Aaron ignored me week after week. About a month after the hurricane, he still managed to keep his distance from me. The only time he would ever talk to me was when I needed to see some of my drawings on the skyscraper. I asked him if I could meet his architect—he said no. So in full honesty, I'm not sure why he started to push himself away.
One the bright side, even though I know Aaron was trying to ignore me, he was completely in love with the building I created. He would try hard not to grin when I would show him my sketches and blue prints. It was slowly coming together, and truthfully the only time Aaron interacted with me anymore was just to talk about my drawings. It felt somewhat hurtful that Aaron was ignoring me. I could only guess why he was avoiding me, but it still didn't make me feel any better. It felt like he rebuilt a barrier between us. And Pierce didn't stop apologizing.
When the hurricane had finally subsided, everything was a mess. There were palm trees that were tipped over and branches were scattered on all sorts of streets. There was damage done to one of the neighboring buildings—a car had flown into their lobby. Then there was just the typical 'things are leaning in the wrong direction' sort of thing. Most of the aftermath was just seaweed, palm leaves, and a ton of junk that had been scattered everywhere.
We were in the car driving to school when Pierce mentioned it again. "I'm so damn sorry," Pierce hit his hand on the steering wheel letting out a frustrated growl.
By now his apologies were so frequent and random that it had me laughing. "Pierce really," I said after my laugh. "It's fine."
"It's really not," He hesitated. "I haven't seen Aaron that vulnerable in so long. I want you two to have something. Especially you Parker. You need to go out and have fun. All you do is study."
"Your brother and I aren't going to be anything," I confirmed.
Pierce looked at me for a moment before sighing, "Ok...I just want you to know though, he does like you."
I looked forward towards the interstate, trying to prevent the smile from forming on my face. My voice came out softly, "I know."
The hurricane trashed a lot of the community. Some of the palm trees had fallen over. On the news, the destruction was clearly shown. A lot of students on campus decided to go help Red Cross and the relief for anyone that may have lost their homes or faced the hardships of the natural disaster. After the month however, everything seemed to be back to normal. Florida is used to hurricanes so they were well equipped and prepared to fix anything that was destroyed.
Kellie, Jackson, Pierce, and I were all volunteers. It helped us get to know each other better but also, it was nice seeing people smile when we helped. Jackson talked to us about his love for basketball and how it started. Pierce told us stories of when he traveled Europe. I learned more about Kellie's family and like me—she's the youngest with three older brothers.
We talked about our pet peeves growing up. Like when the boys would leave the toilet seat up. "Or," Kellie said to me while we took our lunch break on the back of the pick-up truck where all the relief water was. "When you're forced to share something. I hated that. What's mine, is mine."
Obviously, we all weren't each other's only friends, but it was nice having this group. Pierce and I promised to go see Jackson play a few games once season would start again. Kellie admitted that she attended all the games to support him. It made Jackson blush and look away when Kellie started talking about how good he is.
Our volunteer work wasn't excessive. Which was great. We were able to drive to smaller towns and help out a whole day or two. A lot of the people on campus and other groups joined together, which meant a lot of the work was done quickly. So in no time, everything seemed to be back to normal.
I walked into my class and took my usual seat. Even though the hurricane subsided, this month has been utter hell. Not even because of everything going on at the apartment with Aaron, but because we were all so behind. Our professors were suddenly trying to rush out information. I was having to work extra hard and a part of me was thankful for it. If my nose wasn't always stuck in my textbook and notes, I might have spent more time thinking of Aaron.
"This week sucks," Kellie complained as I sat across from her.
I grumbled setting my food down, "Tell me about it."
"My professor—who has never made us do homework before—suddenly told us we have to define two-hundred words by next week. And it's a major grade to make up for our missed project." Kellie took an angry bite from her food. "Don't get me wrong, I don't mind defining words. Actually—I prefer it—but where the hell am I going to get the time? I'm drowning."
I never told Kellie or Jackson that I was designing a building. They both have on campus jobs, but here, you're only allowed to work a certain amount of hours a semester. I've been trying to balance my school life with my skyscraper project and work. Not to mention my life at home. Driving back and forth is exhausting. Pierce even let me drive one morning because he had received literally no sleep the night before.
The reason I never told Kelly and Jackson has to do with the fact that I know they both have their own lives. Jackson and I are probably way busier than Kellie, but this isn't a competition on who can handle the most stress in the best way. It depends on the person you are. I am—somehow—managing my life as best as I can. Jackson manages his activities too. We all know that during basketball season we would hardly be seeing him. And Kellie, well she gets stressed out if she has more than one thing due in one day. She's a genius—just a little squirrely.
