I was pretty shocked to see Aimee standing in front of the gate of her house when I arrived there.

It's not even because I hadn't informed her that I was close by when I was just a few minutes away. It's that I myself was arriving at an earlier time than we had agreed on.

Ever since Aimee had invited me to go along with her to Dylan's house earlier that week, thoughts about the visit had soon become a regular presence in my mind. Despite Dylan's connection to it, the visit promised a change of scenery, a break from the predictable routine my life seemed to have become.

Also, honestly, the idea of seeing Dylan's family members again for the first time in years certainly didn't discourage me, despite the fact I still saw him as a douchebag.

So by 10 am on Saturday, I decided to head out to Aimee's house to pick her up, despite the fact we had agreed to leave by 12 pm.

As soon as Aimee got into the passenger seat beside me, I asked, "Why are you out so early?"

She rolled her eyes. "And good morning to you too."

"Good morning. I still want my answer though."

"Well in that case, why are you here so early?"

"I-" I paused, then I shrugged. "There was nothing to do at home, so I figured I might as well come to hang out at your place till you're ready to go."

"You chose to hang out at my place rather than with one of your fellow gang members? Aww, I must be growing on you!"

My face grew warm, but I kept my composure as I scoffed, "I assume your brain hasn't fully woken up yet."

"And now your usual sassy self has arrived."

"Wh- I'm not sassy!"

"Aww, now he's blushing!"

"Fuck off, I'm not! And anyway, you still haven't answered my question!"

"Fine chill, don't get your panties in a bunch."

"I do not wear-" When I saw the growing grin on her face, I growled, "Go on!"

"What, talking about your panties or-"

"Aimee!"

"Fine!" Shaking her head while still grinning, she said, "My dad's at home right now, and he is not in a good mood."

The warmth hadn't yet left my face, but I managed to keep my voice level as I replied, "Oh? Why?"

"Oh nothing much, my brother just did something stupid again."

"Brother?" I rose my eyebrow. "You mean Tim?"

"Considering I only have one brother, yes."

"Hmm."

A moment passed, then I added, "I never took him for the type to do stupid things."

"Oh believe me," Aimee scoffed, "looks can be deceiving."

"Hey, so I hate to interrupt your conversation, but I still don't know where I'm meant to be taking you both."

"Hmm?" I glanced at Tony, who was staring at me. "Oh, yeah. The address is-"

All of a sudden I paused and looked at Aimee. "Dylan hasn't moved, has he?"

"Huh? Well... I don't think so."

"Right. Why don't you give Tony the address, just to be on the safe-"

"Oh wait, no he hasn't moved. I remember, he once told me he's never moved houses in his life."

"He told you that?"

"While we were dating, so chill."

I frowned. "I just asked a question."

She rolled her eyes but didn't reply.

When a stab of irritation pierced me, instead of snapping at her, I turned to Tony and growled, "10B Rainidow, Off Lidenturd Street."

Glancing back at Aimee, I spat, "Right?"

She furrowed her brow. "What's your problem?"

"I'm just asking you to confirm the address, so chill."

"Right, so I can see you wanna get pissed for no reas-"

"Look, can you just confirm the fucking address so we can get going?"

For a few seconds, she just stared at me wide-eyed without saying anything. When she finally spoke, she spat back, "Yes, it's right."

"Thank you." I turned back to Tony. "We can get going now."
. . .

The silence was deafening.

So much so that I began drumming my fingers against the window, while sneaking glances at Aimee every now and then.

Nothing.

Not even a hiss from her. Her calm expression remained set in stone. For a moment, I contemplated snatching her phone out of her hand, but I soon realized that doing that would be too much of an indicator that I was trying to get her attention.

Because even though I could view the situation more rationally after the red cloud of rage had left my sight, an apology still remained far from the tip of my tongue.

Therefore, I nearly cried out in joy when Tony spoke.

"Attention passengers, fasten your seatbelts, please. We are now approaching The Blister."

Aimee looked up from her phone. "Wait, The Blister?"

"Yeah. You know, the not so nice part of our dear tow-"

"I know what it is." She glared at me. "Besides, I wasn't asking you."

"You didn't specifically ask anyone."

She huffed, then turned her attention back to her phone.

This might sound weird, but I was actually happy with her response. After all, it was better than nothing.

Once again, I looked out of the window beside me once we stopped talking. Only that unlike the previous time, the scenery I was staring at actually held my attention.

See, it had been years since I had entered into The Blister. I think I was about eleven years old the last time I had visited there before then, and if I'm to describe The Blister's state back then, I would do so in one word:

Underdeveloped.

