you're gonna come back (Aaron)

[Deleted]

Six months. Six long months. Six months away from crowded streets. Six months away from streetlights, from big buildings, from public transportation. Six months spent with tiny children, feeding them, building schools, and teaching them. And now she was back. Mary flew in two nights ago, and so far all she had done was sleep. Her father was in the mental hospital, and she understood the seriousness of it all. But, jet lag had hit her.

Mary visited the hospital until they held a group therapy session. She kissed her daddy on the cheek and left, getting on the bus. Her next stop was the one place she had really missed while she was gone--the mall. In six months, she hadn't seen a single mall. So, she rode the bus and got off, going inside with a beaming smile.

She was taking her time, moseying around. She didn't even have alot of money. what she did, though, is stop in the food court. She had ordered a funnel cake and sat down, taking a bite out of her favorite treat (which, she hadn't tasted in six months). Letting out a moan of delight, Mary was content to sit there and just enjoy her food, until she heard her name being called.

[Aaron Nash]

"Talking?" Aaron laughed, insincere laughter into his cell phone. "Babe, I think that's called bitching. Whiny, loud bitching and in my ear. Knock it off." A string of comments came yelling in at him from the other side of the phone. He didn't even blink, just rolled his eyes. She wouldn't shut the hell up! And after calling him a range of colourful names, some of which he thought he should pencil down and return the favour later, she paused, and he bounced back in. "You done yet? 'Cause I swear I could find better use—" He was cut off and groaned. "God, you're a slut. Shut up." She didn't, of course. Aaron had had a semi-long day. He finished his last day at the University, dropping his classes, to be frank. It was getting to be too much and he'd started to miss high school quite a bit. In a year and a half, he could go for real and high school would be happily ended. But, he missed having time. Aaron had always been the busy type. He needed something to occupy his time with, but this year, it got worse and he barely had time to sleep. And he was missing having a life outside of school, extra activities, and his whore of a girlfriend that really needed to stop talking. Maybe he should buy a muzzle. There was a pet store nearby... He shook his head. "Hm? No, your voice was putting me to sleep. Again, please?" He asked sarcastically and smirked when he heard her huff. "Friday? Yeah, I'll be there. Don't catch any STDs while you're waiting." And it riled her up all over again. She started it to begin with. "Yeah, fuck you very much too. Bye." He hung up, slipping the phone into his pocket.

Anyone that was close to Aaron, probably never heard him cuss often, or speak vulgarly much at all. The occasional comment, sure, but he had a relatively clean speech and he wasn't a mean guy. Naturally, he thought he was a pretty nice guy. When he was around that girl though, it all changed. They were cruel to each other and he didn't even know his capabilities until he met her. Half the things he said, he never knew he could say. He loathed her, and loved her all at the same time. She enraged him and it was a wonder they hadn't physically broke out in a fight before, but they clung to each other, not wanting anyone else as a long-term. But, they had no trouble finding people to sleep with just to make the other one jealous or to piss them off. And it worked. They would scream and yell, call each other names that would make most people break down. Then they'd have sex and problem solved. He never philosophised about his relationship, otherwise he might see its flaws. He'd had plenty of flings over the last year. Sometimes he didn't tell the girls that was what it was, but with Aaron there was only one woman that he gave himself to completely. And that was the bitch he hung up the phone with. Hungry, he stopped looking through shop windows and headed to the food court. He just wanted to relax, have fun for once. As he walked, he noticed a familiar face. He'd been so busy over the last few months that he didn't see a lot of people, except for the ones in his classes or the people that he was obligated to be around. It was Mary. She was a sweet girl. And he liked her. Maybe not enough to seriously date more than a fling, but she was nice. Probably not half as fond of him though. "Mary!" He called out, approaching her table. "Hey." He said as he reached it, a friendly smile on his face.

[Deleted]

Out of everyone who could possibly spot her and approach, it had to be Aaron. God, she had managed to get over him in Africa, or at least she thought. Sure, she had complained to Chance about him, the two had met in the village they were both staying at and she considered him to be a friend, despite the age difference. They had talked about everything. He told her about some girl named Grace, and she admitted to him that the abstinence ring on her finger had to be earned back through a ceremony to cleanse herself and become a virgin again. The reason? Aaron Nash. She had met him at the fair, and had really liked him. She thought there was something special. And when he broke it to her that she was just a fling, she had been heartbroken. Mary never wanted to feel that way again. So, she earned her ring back, and was staying far away from men. Well, other than Chance, that is.

