The Paths We Take [boyxboy]

The Paths We Take {12}

                Aaron shook his head. "What are you, a child? Who cares what your mom thinks?"

                "I care," I said. "I love my mom. I'm not going to upset her."

                "What does it matter? Someday she'll be dead too and you'll have no parents. You'll have wasted your time trying to please a woman who won't even be around much once you move out of your house," Aaron said.

                "Would you miss your mom if she died?" I said.

                Aaron's lips curled into an amused grin. "No."

                I knew Nicole Kizziar wasn't the world's best mother. I knew her mental illness had damaged her relationship with her children. But I also knew she'd tried to get help so she could raise her kids. Depression could be a scary thing, but Aaron wasn't one to forgive even the most understandable of excuses.

                "I miss my dad," I said, tilting my head back. "I think about him all the time."

                "You barely knew him," Aaron said. "For all you know, he was a shit father. You shouldn't love someone just because they're your family. Sometimes family are the worst."

                "I had a good dad. And I have a good stepdad." I couldn't remember my father very well, but I did remember him spending as much time with me as possible, well aware that his cancer was killing him quickly. And David had stepped right up as a father figure to me the moment he met me, loving but stern when he needed to be.

                "This is a stupid topic," Aaron said, grabbing the back of my neck and shoving my head down. "You always pick stupid things to talk about."

                There he went, throwing around the word stupid for things he didn't have or understand. He didn't rely on and love his family, so he thought I was stupid for doing those things.

                Aaron drummed his fingers against my neck before resuming his tight grip on it. "You're so stupid, Kaz. I wonder why I bother with you."

                "Because I'm quick," I said, holding up his cell phone.

                He grabbed my hand in his, holding it so tightly I nearly winced. "If I didn't need you, I'd break every fucking finger of yours. Nice and slow, one by one. I'd leave both your hands crippled."

                He wouldn't, though. I knew that. "I have a bit of a stealing problem. You knew that ahead of time. Really, who's being stupid here?"

                He released my neck, slinging his arm around my shoulders in that position that would make it easy for him to choke me if he chose to. "Call me stupid again, Kaz. I dare you. Go on, go on."

                I'd been learning his limits. How far I could take a choke and when to shut up. Forming a relationship with Aaron was hard work sometimes.

                I simply gazed at him, raising an eyebrow. He slowly dropped his arm from my shoulders.

                "You're learning," he said. "You're stupid, but you're not too stupid."

                "I have some survival instincts," I said.

                Aaron got up and started heading back towards the school without another word. I watched him go, waiting until he had disappeared before turning my head, my eyes scanning until I saw the butterfly wing on the ground.