Chapter 13

“Aaron?” I whispered his name, not really believing that he was standing right there, just a few feet away from me.

“Who is he?” Both Jeremy and Aaron asked at the same time.

I took my eyes away from Aaron for just a moment to turn and look at Jeremy. Just like Aaron, Jeremy had a frown on his face.

I had stepped away from him, but he’d closed the distance between us when I did. He did keep his hands on his sides though.

“Annabel, why were you out so late? Not that we’re not happy to see you Jeremy, but Annabel was supposed to be back hours ago. We’ve been looking for you,” my dad said with a reproachful tone.

“Silvia said you left her house a while back,” my mom added.

She was also looking at me disapprovingly.

Aaron stayed quiet but he was scowling at Jeremy.

“Sandra, Roger- it’s good to see you two,” Jeremy said to my parents.

He put his hand on the small of my back to get me to walk closer. When Jeremy touched my back, Aaron’s eyes drifted to the small movement.

“Who is he?” Aaron asked before my parents could get back to Jeremy.

“Right, sorry,” I said, shaking my head.

I should’ve gone to Aaron, but I felt shocked that he was here in the first place. I wasn’t expecting him until tomorrow and I didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he was here.

I had been planning to visit Matt’s grave.

“Aaron, this is Jeremy,” I introduced the two.

It almost seemed like they were weighing each other out. Although they each gave a short nod, neither of them made any attempts to say anything.

I closed the distance between Aaron and me, pressing myself to his side. He didn’t respond though. His narrowed eyes were fixed on Jeremy, who was shaking hands with my parents.

“After Annabel went to see Silvia, she came over to my house. We were hanging out all day, time just flew by,” Jeremy told my parents with a casual shrug.

When Jeremy said that, Aaron’s accusing eyes landed on me.

“Oh,” my mom said very quietly.

I was barely able to hear her.

My dad’s expression turned solemn after that as well. I knew they both thought I had been hung up on Matt all day- which wasn’t entirely the case.

My day with Jeremy had cleared so many things up. I felt like if something heavy had been lifted from my shoulders.

Things weren’t perfect, but they were a lot better than they had been before I spoke to Jeremy.

“Thank you, Jeremy,” I told him, when he came back to stand in front of me.

He smiled- that sad smile a lot of people gave me. It didn’t bother me when it came from Jeremy though, at least not now.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

Aaron and Jeremy kept trying to stare each other down.

“Weren’t we leaving tomorrow?” Aaron asked.

His voice sounded accusing. I didn’t know why though.

“We’re not leaving until late in the afternoon. I’ll call you,” I told Jeremy.

“Why are you leaving with him?” Jeremy’s question made all of us, even my parents, turn to face him.

“Annabel is my girlfriend,” Aaron stated, wrapping his arm around my waist and pressing me flush against his side.

Out of all the things he could have said, I definitely wasn’t expecting that.  

“Is that true?” Jeremy asked.

Instead of letting me answer, Aaron cut me off.

“Why do you care?”

“Annie, can I talk to you for a minute?” Even though he asked, it didn’t sound like he was expecting me to say ‘no’.

“Don’t do this,” I pleaded.

I knew what he was going to tell me. I expected Silvia to feel the same way if she found I out I was dating anyone.

“When I said I thought you should move on, I wasn’t talking about moving on to the next guy,” Jeremy said, before walking away to his car.

His words really got to me. I wanted to think he was wrong though.

It took me a moment to pull away from Aaron. When I tried to chase after Jeremy, he’d already gotten in his car and was driving away.  

While my parents were trying to distract their gazes, Aaron just looked disappointed in me.

“We should go inside,” my dad said, before walking away with my mom.

Great parents they were.

“Is he the reason you didn’t want to go out with me?” Aaron’s voice sounded so detached when he asked that.

“What?”

“It is, isn’t it?”

“You’re talking about Jeremy?” My voice sounded weak, but I couldn’t manage anything more.

