Chapter 1. The News

Aidan took a sip of his regular morning coffee, lost in thought, remembering the date he had last night with Regina, the mysterious girl he had come across town many times. He sat at the bar of the local diner, flipping through the opening pages of a thriller novel, trying to concentrate on the words printed on the book in front of him. The smell of freshly poured coffee filled his senses, along with the feelings under his hands. A cold marble counter under one of them, and the soft roughness of the book pages under the other. But his mind wandered as much as his eyes. He fought a smile, thinking about how he had an amazing time with a girl he had met recently, how she laughed sweetly at his bad jokes, the melody of it still lingering in his mind. The rumble of the television above the counter was background noise until the local news reporter’s voice grew sharp and urgent, catching his attention. He lifted his head toward it, the book still open in his hands.

“In local news, we’re sorry to announce that 28-year-old Christopher Langley was found dead in his apartment on Tuesday night by a neighbor. So far, authorities have ruled the death as likely caused by a stroke, though an official report is still pending. The victim had no known prior medical conditions. No foul play is suspected.”

Aidan raised his eyebrows at that.

“Do you think he OD'd?” He heard someone ask Anna, the diner’s owner.

She pursed her lips. “He didn’t seem to be one of those kids.” She turned to Aidan. “Do you know if he was into any kind of substance?”

A beat of silence.

“Aidan,” she repeated, and he turned to her as he raised his eyebrows. “Do you know anything about drugs?”

Aidan’s mind went blank for a second. Maybe his heart skipped a beat at the same time; he was so absorbed in thought, he didn’t really know. It was a lot of information to think about in such a short time, and such awful news. He knew Christopher, but he wasn’t a close friend, more like a friend-of-a-friend type of acquaintance. Still, Aidan remembered one afternoon last summer when they ended up on the same team during a pickup soccer game at the park. Christopher had laughed after missing a shot, brushing it off with lighthearted confidence. It struck Aidan that he seemed like a genuinely decent guy, easy to be around. Nonetheless, he never saw or heard anything about drugs or anything out of place. He shook his head.

“I don’t think he took anything. But anyway, I didn’t know him that well. He was a nice kid, though. Sad news,” He mumbled, looking down at his coffee.

Aidan continued with his day as normally as he could. He could’ve dismissed the news after getting out of the diner and texting his friends about it. But when you live in a small town, people often make comments about any recent shocking news, and the passing of a young man out of nowhere was shocking indeed. He felt sad that a man a bit younger than him had passed away like that, and he hoped Christopher hadn’t felt any kind of pain. He tried to bury the nagging feeling that something was not quite right about it. That ruminating thought kept coming along with a deep, hollow beating of his heart.

Later at night, when he was coming home from work, he ran into Regina at the town square near the cemetery.

“Gigi,” he beamed, “How’s it going?”

She turned around. When she smiled softly at him, Aidan felt his heart thunder in his chest. Maybe these were the famous butterflies people always referred to when they talked about liking someone. They met a couple of months ago, while he was coming back from the gym. Found her sitting outside the cemetery, staring at the night sky. She didn’t give him her number, dismissing the subject of not having her phone. When he asked if it was broken, she pursed her lips and made what Aidan considered an affirmative gesture.

But tonight, she was sitting on a bench at the town square, an open book resting on her lap. With his hands in his pockets, he approached her and kissed her on the cheek, feeling it cold.

“Are you cold?” he pointed out and touched her arm, feeling the soft threads of the cream-colored cardigan she was wearing. “It’s a bit chilly out here.”

She shrugged a bit, hugging herself with her arms, slightly touching his hands with her own. “I’m okay.”

“It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” he asked, looking at the stars.

“It is,” she answered, her voice low.

After a moment without any of them saying anything, Aidan asked her if she had heard the news about the passing of Christopher, a bit younger than them. Gigi’s gaze shifted towards the floor and somewhere else before looking at him again.

“Yes,” she mumbled, “I heard some people talking about it around town”.

“It’s sad, a guy so young, right?” Aidan questioned, staring ahead, straight to the cemetery.

She pursed her lips and nodded. “Makes you question our own lives, doesn’t it?”

“Did you know each other?” Aidan wondered.

Gigi shook her head. “We crossed paths a few times around town”.

He nodded, looking at the floor, and then watched her profile. She was staring straight at the cemetery, as he had a moment before.

“Do you want to go and eat something?” he offered.

“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head and smiling. “I have to go now.”

She leaned forward, kissed his cheek, and left. Aidan stayed there on the bench, watching Gigi’s back as she went, feeling both the softness and coldness of her lips. He suddenly felt a bit colder than before, so he zipped his jacket all the way to his neck and decided to go home.