CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
CONFRONTATIONS

Kimmy folded her arms over her chest as she not so patiently waited for Aaron to open the front door to his house after ringing the doorbell.

She had been waiting for the boy to arrive for a few moments, Aaron taking much longer than he usually would, the girl sighing as she kicked small rocks that were resting on the steps she was on.

Just over a week had passed since Aaron had came to Kimmy asking for advice on what he was supposed to do regarding his situation with his family.

Kimmy hadn't wanted to put any sort of wedge between Aaron and Steve, however she would be lying if she would have said she wasn't annoyed in regard to what Aaron had told her.

She wasn't just annoyed; she was completely pissed off.

Kimmy knew that Steve could have an effect on his younger brother that not much others did, the brunette under the impression that this wasn't something the older boy was unaware of.

The fact Aaron was being ignored so drastically really irked her. What irked her even more was the fact that Aaron was actually considering apologising just so that it could be done with. So that Steve would talk to him.

In her opinion, Aaron didn't deserve to be treated in such a way, and it really bothered her that he was put into circumstances where he felt like he wasn't enough.

She knew that it probably wasn't best to show her distaste for the situation, knowing that it would probably stress the boy out more.

Kimmy suddenly flinched and her eyes widened slightly at the sound of abrupt yelling coming from the house, the girl straining to hear the muffled voices.

From what she could tell Aaron was definitely one of those yelling, the other voice much more rough and scratchy than the blond, most likely his father.

Kimmy felt bad listening in on what was happening, but the abrupt panic within her got the best of the girl. Fearing something would go wrong and end like it usually did when an argument broke out in her house.

Suddenly the sound of a door slamming rang loudly in Kimmy's ears, the force of the door closing must have been rather strong for Kimmy to have heard it so loudly from outside. And that worried her.

There was then silence, a silence so loud that Kimmy could practically hear herself breathing. She then heard the light sound of footsteps and the girl immediately rushed to move away from the door, trying to make it look like she hadn't heard anything.

Kimmy forced a smile onto her face when Aaron opened the front door, however the boy had not even tried to smile or say hello to the girl.

Instead he simply left the house and gently closed the door behind him, grabbing Kimmy's hand and pulling her along hastily.

The girl felt her smile drop and her brows furrow in confusion, the boy tugging her along as he walked much faster than usual.

"Sorry about that." Aaron murmured after a moment, not even trying to hide his embarrassed tone.

"What?" Kimmy obliviously asked, his words taking her by surprise.

"That." Aaron repeated in an awkward tone, gripping her hand tighter as he frowned, not once looking away from the sidewalk the two were walking along. "I know you heard."

Kimmy pursed her lips in thought, not sure what to say in response. She didn't want him to feel uncomfortable but at the same time, she wanted to comfort and reassure him.

The brunette ended up reluctantly sighing, shrugging her shoulders before speaking up.

"Sorry." The girl blurted, feeling bad that she'd heard something so private in regard to the family. "I didn't mean to- I really didn't hear anything, just the door... closing."

She watched Aaron with a worried expression, only growing more concerned when she watched his lips twitch into a deeper frown.

"Are you okay?" Kimmy asked sincerely, her worry clear as day in her voice.

Had Kimmy not known Aaron so well, she may have not noticed his reluctance in answering the question. Anyone else probably wouldn't have noticed the way his shoulders tensed slightly or the way he blinked at a much more rapid pace  than he usually would. Trying his best to hide his panic in being asked the question.

"I'm fine." He very obviously lied, shrugging his shoulders as he tried to play whatever had happened off as no big deal.

"You can tell me." Kimmy told him with a nod, nudging her shoulder with his own gently. "I won't, you know... hold it against you or anything. If you're bothered by something, then you're bothered by something. It's as simple as that."

Kimmy began to worry when the blond didn't respond right away, wondering that maybe she'd crossed some sort of line.

She didn't want Aaron to think that she was forcing him to say something when he didn't want to, she simply wanted him to know she was there for him if he needed to talk about troubles that were very evidently playing on his mind.

"They're still not talking to me." Aaron murmured after a momentarily pause, his voice filled with a pent up sadness and frustration that he did his best to hide. "I mean, I had a sort of... falling out with dad over... it doesn't matter. But that was the first time I'd had a conversation with him in a while and it obviously didn't end well. Clearly nothings getting any better."

Kimmy frowned at his words, wishing more than anything that Steve would soon see from Aaron's point of view and catch him some slack. Aaron clearly wasn't dealing with being ignored by Steve well, obviously it was frustrating him to some sort of extent.

She really didn't want this to have some sort of great impact on the two brothers relationship, understanding that Aaron needed his brother much more than Steve probably realised.

"Even Steve?" The girl hesitantly asked, readjusting her grip on his hand.

He took a deep breath, tilting his head to the side in evident reluctance to answer the question.

For a slight moment she wondered if maybe things were a little better, that maybe Steve was at least acknowledging him now.

