58. I Like This Kind Of Cliché
I stayed home from school the next day. After tossing and turning throughout the night I was exhausted anyway. I'd only be like the walking dead in the hallways.
Dad came in to check on me, but clearly he had a lot else on his mind to force me to go to school. My mother, well, I guess when she left yesterday she didn't come back.
I just stayed in my bed, ignoring my calls and texts, hiding under my covers along with all of my problems. Overthinking was my area of expertise and right now I wasn't slacking.
I don't know how much time passed, but it did, and soon, I heard my bedroom door creak open. Footsteps resounded and then I felt a weight on my bed.
Aaron gently brushed my hair out of my face. "Jean let me in. Hey."
"Hi," I said softly.
"I've been worried about you since yesterday," he said.
I sighed. "Sorry. That wasn't my intention."
He chuckled softly. "Morgan, talk to me...please. What happened yesterday?"
"Nothing," I stated, remembering my conversation with both my mother and Lynn. "You can't fix everything in my life Aaron."
"Maybe not," he said. "But it doesn't mean I'd let you go through them alone. I'm here Morgan."
I hated that I had been crying a lot lately but I couldn't help it. And I especially hated crying in front of Aaron in this moment.
He put his arm around me and pulled me to his chest. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here."
He placed a kiss on my forehead and I leaned closer to him, crying silently.
"Feel better?" he asked when my crying stopped.
"It's just frustrating seeing him give up an opportunity like this for someone too selfish to let him follow his dreams."
I sighed heavily, and then finally sat up. "You should go to London."
He rose an eyebrow. "You've been hiding in here all day all because you want me to go to London?"
"No," I replied. "Well...it's partly that and some other things and well...I guess my question is...do you want to go to London?"
"Where's all of this suddenly coming from?" he asked. "Is this why you were crying when I got to the studio? Did Lynn say something to you?"
"That's not the point Aaron," I sighed. "Just please answer my question."
"Morgan, we've talked about this already."
"No we haven't," I disagreed. "You just decided not to go and I let you. But I know you want to."
"What I want is you," he said, taking my hand in his.
I shook my head. "You're giving up something you've wanted for a longer time. Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't wonder how great it would be if you actually signed that contract?"
I stared at him for a few seconds, and then he caved.
He ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay, I admit, that three-year deal could be great. I'd just hate to have to leave you here."
"Well I mean there's loads of things I could do," I began to ramble. "I could visit, I could even take a couple of semesters off school and go back later. Oh, or how about just a university in England? I mean I could-"
"Morgan," he stopped me, a small smile on his face. "Do you hear yourself right now?"
I paused, and let out a breath.
"Yet here you are, running to him again because you're too scared to face anything on your own."
"You want to stay here and go to NYU with your best friend, I can tell," he told me. "I'm not going to let you put your life on hold. Not for me, not for anybody. If you say I should follow my dreams, then you should too. You're not giving up college to follow me across the Atlantic Ocean and then around the world while I'm on tour."
I stayed silent and picked at my nail, knowing he was right. No matter how much I wanted to be with him, I couldn't just press pause on my life.
"You want something more Morgan," he continued. "I see it, and that's okay. You spend a lot of your time trying to be the perfect friend or sister or daughter...or girlfriend...and then you beat yourself up when you don't think that you are. This is your chance to do something for yourself, and not anyone else. When was the last time you did that?"
He could read me like an open book, and that was both a blessing and a curse. I knew he was right, I'd been thinking those same thoughts to myself. I didn't really know who I was outside everyone else in my life.
"Where are you going?" Aaron asked as I got off the bed.
I walked over to my desk and grabbed my laptop, handing it to him. "Email whoever contacted you. Tell them you're taking it."
"Morgan-"
"If you don't want me to put my life on hold, then you're not putting yours on hold either," I interrupted. "Email them."
Aaron looked at me and sighed, before opening the device. He got to typing, glancing at me from time to time. After a few minutes, he closed it.
"All done," he uttered. "I said yes."
I nodded, trying to force a smile. "Good. I'm happy for you."
He reached out and took my hand, pulling me down so that I was sitting on him. "Well don't look too happy about it."
I managed to chuckle at that.
"I care about a lot of things," he said. "But you're my whole world Morgan."
My heart melted, and I leaned forward and kissed him.
You're my whole world too.
~~~
I had been feeling better ever since Aaron came to see me in my bedroom. My mom came back home, but I didn't speak to her. I couldn't look at her. She destroyed our family and then tried to make me feel guilty for it.
"I'm sorry," I told Shannon.
