Teenage Baby

Chapter 22

But Aaron didn't, and instead composed himself again. He quickly pushed the key into the cottony insides of the dolphin, then zipped it up and placed it away, safely secluded and hidden beneath the rest of the toys in the bin. He thought it would be suspicious for him to hang onto a toy all of a sudden, all he could do merely falling upon the wish that no one would notice it.

Aaron turned and leant his back against the bin, sighing quietly. A part of him expected childish prodding to attack him, or for melodic giggles to fill his ears. But instead there was nothing, silence hanging over the room save for the quiet scratching of pencil against paper. Leo wasn't there. That was why everything felt so dull.

Lou was entirely focused on drawing, and it sparked curiosity in Aaron. He wanted to know what he was drawing, so he found himself approaching the small table hesitantly, stopping just at a small distance away. Lou noticed. He gestured him to come closer. So Aaron did; he sat cross-legged beside the table and next to Lou, peering at the drawing.

Lou was drawing grey eyes. Aaron's.

Again, the detail was what brought it so close to Aaron's eyes specifically, especially that this time he'd used colored pencils. The defined black rim around the grey irises and the reflective white spots, then the golden flecks surrounding the dark pupils in the center like spots of molten gold. The painting made his eyes look special, but Aaron was sure that they weren't that cool in reality. He remembered the time some boys at school made sure he knew his eyes weren't appealing.

  "I've been working on this for a while. Your eyes are so beautiful, baby. And I like to draw beautiful things," Lou said when he noticed Aaron's staring at the paper.

  "They used to tell me they're awful." Aaron sighed, then looked down at his lap, his lashes veiling his eyes and casting shadows over his cheekbones. Lou opened his mouth to offer a comforting word, but Aaron had already continued on his own, words absently rolling off his tongue and missing the red lights in his brain. He didn't really realize how much the tension would dip with Mommy and Daddy's absence, how his own body would instinctively relax. "But I used to ignore them. I mean, I'd be a bit sarcastic. Then I'd leave. I was too tired to deal with them."

Lou's face crumpled. He hated thinking that Aaron'd had to tolerate that crap, cruel people physically stronger than him trying to dominate because that was all they were good at. Cruel people. Like those who'd lost their morals to money and power and let a child—

Lou found his brain drifting off to other topics, remembrances, but he quickly focused again on his baby. Aaron was all that was important to him. "They're just jealous," he told Aaron. "We all know that your eyes are prettier than these idiots can ever be. If they're trying to attack your confidence, then they're aware you're special or at least better than them."

Empty words, Aaron thought. Some people just didn't have charisma and he was one of them and he knew it. Accepted it. He'd always been and was going to stay the failure, the outcast whom no one ever would want to put up with.

  "You don't wanna believe me, huh?" Lou sighed then pulled himself to his feet and picked Aaron up as he straightened. "You must be hungry, baby. But I can't cook to save my life and Mommy's still sleeping. Let's go get a cookie or something quick?"

Lou didn't wait for an answer and went on his own guess to the kitchen. There, he placed Aaron on the table and turned to the cabinets hanging above the sink and counters, briefly opening each and checking for cookies. "There," he mumbled to himself as he reached for a jar, but as he did he knocked off a cup and sent it falling down the entire distance from the top to the polished concrete. It shattered on the floor and emitted an obnoxiously loud noise along. "Okay, shit."