“I don’t want to lose you,” Aaron whispered harshly, glad he’d chosen a public place to get this off his chest because it meant he couldn’t raise his voice or get too worked up. “But if I have to anyway, you are not going to push me away now.”
Something seemed to connect between them then. The livewire jumped and sparked, vicious with good intentions but still burning. The sadness in June’s eyes bottomed out. Turned He turned to mirror something of Aaron’s. Maybe less intense. Maybe more. Aaron didn’t know, but there was no way he was going to give up and bow out of their relationship before giving it a real chance.
“Do you want to be with me?”
June grit his teeth. Answered quickly with averted eyes. “No.”
“Bullshit,” Aaron hissed. He refused to believe that. Not when June had invited him to be a part of this summer. Not when June had agreed to go on a date with him. Not when June had kissed him hot and heavy back in that hotel room. And certainly not when he broke down crying because he was so afraid of hurting Aaron, he couldn’t stand it.
June was lying. He’d made mistakes, and he was suffering from them in ways Aaron didn’t understand, but he didn’t not want to be together. He wasn’t that cruel.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the waitress approaching, completely oblivious to their heated discussion. Aaron released June’s wrist and turned to face the menu laid in front of him.
“We’re gonna get through this,” he said just before forcing the scowl off his face.
“Have you boys decided what you’re having?” the lady asked, tapping a pen against the notepad in her hand.
“Give us a minute,” June said curtly. Almost rudely.
“Oh, alright.” She backed off quickly, offended by his tone. It was hard for Aaron to imagine what she must think of them. Two teenagers sitting too close together with no regard for ordering. It wasn’t normal.
None of this was normal.
Aaron turned back to June and sighed. Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. June didn’t handle being told what to do well, and from where he sat, he might genuinely think he was making the best decision. After all, it was typically June who took charge. He had a natural kind of energy about him that made Aaron want to follow.
“June…don’t you think that we met for a reason? I mean, really what are the odds that the both of us show up here at the same time?”
“Oh, no.” June bared his teeth, nose scrunching up between his eyes. His voice grew louder. Loud enough that if people were sitting around them, they would have heard. “Don’t you fucking dare tell me this shit happens for a reason. If shit happens for a reason, then why do I have to die? What reason is there for that?”
Aaron reeled back, swallowing down the bundle of nerves that jumped in his throat at June’s outrage. He was absolutely right. Cancer like this didn’t happen for a reason, but that hadn’t been what Aaron meant at all. His previous thoughts about them being tied together by some red string of fate snapped.
“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “I don’t think that’s for a reason.”
“Then stop lying to yourself about us.” June looked away, temper simmering almost as quickly as it boiled over. “We met on accident.”
“I’m sorry,” Aaron repeated because mostly he didn’t mean to hurt June’s feelings. Partially because he couldn’t believe it. Whether it was his desperate heart longing for a reason or some truth written in the stars, it didn’t change anything. He wanted to believe there was a purpose in their meeting.
“Yeah, me too.” June ran a hand through his hair. Closed his eyes as if trying to keep his real emotions at bay. “I’m sorry any of this ever happened.”
Aaron backpedaled again. Tried to remember some of the things he’d thought he’d wanted to say earlier, but found the words lost on him. His mouth went dry, suddenly. The fear of June slipping away from him rather than reeling him in made his heart hiccup.
“Why can’t you just accept that I want to be with you?”
June shook his head. Leaned over the table and put his face in his hands to stifle a groan. He mumbled something Aaron didn’t quite catch.
“What?” Aaron tugged on the back of June’s arm lightly. “June, look at me.”
“I said, because I’m scared, Aaron.” He pierced him with those blue eyes. They sprung to life with electricity; pulsing hot and blue like a flame. “I’m fucking scared, okay? I-I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I can barely wrap my mind around not being here anymore, let alone having to give you up.”
Relief washed over Aaron like a cold Pacific wave. June was so hard to make sense of sometimes. He’d been hoping June cared about him enough not to want to lose him, but the way it manifested was so aggressive Aaron had trouble seeing through it. Hearing June admit he didn’t want to lose him…that was all the more reason not to give up.
“Come here.” Aaron twisted, picking a knee up onto the bench and turning toward June. He caught June by the opposite elbow and tried to pull him in. “It’s okay…”
June jerked away from him, face turning red with embarrassment. “Stop, we’re not doing this in a fuckin’ IHOP.”
Aaron didn’t stop. He threw his arms around June much harder and crushed his head into his chest. He pushed his nose into his silky black hair and waited. Waited until June stopped fighting him and cussing and gave in to the embrace. It was better than making a scene.
Aaron scratched his nails up and down June’s shoulder lightly, determined not to stick his foot in his mouth again.
“Let me go.” June grunted in defeat.
“Never,” Aaron vowed. He pulled back but held June’s shoulders with both hands tightly. There was so much more he wanted to say. Some things utterly disgusting that would only be found in Harlequin Romances, other things just plain stupid.
“I want to be with you. Please?” Aaron wasn’t ashamed to beg. Not if it worked. He remembered how this whole topic of conversation had started yesterday evening. Wasn’t it June who had been trying to convince him to get over his fear of the dark? Aaron had been so oblivious to the reasons behind the request, but now he realized it stemmed from June’s own experiences.
