different as Aiden went to open the front door. This place had become my home over the last few weeks, but with my parents back, it felt like there was a ticking clock hanging over my head. This wouldn’t be my home for much longer. Before Aiden could push the door open, I reached out and touched his hand. He turned, and there was a questioning look in his eyes.
“Aiden, do you know what my parents coming home means?”
He shook his head.
I licked my suddenly dry lips and swallowed. “It means that in fourteen days they’ll be done with quarantine. And in fourteen days, I’ll be able to go home.”
“We won’t be in lockdown together anymore,” he replied.
“No. And we won’t be able to see each other.”
Aiden blew out a long breath, his blue-green eyes lifting to look into the distance. When he focused back on me, he reached out to grasp my hands in his. “Then we better make the most of the next fourteen days together.”
“And after that?”
“And after that, we’ll find a way to be together even though we’re apart. I’m not afraid of being separated from you.”
He made it sound so simple, and I hoped he was right. “So, you think we can make this work?”
“I can make anything work, as long as I’ve got you.”
23
Clary
“You know there’s a special place in hell for people like you,” I said, peering up at Aiden from the novel I was reading. It was his copy of Lord of the Flies, part of our required reading for English. Since school had started again, we actually needed to study. It had given my days a bit more purpose, but the teachers were piling assignments on us, and we were spending hours each day on schoolwork.
Aiden must have thought I was joking because he started to smirk. There was nothing funny about what he’d done though. “Can I ask why I deserve to go to hell today?”
I lifted the book to show him. “You highlighted whole passages in your book. Highlighted! And you wrote notes in the margins. Don’t even get me started on the dog-eared corners of the pages.” I shook my head at him. “It’s like you’ve never even heard of a bookmark.”
He actually had the nerve to laugh in response. “Why bother with a bookmark when you can just fold over the corner of the page?”
“Because you’re destroying the book!”
He tilted his head as he looked at me. “You’re really in a bad mood tonight, aren’t you? Have you had a coffee in the last few hours? That might explain things…”
I threw the book at his head, but he caught it out of the air with ease. His annoying smirk curved the corner of his lips as he lowered the book from in front of his face. “You definitely haven’t had a coffee in a while.”
I folded my arms across my chest and scowled at him.
“Do you think kisses work the same way as caffeine?” he continued.
“We’re supposed to be studying.”
“Well, only one of us is actually studying. And she just threw away her book, so it doesn’t seem like she’s studying anymore…”
I shifted uncomfortably in my beanbag. I didn’t like that he was right. To be honest though, I’d been struggling to study for a while. We were in his bedroom, and Aiden had been at his desk watching silly YouTube videos for the past half hour. I would have liked to blame my lack of focus on all the noise coming from his computer, but it was all the notes and doodles Aiden had drawn in the margins of his book that made studying impossible.
He left his chair and came to sit on the beanbag at my side.
“We’re not making out,” I told him.
“You always say that, and you always give in.”
“Today’s different.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, today, I’ve developed self-restraint.”
“You sure about that?”
I swallowed as I peered up at him through my lashes. His arm was rested behind me, and his body was pressed up against mine. It was hard to ignore my body’s reaction to him, and Aiden had every reason to believe I’d give in to him. We’d pretty much ended every study session this week with kisses. Maybe the knowledge we had such a short time left together made everything feel more urgent. It was hard to believe almost a week had passed already, and we only had one week until I returned home.
Aiden lifted a hand and brushed it against my cheek. He didn’t