She thought she was over him. But when Aaron approached, with that ridiculously handsome smile on his face, she looked up, stunned. All of the emotions she had felt when he told her the truth came rushing back to her now. "No." She shook her head, standing up. "No, no, no, no. Not today. Not now." Her dad was in the hospital. She was still making sense of everything. She wanted to take in everything slowly. And the last thing she wanted was to see Aaron. Stuffing the rest of her treat in her mouth, she tossed her paper plate and started to walk away. Her mind was on one thing: the escalator.

[Aaron Nash]

He thought that he hit it off well with Mary. They got along, connected and had fun. Of course, he took it farther than friendship. To him, the deeper aspects weren't serious. That was a fling, and he couldn't just let her think it was something else. He wouldn't do that to her. Though, he would let her be the girl he had a fling with. Aaron thought that was better than lying about it. But he hadn't been upfront at first. He didn't think about it. And when he finally broke it to her, he knew that she took it to heart, but he thought she would quickly get over it. I mean, what was a little fling? He wasn't expecting quite that reaction and looked taken aback. No? He frowned and breathed a small sigh as she got up. He didn't let it end there. He didn't like that rift between them. He thought that they could still be friends, even after all of that. So, Aaron followed her. "Mary, wait up." he requested coming along side of her as they walked. "Just talk to me?" Maybe she had every right not to, but Aaron thought there was a little bit of overreacting involved. He still liked her! If that was any consolation; but he felt it probably wasn't.

"It's been months." Aaron had no idea that she had even been gone. He was so wrapped up in his life, and in going from place to place that he didn't hear from a lot of his friends. And since it wasn't all smoothed out between them, he wasn't surprised that they hadn't been talking. And given her reaction to him, it was obvious that he wasn't wrong. He didn't know that his lack of seeing her had to do with her being gone completely. By having been months, he thought that was enough time to settle and to be friends again. Not to mention, he missed hanging out with her. When they'd met, it had been a pretty swift friendship. Even though he likened himself to being a friendly guy and getting along with other people, Aaron didn't always make fast friends. And he liked it when he did. They had a lot to talk about and their sense of humour was sometimes on the same page. But now? It didn't look like any of that mattered. It was just a fling... But he did want to be friends.

[Deleted]

Of course it had been months. "No kidding" she muttered when he made that observation. "Wait. You know, that's the one thing I won't do. I thought about it, you know. I told myself that if I waited around long enough, you would show up with flowers or something. I mean, if a guy sleeps with you, he's gotta love you, right?" she looked down. "But I was kidding myself. And I'm better than that. I don't need to wait for some jerk who used me to cheat on his girlfriend. I lost my brother and my mom. Everything was happening really fast. So I left. I thought I would get over you in six months and I went to Africa. Now I'm wishing that I hadn't come back."

Shaking her head, she started to get on the escalator before turning back to face him again. "What did you think would happen, Aaron? What, did you come back looking for round two? Not gonna happen." She held up her hand that wore the ring. She had never even told him about it before. In fact, she had slipped it off when she realized that they were really hitting it off. She had thought that it would make him think that she was a nerd or something. But now, now that she knew that she was nothing but a fling, she showed him.

[Aaron Nash]

Aaron knew that there were some people that took sex seriously than others. He wasn't the type of guy that cast off sex like it was nothing. It meant something with some people and he didn't think that anyone deserved to be used, but he didn't think he was really using either. As long as they all got something out of it, then it was okay. He didn't like to picture himself as the bad guy (who did?) and because of it, he did his best to come up with all kinds of excuses. As she went on, he caught himself looking down. She made him feel kind of bad, but he thought that he should be defending himself at the same time. What was he supposed to do? Get her flowers now? As an I'm sorry, let's be friends gift? Right now, he thought that might seem even worse, so he cast off that thought. "I was open with you about it, isn't that something?" Okay, so he wasn't open about it until after-the-fact, but he could have led her on further. It would make him an even bigger ass, and so he was glad that he never took it that far. He couldn't have lied forever anyway. After all, he did have a girlfriend and one that wasn't scared to be vocal and that he talked to more often than he did anyone else. "I'm sorry about your family... I wasn't out to hurt you." He explained gently. Had he been the reason she went to Africa? He had people try to avoid him before, but to run to another continent? Was he that big of a jerk? Aaron didn't think so.

"No, I just wanted to be friends—" He didn't seek her out because he was thinking about sleeping with her. Even if he was pretty pissed at his girlfriend and she'd deserve it if he did, he wasn't trying to sleep with her. She was a familiar face and he didn't suspect her to be that upset with him. When she held up her hand, he stared at the ring. "What is that? Like a promise ring?" When he had been with her, he never saw a promise ring and he didn't remember her ever expressing her desire not to have sex until marriage. They got along really well and he thought they were on the same page with sex. Aaron wasn't a virgin, pretty far from it by now. And he'd never thought of waiting. They were into each other, and although he was doing it out of spite of his girlfriend, Aaron did actually like her (on a more platonic basis). And he really didn't want to walk away from this unsettled. At the very least, they should talk about it. He didn't see the point of avoiding each other forever.