“Aren’t you gonna help me get over my fear?” Aaron pleaded, hands dropping back into his lap. “I’m gonna need you...”
Finally. Finally. June softened. His jaw went slack, and the tension lifted like early morning fog around them. There was no denying what June had said about wanting to help Aaron through this. Before his breakdown, he’d been willing to continue their relationship so long as he knew he was contributing in some way. Aaron could tell that hadn’t changed. June’s intentions were always good, despite his hasty and sometimes merciless nature.
Besides, June was better with actions than words. Giving him the task of curing Aaron would ignite some level of challenge, and June never backed down from a challenge.
“Fine,” June said. “But I want you to promise me something, okay?”
Aaron was hesitant but nodded anyway.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he demanded. “So, promise me you won’t bring it up at all. I just want to enjoy my last summer…that’s the whole reason why I came here.”
Aaron didn’t like it, but he could do it. If that’s what it took to keep June here longer—to keep them together until they had to part ways—then that was fine. He could keep his questions and his opinions to himself. He’d done that more years of his life than he cared to count anyway.
“Deal.” He slapped a hand down on the menu and slid it toward him. Subject changed. “I’m getting pancakes and eggs.”
From the corner of his eye, he could see a tiny, minuscule frown try and pucker June’s lips.
“That’s what I made the first morning we spent together.”
Aaron would never tell him that had been part the plan all along. He was just happy it worked.
Courting June was a full-time job that required skill and accuracy. There were no guidelines or t
utorials, no way to Google search for the answers, and no way to know if Aaron was even on the right path. He was flying blind through unknown territory and with the added pressure of June’s big reveal hanging over his head, it was all he could do not to crash and burn.
June was being distant. Not so distant he wasn’t willing to curl up next to Aaron in bed at night and share his Mp3 player, but distant enough Aaron had resisted the urge to kiss him in fear of being pushed away. It was very disheartening; knowing their relationship had finally smoothed out after the concert in Ventura but was now another rocky, sheer-cliffside path. It hurt.
Boys weren’t supposed to get their feelings hurt, but Aaron was sensitive, and he knew it. Wasn’t afraid to admit it either. He wanted June to want him just as badly as he did, and without some recognition, it was beginning to feel like a lost cause. Not that June was a lost cause—no, he would never be—but their relationship could be if he didn’t figure out a way to get it back on track soon.
Two days after their talk at IHOP, Aaron made the hasty, split decision to leave the cabin while June was in the shower and couldn’t question him. He snatched his keys, his wallet, and what little dignity he had, then tore out of the driveway, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust and guilt in his tracks.
He hadn’t talked to Arco since the Vans Warped Tour and picking his older cousin’s brain for advice was his only option. Arco might not know the level of depth between him and June at this point, but he tended to have good ideas and painfully obvious solutions. What might be completely and absurdly simple, might be exactly what Aaron was missing. Arco would point it out. He always did.
Aaron didn’t want to drive the entire length down into town again, so he took the road up the hill overlooking the lake and came off it by the docks. Followed the line of cars pulling off and unpacking beside the muddy shores until he found a spot in the gravel lot of the ice cream shop. It was crowded. Too crowded to be making public phone calls of this importance. He hoped there would be a quiet spot inside he could sit and think.
Aaron stared out the window for a moment, noting a group of girls—the same entity covered in glitter and metallic eyeshadow that had caught him here once before—and groaned.
He would have to be stern with them if he wanted to get away unscathed.
It was a mystery how now, of all times, girls started taking a liking to Aaron. Nothing had changed in the last month and a half he’d been here, and California didn’t seem like the kind of place with slim pickings, so why was he getting these looks? Batting eyelashes and dainty smiles. The simultaneous tucking of a strand of hair behind their ears as he stepped out of his car. It was intimidating, to say the least.
Aaron forced a polite smile as he clicked the lock button on his key fob and approached the entity. A wave of warm vanilla and cherry blossom body spray engulfed him. Beckoned him and made him think courtship had a funny way of translating from species to species. If his heart wasn’t so set on getting the June, he might think the whole concept was displeasing and excessive.
One thing was certain; Aaron knew heady perfumes were not the answer he was looking for.
“Aaron!” The youngest one of the group called to him with a wave and a flash of her teeth. She had bright purple braces, and unlike the rest of the girls, wore her hair up in a messy knot via purple scrunchy.
“Hey,” he nodded.
“Going to see Angie again?” The leader of the pack mused; eyes narrowed suspiciously like a cat on the prowl.
Aaron didn’t bother to stop as he took the wooden steps up to the front door of the shop. If he gave these girls an inch, they would take a mile of his time, and he wasn’t prepared to barter for his freedom. Not today at least.
“Just gotta borrow her phone,” he said smoothly; reached for the door handle and didn’t miss how each of them hurried to dig for their cell. A race to see which one could get it out fast enough to stop him from leaving.
He vanished inside as quickly as he could and lopped up to the counter (thankfully there was no line, just people chatting and laughing around the tables).
