Chapter Ten #2
Songs blasted through the air. A crowd of people dressed in various colors, sparkles, shoes, and jackets jumped up and down, moved left and right, and fell to the ground in great laughter.
Some girls wore suits, some girls wore magnificent dresses with fake gems raining down the skirt, and some girls glowed in body hugging black.
The boys hung their arms around each other.
Some took off their jackets and used them to dance with.
Others wore crooked bow ties, loosened ties, and some without anything wrapped around the collar.
Colorful socks with silly animal prints pulled up to their ankles, some purposefully mismatched.
Shoes squeaked against the floor. Makeup glimmered on the corners of students’ eyes.
They danced with their partners, they danced with their friends, and they danced with strangers.
The strong scent of alcohol blanketed everyone as shouts of lyrics rang in the air.
In the midst of joyful chaos, Aiden’s eyes met with Brendan’s, who was waiting by a table of non-alcoholic punch in the back of the room. His feet picked themselves up without thinking, and he slipped past the moving bodies with a heartfelt pull toward the boy rushing towards him with a big smile.
When Brendan froze as Aiden approached, he looked down at himself in his modern hanfu with the glimmering dragon. He rubbed his hands against his side. “Ah, it’s weird, isn’t it?”
“No.” Brendan looked him up and down. “It’s amazing.”
Aiden believed him.
“So, shall we dance?”
He glanced at the other couples bumping into each other or clinging at each other’s shoulders. “I have no idea how to.”
“It’s easy. We’ll just hold each other like this and…sway. And when we get tired of that, we’ll just jump around.”
Aiden smiled and nodded. Carefully, Brendan placed his arms around his waist. The warmth that Aiden had come to recognize as Brendan spread through his body, even more so with the silk’s delicacy. He felt every individual finger pressing against him.
“So, this is dancing.” An electric spark traveled through his body when he wrapped his arms around Brendan’s shoulders. Brendan’s blue eyes glowed of stars, and he almost laughed at the forced neutral expression that failed to cover Brendan’s growing smile.
“Why didn’t you go dancing in high school?”
“I was busy. Family stuff.”
“This is more fun than in high school. Legal alcohol, and less people caring about what they actually look like.” Brendan swayed. A love song hummed in the background. “What are you wearing actually? Is there a name for it?”
“It’s a hanfu for men. A modernized version.”
“You bought it?”
Aiden shook his head. “Made.”
“What’s the traditional version?”
“A lot more layers and more embroidery. The dragon is part of the actual cloth, but traditionally, it would be threaded in. The Chinese symbol is the only thing embroidered.”
“Is it your last name?”
“Yeah—Hui.”
“Do your last names have meaning?”
“All Chinese names are made up of a collection of words, so short answer, yes.”
“What does it mean?”
“Cinder.”
Brendan looked down at Aiden’s clothes once more. “Is that why it’s a silvery blue?”
“I think so. I never asked.” They swayed closer to the crowd, and Aiden didn’t even know how far they moved from the back until he looked around at the collection of different clothes swirling around them. A grin reached his face. “You like it?”
Brendan nodded. His blue eyes traveled over him.
Gazing at his dark hair. Passing every inch of his skin.
Admiring his nose, mouth, and his eyebrows.
Despite the bodies enveloping them in a room that shrunk with every second, Aiden found that he was alone with Brendan in a piece of their private world.
His heart swelled, and he waited for Brendan to speak.
“I…” Brendan lowered his eyes. Aiden strained to hear the mumble, but suddenly, Brendan’s shoulders straightened. Aiden clutched him tighter, slightly jumping when Brendan looked straight into his eyes. “I think you’re the most beautiful person in the world right now.”
The song around them changed, and dreamy love shifted to drunken chaos. Students clapped, danced, and jumped into the air, waving their arms wildly.
They continued to sway. Brendan’s breaths fell against his ear. Brendan’s fingers pressed more against his body.
I like him so much, Aiden realized.
“Can I kiss you?” Brendan asked.
Aiden’s eyes widened. A blush crept across his face, and he looked away with burning red ears. He nodded.
Brendan’s thumb brushed against his cheek. Turning, Aiden leaned forward, shocked at his own actions.
