A cinderella crime story, p.13
A Cinderella Crime Story, page 13
She reached for her purse.
Aiden stared. “Where are you going?”
His stepmother looked over at him. “Well, the meeting was moved to another location. Mr. Yang insisted on having it at his house for tonight. I believe he bought some new exotic animals he wanted to show off. There’s also a young man he wanted to introduce to Zhu Zhu. The two can be friends.”
I cleaned the entire house for nothing? Aiden chewed his lip. “Why did I cook so much food if we’re not hosting?”
“Well, we obviously still need to bring food,” She grabbed a pair of white satin gloves. “You would’ve known about the change if you picked up your phone last night.”
Aiden did not miss the chilly glance thrown in his direction, but his eyes wandered to Zhu Zhu. She slouched over her iPad, tapping the screen three times, each heavier than the last, and her eyes twitched to catch his gaze before returning to her drawing. “How old is this young man?” Aiden asked. “Mr. Yang’s children are very young, so I know it’s not his kids.”
“Older,” Zhu Zhu immediately mumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear.
“I said they could be friends. She will need guidance once she goes to a university that’s appropriate for her, and he’s currently attending that university,” Yin Mei interjected. “Carry everything out to the car, won’t you?”
Aiden grabbed one of the wrapped dishes. His hands clenched. “Should we already be talking so far into the future regarding Zhu Zhu if we still have no hint on the location of the will? Assuming you’ve told me everything about it.”
Zhu Zhu slowly looked up from her iPad with wide eyes. Besides her, He Bao stopped his prancing and glared. His stepmother whirled toward him, but her gaze fell on the expensive porcelain in his hands.
Want me to throw it? To make the challenge clearer, he shifted it in his hands.
“Listen you,” He Bao snarled. “You’re asking a lot of questions for something that doesn’t concern you. This is between Ma, my sister, and me. Go put everything out in the car already! If we’re late, I’m going to tell the other families it’s because of you.”
Suppose I have time for more backtalk later, Aiden thought. He transferred the dishes one-by-one with no one’s help to the car. Besides, I need something else first.
He returned inside, lowering his eyes and softening his tone. “Some of my clothes are fraying. Can I borrow a needle to fix them?”
“You want a needle now?” His stepmother sighed. “Zhu Zhu, go grab him a needle.”
“I don’t know where it is. I don’t know where anything is. You’re the one who decided how everything goes in this house, including our own rooms,” Zhu Zhu replied, head lowered to the iPad again.
“You live in this house, don’t you? You should already know where everything is.”
“I’ll get him the needle,” He Bao interrupted.
He glared at Aiden when walking past. After stomping around the house, He Bao returned and shoved the needle into his hands, almost pricking Aiden’s finger along the way.
Still, Aiden kept his expression carefully submissive, nodding with his eyes flicked down.
“We must lock everything up.” His stepmother gestured to the basement.
Obediently, Aiden returned back down. He turned the light on, settling onto his bed. Yin Mei slammed the door shut. The lock clicked with a key. “Move, move. We can’t be late for tonight.” He listened to their steps fade. The house fell to silence.
He grinned at the needle in his hand.
“Wasn’t able to use it during the kidnapping, but I can definitely use it now,” Aiden relished aloud. He dug into one of the boxes that the family abandoned in the basement, digging out the clothes Zhu Zhu graciously saved for him that morning.
His heart thumped against his chest, pulling out the silvery sheen with a dragon roaring at the front. He smiled, pain pricking at his chest.
His brother’s last gift to him.
Something she made for him.
Aiden donned the modernized hanfu. The silk wrapped around his shoulders in the perfect shape and perfect height. He overlapped the collar, and both sides fell into place, hugging his chest at the right proportions. He fastened the strings around the end of his sleeves, and the scales of the dragon glimmered against the dim light. He tightened the sash around his waist, and the pants flowed just above the floor while the waistline snugged around his skin.
He allowed himself to think of her. Just briefly. Wondering how she predicted this. Wondering how she could’ve made this when he was still young.
His breath shortened in an instant, and the swaying dim light reminded him of the car lights pulling around the window. His brother’s shadow turned around the corner for the restroom. His pouts and fitful cries at the game, and her laughter transformed before him—from glittering of joy to the horror of realization.
Sounds exploded around him, and a weight landed against him.
“Enough!” Aiden cried, collapsing onto the floor. He hugged himself. “Enough…” He would not think of her.
Not when Brendan was waiting.
Brendan’s hands, Brendan’s jacket, and Brendan returning lost items without fail and without hesitation. Brendan who made him feel both weak and strong.
Aiden wiped the sweat from his forehead. I won’t think about the past tonight. He climbed up the stairs and picked at the lock with the needle.
The door clicked open.
He raced outside of his basement prison, out of the house of expectations, and into the streets of the open air. He smiled and waved at the moon as he called an Uber to take him to campus.
He headed to the ball.
• • •
The dance was held in a familiar building—the building where he met Brendan, Christina, and Javier on that fateful day in the hallway; he was going to his math class, and he had since learned, they had just finished theirs.
