Adventures of Aiden
Chapter 6
I walk, and I walk, and I walk some more. Little did I know that Milo's house would be so fuckin' far away on foot paws. It takes fifteen to twenty minutes to reach his house by vehicle, and yet on foot paws that means at least double that amount. After passing several similar houses in my neighborhood, I finally reach the outskirts and begin walking on the sides of roads, crossing over at certain points past halted cars, and nearly doubting myself at every new turn I make. I'm a nervous mess. I've never walked to his house before, so I'm trying to hold my brain hostage for the information on how to get to his house. So far, the ransom is like a million bucks. Sighing, I tread forward. My bare foot paws kill me. Legs burn. I swear I must've gone in a circle at least twice looking for the right street to walk onto. Alas, I finally find it after much searching.
Like me, Milo is an only child. His house is small just like mine, but it's a little more old fashioned with a green wooden exterior and a white porch out front. The sun is setting, glazing the house with a heavy tint of orange. Uninvited, I step up the stairs and knock on the worn out white wooden door with a slightly scratched glass window pane in the center. I hear foot paws against creaky floorboards. A familiar face peers at me through the glass. I give them a sheepish smile and shrug. The door opens.
A tall, dark green mouse shows up in front of me, with lighter stripes on his limbs. He has thick-framed glasses on, brown eyes like Milo's. ``Oh, hiya, Aiden. What brings you here at...'' He checks his watch. ``9:30pm?''
I shuffle my feet a bit. ``Well... there's been a bit of an incident back at my house. Do you mind if I explain later?''
Milo's dad's eyes widen for millisecond then return to normal. ``Oh, yeah, of course! Please, do come in!''
I squeeze inside, and the adult mouse follows after me. Heading straight through the front hallway, I head into the kitchen, bright and standard in a mixture of white paint and lime green furniture. I can see a pattern here.
``So,'' he leans against the counter next to the silver sink, ``what's this incident about?''
Does he not know of my past? Did Milo never tell him or his mom about it? I sigh. ``Well, long story short, my mom in the past was over-protective to the extreme, which quickly became abusive and caused my dad to just get up and leave two years ago. There was a court agreement instead of jail and rules for my mom to follow. She broke them and went nuts again today.''
``What a fuckin' mess...'' he mutters, covering his muzzle with his paws.
I hear foot paws slowly stepping down the stairs behind the kitchen to the left. ``Honey? Is that you? Why are you up...?''
He sighs. ``It's alright, Sugarplum. It's just Aiden. He's in a bit of a predicament and needs our help.''
Mrs. Greene, her fur a lighter shade of green than her husband's, heads down the stairs, a hint of grogginess in her posture and eyes. She meets us in the kitchen. ``What's going on?''
Mr. Greene stares at me, pursing his lips. ``You need to call the cops. Immediately.''
Mrs. Greene gasps. ``What?! Why?!''
Milo's dad shushes her. ``Keep your voice down, li'l mouse sleepin' upstairs.''
``Right... but why get the police involved?''
I gave her a recap.
``I see... Aiden, honey, this'll be hard for you to do, but you need to do this yourself. Call 9-1-1 hun.''
I tilt my head down and look up at her, discomfort dwelling in every crevice of my features and bones. I gulp.
``You can do it, kiddo.'' Mr. Greene hands me a landline phone. ``Get to it.''
I call the cops. My heart pounds, and my mouth runs dry. Despite the anxiety settling in, I report that my mom broke her agreement and became abusive again. I gave them my address and name, and they told me they'd respond as fast as they can, and then I told them I was not in the house, but in my friend's home safe and sound instead. They told me that everything would be okay, and they weren't going to hurt my mom. I said my thanks and hung up.
Mr. Greene smiles at me. ``Now, was that so hard?''
I shake my head.
``Good. Now that that's taken care of, why don't you spend the night with us?''
Glancing down at the tiled floor, I mumble, ``I... I'm parentless...'' Tears well up in my eyes. I sniffle.
``Oh, honey...'' Mrs. Greene comes to the rescue. She wraps her arms around me: the warmth of her fur already makes me feel right at home. ``I know this isn't the best feeling in the world, but it'll work out just fine in the end, I know it. We'll adopt ya no problem.''
Mr. Greene's eyes widen to the size of small plates. ``Whaaaat?'' he hisses to his wife in a hushed tone. He shakes his head, mouth agape, eyebrows furrowed, and his paws on either side of him. ``We'll do what?''
His wife gives him a glare, silencing the protesting mouse. ``Aiden, I know you're a bit emotionally unstable at the moment, but why don't you try to sleep on it? I need to talk with Milo's father. Alone.''
