Chapter Five

Aria

The sensation that someone was watching me while I slept was what led me to open my eyes lazily to meet the tearful gaze of my five-year-old brother. "Aria?" He asked in a shaky tone, moving closer to the bed.

"What's wrong, Noah?" I asked, sitting up in my bed. At the moment, the only light coming into the room was the moonlight from the window that I forgot to close the curtain at before before.

"I wanna get in your bed." He insisted which was odd to me considering that he had been doing so well the entire week that we had been here. To be fair, he had been asleep in his own bed for a few hours so this was still much more progress than we made before we moved in with dad.

"Okay," I said, lifting up the boy who held on tightly to his worn out bear. "But you have to tell me why you want to sleep in here." I said calmly as I rested him beside me in my bed, lifting the comforter up to his shoulders as he settled himself in. I rested my own head on my pillow beside him as I turned to face him, moving my hands through his thick black hair.

"I had a dream about mommy." He whispered to me, though I could see that his eyes were already growing heavy in the comfort of simply not being alone in his bed tonight.

To that I hummed, uncertain of what to say. Was it better for children to talk about their nightmares? Was I horrible person for assuming that he was having a nightmare about our mother rather than simply having a dream about her and waking up and wishing that she was still here?

I had no idea how to explain death to a child that was so young. Initially when it happened, I had just told him that mom had left and that she probably wouldn't come back but then he talked about her all of the time. He mentioned that she would come back and when days had passed and there was no sign of her, he insisted that it was the right thing to do to go and look for her. I eventually had no choice but to explain that she was dead and I still don't know that he fully comprehends that death is permanent—that he will go on for the rest of his life having to tell people that he actually doesn't have a mother and maybe even that he could hardly remember her anymore by the time that he was an adult.

Some part of me was envious at the thought that one day he may not remember.

"I think that it's okay to have dreams about her…to think about her. How did it make you feel?" I asked quietly as he began to close his eyes.

"I don't know." He said just as quietly. "I think I wish that she was here with us and daddy."

To that, I didn't respond and there didn't seem to be a reason to once I could hear his breathing slow, telling me that he had fallen asleep.

At some point I must have fallen asleep soon after because when I woke the next morning to light coming into the room from the sun's poor attempt at shining through the clouds, Noah was standing on his pillow staring out of the window above my bed.

"Noah, what are you doing?" I asked with a chuckle, rubbing the sleep from eyes and stretching as I rested on my back.

"Aria, a wolf was watching your window. Isn't that cool?" Noah said, turning excitedly to look down at me. I knew that those stories from the bonfire would get to him. At the very least, they were sparking harmless imagination instead of nightmares like I'd imagined they would.

"So cool." I gushed, sitting up and ultimately forcing myself out of bed knowing that today would be my first day at Emily's bakery. "I think that I smell food, why don't you go see what dad made?" I suggested, earning an eager nod from Noah who scurried off to do just that.

Free of having to entertain him, I checked the time on my phone before showering and getting ready for work. Settling on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve college sweater from a university that I had toured alone after graduating from high school. It was from before I thought better of leaving my brothers alone with my mother to take care of them. I settled on dividing my hair into a half up, half down style for the day feeling unmotivated to straighten my hair now after a night of having it braided down my back.

When I came downstairs, dad and Noah were sitting beside one another, eating breakfast and talking about last nights bonfire. Noah was in the middle of talking about how he couldn't wait for the next bonfire so that he could play with his friends again outside of the classroom when I set my plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes down at the table to join them.

"And what about you Aria?" Dad asked from behind a half empty plate and a steaming cup of coffee. "We didn't get to talk about why you left the bonfire early." He stated, looking at me with a hint of concern that surprised me, he watched me as if he was truly afraid that something horrible had happened to me.

"I thought that the bonfire was really nice." I said defensively, stuffing my mouth in hopes of escaping further discussion of the topic altogether.

"So, you just wanted to leave early because what…you got tired? Your phone died? What?" He asked seemingly uninterested in letting this go. "Did someone say something to you? If someone said something to you that made you uncomfortable, I can take care of that."

"Daddy can beat them up." Noah said with a nod, using his fork to lift a piece of his pancake to his mouth.

"No one needs to beat up anyone." I said, smiling lightly. I could admit that it kind of felt nice to experience a parent feeling protective of me. "I guess I just got… overwhelmed? There's just a lot of names to remember and a lot of faces to remember, I guess that I feel somewhat nervous of what people think of us and mom."

"People know mommy here?" Noah asked, completely puzzled by the idea that our mother had ever lived here. "Did she live here?"

