Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 18.

Aaron's POV:-

It was so freaking hot in the lecture hall, that I couldn't sit still. It was probably a billion degrees outside, and thank the Lord that the air conditioning was working today, but it was still pretty damn hot at the back of the class where I was sat besides Dash.

We always took these seats, especially on the day of exams and tests. It was the perfect place for Dash to copy everything off of my paper, and the teachers who didn't give a shit anyway, couldn't see us.

It was already September. Time flew so fast, and we were ending our first semester at college.
The exam had turned out to be a piece of cake. I hadn't prepared so much for it, but I still found it pretty easy. I think Dash knew more than half the answers too, but he was still rechecking every answer from my paper, just to be sure. And he was damn slow at it too. He sure was taking his sweet time, while I was fidgeting in my seat.

I kept glaring at him, hoping he would get the hint and hurry the hell up. But he was ignoring me perfectly, pretending as if he didn't even see me.

Finally, after an hour and fifteen minutes of watching Dash chew on the end of his pencil, I was out, and I was free. Finally, the most bullshit filled semester was behind me.

Dash seemed to be in a good mood as well, and we decided to head out to eat. It was a necessity. We always ate together before going home.

"You sure you aced it, right? Because my grade depends on you", Dash asked, typing away on his phone as he got in to my car.
"Yes. And you could've hurried up, I was dying in there", I told him, driving out of the parking lot.
"Well, I wanted to be sure. Hey, can we ask Hailey along?", He asked me, although there was no need to. He probably had texted her before even asking me anyway.
"Sure, why not", I replied.

The burger place that we always went to was so crowded today, that there wasn't even space to stand. I was a bit disappointed, because I was really looking forward to a burger, and even though we hurried after picking Hailey up, we still couldn't make it before the lunch hour. Damn it.

So instead, Dash suggested that we skip the burgers, and go for pizza instead. Because,
1: it's always good to change your eating habits once in a while, according to him,
And
2: we wouldn't get to eat anything at all if we kept waiting for burgers anyway.
And because I was tired and drowning in my disappointment, I didn't argue with him anymore.

We ended up ordering and sharing a gigantic pizza, with Dash and I eating the larger share of it, because Hailey was on some crazy diet.
I don't know what was the point of that diet though, because she ate all of the cheese sticks anyway.
We ended up spending more than two hours there, long after we had finished eating. It felt good to just sit and do nothing for once in my life.
I would still have to work over the semester break holidays, but today I didn't have anything to do, so I just wanted to enjoy that, and listen to Dash and Hailey bicker about random things.

I didn't even realise that I wasn't listening to them, until Hailey smacked me on the forehead.
"What?", I said, glaring at her.
"Oh great, he speaks!", She said, a bit dramatically.
"Dude, we were uh, talking about you-know-who", Dash said, with a large amount of hesitation in his voice.

Wow, I can't believe they were calling her "you-know-who" now. Well, it was still better than not referring to her at all, I suppose.

"Don't need to talk about that", I stated, glaring at both of them.
"Yes you do! Atleast we can talk about it now, unlike you. You can't keep ignoring it Aaron", Hailey said, her voice loud and fierce.
"Yes I can", I replied back. I hated having these conversations with them. For God's sake, why did we need to discuss this.
"What are you going to do anyway? Sure, we don't know what happened, but can't we try to find her?", She really wasn't giving up.
"Why should we? She fucking left us", That sounded lame, even to me, but it was true.
"Stop making excuses, Aaron. Don't pretend like you don't give a shit", She spat back at me, and I decided not to reply.
If I kept ignoring her, maybe she would drop it.
"Never missed her birthday before, did you? What're you going to do this time?", Dash said, and it sounded like a challenge.
Great, they were now trying to provoke me into doing something.
"I'm not doing anything", I rolled my eyes, "stop trying to provoke me".

They didn't say anything after that. I knew they hadn't given up on it, but atleast they stopped talking about it for now, and let me go home.

I hated arguing with them. I knew they were right, but I was too stubborn enough to admit it. And I tried not to think about her, because when I did, it just made me angry. I was angry, I was beyond mad at her for doing this. I was glad that she left, but I hated her for leaving me, for leaving us.

And the problem was that I thought about it all the damn time. My head was filled with unrealistic thoughts, and I was worried. I was always worried. I wondered where she was, what she was doing, who she was with. I had spent all my life knowing exactly everything about her, and now she was gone. And it uneasy, and absolutely devastating not knowing anything now. I felt completely helpless.

When I did get home, the lights were all on. And that was weird, it meant a special occasion, or the presence of a guest. Who even visited at a time like this? It was almost midnight.
I parked my car on the side of the road and locked it after getting out. The front door of the house wasn't locked, and I made my way in.
"What's going on?-", I asked to no one in particular, while making my way to the living room.
And I was greeted with the biggest shock of the year.
There, on our worn-out green couch, seated squished between both of my parents, was my brother.
My brother, who was supposed to be in Canada, living with my aunt.
My stupid, fucking, nightmare of a brother.

"Hey, little brother", He smirked at me, while I stood there with my mouth open.
"Harry", I said, clearing my throat, "what are you doing here?".
"Aaron! Don't be rude!", Mom exclaimed, glaring at me, and then turning to look at him, "your brother's getting married!".
I couldn't help it when my mouth fell open again. He's getting married? Harry, the two-timing, crazy asshole, is getting hitched?
"To whom?", I asked, I was curious enough.
"To your cousin, well one of them", Dad replied.
Great, so he hooked up with the people he was living with. That's rich. And yet, not surprising at all.

It was already September, and everything was happening at the same time. And the whole series of bad events kept happening, there wasn't a stop to it apparently. And now my brother was getting married. So much for my vacations.