BAU High School
Chapter 20: Loyalty
For the rest of the week, Aaron hung out with Emily every day after school. When his football practice let out, he would head down the street to her house. They mainly sat around and watched TV while eating some snacks. It wasn't much, but Aaron enjoyed every minute he spent with Emily. He had never had so much fun with a girl before, even Haley.
Speaking of Haley, he hadn't told her about his new friend. He didn't want to. She would be furious, and then plot something horrible against Emily.
However, as much as he didn't want to tell her, he would have to some time. He knew Emily was okay with the secret friends thing now, but soon she would get frustrated. Once she became frustrated, he would lose her friendship, and that was not an option.
Emily was different than any girl he had ever met. She was smart, funny, and incredibly sweet. She made him feel a way no girl ever had before. Aaron could relax around her. He couldn't believe how mean he had been to her at the beginning of the year. It made him feel terrible to think about it. He promised himself to never treat her that way again. He would never go back to the person he used to be.
There was one other thing about Emily: She was beautiful.
He had noticed that on the first day of school, but it wasn't important after he found out how Haley felt about her. Ever since then, he pushed that little detail about Emily away and tried to ignore it. And it had worked until that week. Once they had become friends, he noticed her smile, her big brown eyes, and how cute she looked when she blushed.
It was on Thursday that he really noticed it. They were both seated on the couch in her living room, a bowl of popcorn between them. Emily was lazily flipping channels while Aaron was staring out the window next to the TV. Suddenly Emily squealed.
"Oh my gosh, I love this show!" She had a huge smile on her face, and her eyes lit up. Aaron looked over at her and found himself smiling at how excited she was. Her eyes were dancing with delight, and it seemed like her smile lit up the small room.
Oh yeah. She was definitely beautiful.
His teammates were wondering where he went every day. Normally Aaron was one of the last to leave. Now he was one of the first.
"Where's he going?" Coach Rossi asked Will on Wednesday as they watched Aaron hurry out of the locker room.
"Beats me," Will muttered, slightly annoyed. As much as he insisted he was fine, Aaron was acting weird, and it frustrated Will how Aaron never told him what was up with him. They were supposed to be best friends, after all.
The team was mainly stunned at how sudden this change was. Just last week Aaron was staying late. Then one week later, he's leaving quickly. They were downright confused.
On Friday, Aaron and Emily were working in the library as usual. Well, Emily was. Aaron, for the first time in his life, was distracted and not getting any work done. He was thinking about how much he wished he could hang out with Emily today after school. He knew she was getting together with Derek, Spencer, and Penelope while he had a game.
He let out a frustrated sigh. Since when do I not want to play football? He was confused.
Emily looked up when she heard him sigh. She saw that he had hardly any work done.
"What was that for?" she asked quizzically.
"What was what for?"
"You sighed."
He raised an eyebrow. "And my sigh means something?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it does."
Aaron sighed again. "This is crazy," he muttered.
"What is?" Emily asked, now really confused.
He looked at her. "Us. Our friendship. How I feel about it."
Her heart started to race. It sounded like he wasn't happy.
"What's wrong with it?" she asked nonchalantly.
"Nothing, that's the thing." At Emily's confused look, he continued. "We haven't been friends for a week, and yet I would rather hang out with you then play football tonight."
Her eyes widened. "Seriously?" She knew how much he loved football.
He nodded. "I know. It's insane. I can't believe it."
Emily frowned. "You make it sound like a bad thing."
He shook his head quickly. "It's not, trust me. I'm just… Happy that I feel so comfortable with you." The two of them began to blush.
"I feel comfortable with you too," she said shyly.
That night, Aaron was in the locker room with his teammates as they finalized their strategy for the game. The team had lost only one game all season, and they refused to lose another.
Rossi stood in front of a white board displaying all their plays for the game. The team listened attentively.
Once Rossi was done explaining the game plan, he turned to the team.
