Love Hate

Ch. 5

Theo's Point of View

Walking around the corner, I made eye contact with Aaron. I did my best to keep a straight face — he was with his friends, and I was with mine.

But I would have been lying if I said my face didn't drop a little when he almost immediately turned his head away and walked away. He didn't even mutter a single insult. Didn't glare... didn't even roll his eyes. He just looked away and walked away.

My friends looked between him walking away and me.

There were only a few seconds then before I knew I was in trouble.

"Okay, what the hell was that? He didn't even acknowledge you and you didn't do anything either."

I just shook my head.

"Bro you guys haven't been that civil since before you knew each other. What happened?"

I sighed, "I'm not in the mood to talk about it."

I tried but couldn't keep my emotions hidden.

My voice sounded so tired and sad, and I knew my face was probably showing the same thing.

Luckily, they got the hint and stopped asking questions.

Later, I walked into Mr. Bank's classroom — the class I had been dreading.

Aaron and his posse were already there but I just kept my head low and went to my desk.

The classroom got quiet.

"They didn't yell at each other..."

"They didn't even glare!"

Everyone was whispering.

I was about to just walk out but Mr. Banks came in, "Alright, quiet down everyone!"

The lesson began but I couldn't focus.

Aaron wasn't acting like himself. I was terrified I ruined everything. Even though we just argued, I was still able to see him every day — look him in the eyes.

I just wanted to kiss him so bad... I didn't think he would ignore me. I thought he'd hate me more — which I could have lived with. I could not live with him ignoring me.

**

Aaron's Point of View

Walking to class, I suddenly made eye contact with... him.

He turned the corner right in front of my friends and me. I quickly turned my head towards Jenny, who was talking, so I didn't have to see him. I was lucky I didn't run into anything because I didn't look back ahead of me for a while — not wanting to possibly see him again.

I didn't know how the hell to feel.

It made me angry. Angrier than I had ever been. The nerve he had to... to do that to me.

But at the same time, I felt sick that I let it happen, and I...

Fuck, I felt sick that I fucking kissed him back.

I didn't know why I did it. Or why I... liked it.

Later in class, everyone was whispering — wondering why a certain someone and I weren't at each other's throats like usual.

I tried my best to ignore it and focus on Banks' lesson for once but if I wasn't listening to their whispers, I was thinking about the kiss.

God, the kiss.

It was so rough, so desperate... but damn his lips were soft.

I was so angry at first, desperate to get him off of me and beat the shit out of him.

But I couldn't get away. And his lips felt so nice and tasted so sweet. Like bubblegum. Something in me just took over and I kissed him back, pulling him close to me like he'd suddenly stop and run away.

After the kiss, my lips were sore, and it felt like I hadn't had any air in my lungs in a year.

I wanted to kiss him more. God, I wanted to so badly. But after we pulled away and I looked at him, something snapped back into place, and I realized what happened. I had to leave.

But my lips were still sore and tingling the rest of the night. My heart was beating in my chest like I ran ten miles, and I still couldn't catch my breath.

A throbbing pain suddenly ran throughout my bottom lip.

"Fuck," I swore quietly.

I was fucking biting my lip while I was thinking of... of that. And the fucking bell for the end of class made me jump and bite down hard. God dammit!

I sighed roughly and looked up to see Theo quickly looking away from me.

That made me even angrier.

**

"What's up, little man?"

I sighed, "Read the room."

I was going literally insane and needed to tell someone what happened. There was no way in hell I could have told any of my friends, so I decided to tell my brother. I figured having to go through his teasing couldn't have been worse than keeping the... incident a secret.

He laughed, "Sorry. What's up? Why'd you wanna video call?"

"What I'm about to tell you... you can't tell anyone else. Okay?"

He nodded, "Of course. Is it serious?"

I shrugged, "Not really. No one is hurt or in danger, but something happened, and I'm really confused."

"Want advice or just an ear?"

"Advice."

He nodded, "Alright, tell me what happened."

"There's this person. We hate each other... or at least I thought so. But they..." I paused, not wanting to say it out loud, "The other day they kissed me. And I don't know how I feel."

He nodded, "I get that could be confusing. Just like a peck on the lips?"

I sighed, "Don't make me talk about it..."

He laughed, "How am I supposed to help if I don't have all the information?"

I clenched my eyes closed, "They kissed me once then held me and kissed me more until..."

"You got out of their hold?"

I shook my head.

"You kissed back?"

I slowly opened my eyes and saw my asshole older brother smiling.

"Yes. But after I came to my senses I left."

"And let me guess... you have been avoiding him?"

I nodded.

We were silent for a minute until I realized what he said, "Wait! H-him?"

His smile widened, "You didn't deny it."

I sighed, "Whatever. Fine. Yes. What do I do?"

"Well, who was it that kissed you? Why can't you just ignore him now? Or tell him you don't feel the same way?"

"It's... it's not that simple. Everyone knows we hate each other's guts. They're all already wondering why we haven't been trying to kill each other this week."

"Okay. I have a guess of who it is."

My heart stopped, "What?"

"Was it the kid with heterochromia?"