Running his hands through his salt and pepper strands of hair, dad nodding in acknowledgement of what I was saying. I'm sure that he must have known that the opinions of everyone here would weigh me down in some way. "Yes, she used to live here with me. Aria and Ben lived here too when they were little, like you." Dad explained, choosing to respond to Noah first. "We all take care of one another here Aria, no one judge's you for what happened back then." He said, choosing his words carefully with Noah listening to the conversation.

"Why'd they leave?" Noah asked and though the question itself was harmless, the silence that fell over us was inevitable. It was actually the first time since we had arrived here that any of us mentioned the circumstances of us having to reunite in the first place.

"It was just what mom felt was best." Dad said after a moment, I appreciated the simple answer.

In an attempt at saving everyone's mood, I spoke again. "I just kind of had an awkward encounter with someone there last night. It scared me to think that he already had some idea of me based on everything that happened when we were younger. He just…he gave me this weird look." I explained but before dad could respond, Ben had entered the room, deciding to join the conversation that he must have heard on his way down the hall and into the kitchen even though I didn't feel like we were being all that loud.

"You weren't the only one, this guy—Seth said that his name is Sam, kept staring at us like the whole night. We just brushed it off but it was almost like he wanted to talk to us about something." Ben explained, walking over to the stove and piling his plate with an unnecessary amount of food, I'm sure, just as he had been for the past few nights.

"Sam? I met him too, he didn't seem strange at all to me. I actually met his fiancé, Emily, earlier yesterday, she offered me a job at her bakery. I actually should head that way soon." I said, remembering the time. By the time that Ben joined us at the table I was finished with my breakfast, standing to wash my plate and set it to dry.

"You didn't even tell me that you got a job, I can drop you off." Dad said, beginning to stand from the table. "We can all just put on some slippers." He said, earning a groan from Ben who looked like his only intention of getting out of bed today was to eat and go to the bathroom.

"It's not that big of deal, I can walk." I insisted.

"Well, at the very least let us pick you up later on. With the sun going down earlier and the weather being cold." He countered.

"Can I be the one to drive?" Ben asked, suddenly interested in something beside his breakfast.

"That sounds like a great idea, it's a plan. See you after work." Dad said, clearly not accepting no as an answer as he grinned at me, proud that he had won this.

"See you then!" I called over my shoulders as I went to the front door to grab my bag hanging on the coat rack and put on my shoes so that I could make my way out of the door.

I knew that I would need a car eventually, especially when it came to things like having to leave the reservation to go into the city for errands and other things like that but I could get use to the walk to work. It wasn't very far at all and I appreciated the quiet. It was easy to get distracted by my thoughts and maybe that was why I had hardly noticed the truck about to pass me on my walk until it slowed to match my pace.

Feeling uncertain, I shoved my hands into my pockets and kept my gaze straight ahead as panic began to settle inside of me. When the decision to move here with dad was made, he assured us over and over about how safe the reservation was and how everyone knew everyone and took care of one another but, was I going to be the first case of girl gone missing because of some driver that just happened to be at the right place at the right time?

"Where are you heading?" A familiar voice asked and without even thinking about it, my eyes instantly shifted over to meet the eyes of the man from last night. Even now, he seemed to stare at me with a certain hardness behind his eyes. If he was so uncertain of me, I didn't understand why he bothered to slow down and roll his window down to speak to me.

"I'm just walking." I said shortly, tearing my gaze away from him to look straight ahead and forcing my feet to continue moving at the same pace despite the fact that the sudden rush of anxiety that had coursed through me now seemed to be making me feel somewhat weak in the knees.

"Emily told us last night that you're starting at her bakery, I'm assuming that's where you're walking to?" He questioned, very easily matching my speed on four wheels. "Get in." He said causing for me to furrow my brows and turn to look at him again in disbelief. To further prove that he was serious, he leaned over and popped the door open, stopping as I came to an abrupt stop.

"I don't even know you." I rebutted, my disbelief evident in my tone. If I wasn't confused before then I certainly was now. There was nothing behind this mans expression that told me that he was even remotely interested in doing something like this out of the kindness of his heart. To prove my own point, I reached out and closed the door. "It's only about ten more minutes of walking anyway. I'm good."

In response, he popped the door open again, holding my gaze with his hard gaze. "I'm Paul. Nice to meet you. Get in, I'm heading that way anyway."

I opened my mouth to protest but something about the way that his eyes stared into mine made me feel so small. Certainly, he wouldn't hurt me. He was an asshole but apparently he was close friends with Emily and Sam—both of whom my father had nothing negative to say about. Even Leah seemed to be familiar with him at the bonfire. Maybe he was simply trying to do something nice or extend and olive branch to me but he just had the worst people skills that I had ever seen.

