“Oh hey Spence when are you heading down for the reunion?” Oh double crud.

“Hi too Aiden. How are things with you?” I tried to divert the conversation with the one thing I knew Aiden couldn’t avoid talking about…himself.

“Spencer…” I could practically feel his sigh and his full body slump over the phone. Always a drama queen, his manner was so familiar to me that I just couldn’t not smile. I shook my head in dismay because I had a feeling the tactic didn’t work.

“What?”

“You promised me the last time I called that you’d come down for a visit and what was that, like a year ago?”

“I can’t Aiden…I’d have to take time off and if I do then the kids who depend on me…”

“Nuh-uh you’re not getting off easy this time. I know you can’t be all that busy with your social work stuff as all that.” Oh if only that were true, if I only learned how dad made his work look so easy…I turned around and spotted Allie busy trying to look as if she wasn’t listening. I stuck my tongue out at her, reached over and grabbed her precious autographed DVD of Sugar Rush that she had imported from the U.K and mimicked throwing it out the window. Her eyes bulged and silently laughing I put it down.

“C’mon Spence. It’d be really fun. Besides I know for a fact that Ashley won’t be coming…” Aiden carefully ventured.

“What?” My attention snapped back to our conversation. Aiden and Ashley had remained good friends throughout the years, but Aiden rarely ever mentioned Ashley’s name to me. It was a politely avoided topic amongst the two of us. If he ever spoke to Ashley about me he never mentioned it.

“Listen I know that she’s probably the main reason why you feel a little..um…’eh’ about coming back for a visit, but you know how she feels about these school dances and plus she’s going to be traveling, doing some promotional work for her clothing line for the next few weeks.” He added quickly.