fuck you :))))) everyone can now blame you for this :))) (warnings for this in the tags fyi, so if you don’t wanna know, don’t look at them.)
things you said after it was over
Aaron’s hands are shaking.
It’s like an echo, something he can’t escape from.
“Love?” Aaron’s mum pokes her head around the door. She looks sad, he thinks, disappointed.
“What?” Aaron curls his hands into fists, hate how empty his room feels.
Stepping around the door, Aaron notes how his mum keeps her eyes on him, doesn’t look around. “How are you doing?”
“Great,” Aaron says, feels and hears the bitterness in his tone. There’s a burning sensation in his chest, something ugly and dark.
His mum’s expression shifts into something soft and broken. “You should come down. You’ve been up here for hours.”
Aaron doesn’t answer. He curls his hands around the material in his hands, thinks with just the right amount of pressure he could tear it. It terrifies him, how fragile some things are. Clothes, a heart, a person.
“Aaron?” His mum touches his shoulder, his cheek, and Aaron wants to tell her to stop, that he can’t, but he thinks he’s fragile too, so so fragile.
“Mum.” His voice shakes, throat thick, and he lets his mum wrap him up, press a kiss to his head.
Aaron struggles to breathe, to force air into his lungs, to keep going, moving, living. He thinks of Liv, of his mum, Paddy, Adam. So many people trying to tell him he’s loved, that they’re there, they care.
There’s a strong, unyielding guilt burning in the pit of Aaron’s stomach.
“I can’t do this,” he whispers, voice broken. “Mum, I can’t do this.”
“Yes you can,” his mum says, pulling away, gripping his face between her hands. “You are strong, love. I know he told you that.”
You’re the strongest person I know.
“He was supposed to be here.” Aaron clings to his mum’s arms, thinks he can physically feel himself shattering.
“I know,” his mum’s voice wavers, he can see her crying. Not all for him, Aaron thinks, but maybe some for -
“I want him here.” Aaron admits softly, slowly. “I want him here so much, and it’s because of me that he’s-”
“No,” his mum sounds firm, strong, her eyes dark. “Don’t you dare. He wouldn’t, do you hear me? He didn’t, not even then.”
“He wouldn’t even have been driving if it weren’t for me.”
His mum pulls him in, her hug tighter than Aaron can stand, but he stays, needs her, wants this. “You know what he told me?”
No, Aaron thinks. I haven’t asked, don’t want to know. “Please don’t tell me.”
“He loved you,” his mum says instead. “He was fighting your appeal, right to the end.”“I know,” Aaron says, because he does. He knows what Robert did, what Robert was doing right up until then. The end.Except it can’t be. It can’t be because -It just can’t.“How am I supposed to do this?” Aaron gasps for breath, feels his body shaking, hates how weak he is.“With help.” His mum’s grip doesn’t waver. Her strength, he thinks, is so much more than his. She’s grieving, he’s heard her, seen her talking to Vic, comforting Vic, being there when Aaron can’t be. “Everyone’s here, love. No matter what, he loved you, Aaron. Even then.”(”He called me,” his mum tells him later. They’re standing in the MIll, Liv upstairs unpacking, subdued and trying not to cry. Aaron’s determined to make it work, to carry his husband’s memories in better, healthy ways. “Just before. Told me what you said. Promised me he’d get you off drugs if it was the last thing he did.”“Guess it worked,” Aaron says, humourless. The blackness in his chest isn’t as strong, but it feels just as permanent. Maybe something he won’t ever get over. “He loved you, Aaron.”Aaron’s never doubted it. Not ever. “I wish he could be here.”“Hey,” his mum touches his chin, gives him a smile. He’s trying to be like her, to be as strong as her. “He is. I promise ya, love. As long as this place still stands? As long as you and Liv remember him, love him? He’ll be here.”Aaron thinks of Liv; sad, but coping. He thinks of Vic, sad and not coping. Thinks of everyone else, everyone affected by Robert and Robert didn’t even know. “I wish he could have seen.”“I know,” his mum says. If Aaron believed in that sort of thing, he thinks maybe he could. Maybe Robert would be watching, would be there.)“I loved him too,” Aaron says. Pulling away from his mum, he wipes angrily at his face, stares down at Robert’s shirt in his hands. “I don’t want to let go.””I know, love,” his mum says, smiling gently. “You don’t have to. Not at all.””Pretty sure that’s not healthy,” Aaron tells her, thinks of his therapist. He can’t face the idea of telling her, of admitting to anyone, let alone a professional, that my husband is, that he’s -”I promise you, love,” his mum admits, slowly, “that no matter what you do, he’s always gonna be here.”She presses a hand to Aaron’s chest, knocks him under the chin gently. Aaron thinks so too -- he’s dead.Robert’s dead,” Aaron says, his voice wavering. His mum looks sad, but proud. Aaron’s hands are still shaking, but he thinks the ground under his feet just got a little bit firmer.