A Womanizer Extraordinaire

18. I Love You

(Back to Tasmin's P.O.V)

After Leo's intimate dance with the cold hard facts of my situation, I expected him to be on my case even more than before, trying to crack the shell that he'd already created some dents in. You can imagine my surprise when, the day after our cupboard situation, Leo left me alone. I hardly saw him at all - I saw him once in the corridors, us going different directions. And he still didn't look at me. It's as if he'd totally forgotten I existed, and it perplexed me no end.

But it made me happy. It was for the best, and when Leo stepped away, it was as if the final missing piece of the jigsaw was slotted into Aaron and I's relationship. With no other males to give my attention to, Aaron returned to his true state. Loving boyfriend. Every moment I spent with him over the next days, weeks, months left a sweet taste in my mouth, like tasting one of your favourite childhood sweets for the first time in years. My life was finally back on track, but it was better than it had ever been before. Romance added another depth to my existence which I revelled in.

It was mid-February when my dad announced that my big brother would be visiting, and I didn't expect anything abnormal to occur because of it. My brother, Zach, was twenty-nine and had moved out a number of years ago. He now lived a few hours drive away, so I was excited to hear I'd be seeing him again.

I practically leaped out of my chair in the sitting room when I heard his car pulling up in the driveway, diving to the front door and pulling it open with a little too much force. Zach quickly hopped out of the car and the two of us ran into each other, colliding into a hug. It'd been years since I'd seen him, and even though the two of us hated each other when he still lived here and when I was a kid, it was still too long for us to spend time away from each other.

From the doorway I heard my mother give a motherly, "Aw, that's so sweet." When Zach and I parted, we both rolled our eyes at her, then laughed at how similar we were. Our similarities meant we clashed though, so this happy reuniting of brother and sister wasn't going to last long.

"Hey Mum, Dad," Zach greeted, hugging them both tightly before going back to grab his bags and head into the house. Zach and I both had our mother's dark brown eyes, but Zach looked strikingly similar to our mum where I didn't, having inherited her sandy-blonde hair and heart-shaped face. Zach and I hardly looked similar, nobody ever guessed we were brother and sister.

As soon as we got inside, my mother took no time to launch into a barrage of questions. "Zach, are you settling down with anyone yet? I remember you were seeing that Lily girl, are you two still dating? When are we going to meet her? You understand we need to meet any girls before you get engaged to them. What about children? But you need to make sure you can work your children and a job together, how's your job going? Did you get that promotion you were hoping for?"

Zach took the questions in his stride, continuing to grab a can of soda out the fridge and walking straight past her into the sitting room, where he plopped onto one of the chairs to sit staring into space while he sipped his drink. As I walked past him to sit down, he commented, "Someone's grown." Last time he'd seen me I'd been a five foot two thirteen year old, and now I was almost as tall as him.

"Wanna walk around town later?" I asked.

Zach took a long sip, still staring at the wall directly in front of him. "Sure." He finally turned to look at me, taking in my appearance. "You've changed so much. Lil' sister's grown up." He feigned a sniff. "Kids these days grow up so fast." he whispered reminiscently. I snorted a laugh, at which he grinned, showing his dimples. He placed his can on the table before getting up with objectiveness. "Right, let's go."

***

"...and when she said she 'wasn't good enough for me', I just knew right then she was bullshitting." Zach explained, in the middle of talking about where his now ex-girlfriend Lily had gone. "To be honest I wasn't even that surprised when I heard she had started dating one of my friends. Did I tell you they're now engaged? Getting married in August. They even invited me to the wedding.

My reply never left my mouth as I spotted one of my favorite people out of the corner of my eye. "Hey, that's my boyfriend!" I told Zach, pointing over at where Aaron was, outside a shop with one of his little brothers.

"Great, so everyone's in a relationship but me?" He muttered bitterly. I gave him a playful but disapproving hit on the arm before rushing over to Aaron, getting there so quick that he didn't even look at me before I threw my arms around his shoulders.

Before he could look at me, I placed my hands over his eyes. "Guess who?!" I chirped, joyed to see him.

"I don't know but she sure as hell has really soft hands..." Aaron replied, his lips turning up in a happy smile as he caught his tongue between his teeth. "Hey gorgeous."

"Aaron you're gross," muttered his little brother, Tyler, as he stuck his tongue out before heading into the shop on his own. Before the automatic doors had finished closing behind him, Aaron and I were kissing, our relationship being at the stage of constantly missing each other when one wasn't around.

After spending a considerable amount of time lip locking, we pulled away. "I gotta go find Tyler," Aaron said. "My dad would kill me if I let him roam about a shop alone."

I smiled in return. "Okay," I flicked his nose before giving him another quick peck on the lips. "I'll text you tonight, yeah?"

"You better," he joked, giving me another peck. "Can you come over tonight?"

"Probably. Bye!" I said before heading back to Zach.

When I got back, Zach immediately asked, "Isn't that Aaron? You're dating Aaron?" I nodded my head. "Why is he glaring at me then?" I looked up at Zach, to see him looking past me in Aaron's direction. I turned around in time to see Aaron swiftly turning around and heading into the shop his brother was in. "He looked like he wanted to kill me, does he always look like that?"

***

When I arrived on Aaron's doorstep, I didn't even have to knock for Aaron to yank the door open. His eyes looked uncharacteristically pathological, and he didn't greet me with the normal smile but grabbed my shoulder and pulled me across the threshold of his house.

"Who was that guy?" he immediately demanded in a low voice; I could hear the TV on in the living room next to us, and see at least his big sister in there.

I frowned. "Who? Zach?"

Aaron's eyebrow raised questioningly, and I could see a fire in his eyes that I hadn't seen in a long time; it still didn't fail to strike fear in my heart. "Zach? Whoring around again, are we?" he whispered in an ominous, menacing tone. It immediately made me shrink back.

"No, he--" I was cut off from explaining to Aaron.

"I don't want to hear it!" He whisper-yelled. "Get upstairs, now." I could almost sense what was coming. My feet stayed frozen to the spot in fear, but were quickly allowed to move when Aaron gave a harsh shove on my shoulder. I almost fell over as I began climbing the stairs to Aaron's room.

The sound of Aaron's bedroom door slamming closed behind us was quickly followed by Aaron spinning around and pushing me to the wall by my throat. I gagged at the sudden loss of air. The pressure he was exerting on my neck hurt and I scrunched my eyes up. "I thought I'd sorted out this problem," he uttered, seething. "I thought I'd taught you better." In a moment Aaron had released my neck, allowing me to choke down air, but was cutting it off again as he winded me with a brutal punch.

I mewled in discomfort, feeling yet again powerless to the situation at hand. I thought I'd sorted out this problem too, but even having cut Leo out, I still wasn't good enough. "Aaron please!" I begged in a rasp, only just audible. "I love you!"

Aaron froze, the fire calming. After a moment of shock, "Prove it." he said.

I was so relieved to have found a way to stop him hurting me. Maybe this was the beginning of a new era of our relationship. "How?" I asked.

His jaw hardened pensively, before he commanded, "Get on the bed."

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A/N: Aaron is legit trash. Welp. Tasmin will have to figure this one out. Happy reading ^~^