Love Hate

Ch. 9

He sighed, "Someone is home. Damn it. Stay here."

With that, he got up and went to the front door.

The door opened and I heard a male voice greet Aaron, "Hey little bro!"

I didn't know he had an older brother.

"What are you doing here?"

The guy laughed, "What, you don't wanna see me? I just thought I'd stop by."

"Well, you did... bye!"

I looked around, maybe I could hop out of a window or something.

I didn't want him to pass up time with his brother because of me.

"Are you hiding something, little man? Or... someone?!"

I heard a grunt and then suddenly there was a guy coming around the corner, smiling.

Aaron came around a second later and sighed.

The guy looked a lot like Aaron. He was tall with slightly messy brown hair, but he was paler and had dark blue eyes. He was still very handsome. He also had a very contagious smile. I didn't know him at all but something about him just made me happy.

I wondered if Aaron was the same way when you got close to him. I really wanted to test that theory... hopefully I would be able to.

"Hiya," the guy said.

I smiled politely, "Hi."

He looked from me to Aaron, who gave him a face before he looked back at me.

After he got over his... shock... he walked over and sat on the couch beside me, the side that Aaron wasn't sitting.

I repositioned myself to face him.

"I'm Alex, Aaron's older brother."

He held out his hand and I shook it, "Nice to meet you, I'm Theo."

Aaron sat back down beside me with a sigh.

Alex looked into my eyes for a little bit before finally talking again, "I'm glad I can finally meet the boy with two different colored eyes."

I looked at him confused, "What?"

He looked back at Aaron and smirked.

I looked back in time to catch him glaring at his brother. I gave him a confused look, but he just shook his head.

I turned back to Alex when he started talking again, "It's an adorable story, really. One day when Aaron was little, he came home from kindergarten freaking out over an adorable boy with two different colored eyes! I knew right then that little boy was in love. I always wondered what happened to you but when Aaron told me the other day about the kiss-"

"I think it's time for you to leave, Alex! Didn't you have that... thing?"

I turned to look at Aaron, a huge smile forming on my face when I saw how red his ears were.

"Yeah, that's right!" Alex said.

I looked back at him, "No, what were you saying?"

He sighed and looked at his bare wrist like he had a watch on, "It's getting late, I should go. Nice meeting you though, Theo!"

And as quickly as he came, he left.

After Aaron practically forced him out of the house, he came back and sat on the couch again beside me.

His ears were still very red, and he looked embarrassed, but he was trying to play it off.

"I think that guy is on drugs or something... I don't even have a brother..."

I scooted closer to him and held his hand, "Did that really happen?"

He avoided my eyes, "Uh... allegedly... I don't even remember it."

I smiled, "Well wanna know what I remember?"

He slowly turned his head to look at me.

"I also liked you. The thing is though... I never stopped liking you."

"Um... well..." he stopped and cleared his throat awkwardly.

I laughed, "You don't have to say anything else about it if you don't want to. It's okay."

He shook his head, "No... I do. Um... Alex said he was sure other kids must have found out I liked you and they teased me... and I decided to pretend to hate you. Somewhere along the line I forgot and thought it was actually hatred. That was... um..." he cleared his throat, "that idiot's theory."

I smiled wider, "Seriously?

"Shut up... we don't know that's what actually happened."

"Come on, you don't have any memories about liking me when we were kids?"

"Of course not. Do you?"

I smiled, "Not specifically, it was a long time ago. But I know I have liked you since then. I always wondered how I fell in love with a bully... but maybe that's why."

His ears turned red again, "Whatever. I think you're just a masochist."

I laughed, "In kindergarten?"

He rolled his eyes, "No, now. As a kid you wouldn't have known any better."

"But I should now?" I asked with a smile.

He rolled his eyes again, "Shut up. Do you wanna watch a movie?"

I was caught a little off guard by that, but I still smiled anyway, "Sure!"

"Don't go getting any ideas," he said, grabbing the tv remote, "I only suggested it so you will stop hassling me."

I laughed, "Whatever you say."

I knew that was probably mostly the reason... but I still thought it was a little romantic.

He scrolled through Netflix for a while and eventually chose a random movie, I didn't pay much attention to it though. I spent the first thirty minutes slowly inching closer to him until we were sitting hip to hip.

He was stiff as a board though, which actually made me laugh.

"What are you doing?" He asked as I laid my head on his shoulder.

I looked up at him, "Come on... try to be sweet. Try."

He sighed and seemed to debate for a bit until he finally wrapped his arm around me and lightly rested his hand on my waist.

I was in freaking heaven. My heart was pounding out of my chest.

It took a while for us to get fully comfortable though. At first, it was a little awkward and tense. It was like cuddling a robot. But after a bit, he relaxed, and he pulled me closer to him, so we were like actually cuddling!

I felt so warm, and I looked up and saw a small smile on his face — when he noticed me looking, he wiped it off, but his ears were still bright red. That told me all I needed to know.