A lady who was not Angie, but looked like an older, pudgier version of her was at the registers. She grinned at Aaron; greeted him with something in Spanish. He probably should have remembered from classes in high school.
“Hello.” He glanced back at the crowded tables around him and the payphone barely hanging to the far wall. It was currently being used. “I-Is Angie around?”
“En la espalda.” She cocked her head toward the staff door behind the counter. Repeated, “In the back.”
“Thank you, Ms. Delgado,” he breathed, stepping around the register and through the small swinging dutch door that separated customers from staff.
“You go back there, you come out with an apron on!” she yelled after him with a loud, carefree laugh.
Aaron had no idea if she was serious, but he would have to risk it. June was probably getting out of the shower now, and if he were at all curious where Aaron went, he would start walking. Arco took an average of six phone calls to answer, and that was already going to cut into their talking time.
The back of the ice cream shop was a dark hallway with an office to one side, a bathroom, storage closet, and a huge walk-in freezer on the other. Aaron stepped around various broken-down cardboard boxes on the floor and followed the muffled sound of laughter.
The office door was closed and had Aaron been a little sharper around the edges, he may have realized that was a good enough reason to knock before entering. Unfortunately, caught up in his delicate situation, he remained completely oblivious to the scene that was happening behind the door until he opened it.
“Hey, Ang. I was wondering if—”
His eyes flew open wide, and his body instantly reeled back the way he came. A very uncharacteristic scream rose in his throat. He threw an arm over his eyes and narrowly avoided hitting his head on the doorframe.
“ANGIE!”
She gasped, scrambling through the cluttered mess of her mother’s desk and practically falling off it into her partner. Partner who was, in fact, Charlie. Who’d been tongue-deep between her legs as Aaron entered.
“AARON!” Angie screeched back. There was a dull thud that followed.
“Ow! Watch it!” Charlie groaned.
“I-I-I’m sorry!” Aaron slammed the door shut behind him and leaned against it, turning fire-hydrant red. He looked down the hallway toward the door he’d come from and couldn’t believe she would have the guts to do such explicit things with her mother fifteen feet away!
“Is June with you?” Angie’s frantic voice followed him through the old wood.
Why that mattered at all was beyond him.
“N-No!” He sniffed, running a hand through his hair. “Just me.”
“O-Okay! Be out in a second…”
Several moments passed as Aaron listened to the two of them fumble around for her clothes. They whispered harshly back and forth; words Aaron couldn’t quite make out behind the nervous beat of his own heart. As he calmed, he remembered the two or three times he’d accidentally walked in on Arco with whatever vixen had followed him back to their flat. It was almost as embarrassing as this—however, Arco couldn’t give a shit who saw him fucking who and, in that sense, Aaron was used to it. Angie, on the other hand, was his friend but not someone he’d ever imagined seeing in that position.
She had nice boobs, though. Gay or not, Aaron could admit it.
The doorknob turned roughly into the small of his back, and he stepped away from it. Angie—fully dressed now—slipped out and left Charlie on the other side.
“I should have knocked.” Aaron scratched at his cheek, sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Angie surprised him by laughing. She leaned over to collect the wild mane of hair that was loose around her shoulders. Tied it up in a tight bun. “It’s alright. I’m just glad it wasn’t June. He’d kill Curls.”
Aaron snorted, halfway wishing June would have been here.
Trying to kill Angie’s new boyfriend was exactly the kind of thing that might shift everything back into place between them. June could use a good fit of rage. It had been a while.
“So, what’re you doing here?” Angie went on, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. “Aside from cock-blocking me?”
“I was going to ask if I could borrow your phone?” The words sounded stupid on his tongue now. “Uh...mine doesn’t have any signal here, and I didn’t want to drive into town.”
“Oh, yeah, sure, sure.” She dismissed him and turned to grab the pink Razr out of her back pocket. “Here. Have fun.” She slapped it down into his palm. “I’m gonna go make sure Charlie is still breathing.”
“Thanks.” Aaron huffed, turning away. “Do you want me to bring it back after…or will you be…?”
Halfway between the office and the hallway, Angie pointed toward the window farthest from them, opposite of the direction he’d come.
“Go out the window, so my mom doesn’t make you start working. And then just leave my phone on the sill when you’re done.”
Aaron took two steps and then turned around, smiling at her antics. This was ridiculous, but he supposed it was better than getting stuck scooping ice cream for the rest of the afternoon.
“Oh, and Aaron?”
“Yeah?” He glanced over his shoulder toward her toothy, bright grin, and overall flushed face.
“Don’t tell June, please?”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
Amazingly enough, the phone rang once before it picked up.
“If you’re trying to get ahold of Arco Valentine, he’s busy jacking off a dolphin right now. You may wanna try again later.”
Aaron blinked, bemused.
“Brynn? Is that you?”
“Aaron? What?” The voice grew distant for a moment and then returned stronger. “Why the hell doesn’t Arco have your contact saved?”
Aaron leaned back against the side of the shop and squinted away from the sun. It was sweltering outside.
“He does,” Aaron clarified. “I’m just calling from a friend’s phone. Is he around?”
The Maple Effect Page 32