Aida rose from the couch when she heard the key turn in the door. Cassidy barely had the light on before Aida stood in front of her.
“Whoa,” Cassidy said and took a startled step back.
Aida glanced over her shoulder to make sure Kyle wasn’t with her, but he usually found somewhere else to stay at night. Satisfied Cassidy was alone, Aida blocked her from going any further into the apartment.
“Did you know your brother was coming?” Aida demanded.
Cassidy frowned at her before turning, closing the door, and locking it. “Do you mean Julian?”
“Yes, Julian,” Aida said impatiently. “Did you know he was coming?”
“No.” Cassidy shrugged out of her coat and hung it on the tall, wooden rack beside the door. “He decided to surprise us. You saw him?”
“I saw him.”
Cassidy’s eyebrows drew together. “What is it between you two?”
Aida realized confronting Cassidy like this had probably been the wrong move, but she’d felt ambushed tonight, and she’d hoped her friend hadn’t been keeping this information from her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, he was a little, ah… surprised to learn you might be at the bar tonight.”
“You mean annoyed to learn that, not surprised, right?”
A hint of colored tinged Cassidy’s cheeks. “No, not annoyed, just…”
“Upset? Angry? Disappointed?” Aida suggested when Cassidy’s voice trailed off.
Seeming to decide it was better to evade Aida’s question, Cassidy changed the subject. “What happened between you two? I thought you were friends.”
“So did I,” Aida said as she ran her fingers through her hair and paced away from Cassidy. “I don’t know what changed.”
“Nothing happened between you two?”
She detected the skepticism in Cassidy’s voice and had no idea how to handle it. She’d kept their kiss a secret for so long, she couldn’t imagine revealing it now. Unable to meet Cassidy’s eyes, she stalked past the gray sofa where Kyle slept. The couch was one of the few new things in their apartment as Kyle refused to sleep on anything secondhand, and Aida didn’t blame him.
The small, two-bedroom apartment was all they could afford; almost everything in it was used, and they were a little cramped, but Aida loved the place. The old wood floors glistened in the sun shining through the windows; the cream-colored walls held some of her photographs, a couple of paintings, and one picture of dogs playing poker that Kyle found hilarious.
Aida and Cassidy were adamant the picture wasn’t coming home with them when he pulled it from a stack of other photos he discovered at a flea market. However, Kyle was already getting shafted by having a couch instead of a bed or a room, and after reminding them of this and telling them how uncomfortable the couch was with big, pleading eyes, they capitulated to him. Aida would never tell him the thing had grown on her over the years, and it amused her now.
The apartment was small, but they’d turned it into something cozy and theirs. And though the bathroom looked like something straight out of the seventies, the appliances in the galley kitchen were all brand new. The apartment underwent a renovation shortly before they moved in. Apparently, the bathroom hadn’t factored into the budget, but she’d grown used to the avocado tiling and pink sink.
The twins could have asked their parents for help or used their abilities to get a nicer place, but they were enjoying the struggle of making it on their own as much as Aida.
“Did something happen between you two?” Cassidy asked again.
Aida stopped before the window to stare down at the sleepy city street. With the bars shut down, there were a few stragglers on the road, but most were already home. The streetlights illuminated patches of the sidewalks, and the rumble of cars had dwindled.
“He kissed me right before he left,” Aida admitted.
“Julian kissed you?”
The disbelief in Cassidy’s voice caused Aida to scowl at her over her shoulder. “I’m not some hideous swamp monster.”
Cassidy chuckled. “Far from. It’s just that… well, it is or was Julian. Back then, I wasn’t sure he knew what a girl was; he barely picked his head up from his computer. But I don’t think I ever knew my brother as well as I thought. I definitely never expected him to take off the way he did.”
Aida wasn’t the only one Julian abandoned when he left. However, she was the only one he hadn’t contacted since he left, and he had not been happy to see her.
“So he kissed you,” Cassidy murmured. “That’s an interesting development.”
“There’s no development,” Aida said as she turned away from the window. “He kissed me and left. It was a real confidence booster.”
“It’s still strange,” Cassidy said as she made her way into the kitchen.
Aida plopped onto the sofa and stared at the blank screen of the flat-screen TV hanging on the wall across from her. The refrigerator door opened and plastic crumpled as she removed one of the blood bags from inside.
“In case you haven’t noticed,” Aida said, “your family dynamic is a little weird, or at least it is to every human on the planet.”
Cassidy laughed, and when she stepped away from the fridge, the TV screen reflected her as she moved about the kitchen. “I suppose that’s true, but Julian was always so into his computers that I figured he’d be the brother who hung out around the house for the rest of his life. I never saw him traveling the world, and I definitely never saw him with a girl.”
“My kiss drove him to leave and visit different continents.”
Aida kept her tone teasing as she said this, but nausea twisted in her stomach. She felt strange and vulnerable after finally voicing her secret and the fear her kiss drove him away.
The moment had changed her forever while it made it so Julian couldn’t stand to be around her. She’d never let him beat down her self-confidence, but she couldn’t deny her ego was a little bruised over it.
The door to the microwave popped open, and the buttons beeped as Cassidy hit them. “What were you guys talking about before he kissed you?”
Aida had replayed her last time with Julian so much she could vividly recall every detail of it. “Going away to college and returning my life to some semblance of normalcy.”
“Hmm,” Cassidy said as the microwave hummed. “Yet here you are living with two vampires.”
Aida draped her arm over the sofa as she turned to smile at Cassidy. “Call me a glutton for punishment.”
“Glutton,” Cassidy said.
“I knew your family would always be a part of my life, but Arizona was my chance to… to…”
“To get away,” Cassidy said as she popped open the microwave and removed the bag of blood.
“Yes, but not from you guys, and certainly not for Mollie, but from…”
Aida’s voice trailed off as she tried to think of how to explain what she felt back then. She decided to go with the simple truth.
“From my memories of what happened on the island. As much as I love all of you, being in Maine was a constant reminder of what happened there. Every time I walked by Doug’s monument, I saw him lying in that boat, dead.”
Cassidy winced as she gripped the bag of blood tighter.
“Sorry.” Aida wished she could take her words back. “I didn’t mean… I know how much you all loved him. I didn’t know him long, but I know he was a good man.” She and Mollie wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for him, and because of that, she thanked him every day for his sacrifice.
“Yes, he was,” Cassidy said with a sad smile. “Go on with what you were saying.”
Aida hesitated as she considered her words carefully before speaking again. “There are so many others who never made it off the island too. Over time, I’ve realized I’m one of them. I mean, I’m here and I’m alive, but a part of me never escaped.”
Cassidy opened her mouth to say something before closing it. Then, she set the bag on the counter and walked over to sit beside Aida on the sofa. She rested her hand on Aida’s knee.
“But you did escape,” she said.
“Did I? I still have nightmares about it. I can’t go out in public without having pepper spray and a knife on me. I’m always wondering what others are thinking and plotting. Are they the next Ted Bundy? Or are they some psycho vampire who is looking to kidnap and hunt people?”
“I’ll never understand what you went through, but you’re free, Aida.”
“Not yet, but one day, I will be.”
“You know I’m here for you, and Kyle and the rest of the family are too.”
But the one she wanted to be there the most, wasn’t. And she was not going to give him the satisfaction of moping about it. “I know.”
They sat for a few minutes before Cassidy spoke again. “So… Julian.”
“Julian,” Aida muttered as she picked at some lint on her sweatpants.