Booming music already echoed in the well-lit building just from entering the front doors. Following it, he climbed up the stairs and turned toward the only room where different colors blinked. I hope Brendan didn’t leave and think I stood him up. Waiting for his stepfamily to leave, unlocking himself from his basement, and finding a ride to campus had eaten up time. But I don't have to rush tonight. He looked at the time.
According to Mr. Chen’s schedules, these family meetings tended to end around midnight. He just needed to return to the house before then.
The floors vibrated beneath his feet. A great cloud of chatter floated out into the air. Heart thumping, Aiden stared down at his unusual clothes. He reassured himself that the other students were too drunk to pay attention to a late straggler, but his breaths tightened with each step forward.
It’s fine. It’s Brendan.
Aiden stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He walked through the door.
Songs blasted through the air. A crowd of people dressed in various colors, sparkles, shoes, and jackets jumped up and down, moved left and right, and fell to the ground in great laughter. Some girls wore suits, some girls wore magnificent dresses with fake gems raining down the skirt, and some girls glowed in body hugging black.
The boys hung their arms around each other. Some took off their jackets and used them to dance with. Others wore crooked bow ties, loosened ties, and some without anything wrapped around the collar. Colorful socks with silly animal prints pulled up to their ankles, some purposefully mismatched. Shoes squeaked against the floor. Makeup glimmered on the corners of students’ eyes. They danced with their partners, they danced with their friends, and they danced with strangers.
The strong scent of alcohol blanketed everyone as shouts of lyrics rang in the air.
In the midst of joyful chaos, Aiden’s eyes met with Brendan’s, who was waiting by a table of non-alcoholic punch in the back of the room. His feet picked themselves up without thinking, and he slipped past the moving bodies with a heartfelt pull toward the boy rushing towards him with a big smile.
When Brendan froze as Aiden approached, he looked down at himself in his modern hanfu with the glimmering dragon. He rubbed his hands against his side. “Ah, it’s weird, isn’t it?”
“No.” Brendan looked him up and down. “It’s amazing.”
Aiden believed him.
“So, shall we dance?”
He glanced at the other couples bumping into each other or clinging at each other’s shoulders. “I have no idea how to.”
“It’s easy. We’ll just hold each other like this and…sway. And when we get tired of that, we’ll just jump around.”
Aiden smiled and nodded. Carefully, Brendan placed his arms around his waist. The warmth that Aiden had come to recognize as Brendan spread through his body, even more so with the silk’s delicacy. He felt every individual finger pressing against him.
“So, this is dancing.” An electric spark traveled through his body when he wrapped his arms around Brendan’s shoulders. Brendan’s blue eyes glowed of stars, and he almost laughed at the forced neutral expression that failed to cover Brendan’s growing smile.
“Why didn’t you go dancing in high school?”
“I was busy. Family stuff.”
“This is more fun than in high school. Legal alcohol, and less people caring about what they actually look like.” Brendan swayed. A love song hummed in the background. “What are you wearing actually? Is there a name for it?”
“It’s a hanfu for men. A modernized version.”
“You bought it?”
Aiden shook his head. “Made.”
“What’s the traditional version?”
“A lot more layers and more embroidery. The dragon is part of the actual cloth, but traditionally, it would be threaded in. The Chinese symbol is the only thing embroidered.”
“Is it your last name?”
“Yeah—Hui.”
“Do your last names have meaning?”
“All Chinese names are made up of a collection of words, so short answer, yes.”
“What does it mean?”
“Cinder.”
Brendan looked down at Aiden’s clothes once more. “Is that why it’s a silvery blue?”
“I think so. I never asked.” They swayed closer to the crowd, and Aiden didn’t even know how far they moved from the back until he looked around at the collection of different clothes swirling around them. A grin reached his face. “You like it?”
Brendan nodded. His blue eyes traveled over him. Gazing at his dark hair. Passing every inch of his skin. Admiring his nose, mouth, and his eyebrows. Despite the bodies enveloping them in a room that shrunk with every second, Aiden found that he was alone with Brendan in a piece of their private world. His heart swelled, and he waited for Brendan to speak.
“I…” Brendan lowered his eyes. Aiden strained to hear the mumble, but suddenly, Brendan’s shoulders straightened. Aiden clutched him tighter, slightly jumping when Brendan looked straight into his eyes. “I think you’re the most beautiful person in the world right now.”
The song around them changed, and dreamy love shifted to drunken chaos. Students clapped, danced, and jumped into the air, waving their arms wildly.
They continued to sway. Brendan’s breaths fell against his ear. Brendan’s fingers pressed more against his body.
I like him so much, Aiden realized.
“Can I kiss you?” Brendan asked.
Aiden’s eyes widened. A blush crept across his face, and he looked away with burning red ears. He nodded.
Brendan’s thumb brushed against his cheek. Turning, Aiden leaned forward, shocked at his own actions.