Really underdeveloped, especially when compared to the part of Bloomsby I lived in. Whereas you'd rarely, if not never, find a piece of trash lying around on the street on my side of town, I'd say that approximately half of The Blister was littered with trash. The other half was mainly made up of grassland, seeing as it hadn't been developed into a residential area.

Once upon a time, although there was no physical boundary between The Blister and my part of town, anyone would know when they were passing into The Blister. However, as I looked at it after all those years, I probably would not have noticed I was even in The Blister if Tony hadn't made his announcement.

As we drove farther in, the differences between the state of The Blister then and what I remembered became more and more apparent. The multitude of set up stalls that had once lined the streets had vanished, replaced instead by small stores. Fewer people used their feet as their major mode of transportation across the streets. Although the street was still not quite as clean as the ones at my side of town, they were much better than I remembered.

"Wow," I breathed, "this place sure has changed."

"Yep," Tony replied. "Mayor Brickleberry needed some way to get herself re-elected a few years ago, so she finally started paying attention to this place. Ever since then, things have just been going up. You can even walk around in some parts of here at night and not worry about being mugged."

"I'm just shocked Dylan lives here. He's never even mentioned it before."

I was so engrossed in The Blister that Aimee's statement flew over my head when she first said it. A few moments later, however, a frown came over my face when it finally registered in my head.

Turning my head to face her, I asked, "Wait, he didn't tell you? I thought he gave you his address."

"Hmm? Oh- oh yeah he did, but he never specifically mentioned that he lived in The Blister-"

It was too late for her because no amount of words she said could cover up the way her eyes had briefly widened when she'd heard my statement.

"He didn't give you his address, did he?"

Aimee averted her eyes from mine as her face reddened.

Shaking my head, I scoffed. "That's why you invited me along, isn't it? So I could lead you to Dylan's house?"

"No!" Her eyes flew back up to mine. "I mean, that was part of the reason, but what I said wasn't a lie!"

"Really? Then what would you call it?"

"A... a half-truth."

"Funny, because that's also known as a white lie!"

"Bu- Okay fine, maybe it is, but how else was I supposed to get you to come with me? If I'd told you the full truth, you'd have probably gotten pissed for no reason and refused to come!"

"Is that a fact?" Between gritted teeth, I growled, "So now that I've discovered the fact you lied to me, would you say that I'm getting pissed for no reason?"

Although she still held my gaze, she didn't give a reply to that.

I continued. "So if I were to tell Tony to turn this car around, would you say that I'm being irrational?"

When she didn't reply for a while, I roared, "Answer me!"

"I- I don't know! I don't know why you've been acting so on edge today-"

"Maybe 'cause you keep doing stupid shit like this to piss me off!"

"Stupid shit? So maybe the fact I lied was wrong, but it doesn't give you the right to be shouting at me li- like this!"

The reply that I had been about to let out got caught in my throat when I took notice of Aimee's expression. Her eyebrows had tilted upwards, and her tightly pressed lips were trembling.

At that moment, I wasn't quite sure what to do. On one hand, part of me wanted to continue raging at her. On the other hand, another part of me didn't want to push her over the edge and shatter the last remaining bit of self-control she was hanging on to.

Sighing loudly, I turned back to face the window, trying to get my breathing rate back to normal.

However, I didn't tell Tony to turn around. Partially because I wanted to see Dylan's house...

... and partially because at that moment, my bladder was sending me a strong signal that I needed to visit a bathroom soon.
. . .

Dylan's house was almost exactly like how I remembered it: a two-story detached house with a cream-painted exterior. The only difference I could find was that the paint on the walls was less chipped, and the lawn outside the house had more grass on it.

In regards to the surrounding area, Dylan's house was still pretty secluded in the neighborhood. There were a few houses near his, but most of them had 'to let' signs on their lawns.

After Tony parked outside the small fence surrounding the house, Aimee and I got out and walked to the front door without speaking to each other. In my case, my silence was less because of our argument, and more because of the fact my eyes were trying to take in as much of my surroundings as possible.

Aimee knocked several times on the door before we heard a high-pitched male voice shout, "Jeez, hold your horses!"

A few seconds later, a brown eye appeared at the peephole of the door. "Who are you both?"

"Uh, hi. I'm Aimee, and he's Angelo. Is Dylan in?"

"Depends. Why do you wanna know?"

Aimee glanced at me with a bemused expression on her face, then she turned back and said, "Well, I'm here to study-"

Suddenly, a sharp female voice snapped from the other side of the door, "Ian, get down from there! How many times have I told you not to stand on your brother's shoulder?"

I winced as a loud smack echoed through the air, followed by an 'eep' and the sound of scampering feet.

Shortly after the door opened, revealing a plump dark-haired woman. "Sorry about that. Who are you both looking for?"

