11. Aaron
AARON
Frustrated, I tore the paper out of the legal pad, crumpled it, and threw it away.
What I had written was so dumb that being in the trash was probably an improvement for it.
And yes, I was the only student in the entire university who preferred to write things out longhand, in part because I already spent too much of my time texting.
It was a natural result when you had a family as big as mine.
My grandparents had raised—and eventually adopted—over a dozen kids over the years, so we were a huge crew.
Most of my siblings had already moved out of the house by the time I was taken in at age seven.
But we were still family, and now I was an uncle to a half dozen little ones.
Between them and my grandparents, I was always getting messages wishing me luck on a test or asking how I was doing. It was sometimes a full-time job just to answer them. But I loved my family, and I knew how lucky I was. Still, it would be nice if one of them was a policy writer I could consult.
The problem that needed addressing was the very dim streetlights on the far side of the science building.
They barely illuminated anything at night, which was both a tripping hazard and unsafe in other ways.
Female students needed to be able to see when they were walking around at night. Everybody did, actually.
It was a no-brainer, but I couldn’t get the words right. Last year, I would have asked Diego for help with the phrasing, but he’d been different this semester—more distant and often distracted. I couldn’t figure out why that was, but any time I brought it up, he told me he was fine.
Cody was upstairs, but he wasn’t the best person to brainstorm with. Unless the subject was music. Then he was all in.
And then there was Mia.
As soon as her name crossed my mind, I knew I wasn’t going to get any more writing done this afternoon.
Not that the three sentences I had crumpled up really counted as writing.
I’d been thinking about her a lot lately.
She was my favorite of the new roommates this year, which probably wasn’t fair to the others, but Jenna was never here, Raymond was an asshole, and well, Evan seemed like an okay guy—though he looked like he was fourteen. I just hadn’t spent much time with him.
Mia was just so easy to talk to. And fun to joke with. And fun to tease. And fun to sit next to on the sofa, side by side, talking, laughing and…
But it was just hanging out, nothing more. I wasn’t looking for anything more, and she wasn’t either. Still, it’d been a long time since I found someone I wanted to spend that much time with.
My phone buzzed, and I knew it had to be family. With a sigh, I turned it on. It was from my sister. I knew her as Katie… the people in the circuit court knew her as the strict but fair Judge Fowler.
I also had older siblings who were a lawyer, and engineer, and the CEO of a tech company. It was a lot to live up to.
Looking forward to seeing you next week , Katie wrote. Don’t forget that you’re welcome to stay here. No need to drive all the way back to Langley afterwards.
I like driving , I replied.
Through the mountains at night?
Yep.
All right. Are you bringing anyone?
Shit. How many times was my family going to ask me that? I plead the fifth.
She sent me back an emoji that was rolling its eyes, which didn’t seem very dignified for a judge, but it wasn’t really her fault. Large families were nosy. Or at least mine was.
There was, of course, someone I would’ve liked to bring as a date. Mia. But she just got here. I could only imagine what it would be like for a woman to move into a new place and have one of her roommates hit on her. This should be a safe place for her.
The last thing I wanted to do was make her feel uncomfortable, so I would be her friend. I would write my dumb policy letter somehow and just keep thinking about her a lot—because I couldn’t seem to do otherwise.
And the world wouldn’t end if I went to my grandparents’ wedding vow renewal ceremony by myself. Just because my older siblings all had spouses or very significant others was no reason to rock the boat.
By the time the bottom of the trash can was covered in crumpled-up paper, I was ready to give up.
It might just be easier to walk up and down the sidewalk behind the Science Center with a flashlight all night myself than to write this damn letter. In fact?—
My thought cut off as I heard a noise.
It almost sounded like a moan. A loud moan.
Did Jenna bring her boyfriend back here? Her room was down the hall, just beyond Mia’s. But that didn’t seem likely. They were always at his house, and besides, when people did hook up around here, they were usually pretty discreet.
Then I heard the sound again. Definitely female.
So if it wasn’t Jenna—who I hadn’t seen all day—could it be Mia?
Then came the scream.
I was on my feet and out the door before my ears fully processed what I was hearing. It took me less than three seconds to arrive at Mia’s room, but then I heard the scream again. It was coming from upstairs.
