Chapter 20: The Way That You Are
Richard was staring at his son’s face in pleasant surprise for the umpteenth time.
Even though he’d seen it yesterday, he just couldn’t help himself.
Gone was his long, messy, shoulder-length hair, replaced by a neat, stylish, medium-length wolf cut with center-parted curtain bangs that fell loosely over his forehead.
All in all, the cut had a slightly tousled, effortless finish reminiscent of something from the late 90’s.
"Pops... you’re staring again," Aiden remarked in amusement as he placed their evening meals on the table.
Spaghetti with meat balls.
"Can you blame me? You’re looking more and more like your mother, every day." he replied with a warm smile.
Pulling out his chair and subsequently taking his seat, a light smile tugged on Aiden’s lips as he proceeded to eat.
For as long as he could remember, the only major semblance he bore to his father was his olive-green irises.
Everything else was an almost one to one copy of his mother’s features.
That said, just because his mother had been one gorgeous hell of a woman, hadn’t translated perfectly into his own masculine features...
Well, that was until recently... or at least some part of it.
"You also got taller by the way," his father casually remarked as he rolled his pasta around his fork.
To that, Aiden’s fork froze mid-raise, his spaghetti dangling.
"Wait, seriously?" he asked a second after in pleasant surprise.
Aiden had never been insecure about his height. Not once. 5’8 was perfect and no one could tell him otherwise.
However, since he was the shortest in his clique, he was often the subject of his buddies’ playful jabs. Which was why hearing that from his dad had him markedly pleased.
"Yeah. I noticed my hand doesn’t go as low as it used to whenever I try to ruffle your hair." Richard simply replied as he munched on his food, his free hand gesturing vaguely.
For a hot second, Aiden didn’t respond.
Then he suddenly burst into laughter, much to his father’s amusement.
Following that, both individuals dined in comfortable silence.
A couple minutes later, Aiden cleared the dishes and made his way upstairs and into his room.
Retrieving his phone from his pocket, he opened up his messenger app with plans to check in on what his friends were up to.
Judging by the constant pings he’d been getting from their group the last hour, he was rather curious what they were discussing.
However, just as he was about to click on the group, a message from an unknown number popped up.
-
Unknown Number: Heyyy
-
’The hell?’ Aiden squinted, his confusion evident.
Then he pulled up the number’s profile picture... not that it helped to identify said contact, as it was simply the silhouette of a lady’s shadow doing the peace sign on a wall.
That said, given Aiden had read from the internet one time about how a lady’s interest in the opposite gender could be measured based on the numbers of ’y’s in their ’hey’, he was genuinely confused to see the message.
’Paralinguistic cue, it was called?’ he found himself recalling the thread from a year ago quite easily.
The fact that he even remembered it had him pleasantly surprised. Perks of his upgraded attributes, he believed.
Still, Aiden hadn’t been all that invested in the intricacies of it at the time.
From what he could remember though;
’Hey’ was neutral.
’Heyy’ indicated friendliness.
’Heyyy’ signified strong interest.
’Heyyyy’ was going into booty call territory...
’Or was it an indicator that she was maybe drunk?’ Aiden scrunched his nose, a thoughtful frown on his features.
In any case, it didn’t matter.
What did matter though, was that he couldn’t quite remember leaving an impression on anyone enough to warrant this.
As he hadn’t been the popular kid in school thus far, and was more or less a normie that never quite stood out despite being in a relatively well-known clique, he was even more perplexed.
’Or maybe I’m just overthinking it,’ Aiden dismissed his previous thoughts, opting to be more practical.
"Probably just a wrong number." he muttered to himself as he replied.
-
Aiden: Hello. Might I ask who this is?
-
The response came instantly.
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Unknown Number: Lizzie 😊.
-
Aiden blinked. Then he replied as he would a friend.
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Aiden: Oh. Hey, Lizzie. What’s up?
-
No sooner had he dropped the message, he immediately backtracked and headed over to his buddies’ group without awaiting a response from her.
Aiden’s stance on Lizzie hadn’t changed one bit.
He may have been attracted to her--and probably still was, if he was being honest--but he had far more self-respect for himself than to engage in whatever shenanigans she was up to.
Besides, his mother--bless her late soul--had always reminded him to be a gentleman and know his own worth. That advice of hers, only seemed to resonate stronger the older he grew.
More so when his Pops was a perfect blueprint to follow.
Afterall, despite the many advances the man had gotten over the years following his wife’s passing, he’d prioritized and remained committed to raising his son first and foremost the best he could.
Anyhoo...
-
Casper: Gentlemen, I made a list. [Ten fucking things to do before graduation.pdf].
Larry: Hohoho! Now, this is the kind of shit I love to read... and do.
Clyde: I am so, so down for number four.
Benjamin: I see a whole lotta detentions in our future.
Casper: Such little prices to pay for such great memories. I say we start with a bang, knock the first one off the list.
Clyde: We gotta get to school before 6:30 am though...
Larry: Sneak into the audio booth. Plug in the dongle. Install the alternative bluetooth software. Have our phones connect to it so it can cache it. Get the hell on out before 7:00 am.
