CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
TEARS

The next day Kimmy was sat with her ear to her bedroom door, trying to determine if her parents were awake or not - if her dad was awake or not.

She was supposed to be meeting Aaron, and if she wanted to be on time then she had to leave as soon as possible.

The girl had already been late for their date because she couldn't get out of her house due to her parents, she didn't like being late to meeting up with him, not wanting to give the impression that she was late because she didn't want to be there.

The brunette had been leaning against the door for long enough that at least three minutes of silence had passed. Hesitantly, standing with slightly shaky legs and slowly twisting the doorknob before opening the door the smallest fraction so she could peek out.

Although before she could the sound of stumbling around caused her heart to drop and she instantly closed her bedroom door as softly as possible.

She then hesitated on what to do next, looking back she wouldn't have known why she was so hesitant or what it was she found herself waiting for.

However she soon came to her senses, the sound of something crashing into a wall downstairs followed by lazy footsteps climbing the stairs had her scrambling away from her door.

Rushing over to her window that she swiftly pushed open. The brunette hadn't climbed from her window as a way to get out her house in quite some time, and she'd never done so while her arm was in a cast. But she really didn't have another option.

Usually she had managed to sneak out the front door, her dad usually too far gone on drink to the point he didn't know what was going on - or even better, he was passed out.

However, recently she'd always been catching him in the phase of drunk, but just above tipsy. So everything was a blur for the man and all his emotions were heightened. In other words, the anger he always seemed to carry with him was a million times stronger, it was like he couldn't feel anything but pure anger when he saw the girl.

Recently she'd found herself hurt due to this anger more often than not, this being the reason she was now so scared of the man. Before she hated him - now it was just pure fear.

She took a shaky breath, squeezing her eyes shut as she shook her head. The sound of stumbling and mumbling could be heard causing her to instantly stand up on her ledge.

It had been a lot more difficult than it had been the last time she had done so, but with her cast mixed with the stress and the length of time that had passed since she'd done so, it was to be expected.

The second her feet hit the ground she didn't even look up at her window to check if the man had made his way into her room - however she doubted so anyway. He'd never gone into her room unless they'd been arguing and she'd tried to run away after upsetting him, that was the only place in the small house where she could hide.

Kimmy forced herself to take a breath as she began walking much faster than she probably needed to.

The girl cursed herself as she felt her lips pull into a frown or when she felt her eyes tear up as she walked. She let out a groan, squeezing her eyes shut as she frantically wiped the tears from her face.

"Don't be so stupid." The girl scolded herself in a harsh voice, frustrated that she was crying when he hadn't even managed hit her. It was like she just crumbled with the fear of it all.

It annoyed her to no extent, the entire thing made her feel powerless, and the worst part was that she really was. She was absolutely powerless.

The girl hated herself whenever she stepped foot in that house. It was strange, when she had been stuck in that Russian elevator where they had no food or water and no way out - she'd felt safer there than she ever had in her own house.

She honestly didn't know how much longer she would manage to cope in that house, the thought of living there for four more years made her want to breakdown. Kimmy knew she didn't have anywhere to go. No other family she could live with, nothing. She just had to stick it out.

She tried to remind herself that some people her age had it much worse than she did. But it was so difficult when she was faced with so much stress, fear and abuse on the daily, always reminded of the poor hand life had given her.

Her life was much worse now than it was the last time she had tried to hurt herself to the point she couldn't feel anything anymore. She hadn't spoken a word to her mother in weeks, the woman only awake at night, and even then she was a drunken mess, Kimmy could sometimes hear her stumble around. Her father on the other hand had grown much more violent to the point Kimmy was scared to even smile at him in case he took it the wrong way.

Despite all this she hadn't tried to get out of life the fast way, the way where she did it herself - she couldn't. The girl would feel bad enough dumping it so abruptly on her friends, however she would practically drown in guilt if she left Aaron and Max in the dust. Without a doubt they were the two she was closest to, even if she hadn't spoken to Max in about two weeks due to the redheads request.

Kimmy couldn't do that to them. Max already dealing with the loss of her brother who she didn't even like, the brunette didn't even want to imagine what she'd be like if Kimmy ended up going through with it and killing herself.

Aaron on the other hand was another story. He wasn't going through any loss, however she knew that the boy struggled. He was without a doubt lonely, the girl knew that much. Much like Kimmy did, he felt trapped in his own house, although it was completely opposites.

Aaron's presence was ignored by his parents to the point it was as if they only had one child, and Aaron was not that said child. The boy trying so hard to get his mom and dad to notice him, basically begging for an ounce of their attention. Whereas Kimmy would never be far enough away from her parents, the girl resorting to not leaving her room unless necessary or locking herself in the bathroom to hide.

Abruptly she stopped walking, wiping her face as the tears continued to flow. The girl sniffled, trying to calm herself before she went to meet the blond boy, not wanting him to worry about her - knowing she had already made herself late trying to recollect herself.

...

Aaron was in his parents' bedroom for the first time in years, glancing out the large window that looked out to the street below. It was no doubt the biggest room in the house, but it was like an unspoken rule that no one was to go into the room, both Steve and Aaron sticking to this as long as the blond could remember.

The window he was looking out of was huge, taking up practically the entire wall with huge expensive curtains that remained closed, Aaron remembering how often his mother would stress over them getting dirty, insisting that they were vintage.

His mother would have a heart attack if she seen him in her room.

