Dylan

I watched Aiden walk away and couldn’t quite understand what just happened.

“What the fuck?” I whispered.

Shirvo glanced over at me and just shrugged.

“Seems like he wanted to go home, hey?”

He sounded pleased about that and I turned to him in shock.

“Why does that make you happy? You know how much he means to me.” I snapped. “And why did you invite the guys over? I’ve told you Aiden doesn’t like crowds, especially now.”

And I had told him that. When I had spoken to him about coming home I had explained what had happened to Aiden and how he was struggling with everything right now. Shirvo had seemed to understand and said he’d do whatever he could to make things easier for him. And now he was happy that Aiden had left because he didn’t want to be around my rowdy group of friends.

“Look mate,” he began “your friends all want to see you. I don’t think you should just hide away with Aiden and ignore all the others. So, I asked them over. Plus, wouldn’t it be good to have Aiden meet the people you spend the most time with?”

“Not right now. Jesus, Shirvo. He’s hurting and I promised to be here for him. Fuck. I’ve gotta go catch him.”

At that I ran through the yard to the beach hoping Aiden hadn’t got very far. I could hear Shirvo calling after me but I just ignored him and kept running.

Finally I could see him up ahead. He was walking slowly and holding his ribs which had to mean he was in pain. The thought of him in pain sends ice running through my veins. I couldn’t handle that.

“Aiden!” I yelled as soon as I got close enough for him to hear.

He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at me. Even from this distance I could see that he had closed himself off from me.

He didn’t move just waited til I got to him.

Without waiting I burst into speech.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know Shirvo was going to invite anyone over. I told him to just let us have some time and space but he just went ahead and did the opposite. I don’t know why. I want to spent time with you, not them. I’m so sorry.”

I know my words were jumbled and tumbling over themselves but I needed him to understand that I was here for him. Just him. No-one else.

“Yeah, it’s all good, dude. You need to see your mates. We can catch up tomorrow or something.” He voice lacked any emotion and his expression didn’t change.

No, no, no, no I thought desperately. No, this can’t happen.

“No!” I shouted startling both if us and a couple walking hand in hand at the waters edge. I waved to them to let them know we were all good and stepped closer to this boy, this man who owned me body, mind and spirit. If I lost him, I lost myself.

“Please don’t go. Please.” And yep I was reduced to begging. Way to impress, fuckhead.

“Dyl, I know you came home to help me but I don’t want to make it so you don’t see your friends.”

Why couldn’t he understand? What did I have to do to get him to stay here with me?

Suddenly I had an idea. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Shirvo. He answered on the first ring.

“Skippy? You ok?”

“Yeah, but look you need to send everyone home. Aiden and I are coming back and we need to have some time together without others. Can you do that for me?” My tone got a bit tense as I asked and I hoped he picked up on my anger.

“Already done. We’re all heading down to the pub instead.” He paused and then started speaking in a rush. “I’m sorry, mate. I fucked up. I, I just wanted,” another pause “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to stay at Robbo’s for the next few days. Big surf down his way.”

“You don’t need to leave your home!” I was stunned that he would think I would want that.

“Yeah, I know. Maybe we both need the space, yeah?”

What? He wasn’t making sense now.

“Okay. You’ll be back before I leave though, right?”

“For sure. Anyway, gotta go. Later.”

And with that he hung up. I slowly put my phone back in my pocket and looked at Aiden. He had a thoughtful look on his face as he stared at me.

“What?” I questioned him.

“He’s in love with you.” He stated.

“Who is?” This was getting weird.

Aiden shook his head. “Dumbass.”

I was seriously lost and had no idea what the hell was going on anymore.

“Anyway, the house is empty, they’ve all gone to the pub. Come back and let’s have dinner. We have so much to catch up on and I only have another 3 days before I have to go on tour.” Fuck, that wasn’t enough time.

We walked back to my place in silence. Once there we worked together to get the steak on cooking and a salad ready. I couldn’t stop looking at Aiden. All these years we had maintained our communication but had steadfastly chosen to not do facetime or any videos. I’m sure he must of seen photos of me online and videos of my comps because he always spoke about each one to me, but I hadn’t seen him in those 4 years. I don’t really know why. I just knew that if I saw him something would go wrong. I also knew that I was able to be more open when I couldn’t see his face. Even though I had still kept so much from him.

“You know” I began as we sat to eat “I was embarrassed to tell you all that stuff while it was happening. You were doing so well in life and I seemed to be falling in a heap no matter what I did. I mean, I was doing great at surfing but I couldn’t get my personal life together.” Even admitting this out loud to him made me squirm inside.

“Fuck, Dylan, I would have helped you. You know that, right?” Aidens eyes were glossy in the low light coming from the fairy lights strung up on my pergola. “It kills me that you think I wouldn’t have.”

“No, I knew you would. That’s what made it even harder. I needed to learn how to be in control by myself. I mean, yeah Mum and the gys were there, but they just kept an eye on me and made sure I wasn’t going out partying. Man, Mum was so angry with them all for letting me get to that point. I thought Boulder was going to cry at one point. Now, he’s Mums favourite person ever. I hope you get to meet him sometime. I think you’d both get on so well.” Even the thought of Aiden and Boulder meeting was amazing. Boulder had filled in some of the empty spaces I had in my life after losing Aiden the first time. He was the only one who really knew how I felt about Aiden and how much I wanted to be with him. Actually, maybe the two of them meeting wasn’t such a great idea. Boulder was a nosy, interfering bastard when he wanted to be. And he always wanted to be!

“I can totally get where you’re coming from.” Aidens voice pulled me back to the moment. “It was the hardest thing to ring you about Mark. But I couldn’t see any other way to get through this and I just needed you. In person. Not on the phone. And while I still feel like an idiot for letting him push me around for so long, ultimately, I should probably thank him.”

“What the fuck? Why?” Disbelief rang in my voice. “He’s a fucking tosser and I’d love to just get five minutes alone with him.”

Aiden laughed. “Calm down, tiger. I just meant that because of all this, I got you back. We’re here together. I know you have to go back in a few days but maybe we can make the most of our time.”

The images that were flying through my head right now were mostly of the dirty type. I really hoped he meant what I thought he was saying. And then I could only watch as he leaned in and kissed me. Okay, so I didn’t just watch. I was one hundred percent involved in that kiss and everything else that followed. No other experience I had ever had before come close to matching the joy, the intimacy, the sheer hotness of what we did to each other. I lay there afterwards,in a kind of stupor, and just ran my hands up and down his back as we slowly got our breathing back under control.

“Dude, I’m not sure I’ll be able to walk, let alone surf, if we do this for the next three days.”

Again, he let out that little laugh he always seemed to do around me.

“I’m sure you’ll find the strength. Nothing keeps you from the waves.”

He was wrong though. He could keep me from the waves. He could make me give up all my dreams if he asked me to.