I kept replaying Jeremy’s words in my mind.

“Come,” I said to Aaron, holding out my hand.

He didn’t take it, but he at least followed me inside.

“What happened between you two today? I’ve been here for hours now. Your parents said you were gone long before I arrived. And you spent all your time with him?”

Although he was accusing me, his voice was void of all emotion.

“We talked, but it’s not what you think.”

“Isn’t that what everyone always says?” Aaron asked, chuckling darkly.

The way he was acting reminded of how he behaved when I proposed to ditch the convention. Except now, he looked ten times angrier.

The worst part was that he was speaking so calmly, but I could see he was holding back to anything he really wanted to say.

The only thing I wanted in that moment was for him to hold me.

Today had been such an exhausting day. I thought things would be fine and then Jeremy had to say that. It was as good as if Matt had told me I shouldn’t be with Aaron.

“It’s really not what you think,” I repeated.

He was standing by the door in my room, looking ready to storm out.

I made my way to him, just wanting to have him near me despite how mad he looked.

“Alright, then tell me what it is, if it’s not what I think.”

He looked down at me as I stood directly in front of him.

I was slightly wondering why my parents weren’t saying anything about Aaron being in my room.

“Why did you come today? I thought you were coming tomorrow?”

Aaron cocked an eyebrow at my words, and I noticed something cross his eyes. It was gone as soon as it came.

“Would you like that better? Did I ruin your plans with Jeremy?” Aaron asked.

I nodded at him and giggled.

He took my actions the wrong way.

“I’m going home,” Aaron told me.

For the first time I noticed his suitcase and back pack were next to my bed.

“Don’t,” I told him, catching his arm to stop him.

I thought he would protest when I grabbed him, but he didn’t. Aaron let me stop him, but he didn’t turn around to face me.

I sighed, which seemed to get Aaron’s attention.

“You’ve been crying.”

Aaron ignored the argument we were having, because he took my face in his hands.

It felt nice when he began running his thumbs over my cheeks.

“I didn’t notice that before,” he said.

“It was a good crying, for the most part. We need to talk.”

Aaron stiffened at my words, and I could see what looked like worry, taking over his features.

“Talk about what?”

“Can we do it tomorrow? I don’t think I have it in me to explain anything right now,” I told him, feeling my body slouch.

Aaron swiftly wrapped his arms around my waist. I think he thought I was going to fall down. I wasn’t, but I didn’t tell him that. I liked how close our bodies were and how warm Aaron felt.

Right after Aaron laid me down in bed, he pulled away.

“Where are you going?”

The light was still on and I was hoping he was just going to turn it off. I didn’t want him to go back home. Now that he was here, I didn’t want him to leave.

“I think I should go.” He was saying that, but I could easily see that he didn’t want to go either.

It was probably the last thing he wanted to do.

“You can’t leave,” I told him, sitting up and patting the spot on my bed beside me.

“Why not?”

“Because I need you here with me,” I replied.

He looked taken aback by my words, and simply stood there, staring at me.

After a while, he went to turn off the lights. I thought he might leave, but he didn’t. He took off his shoes, his socks, and his jeans- only staying in his shirt and boxers.

Then he came to lie down with me.

“Did you at least break-up with him today? If you were with him before, whatever, I don’t care. You and me weren’t together then,” Aaron told me, his voice taking that cold tone to it.

I wiggled myself closer to him, and made him wrap his arm around me, resting my head against his chest.

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you tomorrow. But, Jeremy and I never dated,” I told him.

Aaron’s other hand wrapped around my neck, and he pulled my head up to meet his eyes.

“Are you lying to me?” He asked, staring deeply into my eyes.

He was looking at me doubtfully, like he didn’t trust me.

I shook my head at him.

“Say it.”

“I never dated Jeremy.” I wasn’t sure why he needed so much reassurance.

Jeremy was Matt’s friend- I would never go out with him. But then again, Aaron didn’t know anything about Matt.