Their lips met while the music pounded against the walls.
People sang louder in incoherent lyrics, and the alcohol flowed faster.
The dancing lights of the disco balls blinded anyone with their eyes open, but Aiden’s eyes were closed.
They kissed and kissed some more. His heart soared, his hands tightened, and in that moment, he felt a happiness he never expected to feel.
Despite the utter chaos of the room, in those moments with Brendan, he discovered a world of true peace.
The two awoke to reality after getting jostled by a group of friends.
They laughed along with the friendly yet clearly drunk students, but the strangers had shattered their pocket of time.
Their eardrums vibrated in pain at the music, and Brendan took one exasperated look at Aiden before clasping Aiden’s hand and pulling him outside of the room and the building.
They ran to the campus courtyard, and Brendan flopped onto the grass with a flourish of joy.
Aiden carefully sat down beside him, and the two shared the silence of a beautiful night hovering in stillness. He couldn’t tell if the stars actually burned clearer or if he imagined everything brighter.
A pinky hooked with his. Surprised, he turned and watched Brendan slyly take his ring finger, then his middle finger. One at a time, until their hands clasped together. “How was it?”
Aiden tipped his head. “How was what?”
“This not-high-school prom. This ball. Dance. Party. Whichever you want to call it.”
“It was fun.” The truth resonated in every fiber of his being. He smiled. “It was fun.”
Brendan’s hand tightened around his. Aiden spread the edges of his clothes out in a circle around him and leaned forward to admire the silver moon hanging in the night sky. He closed his eyes to drink in the scent of every leaf, every blade of grass, and every flower blooming.
“Brendan.”
“Hmm?”
“Say to me what you first said to me after the club meeting.”
“The club meeting?”
“The first one.” With his free hand, he reached for the moon. “When you told me to choose where the club would go to take pictures.”
“Anywhere you want to go.” Aiden heard Brendan move beside him. “I didn’t say this, but I also meant whatever you want to do.”
Whatever I want to do. He continued staring at the sky, only vaguely aware of Brendan’s hand slipping away. I want this life. I want to find out what happened to my brother.
He was going to confront his stepmother and let her know he wouldn’t stand for the way she treated and used him anymore.
Something clicked beside him, and the strange noise combined with his decision reminded him of the Infinite meeting with cutting-edge clarity. Alarmed, Aiden looked down at his phone. Already? He stood up and looked at the watchtower behind them. “I’ve got to go!” he exclaimed and took off running.
“Why? Aiden—wait, I have to ask you something!”
“I’ve really got to go—I can’t explain. It’s almost midnight. I’ll text you!”
“Aiden, I took a—”
His thumping heart overtook Brendan’s words. His fingers flew in calling an uber, but Aiden turned around briefly to jump and wave. “I’ll see you again!” he promised. “In fact, I’ll see you very soon!”
The campus blurred. He dashed away from the buildings and onto the sidewalk of the campus’s main street. He sighed with relief at the car turning around the corner, and he politely greeted the driver while settling into the back seat.
His breaths came up short, and his heart pounded against his chest, but the smile remained pinned to his face.
It felt like no time had passed at all.
Whether in a crowded room of strangers with music drumming against their ears or in the peaceful field of a beautiful night with starlight floating down to their faces, time slowed with Brendan. He relaxed against the seat, still smiling.
His brother was right. He found his place.
Beyond the windows of the car, he heard the watchtower ring. He counted the twelve calls from the clock.
If the stepfamily left after midnight, they would take longer to get back than him. I made it. He watched the world pass, suddenly brighter under the guidance of the brilliant full moon.
He asked the driver to drop him off a block away, in case his stepfamily somehow ended up driving back at the same time. Humming, Aiden danced in the moonlight, closing his eyes to the gentle kisses from the night, and skipped toward the house.
He stopped.
The porch light was on, and shadowed figures moved.
Aiden’s heart sank. His body weighing a thousand pounds, he dragged his feet forward, climbing up the porch. Zhu Zhu looked as if they sat outside for some time with her hair pulled down, her eyes engrossed in the iPad, and her shoes kicked off. He Bao watched him warily.
His stepmother gasped upon seeing him.