"Now look," he said. "We've beat this team before, so we have a slight advantage. But that doesn't mean you guys can just sit back and relax. We haven't made it to the championship yet. We still need to work hard." He smiled at the team. "I know you guys can do it, so let's play a good game, alright?"
The team whooped and stood up, gathering in the center of the room. They put their hands in the middle of their little cluster. Rossi nodded to Aaron, who yelled, "One.. Two… Three.."
"DEFENSE!" the whole team yelled. They cheered and headed towards the door with grins on their faces. Aaron was about to join them when he heard his phone ring from his locker. Thinking he was all alone, he pulled it out and read the text message he just received.
Good luck, I know you'll do great. You can hang out with us next weekend. –Em
Aaron felt a huge smile spread across his face. There was nothing like a text from Emily to make him feel better.
He was about to reply when he heard a voice behind him. "That from Haley?"
Aaron spun around to see Rossi standing there. "Oh, hey. I thought you left with the team."
Rossi shook his head. "I saw you hang back, and I've been meaning to talk to you."
Aaron gulped, though he didn't know why he did. He had done nothing wrong. "Okay, go ahead." He slipped his phone back into his locker after sending Emily a thank you and a smiley face.
Rossi looked at him closely. "Are you alright? I've noticed you've been acting… Odd this week."
Aaron restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "There's nothing wrong with me. I'm fine."
"Okay," Rossi said calmly. "I've just noticed that you've been leaving practice early this week, and that you haven't been hanging out with your teammates."
"I just have a lot of homework," Aaron lied. He was surprised at how easily he could say that. He had never lied to Rossi. He was like a father to Aaron, which was important for Aaron because his real dad could be impossibly harsh on him sometimes. And though he never directly abused Aaron, his father had hit him once or twice.
Rossi nodded in understanding. "I see." He started to walk out of the locker room before he paused by Aaron. He looked at the teenager right in the eyes. "You would tell me if something was wrong, right?"
Aaron was suddenly overcome with the urge to tell Rossi everything: how he was unsure of his relationship with Haley, how he was unhappy with his friends, and most importantly, how he was now friends with Emily Prentiss. He felt like he could use someone's reassurance.
"I would," Aaron said instead. "I promise." Rossi nodded and clapped him on the back.
"Let's go win a football game," Rossi said, guiding his star player out to the field.
They won by a landslide: 28-6. Aaron was actually feeling better about being around his teammates, so much so that he went out with them after for pizza. He briefly considered going over to Emily's before realizing that him coming directly from a game would piss Derek off.
Saturday night had him going to a party thrown by Haley's friend Jordan. He really didn't want to go. It wasn't just because he wanted to hang out with Emily. He had already taken care of that by talking to her on the phone for an hour that afternoon.
No, Aaron didn't want to go because he was exhausted. Between school and football, he didn't get much sleep. Will said he was stupid for staying up to finish all his assignments.
"No teacher is going to fail you," he pointed out.
Aaron knew that was true, yet he felt he had to complete it all. Emily said it was because he was a workaholic. He had just rolled his eyes in response.
Anyway, there he was on Saturday night at Jordan Todd's house. He really didn't want to be there. Haley had run off with her cheerleader friends as soon as they had gotten there, leaving Aaron to stand with other athletes.
"Hey, did you hear about what we did to that nerd Spencer Reid?" Will asked the group. No matter how many times Aaron told him to quit it, Will still felt the need to tell everyone about it. It made Aaron sick.
"Excuse me," he muttered, leaving the group. He intended to go outside for some air when Haley ran up and grabbed his arm.
"Let's dance!" she yelled over the loud music, dragging him to the center of the makeshift dance floor. She immediately began grinding up against him.
He danced rather stiffly, not really getting into it. He was never one for dancing, mainly because he sucked at it. Haley would always beg him to dance though, so he would.
After a few songs, he got bored. "Let's go outside," he called to Haley over the pounding bass. She nodded somewhat reluctantly, and he took her hand and brought her out to the back porch that overlooked the closed pool.
"What's up, babe?" she asked once they could hear again.
