct to protect Spencer's honor. He was well aware that she of all people did not need babying but it didn't stop the reaction. His feet moved him to stand next to her.
"Go change, right now." he ordered.
"Fine," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "Hand over my phone."
That ultimatum stunned him into dropping his own crossed arms. Reality finally remembered it's rightful placed and kicked out his weird protective fantasy. He was an eighteen year old boy, not Spencer's father.
Aiden ran a hand though his thick hair and looked down at Spencer thoughtfully.
"You know I'm just looking out for you, right?" he confessed to her.
"I know," she retorted, playing off his seriousness as a joke but not without showing him a small smile. "Just stop acting like such a boy. I don't like it."
"You don't like it, do you? Spencer, you don't like anyone. Your mom just the other day told me she thinks you're asexual."
He was telling the truth. Mrs. Carlin had corned him in the hallway and had an in-depth discussion with him about Spencer's love interests. He couldn't produce the name of anyone Mrs. Carlin's daughter might like. The conversation then took a turn for the worst when the older woman had inquired about Aiden's own prospects at romance.
Needless to say, Aiden had clambered down the stairs to sit on the couch with Spencer so that she could defend him. He'd seen Desperate Housewives. He knew what playing with a cougar could do.
Spencer just muttered an unimpressed noise.
"Just because I don't chase everything that walks doesn't mean I'm not interested in someone."
"Name someone then." he insisted.
She faltered, not expecting him to press the issue. Thankfully her phone vibrated without warning. Aiden all but fell onto the small black machine, saving Spencer from admitting that she really didn't like anyone and that she hadn't for a while.
"What did she say?" Spencer asked both curiously and calculatingly.
She hoped he would forget the topic all together now that his new love had replied.
"She said, 'Lol. Hey Spence. Whats up?'. She thinks I'm you!" he cried, devastated
Aiden threw himself down onto the bed, falling into a black mood.
"Give me my phone and stop being stupid," Spencer demanded, more than slightly aggravated with her friend. "I'll just text her back telling her you're going to text her from your phone. It's not the end of the world, loverboy."
He sat up from his spot on the bed to pull out his phone.
"Did you really think if you texted her from my phone she'd know it was you?"
Aiden shook his head morosely but hardly as heartbroken as he was just seconds before. Normally Spencer would have been laughing at his condition but she was too preoccupied by Aiden's previous accusation. His melodrama went unappreciated.
"We should get going. We're already late as it is." Spencer suggested.
Aiden stood up, absorbed in composing a new text message for Kyla, and Spencer led him from the room. At the bottom of the stairs the blonde called out a goodbye for both her parents and they strolled out the front door. Spencer arranged Aiden so that he would get into the passenger seat of her car. She didn't trust him to care for her life when Kyla texted back.
They left the Carlin household right as the sun was setting. The two people in the car were in entirely different moods, one feeling larger-than-life and the other finally facing a strange reality. Tonight was the night to change their lives.