“You!” she screeched, charging at him only to stumble backward as if a bullet had shot her in the chest. “So it was you.”
“Me?” Aiden stared. “Me what?”
“You’re the traitor. I had hoped you wouldn’t be.” Gasping, she threw her jewelry off to Zhu Zhu, who made minimal effort to avoid the flying objects. “To think you would betray your own family!”
Aiden stared harder. “What are you talking about?”
“Why would you go out dressed like that? You were clearly meeting with other families. Any clothing with the Hui sigil signifies a place of formal importance.”
He looked down at his hanfu. “I went to a formal dance.” He hadn’t blinked since her insane accusation.
“You at a formal dance? Who would you even go with? It’s not like you have friends. Make up a better lie.”
“Me lying?” Biting fury flushed his entire body.
He glared at her. Her crossed arms loosely pressed against her chest. Despite her accusation, her shoulders hung relaxed.
Her eyes dared him to prove her wrong in front of her two children where one appeared far too bored to engage and the other always unfailingly at her side.
Do you have anything to defend yourself with? Her gaze screamed at him.
Aiden could just answer the question. He could dial Brendan’s phone number, put him on speaker, and have his stepmother hear the boy on the other end who asked him to the dance.
Instead, he snapped at the bait dangling before him.
The words slipped out, and he relished in the truth blared in earshot of her two children.
“Are you sure you should be questioning me, when you’re the one who took suspicious photographs of my brother before he died? ”
Her face paled, and the arms tightened around her body. Aiden watched Zhu Zhu lift her head up from her iPad, and He Bao turned to his mother with disbelief in his eyes.
Aiden continued. “It’s hidden in She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuang. The one with the green cover. You should go look for it.”
“He Bao, grab him.” His stepmother’s command shrilled in the quiet night. She yanked at her son’s arm. “Are you just going to let him accuse your mother like this? Grab him!”
He Bao’s eyes flared. Aiden counted his steps and stepped to the side just as the taller boy lunged at him. He positioned his legs to keep his feet sturdy on the ground, and he watched He Bao’s eyes to analyze where his stepbrother would aim next to attack him.
Pain connected to the side of his head as his stepmother smashed her heavy bag against him.
He stumbled, reeling, and He Bao wasted no time pulling him to the porch’s floor.
Aiden’s chin smashed against the wood. He Bao sat down on him, while his stepmother ran over and kicked him in the stomach.
He heaved for air, and he barely caught his breath before his stepmother kicked him in the same spot with acute intensity.
“Ma, I have him down. I’m stronger than him. You don’t have to attack him like that—I got this!” He Bao yelled, but she slammed her bag down on Aiden’s head once more, leaving Aiden wheezing.
“You want me to remain calm after he accused me of being the traitor? Accused me of putting us in this precarious situation where our entire lives hinge on a missing will!”
“You’re the one who decided I accused you,” Aiden spat. The purse swiped against his head again.
“You traitor!”
Zhu Zhu gasped, staring with trembling shoulders.
“Zhu Zhu!” Aiden reached for her, but He Bao grabbed his arm and pinned it. “River—I’m not the traitor!”
“You’re trying to turn us against Ma. Just like a traitor.”
“She’s the one hiding things. Zhu Zhu, go to the study room. I swear you’ll find those photographs!”
“Zhu Zhu, call Mr. Zhou this instant. Tell him to come here and to get rid of Hui Lang as quickly as possible.” His stepmother kicked him again, knocking the air out of his body.
“Ma, I got this. Stop kicking him like this—it’s unnecessary,” He Bao protested.
“What have I taught you He Bao? The second you show any sympathy toward the enemy, you are nothing but a dead body. Zhu Zhu! What are you waiting for?”
“I’m calling—I’m calling.” Zhu Zhu’s voice shook. Her hands scrambled for the contact in her phone. The phone slipped from her hand to the ground, and her mother screeched at her.
I can’t breathe…
Aiden could no longer feel his legs, and his whole body ached too much for him to throw He Bao off. As his stepmother’s flurried attacks continued to rain down on him, Aiden looked up to see Zhu Zhu’s terrified eyes. Her eyes were the last thing he saw before the darkness closed in.