Devils Roses 05 - Death

blue jeans and a white polo. He is heavenly with his wet hair all messy and sexy.
    My mom's face flushes. She stands and puts a hand out, "Hi."
    His eyes flinch, before a look of bliss crosses his face. He grabs her and hugs her. He holds her tight. Her back is stiff and her arms are out. I laugh, "Mom, this is Aleks. He's from Norway. They hug a lot?" I feel like an idiot.
    He has his eyes closed and a smile across his lips. She pats his huge arm, "Okay. Well, wow. It's nice to meet you. Okay."
    Aleks pulls away and nods. When he speaks he sounds like he's a foreigner, "Sorry. I just get really excited to meet Aimee's family. I just love her so much." His cheeks are red and he's never sounded more Norwegian in all the time I've known him. He can lay it on thick when he wants to. I laugh. She looks back and mouths, "Oh my god!"
    I widen my eyes in agreement. She is grinning ear to ear as she leaves the room. She looks back, "Door stays open."
    I wince and shake my head, "You know how old I am right. Like twenty." I look at Aleks and whisper, "Twenty right?"
    He shakes his head, "I don’t know. It feels more like twenty-six or seven maybe."
    I laugh and point, "What was that?"
    He looks confused, "I just got so excited. She's alive and I panicked."
    I laugh again. He grabs my hand. I shout at my mom, "Hey. Tell dad Aleks and I will be back later. We have to go out. Love you." I wink back to Marcus's. Lorri walks past us wearing her red boots and frowns seeing mine. "Aimee. I know I called you Aimes and told you I love you, but that doesn’t mean I want to be The Sisterhood of the bloody boots and shit."
    I cross my arms, "Lorri, how was I to know you would wear them too?"
    She snuggles into Abbey, "You shouldn’t have even bought them." Abbey laughs and shakes her head. They disappear and I look at Aleks, "I can't get past how gross it is. Abbey is like eighteen and Lorri is like a million."
    He snorts and flashes us to Ari's room. Her black eyes meet mine. I jump, "Ari, you’re awake?"
    She swallows and talks softly, "Yeah." She sounds like death. Lucas is sitting beside her, all stinky and gross. I shove him, "Go get cleaned up."
    He snarls at me. I swat him, "Go. Aleks make him go." Aleks flashes them both out. I sit in his chair, "Smells like wet dog in here."
    Her lips attempt a pathetic smile, "You get used to it."
    My look grows serious. I can't fight it, "I gotta get that baby out, Ari."
    She shakes her head, "No."
    I nod, "Yeah. You can hate me all you want, but I have to."
    She shakes her head, "You can't. It'll kill me too."
    I shake my head. My heart hurts with the words that are about to leave my lips. "I lied when I said I starved on the streets in the beginning when I crawled out of the harbor. I didn’t starve. Not completely."
    She looks confused.
    I want to look away but her black eyes hold me hostage. "A girl fell on me. I was lying, cold and alone, in some garbage. She was young, maybe fifteen or sixteen. She fell on me in the middle of my hunger. Her belly landed on my hands. When I finished pulling she was still alive."
    Ari's face looks like she gets where this is going. In fact she looks horrified. "You know Aimes, sometimes friends share shit they could have kept to themselves."
    A broken laugh bursts from me.
    She grips my hand, "I want this baby. I want to try. I want it to heal me and make me comfortable around kids."
    I wrinkle my nose, involuntarily.
    She laughs again. Her eyes water, "I just want to feel something so big that no one can ever take it away from me. Not even me."
    I hug her so hard I tremble. "You saved my whole family Ari. My entire family."
    She shakes, "It cost us Lydia."
    I pull back, "Didn’t they tell you about Dorian?"
    Her face crumples, "No."
    I can't fight the tears, "I am so sorry. It was my fault."
    She looks disgusted, "You killed him? Why?"
    I shake my head, "I didn’t kill him." I stroke her head and tell her all about Momma Holt in Blackwater Bayou.

Chapter Twenty-Six

    Hanna

    I smile, thinking about him. The way it felt for him to wash my hair when we were at Roses training together. The way his eyes looked when he saw me again, for the first time this time. He had to pretend he didn’t know me and love me. I tilt my head back and scrub the conditioner out. I open my eyes to his smile.
    "You owe me something that I feel you have owed me for some time." He speaks like he's discussing the weather.
    A naughty look crosses my face, "Would it be wrong