The Cheerleader and The Bad Boy

Chapter forty-six

Hey guys, I finally got a chance to upload! Yay! I won't be doing much after school this week so hopefully I can upload really soon! 
And the video on the side is of Sage and Brad's duet.
Anyway I hope you all enjoy this chapter even though it's rather short again.... Vote and comment!

Chapter forty-six

“Aaron?” I said again while leaning on the doorway.

“How’d you get in?” He said wiping his cheek with the back of his hand.

“Your mom let me in.” I said sitting next to him on his bed. His back was to me and he refused to meet my eyes. “How are you doing?” I asked carefully. “You haven’t talked to me in two weeks…did I do something?” I glanced down at his hands just now realizing that he had one of Zoe’s stuffed animals.

“She’s gone.” He said so quiet that I could barely hear him.

“What?”

He turned to look at me and I could see the tears in his eyes and streaking down his face. “She’s gone Sage…Zoe, she died.” He started breaking down so I pulled him closer and just held him as I let his words sink in. “She didn’t get better.” He said wrapping his arms around me in return. “She was never getting better.” 

I could feel tears falling down my cheeks but I stayed silent. This isn’t about me, it’s about Aaron. So I just sat there and listened to him cry as I held him in my arms.

He stood up shaking his head. “Aaron?” I asked confused on why he had pulled away so fast.

He shook his head refusing to look back at me. “She’s gone, Sage! She’s gone!” He screamed as he walked to the other side of his room. I wiped the tears from my face as he scraped his hands through his hair. He swiped everything off his desk in one angry motion. “She’s not coming back! And I wasn’t even here for her! I got back when she was in the hospital a week before she died!” He knocked his chair over and threw a picture that had been hanging on the wall, across the room. “A week. One week before she died! I was gone all summer and I came back a week before she died!” He knocked over his lamp and I sprinted across the room and grabbed his shoulders.

“Stop! Stop it Aaron!”

“I can’t! I can’t because as soon as I calm down I’m left alone with my thoughts and they’re filled with her. She’s all I can think about.” He said while grabbing my arms and shaking me. “I should’ve been here for her! I should’ve treated her better.” Tears raced down his face and his knees gave out. I tried to catch him but we both crashed to the floor. He hid his face in my shoulder and sobbed. “I can’t be alone with my thoughts. I can’t…I can’t.”

I wrapped my arms around him as he cried harder. “I won’t leave you alone.” I whispered.

************

Aaron didn’t talk to me for another few days before he knocked on my bedroom door. “Hailey let me in.” He mumbled while awkwardly walking into my room.

“That’s cool.” I said nodding my head not wanting to accidentally set him off somehow.

“I’m sorry.” He said suddenly. “I don’t want you to think that I’m weak.”

“Why would I ever think you were weak?” I asked while standing up and scrunching my eyebrows.

“Because you saw me bawling…like a baby.”

“Aaron…you had every right to be crying. You’re sister died, that gives you every right to cry and scream and break things. You’re not weak. Especially showing up here, pulled together and trying not to let this consume you…that shows me that you are the strongest person I know.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him in for a hug. He hesitated before wrapping his arms around my waist. I heard him take a deep breath before he slowly exhaled as if he was calming himself down.