"Hay Aaron, you alright lad?" Aaron had been leaning against the Woolpack bar, sipping on his beer. He had ordered the fish and chips from Marlon 10 minutes earlier - wanting to time his return to Dale Head perfectly.
Adam was stood behind him and had Mia in tow, it looked like they were going to settle in to the pub for the evening, Aaron smiled warmly "Alright, can I get you both a drink?"
Adam's had been a little apprehensive, a couple of days ago Aaron seemed very depressed and Adam expected the same now - his cheerful greeting had been a relief. He clapped his hands together gleefully "Feeling generous are we?"
Aaron shock his head softly and ordered a beer and a glass of wine for Mia "No need to ask what you both want."
"That predictable are we?" chimed in Mia
"That boring more like!"
"Oh the cheek of it!" Adam laughed before adding "You joining us or what?" And Aaron decided that he would, just to finish his drink.
They made their way over to the corner of the pub and settled around the bench; Adam immediately moved his arm around Mia's shoulders. Aaron suddenly felt is heart tighten, because he and Jackson had never done that - not even in Bar West and for a moment Aaron felt sick for all the lost opportunities.
Adam caught Aaron's eye "You alright?"
Aaron Shock his head to bring himself out of it "Yeah I have ordered some food to take back to Dale Head – me and Jackson are going to watch Ghost Busters." Aaron knew that he was saying this with a stupid grin on his face.
Adam's brow narrowed "You really like Ghost Buster's huh?"
"Nope, Jackson does."
The couple exchanged glances before Adam removed his arm from Mia's shoulders, he leant forward adding a serious expression to his face and cleared his throat slightly, "I was doing a bit of work earlier around the back of Dale Head –"
Aaron sighed heavily and lowered his voice "Don't say anything."
"- You don't even know what I was going to say."
"Something about some yelling coming from the house?"
Adam sat back, realising this wasn't the first time and he wasn't going to pretend it never happened "What Jackson was saying was pretty horrible, I wanted to go in a see if Hazel was ok, she was crying."
"It's fine." Both Adam and Mia raised an eyebrow "He doesn't mean it, he's just frustrated."
"The names he called Hazel – I would never say anything like that to my Mum."
Aaron sat looking at Adam for a moment, he wished he could say the same except he'd called his own Mother every awful name under the sun.
"Does he say stuff to you as well?"
Aaron closed his eyes, he didn't want to go into this – it didn't matter what Jackson called him, "It's Ok."
Mia rested her hand on Aaron's arm "I overheard Debbie repeating a few things to Chas." Aaron chewed on his bottom lip, that's all he needed. "You can talk to us – were not going to start making demands that you finish with Jackson if that's what your worried about."
Aaron snorted softly "Good – cause that's never gonna happen."
"We know," and Mia winked at him.
"You gonna talk to us then?"
Aaron gulped down some of his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand "Nope, cause today is a good day and it's you two and this serious conversation that's bringing it down."
"Aaron –"
Aaron sighed again; there was just no placating Adam when he was on one, sometimes it felt like he had assigned himself as Aaron's personal protector.
"Look, Jackson is going to eat some chips, later we are going to watch Ghost Busters and right now he is letting Hazel give him a wash. Today is a really good day and I think it's a sign that things are on the up", Aaron conveniently ignored the fact that only 2 hours ago Jackson had been hysterical. "Can we change the subject?"
Adam didn't look too pleased but Mia caught on "It's my birthday tomorrow, remember?"
And Aaron smiled, because he did remember now – it was a relief because lately he was forgetting everything that didn't revolve around Jackson.
"You're going to come?
"Err yeah?" In truth Aaron didn't know because everything was so up and down with Jackson that he couldn't tell where he would be the next hour let alone in twenty four of them.
Mia crossed her arms "Promise?"
"Sure." It probably wouldn't have made any difference to Mia if he was there or not, after all they weren't close. They'd spent hardly any time together whilst she'd been dating Adam and Aaron suspected she was only so insistent because everyone was so concerned.
"Good and If I don't see you there – I'll come and drag you myself!"
Aaron narrowed his eyes at Adam "Oh and that's not an empty threat."
Aaron didn't have the energy "Alright, I'll consider myself warned." He climbed out from the bench "I'm gonna find out about that food, see you later."
Aaron walked towards the bar and spotted his mother coming on through the back. He hadn't realised she was in which was unusual because normally she didn't do anything without making a racket. He was suddenly anxious about seeing her after what Mia had said
She'd been busy straightening her top behind the bar and hadn't noticed Aaron at first – there was enough time to dash out but then he wouldn't get the fish and chops and Aaron was really looking forward to it.`
As soon as Chastity saw him a huge smile plastered across her face, one thing that nobody could deny was how much she loved her son – Aaron wondered why it took him so long to see this.
"Aaron love –"
"Hi Mum."
"You're not off are you?"
Aaron looked at her sheepishly "Yeah, Marlon's making some food and I'm taking it out." The disappointment on his mother's face was clear.
"Why can't you eat it hear with me?"
Aaron squirmed "Cause I'm taking some back for Jackson".
At the sound of Jackson's name, Chastity's face fell to concern, "You've not been answering your phone."
Aaron stuffed his hands into his pockets and wouldn't reach her gaze.
"I've been busy."
"Debbie told me yesterday that you're off work for a while, that right?"
Aaron studied the floor "Yeah just for a bit."
Chastity studied her son "Aaron –"
"- Mum, it's fine."
She took a big breath "That wall between Dale Head and Debbie's is pretty thin –"
Aaron rubbed his head warily, what did he say? There was no point denying how bad things had got, but to sit and talk about it would be like re-living everything that was being said and Aaron struggled enough the first time.
"Mum please leave it –" He was softly imploring her now because he just wanted to have a quiet evening with the Man he loved and not think about how hard everything was at the moment.
"Ok love." And her comment was accompanied by a small sad nod.
At that moment Marlon bustled through the kitchen door with a couple of polythene containers "Here you go Aaron – Chef's special!" but he halted half way aware that he was interrupting something sombre "I'll just leave them on the bar." And he quickly retreated to the kitchen.
Aaron dug in his pockets and retrieved a ten pound note
"Oh no love, their on me."
Aaron couldn't look at his Mother "Thanks," he said before grabbing the containers and hurrying towards the door.
"Aaron –" Chas called and he stopped and turned towards her. Chastity came out from around the bar and wrapped her arms around him, usually Aaron would have squirmed away but just for a second it was nice. "You know where I am." She whispered and he nodded into her shoulder.
Aaron felt a huge amount of relief when he stepped from the pub – he'd always found concern hard to handle but now he found it suffocating – everyone wanted to help him but really it was Jackson that needed it. Suddenly for a moment he felt resentment – because it was Jackson that they should be worried about, but nobody had bothered to see him for weeks. Aaron kicked a stone angrily letting the feeling wash over him before realising how unfair he was being. Pearl had baked a cake a couple of days ago for Jackson but he had refused to eat it, Paddy and Rhona wanted Jackson to meet the baby, but he'd refused. And Adam had passed on a DVD that Jackson had never watched before – he'd remembered it from a vague conversation the two of them had had before Jackson even had the accident. Saying they didn't care was definitely not right.
Aaron took a deep steadying breath, he wanted to return to Jackson feeling positive,
"Everything is going to be ok."
