Teenage Troubles (Prequel for Teenage Baby)

Chapter 16 | Aaron

"That my eyes are pretty."

"Oh." Erika stared at the girl behind, then back at Aaron. For a moment, they just gazed each other. Erika's expression was weird.

Aaron pursed his lips then said, "I have to go now."

Before he could move, Erika quickly reached forward and hugged him. Aaron didn't see it, but she glanced back at something or someone then looked at him again. "Bye. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you." Aaron liked a warning before hugs. Even if it was from Erika. Usually, she'd at least tell him first because she knew he was unpredictable when it came to touching.

Aaron stepped out and meandered across the roads all the way home. He walked slower than usual, kicked every pebble he saw. It was his way of postponing getting there. He hated school and he hated home so was the road connecting both the safest or the worst?

When he made it home, he opened the door and stepped inside. And the moment he did, he knew there was something wrong. It hit him like a meteor dropping from the sky right on his head.

His father was sitting there on the couch, legs crossed, arm curled over the backrest. And worst of all: smiling. Not a normal one, the kind that implied deceit, connivance.

Aaron didn't even realize how hard he was frowning, how slowly and cautiously he was moving like he was aware a dynamite was planted across the floor. He closed the door behind but his eyes remained on his father.

"Son!" David said, patting the cushion beside him. "Come here, come here. I have some terrible news."

Terrible, but he was smiling. It totally made sense. Aaron figured out where he'd inherited his contradictory mind from—his dad. That added one more reason (over the two thousand others) to hate himself. "What?"

"Sit down first."

Aaron did, only because he knew his father wouldn't spit it out if he didn't. David stared at him, still smiling.

Aaron tilted his head slightly. "That's not creepy at all."

David laughed a pitched laugh before focusing again. "Well, what about this?" He showed Aaron his phone. "What do you think?"

Aaron's heart froze, then dropped. On the screen was a picture of a woman in a cheap-looking wedding dress, holding an unfamiliar man's hands. None other than Jannette.

Aaron didn't say anything. He swallowed.

David laughed again. Again. Aaron would punch him if he could. "So your mom got married. Without telling me, or you. Guess her son wasn't invited to the wedding."

Aaron couldn't understand why she'd do that. He blinked, detached, robotic. Voice straining, he mumbled, "Cool."

"And guess what?"

"I don't wanna guess—"

David slapped Aaron's thigh and chuckled. "She's here! And she wants to see you."

If Aaron was attached to heart monitors, this would be the moment you'd hear a long beep, the moment you'd see the electronic graph collapse into a straight line. He wanted to throw up but he swallowed down the bile.

Jannette. His mom. A corpse crawling out of the graveyard in his heart.

Aaron's face paled. He curtly repeated, "Cool." Then added, "I hope she enjoys her time here. I don't wanna see her." When he started getting up, his father forced him down.

"Good. But you're gonna see her and tell her that. That you don't want her. She's been annoying the hell out me. She thinks you're here against your will or some shit. I think she forgot she's the one who left you."