19 Chapter Nineteen: Wayward Years

CHAPTER NINETEEN: WAYWARD YEARS

Aiden didn't know he was holding Zahra's arm so tightly until he heard her wince and pried off his hand. She adjusted her white shirt and walked passed Aiden to his room. Aiden wondered how she could walk so elegantly in a pair of heels so high that she was almost taller than him. It hadn't been his intention to hurt her arm. Maybe he was so used to seeing Zahra as one of his boys that he hardly sees her as a lady.

They have been best friends since forever, since they were in grade school and eight years old. She was tough, brilliant and so not a push about. When in public people assumed they were dating or in love with each other but that couldn't be further from the truth. He admits Zahra was a beautiful woman and any man in his right sense would fall for her in a minute but he has never had those feelings for her. he could see her naked and simply hand over a tower to her without feeling anything. He was sure Zahra felt the same about him. They would die for each other but they rather die than date each other too.

Aiden still remembered when they were younger when he would drive Zahra to a hang out place to meet a potential suitor, he would kiss her cheeks and tell her if the guy was a jerk, he was just a phone call away and he would come and get her. Zahra would of course reply that she could kick the ass of any man including Aiden.

Then one day things got weird between them, after a horrible date Zahra came to his house to cool off but he was in the shower. Aiden was singing and dancing in the bathroom when someone barged inside the bathroom and he paused. He didn't know who would dare barge in until he peeked and saw Zahra sitting on the bathroom floor with a frown. They were about sixteen years of age.

"Zahra, I am naked!" Aiden was super uncomfortable. Some boundary wasn't meant to be broken.

"I wonder how his face will look like if I pushed it to the wall or use a permanent marker to scribble the word 'JERK' on his face"

"What are you blabbing about?" Aiden asked her and off the hot water but he remained rooted at the spot.

"Jake! I am talking about that buffoon, Jake" Zahra told him and he could hear how angry she was.

"And why do we have to talk about Jake while I am in the shower and butt naked as the day I was born?" Aiden asked her.

"Don't flatter yourself Alexander; nobody wants to see your wiener…well except all the girls in school especially that ass face Millie" Zahra said and moved closer to look at him but Aiden closed the curtain.

"What! A girl is allowed to be curious" she told him and sat back down.

"Can we continue this uncomfortable discussion when I am dressed?" Aiden asked her.

"No! Because if I leave this room, I might go back to Jake's house and set his clothes on fire"

"What did Jake do?" Aiden had asked and switch on the water to finish bathing.

"Well, I caught him sucking face with one of your groupie, Millie…she's such a slut" Zahra told her best friend.

Aiden knew that Zahra really liked Jake and even though he warned her that going out with the captain of the school swim team was a bad idea. Aiden or correctly Alex was the captain of the football team.

"Can you hand the towel to me, Z?"

Zahra handed the towel to him and he used it to wrap his lower body as he stepped out of the bath tub, only to join her and sit on the floor.

"Sorry Z, I know you liked him even though I really don't see why. Are you okay?" Aiden asked her.

"No but I will be. But promise me that you will not confront him and defend my injured honor like some primitive animal" Zahra looked accusingly at him. Her last two boyfriends had their pinky fingers mysteriously broken a day after their relationship was over. She knew it was Aiden that broke them but he never confessed to the crime.

"Whatever you want, princess…I won't say a word to Jake, I promise"

Zahra rested her head on his shoulder and they sat there for a very long time until Aiden's mother walked in them. it was a long uncomfortable discussion that involved words like responsibility and reckless.

Aiden kept his word and he did not talk to Jake but the janitor did find him locked in the female locker room the next day. He had spent the greater part of the day in a small space. Aiden denied knowing anything about it.

Aiden followed Zahra into his room. They needed to figure out what was going on and a way to fix it.

"What is going on, Alex?" Zahra asked as soon she sat on the sofa.

"Aaliyah just told me that the father of her baby is a man named Alex B. she met him here in Palm spring last year and she doesn't remember his face" Aiden was panicking.

"Well…I...am...Sure they are millions of guys named Alex B or Alex Blaine in your case, right? You would remember if you slept with a certain red head and got her pregnant…right?" Zahra asked.

"i…I don't…well, I am not proud but after Kate did what she did, I fell into a dark period and most of those years are kind of blurry and jumbled. I don't know whether I slept with her or not" Aiden said with a frown.

"Alex…there is someone else with the name Alex B and you know him very well" Zahra said uneasily.

"Please, don't say it" Aiden murmured.

"Your father, Alex…There is a good chance that the father of Aaliyah's baby is your father"