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Aiden slid into the passenger seat, tossing his lacrosse bag into the backseat with a heavy sigh. “So how was practice, sport?” Lydia asked sarcastically, not looking away from the vanity mirror as she touched up her mascara.
“I could’ve just met you at your place,” Aiden suppressed a growl, “you don’t need to do the mom pickup routine.”
“Well maybe I just enjoy the pleasure of your company that much,” Lydia smirked, snapping the mirror closed and tucking the mascara in her purse. “You could try a thank you.”
“I prefer to show gratitude with actions,” Aiden grinned, leaning back in his seat, “and I don’t think you mind that.” Lydia just gave a knowing look as she stepped on the gas and jolted Aiden forward.
“A seat belt would be smart too,” she cracked, “I don’t think wolf powers make you immune to concussions and car crashes.”
Aiden resisted the urge to grumble as he clicked the belt into place, “By the way, Ethan wanted to know if we were free on Tuesday. He was talking about some restaurant in the next town over with a really nice river view and a ‘romantic atmosphere.’”
“And he wants us to come because…?”
“Because Tuesday is Valentine’s Day and he’s still a hopeless romantic.”
Lydia groaned, “Ugh, really? Tell him no.”
“Okay I’ll–oh, you don’t want to?” Aiden looked up from his phone, the resigned sigh dying in his throat, “can’t say I expected that.”
“Valentine’s Day is a plot by our corporate overlords to sell us overpriced chocolates, dinners, cards, flowers, whatever they can convince people is romantic. I’m willing to bet all the prices at that restaurant will be marked up because they know a bunch of couples are going to show up looking for a ‘special night,’ like they can’t get that any night they please if they bothered.”
“Well when you put it that way…”
“What, you’re not telling me you actually wanted to take a long drive to watch your brother and his boyfriend sit in each other’s laps and make goo-goo eyes for two hours while eating passable food just to have a ‘romantic evening’?” Lydia’s head swiveled around to glare at Aiden and raise an eyebrow.
“No, I was fully expecting you’d want to though and I’d just have to endure it,” Aiden shrugged, “but if you’d rather not–”
“Did you think I loved Valentine’s Day just because I’m a girl?” Lydia asked pointedly, still glaring in his direction.
“No…” Aiden sat up a little straighter, “could you keep your eyes on the road though?” Lydia’s eyes narrowed, but at least she turned their icy fire away from him. “To be honest I hadn’t given any thought to how you feel about Valentine’s Day. I kind of forgot it was a thing until Ethan reminded me.”
“You weren’t missing anything,” Lydia huffed, then fell into silence. A few moments passed. Aiden stared out the window aimlessly to pass the time and watch Beacon Hills roll by.
“I don’t like Valentine’s Day either,” Aiden spoke up, not turning back from the window.
“You don’t have to just agree with me, you know.”
“I wasn’t,” Aiden shook his head, “Valentine’s Day sucks for me too, just probably not for the reasons you hate it.”
“I just told you why I–”
“Sure, it’s a capitalist scheme, that’s great, I’m sure it’s the only reason you’ve got a deep-seated resentment of the holiday,” Aiden said flatly.
“So just because I don’t buy into the hype I have to resent it?” Lydia snapped.
“I don’t buy into the hype of Thanksgiving, but if someone asked me about it I’d give a brief answer about not liking turkey and not getting why we need an extra holiday between Halloween and Christmas. I don’t have a spiel about how I have a perfectly reasonable explanation for why I don’t like the holiday and don’t want to celebrate it. That’s the kind of thing I’d only have if my reasons are too personal to just spill any time I’m asked,” Aiden continued.
“You don’t know what you’re–”
“Don’t bullshit me, Lydia,” Aiden’s head snapped around, the faintest of growls echoing in the back of his throat, “You physically can’t, in case you forgot. And if there’s one thing I know how to do at this point, it’s tell when someone’s not telling me everything. I–” He looked away again, “I’ve had a lot of practice.”
“Then what’s your super secret reason?” Lydia spat, “clearly you have one since you’re so sure I do!”
