Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 8.

Aaron's POV:

I hated this time of the year. I hated everything about it, the heat of this month, the busy days, and all of the stupid books that lined my desk.
I hated being forced to study 24/7. Why couldn't anyone understand how much I hated it?

It wasn't the exams really, it was the isolation that creeped me out.
I didn't enjoy sitting in my room all day long, staring at the books infront of me.
It was absolute torture.
And to make it worse, my dad had pulled me out of the lameass job he made me go to everyday, so that I could have more time to study.

I hadn't seen anyone since a week.
I had seen Dash once though, when I went out to have a smoke with some friends from the neighbourhood, and we had talked for a total of ten minutes probably, before he ran off back home.
I hadn't heard from Hailey at all.
She didn't even reply to the messages anyone of us sent, she was weird that way. She had her phone always in her hand, but never enough money in it to reply to a text.
And Sam, well I was glad in a way that I hadn't been able to see her. It had been absolutely horrible the last time we talked. And she did message me a few days ago, stating that she was busy in packing and studying.
Of course she was. She was the nerdiest of us all, and I would be shocked if she didn't memorize every paragraph of every book she owned.
That packing part though, that freaked me out, even though I would never admit it to anyone.
A part of me was happy, happy for her. And happy for her family. I knew she was excited, so it would be very hypocritical of me not to be happy for her.
But I wasn't sure how I felt about her leaving this place.
Where she was moving to was far away from this part of town, and she didn't belong there, I didn't belong there.
Kids who wore nothing but designer jeans, and kids who wore perfume more expensive than my car belonged there. Not people like Sam and I.
It wasn't bad, that place. It was beautiful and safe and everything I would ever want, but it wasn't home, it didn't feel right.
I could never say that to Sam though. She'd do crazy, and probably hate me forever.

I was starting to scare myself, for a while now. I was actually genuinely worried sick about Sam, and I kept wondering how all our lives were changing so fast.
I even had constant dreams of all these shitty things, every single night.
I wanted to talk to Dax about it, talk to anyone really, but I knew what he would say, what anyone would say.
And that I didn't want to hear.
Maybe I was in denial, maybe I wasn't, I didn't care. That wasn't important, there was nothing to be done about that anyway.
I didn't want things to change. Life would be so damn hard and fucked up without these three.

But there was nothing I could do about things changing, nothing at all.
We had all applied at different colleges. Dax and I, we applied to a few of those local community colleges, shitty places, but I was a shitty person anyway so it made sense.
I didn't know where Hailey applied, seeing as she was ignoring us.
And Sam had applied to every single place, and we all knew she would get in all of them. Lucky girl.
So, separation was inevitable.
And I was learning how to get used to that.

A week after that, we had exams, finally. And it's safe to say that I think I might actually pass this time. I wasn't aiming for an A, so I would be glad to pass.
On the bright side, we all got to meet everyday.
Everyday I would wait by the main gate of the building and wait for them to arrive one by one, and then I would try and not punch Dax's face when he would try to tease me because I might have walked Sam to her examination hall a few times.
No matters how much I owed that guy, he really was asking for a fight sometimes. It was beyond embarrassing for me, especially infront of the girls. God knows what they even thought about this.

I thought these days would pass quickly and everything will be over, but it didn't happen that way.
What actually happened was that, one fateful day, we all decided to catch up after the paper at our old hangout place. And miraculously, Dax also decided to go home early, obviously taking Hailey along with him, and leaving me to humiliate myself infront of Sam again.
So after that, Sam also decided to tell me about the glorious details of her new house.
We were walking home, and she was going on and on about the new kitchen her Mom was busy decorating and some shit. It was pissing me off, to be honest. I would've been happy to get some time with her after so many days, but I wasn't. Why the hell would anyone want to decorate a kitchen?
I was ignoring her. I wasn't listening to anything and was just pretending to do so, until she punched my arm so bad that it actually hurt.
"What the hell", I muttered, and glared at her.
"What the hell to you too, jerk", She was mad. Okay. That was new.
"What the hell is right! Because I'm talking here, so much and all you do is keep staring off at the street and ignore me. What have I done this time?", She yelled, ready to punch me again.
"I don't care about your dumb kitchen Sam", That came out much ruder than I would've thought, but oh well.
"You don't care about anything", She said, and then stomped off to her house.

I should have apologised or something, but I really didn't feel like it.
It was true, I couldn't make it any better.
What was I supposed to say? No, Sam, I care about you?
Yeah, that would've been classy.
Classy enough to ruin everything and everyone, not the best move.

It was better this way. Even though we didn't talk after this. Even though she probably hated my guts for being an asshole. Even though she was moving away next week and I wouldn't get to see her after that.
But...as my wise mind said, it was better this way.