Their lips met while the music pounded against the walls. People sang louder in incoherent lyrics, and the alcohol flowed faster. The dancing lights of the disco balls blinded anyone with their eyes open, but Aiden’s eyes were closed. They kissed and kissed some more. His heart soared, his hands tightened, and in that moment, he felt a happiness he never expected to feel.
Despite the utter chaos of the room, in those moments with Brendan, he discovered a world of true peace.
The two awoke to reality after getting jostled by a group of friends. They laughed along with the friendly yet clearly drunk students, but the strangers had shattered their pocket of time. Their eardrums vibrated in pain at the music, and Brendan took one exasperated look at Aiden before clasping Aiden’s hand and pulling him outside of the room and the building. They ran to the campus courtyard, and Brendan flopped onto the grass with a flourish of joy.
Aiden carefully sat down beside him, and the two shared the silence of a beautiful night hovering in stillness. He couldn’t tell if the stars actually burned clearer or if he imagined everything brighter.
A pinky hooked with his. Surprised, he turned and watched Brendan slyly take his ring finger, then his middle finger. One at a time, until their hands clasped together. “How was it?”
Aiden tipped his head. “How was what?”
“This not-high-school prom. This ball. Dance. Party. Whichever you want to call it.”
“It was fun.” The truth resonated in every fiber of his being. He smiled. “It was fun.”
Brendan’s hand tightened around his. Aiden spread the edges of his clothes out in a circle around him and leaned forward to admire the silver moon hanging in the night sky. He closed his eyes to drink in the scent of every leaf, every blade of grass, and every flower blooming.
“Brendan.”
“Hmm?”
“Say to me what you first said to me after the club meeting.”
“The club meeting?”
“The first one.” With his free hand, he reached for the moon. “When you told me to choose where the club would go to take pictures.”
“Anywhere you want to go.” Aiden heard Brendan move beside him. “I didn’t say this, but I also meant whatever you want to do.”
Whatever I want to do. He continued staring at the sky, only vaguely aware of Brendan’s hand slipping away. I want this life. I want to find out what happened to my brother.
He was going to confront his stepmother and let her know he wouldn’t stand for the way she treated and used him anymore.
Something clicked beside him, and the strange noise combined with his decision reminded him of the Infinite meeting with cutting-edge clarity. Alarmed, Aiden looked down at his phone. Already? He stood up and looked at the watchtower behind them. “I’ve got to go!” he exclaimed and took off running.
“Why? Aiden—wait, I have to ask you something!”
“I’ve really got to go—I can’t explain. It’s almost midnight. I’ll text you!”
“Aiden, I took a—”
His thumping heart overtook Brendan’s words. His fingers flew in calling an uber, but Aiden turned around briefly to jump and wave. “I’ll see you again!” he promised. “In fact, I’ll see you very soon!”
The campus blurred. He dashed away from the buildings and onto the sidewalk of the campus’s main street. He sighed with relief at the car turning around the corner, and he politely greeted the driver while settling into the back seat.
His breaths came up short, and his heart pounded against his chest, but the smile remained pinned to his face.
It felt like no time had passed at all.
Whether in a crowded room of strangers with music drumming against their ears or in the peaceful field of a beautiful night with starlight floating down to their faces, time slowed with Brendan. He relaxed against the seat, still smiling.
His brother was right. He found his place.
Beyond the windows of the car, he heard the watchtower ring. He counted the twelve calls from the clock.
If the stepfamily left after midnight, they would take longer to get back than him. I made it. He watched the world pass, suddenly brighter under the guidance of the brilliant full moon.
He asked the driver to drop him off a block away, in case his stepfamily somehow ended up driving back at the same time. Humming, Aiden danced in the moonlight, closing his eyes to the gentle kisses from the night, and skipped toward the house.
He stopped.
The porch light was on, and shadowed figures moved.
Aiden’s heart sank. His body weighing a thousand pounds, he dragged his feet forward, climbing up the porch. Zhu Zhu looked as if they sat outside for some time with her hair pulled down, her eyes engrossed in the iPad, and her shoes kicked off. He Bao watched him warily.
His stepmother gasped upon seeing him.
“You!” she screeched, charging at him only to stumble backward as if a bullet had shot her in the chest. “So it was you.”
“Me?” Aiden stared. “Me what?”
“You’re the traitor. I had hoped you wouldn’t be.” Gasping, she threw her jewelry off to Zhu Zhu, who made minimal effort to avoid the flying objects. “To think you would betray your own family!”
Aiden stared harder. “What are you talking about?”
“Why would you go out dressed like that? You were clearly meeting with other families. Any clothing with the Hui sigil signifies a place of formal importance.”
He looked down at his hanfu. “I went to a formal dance.” He hadn’t blinked since her insane accusation.
“You at a formal dance? Who would you even go with? It’s not like you have friends. Make up a better lie.”
“Me lying?” Biting fury flushed his entire body. He glared at her. Her crossed arms loosely pressed against her chest. Despite her accusation, her shoulders hung relaxed. Her eyes dared him to prove her wrong in front of her two children where one appeared far too bored to engage and the other always unfailingly at her side.
