Spring in September (Short Story)

Chapter Two

"Remember the bet we made? How if I ever met someone I couldn't get to smile by being near them I had to confess to my crush?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

Aaron sat up and looked back at the school and saw Sydney in the window of the second floor looking down at her desk. "I think it's time."

"Dude are you serious?! I've been waiting for this since forever!" Nick exclaimed. "lets go see her then i think i know where alisa is right now." he stood up and grabbed Aarons arm and pulls him to his feet.

"Actually i dont like her anymore Nick"  

Nick looks at Aaron confused and the looks around at the girls sitting at tables closer to the school. "but if you dont like alisa anymore then who do you like?" 

"Not sure" Aaron laughs and walks back to school as the bell rings.

Nick follows him back to class, "but you have to tell her you like her"

Sydney looks up at at Aaron and Nick as they walk into class, Aaron looked at her and smiled but she just turned away and continued to write in her notebook. Aaron goes over to Sydney and leans over her desk to see what shes writing but she covers it with her arms before he can look.

"What are you writing?" Aaron looks up at Sydney as she glares at him.

"Mind your own business. I already said we aren't friends."

Aaron sits at the desk next to Sydney's and rests his head on his hand as nick goes to his normal seat and watches Aaron and Sydney as other students enter the classroom.

"But what are you writing?"

"I said that's none of your business! Just leave me alone!"

Students who are sat at their seats turn to look at Sydney as she yelled at Aaron, Sydney gets up and packs her bag then storms out of the classroom.

The teacher walks in and class begins "alright class, take out your books and open to chapter five, today we will be talking about-" Aaron zones out and stares out the window all hour, as the bell rings and students start to leave the room Nick walks over to his desk.

"Ya know Aaron," Aaron looks up at nick "if you want to make friends with that girl maybe you should respect her personal space." Nick turns to the window and watches the clouds go by in the blue sky outside.

"But Nick-"

Nick turns to Aaron quickly "no Aaron listen, she's obviously had a traumatic experience in her past like you, so go easy on her alright? She won't recover from it as fast as you did." Nick left the room and shut the door behind him leaving Aaron with his thoughts.

"What does that mean?" Aaron stares blankly at the door before turning to look out the window where a sparrow sat alone on a tree branch. Then another sparrow Flew up to the lonely one and they both flew away. "I think I get it now"

Aaron gets up and leaves the school and goes back to his house. "Hey Aaron, how was school?" His dad asked him as he walked inside the house.

"It was okay I guess, where's mom?" Aaron puts his backpack down on a chair and looks over to his dad who's sitting at the kitchen table reading the daily newspaper

"She had a meeting today" he doesn't look up from the newspaper.

"Hey dad? Can I ask you something?" .

"Yeah, of course you can." He still doesn't look up from the newspaper and takes a sip of his coffee.

Aaron sits down across from Carlos "how do I make friends with a girl?"

Carlos lowers his paper and looks at Aaron, "Aaron let me tell you something. Don't tell your mother this but," Carlos leans in close to Aaron and whispers "women are nothing but trouble, if you can help it then stay far away from them."

Aaron looks at Carlos in disbelief "but what about mom? Don't you love her?" Aaron pulls his phone out of his pocket secretly and hits record.

"Of course I love her, but sometimes she just drives me insane. That's why you just gotta avoid women as long as possible."

"But what if I really like the girl? And really want to be her friend?"

"If you like this girl that much then ask her out, if she rejects you then you know to stay away, they'll only cause you trouble anyway" Carlos starts reading the news paper again.

"Thanks dad..." Aaron gets up and begins to walk away, he was about to stop the recording when-

"Oh Aaron wait. There's something I've been meaning to tell you." Aaron turns around and looks back at his dad. "I don't want you to freak out but I've been thinking of getting a divorce."

"Wh- what? But you just said you loved mom?" Aarons eyes widen in shock.

Carlos walks over to Aaron and hugs him. "Aaron I know this is hard to understand but hear me out your mother and I have been drifting apart since we met."

"Does she know?"

Carlos puts his hand on Aarons shoulder "please keep this secret from her until I can find the words to tell her."

Aaron backs away from Carlos "right... I need some time to think... Just.. uh.. yeah-" he grabs his backpack and goes upstairs to his room closes the door and leans against it.

He pulls out his phone and opens his music playlist, plugs in his headphones and curls up in a ball and starts crying.

Aaron can keep a smile and make others smile when he's around others, but when he's alone he can't help but let it all come back to him, all the pain of feeling alone and unwanted. Abandoned at birth he only ever wanted  a real family.

"Alright! That's enough moping around, this homework won't do itself." Aaron unplugs his headphones and leaves his phone on the floor then goes to sit at his desk.

Sydney walked in her house and slammed the door shut behind her, Lucy poked her head out from around the corner to see who was there "hey Sydney what are you doing home so early?"

"I heard it was going to rain" Sydney mumbled, "I didn't want to get caught in it"

"Or are you still afraid of it? It's ok to talk about it you know" Lucy handed her a cup of hot chocolate and led her to the living room.

"Thanks but I don't need to talk about it, I'll be fine. I promise." Sydney puts the cup down on the table and goes to her room.

"Remember I'm always here for you if you need someone to talk to" Lucy watches Sydney leave and goes to the kitchen to start cooking dinner.

Sydney looked out the window in her room and saw Aaron in the window across the street "of course he lives across the street from me." She saw Aaron enter his room and start crying, he sat up against his door for a while then got up smiling as tears still fall from his dark green eyes. "He's not always happy, and even when he isn't he still smiles. Aaron you have a secret side of you don't you?"

Sydney keeps watching Aaron through the window until Lucy called her down for dinner. "Hey Lucy?" Lucy looked up at Sydney as they ate.

"Yeah Sydney? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to say sorry for the way I treated you before. I'm really grateful to have you" Sydney put the hood on her sweater down and smiled.

"Sydney, it's alright" Lucy goes over to Sydney and hugs her, running her fingers through Sydney's long black hair. "You have nothing to apologize for" Sydney hugged her back and let tears fall from her eyes.

Tune in next week for the next chapter of Spring in September.

And please like this week's episode and follow the story so you don't miss what happens next!