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Of course the best sexual experience of her life gifted her with the most painful memories.
She stood and walked over to the desk on the left wall of her room, sweeping dust off with her hand to clean a spot for her computer accessories. She wouldn’t get new plants to decorate. After the break-in, she didn’t replace them, but now it seemed pointless. She didn’t know how long she would be in town. If she were honest, she didn’t care anymore.
Aiden came back into the room carrying the smaller box, setting it on top of the long dresser with an attached mirror on the right wall before turning and leaving again to get her computer.
He wouldn’t even make eye contact anymore.
If this was how the solstice changed her life, she didn’t like it one bit. She wanted the old Aiden back, if she had to choose between the him now and what she had before.
She took a long, slow inhale through her nose, counted to ten, and exhaled through her mouth. Her eyes stung.
After another few minutes, he returned with her computer, setting it on her desk and rubbing at his breastbone in quick, hard sweeps.
“Are you okay?”
He swung his head to look at her. His narrowed eyes looked red and glassy.
She took a tentative step toward him. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to go,” he said, voice thick and strained. He sounded like he was about to cry. She’d never heard him sound like this.
“Wait.” She reached for him, but he pushed around her and strode out the door without a backward glance.
When she heard the front door shut, she didn’t move. She dropped her hand to her side and stood frozen, staring at the empty doorway he disappeared through.
How had she messed up so much?
She didn’t want him to hate her.
Did he?
“So what’s the big news?”
Charlotte looked across the small, four-person dining table at her ma. She still wore her scrubs from the clinic, and her mousy brown hair was in a messy bun at the nape.
“I wanted to wait for you both to be home before I told you what I planned to do for school.”
Her mom placed her half-eaten taco on her plate. “I was confused when you wouldn’t tell us why you were coming home.”
An undignified snort sounded across the table. “You weren’t confused.” Her ma looked at Charlotte. “As soon as we hung up the phone, I had to distract Sara from driving up there to see what was going on with you.”
Her mom waved her hand, the clink of her metallic bangles filling the air. “It wasn’t that bad, Liz.”
“She was a mess. Swore something bad was happening.”
“Don’t discount my intuition. Something happened, didn’t it?”
Charlotte looked between her mothers. It had been so long since she watched their playful banter that tears filled her eyes as homesickness crashed into her with force.
“Sweetheart?”
“Char?”
Chairs scraped, and comforting, familiar arms wrapped around her. She sobbed like a baby. Her mothers cooed and rubbed her hair and cheeks.
“I missed y’all so much,” she said, hiccupping.
“We missed you too, sweetheart.” Her mom wiped Charlotte’s left cheek. The bandage around her fingertip, likely from a sewing needle, scraped Charlotte’s skin.
