Page 33 of Belong With Me
A car speeds past us, honking as it goes, and we jump apart. It continues down the dark road, leaving us in silence with nature again.
Even though I was only standing in one spot clinging to an incredibly handsome boy, my body feels like it’s been running a marathon, and I try to catch my breath and calm my racing heart. Jason looks just as affected, raking a hand through his hair and inhaling deeply.
I pull the sleeves of his sweater over my hands and wrap my arms around myself. The moment has been broken, and now I’ll never know what Jason was going to say. It’s a kick in the stomach, but I try not to let it show on my face.
Jason clears his throat. “Anyway, um . . . Natalia and Aiden . . .” He clears his throat again, trying to regain his earlier composer. “As I was saying, we were happy with Natalia, and we wanted Aiden to live his own life, so, after a mini-intervention, he agreed when Natalia asked to adopt all three of us.” Jason’s smile is almost sad as he adds, “I think he was more shocked that she wanted to adopt him too. He was over eighteen and was doing fine on his own, but the gesture meant a lot to him, I know it did. He’s been alone and always needed to be the tough, strong one for as long as I can remember, and now he has a place to come home to.”
No wonder Jason says he sees similarities between me and Aiden. I know exactly how he must’ve felt when that happened; I’ve been yearning for that with my own family for as long as I can remember.
“It helped that his best friend, Mason, Natalia’s son, basically forced him to agree,” Jason adds. “Mason went from being an only child to having three brothers and a half sister from his dad basically overnight. And Aiden went from having all this responsibility on his shoulders to having somewhere to turn and getting to actually be a kid himself, even though he didn’t really loosen his grip on us.”
“And he never will,” I joke, thinking of Gia. “You’ll always be his baby brother.”
“And that’s exactly why I didn’t call him. He’s done enough for me, and I don’t want him to drop everything and come running. I’ll tell him after I’ve gotten the car back and it’s too late for him to worry.”
“So, who did you call who won’t tell Aiden?” I ask.
“All of our friends are drunk right now.”
We turn at the sound of an SUV approaching. One person passing us on this road is already highly unlikely, never mind two. Jason watches the approaching vehicle as he says, “Oh no. He’lldefinitelytell Aiden, but I can probably bribe him to hold off until I’m ready.”
The car stops right beside us in the middle of the road, and the driver’s window rolls down. “You know, Jason, I can proudly admit I’ve done my fair share of stupid things in my day,” the driver, a guy with dirty-blond hair who looks to be in his midtwenties, says. “I’ve passed out drunk in the principal’s bed when her daughter threw a house party. I’ve had to sneak out a girl’s second-story window in nothing but my socks when her parents came home early one winter. I’ve called a girl I was dating Veronica for a month before someone told me her name was Chloe. But getting my car towed by the cops, leaving me and the girl I’m trying to impress stranded in the middle of nowhere, isnotone of them.”
“I wasn’t speeding, the cop was just being a dick,”
Jason mutters, not entirely lying but not telling the whole truth either. Officer Liu was being more than just a dick.
The driver laughs, clearly not buying it. “You sound like me when I tried explaining to the principal that itwasn’tmy puke covering her expensive silk pillowcase.
Or like me when I tried explaining to that girl’s parents that I was only naked because I spilled coffee on my clothes, and she offered to wash them for me.Orlike me when—”
“All right, we get the point.” Jason cuts him off, leading me around the SUV with a gentle hand on my lower back. He opens the passenger door and gestures inside.
“Siena, this is Noah, one of Aiden’s best friends whom I’ve known forever. Noah, this is Siena. Don’t annoy her to death.”
Noah has a wide smile on his face, and it looks like it’s always right at home there. “I’m also the best looking, funniest, and smartest of his friends.”
“He left out ‘most delusional,’” Jason tells me, helping me into the passenger seat and closing the door once I’m settled.
“Hi,” I say to Noah as I put on my seat belt. He’s staring at me with that goofy, wide smile.
The back door opens, and Jason slides in, sitting in the middle instead of behind me. I have no idea why he gave me shotgun, but I smile awkwardly at Noah as I add,
“Thanks for coming to get us.”
“And miss quality time with Jason and the girl he’s spending all his time with? Never.”
“Shut up, Noah,” Jason grumbles, and Noah’s smile only grows wider. He’s clearly enjoying teasing Jason, and it must mean they’re pretty close if Noah’s comfortable enough to do it and Jason seems to be used to it.
Noah raises his hands innocently, watching Jason in the rearview mirror. “Okay, okay, I’ll play nice.”
Jason gives him ayou betterlook before putting on his seat belt. Noah shifts into Drive, and we descend into a slightly awkward silence, with the very low hum of the radio filling it. I want to say something to Noah because he’s sitting right beside me and I feel like I should fill the silence, but nothing’s coming to mind.
Noah’s eyes keep shifting to me like he’s thinking the same thing I am, like we’re both trying and failing to think of a conversation starter.
“So, Siena . . .” Noah starts. “I heard your mom was going into porn?”
“Noah!” Jason exclaims, his head popping between us from the backseat. “What the fuck, man?”