TBS Imagines

Whats Best? (Part 2)💜

A/n: Okay so ClaraS2000 made a SUPER good point that changed my mind immediately about not writing this second part. It's a little darker and I'm probably gonna get cyclical because I know what it's like to live with domestic abuse but I feel the need to properly represent the important message of the video so here fucking goes. Love you all :)

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Have you ever looked back on a memory that seeemd so normal, and random details pop out to you that... aren't normal? It sets you on edge. You sit in bed and stare at the wall and your mind reels as you just sit there and can't help but wonder if there was something right in front of your face that you were missing.

Really, it started when Aaron and I officially started dating. Hannah moved out, leaving him the apartment. Weirdly enough, though, Aaron seemed to never want to go home. The longer we dated, the more I started how happy and at ease he was with me. How much he laughed and smiled. How his body melted, each muscle at ease. He closed his eyes, smiling softly. No worries. Slowly, though. It wasn't until he got better that I realized there was anything wrong. Because, though he was at peace and in total bliss while with me and his friends, any time he got around Hannah...

Honestly I didn't know know what it was. The way his smile faded around her. The way he seemed to age. How his shoulders sagged and he couldn't seem to sit properly straight. How emotionally dead and numb he seemed. It brought to the surface little things I hadn't given a second thought. One morning I was late and I couldn't find my shoes. Aaron was sitting on the bed and I'd rushed into the room in a panic, asking frantically if he knew where my shoes were. He'd jumped, eyes shooting wide and finding me in a panic before he took in my face and calmed. Another time, when I'd gotten a good score on a game and went to get a high five - only for him to flinch, blinking hard before he laughed it off and high fived me. One night when his tossing and turning had woken me. He'd been drenched in sweat and wouldn't stop mumbling about how sorry he was to have woken me. For the bothering me. I'd taken me ten minutes to calm him down and get a brief explanation about how he'd had a nightmare and felt bad since I had work tomorrow. It was nothing, he'd promise. Go back to bed, he'd soothed.

Although I stood by the idea that Aaron always came to me with everything - especially while he and Hannah were together - I was becoming steadily more and more convinced that... no. He hadn't. He was hiding something.

Shit really hit the fan when Aaron met my parents. Everything had been going great. My parents were warm and friendly and all the good stuff they always were. Then my dad asked how work was going. Aaron had told them about his job earlier and they had approved. It was a stable thing, what he did. Reasonable. It could support him. It was a "real" job. When I admitted that I'd had two different jobs as a waitress in two different places - a diner, which made him frown... but also a bar, which made him flare - that's when everything just rolled down hill at break neck speed.

He'd started tearing into me vciciously. Sneering about how that's why I smelled so weird. How one never really got the smell of whore out of their skin. He went on and on and on about how Aaron could do better than a skank like me and my mom laughed heartily at all his jabs. I deflated into my chair, wearing a smile even though the words stung. This was nothing new. If dealt with this and worse as a child. My parents were firm believers in playful teasing and discipline. They were good parents. Tough love had made me the person I was today and I could say I didn't turn out too badly either.

During the drive home as I was listening to music and tuning out all the self hate thoughts that always tried to swallow me whole every time I went over there, I couldn't help but notice that Aaron looked extremely tense and upset. This concerned me and my stupid snowflake emotions and my over sensitive weaknesses didn't matter. I took his hand but that didn't even effect him. I frowned. "Aaron? Are you okay?"