happy halloween! i would LOVE to read anything you have for emmerdale!
a continuation of 1
At first, there’s jut the bone deep relief of not being in this alone. Aaron knows and doesn’t hate her and he’s not mad like any other boy would be mad. That lasts for a few days, lets her stop freaking out all the time and driving herself mad. Then Aaron tells her to come round Paddy’s while he’s at work, makes her a cup of tea, and says, “We’ve got to figure out how we’re doing this.”
She assumes she’ll drop out of school, because what else is there to do, but to her surprise Aaron rejects that outright. “You’re good at school, you should finish. It’s different for me since I was rubbish. I’ll talk to Debbie about taking the weekend shifts, no one wants those anyway, then we’ll only have to find someone to watch them for three days out of the week until you get out of school, and I can take over once I get off work so you can get your homework done. Do you think Diane’ll help at all?”
“Maybe,” she says, taking a bracing sip of tea to work passed the tightness in her throat. He’s been thinking about this. He’s really planning on doing this. “Will your mum?”
Aaron looks away from her. “Probably not. Sorry.”
She knows things are bad with his dad, with his mum, although not exactly why. But he wouldn’t be living with Paddy if they were good. She hesitates then reaches out and puts her hand on his. He startles, looking down, but doesn’t pull away from her. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
He smiles at her, the first from him she’s gotten since she told him she was pregnant, and it settles her a little. Aaron is her friend. There are worse people to do this with.
They go another couple weeks before going to the pub to sit Chas, Diane, and Andy down to tell them. It’s hard to make any real plans without talking to people. She asks if Paddy should be there, but Aaron says he’ll talk to him after.
It doesn’t go quite how she expects.
Chas won’t even look at her and immediately starts laying into Aaron, calling him irresponsible and foolish, demanding to know how he expects to raise a child when he himself always resorts to throwing a tantrum when he doesn’t get what he wants, then says he better not come looking to her for any help.
Diane puts her arm around Vic’s shoulders and adds her voice to it, asking how Aaron could take advantage of her like this, which makes Vic look at her like she’s insane. He’s only two years older than her, so much closer to her own age than other boys she’s slept with, and she was Aaron’s first. She’d had to take the lead and tell him what to do, so why’s he getting shit for it?
The last straw is when Andy gets up and grabs Aaron, shoving him against the wall and pulling his fist back. Aaron tenses, but Vic has had enough, she doesn’t understand why this is happening. Andy of all people acting like this is mad. At least Aaron wasn’t married when they were together.
“Stop!” she shouts, tearing away from Diane and shoving herself in between Andy and Aaron. “First Mum, then Jo, and now you’re going after Aaron? For what? He didn’t do anything I didn’t want him to do and he’s been really nice, which is more than I can for you! I can barely look at you most days and you want to get in his face? About this?”
Part of her knows this is unfair when Andy’s been struggling so much with their dad’s death, but the rest of her doesn’t care. Aaron’s the first person who’s felt steady in so long, and sure he was kind of jerk about lying about her to Daz and everyone, but he’d never hurt her. There was everything with Sarah’s custody, but Andy did hurt Jo, and that matters, and, and, and – he hasn’t yelled at her or blamed her or been cruel, not how they’re all being to him now.
“Vic,” Andy starts.
“No!” she shouts. “Aaron and I are having this baby, we’re both responsible, and this is enough! Stop! If you’re going to yell at him, then you have to yell at me too!”
Her chest is heaving and her eyes are burning and no one says anything. She looks back to Aaron, wondering why he isn’t saying anything either, and then pauses.
He’s staring at her, eyes huge, shock plain as anything, and it breaks her heart. Everyone had started yelling at him and he’d taken it as his due, but she defends him it leaves him flat footed. She steps back towards him and takes his hand in both of hers before facing their family. “Well? Are we going to talk about this like the adults you all are supposed to be or are Aaron and I leaving?”
It’s Diane who breaks first. She takes a deep, steadying breath then says, “You’re right, Victoria. Aaron, I apologize. Let’s sit down and discuss this rationally.”
Chas makes a sound of disgust and storms off, but Andy swallows before dropping down at the kitchen table. He won’t quite look at her, and she’ll probably feel guilty about that later, but for now it’s just satisfying.
Aaron squeezes her hand.
