Grown ish: Zoey and Aaron's Story (BOOK 1)

Part 5: This is a Mess

Zoey narrates.

Just as I shout Aaron's name, I feel the pain in my hand. Shit. I just cut my hand on the glass I was picking up.

'Zoey!' Aaron grabs me and pulls me up, holding my injured hand.

'Yo, Vivek? Can you get this cleaned up before someone else gets hurt?' He says, as he leads me to the kitchen.

I can't be too drunk, as I can sense what's happening. I'm alone with Aaron in the kitchen, as he sits me down and grabs a first aid kit. He starts treating my hand, and bandaging it up.

'Are you okay?' He asks.

'Yeah, I'm fine.' I say, avoiding eye contact.

'Zoey look at me.'

I look up at Aaron. I can see the concern in his face.

'I mean, are you okay, like with everything else?'
He asks.

Usually, I would do my best to avoid a confrontation like this. But I don't know if it's the situation that just happened, or the fired up alcohol in my body, but I can't help but go off on him.

'No Aaron. How the hell do you expect me to be okay? You literally told me that you had feelings for me. Then you told me you don't trust me and that we can't be together. Then you said, quote, if two people are meant to be together, eventually they'll find their way back. Like what the does that even mean, all of which was said after we slept together last week, which you never even admitted didn't mean anything to you, because I sure as hell know what it meant to me.' I say, angrily.

Aaron looks shocked.

'You slept with someone else?'

To my surprise, I turn to see Rochelle standing in the kitchen, from a distance that indicates to me that she would have heard everything I just said. I stand up and quickly move my hand away, only just realising that Aaron was still holding it.

'Rochelle, it's not like that...' says Aaron.

And then I hear murmuring conversation, though not for long, as the stress overcomes me, and I fall to the ground.

_____

I wake up with a pounding headache, and realise I'm in my bedroom, lying down. As I sit up, I'm assisted by Nomi, and can see Luca pacing around the room.

'You good, chief?' He asks, coming to sit with us.

I clutch my head.

'Yeah, I'm fine...What happened?'

'You fainted.' Replies Nomi.

'Probably the shock.' She says.

Suddenly, I remember what happened with Aaron and Rochelle.

'Oh my god. I totally messed up. Is Rochelle really mad?' I ask.

Luca nods.

'I mean...yeah what do you expect?' He says.

'But...It's not your problem. Aaron should have told her when it happened. You didn't know about her then. It's not your fault.' Luca says.

It's true. If I'd known at the time, that Aaron was involved with someone else, I never would have done what I did.

'I feel awful. I ruined the twins' birthday as well.' I sigh.

'Everyone is fine. Jazz and Sky still had a great time. After Aaron carried you up here and stayed with you, the party continued and everything was fine.' Nomi smiles.

'Wait, Aaron stayed with me?' I ask, surprised.

'Yeah, he only left like 10 minutes ago. Said he needed to sort something out.' Says Luca.

I smile to myself. He took care of me, like he always does. My smile fades. Ugh. I'm never going to get over Aaron. It's like one step forward, two steps back. This is a mess.

_____

A few days pass, and understandably I haven't heard from Aaron. I kind of did just jeopardise his relationship. Oh god, I hope he isn't thinking I did it on purpose? All these thoughts keep running through my head, as I get ready for my math class. Shit, the only one with Aaron in it.

After getting ready, and having a quick catch up with the girls, we head to campus. As I walk to the door of my class, late as usual, I'm nervous to see the only available seat is next to Aaron. I decide I won't speak to him unless he speaks to me first.

I take a seat, and hang my backpack on my chair. He doesn't say anything to me, or even look in my direction. This is going to be a painfully long class.

The professor hands out a pile of papers, and simultaneously I go to hand Aaron one, whilst he turns to hand me one, and our eyes meet. He looks normal. Not angry or sad. It's confusing really. Finally, he speaks.

'Hey.' He says.

'Hey. How are you?' I respond.

'I'm okay. How about you?' He asks.

'I'm good.' I smile, to make it less awkward.

'Thanks for taking care of me the other night. You didn't have to. And, really, I just want to apologise for what happened. I didn't mean for Rochelle to find out, I didn't even know she was there...' He cuts me off.

'It's cool, Zoey. I should have told her myself. We broke things off. To be honest, we were never official, it wasn't anything special to either of us. She was trying to get over an ex.' He says, looking down.

Part of me is upset that Aaron was being used, but another part of me was secretly happy that Aaron was single, before I then realised again, that Aaron said we couldn't be together right now. That he didn't trust me.

'I'm sorry.' I say.

'It's cool. Anyways, I think we should talk properly. Can I come over to chill later?' He asks.

I smile. This feels oddly familiar. Like how Aaron and I used to hang out as friends. It sparks a little bit of hope in me, that maybe Aaron and I can still work, as friends.

I smile at him.

'Sure. See you at 7?'

_____