Chapter Seven
"Mom, drop it. I don't wanna talk about it."
"Aaron, we are gonna talk about it. This has been going on for too long. You are failing all your classes and it's got to stop."
"Fine, Mom, you want it to stop, it'll stop. I quit. I'm not going to school anymore." He started walking away from Jane.
"Aaron Carter, get back here this instant. You are not dropping out of high school. I refuse to let you."
"You can't. I quit."
"That's it. You seem to quit everything you start, why am I not surprised?" Shock overtook Aaron's face. "What? I do not quit everything. What other things did I quit? You tell me other things I've quit, Mother."
"Don't you dare take that tone with me. YOU know damn well what you've quit Aaron. Your career for starters."
"Nick was..."
"Enough with Nick, I don't want to hear about him. He's gone, get over it Aaron. I know he's the reason that you keep quitting things you once loved to do."
"STOP TALKING BAD ABOUT HIM, MOM."
'Five years later and he still misses you Nick. He's never gotten over the fact that he watched you walk into the ocean. It's been eating up inside.'
"Please don't interrupt. I want to watch Lessa."
"Aaron, DO NOT EVER talk to me like that again."
"I have no use for school. That's why I'm leaving. I didn't want to finish singing because there was no reason for it."
"Aaron please talk to me. What's going on in your mind?"
"Nothing, Mom, just nothing. Leave me alone so I can think okay."
"You think all the time, you're always alone. Talk to me, please Aaron, talk to me."
"No, I'm not talking to you, I'm going out for a while." Jane screamed for Aaron to return, wanting him to come back. She knew where he was going, where he always went when he was down. She picked up the phone and after the other end was picked up, she said, "He's at the rocks again. Can you please go and talk to him?" She hung up after knowing he'd be there for Aaron momentarily. Jane began shaking inside, knowing that something was off. There was an edge to Aaron's voice, something that has never been there before. Something that scared her senseless.
"Please tell me what I'm not thinking is true. Please tell me he's going there for something else."
'Nickolas, Aaron has always wanted to be like you. When he was younger he succeeded, but after your unfortunate suicide, he quickly changed. After the funeral, he kept to himself. Made himself sick for months by not eating. He spent months sitting in your bedroom just staring at anything. A reminder of you. He's finally going to get the chance to be like you Nickolas, your little brothers wish come true.'
"No, no, no, no, no... He can't, I won't let him. Don't show me anymore! I don't want to see!"
'Too late for that Nickolas. Too late for most things...'
"Why did you have to leave me Nick? I come here every day waiting for the answer and no one can give it to me. Can you please tell me what the answer is? Was it something I did or something I said to you that evening? Nick, give me some sign you're listening. Give me some sigh that you still love me, that you lied to me that morning." Nothing happened. The world still revolved, with no signs from Nick.
"I hate you Nick. Hate you enough to want to be with you." He jumped off the rocks, standing in water slightly higher than his ankles.
Brian stepped out of his car and look around for Aaron. He knew where he'd be, Jane had told him. "Damn it," he muttered, running towards Aaron. "Aaron, don't! Don't you be like your brother." His cries fell on deaf ears.
As he walked into the water, the further he walked, the more vivid that evening became. Aaron saw himself sitting on the beach, calling for his brother telling him to stop. He heard no voice for him, calling him, telling him to stop, so he walked further. Brian saw him, with each step, walking out. He reached the shoreline and listened as Aaron yelled, "Nick? Nick? Where are you? I'm coming to be with you, I miss you so much. Please, tell me where to go, okay! I love you big bro... stop it get off of me."
Brian grabbed Aaron around the waist pulling him towards the beach. "What are you doing? Get off me, now damn it." When Brian reached the shore, he threw Aaron on the floor. "Nick? You were calling for your brother, why?"
"Get out of here, Bri, let me go to him, he wants me with him."
"He does not. Will you stop being so selfish?"
"I'm not selfish, leave me alone Brian. Go save someone who wants to be saved." Holding Aaron's arms tightly in his grip, Brian said, "Save someone who wants to be saved? How do you know you don't want to be saved? Do you remember what it was like for you when Nick died? You closed yourself off, you hate the world, you hated everything. You saw what your parents went through, your Mom always crying, your Dad sitting in the family room watching anything that had Nick on it. Your sisters... do you remember how bad BJ was? AJ was and still is afraid to leave her side. She still cries herself to sleep each night Do you know what would happen to her if you did this to yourself. You are being selfish, stop acting like a child, Aaron. You are not 11 even more, you are not going to kill yourself, following the same path your brother did. I took you in, I gave you my heart like your brother had it. He was my best friend and I didn't want to disappoint him by giving up on you. Do you understand that? Answer me Aaron, tell me. Do you understand?"
"You took care of me for Nick?" Brian collapsed on the sand with him, due to exhaustion. "Yeah, I took care of you for him. He had so much he wanted for you. He was proud you wanted to be like him, a singer, successful... He wouldn't be proud right now knowing what you want to do."
"You don't think he would be?"
"No. I don't. I think Nick regrets his decision. He is probably frowning down on this right now. Aaron, you don't want to take your life. Please, if not for yourself, for me and your sisters and your parents. Please Aaron, I ask you that."
"You don't want me to die? You want me to stay?"
"Yes Aaron, I do want you to stay. I love you like you were my own brother, you know that, same way I love Nick. It would kill me if did that to yourself, with me here to watch. Come back to the house with me. Aaron, will you?"
'Nickolas, I've told you earlier and I'll tell you one more. The mourning process lasts as long as a person lets it. Aaron's is on going, emotionally scared for life.'
Through his own tears, he whispered, "But I didn't do it. I didn't go through with it."
'I know that. He will still be emotionally unstable for some time, but with you here he will work it out.'
"Can I finish? I want to see what my brother would have said. Please?" The wind whipped around him, warming his body.
'You shall see what you want, Nickolas.'
Chapter 8
Chapter 6
Table of Contents
Hosted Stories
