Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition (11 page)

I heard the car door shut as
the person made their way towards my hiding place. A beam of light invaded my
hiding place through the bushes.

“Aiden? Dude, I know you are
in there.”

It was Tony so I immediately
jumped up and ran towards the car.

“Hey! What happened with…”

“Tony, not now. I have to get
home now!”

Tony just stood there watching
me get in the passenger side of my car. He didn’t move or flinch. A look of
confusion and concern had taken permanent residence over his face. I could tell
he was beyond scared.

“Dude! Come on, we got to go,”
I protested.

“Okay!” Tony responded looking
towards the ground. He couldn’t look me in my eyes anymore. Things were
changing between us and there was nothing I could do about it. But at the
moment I was only concerned with getting home without running into the cops.
Tony got in the car and began driving. We both just looked ahead, saying
nothing. I was trying to avoid being asked questions I had no real answers to
and Tony was afraid to ask questions because the answers would cause him to
make a hard decision. The radio was off and the drive was depressingly slow.

“You know what? I can’t do
this!” Tony yelled.

“Do what?” I asked, pretending
I had no clue what he was talking about.

“This! Acting like nothing is
wrong. Listen, I know where you were. You were at Jasmine’s house. Now I’m
telling you this so you can avoid lying to your best friend. I know you are
wondering how could I possibly know that, right?”

I turned and looked at Tony.
He was still looking straight ahead while he was driving, avoiding eye contact
with me. I was terrified now. How could he know? Tony was getting borderline
hysterical now. Ranting on about how he couldn’t remain quiet anymore, about
how he climbed through my bedroom window while we were downstairs eating dinner
and installed a GPS tracking software on my cell phone. He has been tracking me
since I told him about my reaction to Jasmine on the football field during
tryouts. He knew every move I made since then. Once the reality of this
revelation sank in I became overwhelmed with shame, the shame turned to fear,
and then fear transformed to anger, and anger gave birth to rage. I could feel
my entire body heating up and I began sweating like crazy. Tony was still
ranting about how he had no choice because he couldn’t live with knowing if I
harmed Jasmine he could have prevented it if he had acted. But his words were
muffled by the roaring waves of rage smashing against my head.

Everything was just spinning
now and my mind was having a hard time processing what Tony just said to me.

“Stop the car,” I said, calmly
at first; trying to hold back the obscenities dancing on the tip of my tongue.
Tony was so engulfed in his rant that he didn’t hear me.

“Stop the car!” I repeated.
Still no response from Tony; by now those obscene things were no longer dancing
on the tip of my tongue, they were now hanging on for dear life.

“Tony! Tony! Stop the fucking
car and get the fuck out!”

Those damned obscenities were
now escaped convicts that had already done a world of hurt. Tony immediately
stopped the car and looked at me like I’d just lost my mind. Thing is he was
too late, I’d lost my mind weeks ago.

“What did you say?!”

“Get out of my car,” I
demanded. “Now!”

I could tell Tony was in
disbelief at my reaction by the look of horror that came over his face.

“Look, you left me no choice.
You—”

“Get the fuck out of the
fucking car right now, Tony. I won’t ask you again!”

“Ask? You call that asking.
Cool, whatever, I’m out. I was only trying to help,” Tony protested as he got
out the car. I quickly moved into the driver’s seat.

“Aiden, hear me out. I only
did it bec—”

I quickly floored the gas
pedal and raced off before he could finish his statement. As I sped off I
looked in the rearview mirror, watching his reflection disappear into night….

T
he
sunlight hit me the next morning with a cold burn I’d never felt before. When I
opened my eyes to receive the coming day, the events of the night before hit me
harder than the headache my hangover gave me. Last night was a night I would
never forget for the rest of my life. There were a lot of firsts last night and
being shot at and betrayed was just a couple of ingredients of the recipe. How
could Tony do that? I trusted him with this dark secret, and I felt he should
have trusted me as well. Tracking me was completely out of line, and tracking
me in secret had crossed that line. He made a choice and now I had to make one
and that choice would be to  cut ties with Tony for a while until I could iron
this out. If someone would’ve told me that Tony was capable of that kind of
betrayal, I would have spat in their face.