I remember back home in Michigan, I would go to my dorm and my boyfriend would meet up with me. He would ask how I was doing and when I replied I was stressed, he would snort and tell me I have no reason to be stressed. Because he was always handling a lot more than I was. At the time I thought it was true. That looking around and seeing people have it worse than you should be the way to look at everything. Then I realized I frankly don't care what he has to say. Everyone is their own person and if you're stressed out about something, it doesn't give the right to your friend to say it's not worth stressing out over.
"We need a day to cool off," Jackson said as he took a seat across from me. Kellie had already caught him up on her daily stress.
Pierce joined us a few minutes later when I texted him where we were. "We're thinking about going somewhere this weekend," I told Pierce as he sat by me. "Ideas?"
"We could go to the mall," Kellie suggested.
Before Kellie could add anything else, Pierce and I looked at each other and in unison we started to sing Let's Go To The Mall from How I Met Your Mother. Kellie launched a few peas at us with her spoon.
"My point," Kellie said with a roll of her eyes. "Is that could go for some new clothes."
"Lame," Pierce and Jackson said. They gave each other a fist bump. While helping with the volunteer work, they both became close friends. While Kellie and I were told to help feed people and reorganize things, Pierce and Jackson were stuck doing manual labor and rebuilding homes.
"There's this cool restaurant I heard about," Jackson tried to add in.
"I'm broke dude," I said. "I mean I have a job, but I'm still broke. Only Pierce can afford stuff..."
Kellie and Jackson both nodded in agreement. Pierce started to laugh, "You guys are so stupid."
We all frowned. I rolled my eyes as well, "What Pierce?"
"We live in Miami!" He said enthusiastically. "It's not hard to find something fun to do."
"Now that I think about it, I haven't gone to the beach in a while." Kellie said, her face scrunched up like she was trying to recall her memories.
"You should all stay at our apartment," Pierce said causing me to suddenly jerk my head to look at him.
What?
"It's Halloween this weekend," He added. "We can invite you all to stay the weekend. That cool with you Parker?"
I didn't mind. I just didn't know where they would all stay. "Sure. But where are we going to sleep?"
"Aaron isn't going to be here this weekend, so Jackson can stay in our room."
"Where's Aaron going?" I asked curiously.
Pierce gave me one of those smiles your best friend gives you when they're talking about your crush. "He's got some business to take care of—"
"Who's Aaron?" Jackson asked.
"My brother." Pierce answered.
"Wait," Kellie stared me down. Her hands were up like she was pausing our conversation. "You have a second roommate?"
I never mentioned Aaron to my friends because he never seemed like something to talk about. But now I realized it's been almost two months and I had never even dropped his name with Kellie. Maybe I have said the name 'Aaron' but she probably thought it was a friend or someone from Michigan.
"When were you going to tell us this?" Kellie asked, somewhat hurt.
"Parker wants my brother all to herself," Pierce interjected just as I was about to say something. "So she's keeping him a secret."
Kellie started squealing and Jackson gave me a smile and nod. I started stammering that it's not what they were thinking, but that didn't work. I punched Pierce in the arm but that didn't stop his laughing either.
"Nice to know you have game Parker," Jackson said in a low laugh.
"I obviously need to stalk this guy on social media now," Kellie pulled out her phone and suddenly started asking me questions I wasn't even sure how to answer.
Of course, I ignored them all. Pierce just kept wiggling his eyebrows at me and bumping me with his shoulder like it was the most casual thing ever. After giving them a few seconds to verbally harass me, I glanced at Pierce.
"So Halloween party at our place?" I asked.
"If that's cool with you two," Pierce pointed between Jackson and Kellie.
"Sounds good," Jackson said. "Count me in. Plus, I really want to see what it's like to ride in your car."
Kellie confirmed too. She said she might have to be the lame one out of the group and bring some homework for the weekend, but it would be ok because I was planning on finishing some work at the beach anyways. I asked Pierce if I could invite Victoria as well. We had gotten really close working at the hair salon. A few days ago she invited me to go to a play with her but I had to turn it down because I had school. Hanging out with her outside of work though is fun. She's like this giant Latina ball of energy.
"So," Kellie urged after I thought we had moved past this conversation. "What's how old is he?"
**************************
Aaron turned twenty-two this year.
Pierce and I are both nineteen going on twenty, which means we had no way to get alcohol unless Aaron bought it for us. To clarify, I didn't ask for alcohol to appear at this "party." If anything, it's just my friends and I getting together to have a good time. But Pierce requested a few beers—even though he admitted to being more of a wine-kinda-guy. That's how I found out Aaron was twenty-two.
I didn't care much about the alcohol. One of my fondest memories was when my brothers—when they were all in high school—invited some friends over to our house when my parents were gone for a real estate local award ceremony. The guys all drank a few beers in our garage while watching Freddy Krueger. Even though I was young at the time, I managed to hide behind a few boxes during the beginning of the movie. My eldest brother discovered me and let me finish the movie with all the guys. I didn't drink any alcohol, it still turned out to be a pretty epic night. Especially because my brothers and I ended up sleeping on the same bed, afraid that Freddy Krueger would come after us.
