CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
HOMEMADE DINNER

It had been two weeks since the twos date, now well into the month of July.

Since then, Aaron and Kimmy had followed up on the conversation they'd had in the field. They had ended up dating properly - boyfriend and girlfriend.

However they hadn't told anyone. Well, Aaron had told Steve and Lucas, but that was all. Kimmy had been excited about it, but she didn't have anyone to talk about it with. Her best friend was currently going through grieving of her own and she didn't think it would be very much appreciated if she went gushing and gushing over herself and Aaron when her best friend was obviously struggling.

Kimmy would also have told El about it all, but she was just the same if not worse than Max. Eleven was handling the loss of her dad horribly - as expected.

Kimmy had tried to check in on the two, however they were never really up for it. The girl couldn't be offended, they were both going through a difficult period and if they needed more space Kimmy knew she'd have to accept that.

Of course she would have told Dustin, Mike and Will, but she didn't see a lot of them anymore. She saw them on occasion, but usually that was only when the group all hung out together.

She felt bad practically clinging to Aaron, she was always with him. Sometimes just her and the blond, sometimes Lucas was with them. It didn't matter, she felt bad that she was with him all the time, but she really didn't have any other options.

It had got to the point that she didn't feel safe in her house at all, even when she was hiding in her room or the bathroom. She didn't even have to look at her father anymore, as long as he knew she was in that house she wasn't safe and she knew it.

The girl had no idea what it was that had caused his already bad temper to take a turn for the worst. Maybe it was because it was summer and she was home more? Maybe it was because she wasn't at school in the summer?

Or maybe it had nothing to do with her and her dad was just an asshole. The girl just had to stop blaming herself and realise that.

That night Aaron asked Kimmy if she wanted to come over to his house to have dinner with him because Steve was going out and he'd be himself.

Kimmy of course had said she would come over, she hated the idea of him being there himself.

That's where she was currently, waiting outside after she had rang the door bell. She pretended like she couldn't hear the way the house immediately ruptured into chaos at the sound of the bell going.

There was a sound of some sort of metal dropping followed by loud curses could be heard. It took the boy longer than it should have for him to reach the door.

"Hi." She snickered at his slightly frazzled expression.

"I've told you before a million times that you don't have to knock, Kimmy." The boy shook his head seriously, grabbing her hand as he scoffed and dragging her into the house, slamming the door closed behind him before walking into the kitchen with her. "You can just walk in."

"I didn't knock, I rang the doorbell." Kimmy told him with an eye roll as she took her shoes off. "And I'm not just going to walk into your house unannounced don't be stupid."

"Whatever, I'm hardly going to kick you out, am I?" He retorted as he began cleaning up all the pans he had dropped when she'd rang the doorbell.

"Are you seriously telling me if I walked in unannounced you wouldn't have a heart attack? You would literally shit yourself, Aaron." Kimmy joked as she watched him clean the pans that had been on the floor. "And what if I do end up walking in without knocking one time, and you're not even home? That's like... trespassing or something."

"Okay, fine," the blond shrugged, turning to face her with a sarcastic smile. "Knock on the door. And just so you know I would not have a heart attack-"

"You would be terrified." Kimmy nodded, a teasing grin slipping past her lips as her serious facade shattered.

The blond narrowed his eyes at her teasingly, shaking his head before speaking up again. "Thats irrelevant. What do you want for dinner?"

"I don't care." She shrugged at him, leaning on the breakfast bar as she spoke. "It's your house, you choose-"

"Will you please just tell me what you want, please." He teased with raised brows. "I got Steve to take me to the store earlier and I got lots of shit because I didn't know what you would want, so we can have whatever."

Kimmy bit the inside of her cheek in thought, tilting her head before answering honestly. "I don't know how to make anything from scratch. Does your mom have any like... recipes or something lying around? We could just make one of those."

They had tried to follow the recipe for lasagna the last time they'd tried to make dinner, obviously it hadn't ended well and they'd had to order pizza. Although that was definitely more Kimmy's fault than Aaron's.

Kimmy had assumed that it was some sort of recipe he'd found around the house, they had tried to follow one, Kimmy had just never questioned where he had got it.

"Yeah, uh- hold on." He responded swiftly, walking over to the long counter as he began rummaging for some book. He grabbed it, moving back over and placing it down in front of Kimmy on the large breakfast bar. "I don't really know everything that's in it, but there's some good stuff in here."

Kimmy hummed in response, watching as the boy began flicking through the book for something easy enough to make that still tasted half decent.

"We could make pasta or something?" Aaron mumbled, still looking through his mom's recipe book. "Maybe carbonara?"

"Okay." The girl nodded, watching as the boy began reading the recipe in front of him with furrowed brows. "I'm fine with that, pasta shouldn't be too difficult, should it?"

Kimmy had never had carbonara before, she'd never had a lot of things. Her parents were never the type to make her dinner.