I nod. The fear is still very eminent within me, causing my core to tremble and my heart to crumble. Milo's mother eases her way out of our hug, slow and steady, as if any sudden movement will cause me to erupt like a volcano filled with tears. She gives me a soft smile and, nudges me over to the stairs where I lift one heavy foot paw after another up the carpeted steps toward Milo's room. I look down at my foot paws as I ascend, but I glance upward just to check, and I see Milo sitting at the top. His expression says it all. Concern. Worry. Fear. He gets up and motions for me to enter his room, and once I pass him he follows me down the narrow, dark blue hallways toward the destination. It isn't far: his upper level fails compared to my own, but even then, mine isn't very impressive either. We pass the bathroom, and the laundry room, then his parent's bedroom on the right and his on the left. I head inside.
Yellow walls with cool swirly green patterns on them. A small twin bed with a green wooden frame. Light green sheets. It's so inviting. I plop down on his bed and stare at the ceiling. Milo, without saying a word, walks to his mini fridge and grabs a couple cheese sticks and tosses me one. It lands on my tummy with a soft plunk. My stomach rumbles, but I'm not hungry, or at least, not in the mood for food. But, since I want to be respectful, I open it and nibble. Milo engulfs it without even peeling it. Dude's got balls to eat it like that. He leans against his green dresser, next to a small lamp brightening the room a bit aside from the ceiling fan light.
``Wanna call it?'' he says as he chews. The silence must've been so awkward for him. I feel bad...
I turn over on my side and curl up, nodding.
``Alright, I'll get an extra pillow and blanket from my closet and sleep on the floor. Don't worry about taking my bed. My treat.'' The mouse heads into his closet and brings out a Luigi themed blanket and a white pillow. He likes the games that I like, except, his favorite character is the Weegemeister himself. Mine's Mario, if you didn't realize that already. I watch him set up his place to rest, and I close my eyes, which feel so heavy, but I almost don't want to fall asleep. The fear of what tomorrow may bring feels like it could keep me up all night. At least it'll be the weekend. I open my eyes again. Staring at the wall, I think to myself, this is going to be a looong night.
I get up early before Milo wakes up. Careful not to step on the cute sleeping mouse on the floor, I make my way out of the room and downstairs. 7:30am. Letting out a yawn and stretching, I see Mr. and Mrs. Greene making breakfast, looking quite exhausted themselves. I hope it wasn't because of me. My foot paws barely make a sound as I sneak across the tiled kitchen floor, and yet I don't know why I'm being precautious. Is it because I think I'm at fault for their exhaustion? Am I a burden to them?
``Aiden. What are you doing, hun?'' Mrs. Greene asks.
I freeze. ``Oh... uh... just sneakin' around, heheh.'' If this was an anime, I'd be dropping beads of sweat right now, but I'm a fusky. We don't sweat.
``Just for fun, kiddo? I mean, I know you're young and all, but c'mon, it's still a little strange, something's up. What's wrong?'' Milo's dad puts his paws on his hips, his eyebrows raised slightly.
``You guys look tired.'' I stare both of them in the eye, switching off every second or so.
They glance at each other with expressions of worry.
Mrs. Greene says, ``After much debate, Aiden, we have decided to adopt you. It isn't going to be easy for us, but we'll try to give you a good life.''
Tears begin to well up in my eyes; a shiver runs through my whole body.
``Even though it's going to be hard for you?'' I say in-between a few sniffles. I blink to bat away the tears that are about to fall.
They nod, forcing a smile on their muzzles, emotions probably running wild for them, too.
I give them a huge cheesy grin with a giggle. ``Okay, I'm cool with that! Mom, Dad.'' I laugh as if I hadn't laughed in a hundred years, all this pent up fear, anxiety, sadness, melting away and oozing out of my body through laughter. It sure is a powerful thing.
They chuckle. ``Too soon, kiddo, too soon,'' Mr. Greene says with a genuine smile this time.
``Alright, then. Mr. and Mrs. Greene.'' I grin at them, and then I hear foot paws clambering down the stairs.
``Aiiiiideeeen! Why didn't you wake me up when you woke up?'' Milo whines, rushing down the steps toward the kitchen.
I tilt my head and furrow my brows. ``Huh? What? Why?''
He heads straight to his mom. ``Mom, I'm hungry!''
She chuckles. ``What do you want, sweetie? As long as it isn't dairy, I'll make it.''
Is she lactose-intolerant? ``Can you not eat dairy, Mrs. Greene?'' I ask.
She shakes her head. That answers my question. No wonder Milo is always desperate for cheese; he doesn't have it at home.
Milo's mom looks at me next. ``Anything for you, honey?''
``Whatever he's having, with a few variations depending on what it is.''
She raises her eyebrows, amusement written all over her face. ``Hmmm. A picky eater I see...'' She glances over to her husband, concerned.
I'm starting to rethink this whole adoption thing if they're going to keep making stabs at me like this.
``Plain toast with yogurt please!'' Milo says, almost too much excitement in his words for things like plain toast and yogurt. For Christ's sake, that shit is boring. I sigh. I'll eat it, though.
Looks like I'm going on a diet. ``Same for me, Mrs. Greene. Thanks.'' I crack a grateful smile, and she smiles back then turns around to prepare the small, healthy breakfast.