"Even Steve." Aaron repeated in a voice filled with something that could only be explained as defeat, his words crushing Kimmy's slither of hope.

Despite trying not to, Kimmy looked to the boy with her features filled with pity. Furrowing her brows as she tried and failed to understand how Aaron could possibly be subjected to such misdirected treatment.

"Mom and dad are probably leaving again soon anyway, they never tend to stay for long." Kimmy heard the boy blurt in a slightly fractured voice, as if to subconsciously defend the adults who were mistreating him when they should be the ones looking out for him. "Hopefully things are better with Steve by then. When he calms down."

The brunette bit the inside of her lip and looked away from him, trying to control herself as the urge to speak up was suddenly uncontrollable.

When he calms down?

Like he had to wait to speak to Steve, like he had to wait for when it suited the older boy.

Truthfully, Kimmy still couldn't grasp why there was need for Steve to calm down in the first place - if anything the girl felt like it should be Aaron who was pissed off to the point he had to calm down before he spoke to his brother.

Kimmy supposed Aaron just wasn't that person. He didn't hurt the feelings of those he cared about or those who cared about him.

Unlike alot of other boys his age, Aaron was a nice boy - a thoughtful boy. Kimmy liked that about him, he never went out of his way to treat others the way sometimes he found himself being treated.

Kimmy honestly didn't know what to say to the boy in regard to his parents' behaviour, instead simply running her thumb over his hand in one swift motion as if to say he'd be alright.

The blond flinched at the feeling before settling down and regaining his composure, making no sort of effort to stop her or remove his hand from her hold. If anything, she could have sworn she felt him hold onto her hand a little tighter.

"It's fine." The boy dismissed with a shake of his head, sounding very much not fine. "They'll come around eventually."

"Yeah." Kimmy nodded as she spoke in a small voice, trying to convince herself that he was right.

...

Aaron was anxious to return home later that day.

After the argument he'd managed to involve himself in with his father earlier, he knew he'd put himself in a worse situation than he was already in.

It had been so stupid, there hadn't been need for the argument to blow up the way it did.

So stupid that Aaron couldn't quite remember what had even started it, he was pretty sure that it had been over Aaron's apparent attitude.

He hadn't even said anything, he wasn't even looking at the man. But apparently he had some sort of look on his face that was enough for his dad to start an argument and scold him.

Aaron couldn't wait until the day he woke up and realised his parents had left yet again, unsure how much longer he could put up with feeling like everyone in his family hated him.

"Where have you been?" Steve mumbled as he made his way down the stairs.

Aaron was taken by surprise at the question, closing the front door softly while glancing to his brother with furrowed brows.

So here it was - the older boy had calmed down and was evidently talking to him again.

Aaron narrowed his eyes slightly in suspicion, placing his hands into the pockets of his shorts as he thought over what he should do.

One part of him wanted to answer him and continue like nothing had happened. Like the older boy hadn't hurt him, like everything was Aaron's fault. One part of him wanted to just go along with whatever Steve wanted to keep the peace.

Another part of him wanted to ignore the question and act like he hadn't heard his brother at all. Treat his brother like he'd treated him.

"Why do you care?" Aaron asked in a rough voice, his face void of all emotion while he waited for his answer.

Steve scrunched his face up in a look mixed of shock and offence. "Jesus, I was just asking."

"Well maybe don't." The blond snapped in a calm tone, shrugging his shoulders. "If you don't want to talk to me, don't talk to me."

Aaron didn't really know where this response was coming from, he hadn't planned on being so short with him. Maybe it was just pent up frustrations that had allowed the boy to slip up and scold his brother.

"When did I say I didn't want to talk to you?" Steve rolled his eyes, a subtle way of letting Aaron know he thought he was acting ridiculous.

"I don't know..." the blond trailed off in faux thought, his voice growing more and more agitated. "Maybe you ignoring me and acting like I don't even live in this house because I told you what you'd done to me before-"

"Am I not allowed to be mad? Would you rather we argued?" The older boy retorted in a sharp tone.

"Actually, yeah. I would rather we argued." Aaron surprised him by saying, nodding his head as he folded his arms over his chest. "It's shit being ignored and you know how much it bothers me when mom and dad do it. You knew it would bother me, you just wanted to get your point across."

"Well I'm not going to go out of my way to try talk to you." Steve snapped, evidently doing his best to keep his irked expression at a calm. "It's not like you would do the same for me."

Aaron raised his brows at the older boys words, quite literally scoffing in disbelief at what he was hearing.

That was a low blow and they both knew it, Aaron found himself growing angry rather swiftly. Steve could have said anything else - anything else, and it wouldn't have bothered Aaron no where near as much.

Steve could have pinpointed on something else - something true rather than a flat out lie.

Not only just a lie, but a lie that completely disregarded all Aaron had went through over the years with the relationship with his brother.

For as long as Aaron could remember he would go out of his way to make sure his brother was okay even if he'd been the one to hurt Aaron.

