Alisson

"Let's run away together."

"Wait what, You and me? Run away?" She looks at me with hesitant eyes.

"Yes. You saw how they looked at us. Treated us. Let's run away together. Just you and me."

She looks at me then at my stretched out hand.

"Okay, Let's run away. Together." She smiles.

"Together." I repeat what she said and sure enough our lips had then connected.

The scent of vanilla seems to be my new favorite scent.
If only moments like this can last forever.

As I reached the ending words of the chapter, I placed down Aiden's book to let myself breathe. A bookworm but also a hopeless romantic.

I'm not exactly sure if Aiden had already read the book but this is one beautiful piece of work that I'm suprised I haven't found out about the works of Kent Aiton.

"Alisson!" I immediately turned my head towards my mom who was coming down the stairs."
I may ignore people when reading but once my mom calls me, it's either live or suffer their wrath.
Learned that the hard way I did.

"Yes?" I asked when I noticed what was in her hand.

"Alisson your phone has been ringing in your room and I was going to answer it. It says Mr. Bookst-" I grabbed my phone immediately from my mom, not letting her finish talking.

"Thanks for telling me mom! I'm going to answer this now, I'll be in my room!" I said to her, grabbed the book and rushed upstairs to my room before she starts questioning me. I bet she's curious now.

I went inside my room, shut the door behind me and leaned against it. Looked at the still ringing phone in my hand and answered it.

"Aiden you dork! My mom almost found out about you!" I'm supposed to be scolding him but somehow, I just can't stop the smile slowly forming on my face.

"So what if she almost found out about me? I'm a charming guy you know!" He exclaims as he feigns hurt which I could tell by his voice.

"Right. . .or you'll charm her with your nerdy self which for your information, she already knows how I am, you probably aren't any different as a nerd," I say, sticking my tougue out when I realize he can't see me.

"Okay, though if she manages to talk to me, it's not exactly my fault,"
He says then is followed by a short moment of silence.

"Wanna play 21 questions?"
He asks.

"Yes! Anything to break the silence!" I exclaim and jumped on my bed.

"Aww and I thought the moment of silence was comfortable."

"If that's what you thought was comfortable it was deffinitely slowly sinking into the depths of awkwardness," I retorted, which was then followed by low chuckles of his.

"Well then, I'll start! What do you think of the book so far?" He asks, his excitement getting to me as I can't hold back a smile.

"Well so far, for one I never thought you were a romance type of person."

"Don't judge a book by its cover Ali." He says to which makes me giggle.

"The book is just right out beautiful. If I didn't accidentally swapped books with you, I would have never found out about Kent Aiton and this book," I say confidently to which causes Aiden to be silent.

"A-Aiden? Are you there?" I ask, worried that the signal might not be good. Or maybe it might've been something I said?

"O-oh yeah I'm here, just spaced out a bit." He laughs off the silence.

"Well then, your turn to ask a question," He states.

"Well...why did you choose Meeting Her By Kent Aiton?" I ask him as that question really lingered in my head ever since I've read the book.

After a moment, Aiden clears his voice. "Good question, well do you know that one feeling you get when you see your name on a book?" I answer him with a simple yeah.

"Well that's what I kinda felt with the book, except my name resides in Kent Aiton to which it's like a combination of my first and last name. You know what I mean?"
He says, laughing. His laugh is contagious that I started laughing with him.

"That's a funny reason to get a book, though exactly I don't get a say in that since I've done the same thing myself once." I laugh and told him that it was his turn.

Aiden takes a deep breath, making me somewhat on edge for what he's about to say.

"What's your family like?" Aiden asks while I was caught off guard by his question.

"M-my family?" I tried to speak in a clear voice but failed as I stammered on my words.

"You don't have to answer it if you don't want to," Aiden immediately says, maybe sensing that I was on edge.

"N-no I'm alright, I was just caught off guard," I assure him.
"Well I used to be in a family of four, now it's just three. I live with my mom and my older brother is out of town, working in New York to help provide mine and mom's needs."

"Your dad..?" He asks cautiously, like he's afraid to scare me away or make me uncomfortable.

I take in a deep breath and brace myself for the story I am about to tell once again. "My dad was a soldier, he died in the line of duty. I was only young when I met him so I only have a few memories of him. Though mom would always tell me he died a hero and that itself makes me happy."

We were both quiet for a second.
The silence in the air is heavy but also comforting. The only sound is our quiet breathing, which was wierdly in sync.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Aiden speaks breaking the silence.

"Do you ever miss him?" Aiden asks, which is actually another question but I decided to entertain him.

"Well of course. Besides sometimes it's torture to think of the possibilities that could've happen if he was still here."

"Sometimes memories are the worst form of torture," Aiden states to which ends up with me nodding at his statement still keeping in mind that he can't see me.

"Well it's my turn to ask."

"Go ahead."

It was either I ask this question or my curiosity will surely eat me whole.

"Why did you call me sugar yesterday?"

Immediately I heard a loud thump from the other side of the phone and silent cursing.

"A-Aiden?"

"Sorry I fell off my bed." He says.

"I-I honestly I thought you had forgotten that I called you that," He whispers.

"So why did you call me that?" I whisper back. Until something else showed up on my screen, showing that April was calling me.

Why now?!

"Um Aiden, somebody is calling me, I'll talk to you later." I quickly say, hoping he'll maybe just forget about my question.

"Oh, okay. Talk to you later." He says in a somehow dissapointed and confused voice.

We then ended the call and I immediately answer April's call, entertaining her and gossiping about stuff while the call I had with Aiden still kept lingering around my head.

Maybe I shouldn't have asked..?

Just as I ended the call, I look to see that I have one text message. From Aiden himself.

I called you sugar because it just slipped out. Ali, you were always sweet to me since we the book swap that it reminded me of sugar and the word just slipped out. I'm sorry if I ever made you uncomfortable Ali. Forgive me.

-Aiden