losing grip (Aaron!)

[Lily Cameron]

"What about mom?" The last question went unanswered as Lily stood and watched her oldest sibling leave. She had followed him around the house for the past half hour, pounding him with questions to try and get him to stay. Where will you go? What about graduation? What about Hannah? We need a man in this house, Derek, what are we supposed to do without you? She was desperate and her voice showed it. But what was she supposed to do?

The family had been falling apart for the past three months. It all started when their mother had kicked her dad out and started drinking. NEsse got tired of it, and moved in with her dad. Then, a couple of weeks ago, even their mom went missing. And now that Derek was leaving, there were literally no adults left. But he was eighteen, as Derek had reminded Lily. He had a right to go.

Lily sat down on the couch after Derek slammed the front door behind him, staring at the television but not turning it on. "And then there were four," she muttered. This house used to be full of people. Jam-packed, actually, especially when they had both their families and the Del Rossi's here. Lily liked it when it was that way. She missed Marco and Ben. But mostly, she just missed her dad.

Dad. Did Sean even know what his family had been reduced to? Lily bit her lip before pulling out her cell phone and dialing his number. And when it went directly to voicemail, she felt tears brimming her eyes. "Dad? It-it's Lily. I-we-you need to come home. Please, dad? Just come home. Please" she paused before ending the call without saying anything else.

A noise from upstairs caused her head to jerk up. It was probably just Rory playing. Lily didn't pay too much attention to her sister. How was she supposed to take care of a little kid? She was just a kid herself. A very lonely, scared kid who wanted nothing more than to go crawl into her parents' bed. The problem, though---her parents weren't there.

The liquor cabinet caught her eye. All at once, Lily had it opened as she clasped her hands around one of the bottles of Brandy her mother kept there. At first, she thought about taking a drink, but couldn't bring herself to do it. After her watching her mother drink steadily for three months, Lily had grown a hatred for it.

"This is all your fault!" she hissed to the bottle before throwing it across the room. She watched as it connected with the wall and broke, leaving a nice, big stain on it as the glass fell. Lily swallowed and threw another one. It was a nice outlet, she thought. Better than stripping. She didn't know why she let Deana convince her that it would help her escape from reality.

She didn't even realize that she wasn't alone. It wasn't until she had thrown two more that she heard a voice and looked up.

[Aaron Nash]

The family was a mess. Aaron couldn't dispute it as much as he wanted to with other people, but it was a complete wreck. Honestly, he didn't know how to fix it, unless he went out and found Sean himself and demanded that he come back. He wasn't sure the man even knew what was happening here. Aaron had never held any ill-will towards Sean. He wasn't his dad, but he had treated him fairly and as far as step parents were concerned, he was a good one to him. Of course, cheating on his mom pissed him off, but she kicked him out and took a downward spiral that even Aaron had been missing for quite a while. He was trying to fix it lately though. At least with Rory; he was trying to add stability back somehow. It wasn't like he was the best parental figure out there. He wasn't a parent at all. But, someone needed to take care of her and make sure that she wasn't roaming alone or not eating or generally feeling like no one was there to rely on. He wanted to help all of them, frankly. And he wanted to get Ellie back home again. Which, that was on his to-do list. It just happened to be a long to-do list. He was upstairs in his room when he suddenly heard the crashing.

Not hesitating, Aaron sprang up and darted downstairs, only to find Lily chucking bottles at the wall. In awe, he stared at her for a moment before he spoke up. "Lily!" He exclaimed and went over to the liquor cabinet and shut it. "What the hell?" He asked, pretty sure that this house had become pure anarchy. Honestly, he didn't know what to do about it. He guessed he could understand the anger. Or at least, he thought that he could. These past few months had been such a blur for him. Aaron always had so much going on and there was a big part of him that felt guilt over that. He could have helped a lot sooner if he had just noticed what was going on. Instead, he was in a house that felt like it was in pieces and chaos and he was going to do his best to try to build it back to what it was supposed to be. He was taking a lot on, probably more than anyone expected. But he wasn't going to let his family hit the ground completely.

[Lily Cameron]

Her eyes looked at Aaron. She was on the verge of sobbing, and she didn't want to. Instead, she handed him a bottle "try it. Just throw it across the room. There's nobody here to tell you not to. There's nobody here that can possibly care" she swallowed and threw another one, before folding her arms and facing him. "He's gone. Derek packed his bags and left. Because apparently, that's the only thing this family knows how to do."

Lily had been a wreck when their mother was going through chemo. This, this was worse. Ellie had been gone for two weeks now. For all Lily knew, she was dead somewhere. Every time she heard about one of those murders on the news, she watched in terror, waiting for the victim's name to be released, praying that it wasn't her. But how could she explain that to anyone? She was Lily Cameron. She was supposed to be the one with no fears. The daring one who could do anything. The one who had hidden Mrs. Stone's car on the football field as soon as she had her permit. But lately, she hadn't been her old care-free who gives a damn self. She hadn't even talked to Faith, and she was her best friend.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" she asked him. While Aaron was physically there, he was always in school. He didn't even seem to notice anything that went on. She didn't even know why she bothered telling him that Derek left. Honestly, Lily partially blamed Aaron for their mother having disappeared. Him and Derek both. They were the ones with the licenses, why didn't they ever try and find her? Lily had made some MISSING posters, but she wasn't able to do a whole lot because she couldn't drive. All she wanted was her family back. But apparently, she was the only one who wanted it.