"Jesus, if we can't make pasta then there's something that's clearly fucked us in the head." The boy scoffed seriously, having picked the pasta seeing as they'd managed to ruin the times they'd tried to make dinner before.

"Well... if we do end up ruining it we have to make a pact not to tell anyone, that's another level of embarrassment I feel like." Kimmy suggested with slight laughs.

The girl reached her hand out for him to shake, the blond taking it and shaking her hand firmly. "Deal."

"Okay." She nodded at him, moving and walking around the counter to stand next to him to look down at the recipe they were supposed to be following.

...

The two did end up managing to make their pasta, beside the fact that they'd managed to boil the water the pasta was in to the point it spilled out over the sides - they'd managed to make their dinner.

It did take the two much longer than it probably should have, but they ended up getting there in the end.

"Did you end up telling anyone about... us?" Aaron asked awkwardly while he ate his food, resting his cheek in his hand as he spoke.

Aaron hadn't wanted to bring it up, but he knew that the girl had wanted to tell Max about it but couldn't. The brunette was very obviously missing her best friend, but didn't mention it to anyone, not wanting to seem insensitive to the redheads situation.

Kimmy was always hanging out with him, but Aaron didn't mind, he liked hanging out with her. But he knew Kimmy didn't want to seem like she needed someone to cope, like she was codependent or something.

He knew she wasn't and she knew she wasn't, however he also knew she always thought the worst about herself even with reassurance. It was something that just seemed to come natural to her.

"No." Kimmy answered, trying not to look disappointed. "I did want to tell Max but she still needs some space - I understand that, obviously."

"She dumped Lucas last week, but I think it's for good this time." Aaron told the girl as he ate, trying to reassure her that she wasn't the only person the girl hadn't spoken to. "She's just not doing good with... you know... Billy."

"Yeah." The brunette nodded, the smallest of frowns pulling on her lips. "I stopped calling her because her mom or dad kept answering and none of them wanted to talk, and I stopped going over so much because as much as she doesn't mean it that way, she doesn't really want to see me - I get it - I just didn't want to keep bothering her when she's in such a bad place. Should I not have done that?"

"I don't think you did anything wrong." Aaron shrugged, drinking his Pepsi through a straw. "She asked for space and you're giving her it, at least she knows you're there if she needs you."

"Yeah," she murmured, clearly not fully believing him. "I just worry kind of worry in case she thinks I don't care or anything or that she'll like... like we'll drift apart or something? I don't know, it's stupid."

Aaron bit the inside of his cheek, pausing for a moment before answering her in the most comforting way he could think of.

"Listen, you're not going to drift. You're best friends, right?" He told her as confidently as he could, knowing she could pick apart a situation to find the slightest of doubt - something he could be good at too. "I know you feel bad for what she's going through but she knows you care, you're not a bad person for doing what she asked."

Kimmy looked at him, right at him. She wore a blank expression and Aaron began to worry that maybe she was away to have some sort of breakdown over her best friend.

"Okay." She nodded in a whisper, pursing her lips as she looked down at her food. "Yeah- you're right."

Aaron felt himself frown slightly as he watched her stress over something she couldn't control.

He knew she was excited over the fact she and him were now dating and that she had wanted to tell Max, although he felt like she thought she had to tone down her feelings on the matter unless she was with him.

Aaron had told Lucas and Steve about he and Kimmy, however he hadn't a chance to tell anyone else about it. He simply hadn't seen them.

Yeah, he could have called them on the walkie, and he had tried to, although he couldn't get ahold of them. He had just been hanging out with either Lucas or Kimmy.

He knew Steve had probably told Dustin about it, and that was fine, Aaron didn't really care. What he did find himself caring about was the fact that Dustin seemed to like Steve a lot more than he liked Aaron, which was fine - they were closer friends. What bothered him was knowing the small group of friends were drifting and there was nothing he could do about it.

It would probably get all the more difficult when they went to high school. Aaron had noticed that there were small groups inside the one big group, every friend group had it. However it almost felt as if people were only hanging out with their small group.

For example, Aaron would only ever see Will or Mike when the entire group would hang out, it was never like that before. The blond didn't like to dwell on it too much - they were all growing up, Aaron just needed to get ahold of himself.

And anyway, it wasn't like he never had anyone to hang out with. He was always with Kimmy or Lucas, he didn't ever have any problems when out with them.

"You know you can come over for dinner whenever you want?" The boy blurted, hoping the girl would see he was being serious. He didn't like having to eat dinner alone - and that's exactly what he ended up doing every night, it got lonely after a while.

"Noted." She grinned at him, the two bursting into a shared laughter between the two of them over nothing.

...

I promise it gets more interesting guys but they aren't going to just jump into a relationship as if they've been dating for years, I swear it'll get there but remember they're so awkward and that won't go away over night LMAO.

Hope everyone has had / is having a great day!!!!

- AJ :)