Kellie, Jackson, Pierce, and I had already spent the whole day at the pool after classes were released. A few parties were going on at campus because it's Halloween, but Kellie and Jackson agreed they'd rather spend the 'holiday' at our apartment. When I was fumbling to unlock the door, Aaron ended up opening it. He had a bowl of candy in his arm like he was waiting for all the youngsters to appear. A little boy in a superhero costume was right behind us, and Aaron gave him candy.
Seeing Aaron—a big tough looking guy with his leather bomber jacket on—would have looked funny as he gave away candy to little kids. Instead, he looked calm—and somewhat adorable. When the door closed behind him, we had all already stepped into the apartment. He raised an eyebrow at Kellie and Jackson, who just stared at him like he was a mutant.
Instead of greeting himself, Aaron just pointed at the beers and bottles of wine he got for Pierce and said he would be in his room packing for his trip. Kellie pulled me to the side afterwards.
"Is he depressed?" Kellie asked somewhat worried.
"What?" I asked as I handed her a towel so she could go and shower. She and I were in my room while the boys took showers. Jackson in my bathroom and Pierce in his.
"He just looks so..." Kellie's eyebrows furrowed like he was trying to find the right wording. "Sad."
"He looks like that every day." I answered honestly.
"He's really hot." Kellie added completely forgetting her prior comment. "I mean...better than the guys at our school, hot."
I pushed out a smile, feeling a little tug at my stomach and heart. At least I wasn't the only one that acknowledged the fact that Aaron is attractive. I think what hurts the most is knowing he lives a few feet away from me and he still feels this compulsive need to ignore me. It's just rude. I've even tried making small talk with him, yet he only seems to stare me down.
I guess after keeping eye contact with him so long, you find yourself drowning so deep you just have to look away to breathe air.
"He does not seem like your type," Kellie caught my attention. She had been jabbering like always but I managed to pull out of my own thoughts to hear hers.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah," She let out a small laugh. "I pictured you with a total nerd."
I rolled my eyes and we headed into the living room waiting for the boys to finish their showers. When they were done, Kellie and I took turns using mine. Kellie was too uncomfortable going into the boys bathroom and there was no way I was going back into Aaron's room.
By the time Victoria arrived, the kids on our floor were at fun swing. All of us would take turns to greet them and hand them candy. A few hours after dark, it toned down a bit so we simply put the bowl of candy outside, knowing that the next child to arrive would get the whole thing.
"I think we should play a game," Victoria said taking a swing of her beer. She was sitting on one of the cushions on the floor along with everyone else. The only person on the couch was Pierce. Oddly enough, he was the most controlled person here. He—so far—has only taken about one glass of wine. Whereas I myself, was feeling a bit buzzed.
"I say shots," Jackson agreed taking the last sip of his beer before placing the empty bottle down like it was an accomplishment.
I laughed. For the last couple hours we've been sitting around in a circle, drinking and laughing over stupid things that I was probably not going to remember in the morning. Jackson made us play the first game: Thunderstruck, which ended up having all of us on the floor. Except Pierce, he just liked to watch and laugh at our stupidity.
"Shots," We started chanting to Pierce. "Shots, shots, shots."
Pierce rolled his eyes. He got up, causing a loud cheer to go through all of us. I still had enough common sense in me to know that we couldn't yell. A lot of people were already sleeping. But I was pretty sure there was a louder party happening upstairs because I wasn't sure where certain music was coming from.
Pierce brought up some shot glasses. He took a seat with us after we pressured him to play the game as well. He said he'd take a few shots but not a lot. In his other hand was a bottle of whiskey that he placed in the middle of the circle we created.
"You know what I think," I hiccupped.
"What?" Pierce asked at the verge of laughing.
"I think it's about time you loosen up."
Pierce raised an eyebrow at me, he slung his arm around my shoulder. "It's so great to see you having fun Parker."
I shoved him away giggling. "Don't be a hippo-crate. Have fun."
"Yes ma'am." He saluted me and handed out he shot glasses.
We rotated between games. Not always taking shots or we'd all have died. Before we were all drinking, I made sure to take everyone's phone and give them to Pierce. He hid them in some drawer in the house, which I could probably find, but I didn't feel it was necessary to. Everyone complained when I first suggested the idea. Then I told them about drunk tweeting and they all handed them over quickly. Victoria also handed me her car keys. Last thing I wanted her to do was drive home after here.
