AARON LIVESY

-The Chase-

"Behind The Eyes"

The garage was going steady and the cash box and the books showed it, the business was doing well. The same however could not be said about Aaron's mood; and the reason for that was Cameron, he'd been gone for a few days leaving them in the lurch and Aaron was less than impressed and he'd be telling him that. But when Aaron looked up from his paperwork he realised he'd get that chance sooner than expected because Cameron was walking up the forecourt. Aaron slammed his pen down and got down off the stool and stormed over to him. "What the hell are you playing at?"

"Oh I've been on a job" Cameron explained with a frown.

Aaron smirked and shook his head.

"I had to go home and get changed and see Sarah for a bit"

Aaron scoffed. "These stories might work with Debbie but I know it's a lie, because funnily enough my mum got back this morning from her weekend away and guess who I saw in the taxi with her…see my bedroom in Smithy has got a good view, can see everything…"

Cameron smirked. "I wouldn't get involved if I were you"

"I suggest you get some work done mate, otherwise I'll sack ya…and if you push it further well…put it this way, you'll know what I'll do"

"You don't really like me do you Aaron?" Cameron asked with a smile.

Aaron shook his head. "Not really"

"You might not like me but you wouldn't do that, not to your mum"

"You don't know that" Aaron told him. "Get to work" he ordered bluntly.

…

"Well you could move out" Brenda suggested.

Bob smiled. "W-with you?"

"Well yeah why not? We're together now"

Jason had unintentionally been listening in to their conversation and he frowned; he'd been thinking about moving for a little while now and this seemed the perfect opportunity, he got to his feet and walked to the counter. "Hi…sorry but I couldn't help but eavesdrop, something about a house?"

Bob looked at him with a frown.

"Oh sorry I'm Aaron's boyfriend, Jason"

Bob pulled a wary face and let out a loud sigh. "Oh mate not dale head no..."

"Why not?"

"Jackson died there"

"Ah. I've got a habit of doing this" Jason said with a shake of his head.

Brenda smiled at the young man. "Don't worry about it love, I mean how are you to know, it's not got a sign outside saying he died there"

Bob's eyes widened and shook his head lightly at her then looked back at Jason. "He was a good man and if you are sure, I'd recommend speaking to Aaron about it, it might be a bit raw, actually no it will be"

Jason nodded with a half-hearted smile, then reached into his suit jacket and pulled out his card and handed it to Bob. "Call me if you decide, I'm definitely interested" he told him before leaving the café to make his way down to the garage. When Jason arrived he saw his boyfriend busy working on paperwork and he stopped on the other side of the counter with a smile. "Alright?"

Aaron looked up with a smile for his boyfriend. "Yeah not bad" he said as he glared over at Cameron.

Jason sighed and turned and looked over his shoulder and saw his older brother bent over under the bonnet of a car. "He giving you grief?"

Aaron shook his head. "Nothing I can't handle" he flashed a smile "So what you up to then?"

"Erm I wanna run something by you, fancy an early lunch? At the pub?"

"Yeah go on then" Aaron nodded and got down off the stool and headed out with Jason. At the pub Jason and Aaron were sat at a table after ordering Marlon's special and a pint each.

"So what's this about then?" Aaron wondered as Cameron walked through for his dinner.

"There's no easy way to bring this up so here goes, I was thinking of moving and I heard that the guy who owns the café might be moving out..."

Suddenly Aaron felt his cheeks go all hot and he felt as if he was panicking inside, he frowned. "Rightt?" he asked, dragging out his words.

"And well he told me about Jackson living and dying there"

Aaron swallowed hard as he nodded quickly. "Right, so what is this?"

"I've been thinking about it for a while, I wanna be closer to you, and this seems like a good opportunity"

Aaron sighed as he looked at Jason; he was being serious aswell! "Are you asking me to move in?"

Jason smiled. "Would you want too?"

"No" Aaron point blank refused, his tone very sharp.

"Look I know what that house means but it's the only house I've seen available and perfect, I just wanna give us a try, a proper try, living together"

Aaron began to chuckle. "Not a chance" his walls were well and truly back up, he got to his feet quickly. "Mum scrap that dinner I'm not staying"

Chas frowned as she stood watching her son, he was in a state and she'd seen that look in his eyes on many occasions. "Is everything alright?"

Aaron turned and looked down at Jason with a disgusted look. "Ask him!" he told her before he stormed out.

Chas sighed and looked over to Jason. "What you done?"

Jason shook his head, his mood very low now. "You don't wanna know..." he replied as he saw Cameron looking at him with that smirk on his face. "Ey!" he raised his voice. "Who the hell are you looking at?"

