Exotic

~ a side of caution ~

Aaron was back on Wednesday. I spotted him the second he pulled into the parking lot, but he'd deliberately arrived just as the bell began calling us to class, so I didn't have the time to ambush him. I tapped my foot all through my first two periods, irritating everyone within earshot, and dashed straight out the door when the bell sounded for lunch.

I camped out at his locker until I caught a glimpse of his hunched figure, weaving through the hallway crowd. I leaned back against the adjacent door, waiting for him to spot me.

His reaction when he did was underwhelming. He gave me a half-hearted smile and brushed me aside to get into his locker. There was a picture of us on the inside of the door from years ago, arms slung around each other on a grassy hill at an all-ages music festival. I was bright red from a sunburn I vividly remembered, to that day. I also looked a lot healthier. Less hollowed out, maybe even a bit chubby. Aaron was also shorter than me. We'd come a long way since the photo had been snapped, and seeing it made me yearn to fall back in time to middle school; acne and insufferable hormones be damned.

I'd lost a lot over the years, mum, weight, my voice, my security. I was determined not to lose the one thing that had kept me together, hand in hand with Sephora.

I held out a folder to him, and he took it tentatively as if it might bite.

"... thanks?"

"Notes. Biology and Maths," I told him. He flicked through them silently. "Mid-year exams are coming up. I wouldn't want you falling behind."

His eyebrows lifted as he reached the end of them. "These are... illegible."

"You should see my copy," I countered, and leaned over the folder. "I drew diagrams for you."

He sighed, audibly exasperated, but not unhappy. It was a very Aaron sound. "Thank you."

The silence between us lasted longer than any uncomfortable silence ever had. I shrunk against the locker, unsure how to break the new tension between us. Brushing off the longest argument – could we even call it that, considering? – we'd ever had with jokes felt wrong, but I didn't know how to open up a conversation which teetered so close to the truth.

"Do you want to ditch school?" I blurted out.

He raised an eyebrow. While that statement might have worked on his brother, Aaron didn't ditch school, ever; he considered it the equivalent of cutting off your own legs to spite the system. I'd tempted him all through the year before when I was wagging more than I was showing up, but he'd never taken the bait.

"Don't you have a session with Alba today?"

I nodded slowly, internally smacking myself for forgetting. "I think it's... more important to talk to you right now."

His locker door slammed, making me jump almost out of my skin.

"I think you should see her," he snapped.

Jesus. That was new. Apparently, Aaron had been taken over by the spirit of Lauren Proust.

He turned to leave, but I refused to let our argument linger any longer than necessary. "Just let me apologise."

He paused, glancing back over his shoulder. "You didn't do anything to me that needs apologising for. You're projecting the apologies you need to make onto me because I'm obviously going to forgive you."

Ouch. Another needle straight through the heart, making my chest deflate pathetically. "Look, I know what you think is going on between Lauren and me, but it's not what it looks like. I'm not that guy, Aaron, I wouldn't do that to her."