[Aaron Nash]

"I'm not going to throw bottles, knock it off!" He cared. And if anyone had been here, they would have cared too. He noticed they weren't, but it wasn't his fault, really. And he was trying to fix things, but it was a little difficult to know where to start. One step at a time, really. When she mentioned Derek, he shrugged. Okay, so it pissed him off a little that he would just leave. "Screw him." Aaron decided, because that was the solution to a problem like that. He couldn't stop Derek, especially not if he was long gone now. And he wasn't one of the parents, hence he was less worried about him. He was eighteen. If he wanted to leave, then he guessed he had that right.

Aaron shook his head when she asked if he should be in class. "No, I've dropped a lot of classes." He admitted. He really wasn't even in the high school for a fully day. He wasn't sure if the school just hadn't noticed how much free time he had or that he had dropped out of college courses, but he had and he didn't regret it right now. "So, I'm around now." With that, though, he walked off to the kitchen, but only momentarily. He was back in the room seconds later with a garbage bag and headed over to the wall that she had been throwing bottles against. He didn't even bother to tell her to do it, because he figured she wouldn't, not after doing that. So, he crouched down and started to pick up the pieces of glass from the broken bottles. It was pretty disgusting, honestly, because while he had no trouble with alcohol usually, there was nothing fun about it being all over the damn place and having to pick up glass that had been soaked in it. Really, it was the last thing that he wanted to do. But he wasn't going to just leave it there either.

[Lily Cameron]

I'm around now.

Lily could have punched her brother when he said that. She watched him go into the kitchen and scoffed. "Jackass" she whispered, but then he came back, and she looked at him like he was crazy. Really? Of all things that he should have been doing, he wanted to clean. She watched him for a second before kicking the coffee table, knocking everything off of it.

"Damn it, Aaron!" she yelled, looking at him. "Did it really take you this long to realize that mom had a problem, or did you just not care before? Because she's been swimming in liquor since Christmas and you haven't been around. And now, what are you gonna do, huh? You're the one with the license here! You're the one who's supposed to protect your younger siblings. Mom is gone, did you get that memo? Because you're not doing a damned thing about it!" It felt good to yell at someone who could do something. If only she could yell at her dad the same way. To do that, though, she'd have to find him.

[Aaron Nash]

Aaron stopped what he was doing when he heard the crash of everything on the coffee table hitting the floor. At that, he stood up and turned to her again. "Could you try to stop destroying the house for half of a second?" He asked, frustrated, because, what was he supposed to do? Sure, he had a license, but he hadn't known it was this bad and he didn't know where to look yet. Aaron had been busy. He had a life that barely revolved around being home--or at least, he had. When Mom had been diagnosed with cancer, Aaron had buried himself in school. He joined every single club imaginable in college, made sure to have a full course load with college and of course he still had to go half-day to high school and every other time, he was studying or staying with Lindsey and doing anything he could to pretend that his life was great. Because, of course it scared him and he didn't know how to deal with it. Then, when Sean was kicked out, Aaron really had stopped paying attention. The family drama went above and beyond what he wanted see and it might have seemed bad in hindsight, but how was he supposed to know it would get that bad?

"Don't! It's not about whether or not I cared. I had things going on, I wasn't here, so no, to answer your stupid question it did take me that long." He shook his head at her. "What am I supposed to do? I'm doing whatever I can. I don't know what driving around town is going to do." He wanted to protect his younger siblings and he was attempting that with Aurora, because she was youngest and most in need. But, he right now, he couldn't just make the heads of the household reappear.

[Lily Cameron]

Lily shook her head. "You don't get it," she insisted. And really, she didn't think he did get it. He got to ignore everyone. Maybe she should do the same thing. Lily knew that the spring fling week was coming up, and that there was a slumber party at the school. Maybe she should pack up and go. Just run away. It wasn't like there was anything to run from. Everyone else had moved on. The person she saw the most of was the maid. "Would you rather have me destroying my arms?" she hissed, Breaking things in the house never hurt anybody. It was when he said driving around town wouldn't do good that she scoffed and walked closer, grabbing his arm.

"You could find her before the Sniper does! You really don't know what's been going on, do you?" she let go of his arm and turned around, snapping the bands that rested around her wrist. She wanted her dad. And she wanted Kevin. "Tell me something," she told him, looking up, her voice now getting shaky. "How do we know she's not dead? Get yourself a newspaper, Aaron. Or look it up, for the last couple of months. A dead body shows up chopped up every few days. How do you know that when the paper comes out tomorrow, it won't be her?" A tear dared to force its way down her cheek. Wiping it quickly, she answered the question for him. "Oh, that's right. You don't. So don't you dare say that looking for her wouldn't do any good. Even if it means driving all over town. You do what it takes, Aaron. At least, you're supposed to. You and Derek both. I swear, if we end up at the morgue because someone needs us to id her body, I will never forgive you." Her voice had a quiver to it, but she meant every word. He needed to do something