Once Aria was sure that he was gone, she wanted to say something that totally disregarded her dad’s earlier comment, but Adrian beat her to it.
“So, you talk about me?”
Her brain almost malfunctioned. “Um, yeah?”
“I hope it’s all good things.” Adrian tried to lighten the mood, but she was ready to go into hiding and never come out.
“W-well, y’know.”
“Y’know what?”
How the hell is she supposed to get out of this situation? She literally just asked Mira earlier that day to help her sort out her own emotions. It was way too early for this type of confrontation. Her emotional stability wasn’t able to handle this. Not today.
“I’m glad you’re okay though.” He broke the awkward silence. “Seriously.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“So how was your Thanksgiving break?”
“It was good, I hung out with . . .” Aria paused. “The family. You?”
“It was good. My sister came, and I got to see my nephew again.” He then pulled out his phone and showed her some pictures of a little boy.
“How old is he?”
“Just turned four. He’s a good kid.”
“Really? Not a troublemaker or anything?”
“Nah, he doesn’t do anything stupid. Not like when I was a kid.” Adrian then shoved his phone back into his pocket. “According to my parents, I was a naughty little sh*t.”
She teased. “No way. Adrian? The golden boy? That’s preposterous.”
“Oh, shove it.” He snickered. “I bet you were just a darling too when you were a kid.”
“Absolutely! I’m an angel.” Aria did a posh hand gesture.
“I bet you are,” Adrian muttered.
She did her best to hide her blush quickly as she tried to rack up new words to say.
“So what, uh—”
“Are you blushing?”
“What? No, nope, nada. Not me.”
“Yeah uh huh.” He then gave her a sweet smile.
He was being too cute for her health.
“So—”
“Ivan, it’s good to see you again,” a newer and deeper voice said outside her room.
“James.”
She’s never heard her dad sound so stiff.
“How have you been?”
“Fine.”
“That’s good.” The deeper voice sounded awkward and constipated.
“What are you doing here?”
“Ah, my son wanted to visit his friend.”
Aria froze. Adrian’s dad was just outside her door, and her dad sounded as if he hated his guts. This was not good. A no bueno situation.
She glanced at Adrian and wondered how he felt about their conversation. Did he know that their parents knew each other? Or was he as confused as she was? Either way, she hoped that this didn’t mean they’d have to pull a Romeo and Juliet. She didn’t want to think about sneaking around her dad just to try and date a guy she might really like.
“Small world it is.”
Oh God. The conversation sounded awful.
“I—”
“I have to get my daughter.” Her dad cut the conversation short and Aria could only imagine sparks of friction flying between them.
“Of course, I hope she feels better soon.”
“Thank you.”
He entered the small ER room, and looked a little more distressed than usual. For some reason, her dad didn’t even glance back in Adrian’s direction, but instead focused on collecting all of her things like he was ready to get out of here without any other preambles.
Aria looked at Adrian and wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden change of behavior. He also didn’t seem to understand either, and she wasn’t sure if she should start apologizing for her dad’s actions.
“I’m going to put these in the car. Don’t take too long,” was all her dad said while he nodded towards Adrian in cold acknowledgement.
“Wow.” Aria sighed at the insanity of her life. “Are you okay?”
“I should be asking you that.” He seemed a little distressed.
“Yeah, well, I asked first.” She began to fix her shoes. “I didn’t know that our dads knew each other.”
His response sounded as stiff as her dad’s. “Yeah.”
“Did you?”
“I, not really . . . well, kind of.”
“Kind of?” Aria frowned. “That doesn’t sound promising.”
“Well, it’s between them, right? Not you and me.”
He was right. It wasn’t her business to know all of her dad’s relations, but still, it was slightly concerning since she really liked Adrian.
She didn’t think her dad was irrational enough to say, “You’re not allowed to hang around that boy” or anything archaic like that, but it might strain their relationship and she wanted to avoid that like the plague.
As she finally got her bearings together, they walked their way towards the entrance of the ER. There was a lot she could’ve said, a lot she wanted to ask, but once she saw Carmen and Uncle Joel with Adrian’s dad, Aria knew that these questions were a lot less important.
“Take care, okay?” Uncle Joel gave her a stern look. “Don’t do anything crazy for a while.”
“I won’t, I swear. Do you know when Mira will be let out? Or able to have visitors?”
Carmen shook her head. “No, but we’ll call you when.”
“Okay, alright.”
“Go get some rest and something to eat, I know your dad was muttering something about dinner ideas.” Uncle Joel gave her one last pat on the shoulder.
Although Aria didn’t really get the chance to properly introduce herself to Adrian’s dad, she did her best to acknowledge him in the least awkward way possible, as if she hadn’t just hear him and her dad have the most suffocating conversation right outside her ER room.
After bidding her adieus, she went home with her dad, curious about his hostility towards Adrian’s dad.
Nearly a week passed, and not much happened aside from hearing no news from Mira. The same old classes, the return of Anderson, and the bickers between Nancy and Henry continued. It was all the same but at the same time, entirely different.
Something about her week felt