I sighed loudly just so that he was aware that I wasn't happy with my decision but I climbed into the passenger side of his truck and closed the door. It was hard not to be appreciative of the warm air that filtered through the vents but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of thinking that I was in need of being rescued by him. "I'm Aria." I said suddenly after a couple of minutes of driving in silence, realizing that he not have heard my introduction the night before.

"Why is Tobias letting you walk around by yourself like that?" He asked, ignoring my introduction and refusing to look over at me now. What the hell was this man's problem.

"Um, probably because he isn't my keeper and I'm an adult." I responded curtly, folding my arms across my chest and wishing that this ride would be over with already.

"Something could happen to you." He said, in a tone that was a bit harsher and louder than the tone he was using before and instantly, I was back to feeling small.

Moving my hands to my temples for a moment, I tried to process what he was saying. This man—who I have never as much as spoken to before, was lecturing me about my safety? In a place where allegedly, I was very safe? I didn't understand why he even cared as far as we were concerned, we were still strangers to one another. "God, I-I'm sorry! I didn't realize that I was dealing with the safety patrol here!" I said sarcastically.

I wasn't interested in talking about this anymore and to signify that I was finished with this conversation, I turned my knees away from him and shifted in my seat so that I faced the window. We sat like that for the remainder of the ride, in silence and not looking toward one another.

When Emily's bakery came into view, relief flooded me. My seatbelt was off and my door was opened the second that his car pulled into a parking spot and to my annoyance, as I made my way up the steps of the shop, I could hear him behind me.

The shop was open by now so I was able to open the door and let us both in. With a quick glance around, I could see a couple of the guys from the bonfire seated around a table near the center of the shop, Paul seemed to join which didn't bother me if it meant that he wasn't hovering anymore.

"You made it!" Emily said with a smile as she came out of the back, carrying a tray of muffins out and setting them in the center of the table for Sam, Paul, and another man who I recognized from the bonfire.

"I'm sorry that I'm running a couple of minutes late." I said when she rejoined me behind the counter. "I would have been on time but there was um… a situation." I said, nodding in the direction of where Paul sat with the boys.

"A situation? Is everything okay?" Emily asked, looking over in the direction of the boys with a look of concern before looking at me again.

"I don't even know what to make of it. That guy, Paul he was insisting that he give me a ride here. We argued about it for a bit and I ultimately gave in. I really don't know what his problem is." I said with a sigh.

"I'm sure that he means well." Emily said, giving me a sympathetic smile. It wasn't exactly the response that I thought I would get from her but I guess if she didn't find it alarming, maybe I shouldn't either.

I did my best to ignore the boys altogether as Emily went on, showing me how to work the cash register but every once in a while, I would look up and accidentally meet Paul's gaze. I always seemed to be the one to flicker my eyes away first, except when all of them finally made their way out of the shop where he gave me one final look before leaving.

The rest of the day seemed to go by easily enough, Emily replaced the baked goods in the displays as people came in and picked out treats and when there weren't people at the register, I tidied the seating area by wiping tables and sweeping in between guests. When the day was finally over, Emily and I both prepped dough and other ingredients for the next morning and then cleaned up the shop.

"Can I admit something to you?" Emily said, as we were finishing up closing tasks.

"Sure, what's up?" I asked, grabbing my bag and positioning the strap on my shoulder.

"I may have put something in Sam's ear that I wanted for the boys to try and redeem themselves." Emily said, giving me an apologetic smile. "I was just worried that we had completely scared you off at the bonfire. I couldn't lose an employee before they even started—or a friend before the friendship even got started." She said playfully.

At that, I couldn't help but to smile. I had spent so much time worrying that people would judge me for being here that I found it shocking that someone wanted me here so badly that they were willing to force others to try and make me feel welcome. Clearly, Paul wasn't any good at it and truthfully he not have even cared to do it but he did try.

"It's fine." I said with a chuckle, shaking my head in response. "Honestly, it's pretty nice to know that I have a friend. I've never really been able to put much energy into friendships."

"You know what I think?" She asked as turned off the light to the kitchen area. "I think that you, Leah, and I should have a girls night at my place. Sam can go hang out with the boys or something. He wouldn't mind. We can make up for when we weren't able to as kids."

"That actually sounds like a really fun idea." I said honestly. It was the sound of a honk coming from outside of the shop that drew both of our attention. "I think that's my ride. We can talk more about it later. I'll see you tomorrow." I said as we walked out of the shop together, her locking the door after she turned off the lights.

"Have a good night!" She called out as we made our separate ways to our cars.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading!