Teenage Baby

Chapter 15

  Aaron wasn't exactly excited about the pool, or the idea of water and swimming, but there was a small chance the backyard would turn out easier to escape from. He just hoped.

"Look, baby. I brought it!"

  Daddy's voice. He was back. Aaron turned to the source of the noise, and his eyes fell upon a black canon camera held before Daddy's face, already positioned to snap at the instant. A deafening alarm blared in his head, and he instinctively found Lou's neck as refuge, face nestling into its crook and nose nudging against the skin—a helpless attempt to hide himself from the photo. He subconsciously gathered the front of Lou's shirt in his fist. The fabric wrinkled with the intensity of his grip.

Daddy chuckled at the reaction. "Baby, don't be silly. The picture isn't now. Just give me a second to set the tripod."

  Lou didn't find it amusing; he found it worrying instead. He knew exactly how stubborn his baby could get. "Please, love, don't do this. Just a little and it'll be all done," he said, but Aaron didn't budge and just shook his head against his neck.

Partly, Lou enjoyed the heat of Aaron's breath against his skin, the warmth of his nose nuzzled into his neck. He stared down at him admiringly, then looked at the ceiling and sighed, his breath filled with the worry brewing inside. Lou couldn't deny how happy he was that his baby unawarely found him for safety, but he also couldn't fully enjoy it with the prospect of Aaron putting himself in trouble. He needed to listen to Daddy. "Baby, please, show me your beautiful face and promise me you'll be a good boy."

   Aaron knew he'd have to surrender soon. He arched his side away from Lou when he startled him with a soft tickle on his waist.

Lou sighed and kept trying to coax Aaron away from his neck, but it wasn't happening—he kept his face hidden persistently, refusing to cooperate even when Lou tried his best: tickling, bouncing. All his attempts fell to waste in front of Aaron's stubbornness.

   "Baby? Look at the camera," Daddy said as he approached them. Lou felt how Aaron's body tensed between his arms just as the vibrations of Daddy's voice catapulted into the air, striking his ears with familiar sharpness. His back was suddenly taut, and Lou couldn't feel his lashes brushing against his neck anymore like he'd become so still he didn't even dare blink. Lou didn't like Daddy's effect on Aaron.

  Lou stepped back when Daddy became too close, trying desperately to give Aaron an extra second to comply. He angled his head down until his mouth was just by his earlobe. As he spoke, his voice seeped in barely perceptible whispers: "Baby, come on. Listen to Daddy."

  Aaron was about to do that. He'd tried his luck at dismissing the picture but that didn't work so he'd rather not do anything stupid. But before he could, Daddy slithered his hand towards him, cupping his chin as he forced his head away from Lou's neck, so powerfully Aaron thought his jaw was on the verge of breaking.

"Look at the camera, baby. Didn't you hear me the first time?" Daddy asked, his brow raised and his eyes devoid of the slightest mirth. Aaron nodded, barely capable of sputtering a shaky I did through the rising panic that seized his throat, squinting slightly as a pounding pain crushed his meager bones. Daddy smiled and loosened his grip and stroked his baby's jaw gently with his thumb like he hadn't just been about to break it. He even pecked it too. "Too tight, wasn't it? Sorry, baby. Now come to take the picture."

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Aaron said, a desperate attempt at coaxing the captor. "I just don't like pictures. But I'll do it for you."

  Smiling, Daddy held his arms out, but Aaron didn't make the slightest move to lean towards him. He wanted, fully wanted, to stay with Lou at this point. Daddy easily caught the hesitance, how his baby's eyes fell to the ground, how his hand tightened around Lou's collar, and everything made sense.