But now everything has changed
and I would have to go through this without him. I turned and looked at the
clock; it was 1:15 p.m. By now Tony would be here, invading my room and waking
me up to play a few rounds of “Halo 3” on Xbox Live before finding something to
do outside the house later. But today there was no Tony and I felt that I would
have to get used to this going forward. I decided to brave moving around
despite my pounding headache, to get myself together for the day. It seemed like
it was going to be a very boring day. But I was wrong, very wrong. I didn’t
actually eat anything till around 3:30 p.m. and all I could really stomach was
a banana. I could still smell a hint of alcohol coming through my skin, so I
avoided contact with my  mom and Sarah. It wasn’t until around 3:30 that I
decided to leave my room.

That’s when I went downstairs
for something to eat because I couldn’t take being in the room alone anymore.
Without my best friend, my room felt like a tomb, cut off from the rest of the
world.

I tried chatting on Facebook
with some new fans I got since making the team; boring. Once downstairs my
spirits lifted and the sunshine felt good, even my headache felt better—not
gone entirely, but better. I was done eating and getting ready to go outside to
try out some new things in the car when a huge banging sound erupted in our
home. The sudden invading sound sent shockwaves through my body and suddenly my
headache returned in full force. The sunlight seemed to diminish  and from where
I stood it felt like I was back in my tomb of a room. I looked out the window
to see who it was. It had better not be Tony because I had nothing to say to
him. But who was at the door made me wish it were Tony banging on the door
instead.

In front of our house were
about six Deerfield police cars, and four officers were standing outside our
door. The scene outside caused my heart to race and a cold sweat covered my
back. The gunman must have seen my face but if that were the case they would
have been here last night. Deerfield PD didn’t have a lot on their plates being
that Deerfield was a very secure and well-to- do township. Very little happened
here when it came to crime and a lot of times Tony and I would see officers in
their parked squad cars surfing the web on eBay or Facebook.

Most of them were cool and
weren’t so bad, but some of them were action junkies always looking to create
some movie-inspired traffic stop. They would provoke people into situations,
and when you gave them a window of opportunity they crashed through it. You
could tell which breed of cop you were dealing within three minutes into a
routine traffic stop. If it was one of the more settled and professional
officers, you would only be dealing with that one squad car. But if you were so
lucky to get pulled over by a cop on adrenaline, then about three minutes after
you were pulled over you would be surrounded by four or more squad cars.

By the time you were on your
way, your car would have been searched, you would have possibly been patted
down and bombarded with rude comments about why and where you were going in
Deerfield, etc., and if you gave them the tiniest reason, they would arrest you
and detain you overnight. They enjoyed embarrassing and harassing people, and
every one of these buffoons was at my front door. This was bad, really bad. The
banging started again, then the doorbell, then banging; these guys were a real
piece of work. They kept ringing the bell and banging on the door in immediate
succession. Then it sounded like they were kicking—not knocking—on the door.

“What the hell?” I heard my
mom yell from upstairs. “Aiden, who’s at the door?”

Somehow in my youthful
ignorance I thought maybe, just maybe, my mom wouldn’t hear the door and the
police would just leave. Boy, was I dumb.

“Aiden!”

“Yes, Mom?”

By now the bell-ringing and
knocking had become frantic and it seemed like they were going to take the door
right off the hinges.

“Who is that banging on the
door like that?”

“The police, Mom,” I answered.

“The police?”

“Yes!” I said and I started to
walk towards the door.

By now my entire body was
covered in sweat. My head was pounding just as hard as the police was pounding
on the door. If the gunman didn’t turn me in, then who did? Then a thought
crossed my mind that made me explode with anger. Tony; he finally struck the
killer-blow and now the police are here to take me in. I guess some secrets
aren’t meant to be shared. I was terrified at what awaited me outside that door
but this was inescapable. Time to face the music; I just wished they had sent
the other cops. My hand was reaching for the door handle when the phone began
ringing. My mom was now coming downstairs.

“Aiden, you get the phone.
I’ll get the door.”

“But, Mom, I’m right here.”

“No, I’ll deal with the police
and you answer the phone.”

I didn’t want to get my mom
involved. I wanted to open the door and extend my hands in from of me so that
they could slap on the cuffs and carry me away. Hopefully my mom would be on
the phone while I was carried away. That was my plan, and, yeah, I was only
seventeen then so don’t expect me to have many common-sense moments.

“Mom, I can get the door and—”

“Aiden, you’ve been down here
the entire time and you haven’t gotten the door yet. So I’ll get it and you get
the—”

At that moment the phone
stopped ringing.

“You see, Mom, I can get the
door now.”

Then my cell phone started
ringing. I looked at the display and it was the coach.

“Who is it?” my mom asked.