My mouth went dry as I took in her appearance: plump figure, dark hair, chestnut-brown eyes, sharp crooked nose.

She looked exactly like how I remembered her.

"Good afternoon madam. We're here to see-"

I choked out, "M- Mrs. Glaxes?"

"Ye-"

Her eyes widened when they fixed on her face. For a moment, she didn't say anything.

Then, she breathed, "Angelo? Is that you?"

I nodded.

A large smile broke over her face. "So it is!"

I barely had a moment to process what was happening before I was yanked forward and wrapped up in her arms.

"It's so good to see you! And I- oops!"

She quickly let go of me, taking a step back. "Sorry, I forgot there might be baking powder on my apron. But please, come in, both of you!"

"Uh, th- thanks!"

I followed her inside, with Aimee following close behind us. The interior looked just as I remembered it as well - cream walls with pictures all over it, a large sofa and armchairs facing the tv, which was not far from the front door. The door leading to the kitchen was half-opened, at the other end of the room.

I unconsciously took in a deep breath as the sweet smell of something baking wafted into my nose.

Dylan's mum walked to the stairway, which was just a few feet away from the living room, and yelled, "Dylan! Come downstairs, quick!"

"Coming mom!"

A few seconds later, the sound of feet padding down the stairs floated through the air, then Dylan appeared at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in a plain white shirt and a pair of sweatpants. "Yeah-"

He froze when his eyes landed on me. His eyes darted away from mine for a brief moment, to Aimee's I suppose, then they were back again.

His face darkened as he growled, "The fuck are you both doing here?"

"Dylan, language! They're here to see you."

"Well, I sure as hell didn't invite them-"

"Watch your tone, young man!"

Dylan fell silent, but he remained glaring at me.

I struggled to keep a smirk from forming on my face as I said, "We thought we would surprise you. By the way, would you mind showing me to the toilet? I simply must relieve myself."

Although Dylan looked like the only place he wanted to show me to was the front door, he took another look at his mum, then growled, "Come."
. . .

I couldn't stop smiling at myself in the mirror.

"For the last time, can you please hurry the fuck up?"

"Fine alright, I'm coming!"

I guess it's understandable why Dylan had been growing impatient. After all, I had been taking my sweet time doing absolutely nothing for nearly all of the ten minutes I spent in his bathroom. Then again, he was the one who chose to wait for me outside it. He was also the one who chose to lead me to the one in his room when he just as easily could have pointed me to the guest bathroom downstairs.

After washing my hands, I finally stepped out of the bathroom. Not surprisingly, I was met with his glaring face.

I smirked at him. "I think I can find my way downstairs without you."

"Whatever. Let's just go."

"Hold on, what's the rush? It's been years since I've been in your bedroom, hasn't it? Let me familiarize myself with it again."

"Smith, I swear-"

I tuned him out as I began to walk through the room, tracing my eyes over it. There were clothes scattered all around it, only that they were spilling off two different beds, not just one as I remembered.

"You have a roommate?"

"You ready to go downstairs?"

"If I do, would you answer my question?"

"Would you prefer I drag you there myself?"

Scoffing, I continued looking around. Apart from the beds, there wasn't much else furniture. Just a couple of desks, chairs, and a closet. The walls of the room were lined with countless pictures. A few of them contained only Dylan, a few others only had Dylan and his mum, but the majority of them also contained his siblings as well - two boys and a girl.

They were much younger than Dylan, about ten years younger if my memory serves me correctly. I still remember the day when Dylan had informed me excitedly that he was going to have siblings...

One photo on the wall, in particular, caught my eyes, mainly because it was the only one that contained someone that I didn't already know of. The picture seemed to be quite recent, as Dylan didn't look much younger in the picture than he did then.

In the picture, he was dressed in formal wear, holding the hand of his little sister as his brothers grinned at his other side. His mother stood behind them, dressed in a long black dress. Beside her was a man dressed in a suit, who was smiling at the camera as well.

Frowning, I squinted my eyes at the man. His face struck a dull chord within me, but I wasn't sure why...

And then it hit me.

My breath caught as his face flashed in my mind. Only that in the image that popped up, he didn't look happy as he did in the picture. He looked scared for his life as he was held down on the table by two security men...

All of a sudden, I could remember him far too well. How could I not, when he had been the waiter who had served Max the poisoned glass of wine on that fateful New Year's day?
. . .

Wow, I'm actually struggling not to drop spoilers. Because when I think about everything that's gonna go down... 😷😱🤐😉

By the way, hope you enjoyed this really long chapter! Let me know what you thought about it in the comments below, and pls don't forget to vote if you liked it!

Till next time!