"Don't apologize," she shrugged. "My dad's the man-whore here. God I can't believe I almost believed all that crap he tried to feed me about getting our family back together. Stupid right?"
"Shan, I know your parents are divorced but you have the right to be upset you know," I told her.
"Hey, it's your family being wrecked right now," she said. "Mine's been in shambles for a while now."
"How did your mom take it when you told her?"
Shannon fell flat on her bed and stared at the ceiling. "Not too well. I think she had this tiny bit of hope that he meant everything he said. I think she still loves him."
"Really?"
"Crazy right?" she scoffed. "He disappears for eight years and pops up and she's still in love with him."
I shrugged. "Some people have that effect I guess."
I thought about Aaron leaving. I really didn't think I could love anybody like I loved him. But I was going to have to let him go at some point.
I eyed a book on her shelf and stood up to pick it. I looked at the name on the binder. "Hey Shan, whose is this?"
She took a look at what I was holding. "Oh, that's just one of the many gifts my sorry excuse of a father gave me so we could reconnect. It's a good book though, belonged to my grandmother apparently. You can borrow it if you want but it's all in Spanish."
I chuckled. "Grandmother huh?"
"Yeah, why?" she asked.
I glanced at the name again. Camilla Rivera. "Nothing, small world that's all."
She sighed, and I fell on her bed right beside her. "You know, we should just set up my dad and your mom. That would be the biggest payback on their parts."
Shannon let out a soft laugh. "As much as I would love for us to be sisters that would be two weird of a switch-a-roo to wrap my head around.
"I guess," I chuckled. "My mom and your dad, your mom and my dad?"
"Weird," we both said, and then burst out laughing.
"Do you think they'll split up? Your parents," she asked.
I sighed. "I don't know. Would I be a bad person if I say that it's probably better if they do? I mean, according to my mother they haven't even been smooth sailing for a while now."
"No," Shannon answered. "Sometimes things work out that way."
We both fell silent after that and stared at her cloud ceiling. Putting that up was a lot of work.
"Hey Shan?" I called.
"Hm?"
"You're already my sister," I told her.
She smiled at me and I smiled back, and then we both ended up falling asleep while continuing to stare at the ceiling.
~~~
I sighed and increased the volume on the iPod Aaron had given me, drowning the yelling that was coming from my parents' room. My parents were 'talking' again.
Maybe it really would just be easier if they got a divorce.
My phone rang, and I smiled when I saw it was my boyfriend calling.
"Hey," I said.
"I'm outside your house, come down," he told me.
I chuckled. "What?"
"We're going on a date."
"Aaron, it's getting late and it's a school night," I laughed softly. "Besides, isn't it supposed to rain soon?"
"It's only light drizzle," he said. "Come on, are you really going to leave me standing out here?"
I smiled. The effect he had on me was unfathomable. "Alright, I'll be down in a minute."
I hung up and traded my shorts for sweatpants before throwing on Aaron's hoodie. I passed by my parents' bedroom and listened for a second.
"Ehem? What are you doing?"
"Eavesdropping," I answered, not bothering to lie to Jean when she caught me in the act.
"Morgan, they'll work it out," she said.
I sighed. "Really? Did you hear them not too long ago?"
"I did," she answered. "I guess I'm just trying to be hopeful that's all."
"I know you've been spending a lot of time with Laurel but thanks for coming home," I said.
She chuckled, leaning on the wall beside me. "Yeah well I couldn't leave you here alone to be Switzerland in the middle of a war."
"Oh I'm not Switzerland," I told her. "I've chosen a side, dad's."
I already told my mother I was done with her. Yeah sure, they might have been having problems under the radar but at least my dad never cheated and made my life unbearable sometimes.
"And where does that leave me?" my sister chuckled.
I patted her shoulder and got going. "You can be Switzerland. Aaron's outside, I'll see you later."
"See you," she responded as I made my way downstairs and out through the front door. Light drizzle fell but I didn't mind it. I walked across the gigantic front lawn and smiled when I saw Aaron.
He immediately pulled me into a kiss. "Hey."
I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. "Hey."
"You sure know how to make a guy wait huh?" he joked.
I hit his chest playfully. "Hey, I got caught up eavesdropping on my parents."
"Right," he said. "How's that situation?"
I shrugged. "It is what it is. I've cried about my family enough times already."
I told Aaron about what was going on because well...he had a way of making me feel better every time I was upset. Besides, I trusted him.
"So, are you ready for a fun night?" he asked, taking one of the helmets on his motorcycle.
"What are we doing?" I asked as he put it on me.
"Are you ready or not Morgan?" he chuckled.
"I guess so. You're lucky I love you," I answered, following him so we could both get on.
