“No!” Aria gasped, her sweet face changing in the blink of an eye. Gone were the delicate features. In its place was a frown and lips in a firm, straight line. “Again? That little shi—”
“Language,” I coughed.
“Poobag,” Aria finished, flicking her gaze to mine. Her light-brown eyes looked more like honey in this light, and I hated I noticed that. I shuffled a little away from her. We were too close, and also out of the classroom, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still her teacher.
Shit, what the hell was going on with me today? It was the stress of a new day on the job, that was all. Maybe I should concentrate on eating the chips in my lap and keeping my hands occupied and my attention on Belle. Yep, that was what I would do.
“That’s what I said!” Belle shouted, her hands now on her hips as she paced back and forth. “I told him I was gonna call the cops on him, but Miss Ferry”—she screwed up her face—“told me I couldn’t. So I told her my dad was PDA—”
Aria didn’t do as good a job as me in holding in her laughter. It burst out of her, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her lose control like that, but just hearing the sound and watching the way her body lost control had me grinning like a fool. It was always the smallest things that would set her off, and she had the kind of laugh you couldn’t help but join in with. It was addictive. Pure and simple.
“What?” Belle asked, clearly getting annoyed. “What did I say?”
“Well.” Aria tried to get ahold of herself as she wiped at her face. “PDA means public display of affection. I think you mean DEA?”
“Ugh. You sound like Cade.” Belle swiped her hand through the air and rolled her eyes. “What I was saying is that I hate my teacher. She’s bossy, and—”
“Bossy,” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth, which set Aria off again.
It had been years since we’d sat on this sofa together and laughed, but it felt like only yesterday she was pacing in front of me the same way Belle was now and telling me I shouldn’t move because of my bullet wound in my shoulder. If Belle was bossy now, she had nothing on Aria back then.
“You adults don’t understand anything!” Belle shouted and stomped out of the room and up the stairs, leaving me wide-eyed and wondering what happened to the sweet Belle I’d last seen a couple of months ago.
“Well…” I raised my brows and turned to face Aria. “She’s…”
“Bossy.” Aria nodded. “She’s probably tired from her first day back. Plus, that Henry is a shit bag.”
“Hey now.” I stood and gripped the bowl of chips in my hand as I looked down at her. “You shouldn’t talk about a kid like that.”
“Yeah?” She raised her own brows in response and stood. “That ‘kid’ has been picking on Belle for the last twelve months straight, but she won’t tell anyone. She vents to me, but I’m sworn to secrecy—ah, shit.” Her shoulders drooped. “I just blew our secret code contract.” Aria threw her hands up in the air and narrowed her eyes on me. “You made me break my contract.”
“Me?” I pointed at my chest, wondering what dimension I’d found myself in which made all the women throw their anger my way. “What did I do?”
“You…never mind.” Aria spun around, leaving the room in the same way Belle had, and ran up the stairs.
I wasn’t sure what the hell had happened, but I was starting to realize things were different now. I’d been gone too long to simply slot back into the life I’d left when I was eighteen. Belle was practically a moody teenager, and Aria was no longer the little girl who could be entertained by poo jokes.
Things had changed, but so had I.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever be the same again, and just as the thought occurred to me, I itched to go for a run. To clear my mind of everything and concentrate on the beat of my sneakers hitting the sidewalk. I craved the burn it would cause my muscles, and before I knew it, I was changed and knocking on Belle’s bedroom door.
“Aria?” I pushed the door open a crack. Aria and Belle were sitting on the bed and reading a story. “I need to head out, and Lola is putting Asher to bed. Could you watch Belle until she’s finished?”
Aria blinked several times, her gaze roving from my sneakers, over my shorts, and stopping on my tank top and the tattoos I kept covered up at school.
“You run?” she asked, her voice small. I remembered what she’d said in class ea
rlier today. She liked to run too, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d try out for the track team in a couple of weeks.
“Only when I need to clear my head,” I told her, admitting more to her than I ever had to anyone else. There was always a silent understanding between us, ever since I’d first met her. We were secret keepers—and pretty good ones at that.
But I’d never tell her why I needed to clear my head.
I wouldn’t tell her how the sound of Asher screaming his refusal to have a bath brought back memories of that night. I wouldn’t tell her how the sound of footsteps echoing on the stairs reminded me of the boots hitting the tarmac and heading toward the burning vehicle I’d been trapped in.
I wouldn’t tell her anything, because no one would ever understand what had happened that night. No one would ever feel the pain I felt.
Aria nodded, and Belle looked over her shoulder, her tired, blue eyes piercing through me. I was here to start over, to be closer to my family, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have baggage.