I'm Going Slightly Mad

Chapter Six

Just as Lucas promised, he did not feel better in the morning. If anything, he felt worse. Not only did he have a splitting headache, an uneasy stomach, and a lump on the back of his head, he was also no longer drunk enough to not care about the breakup.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

He threw up again in the shower, right after he cleaned the previous night’s vomit out of his hair. That was enough to convince him that he shouldn’t have bothered waking up at all. This was before he walked into the kitchen and was hit by the bitter stench of aged puke. As quickly as he could, he grabbed a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin, and retreated back to his room. The best thing he could hope for was a nap. Spontaneous combustion would be preferable, but, really, what were the chances?

He managed to pass out for about three hours, but the shrill ringing of his phone yanked sleep back out of his reach. With a growl, he snatched up his phone, flipping it open violently.

“Whoever this is,” he snarled into the phone, “you just made my list.”

“I wasn’t already on it?” Lucas asked, sounding way too cheerful. “Anyway, I’m on break, so I finally have time to make sure you didn’t choke on your own vomit. Now that I know you’re alive, I’ll let you go.”

“Oh, no,” Aaron growled. “I at least get to yell at you for a little while!”

“All right, if you can yell without your head exploding.”

“It would be worth it. I hate you so much right now. I hope you realize that.”

“What did I do? Besides bring my heartbroken buddy some booze he couldn’t buy for himself? I was just being a good friend! You should be thanking me right now!”

“Yes, that was very touching and all, but I didn’t ask you to do it, and even if I had asked, I only would’ve wanted wine. I didn’t need any of that other crap you brought me, and would’ve been perfectly happy without it! For fuck’s sake, I wasn’t even heartbroken!”

“Really? Because you sure sounded heartbroken, but after I brought you alcohol you perked right up. For a while, you were the happiest I’ve ever seen you.”

Aaron laughed humorlessly. “And then I threw up all over my kitchen.”

“Yeah, you did. I bet that smells amazing.”

Aaron was too angry to come up with a snide remark to shoot back. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Baby’s first hangover!” Lucas exclaimed.

“Not even close,” Aaron sneered, and promptly hung up.

Tomorrow, he was going to kill Lucas, and it would be entirely worth spending the rest of his life in prison.

***

So, he was back to being sad and confused. His default state. Coby and Lucas (who he didn’t have the heart to kill, after all) did their best to cheer him up, and they helped a little, but as soon as they were gone, Aaron fell back into his pit of self pity.

Lucas offered to buy him more alcohol at one point. Aaron punched him, but only in the shoulder and not nearly as hard as he could’ve. Coby was better about it. He kept bringing Aaron back to that restaurant with the amazing hamburgers, which were actually just as incredible as Coby made them out to be.

Aaron focused on his classes, taking new ones wherever he could. His parents were paying his tuition, and he didn’t have anything to do in his free time, so he figured, why not? If it helped him to graduate earlier, even better! He signed up for a few computer classes, none of which he enjoyed very much, and a cooking class, which he only attended once. He failed enough in that first day to last him the entire semester, so he dropped it the first chance he got. He also tried an auto repair and maintenance class, which he was actually enjoying quite a bit. Cars were simply fascinating to him. It was in his blood: his father was an engineer.