''Where does Bailey live again?" I widened my eyes, looking around me, realizing he had missed two turns already and now we were heading towards; wait, where are we going? Bailey's house was in the other side of the town, a side I never went to alone nor did I exactly know, since it didn't exactly have the best reputation in the world and I didn't want to get jumped by a random guy who'd kill me, take my organs and throw my body in a ditch.

I facepalmed myself hard and looked at him with wide eyes. ''You don't know where Bailey lives? And where the hell were you going this whole time?'' he opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off by gasping dramatically and pointing at him ''I see what you're doing and you're not going to get away with it you pig! You wanted to make me willingly get in your expensive, good looking, dreamy car so that you could have me all to your self, chop me up and then throw me to a river!''

He stared at me with wide eyes as the car came to a stop. His face turned redder and redder by the second before he burst out laughing so hard I thought he was going to have a heart attack. ''You idiotic worm'' I said, punching his shoulder as hard as I could which didn't seem to affect him very much since he just kept laughing.

''S-Sorry, sorry, I-I'll stop, I'll stop'' he said and let out a long breath. While he was laughing his ass off, I found nothing funny about the whole thing. ''It's not funny! We're lost Aiden!'' I yelled, shaking his shoulders. Ohh, hard shoulders, hello.

''Chill, we're not lost, we're just on the other side of town. Now, sit back and tell me where Bailey lives without having a stroke'' he said, completely calm. I gave him her address and put my seat belt on, holding on to it tighter than I hold my pillow. ''Calm down, you're not going to die. I know this place better than I know myself, we'll be there before you can say 'Aiden is the most handsome man on earth'' he said with a smirk and I rolled my eyes.

Some minutes later, we were sitting in his car, outside of Bailey's house. I looked forward, surprised, not daring to look at him. ''Okay, fine, mayybe I exaggerated a little before.'' I said, still looking forward. He just chuckled and shook his head ''Thanks for giving me a ride, anyway'' he shook his head as if saying it was nothing and asked if I wanted him to wait for me so that he could give me a ride home, but I told him I'd take a cab instead. I reached Bailey's front door and waved at him before opening the door which was open? ''Bailey?'' I started looking for her in the trashed room. There were things thrown everywhere, mostly papers and files. Looking around the big living room, I found her in the corner of the room, crying while holding a bunch of papers in her arms.

I ran to her and hugged her, trying to calm her down. She seemed to calm down a little when she saw me but she immediately hid the file she was holding when I came in the room. ''I-I'm s-so sorry Evelyn'' she said and looked down. ''Sorry for what?'' I said, looking at her concerned. ''I-I should've stopped things before they got here'' she said and held the file closer to her. I told her that whatever had happened could be fixed and to calm down, before taking her hand in mine and leading her to the kitchen. She sat down and I made her some tea, like I knew it was what always calmed her down. The papers still sat on her lap, making me curious to know about their content.

She still seemed troubled, her leg moving up and down anxiously as she looked around the room, her glance never quite settling in one spot. ''You don't have to tell me. No matter what happened, I'm sure there's a way to fix things. '' I told her, noticing how her mouth would open but then quickly shut as she tried to find the right words to use but failed. She brought her bloodshot gaze on me, her entire body tense. ''You don't understand'' she said, putting down the tea mug and taking hold of the mysterious papers, sighing. ''These papers; these papers could change everything you think you know! You have no idea how much I've been dying to give them to you but I can't'' she said, tears escaping her eyes.

And that ladies and gentlemen is the point when Evelyn loses the little sanity she had left, dies and the book ends. Goodbye my dear world-

-Hey! Hey you!

Who me?

-Yes you! This is my book and you better get out and let me finish before I beat you with a toilet cleaner.

Well, that was effective. Now, back to the story.

I looked at her, unable of making any sound whatsoever. Did she know what happened to Aiden? Jagger's words from the night of the party came rushing back to my head 'There's so much you don't know about him! You don't even know why he left'. Since Jagger knows, isn't there a high possibility of others knowing too? And since these papers could allegedly 'change everything I thought I knew', could that mean they were the answer to what I was looking for? I looked at the file that was now put on the kitchen table, thinking.

