Teenage Troubles (Prequel for Teenage Baby)

Chapter 26 | Aaron

Chapter 26 | Aaron

David woke up hungover, draped like a dead man on the couch. Groaning, he pulled himself upright until his feet met the carpeted floor, spine aligning with the backrest.

He blindly tapped his phone, and when the screen lit, he squinted at it, trying to discern the time. Nine-thirty in the morning. He frowned.

As soon as he stood, his vision clashed with the door and it was then that everything that'd happened the night before flooded his brain. He'd been drunk. He'd fought with Aaron

Aaron. Where was he?

"Aaron?" David called as he stood and hurried to Aaron's room. First knock was useless, second just as much. He barged in but found the room empty. The first quiver caught his heart.

He ran back to the front door and held the knob. It was locked. He remembered kicking Aaron out and he'd locked the door behind. So he couldn't have entered again. He'd been outside all night on his own.

"Shit." David fumbled with the keys and unlocked the door then stepped outside. "Aaron?" he shouted into the brisk air, bounding down the stair-steps of his porch. He glanced around him like he was lost himself more than like he'd lost his son. "Aaron! Come, you can come in now."

No answer. "Aaron," David repeated, this time gruff voice tinged with annoyed warning. "Where the hell are you? Cut this bullshit and come."

He walked around the house, even stepped past the gates and meandered a little down the road, shouting Aaron's name. But nothing.

David tried to pretend his chest didn't constrict. He entered the house again and marched straight into Aaron's bedroom. Maybe he'd just gone to Erika's house? Maybe he hadn't wanted to sleep outside so he'd gone to her—

Aaron's phone was on his bed, untouched. Surely he wouldn't go there without it. David's heart dropped as he reached forward and picked the phone, only to find the lock-screen drenched with notifications

Ten missed calls and thirty texts, all from Erika. Most of them just asking: Aaron? Hey. Still sleeping? Come on you sleepyhead, we said we're gonna...

David cursed under his breath and quickly spun around and opened Aaron's closet. All his clothes were still there. Had he decided to run away just like that? Had it been too much for him, that he couldn't even wait till morning so he'd collect his belongings?

The panic caught with him now, lungs straining like they'd been sliced and the air was seeping out the wrong place. He plopped down on the edge of Aaron's bed, facing his worn wooden desk, spine hunched forwards. He stared at the books scattered along the surface.

It took him a minute to bring himself to reach out and pick one. He opened it and leafed through the pages. Philosophy? It dealt with death and the desire to live, the mechanics of wanting or refusing to love and be loved.

David frowned as he closed the book. "The hell do you read about?" he mumbled to himself. He stood and shoved the rest of the books roughly aside: all astronomic.

He exhaled shakily then walked to the foyer. He grabbed the keys. He didn't know where Aaron was but he needed to find him on his own. Police involvement meant doom. He couldn't.

He climbed into the car and started the engine, for a second just staring at the windshield. He might've been mistaken, probably so, but there was a part of him that couldn't tolerate losing his only son.

David drove through the entire neighborhood. He exited the car at times only so he'd go through the corners, hoping he'd find Aaron there. He drove to the town nearby and mapped every inch of it, leaving nowhere he'd assume Aaron would head to as refuge.