CHAPTER SEVEN
MOVIES

Luckily for Kimmy, Aaron didn't drag her home after their slight run-in earlier. He obviously had no intention of going back to school either.

Instead they had opted for some ice cream.

The two were sat side by side on a park bench not to far from the ice cream parlour, schoolbagd disreguarded by their feet.

However, it wasn't long before Kimmy was lost in her own thoughts upon catching sight of a young girl and her mother playing together in the park. The girl was playing on the monkey bars as her mother lifted her across them, leaving the small child to believe she had done it all by herself as she landed.

The girl smiled up at her mother, giggling and clapping as she took a bow. Her mother clapped and congratulated her in faux surprise before she bent down and scooped her up in her arms spinning her around as the pair erupted into a laughter which could be heard by anyone near.

Kimmy's brows furrowed at the sight, an overwhelming feeling of nausea boiling within her stomach as it climbed up her throat, suddenly she wasn't interested in eating her ice cream anymore.

It didn't take long for the realisation to settle within her; that she was jealous of a three year old girl.

Kimmy was aware of how vastly pathetic it was, but she couldn't help it. Even years later she craved a relationship like that with her parents. It wasn't fair that others were granted it without exception. There were groups and groups of assholes who walked the halls of her middle school, and yet, Kimmy had known for a fact that they all had loving parents behind closed doors- she had interacted with them.

Kimmy also knew that people knew that her parents weren't loving or good people, and yet, it was brushed to the side.

She was brushed to the side, without a second thought.

Everyone knew about her mother being a drunk and her fathers mysterious whereabouts. Hawkins was a small town- people talked, there were more adults than they may have cared to admit that knew the bruises which caressed her face and body were too frequent to be brushed off as an accident.

But no one did anything, no one cared.

Kimmy convinced herself that she didn't like to dwell on it too much, but deep down she knew this to be false. Had she wanted to block it out and pretend that the events which played out behind the walls of her childhood house were normal- despite knowing otherwise.

There was a part of her that would never let it go- she knew it. If there wasn't, she wouldn't look for ties to her home life at any given opportunity. She supposed she did it subconsciously, she hated walking into her house after school, or spending more time in her parents presence than necessary.

So then why did she care so much?

She had no idea.

Kimmy quickly tore her stare from the two upon realising Aaron had been talking to her, not that she had noticed nor as much as heard a word he had said.

He looked to her with his brows knitted together, waiting patiently for her response.

"What?" Kimmy mumbled in a daze, doing her best to filling bring herself from her thoughts.

"How do you eat that," he teased, though there were some truth behind his words and Kimmy could tell, the grimace on his face alone was enough. "Seriously, you are going to get sick."

Kimmy soon caught on to what he was doing; he was trying to hold a conversation to ease the rising tension between the two of them, and she couldn't help but feel grateful at the gesture.

She then looked down at Aaron's cone; plain strawberry. She then looked to hers and cringed, chocolate ice cream with sprinkles, mini marshmallows and cherry sauce. She then noticed that he had taken three napkins to fully cover the ice cream cone so he wouldn't have to touch where the man serving them had his fingers, the only part showing being the actual ice cream.

"You're one to talk," she retorted with a teasing grin. "Who goes to an ice cream parlour that had that many flavours and gets plain strawberry? I mean, you could have at least gotten sprinkles or something."

Aaron scoffed, and pretended to look offended as he took another lick of his ice cream. "I don't know, tastes pretty good to me."

Kimmy smiled at the fake look of seriousness which pulled on his features before morphing her own features into her own look of faux seriousness.

"Doesn't compare to mine though." She teased with a pointed look and a nonchalant shrug.

Aaron snickered in return before reverting his attention back to his ice cream cone.

Kimmy noticed that both of them were near the end of their ice cream, and she began wondering what they would do after. It was still hours until school was out, and neither intended on going home anytime soon.

"So," Aaron began, a tinge of nerves to his tone as he looked over to her. "What should we do now?" He asked, voicing Kimmy's exact concerns in that very moment. "We still have hours."

"I'm not really sure," Kimmy hummed in response, racking her brain for anything they could do to pass the time. "We could have gone to the movies, but-"

"Yes the movies!" Aaron exclaimed, his voice flooding with excitement before his face crumbled in disappointment. "But I've only got about a dollar on me right now-"

"Same here." Kimmy mumbled, as she finished her ice cream.

"It's a shame too." Aaron carried on, an irked expression costing his features. "Because Return of the Jedi is showing and I haven't seen it yet- I have to see it, but Steve won't take me. Dustin thinks Harrison Ford is better as Hans Solo than he is as Indiana Jones- can you believe that? Like, what wires are switched in his brain for him to even consider this bullshit-"

"I've never seen it." Kimmy shrugged carelessly, not seeing the big deal in what Aaron was saying.

"You've never seen what?" Aaron asked cautiously. "Star Wars or Indiana Jones?"

"Indiana Jones." Kimmy replied simply, not understanding why this was being taken as such a serious discussion by the blond.

