Hers | ✔ | (Editing)

20| Collywobbles

He found that you do not truly trust someone until they see you sleep. Sleep is one simple act of being dynamic, but the impassional secret behind that simple gesture was something not many could understand. 

Sleep was one vulnerable deed; one where Aaron had to be unconscious while he did it. And he did it because he trusted Rose just as much as he trusted himself. 

Rose was there when he slept. She was there when he temporarily left this world. And she was there when he woke up. Aaron was probably overthinking again, and he was most likely being ridiculous, but it was the truth.

Rose was Rose, and he didn't expect any less or any more of her. 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban caught the corner of his eye, and Aaron was already drawing towards it before he could say otherwise. He could remember staying up til 3 am for this book, and being only 9 years old, 3 am was a huge deal. 

He grew up with the boy with duct taped glasses, and sometimes, Aaron would like to feel like him. 

Because he wasn't brave, or handsome, or special; he was just Aaron. The boy who liked wearing all black, the boy who often tried to hide the way he felt, and the boy who saw things no one ever deserved. H̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶.

Maybe it was just the way things sorted themselves out that upset Aaron, or maybe it was the way things ended that hurt him. Either way, he was far from sad right now.

People, Aaron thought, were God's tests in this life. Some will stay, others will leave; some will heal, others will break; some will hate, others will love.

Aaron couldn't remember the last time he felt this happy; as though a bird had just took flight from his tight chest, loosening all the knots along the way. He always had this feeling whenever he saw James, and it was just as beautiful every time. 

James never called. 

Aaron never expected him to, but it was always more painful when that circle of hope popped in him. Aaron missed him as he always did. 

He was already a 100 pages through Harry Potter before his phone beeped. And after that he had a small chat with Rose, his heart beating right underneath his typing fingertips. Rose had that effect on him, and he would never be able to unravel the science behind it, but he didn't even care. 

Because Rose was slowly mending him. 

B̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶s̶c̶a̶r̶e̶d̶.̶

★★★

Aaron never had a proper girlfriend before. 

And when he flipped Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban to page 250 and realised that, he could feel his entire heart go ballistic inside his chest. Putting his bookmark in, Aaron sat up on his bed; legs crossed as he thought about this.

He never had a proper girlfriend before. D̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶.

He let out a small breath, running his fingers through his hair. For some reason, uncertainty imprinted itself on his bones, screaming at Aaron to not get involved with Rose, to push her away, to hate her.

But he couldn't.

Because while every bone in his body was shrieking at him that this wasn't going to work, his heart was whispering how beautiful would it be if it did. And Aaron listened to it; he listened to the part in him that was wounded the most, the part in him that died a few years ago, and the part in him that only belonged to Rose.