Aaron could even remember when the rare occasions occurred where Steve would have had a small falling out with the twos parents, Aaron was always going out of his way to check on the older boy, despite knowing that he was treated much worse and was never checked on by any the three of them.

Aaron would go out of his way to talk to Steve to make sure that they didn't stop talking completely, to make sure that they'd have some sort of relationship. Even back when it was fairly obvious the older boy didn't like him very much.

"I wouldn't do the same for you?" Aaron repeated in a voice of surprise, completely taken aback by the accusation. "I'm always going out of my way to talk to you - I always have. If you want to see what it's like to be ignored then you can, I'm done with trying to please you so you'll be civil with me. Quite honestly you can get fucked if you think I'm the one that's wrong here."

With that the boy stormed off, climbing up the stairs while making a point to make as much noise as possible to piss his brother off.

"What are you doing?" Aaron heard Steve scoff from the bottom of the stairs.

Aaron simply shrugged his shoulders, not even glancing over his shoulder at the voice.

"I'll talk to you when I've calmed down." Aaron mocked in response. "You don't want to talk to me? I won't stop you."

"I just said that I wasn't ignoring you, I was just waiting until I calmed down!" Steve yelled at him, clearly unable to keep up his calm demeanour any longer. "I'm ready to talk to you now-"

"Well I'm not ready to talk to you." Was Aaron's cold response, making his way to his room and slamming the door before he got a chance to hear Steve's agitated response.

The blond couldn't even find it in him to worry about what his parents would say if they'd heard any of the argument, he didn't even know if they were home.

On reflection, he may have been a little harsh with how he'd handled his older brother. But he didn't regret it.

If anything he felt like Steve deserved it, Aaron was only doing to his brother what he'd done to him first.

If the older boy couldn't handle being ignored for a few days, then maybe he should rethink how hastily he was to go to ignoring Aaron.

Aaron hoped that maybe him giving Steve the silent treatment for a few days would teach him some sort of lesson, that he'd maybe know how it felt.

That was trusting that it would bother Steve the same way it seemed to bother Aaron.

...

Kimmy was paranoid, at a complete loss of what to do. She was sniffling and wiping her face frantically as the tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

Much to her horror, upon returning home after being out with Aaron she'd had an altercation with her father, the man had been completely out his face with drunkness.

Her arm was extremely sore, seeing as it had gotten quite a bash and she still had her cast on. Not only that, but her lip and nose was gushing blood and she was sure she'd wake up with a new collection of bruises.

What had really worried her was that he'd been much more aggressive that night than she'd ever recalled him being before, he'd hit her much more than he ever had or needed to.

She was in quite a state once he'd stumbled away, to be quite honest she worried that maybe she had some sort of concussion, she'd ended up vomiting and coughing blood into the toilet and she was rather dizzy. She'd never felt like this after one of his spurs of anger.

Kimmy was slightly worried that maybe it would be like this every time she managed to annoy him, that it would no longer be a singular hit to the face. Recently, it felt like a full blown beating whenever she managed to run into him. The girl walking around with clothes most would only wear in the winter in order to cover her marks and bruises.

However with that said, she'd never ever been hit in the way he'd hit her that night. She was actually concerned that it would become too much for her to handle, more than it currently was or ever had been.

It was like she didn't even need to do anything to piss I'm off anymore, she just had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The brunette was beginning to stress that if it got any worse that she might have to tell someone - to get help.

She'd come close to telling Aaron more times than she'd cared to admit. In the end she'd always chickened out, not wanting to make it his problem, knowing he already had his own shit going on.

Had she have been in this place a few months ago she could have gone to Max for help. But currently this wasn't an option.

Kimmy had been waiting and waiting for Max to call her but the call never came. To be fair, it hadn't been that long since Billy had died, it was expected that Max would go through her own grief process.

Kimmy just missed talking to her everyday, but she knew that Max would talk to her soon enough. She just had to give her the space she'd asked for.

Kimmy didn't want Aaron to stress out over what went on in her house, knowing it would probably panic him to no extent. In fact Aaron probably wouldn't let her back into her house, he'd probably flip out.

She knew she had to stick it out until she finished high school, although she didn't know how she was supposed to do it. She hadn't even started high school and her life at home was already getting worse and worse.

Kimmy struggled to fall asleep that night, feeling like her entire body was in immense pain.

She didn't know what she was going to do, whether she stayed out during the day she'd always have to return home at night. She didn't have a clue what to do.

Recently she had found herself wanting to be around Aaron all the time, much unlike at home, she felt safe with him. Like she could be herself around him without having to worry that he was thinking bad about her.

It was strange and she didn't really know how to explain it, but she knew that she definitely cared about him a lot. Much more than he probably realised.

...

New chapter yay!!!

Aaron ignoring Steve😬😬

I'm so excited for when Kimmy and Aaron make it to high school, I wrote one of the chapters yesterday and it makes me wish I could skip to then but it wouldn't make sense in regard to their own little storyline that I've started lol.

Hope everyone has a great day!!!!

- AJ :)