Breaking His Rules

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"Horrible influence on our son", my dad agrees. "Breaking his glasses, dumping Alicia and getting back with her – he is just setting himself up for failure. And he is ACTUALLY KISSING HER"

"I'm right here you know. Maybe rather than attack her you could get to know her for who she is."

My parents stop their pacing and stare at me as if I've grown an extra head.

"And now he's even talking back", my mother gasps as if I have committed the most atrocious crime known to mankind.

"This girl is obviously a horrible influence on you.", my dad glares at me, and I fight to hold his stare, but I find my eyes sliding away from his face. "We are horribly disappointed in you Aaron", he says, shaking his head, and I bite back the urge to cry.

But Caleb stands in front of me. "That's enough", he says.

My parents seem to step back, their faces a look of pure astonishment. Of all of us, Caleb was probably the most willing to obey my parent's rules, probably because he is the first born and those were the only rules he knew. For him to stand against my parents is such a big move.

"Aaron has a right to love who he wants without interference from both of you, and he has a right not to wear fake glasses if he doesn't want to."

My parents don't say anything so Caleb continues.

"You've forced your will on all of us. You forced me to study law, but it's just a good thing that I actually like law or else both of you would have made my life absolutely miserable. Now you're trying to force Aaron to study law, even though he is obviously going to be very unhappy doing it, but you'll let him be unhappy all in the name of 'looking out for your son'. And now you are trying to ruin his love life by making him give up the girl he loves. Do you think that makes you good parents?"

My parents are opening and closing their mouths like fish out of water, and it is a while before they manage to close their mouths which are dangling open in shock.

My mom is the first to speak.

"How dare you talk to us this way?", she yells in Caleb's direction, and I notice him flinch a little, but his eyes don't waver for a second. "And you", she says, turning to me. "I don't want to ever hear you talk about football again in this house. I did not raise you to become a failure."

"How would you even know if I was a failure?", I question angrily. "You've never attended a single one of my games, you've never seen me practice you haven't even held meetings with my coach. I am good – and being a footballer doesn't make you a failure.

I barely finish getting the words out of my mouth before I feel a sting across my face. My mother had slapped me.

Dazed, I stare at her, and I run my hands across my face. My mother has never slapped me before. For a moment her hard eyes waver before returning to their original stone cold form.

"You will apologise this instant", she yells at me. "Or we wont even out you through college."

I stare at my mother, her eyes cold, her face red with anger. Vaguely, I remember a time when she would play with me, when I felt loved. But those times are as far away as the snowcapped peaks of Everest.

I turn around and walk out, out of the room, out of the house. I can hear my parents yelling at me to come back, and Caleb's voice pleading behind me, but I don't look around and I don't turn back.

I enter into my car and drive, out of the garage and into the road.

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"And then they threatened not to put me through college", I cry, tears soaking up the fabric of her shirt as I bury into her warmness.

Kayla strokes the back of my hair softly as I continue to cry to her.

As soon as I arrived, Kayla spotted me from the window and rushed over to ask what was wrong. My plan had been to fake it and make it seem like I had come to ask her out on a date or something, but the moment her sweet voice asked me what was wrong, I couldn't help bawling my eyes out to her.

We didn't even go inside. Instead, we sat on the grass leaning against the tree that I used to get into her window yesterday.

"Your parents are so stupid", she says as she runs her hand lightly through my hair. I want to disagree, but I seem to have lost my voice.

Or maybe I realise that she is right. My parents do act stupid.

I nod and she looks over at me with those gorgeous emerald eyes.

I sniff. "I've ruined your shirt", I say, gesturing to the spots in an effort to escape from her piercing yet mesmerizing gaze.

She barely looks at the shirt. "I don't really care", she shrugs. "I'm always ready to lend a shoulder for you to cry on. You were there for me, and now its my turn to be there for you."

That almost sets me off again.

"I was thinking that we could maybe go to the amusement park today?", I say tying to make my voice sound normal, but Kayla sees through it right away.

"Maybe another day", she says with a wave of her hand. "Right now though, I just want to spend quality time making my boyfriend feel better."

I have nothing to say to that, so to prevent myself from doing something stupid, I bury my face in the crook of her shirt and she pulls me in close, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

And I release that while everything may not go smoothly all the time, I will have Kayla to be with me. Together we can get through it all.