There are certain parts of the night that stick out over others. Like when Pierce decided to play music and Jackson ended up twerking on the couch. I'm pretty sure Pierce got his phone to videotape it, but I'm not a hundred percent certain. We ended up playing truth or dare. Something ended up happening with Kellie and whipped cream, but my mind wasn't focusing enough to see it.
Then during truth or dare, Pierce dared Jackson to kiss the girl he thought was prettiest. I could see the hesitation in his eyes. Except, he wasn't sober which meant he wasn't thinking at all. His eyes were trained on Pierce which made Pierce very uncomfortable so he started leaning back. Jackson was sitting between Kellie and Victoria. I knew he wasn't going to lean towards me, I actually started leaning back along with Pierce which caused Pierce to laugh.
Jackson—instead of kissing Kellie—turned and kissed Victoria. I'm sure he was completely wasted at this point, but I still remember Pierce and I's first reaction. I had gasped loudly and placed my hand on my mouth. Pierce raised his eyebrows in shock. He had planned out the question perfectly but ended up whispering, "Well that wasn't what was supposed to happen..."
Instead of watching Jackson kiss Victoria, I looked towards Kellie. She was laughing like it didn't matter. But even in her drunk eyes I could see the disappointment and betrayal. When Jackson and Victoria finished kissing they both started to giggle. Kellie quickly changed the game.
The sad thing about playing Never-Have-I-Ever is that I really haven't done much. We started with stupid and easy questions. The guys would say something stupid like, "Never have I ever had a period" or "Never have I ever grown my hair past five inches." And the girls would say something like "Never had I ever stood up to use the bathroom." But then we got into the more 'scandalous' things.
"Never have I ever shoplifted." Victoria and Kellie both took a shot.
"Never have I ever used a fake ID." Everyone but Kellie and I took a shot.
Halfway through the game, I could feel Aaron staring at me. When I turned around, he was situated in on one of the living room chairs. He sat backwards on the chair, a suitcase at his feet. His hands were crossed under his chin as he watched all of us play. Looking into his eyes sent a chill down my spine that I know alcohol couldn't do. It was liking feeling sober for a brief second. Just a taint of common sense entered my system before washing away.
"Aaron join us," Pierce said when he noticed his brother.
"I have to leave soon," He said in his usual dense tone. "You all keep playing."
Everyone was too out of it to try and push him to join as well. Pierce finally toned down on his drinking. He said that when he started feeling the buzz he would stop, which he did. Now he just took 'invisible' shots with us so he could stay in the game.
"Never have I ever had sex," Kellie admitted.
We all started to laugh, taking a shot glass. I hesitated for a moment because everyone seemed to be looking at me. The moment I threw my head back with some whiskey, everyone suddenly seemed to be interested in my life.
"You're not a virgin?" Kellie asked me with wide—almost hysterical eyes. "You of all people I would have thought."
"My girl Parker has so much more game than I would have expected," Pierce laughed. "No way!"
"But you're a virgin?" Victoria asked Kellie. Victoria was smiling and being herself. I know she didn't mean harm but Kellie looked like she wanted to chop her head off every time she looked in her direction. "Man I wish I still was."
"New game," Pierce said taking the bottle of whiskey and putting it behind him. "I want to hear what Parker has to say about this matter."
"That's not a game," I laughed for absolutely no reason. No one said anything so I added, "There's no matter to the subject. I dated someone for two years. We were high school sweet hearts. It ended, I'm fine. I'm also nineteen, can't expect me to be pure my whole life."
"Amen chica," Victoria said.
Jackson laid back on the floor, his hands on his face like he was contemplating something. "Sex is so great," He finally said. A few minutes later he started snoring. Pierce and I took the opportunity to draw a mustache on his face.
When I looked behind me, Aaron still had his eyes trained on me. His head was tilted again. The more I tried to read him the more my head started to hurt, so I stared back. His eyes didn't shift but I could hint a bit of anger behind them. He also looked more tense. I wanted to think I saw jealously in his eyes, but that didn't seem like one of Aaron's traits.
When he got a text he got up, grabbing his small carry-on suitcase. "Get some sleep," He told me in a low voice. I couldn't believe he was talking to me again. My body wasn't processing the information right. I wanted to say something but nothing would come out. "Pierce will show you the hangover remedy tomorrow."
As he opened the door to head out I finally managed to say, "Bye Aaron."
He turned around, giving me one more look, and even a half smile. "Bye Birdie."
He closed the door. I didn't hear from him the next two weeks.
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
It was a short chapter, that I felt was needed. But I hope you're still enjoying the story :) If so, please vote. Still aiming for that 200. It'd mean so much!! Please please please. Also, commentary is like...the best thing ever. Don't hesitate to comment :P
Just random feedback, how do y'all feel about me putting the songs at the top? I'm trying to choose songs that sort of go with the chapter. Yes? No?
Vote
Comment
Share
Thanks