“Because every ‘girlfriend’ I’ve had on Valentine’s Day is dead!” Aiden shouted. Lydia opened her mouth, no words came out, and she closed it again, turning her attention back to the road. Aiden swiveled back to the window, “Back with Ethan and I’s old Alpha – the one we killed – I made the mistake of meeting a new girl when I was 15 and we hit it off. I kept our relationship confined to the halls of the school, but some way or another our Alpha found out in February of that year and decided she would make a perfect concubine for him. She didn’t survive the bite. And then there was Ira…” Aiden traced his finger along the windowsill in thought, “she was the lieutenant for a very powerful, but very old Alpha, so Deucalion wanted to see her take that power and potentially join us. Luckily for him, Ira liked having boytoys, and he just so happened to have the perfect candidate.” Aiden hesitated, biting his tongue and tapping on the glass in a familiar but unconscious rhythm. “She didn’t mind that I was only 17, she…said she had needs. And I wasn’t about to let Ethan have to deal with that so we started ‘dating.’ But she turned out to be a disappointment for Deucalion, and her attempt to steal her Alpha’s power ended with her severely wounded, too wounded to hunt down the rest of her now pack and take their energy as well. So Deucalion slit her throat and that was that. I didn’t think I’d feel anything, watching it happen, after everything but…” he trailed off again.
More silence. “That’s it, that’s all of them,” Aiden said in a dull tone, “I guess you can see now why I wasn’t sure about getting close to you. Anyone I get involved with tends to end up dead.”
“I wish my ex was dead sometimes,” Lydia said quietly. She turned towards Aiden as though expecting a response, but he just gestured for her to continue. “Jackson and I dated because we were the queen bee and king jock of the school, and that was about it. That, and he was easy to manipulate into doing what I wanted, at least most of the time. But that also meant he was terrible at doing anything even approximating ‘normal’ relationship behavior. ‘Date nights’ were usually me watching him do something, or eating takeout at his house, or maybe, if I was lucky, watching a movie and he’d only talk through part of it. And unless I prodded him to do something, he couldn’t be bothered to get me a gift, or flowers, or so much as write a note on a piece of notebook paper even after we’d been dating for years. I bought gifts for myself and ended up feeling like a housewife already. But that wasn’t the end of it…last year he got worse, especially once Scott was bitten and Jackson became obsessed with exposing him and getting bitten himself. I didn’t have a boyfriend anymore, I had a scaly snake curled up next to me biting me whenever I tried to reach out to him. Sometimes quite literally.”
I–wow,” Aiden breathed, unsure how to respond to that, “guess we’ve both been pretty unlucky in love. No wonder Valentine’s day seems like a crock of horseshit.”
“Or maybe it really is a cynical marketing scheme,” Lydia said, “though now I feel like what happened to me was a walk in the park compared to–
“Don’t go there,” Aiden rested his hand on Lydia’s arm, “we’re not playing the ‘which life is the worst game.’ Especially when I’d win easily,” he smirked. “So if we’re not going with Ethan, what are we doing for Valentine’s Day?”
“Did you not pay attention to my entire spiel about the corporate plot and the fact that Valentine’s Day isn’t any more special than any other day?” Lydia asked with a slight sigh.
“Sure, but why can’t we make Valentine’s Day special ourselves then?” Aiden asked slyly, “if any night can be a special night.”
“I…” Lydia pursed her lips, “you must feel reeeally clever for thinking of that.”
“Cleverness is one of my many endearing qualities,” Aiden smirked, leaning back in his seat again.
“You’re miscounting,” Lydia cracked, “I don’t see how your two redeeming qualities count as ‘many.’”
“So you think I do have more than one?” Aiden chuckled softly, leaning forward and resting his chin on his fist, “do tell me more.”
“Not on your life,” Lydia rolled her eyes, but her smile had returned and there was a little more of her sparkle in her eyes. “If we have to do something–”
“Which we should,” Aiden cut in.
“Don’t interrupt me,” she ordered, “as I was saying, we’ll stay in, maybe make some popcorn, and curl up on the couch watching The Notebook.”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean, no?” Lydia said, taken aback.
“I mean there’s no way I’m watching The Notebook. We can watch some other cheesy rom-com, like When Harry Met Sally or Sleepless in Seattle or whatever if you really want to, but I am not going to watch The Notebook. Never again.”
“You know, everyone says they’re not going to watch it and yet they somehow end up watching it anyway…” Lydia mused aloud, “and wait, when did you even see it in the first place? For that matter, why do you know so much about–”
“Rom-coms?” Aiden finished the sentence for her, “One of Ennis and Kali’s…quirks, was turning on the ‘old’ movie channel, or any rom-com channel they could find, and watching them, or sometimes turning them on in the background while they…you know. So on days where I had nothing better to do and was cooped up in the place we were staying, why not sit and watch. It could even be a good opportunity to keep practicing tuning out…background noise. And that is why I will absolutely not be watching The Notebook again anytime soon. Not negotiable, it’s not happening.”
“Okay, okay,” Lydia raised one hand in surrender, “I get it, you’re not a fan.” Her smile softened a little as she stared at him, “You’re the worst, you know that?”
“That’s why you love me,” Aiden quipped, closing his eyes.
“Yes. Yes it is.”