With one healthy breakfast down, and a million more to go, I have a sudden epiphany. I need my stuff from home. I ask Milo's, er, our parents, if we can head over to my house to pack my stuff up to move. They said they'll call a moving truck, and we can drive over to my house in a bit. So I wait till it arrives. Milo and I rush back to his room, crack open some snacks, and turn on the widescreen tv in his room. We got a Wii. We play Mario Party 5 for the Gamecube. Our personal favorite. Pushy Penguins is our minigame of choice. You literally dodge a bunch of penguins in different patterns running from the right, and you have to charge to the right so that you won't fall into the ice behind you on the far left. Great game. We've both out survived the CPU's before, but we haven't made it to the end yet. After a few rounds of that minigame, we did a twenty round party with us being on the same team in the Underwater Dream map.
The truck arrived at my house shortly after we finished that party. We won, of course, since the CPU's were only on Normal. Milo and I race to the car, a small silver sedan, in the tiny garage and hop inside. Before we leave, though, Mr. Greene remembers something. He gets out of the car and brings back a student directory book.
He then asks me, ``Hey, Aiden, what's your other friend's last name again?''
``Kress,'' I reply.
He thumbs through some more pages until he stops on one. ``I'll give `im a call so he can help us out. Okay?''
I look at Milo, and we both nod in agreement. The phone rings a few times before we hear a click! signifying somebody finally picked up the phone.
``Whaddya want, random number? I'm a busy kitty.''
Milo and I chuckle and say in unison, ``Oh, Alex.''
``Well... this random number happens to be Milo's dad.''
``Okay. Waddya want with me, then?''
``I'll explain more later. Meet me at Aiden's house. You know the address right?''
He sighs. ``Nope. Lemme guess, school directory, huh?''
``Bingo.''
Alex hangs up.
``How rude,'' Mr. Greene spins around toward us in the back seats. ``You two are really friends with that guy?''
``Yup,'' I say, ``you get used to him. He's actually pretty nice.''
He chuckles. ``Right, I'll believe it when I see it.'' The adult mouse revs the engine. ``Let's move.''
We arrive at my house without a hitch. I see Alex, arms crossed over his chest, waiting in my driveway with a scowl on his muzzle. I think he noticed the giant-ass moving truck parked next to my house. Mr. Greene pulls the car into the driveway, and we get out. The cat huffs. ``I didn't come here `cause I wanted to, ya know. Just sayin'.''
I smile and ignore him, heading through the garage and into the house. It's empty. I'm tempted to say ``I'm home'' to my mother, but I remember she's probably in jail already. We all walk up to my room to pack up boxes and boxes of stuff. Luckily, the movers brought some cardboard boxes in their truck for us to use, and I really don't think we'll need all that space for the furniture and stuff in my room, but we'll see. All of us spend the majority of the day cramming all of my belongings in bins, boxes, and whatever else we could find. Getting the furniture out of my room was the tricky part: the four of us waddle along, carrying and twisting the furniture to fit into narrow crevices and hallways until they find their new home in the truck. I'm glad Alex came, because if we didn't have his muscle, Milo and I would've been in some deep shit. He may be small, but he sure as hell packs a punch. Mr. Greene is powerless if we don't pull our weight. Needless to say, this takes us several hours, but eventually, we finish.
We're back in the car, in the driveway, and ready to leave, but Alex has a scowl on his muzzle and is glaring at us. I roll down the window. ``What?'' I ask.
``Take me with you, dumb-dumb.''
``You have a ride, don't you? Didn't your mom drive you here?''
He nods. ``My mom drove me here, yes, but I never said she'd drive me back.''
I give him a ``What the fuck are you talkin' about'' look. ``What kind of parent drops off their child and doesn't pick `em up?''
``Mine. She's busy.''
I sigh. ``Get in the car.'' I turn toward my new dad. ``Mr. Greene? It's okay if Alex stays the night right?''
``Yay! Sleepover!'' Milo chimes in, pumping his paws in the air, almost hitting the roof of the car.
``Yup. No problem,'' he replies as Alex gets in the front passenger seat.
We roll on down to my and Milo's house. It's almost dinner time, and then lights out. It sucks being a kid sometimes: I never get to stay up late. For today, I'm kind of glad I get to go to bed early; I am so exhausted from all the heavy lifting and work we all did today. On a different note, though, Alex has to borrow some of my pajamas `cause he has no clothes to change into or even any toiletries. I am not sharing my toothbrush. Use your damn finger, Alex, no offense. The five of us eat dinner, some kind of bland lactose-free meal. It wasn't fantastic, but I'll live. After dinner, Milo, Alex, and I head into the bathroom to do our hygiene routines. I let Milo and Alex go first while I wait outside the bathroom. As I wait for them to finish up, hearing electric toothbrushes brushing and gargling mouths spitting, I hear Mrs. Greene call my name.
``Honey, you have a call!''
``Who is it?!'' I shout back down, not moving from my position.
``Your mother.''
I gulp. My heart stops. I am not ready for this.