He shrugged. He wasn't really sure why he pulled her out there. Part of him thought it was because he wanted to talk to her, but now that they were in the perfect environment for talking, he didn't know what to say.
I'm never without something to talk about around Emily, he couldn't help but think.
"Uh… How are you?" Aaron asked. Idiot, he thought a second later. Could you sound any stupider?
Haley raised her eyebrows. "Fine." She gave him an odd look before saying, "You'll never believe what JJ told me."
He was never one for gossip, but he was grateful for something to talk about. "What?"
She watched him closely, gauging his reaction as she said, "She's under the impression that you're friends with Emily Prentiss."
His stomach lurched, and he struggled to keep his face impassive. Thankfully, he was blessed with an amazing poker face.
"Why would she think that?" he asked carefully.
"You called her 'Emily' the other day," Haley accused. He gulped slightly.
Just tell her, a voice in his head urged him. You want to take your life over, right? He told the voice to shut up.
"Is it so wrong if I do?" Aaron asked cautiously. Haley's eyes widened.
"So you did call her Emily!"
He rolled his eyes. "That is her name."
Her eyes narrowed. "You've been calling her Prentiss since the first week of school," she said through clenched teeth.
Aaron closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I've noticed Emily isn't a bad a person as you think she is."
His girlfriend looked horrified. "Wait. Do you like her now?"
Here I go, he thought. "So what if I do?"
Haley was silent, and he knew she was furious. She was only dead silent when she was extremely angry.
After what felt like ten years, she spoke. "What do you like about her?" Her voice was tight and controlled, like she was trying to stop herself from screaming. He knew it was only because they were at a party.
"She's nice and smart. She doesn't care what people think, and she's nice to everyone." He didn't mention that she was very pretty.
"Is that it?" Haley said disdainfully.
"I can be myself around her," he said without thinking. Haley's mouth fell open.
"What, and you can't around me?" Her voice was bordering on hysteric.
"No," Aaron said quickly. "It's not that, it's just that I'm someone different around Emily."
"There you go again!" she cried. "EMILY!"
Aaron found himself getting mad at Haley. "Why do you hate her?" he shouted. "What has she ever done to you?"
"She came into my school and-"
Aaron cut her off. "It's not your school," he said heatedly. "It's nobody's school. You don't have the right to go around and make everyone's lives miserable!"
Haley looked like he had slapped her. He took a deep breath. He had never yelled at her like that, and to be honest, it felt good.
Though there was a tiny part of him that felt guilty.
"Maybe," he said quietly, "We should take a break."
"NO!" Haley shrieked. Aaron jumped back in surprise. Where did that come from?
"No," she said again, this time more quietly. "We shouldn't."
He sighed. "Haley, I don't like the way you treat people, and-"
"Then I'll change," she said hurriedly. "If you can, then I can too. Please, Aaron."
In the whole time he had known her, Aaron never heard Haley beg like this. Never. If she wanted something, she would give a little pout that would render him defenseless. She never pleaded with him.
He was still debating on what to do when she said, "Do you really want to throw our relationship away over some girl you met a month ago?"
That did it for him. Haley knew commitment and loyalty was important to Aaron. She knew he would choose her over Emily. Inside, she was grinning deviously.
Outside, she was giving him a helpless look. "Please, Aaron," she said softly. She knew he also couldn't resist soothing a girl who was upset.
He slowly turned his head to look at her. Those eyes…. Yeah, he was screwed.
"Fine," he said quietly. Haley began to grin when he added, "But you have to promise to be nicer to people. To everyone."
She almost rolled her eyes, but caught herself in time.
"Promise me, Haley," Aaron said firmly.
She gave him a sweet smile. "I promise."
She was crossing her fingers behind her back.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read/reviewed/alerted/favorited this story! I really appreciate it. Please let me know what you think of this chapter, I don't think it's my best work.
Oh, and as someone pointed out last week, it's been a month since I started posting this story! YAY! :) Thank you Tessa for letting me know!