“My coach.”

“Well, son, answer your phone
and I’ll get the door. Now go in the kitchen and take the call.”

“Mom…”

“Now!” I could see any more
protesting would be met with a strict punishment. So I decided to yield and do
as I was told.

“Hello?”

“Aiden?”

“Yes, Coach, it’s me.”

“Thank God! We have a serious
situation.” My heart dropped. A serious situation? Did everyone know now and I
was being kicked off the team? Damn Tony. He’s going to get what’s coming to
him. And to think I considered him my best friend and I trusted him with my
dark secret. Needless to say my first day as a seventeen-year-old wasn’t going
too well.

“What’s going on, Coach?” I
asked, bracing myself for the bad news. I could hear my mom unlocking the door
and swinging it open.

“Ma’am! Didn’t you hear us at
your door?” scolded the cop. “Why didn’t you answer your door sooner?”

His tone was very rude and he
was yelling at my mom now in anger. This must have been his first time meeting
her because if he knew her like I knew her, he would have watched his tone and
conduct.

“Wait a minute! You are at my
house…Officer Rude Ass! You are banging on my door, ringing my doorbell like
you have no home training or respect. And then when I open the door you are
yelling at me? Do you have any warrants or national homeland security issues
with my residence?”

“No, ma’am, but…”

“But my ass! Don’t you ever
come to my house again in this manner. I have children here and you are making
them uncomfortable, and unless your name is on the deed of this house and on
their birth certificate you have no right to make them feel that way! Now you
can either apologize, correct your tone or you can leave my property right now.
Your badges don’t intimidate me!”

Boy, I was hoping he decided
to leave but that was never my luck. They had a job to do and they weren’t
going to leave until it was done. I could hear the officer clear his throat and
humbly apologize to my mom for his behavior.

“Also, I don’t believe all of
you need to be here.”

“No, ma’am,” they all
answered.

“Well I’m sure some of you can
leave my doorstep now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” she replied.

“May I come in?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” The
officer was now speaking as if he had his manhood removed and displayed for all
to see.

She’d just totally punked him.
During all the commotion, I forgot about the coach on the phone and he was
still talking, but I had no idea what he was saying.

“Aiden?”

“Yes?”

“So I need you to start for us
next week.”

“Huh?”

“I need you to be our starting
running back next week. Were you listening to a word I’ve been saying?”

“Yeah,” I lied. “So how long
will I be starting?”

“Indefinitely, unless you
choke like you did during tryouts, then I will have to replace you. Can I count
on you?”

“Yes, Coach.”

“Good, so I’ll see you in
practice Monday?”

I paused. Would he?

“Yes, Coach, I’ll be there.”

“Okay, I know it’s going to be
a rough few days ahead but try and have a good weekend anyway.”

Without thinking I responded,
“You too, Coach.”

I should have been ecstatic
after talking to the coach, but I had other pressing matters. Being arrested
for breaking and entering was at the top of the list.

“Aiden! My mom called to me.

“Yes?”

“Come here!”

Here we go. When I walked in
the foyer the officer was standing there waiting for me, hands on his belt.

“Aiden, this officer has some
questions for you.”

“About what?”

“Last night.”

My heart froze.

“Last night your mom called
the station to inform us that you and your friend…Tony, correct?”

Friend? I thought. Yeah right.
Ex-friend.

“Would be coming home after
12:00 a.m. curfew for under eighteen-year-olds with her permission. Just to
look out for you and make sure you were okay. She gave us your GPS tracking
code so we could keep an eye on things being that it was a brand-new car and
all. Anyway, last night there was a break-in and we saw that your car was
around about twenty minutes after the perp escaped on foot. Did you see
anything while on your way home? Your car stopped momentarily when you got near
your home.”

Wait—my mom too? Everyone was
tracking me! Geez!

“No, Officer, I didn’t see
anything.”

“You sure?”

The officer was staring me in
my eyes to see if I was hiding something.

“Why did you stop?”

“Me and Tony were arguing
and…that’s why we stopped.”

“Strange, Tony said you two
were trying to talk to some girls.”

“What?”

“Yeah, we talked to him
earlier.”

My mom turned and looked at me
with that “you better come clean” stare.

“Yeah, yeah, we were showing
off and trying to get their numbers.”

“Were there any guys with
them?”

“No, no, not that I know of.”

“And you didn’t see anything
else?”

“No, Officer,” I exhaled.

“Okay, well if you remember
anything else, give us a call.”