"I love you too," he said, roaring the bike to life.
And off we went.
~~~
"It's not much, but I figured you deserved to smile at least a bit lately," Aaron told me.
I arched an eyebrow. "So you brought me to a Walmart aisle?"
"Yup."
I chuckled. "Aaron, you know I don't care what the hell we do but...I'm confused. Is there something here I should be looking for?"
He rose his finger telling me to wait, and then ran off. I just stood there as confused as ever. The store had about an hour to close, and so it was basically empty. Aaron returned with a shopping cart.
"Are we here to shop?" I asked.
"Get in," he said.
I looked around and let out a small laugh. "Uh...excuse me?"
"Get in Morgan, we're going to ride shopping carts through the aisles," he explained.
"Aaron, we can't just do that," I said.
"Who's going to stop us?" he smirked. "Now come on Morgan, get in."
I laughed and shook my head. "Once again, you're lucky I love you."
I climbed into the cart with his help and brought my knees up to my chin. He put a random helmet he'd picked up and put it on top of my head.
Bringing his lips close to my ear, he whispered, "And once again, I love you too."
"I can't believe I'm doing thiiiiis!"
Before I could finish, Aaron had already given the cart a push. I felt myself fly across the aisle and I closed my eyes, squealing as the force carried me.
The cart eventually slowed down and hit the wall opposite me, but I was okay since I had lost momentum. I opened my eyes and saw Aaron jog up to me, laughing.
"Holy shit that was-"
"Fun?" he finished. "I told you. Wanna go again?"
I laughed and patted my helmet. "Ready for take off captain."
And so we spent a couple of minutes being totally immature and childlike, but I loved every moment of it. Aaron was right, I guess I just needed a laugh. We both went a couple of rounds and then one of the employees told us we couldn't be doing that. To be honest I was surprised that no one stopped us earlier. This really was my kind of date.
Since I didn't want to go back home, we rode on Aaron's bike back to his house. It started pouring as we went, but we stuck it out since we were only about three minutes away from his house.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" Aaron laughed as I began to rush towards the front door.
"Maybe because it's raining?" I chuckled, still making my way towards the door.
"Wait," he said, pulling me back.
I fell against his chest, and then he pressed his lips against mine. The rain soaked us both, but I didn't care. Kissing him felt like I was was walking on clouds, as cheesy as that may sound. He held my face with one hand as our tongues met, and my knees grew weak from his touch alone.
I pulled away for air and smiled. "Rain kiss? How very cliché."
He smirked. "I like this kind of cliché."
He lowered his head to kiss me again, but we were interrupted by April.
"You two can make out inside where you won't get sick!" she yelled from her bedroom window.
Aaron sighed and shook his head, and I only laughed embarrassingly.
"We'll be right in!" he told her.
"Hi April!" I said.
"Hi honey!" she responded. "But seriously, you two get inside. You're not missing school because of that."
Aaron chuckled, and then took my hand. "Come on."
"This was fun," I told Aaron as I dried my hair with a towel. We had both changed into dry clothes. "Thank you."
"Well you know me," he said, killing the lights as I finished. "Willing to do anything and everything for a certain girl named Morgan Hall."
He always left me flustered and smiling whenever he said things like that. I really was lucky to have him. Instead of talking and making myself look stupid, I walked over to him and kissed him again. He wrapped his hands around me and fell back onto the bed, and I laughed as I fell with him.
"Aaron!"
"Shh," he chuckled. "You're gonna wake up Ayana."
I rolled over and lay more comfortably beside him. We stayed silent for a while, and then it dawned on me that high school would be over for us soon and that Aaron would be leaving for England.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked me.
"Nothing," I chuckled softly.
"You look like you're thinking about something."
"It's dark, you can't see me," I remarked.
"If I can do this," he began, and then kissed my forehead. "Then I can see you. Come on."
"You're leaving soon, that's all," I gave in. "I just don't know what I'd do without you."
"Exactly what you were doing before you met me," he said, pulling me closer to his chest. "Only better. Much better. Don't sell yourself short Morgan, you really can handle more than you think."
"That's a lot of faith," I remarked.
He laughed softly. "Yeah and you need to put some of that in yourself. Don't worry about the future Morgan, it's just us right now. We're here, that's what matters."
I gently closed my eyes, paying heed to what he said. It was him and I, here, now, that's all I cared about.
A/N
Figured we could use a cute chapter after all the drama. Just for a little while though, because next chapter has more drama. Aasggbh we're so close to the end and I'm so excited! I've loved writing every single chapter of this book.
Please vote and comment your thoughts! :)
- amani