Teenage Baby

Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Humiliation.

Endless, endless humiliation.

It'd happened. Aaron had used the toilet with a psychopath standing inches away from him. Not staring, yeah, but there. Then Daddy changed his pull-up too. Lou had been there, trying desperately to distract Aaron like he'd always do, but he'd failed.

Aaron didn't think he'd ever have his dignity back.

Now Aaron sat in the corner of the playpen, knees brought up to his chest as he stared into the distance. A rosy tint of chagrin splattered his cheeks and crept down to his neck, and he could clearly feel the heat of the blood-rush in that area. There was a burning ache in his chest; a constant shameful pain and disgust—revulsion from the terrible memory. It was torture. He didn't know exactly what kind, but it had to be. Aaron knew crying would be partly satisfying, but tears weren't forming and his eyes remained completely dry, almost like he was far too immersed in the humiliation to feel the grief.

Daddy and Lou stood at threshold of the living room, both watching Aaron. "Is that normal?" Lou whispered. "I mean, he didn't do anything during the change, and now he's just sitting there, doing nothing. Is that a good thing—"

"No. It's a horrible thing, Lou. Horrible."

"I don't know. What do you want him to do?"

"I want him to cry, to scream, I want him to burst."

Lou furrowed his eyebrows. "That sounds... mean. We want him to be happy, remember?"

Daddy turned to face Lou, his expression flat. "I don't want him to do that because I like watching him cry," he said, sighing as he gave Aaron a worried glance. "I want him to do that because he bottles his emotions. And that's bad, Lou. Really bad. Trust me, it will bite us back—"

"Hey," Mommy interrupted, moving closer to the two. "I think we should let Leo go for a nap now. Little baby is getting too cranky. And Aaron looks like he needs one too."

Daddy and Lou gave each other a look, then nodded. She was definitely right; their boys obviously needed a nap. So they carried them up to the nursery and placed them in their cribs. Behind the bars, Aaron looked a little confused. Unsure.

"Nap, baby. You must be tired," Daddy said, stroking his baby's pale cheek. "And look, Leo's right beside you. He needs a nap too."

Both cribs were placed right beside each other and pushed along their widths against the wall, so when Aaron looked aside, he could see through the bars of his and Leo's cribs the familiar brown hair spilt over a pillow, his body already sprawled on the mattress. He felt better now that he was aware of Leo's presence right beside him; he wanted him to be under his eye all the time, away from Daddy more importantly.

Lou followed Daddy out of the room, leaving Mommy standing there, looking around her like she was stranded. "Where's Leo's teddy?" she mumbled to herself as she searched around for it. "I'm pretty sure it was here. Maybe I put it back in the playroom? Give me a minute, loves, just have to have get his teddy."

Aaron watched as she disappeared through the door, then he leant his head back against the bars and sighed, appreciating the silence. He needed to clear his mind and think, to piece everything he'd seen outside together and form a plan.

"Aar?" Leo suddenly called out, cocking his head upwards slightly so he could at least have a peek at Aaron. Aaron hummed whilst turning to look at him. "Give me your hand."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Um, my hand? What do you want with it?"

"Can't sleep without holding something. Give me, please."