"Do you own this place?" Was the first thing Sophie asked as she walked into the house.
Her eyes were skimming over every wall and every piece of furniture while she absorbed this place that Aaron called home.
Aaron rolled his eyes in response, considering Sophie really couldn't help herself from making a comment. She was judgmental without realising she was doing it; it just came so naturally. It was a trait she had most definitely picked up from her mum.
"What?" Sophie asked once she had noticed the look on his face.
"You couldn't have just told me it's a nice place to be polite like any other person, could you?" Aaron remarked with a questionable look on his face.
Biting down on her lip to try and prevent the grin that wanted to appear, Sophie soon failed miserably when it snuck through.
"It was just an innocent question!"
"Yeah until I tell you I don't own it and then you give me a look of complete disgrace." Aaron mocked, knowing there was very little she could argue with that, even more so as he could see how desperately she was trying to hide that expression now.
"So you don't own it? You rent?"
"Why does it matter?"
"You're throwing money away by renting. You should own the home or at least intend to." Sophie replied matter of factly, as though the situation was truly that simplistic.
"Thanks, mum. I'll keep that in mind."
Nodding her head, it was obvious Sophie was doing everything she could to keep tight lipped and not say anything else on the matter. She couldn't help herself sometimes, that judgmental nature wasn't always intently done.
"Does your girlfriend live with you too? It's not that badly decorated actually... I don't believe this is all your doing."
Running his hands over his face, Aaron couldn't help but laugh.
"You're doing it again."
"What?!"
"Judging. You can't help but pick at every single thing, can you?"
"I'm not picking! It was just a question."
"She moved in a month or so ago and no, Phoebe actually took full charge of it."
"That's my girl!" Sophie smiled as she continued to make her way into the living room, yet pausing when she took note of the photos placed around the room.
It was such a strange feeling stepping back into everyone's lives in Brighton but Aaron's had to be the one that hit the hardest. She had left Brighton a matter of weeks after their break up and not returned since, so things had still been fresh. Therefore, coming back to see this new life he had set out for himself was strange.
She knew it had been years and she hadn't expected him to be on his own, but she hadn't expected this extreme either. Sophie was incredibly used to guys yearning over her and not moving on so easily. So seeing Aaron with someone else, living under the same roof, was incredibly unsettling.
"Do her kids live here too?" Sophie couldn't help those words from falling from her lips, as she felt her stomach twist into knots.
She felt physically sick and she was mentally slapping herself for it too.
"When they're not with their dad, yeah."
"Did you speak to our kids about this?" Sophie asked with that accusing tone, as though she immediately expected Aaron to have done wrong.
Once again she was finding something to criticise yet it wasn't out of her own pleasure, it was a defensive mechanism to everything she was experiencing inside.
"Yeah and they're fine with it. They all get along well."
This side of Aaron was so composed. He was so different to how he had been at the pub and Sophie hated it.
The version he had been the other night was the Aaron she knew and had once loved. He was fervent, toxic and had no control over his mind and body due to her presence. It was completely unhealthy but it was the dark side that Sophie caused herself, that she had always enjoyed.
This other side of him was much calmer and content, like he had his whole life figured out and nothing phased him. He was so disimpassioned while Sophie still had a fire inside of her; that twisted devil pulling her into unruly, mind playing trouble. She couldn't block it out, no matter how hard she tried. She was just never satisfied.
"I hope that's right." Sophie quipped as she finally turned around to face him.
Letting her gaze meet Aaron's eyes, she was dying to capture that intensity behind them that she was convinced she had seen the other night. She was longing to find proof of passion, that fiery desire and want but she saw nothing. He just looked back at her as though she was a stranger passing on the street.
"We do need to talk about the kids though." Aaron quickly took this chance to direct the conversation in the way he had been needing to.
He had asked her here so they could finally sit down and talk seriously. Getting Sophie on the phone when she was in a whole other country was impossible. Therefore, while he finally had her not only in the same country but in the same town, he was going to take full advantage.