I need to get that file.

I turned to look at Bailey who was now finishing her tea, her eyes now dry, concern still taking over her features. I moved to the other side of the table to hug her. ''Come on, let's clean this up before your mum comes home'' I said and we both made a face knowing how her mum would react if she saw the mess that was now her living room.

Around forty minutes later, we had finished everything and were now sitting on her couch, sweaty and tired. ''What a great way to start off your day right'' she joked, making us both laugh. We sat and talked for a while until her mum came home, in a bad mood as always. Needless to say, she kicked me out. Bailey offered me a ride home but I told her I wanted to walk instead. She had spent the entire night awake, probably in a bad situation emotionally, she needed sleep.

I started walking home, trying to put the pieces together, but I got nothing. There was one question that remained unsolved in my head and it drove me crazy. What the heck is Bailey doing with those papers? There were many possible things that could be on them, but none of them made much sense to me. Why would she be the one to have them and how did they get to her?

I rubbed my temples slightly as I walked, I could already feel a migraine coming. The past few days have been so exhausting both physically and emotionally, it made me want to erase everything that had happened and just go back to my boring, lifeless life. I guess life and I weren't going that well, considering that now, going back to my normal life and trying to pretend none of this ever happened wouldn't be as easy as I thought since now, there was one big ass obstacle in the way, to remind me that things aren't the same anymore.

And that obstacle lived next door.

''Evelyn!'' my little brother ran towards me as I reached our front porch. ''Hi Jay!" I tried to act as enthusiastic as I could, in an attempt to hide how tired I still was from staying up last night and cleaning Bailey's entire living room. ''Come on, Aidie's here!'' he said, using the nickname he always favored on Aiden, regardless of how many times Aiden had expressed his hatred for it. ''Great'' I said, my smile dropping the minute he turned around. The last thing I needed was for him to be in my house.

Okay, who took away the escape button from my life?

I took a deep breath and opened the door, suddenly wishing Jason hadn't disappeared in the speed of Flash, because I wasn't prepared for what I saw. My mum -who still looked oddly happy, was sitting in the couch next to Aiden's mum Catherine, who couldn't seem to be able to stop talking. 'That's not that bad' I thought to myself.

Yeah, that was before I turned my gaze around, only to see Aiden sitting on our smaller couch, on the other side of the room, glaring at my older brother Cole, who was si-

Wait, what? What in the overcooked pasta is going on here?

Before I knew it, I was sitting frozen in my spot, staring at my brother -who was supposed to be in college in the other side of the country, who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room, his arms crossed over his chest, as he glared back at Aiden. Okay, so he still hates him.

Before Aiden left, Cole treated him like his brother. Regardless of the fact that Cole was five years older than him, they still got along. They spent a lot of time together and my brother was happy that he was my best friend, since he 'approved' of him, as he said.

Yeah, their friendship ended faster than F1 drifts. When Aiden left, giving me no explanation whatsoever, Cole was there to see the results of his actions on me. He saw me try to call him everyday, he saw me lock myself in my room, he saw me cry myself to sleep, worrying about my best friend's safety.

Needless to say, when all that happened, he promised me to never let him hurt me again, part of his promise being that he wouldn't let me see him again. Little did he know, all I needed was to see him and make sure that he was okay. No matter how many times I told him that, though, he wouldn't listen. He said I had to stay away from him -as if I could stay further away from him, considering I didn't know if he was alive or not, to keep myself from getting hurt again.

''Evelyn, honey, can you hear me?'' I heard my mum say and turned my head to look at her, realizing that everyone was now looking at me. ''W-What? Oh, yeah'' I said, in a totally not weird manner. ''That's Evelyn? Oh, sweetie, you've grown so much I didn't recognize you for a second!'' said Catherine before getting up to hug me. ''Hi, Mrs Black'' I greeted her with a smile, hugging her back.