Aaron on the other hand, looked absolutely appalled and taken aback at what he had heard. "Are you serious- how?"

Her parents hadn't taken her, she'd asked once and never again. She hadn't really cared about the movie to get all wound up about it, so she left it. Besides, she didn't have enough money to go buy a ticket herself, nor did she have enough money to buy the tape when it came out.

"I don't know," she replied instead, "just didn't get around to it."

"Well," Aaron begun much more nerves present in his tone than Kimmy suspected was necessary. "We could go to my house to watch it- if you want to. I have it on VHS."

It wasn't that Kimmy didn't want to go to his house to watch the movie, she did. She just didn't want his parents coming home and finding her there before calling her parents.

Yeah, she definitely didn't want that.

"What about your parents? Aren't they home?" Kimmy asked, wishing to clarify before she got herself tangled up in any trouble.

"No," Aaron replied simply before once again his nerves got the better of him and he began to ramble like he usually did. "Dads out of town for work and mom always goes with him. They're never home, we'll be fine."

Something in the way he had sounded so... unbothered about it all, really made her heartstrings pull for him.

She didn't mention this though.

"Alright then," Kimmy replied instead, watching as Aaron's lips pulled up into a smile. "Let's go."

...

Aaron's house was huge, definitely bigger than any house Kimmy had ever set foot in. And Aaron's room was about three times the size of Kimmy's.

The bedroom which belonged to Aaron Harrington was what Kimmy would consider a typical teenage boy room. She couldn't be sure though, she'd never been in a boys bedroom before.

However Kimmy couldn't help but look around. Aaron was rummaging though a drawer trying to find the tape of the movie he wanted her to watch so badly.

The first thing Kimmy noticed was how clean his room was. She had known he had a thing about cleanliness, but not to the extent that there wasn't as much as a wrinkle on his bedsheets.

Aaron would probably have a stroke if he saw the mess Kimmy's room was in.

A small green bunny sat comfortably on his large double bed, perfectly in the middle.

Coating the walls of Aaron's room was posters upon posters upon posters, each taped up most likely by Aaron himself and the perfect gap between each one.

There were all kinds of movie posters, some of which Kimmg couldn't name. Something she did notice though were that there were about three Indiana Jones posters, and absolutely zero Star Wars ones.

He also had posters for bands that he liked, again, many which Kimmy did not know the names of.

What surprised her the most though, was the numerous hockey posters taped to his wall. Kimmy didn't know what team it was that he supported, but she hadn't even known he liked hockey.

"You like hockey?" Kimmy blurted without meaning to, the surprise taking over her for a moment. "I didn't know you play."

Aaron turned to face her then, his brows knitting together in confusion before he realised she was referencing the posters on his wall.

"Oh, no I don't play." Aaron replied softly before he backtracked. "I mean, I do. But not on a team or anything."

"Oh," Kimmy spoke simply, watching as he turned back around to look for his VHS again. "You should try out. I'm sure you'd make the team."

Kimmy didn't know why she was encouraging him, she'd never seen him play before. For all she knew, he could have been the worst player to walk the planet.

"Uh- no I don't think I'm going to." Aaron replied hesitantly after a brief pause, his back still to her as he continued rummaging for his movie. "I might try out for the highschool team when I'm old enough though."

Kimmy hummed in response, not entirely sure on what to say. Instead she continued to look around his room while remaining rooted on her spot.

But considering Aaron kept his room in such clean conditions, there wasn't much else to look at. She didn't need to find ways to distract herself anyway, because Aaron spun around to face her with a large smile on his face.

"Found it!" He exclaimed happily, excitment vivid throughout his features. "I knew I hadn't lost it."

Kimmy let out a breathy laugh as she watched him make his way to the doorway, he then turned and tilted his head back towards the hallway.

"Come on," he encouraged excitedly, "we can watch it in the living room."

Kimmy nodded and went to follow him, walking much slower down the stairs than he had as she couldn't help but look around her.

Family photos were hung up all over from what looked like all ages. Some with just Steve and his parents from where he was much younger, until a baby joined the family of three in their photos. Kimmy took note of how the family portraits ranged from the year Steve was born to what looked like the summer of this year or the summer prior. Kimmy also realised that Steve took after his father in his looks, whereas Aaron took after his mother. With her sandy blond hair and green eyes rather than his fathers brown hair with matching brown eyes.

"It might take me a minute to get it working." Aaron announced as he crouched infront of the television, movie in hand. "I usually get Steve to get the movie started for me, but he's at school, so..."

Kimmy nodded, despite knowing that he couldn't see her and awkwardly clasped her hands together before lowering herself into the large seat behind her.

Kimmy watched with an amused smile as he began to argue with the television whenever it would spit out the tape everytime just as Aaron had thought he had it working.

"I hate this stupid piece of shit." Aaron announced, standing abruptly and marching over to the spot next to Kimmy as he slumped into it and crossed his arms over his chest.