I raced up the steps three at a time, my eyes darting in all directions as I reached the hallway. Then I heard a sob from the left.
Without thinking about what I might be interrupting, I pushed open the door and found Mia on top of the bedspread, curled up in an almost fetal position. She was crying.
My heart pounded erratically as I looked around the room, trying to see who or what had upset her, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Hey,” I said softly, trying not to startle her. I forced myself to walk slowly toward her. “Mia, what’s wrong?”
I knelt down next to the bed so that we were eye-level. Tears streamed out of her eyes, falling sideways with her head cradled under her arm.
Those gorgeous green eyes were open and staring in my direction, but I didn’t think she actually saw me.
“Mia?” I pushed her hair off her forehead without thinking. Then I withdrew my hand. I didn’t know enough about what was going on to know how to help.
“Mia, you’re okay. You’re safe. Can you tell me what happened?”
There was a heavy step in the hallway, and then Diego bounded into the room.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, eyes wide. He looked at me. “I heard the scream, but I was all the way in the basement. Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. I think maybe she had a nightmare, but I don’t know what she was doing up here. Should we call someone?”
“Who?” Diego asked.
Then my gaze returned to Mia’s face. She looked more aware of her surroundings now—but her eyes were still huge in her pale, ashen face.
“Aaron?”
“I’m right here. What can we do to help you?”
She noticed Diego then, and she stiffened, her mouth clamping shut.
“It’s going to be okay.”
I rose and moved to Diego’s side. I never would have admitted it, but I was glad he was here. He was only two years older than me, but he felt like an adult—whereas sometimes I wondered if I’d ever feel like one. Especially compared to my very accomplished siblings.
I’d told Mia about my secret dream of becoming mayor someday, like my grandfather. Yet I couldn’t write a damn policy proposal. And I definitely didn’t have my life figured out yet. Diego did.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“I think it’s what do you do,” Diego said quietly. “For some reason, she just doesn’t seem to feel comfortable with me, so I think it has to be you.”
Wait—he was leaving?
“Okay, what do I do?” I tried not to sound panicky. Crying women weren’t my specialty. Or any man’s, really.
“Just sit with her and reassure her. See if she wants us to call anyone, or if she wants to talk.”
“But shouldn’t you?—”
“The last thing I want to do is make her more upset. I’ll go get some water and?—”
“It was a nightmare.”
We both looked over in time to see Mia sit up. She immediately drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.
“This was supposed to be her room, wasn’t it?” Her voice was shaky.
I had no idea what she was talking about, but she wasn’t asking me.
“Yes,” Diego said.
“I wish she... I wish things were different.”
“Whose room?” I asked, trying to keep up. “Wait—that other woman who was supposed to come?”
Diego shook his head at me—a clear signal to stop talking—and walked over to Mia.
“Yes, this was supposed to be her room. I wanted you two to have the adjoining rooms downstairs with a shared bathroom. But Jenna tried sleeping here and something kept triggering her allergies. She got much better when she moved to the second floor, and I figured Sara wouldn’t mind.”
“She didn’t even get to stay here one night,” Mia said softly.
I hadn’t realized that Mia knew that other student—or maybe just hadn’t put two and two together. They were both coming from the Stepping Stones program, so maybe they’d become friends during those six weeks.
Now that Diego was handling things, I figured maybe I should go and get some water. I asked Mia, but she shook her head and asked me to stay. I sat down on the floor by the bed, leaning my back against the nightstand.
“Whatever it is, you can talk to us about it,” I said softly.
“I-I called her today. It was the first day they allowed it.”
Diego seemed to know what she was talking about. I sure as hell didn’t. But maybe I could help in some other way.
I reached out and placed my hand on the bed, half a foot from her. She immediately placed her hand in mine. I squeezed softly, giving what support I could.
“She was my foster sister,” Mia said after a long pause. Then she told the story briefly—how they’d spent so long planning to live here together, go to school together—until Sara got caught using drugs.
This was obviously not news to Diego, but that wasn’t surprising, given he was the RA.
“So you hadn’t talked to her since she left?” Diego asked.
“No. They just gave her five minutes, and… and it was horrible.”
She started crying again. I squeezed her hand, wishing I could do more.