''How many times do I have to tell you? I'm Catherine. That title went away a long time ago'' she said lightly, but I noticed Aiden tense in her words. His parents' break up had cost him a lot, especially when her mother remarried one of the biggest assholes he had met in his life. No one knew for sure why that second marriage ended as well, but basically the entire town knew that there was something wrong going on in the family once he became a part of it.

''Right'' I said under my breath, more to myself. I moved towards the one empty spot in the couch, wanting to have some space from Aiden, considering Cole was seconds away from murdering him on the spot and I was broke enough not to be able to buy lunch, let alone get him out of jail. I was inches away from the couch when Jason appeared out of nowhere and sat right where I was about to sit at.

''Hey, I was about to sit there'' I said playfully, trying to hide the fact that I was trying to be Matilda and move him from my seat with my eyes, desperate not to have to sit next to you-know-who. ''It's okay, Jay, there's another seat for Evelyn'' my mum said when Jason frowned. I looked at her, trying my best not to glare at her, before almost dragging myself towards the now smirking idiot that I used to call my best friend.

''Why, hello'' he said, trying not to laugh at me while I noticed that the way he was sitting, we'd be awfully cramped unless he moved over. I rolled my eyes ''There's not exactly much space for me to sit, could you move over?'' I said, keeping my tone cold and I could tell he noticed. ''Hm, let me think; nah, I'm good'' he said with a smile that leaned more towards a smirk, as I realized he was looking more towards Cole than me. Oh, so that's what this is all about.

''Just move over''

''There's plenty of room here''

''Aiden'' I said, my tone even more cold as I glared at him

''Evelyn'' he said, biting his cheeks not to laugh.

Noticing my mum's disapproval of the fact that I was sort of causing a scene on something as simple as taking a seat, I just sat there without another word, my body crashed against his. I joined my brother in the glaring contest they were having, trying to make it clear to Aiden that I was in fact not enjoying what was happening, while he smiled at me instead.

I didn't know why the heck I felt the way I felt since I wanted to be away from him so bad, but all of the sudden It felt somewhat good, being close to him and knowing he's here. The warmth radiating from his body to mine from being as close as we were just made me realize that maybe, just maybe, I didn't want him to move over in the first place, I just wanted to make myself believe that I wanted to be away from him, so that I'd stay away as I had promised myself to do. No, stop, you don't want him near you I tried to tell myself. Looks like that plan went to hell.

Up until the afternoon, Aiden and his mom stayed over since my mum insisted they did so. It was fun, having them around. Their family was always fun to be around, since they always found a way to cheer us up, even if things weren't going well in their lives, and that's something I always admired. Not many people have that strength.

''I think we should get going, you guys should get some rest'' Catherine said, pointing at Jason who was now asleep and then at myself. My head was on Aiden's shoulder and my eyes were closed. I told myself not to sleep while they were here, but I guess I was too tired to stay awake and it was just so comfortable. His arm was around me, holding me close to him as I slept -or so he thought.

Cole had left a long time ago, after his girlfriend had called him, that being pretty convenient considering Cole would've cut Aiden's arm off if he had seen us. Catherine came closer and whispered something that I didn't hear to Aiden before leaving.

''She's asleep, I'll take her to her room'' I heard him whisper to my mum. He took his arm off my shoulder and put it on my waist instead, before hooking his other arm under my knees and carrying me to my room. I put my hand on his chest as I rested my head on his shoulder, near the crook of his neck.

We reached my room and he opened the door, letting us both in. He moved towards the bed where he put my down slowly and gently. The minute I was on the bed, I hugged my pillow, instantly feeling comfortable as he covered me with my blanket.

''Sweet dreams, Eve'' he said, leaning in to kiss my forehead. I heard his footsteps fade as he left the room, the sound of the door closing being the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

~~~

So like, school's starting in a month and like, i don't want it to

-Bailey's got answers boii☕️

-Aiden won't back down and his car's still dreamy ✔️

-Cole's back too? 🤷🏽‍♀️ (people need to stop coming back in this book, whoever got a plain ticket, return it, i have enough plot twists planned, go live under Patrick's rock and let me do my job)

Don't forget to Vote and Comment if you liked it :)))