Can The Player PLAY The Player?

Point 15.

A.M

"Cooking wine, I need cooking wine."

I was sure I looked like an idiot mumbling to myself as I pushed my cart through the store, trying to figure out what else I needed for my delicious meal. "Oh my, if it isn't Aaron Moore."

I peeled around on my heel and sighed once my eyes landed on the person who was calling me out. "What do you want, Paul?" I really didn't care what our mayor had to say because I was under the impression that respect had to be earned and so far, he was doing a bang-up job.

"What does a man have to do to get treated with some respect around here?" He got closer, holding his small tray in his hand and I rolled my eyes, not taking him seriously. I never did like the man, not even when I met him years ago and definitely not now. "Spit out what you came over here to say. If you don't have anything, then I'm walking away," I scowled, his presence tarnishing my beautiful day as his face morphed into pure rage. 

"You'll do well to mind your tone, Mr. Moore," His beady eyes scanned me like a monitor, scoffing at me. "Anger me any further and you'll find yourself without a future," He frowned before walking away, seemingly pleased that his words rendered me silent, but I was just trying to comprehend what that was supposed to do for me. 

I tilted my head, wondering what the fuck he was talking about. "What is that supposed to mean, you motherfucker?" I clenched the bar of my cart in hand, resisting the need to bang his head against the wall. He paused in his stride, looking over his shoulder with an evil smirk.

"Why don't you ask my dear son?"

His evil grin followed me all the way home to where Owen was waiting for me, a hand wave in the air as he helped me get the groceries out. "What are you doing here?" I questioned and he smirked as we headed up the stairs once everything was put away. "I wanted to see you," He smiled playfully before plopping down in my beanbag chair, me right next to him on the floor.

I narrowed my eyes, knowing that he was lying. "Okay, okay! Don't stare at me like that, I get nervous," He pouted and I heaved a sigh, palming my face. "I just wanted to ask about you and Zaid," He began and both of my eyebrows rose up to my hairline. "It's just that everyone has been wondering, me included," I bit my lip, gauging him for a minute. I could tell him, but I could also not tell him. "It has nothing to do with you though. Why should it matter to you?" I bit back, feeling like cornered prey.

I desperately wanted to tell someone because it was exhausting, keeping all these feelings in and there was no one around to tell. It wasn't something that I could just blurt out because there were too many things involved. 

"Aaron, it's me, man," Owen threw his arm around my shoulder. "You can tell me anything. I'm not going to judge you," He whispered in a soft tone and I took a deep breath, clenching my hand as I recounted that same night.

"When we get into this party, act like you have some sense," I made Zaid hold onto my wrist so he didn't wander off and get himself into anything dangerous. "This is our first party, so I don't want anything embarrassing happening. Shit travels like air from Steelbrook to Northvale."

The smell of pungent alcohol stained the air as we walked through Lucy Hawthorne's house. There were a lot of people here, which meant a lot of drinking was going down tonight. "No drinks for us," I muttered, knowing my mother would kill me if I had anything to drink. We were just here because we got an invitation after beating them in our first game. It was weird, I knew, but we couldn't just not show up. 

I didn't see the people that invited us, so I just grabbed a can of Sprite from the cooler before following Zaid, who took us to an empty bedroom. "I guess we can camp out here until we decide to leave," He shrugged and I took a seat on the plush bed. We were mere teenagers at our first party. We were bound to walk around in confusion among older teens and our parents didn't even know we were out, so we had to play it smart.