Benjamin: Shouldn’t be a problem for all of us.
Casper: All of us except, he-who-must-not-be-woken-before-eight. I’m talking about you, Aiden! Don’t you dare flake on us, man!
-
Aiden’s lips twitched, amusement dancing in his eyes.
Then he let out a resigned sigh.
Seeing as they’d already roped him into their shit without even asking for his input, he opted to drop a single text in response to all their discussion thus far.
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Aiden: I gotta get new friends.
-
Almost immediately, he called out;
"Pops! There’s a fifty-percent chance I might get detention tomorrow!"
"Why?!" came a response from downstairs that was equal parts baffled, concerned and intrigued.
"Me and the boys intend to rig the audio booth to prank the entire assembly tomorrow!" Aiden explained.
For a brief second, no response came.
Then,
"Make sure to get it on video!" Richard replied, his tone clearly amused.
"I will!" Aiden laughed in response.
No sooner had he done that, he placed the phone aside, promptly got off the bed and made his way into the bathroom.
A couple minutes after, he was out.
Without so much as a wasted minute, he dried up, slipped into his PJs and went to bed.
Afterall, if he was going to be heading out to school that early, he had to make time for his daily quests earlier than he usually did.
*
Aiden awoke to something that had him rolling his tongue around the insides of his mouth.
-
[Ding!]
[Time-Limited Quests Updated!]
⸢Time-limited Quests
› Don’t get comfortable, big dog.
└ Make $500,000 before your fiscal year end – [5 LP]
-
Honestly, maybe he was going insane, but Aiden could feel an almost perceptible taunt from the system.
Then,
"Why are you the way that you are?" he asked the glowing screen of green while levelling it a vindictive stare for the next couple seconds.
Though he was rather certain he knew why the dastardly thing had made up this quest, it didn’t detract from the fact that Aiden was starting to have a love-hate relationship with the system.
Seemingly realizing it wasn’t going to respond to him either way though, the young chap dragged a palm down his face with an exasperated groan, any possible wooziness wiped off his features.
Then, with a resigned sigh, he pulled off his blanket and got off the bed.
’I’ll circle back to you later.’ he inwardly remarked.
...
...
...
The weather was a tad bit cool, the morning breeze caressing Aiden’s face.
Dressed in a black hoodie, and a nose mask over his face, he checked the time on his phone as he awaited the arrival of his buddies.
The time was 6:10 am and yet, there were no signs of the little shits arriving.
Just as he was about to text them though, a familiar Lexus came to a halt a couple meters away from the school gate and a handsome teenage blonde quickly exited from the back.
Seemingly directing his driver to go around the back, the figure’s sky-blue irises soon stopped on a figure standing on the opposite end of the road a few seconds after.
Watching him walk over, the youth couldn’t help but ask, an evident hint of genuine surprise mixed with disbelief in his tone;
"Aiden?"
"Casper, you little shit! I’ve been waiting here for over fifteen minutes!" Aiden replied to the striking, sophisticated-looking blonde who couldn’t help but cackle in response;
"Oh shit! It really is you!"
Then he offered him a bro hug as he remarked;
"What’s with the get-up?!"
"Sir. I do not intend to be caught lacking in case we get busted skulking on school grounds before doing the deed." Aiden remarked as he partook in the brief hug which devolved into a stylized handshake of sorts.
"And that, is why we delegated you the helicopter parent of the group," Casper humorously said and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I never agreed to that," Aiden’s lips twitched to which he then asked, his tone suddenly pressing;
"Wait a minute. When’d you guys come to that decision?!"
"Aw. You’re in denial," Casper kept patting his shoulders with a mock gaze of pity.
Before Aiden could counter that though, a familiar jeep pulled up into the area and parked a few meters away from the gate.
Watching three youths climb out of it, all of them casually dressed, Aiden couldn’t help but call out;
"Are you twerps seriously not the least bit worried that we might get caught?!"
"Hey yo!?" Larry amusedly exclaimed, clearly in disbelief that their buddy had arrived before them.
"Well, I’ll be damned! The sun must’ve risen from the west today if you’re already here!" Benjamin audibly remarked instead in pleasant surprise upon spotting Aiden.
"What are you roleplaying, Aiden? A ninja?" Clyde flashed an intrigued grin as they jogged over.
"Try me. I’ll bust some shurikens in your ass." Aiden countered, his hands retrieving the imaginary weapons from his pockets.
"Woah, woah, woah. Not into the kinky shit, man. Take that elsewhere." Clyde casually shot back while adjusting his glasses, an amused smirk tugging on the corners of his lips.
Pointedly, Aiden looked at him like he would skin him alive, a reaction that earned a genuine chuckle from the group as he said with mock vengeance in his tone;
"I’ll circle back to you too later, you little shit,"
’Too?’ his buddies seemed to wonder.
But Aiden had already turned to face the school gates, and so did the quartet as he said;
"For now though,"
"Operation Prank the Assembly, is a go." Casper declared as they began moving into the school with caution.
