youth, aaron taylor johnson

xlvi. phonecall

incoming call from fionn!
✧∘ଂ ࿐ ཾ

"hey, you headed back?"

fionn's voice overtook the silence of the empty dark petrol station parking lot, and máire tried to steady her breath as she responded, rubbing her eye with her free hand.

"yeah, i just stopped
for some petrol."

fionn frowned at the off sound of her voice, narrowing his eyebrows and shifting his tone — he didn't sound upset, per say, but concerned

"are you alright?"

máire bit down her lip, trying to rack her mind to find a way to quickly gain her composure, but she could hear fionn shuffling on the other end of the phone and sighed, almost in defeat. one of her arms lifted and then fell dramatically in exasperation.

"christ, fionn—
he's going 5000
miles away."

her voice faltered. knowing it was going to happen hadn't made it any easier. she'd underestimated how much it would upset her. she was afraid of where they stood — the undefined love they'd placed in one another by trust alone. it felt fragile; she didn't know what distance was capable of doing.

it was fionn's turn to sigh. as much as he'd been trying to accept that máire was her own adult and avoid the situation, he could hardly do that anymore.

"what happened
on your birthday?"

máire was briefly shocked at his directness. she shook her head as she tried to wrap around what he was getting at, how much he had pieced together.

"what are you —"

he cut her off his time, gently but firm enough to confirm her suspicions of what he had figured out.

"máire, nip it in the ass, will
you? it's been over a week
and a half, you've both
been acting strange since."

máire sighed, leaning up against the cold door of fionn's car she had borrowed to drop aaron off at the airport. she wrapped her free arm around her waist tightly, as if protecting herself.

"i told him
i loved him."

fionn was silent for just long enough to scare her. he swallowed harshly, the instincts he had as her older brother starting to simmer like a tea kettle gearing up to whistle.

"and he, what? if
he upset you again
máire i swear to god
i'll fucking — "

she scrambled to cut him off, to explain, to defend aaron against whatever worse case scenarios she knew fionn was coming up with in his mind

"no! fionn, no. he said it first.
there's just, there's nothing
else i can do right now because
of course we didn't want to have
to figure it out before he— but
well now he's on a plane to go
fucking los angeles and i just,
i'm gonna miss him, alright?"

the muffled pop sound of the petrol nozzle went off to let her know that it had stopped. she ignored it, instead waiting as her brother softened again.

"you'll never make
it easy on yourself,
will you?"

there was a hint of a melancholy huff of amusement from the older boy. he should've known, he couldn't expect anything else from máire and aaron. they always made it much more complicated than it had to be.