He didn't care, he was worried. Kimmy was supposed to have been there over thirty minutes ago and still she was nowhere to be seen.

The blond looked down at his watch, biting his cheek harshly, stressed that something was wrong.

Aaron flinched, scrambling away from the window and rushing out of his parents room at the sound of the doorbell ringing, the boy successfully managing to distract himself with concern over the girl.

"Shit." He mumbled to himself, turning right back around to go into his parents room once again, almost slipping at how fast he had spun around with his socks against the floor.

Being as fast as he possibly could, he closed the expensive curtains he had pushed open to look for the girl, running out of the room and closing the door behind him.

The blond was almost surprised at how fast he had ran down the stairs to get to the front door, knowing who it was waiting patiently for him to finally answer.

He sighed in relief, sending Kimmy a smile as he ushered her into the house, closing the door behind her.

"Do you care if we go upstairs?" He asked her curiously, not sure why she was even asking. "I've spent the entire morning deep cleaning the kitchen after Steve this morning and I do not feel like doing that again."

"That's fine." Kimmy shrugged as she took her shoes off.

Aaron furrowed his brows as he watched her take off her shoes. No teasing remark, no sarcastic grin, no nickname - nothing. If anything she sounded dull, as if she was just... drained or something.

She glanced up at him after she'd taken her shoes off, her face pulling into a look of confusion at both his expression and his silence.

The blond felt himself frown slightly at her despite trying not to. The tip of her nose was red as well as her cheeks and her eyes, her lips tinted a slightly deeper color of pink as she looked to him. The boy hesitated in his next question.

"Have you been crying?" Aaron questioned in a much more saddened tone than he meant to, not liking the way her eyes widened in panic.

The brunette didn't say anything for a moment, not knowing what to do. She was clearly thinking over her answer and what she should tell the boy, the blond waiting patiently for her to tell him what was wrong. "No-"

"You can tell me if you've been crying, Kimmy." He told her in a serious voice, finding it difficult to comfort her when he didn't know what was causing her to get so upset. "I won't tell anyone."

She pursed her lips in response, and for a split second he worried that she would maybe begin to cry again. Whatever emotional thoughts that were rushing through her head all seemed to come to a halt and she shook her head at him.

"I appreciate it, Sparky, but it's really just stupid. I don't have any reason to be upset." Kimmy attempted to tease him as she forced a smile, trying to push the conversation off of her while also trying to make it look like she wasn't bothered at all.

Aaron wasn't amused in the slightest.

The boy didn't even realise she'd stuck with the nickname from the day before, all he could focus on was the fact she was crying and what had caused it.

She must have realised this because the smile she'd forced upon her face had slipped and her shoulders dropped.

"Seriously, Aaron, I'm fine." Kimmy sighed after a moment.

The blond didn't believe her, he didn't know why she wouldn't just tell him what had upset her so he could try help her.

He didn't say anything in response. He didn't know what to say. There was no chance in hell he would just nod and brush past it like she wanted him too, the girl didn't like to cry in front of him - or anyone for that matter. The fact she thought she was calm enough to show up to his house showed him how upset she really must have been, this providing no sort of comfort for him.

"Don't look at me like that." She told him with an embarrassed expression, like she was fearful he may be judging her or something.

"Like what?" Aaron asked her in a quieter voice than usual, not wanting to give her the wrong impression that his mind was filled with anything but worry.

"Like..." the girl trailed off, as if second guessing herself before reluctantly regaining her composure. "Like it's such a big deal. I'm fine, I promise. I just let stupid shit get to me, I can handle it."

Aaron didn't say anything in response for a moment. Clearly any words of comfort wouldn't be... appreciated in that moment, she was too upset with whatever was going on to think straight.

Truthfully, Aaron didn't really know what to say anyway. He wasn't the best with his words, especially when put on the spot, he would panic and begin to ramble nonsense that most likely didn't even relate to the topic at hand anyway.

So, instead of trying and failing to comfort her, he stepped forward slightly and reached his hands out, wiping away the very faint remains of tears that rested on her cheeks as gently as he could with his fingers.

"You missed some." He told her with a half smile, grabbing her hand and walking up the stairs to his room so his hard work in trying to keep the kitchen clean wouldn't go to waste.

Kimmy sent him a half smile back, looking taken aback by the gesture yet amused all the same. Looking more... bashful than embarrassed at his actions.

The two proceeded to sit in his room and talk about utter nonsense, Kimmy flipping through one of Aaron's old comic books while he rearranged the posters on his wall, suddenly deciding that he didn't like the order they were in when he really looked at them.

Aaron had let the topic of her tears drop for the time they were together but the girl would have to be an idiot if she thought he wouldn't bring it up again.

He didn't care if it was stupid or selfish, he wanted to know why she was crying and why she had been so adamant on not sharing what had happened to her with him.

Aaron didn't want to force her to tell him if she didn't want to, but he didn't want her to feel like she couldn't tell him stuff. He wanted to know stuff about her - even stuff she claimed was too 'stupid' to share with him.

He liked when she'd talk about herself, like really talked about herself. When she would tell him stuff no one else knew about her. He'd tell her stuff no one knew about him in return, the boy liked when they'd talk about stuff like that,  he thought it brought them closer together.

As far as Aaron was concerned, if it had caused such an emotional reaction from her, it wasn't stupid at all. Not one bit.

...

This isn't proof read so so sorry if there are mistakes I'm so tired  lol.

Hope everyone has had a great day!!!

- AJ :)