They had waited to leave until after Kevin announced he was going to find a restroom. As they walked down the hall, Brian nervously asked where they were going; Cynthia only shrugged her shoulders while mentally remarking that it was none of his business. She didn’t need Brian to start worrying about her again. That was in the past. She was fully capable to take care of herself.
She looked over at Howie, who was sitting to the side on one hip. He shot a quick glance at her face, but then dropped his eyes when she caught his stare. Figures, he couldn’t even look at her. After all this time, maybe he was still embarrassed. She wouldn’t blame him if he was.
“Why do you let him do this to you?” He threw his hands up while pacing in front of the door.
“Do what?” She nervously crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t understand why he was reacting this way.
“Hurt you! God, can’t you see? You deserve so much better!”
“No,” she shook her head, “he loves me. I deserve him. He deserves me.”
“Well, then, so do I! I…”
The soft ding of the elevator sounding its arrival snapped Cynthia out of her thoughts. Stepping in, she held her breath, trying to shake away the reminders of the past.
The elevator ride down to the cafeteria was silent. While the flashback occupied Cynthia’s mind, Aaron was contemplating just how he would tell the woman beside him what was going on. He wouldn’t know if she would understand or be freaked out. It seemed logical to spill everything to her. It would help, wouldn’t it? Maybe she could stop it. She could save him.
When they reached the basement floor, Aaron was first to head out. He was held back, though, by Cynthia’s hand which had grabbed his shirt. She pulled the young man to her body for a hug. She had missed him so much. He was like a little brother to her. She wished that she hadn’t lost three years of his life, but she did.
The elevator doors began to close, causing Aaron to jump out of her embrace to quickly stick his hand between them. Sheepishly smiling at Cynthia, he pushed his hand in sync with the retracting door and made room for her exit.
“Thanks,” she murmured while tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
Walking into the room filled with large tables, Cynthia and Aaron found an empty one somewhere in the middle. Although the two had stood in line for their jell-o, neither of them touched the jiggly green substance. They sat in silence, Aaron rubbing his face with the palms of his hands. Cynthia wondered again why he wanted to speak to her. He wasn’t saying a word even though he had made it sound so important. It was worrying her that he wasn’t talking. Aaron always talked.
“Ace, what’s going on? You said you needed to talk to me. Alone?” She stretched her arm over the table to place her hand atop of his.
“I don’t know how to explain this—things to you. It—it’s really complicated,” he stuttered as he pushed away his bowl to the side. “I’m not even sure if I should tell you. I might...get in trouble.”
Now he wasn’t just worrying her, he was really scaring her. Get in trouble? What kind of trouble could he possibly get into?
“Aaron, you can tell me anything. If something is this important, if you’re in danger, you need to tell me.” She was rubbing his hand now, trying to comfort him.
Taking a deep breath, Aaron prepared himself to simply bombard her with all the information he knew. It wouldn’t make sense, but he needed to get everything out. Leaning to the middle of the table, he motioned for Cynthia to come closer. He had to be secretive. When she leaned in, turning her head to hear him better, he began.
“I think that something is going on with Nick’s—” Aaron abruptly stopped his sentence as soon as he felt the large hand clamp on his shoulder.
Cynthia furrowed her eyebrows at Aaron and turned her head to look at him. His face was in complete shock. She raised an eyebrow, about to ask what was wrong when she glanced up. Cynthia’s jaw slightly dropped when she looked up at Kevin’s face. He didn’t seem too happy. And neither did Aaron. It was like they had been caught talking in class, the teacher sneaking up on the student for effect.
“What are you two doing down here?” Kevin looked down at the blonde, gripping his shoulder tightly. Aaron instantly knew that the question wasn’t as sincere as it had sounded. The undertone was threatening, warning him to shut his mouth.
“Aaron was just telling me—”
“I was just telling her what I’ve been up to for the past few years,” Aaron blurted as he shot Cynthia a pleading glance.
“Well, everyone was worried that you two just took off after I left. That is what Brian said, that you ran off in a hurry.”
“We didn’t run off, we came to the cafeteria to talk,” Cynthia snidely replied. She could never put up with his attitude. It always made her want to grab his head and slam it down on something hard.
“Why don’t we head back upstairs, hm? Maybe Nick will wake up soon.”
“I think I want to stay here and finish talking with Aaron,” she spat at him. Who did he think he was, telling them what to do?
“No, Kevin’s right, we should go upstairs. I want to be there when he wakes up.”
Aaron had felt Kevin’s other hand snake up to his other shoulder. He didn’t want to give the man any reason to come after him. He had seen the way he was with his brother. Watching that was bad enough. So, he got up from his seat and waited beside the tall man for Cynthia to follow suit.
Cynthia looked to Aaron, who kept his eyes on the ground, and then to Kevin. There was something fishy about all of this. She hesitated to get up, but finally did. With a loud sigh, she snatched her jell-o up from the table.
“Maybe the guys would like some jell-o?”
Cynthia purposely dropped her Styrofoam bowl of the green snack on the ground while she faked a ‘whoops’. Kevin just rolled his eyes and looked at his watch.
“Oh, darn. Aaron, will you help me get some jell-o for the guys? Do you want any Kevin?”
“No,” he snapped at the brunette. He didn’t have time for her antics. He needed to talk to the boy.
“Well, we’ll only take a minute. Hey, why don’t you just meet us up there?” She smiled smugly when she watched Kevin’s face. He was fuming. But she needed to get to the bottom of everyone’s strange behavior.
“I think I’ll just wait right here,” Kevin imitated the smug smile on Cynthia’s face just to boil her blood. He knew exactly how to push her buttons to make her hate him. Just like she knew what to do to make him want to drop-kick her across the room.
“Come on Aaron, let’s go get some J-E-L-L-O,” she grabbed the silent boy’s arm, tugging him to the direction of the line. When they reached the line, she immediately interrogated him. “What the hell is going on here? Why is he,” she jerked her thumb in the direction that Kevin was in, “acting so weird? Is he why you feel like you might get in trouble? You mentioned Nick? What about Nick?”
Aaron looked overwhelmed at her explosion of questions. He wanted to tell her all that he knew, but he could feel Kevin’s eyes on him. He could still feel his hands on his shoulders, warning him.
Just as Cynthia opened her mouth to ask even more questions, Kevin’s voice boomed across the room.
“Hey, the line is too long. I don’t even think they’d want to eat right now. Let’s go.”
Aaron released a sigh of relief, turning to walk back the elevators. He could hear Cynthia’s protests behind him, but he did not stop. He needed to get out of here. Fast.
The elevator ride back up to the fourth floor was just as quiet as the one down. Only this time, Cynthia stood behind the two males with her arms crossed and an angered look on her face. There was something not right about everything. She tried to think of all the possibilities, but she only drew a blank. All she felt was that Kevin was behind all this.
When they stopped on the floor of the ICU, Cynthia pushed her way past Aaron and Kevin, making her the first one out. She began to head back to the hall where Nick was, but stopped when she didn’t hear the light squeak of rubber soles on the floor behind her. Turing around, Cynthia saw that Kevin and Aaron were still in the elevator.
“Aaron’s going to leave now. I’ll walk him to his car.” Kevin nodded towards the blonde on his right, while giving Cynthia a halfhearted wave.
As the doors started to slide shut, Cynthia saw Kevin place his hand on Aaron’s shoulder again. Aaron was looking down at his feet, squirming slightly against the older man’s touch.
Yep, something was definitely going on.