"You want to see Amiya more, yes I know. I'll make sure she gets on that plane every time the others do..." Sophie sighed, drifting off into something slightly off topic from what Aaron had actually been intending to discuss.
Although the Amiya situation was an important one, he had something else that he needed her support on. However, he wasn't quite sure how she was going to take it considering her current attitude towards everything else.
"...she's still practically a baby. She just finds it harder than the others and..."
"That's not what I meant." Aaron stopped Sophie before she could continue. He was trying to stay well clear of lectures and that was definitely on it's way to becoming one.
"What did you mean then?" Sophie asked as she took a seat on the edge of the sofa, with her eyes skimming his face and the length of his body.
Making his own way over to the sofas, Aaron also took a seat, knowing he needed Sophie's opinion but not knowing if she was truly the best person either. She had come back to Brighton with her back up and a clear distaste for being here therefore, she wasn't proving so easy to talk to.
"Right well..." Aaron began and he could see Sophie watching him intently. All of her strong facial features expressed that genuine curiosity as she awaited him to continue. "...me and Georgia are going to try for a baby but I don't know how best to tell the kids and when. This is obviously going to affect us all so I need your input. Should I wait until it actually happens or like ask them now and see what they say?"
Aaron hadn't really been processing Sophie's facial expression change throughout the whole time he was talking. He had just been rambling off, with the concern for the kids in his mind until he finally stopped and realised Sophie hadn't reacted in the slightest.
Instead, she remained in her seat with her eyes on him but her whole face had blanked out. It suddenly appeared as though her body was physically there but her mind wasn't.
Aaron was awaiting on her to give him some kind of answer; one of which he had expected to be critical or judgmental but she said nothing at all.
"Sophie? Are you even listening?"
"Yeah, I was listening." She finally replied, showing there was some life in her however, her voice was quiet and vacant.
It was as though someone had suddenly replaced the opinionated side of Sophie they all knew so well, with this other side that was hidden and lost within herself.
"Okay, and?"
"And what?" She bit,a slight spark of herself coming through that had been impossible to see a moment ago.
"And what do you think? Should I wait or ask them now?" Aaron repeated, finding himself getting agitated at her lack of enthusiasm to help.
They were supposed to be finally using this time to communicate on all of the parental things they had failed to thus far however, she was appearing just as vacant and incapable as she had while in New York.
"Why are you asking me? It's none of my business."
"Because you're their mum. I need a second opinion on what's best for them." Aaron exasperated, realising that being in the same room as Sophie wasn't going to make anything easier.
She wasn't up for cooperating no matter how close or distanced they were.
"You're their dad, you should know what's best for them." Sophie mocked with a tone in her voice that was full of so much hatred and it took Aaron completely by surprise.
He knew things were still slightly bitter between them but he hadn't realised she was still full of that much anger.
"I do know what's best. I was going to wait to make sure it's not a false alarm but I was trying to be decent and make sure you agreed." Aaron bit, trying to compose his own frustration at this point.
"Why does it matter if I agree? It's none of my business." Sophie repeated herself, her voice growing tiresome as a raging argument loomed between them.
"We never usually agree on how to be parents. I was trying to be decent and include you on this before you got your dad to scowl me for making the wrong decision."
There was a clear mocking tone to Aaron's voice as he was trying to make a point in their lack of communication. They failed to do this parenting thing together therefore, when Aaron made decisions on his own, Sophie would use her dad as a messenger to comment on what she saw as incapabilities.
Therefore, he was was trying to do it differently this time and take full advantage of her being here. However, that didn't seem to be going to plan when he still ended up being in the wrong.
"You should fucking know what's best without having to ask me. I'm not going to hold your hand through parenthood. If you're going to be having another baby, you should really start learning to do it without me." Sophie snapped with a stone cold tone to her voice that sent chills through Aaron's body.
Something had truly clicked in her to cause the sudden change. The ice Queen was back and Aaron had managed to spark a hatred in Sophie that highlighted all of her insecurities without him even realising it.
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