“Were you with him today?” Aaron asked, his voice breaking when he spoke.

“You know I was. I came with him.”

“No, I mean- did you, did you sleep with him?”

His very blunt question made me gasp in surprise. Had Aaron seriously just asked me that?

He sounded jealous, but that didn’t mean I felt less offended by his words.

“Answer me,” he pressed.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“I knew it. You’re changing the subject. You always do that when you don’t want me to know something about you,” Aaron said, as he pulled away from me.

“Aaron,” I reached out for him, but he shrugged me off.

“Don’t,” he told me, getting up from my bed.

That was the same thing he had done just last week.

“No, you don’t.”

I told him, sitting up from the bed and holding onto his arm with a stronger grip.

“Why are you even mad at me? I’m telling you that Jeremy and I never dated. We weren’t involved,” I told him.

He turned to face me. Even with how dark my room was, I could still faintly see his features.

I took a few seconds to turn on the bedside lamp, making me let go of Aaron.

“This was a bad idea,” Aaron said.

I stared at him as he began getting dressed, but I didn’t stop him this time.

“You’re leaving?” I asked him.

As soon as I did, Aaron stopped what he was doing.

He closed his eyes, and sunk himself in the ground. He sat there for a few minutes, not saying anything to me. I didn’t want to interrupt the silence, so I remained quiet as well.

“I don’t understand you sometimes Annabel,” he said, as he lied down fully on the floor.

“I used go out with Jeremy’s best friend. That’s basically all the history shared between Jeremy and me,” I explained.

Aaron opened his eyes to stare at me.

I felt my chest constrict as I thought about Matt. If Matt and Aaron had met each other- I was sure they wouldn’t get along. They were so different.

“When did you two break-up? Jeremy’s friend and you,” he asked, not sounding convinced.

“We didn’t exactly ‘break-up’.” The more we talked about it, the angrier I felt.

This was something important about me that Aaron was practically mocking.

“You’re still with him?”

Today was just not my day. Despite how hard I wanted to stop myself from crying for the hundredth time today, I couldn’t.

“He broke up with you?” Aaron was frowning, but he still came to sit by my side.

I pushed him away, feeling like he wasn’t taking any of this seriously. Maybe he shouldn’t. It was my past after all. Aaron had nothing to do with this.

“Maybe you should go,” I told him, as I walked away from him.

I looked at the ground, and tried to cover up my face with my hair.

It didn’t work and Aaron kept following me around.

“I’m not leaving if you’re crying.”

He grabbed onto my elbow and pressed me against his chest.

“I’m just mad that you didn’t tell me about all this. I never thought you were coming here to break up with a boyfriend,” Aaron said.

I rolled my eyes, and even though I was crying, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s not funny,” he told me.

“It’s not, but you don’t know half of it. You’re assumptions are a lot better than the truth though.”

My words made Aaron tighten his hold around my waist.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Aaron whispered against my neck, and I felt his lips grazing my skin.

“You’re not going to, although, we’re not really going out,” I told him, trying to lighten the mood.

Aaron gave my waist a squeeze, and he sunk his teeth into my neck playfully.

“I want that. I want you to be my girlfriend, you already know that,” Aaron said.

“Can we talk about all of this tomorrow? I really am tired.”

“Your ex, did you see him today?” Aaron asked me after we were lying down.

“Matt, he’s,” were the only words I was able to say.

“He’s what?”

I took about four or five deep breaths. Even though I knew Matt was gone, it was hard to say it out loud, especially to Aaron.

“Matt is dead,” I mumbled after a few minutes.

I had been facing Aaron, resting my head on his chest. Right after I told him about Matt, I turned away from him.

Aaron seemed to understand, because he didn’t question me. He only pressed his chest against my back, and placed his hand protectively around my waist, resting it over my stomach.

“I’m really sorry, Annabel,” Aaron whispered.

That was the last thing I heard before drifting off to sleep.

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