Chapter Three
Aaron sat in his room, a faded picture clutched tightly in his hand. He wasn"t lying when he said he didn"t want anything to do with his brother. He also wasn"t lying when he said that he hated both, his brother and his father. They both were nameless, unknown figures to him. He didn"t need them in his life, and quite frankly, he didn"t want them in his life. He had grown accustom to his own version of a family. His mom meant the world to him. She had been everything to him for so long. Of course that all changed when he got married, but even still his mother still held a huge part of his heart. The fact that she was willing to raise him on her own. He respected her, he envied her...he loved her.
Although she did most of the work, she definitely didn"t raise Aaron completely on her own. He also had the influence of his Uncle Gavin. While most days, and most times he hated sharing the last name Middleton, with his brother and father. On a good day though, he loved it and enjoyed it, because it made him feel closer to his Uncle Gavin. It had only been a month since his mother started to don his last name as well. Had it only been a month since she had married Gavin Middleton? Aaron thought to himself. He smiled at the memory. Jason, his two year old son, had been the ring barrier. Aaron himself had been the best man, and his wife Elizabeth had been only one of three bridesmaids. Katie and Emily were the other two. The wedding had been a small ceremony at the church they attended every Sunday. While the service didn"t" last long, the reception went well on into the early morning. Jason, had passed out on the couch at Caroline"s house around 9, and wasn"t sleeping in his own bed until around 3:30 the next morning. That had been a good night, a fun night. That had been the best night ever.
Aaron let his fingers caress the picture that he had forgotten he had held in his hands. It was a picture his mother had snapped during his ninth birthday. On one side stood Gavin, he was bent over so that he could stand next at the same height of Aaron, who didn"t blossom into his over six foot tall stature until he hit about fourteen. On the other side of him was Emily, they had been friends for about a year when this picture was taken, and she was shoving, rather forcefully, a handful of cake into the side of Aaron"s face. Knelt down in front of him was his mom. It was moments, and pictures like this that Aaron treasured the most.
He had a few family portraits of him and Elizabeth, and a few more were taken after Jason was born. Those were the ones that hung along the walkway, in the hallway. The ones were they plastered on smiles, as a professional snapped their picture. While he did enjoy those pictures, it was the ones that no professional could capture that he held near and dear to his heart. One of his absolute favorites was a picture snapped of him and little baby Jason, on Jason"s first birthday. Elizabeth had tried to warn him. Tried and failed to explain that if he sat that close to Jason, that Jason wouldn"t be the only one with cake covered, not only on his face but well anywhere that Jason could reach. That was the picture he treasured. The one where cake was smeared all down his newly bought button down white dress shirt. Not to mention the fact that you could barely make out his face in amongst the cake. These were the pictures, the memories that he loved and wanted to remember.
With that said, not one of these pictures had one glimpse of his so called brother in it. None had his father, who he had heard on numerous occasions say that not only did he not deserve the last name Middleton, but basically didn"t deserve the air he was breathing. That he was a horrible waste of space. His mother wrote it off as Jacob trying to get under Aaron"s skin, but it was things like this that really got to him. That really hurt him. He just, couldn"t fathom why if his brother hated their father as much as everyone wanted to say that he did, why he put up with it all.
Now he wasn"t saying that he didn"t respect his brother, because in some ways he did. He had heard stories of what Brent had witnessed overseas, what had happened before he took this latest leave to come home. That he could respect,that deserved respect. He could give Brent that, he did deserve, and had definitely earned respect. It was the actually talking, and acting like everything was all fine and dandy between them, when they had never even spoken two words to each other...ever. That wasn"t what Aaron wanted, or needed in his life right now. He didn"t need his brother coming in and complicating things. Although the girls did have a point. What Brent did was a dangerous, what if he died on his next tour overseas and they never even got the chance to know each other. What if Aaron held on to this grudge he had against Brent, and lost the chance to get to know someone that as far as Aaron knew could be a great person?
He sighed loudly, why couldn"t life be easy?
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Brent through a few articles of clothing on the floor. He was about to go meet his brother for the very first time, he wanted to look good. He wanted to make a good first impression. A worn out old t-shirt and jeans just wasn"t going to cut it. Finally, he let a grin cross his face when he retrieved the suit pants. Now, if only he could locate a decent dress shirt. He knew he had packed one, he just wished he could find it.
He threw a few more pieces of clothing to the floor, as he saw a piece of thin white cloth sticking up out of the small pile of clothes left on the bed. He pulled it out, as a few more items fell to the floor. It was a little wrinkled but it would do. He grabbed the suit pants he had sat aside, and made his way toward the bathroom. He stopped at the closet just beside the bathroom door and pulled out a towel.
He stepped inside the bathroom, before peeling off his clothing piece by piece. He sat his new clothes on the counter next to the sink, and hung the towel up on the rack beside the shower. Reaching inside of the shower curtain, he turned both knobs at the same time, and felt the water flowing from the tap. It was lukewarm at best. He shook his head, his muscles were tense. If he didn"t take a hot, or at best a warm shower he would definitely have a cramp of some sort before the night was over. He felt the water again, and this time nodded his head in agreement.
“Perfect,” he said to himself.
Pulling back the curtain, he stepped into the warm water, letting it wash over his body. His body sagged with relief, as the warm water pounded on his back muscles. He could feel them starting to relax, as he let out a frustrated sigh. He definitely was not going back to his parents place. The only person who knew where he was staying was his mother, and she would definitely not tell his father. As long as he didn"t have to so much as look at his father again while he was here. Then he would definitely survive this trip with his dignity still intact.
He placed a generous amount of body wash in the palm of his hand as he started to cleanse his body. Before squeezing some shampoo into his hand, and started to rub it into his head. Almost as quickly as he had put the shampoo on his head, it was all gone. That was the luxury of not having much of any hair to speak of. He reached out for his towel, and rubbed it on his head, drying what small amount of hair he did have. Before wrapping the towel around his muscularly toned stomach.
Stepping out of the bathroom with the towel holding snuggly to his hips and stomach, he grabbed one of the sport drinks he had purchased earlier that morning, and swallowed down about half of it. Using his arm, he wiped the excess off of his mouth, before going back into the bathroom.
Quickly, he threw on his clothes, before checking his appearance over in the mirror. He nodded, liking what he saw. Both the shirt and pants fit him near perfectly. Quickly he threw on a bit of cologne, before leaving the bathroom, and grabbing his jacket and heading out the door. He was about to meet his brother for the first time, and to say that he was nervous wasn"t even coming close to the feelings he was feeling right now.
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