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Seth didn't even flinch. The bear sized him up and seemed to consider for a moment, then ambled off into the darkness as silently as it had come.Seth clamped one hand over the wound.Blood oozed between his fingers, and still, the first thing he did was grab Aiden by the hair and force his head back.
"Tell me you're okay," he demanded roughly.
Young Aiden nodded, or maybe he cracked a lame joke, but the watching Aiden knew better.
He knew it was all his fault.
A high-pitched scream tore him from the dream, and for a crazy moment, Aiden was sure the bear had returned.He bolted upright and banged his head, rattling the keys and spare change he kept on the shelf above his bunk.He clapped a hand to his forehead and fell back into his pillow with a groan.
It was the middle of the afternoon, judging by the yellow sunlight creeping past his trailer blinds.Too damn bright for a man with a prize-winning hangover.His tongue tasted like sour whiskey, and his head felt like it had been shoved into a meat grinder and sloppily reassembled on the other side.
Mia had warned him not to drink before she turned him loose against medical advice, but Mia never tried to sleep in the Shirleen Trailer Park on a Saturday night.The only thing louder than the ongoing marital spat between his next door neighbors was the strains of Immigrant Song blasting at full volume from an ancient stereo.Aiden had lived in this rattletrap tin can since his eighteenth birthday, so he was used to his neighbors wilding at night.There was no harm in a hard-working crowd escaping their back-breaking daily grind by cutting loose once the sun went down.
But they didn't usually scream during the day, and certainly not loud enough to wake him from a dead sleep.That was enough to get him moving.
He practically fell out of the trailer, barefoot and shirtless, slipping on his ice-slick steps in the rush.He cursed, catching himself on the handrail, half-blinded by the intense winter sunshine.
It looked like an ordinary, quiet afternoon except for the gleaming Lexus parked between his trailer and his neighbor, Deb's.Two middle-aged women were arguing beside the car, one impeccably dressed and the other wearing a gas station uniform.They were staring at something stuck beneath the front tire.Aiden squinted and picked out the mangled frame of Deb's bright red Schwinn.
"You did it on purpose!" Deb yelled, jabbing a finger in his mother's unflinching face.
"Why on earth would I do that?" Aiden's mother grabbed Deb by the wrist and forcefully directed her finger away."Don't point at me. It's rude."
"It's rude to run over my bike!" Deb's face was red and scrunched like she was fighting back tears."I never liked you, Barbara Doyle.You think your shit don't stink just because you went off and got that fancy college degree.Well, you got knocked up, didn't you?Where did that get you? Right back here, that's where.You're no better'n us, Babs!"
"You're deflecting your inadequacies onto other people," Barbara said icily."You need to work through these deep-seated jealousies, or they'll impact all your interpersonal relationships.If you'd cared about your bicycle, you wouldn't have left it lying in a snowdrift."
"On my property!"
"Oh, please." His mother's precisely lined lips twisted into a moue of distaste."Like there's any property lines in this heap.Don't take your frustrations out on me."
"How am I supposed to get to work now?" Deb moaned, clasping her cheeks in her hands and staring forlornly down at the twisted frame."They'll fire me if I'm late for another shift!"
Barbara sniffed and averted her eyes as if embarrassed by the woman's distress.Her expression was remote behind the reflective lenses of her designer sunglasses.Aiden instantly recognized the look.His mother had a way of distancing herself mentally from any situation she didn't like.She'd already washed her hands of Deb, convincing herself it had nothing to do with her.Sure enough, she adjusted the shoulder strap of her purse, checked the corner of her mouth for lipstick, and stepped around the wreckage.
"Aiden, help her get the bike out from under the car," she commanded."I'm not staying even five minutes and don't want to take my fender off when I back up."
Deb's fingers turned into claws."You nasty?—"
"Whoa, now!" Aiden jumped between them and caught Deb by both wrists before she could unleash her press-ons directly into his mother's face."It'll be okay, Deb. I'll give you a lift to work."
Deb examined him suspiciously, searching for a trick."What about my bike?" she demanded.
"I can fix it."
"You're kidding." She snorted."It needs a whole new frame!"
"Hey, you doubting me now?" He blasted his best grin, the one that popped the dimple in his cheek, and was gratified when her lips instinctively twitched in response.They always smiled back. It was his superpower.
"Well, as long as I'm not late for work…" she hedged, unwilling to be mollified but unable to hang onto her rage.
Aiden dropped an enthusiastic kiss on her cheek, tasted perfume, and said, "Let me grab my boots, and we're outta here."
His mother was waiting inside his trailer when he hobbled in on numb toes.She looked uncomfortable in his living space, her posture stiff and awkward, her gaze flitting between his unmade bunk and the bowl of leftover ramen in his tiny sink.His living situation always overwhelmed her, but Aiden had learned to stop making excuses for his life long ago.It only led to arguments he'd never win.
"What're you doing here, Mom?" he asked, sitting on the edge of his bed and rubbing the sting from his frozen feet.
Barbara finally tore her horrified gaze from his pile of dirty socks and studied him."I heard from my assistant, Katie, that you had some kind of accident.I wanted to make sure you're okay."