Kimmy rolled her eyes at his dramatics and turned to face him. "Can I try?"

"Sure," Aaron shrugged, obviously still in a mood as he glared at the piece of technology in front of him. "Just don't take it out on me when it starts acting up."

Kimmy laughed and shook her head, moving forward to crouch infront of the television like Aaron had done seconds before.

"I don't get it," Aaron announced from behind her as she began pressing buttons. "It always works when Steve does it. But it never works when I do! Honestly, I think it's broken because-"

"Got it." Kimmy injected as the movie began to play, hiding a smirk at Aaron's taken aback expression as she sat back down in her seat.

"What? How?" Aaron questioned immediately, looking to her with a look of perplexity. "How the hell did you fix it so fast? It was broken."

"No it wasn't." Kimmy shut down with an eyeroll. "You were just doing it wrong."

"Yes it was."

"No it wasn't."

"Was."

"Wasn't."

"It was-"

"Aaron, you were pushing the wrong buttons." Kimmy cut him off with a shake of her head. "It wasn't broken."

Aaron went to protest but stopped himself, instead settling on biting his cheek and turning to face the movie which had already begun. Leaving Kimmy to grin proudly to herself.

...

Kimmy was sure that this was the most uncomfortable she had ever felt in her life. The movie had finished around thirty minutes ago, and she was still sat in the same spot on the seat as she had been hours earlier, as was Aaron.

The only difference being that Kimmy was awake, whereas Aaron was not.

He had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the past hour until he'd finally drifted off- which was fine, Kimmy didn't mind. However, around ten minutes ago, his head had dropped and landed on her shoulder. Meaning Kimmy couldn't move without waking the boy.

So there she sat, still as a statue as Aaron fell into a deep slumber on her shoulder. Presumably because he hadn't had the best nights sleep before, or maybe he was just tired.

Finally, after what had felt like hours, the phone rang. Kimmy couldn't help but perk up as she heard the loud ringing echo throughout the home, hopefully waking the boy.

Only this turned Kimmy's problem from bad to worse, as Aaron was stirred from his slumber but not awoken. He lifted his head about an inch, his eyes still closed as he mumbled out protests before burying his head deeper into the gap between Kimmy's neck and shoulder than it had been before.

"Jesus," Kimmy groaned as she too scrunched her face up, only now in thought.

She then reached out and shook his shoulder rather harshly until he woke, which wasn't long, about a few seconds.

Aaron awoke abruptly, and Kimmy snatched her hand away and turned to face the opposite direction, as if to play off that she had never noticed him sleeping in the first place.

"How long have a been asleep?" He mumbled roughly while rubbing his left eye.

Only then did Kimmy turn to face him, the hair on one side of his head was sticking up and messier than usual from where he had been leant against her.

"Not long," Kimmy murmured, watching as he nodded slowly before a look of terror snapped across his face and he stood up straight.

"Shit," he exclaimed, checking his watch which only caused his eyes to grow wider. "Holy shit, school was out twenty minutes ago Steve will be home soon- Kimmy I'm so sorry but you have to go. If Steve finds out we skipped school he'll call my mom and dad, who will call your mom and dad and then we'll both be grounded and-"

"It's fine, Aaron," she assured, standing too as she picked up her school bag and put her jacket back on. "I didn't realise the time either, I better get home."

Kimmy forced herself to push down the slight fear which was clouding her mind at the thought of walking through the front door so late and turned to face Aaron who was walking her to his own front door.

"See you tomorrow." Kimmy waved with a small smile as she stepped out the front door, though the sound of Aaron's voice caused her steps to hault.

"Uh, Kimmy?" He asked softly, biting the inside of his cheek as he awaited her response. Kimmy simply nodded, and Aaron spoke up again. "Are you feeling any better?"

Aaron didn't need to clarify what he had meant in order for Kimmy to understand. He was still scared she was going to hurt herself again, despite only knowing her for a number of days.

Kimmy supposed it would weigh heavy on a person, to stop a stranger from ending their life one night without knowing if they'd do it again.

Kimmy didn't know if she'd do it again or not, if she were to be honest with herself- she probably would try do it again. But she wasn't there yet, and perhaps never would be again.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better," she replied instead, watching as Aaron's tense shoulders dropped in relief. "Thanks for asking."

Aaron sent her a small smile and a wave which Kimmy returned, just before she turned and begun walking home.

Kimmy had decided that she agreed with Dustin, Star Wars was better in her opinion. Though she supposed that was because she tended to prefer fantasy movies over action.

But because of the kindness Aaron had shown her from the moment they had bumped into eachother, she'd never voice this thought, whenever asked she'd simply say that she agreed with Aaron, that Indiana Jones was miles better and she wasn't sure how anyone could think different.

...

I literally have no love life😃.

Anyway this was supposed to be posted last night but the entire thing deleted when I clicked save so I've had to rewrite the entire thing in such short time so sorry if there are any typos or anything!!

Voting and commenting are very appreciated🤍

-AJ:)