[Deleted]

"No, you weren't. Not really. Had you told me beforehand that all you wanted was a one-night stand so that you could upset your girlfriend, I would have told you that I was a Christian and I believed in abstinence. Even if I wasn't entirely sure if I really did. I suppose I should thank you. Being treated like yesterday's trash helped me fortify my faith. I cleansed myself became a virgin and I am never sleeping with another man out of wedlock. " It was hard to be forceful with him. He was absolutely gorgeous. And she had completely fallen for him before and now, she could feel herself doing it all over again. No. She needed to build a wall.

"abstinence ring. And no, I don't want to be friend." She knew that everyone deserved forgiveness. But this time was different. She felt violated, even though she had consented to sleep with him. And it was amazing. But, what followed had left her devastated. "Did you really think I wanted to lose my virginity that way? I thought we had something special. Obviously I'm an idiot. So now I'm going to get on the escalator and shop upstairs. Goodbye, Aaron."

[Aaron Nash]

Aaron frowned, "But it's not like that! I mean, it was, but it wasn't." He made friends with her before he decided to sleep with her. There were times where he'd find the most random girl to sleep with, just to spite the hell out of his girlfriend. That 'look-I-picked-a-random-girl-over-you' game that he played often. She did the same thing to him. At least he kept standards. The day she told him she slept with the biggest geek he'd ever heard of, he thought he was going to find a locker to shove her in. Aaron didn't even shove people in lockers! He wasn't a bully and actually had defended kids from bullies since he was a kid himself. He never had to do much. People didn't screw with him normally and while he was able to defend himself, he never had to prove it. He had been in a couple of fights before, but other than that, he just played the intimidating game and no one screwed with him. Intimidating to those that deserved it and they were usually the clowns that tried to make other kids feel bad or afraid of them. He didn't like bullies and he wasn't going to stoop to their level, but he also wasn't going to listen to them. And Aaron wasn't nerdy! He definitely wasn't someone that a girl should take a nerd over. But she did it! When he slept with Mary, he felt like they were friends beforehand and that there was something there. A friendship, only, but something more than just sex. And it was a one night stand and he knew it would be from the start. But, it could've been worse! He could have not cared at all. "Wait... so you're saying I made you become a permanent virgin? Was it that bad?" He frowned. "You never told me any of that. Not that you believed in that, none of it." And he thought that mattered. If he didn't know, how was he supposed to realize how bad it was going to hurt when he broke the news to her?

"We did have something special! A special... friendship." Aaron argued, not wanting goodbye to end there. He couldn't leave something that unfinished. He didn't want her wandering around hating him because of what occurred. He was starting to feel pretty bad about it, despite how he also kept telling himself that he shouldn't. Aaron thought it would be worse if he had led her on. It was probably bad enough that he he did it to begin with. That was how he worked. It wasn't how he had always worked. He believed in monogamous, no cheating relationships. He wasn't in an open one. And if he loved someone then he wanted to be with only that person. But this relationship was different, because they hurt each other constantly. Sometimes it felt like the entire point of their relationship. He couldn't understand why, but in a way, all of that pain and all of the fighting made him feel closer to her when it was over. It was like they somehow got reliant on ripping each other to pieces. Leaving her never felt like an option and he did think that he loved her, in some strange way. But he wasn't about to explain that to anyone. When someone commented on his relationship, he told them they were over exaggerating and that it wasn't half as bad. He was lying, because he knew it was. But, it wasn't as if it ever escalated to anything physical. Aaron never could bring himself to do that. "C'mon, don't say bye."

[Deleted]

Mary looked at him, listening to him go on about how it was but it wasn't. What was that supposed to mean anyways? He didn't understand it, did he? She had built up all of these romantic ideas and dreams about them, only to have them shattered when she learned that she was the other girl. It was bad enough that she was wrong. But for him to be dating just made her feel disgusting. "You had a special friendship. I thought I had a boyfriend. I thought, wow, someone like you actually liked someone like me. I should have known that I'm not worth anything but to be the little extra something on the side."

Don't say bye? Was he serious? "No. Aaron--" she looked around, realizing that her voice had been raised. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't causing a commotion. "I thought that night was magical. And not just for me, for you too. And all I wanted was for you to want to handle things right, And you didn't. And that tells me everything." Tears filled her eyes as she talked about that night. It was like that episode of Buffy, when she sleeps with Angel and he loses his soul and completely breaks her heart. Mary knew it was a bad comparison, because he wasn't an evil vampire. But it seemed plausible in her mind.