Cameron's smirk widened. "Nobody" he said with a shake of his head.

Chas watched them both from the behind the bar and instantly picked up a very negative, volatile vibe coming from the brothers. She panicked when Jason got up from his table and watched as he walked right up to him.

"Out with it then" Jason said then clenched his jaw, he was clearly angry and attention from other drinkers was now on him, Chas was keeping an eye on him.

Cameron chuckled, shook his head then turned and looked straight ahead.

"If you've got something to say Cameron I suggest you get it off your chest"

Cameron smugly, turned to face his younger brother. "Knocked you back did he?"

Jason sighed and broke eye contact for a second.

"Wouldn't be the first time eh?" Cameron smiled. "Let's face it Jason, you are no Jackson"

Chas was horrified at that statement and walked to the bar and stood in front of them both. "Cameron!"

Cameron ignored her and carried on. "You never will be. Second best, that's you always have been…he will never love you like he loved Jackson"

"And you'd know about that would ya? What the hell do you know about love?" Jason scoffed as Flynn and Adam walked in.

"Yeah I do" Cameron replied.

"What?" Jason laughed. "With the wrong woman, not Debbie no?" that caused more attention as drinkers began to converse with one another quietly, trying to sum up the situation unravelling before them.

Chas frowned and her eyes darted between Cameron and Jason and she began to panic. He knew, that's all she could think about.

Cameron slammed his pint down onto the bar and got in his face. "You need to shut up right now" he warned him.

"Make me" Jason countered.

"Cameron! Leave him alone! And you get out and cool off a bit yeah?" Chas yelled.

Jason angrily pushed himself away from the bar and when he turned he saw Flynn looking at him. "What are you looking at eh?"

Flynn pouted with a smirk. "A loose cannon by the look of it"

"You don't know the first thing about me"

"No" Flynn said as he got to his feet. "I don't, but if that temper hurts Aaron physically or mentally then you will regret it"

"Pfft" Jason shook it off and walked out of the pub quickly.

…

Later that day, Adam walked along to the garage as it was about to close in hopes of meeting Aaron, when he turned the corner there was no signs of Aaron closing up for the day. Aaron groaned when he saw Adam walk into the garage. "Don't mean to be rude and all that Adam but I wanna be left alone"

Adam frowned. "This got something to do with you and Jason in the pub earlier?"

"How'd you know?"

"Your mum mentioned something but not what exactly"

"Well it'll stay that way, just go will ya, I'm not in the mood"

"Aaron" confusion filled Adam's tone. "I'm your mate you can talk to me anytime"

"Yep well I'm choosing not too…so on ya go"

"Come for a pint?" Adam asked. "You should be closed now"

"Yeah well I've got work to do" he replied uninterestedly as he walked round the counter and started to push Adam out of the garage.

"Aaron? What is it? What's he done?"

"Oh yeah cause I'm gunna tell you aren't I? You'll just tell your mate"

Adam sighed. "You're being ridiculous, no I wouldn't"

"Well you're not getting the chance, I'm pissed at you anyway for the other night in the pub so just jog on I don't need you right now, I need space" he told him as he started pulling the garage doors shut, once they were the loud echo racked his hearing and he locked them then returned to his work. When he sat down he let out a deep breath; he would have probably said yes to Jason had it not been Dale head that he was interested in. But because it was, he couldn't…yeah he'd been in the house after Jackson died several times but now? Could he? He didn't think he could, Hazel wasn't there anymore for one and neither was Jackson and he never would be again, those two people were the focus of his memories of that house, he couldn't imagine himself and his new fella setting up home there. He was angry by Jason's suggestion, way more than angry and upset too because Jason continued to bring it up despite knowing what happened there.

…

Later that night, Jason was sat at the bar and smiled at Chas as she placed a pint down in front of him. "I'm sorry about earlier"

"It's fine" Chas told him. "Have you seen Aaron?"

"Nope, don't think I will tonight either"

"What did you do?"

"I've been thinking about moving and I heard that Dale head might be coming available so I tried talking to him about it"

Chas sighed and rolled her eyes. "You do know don't ya?"

"Yeah I did but I thought I could still tell him, I asked if I did move there would he, he point blank refused, I understand I guess and I realise now I should have been more sensitive"

"Or you could have simply not bothered bringing it up at all?"

Jason rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Is he still moaning?" Cameron asked as he walked up behind Jason and propped himself up beside him on a stool, he knew what he was doing. Chas couldn't be doing with that at that moment so she left them to it. "You know" Cameron continued as he leaned in closer to his brother. "Maybe I should warn Aaron…"

"About what?" Jason snapped.

"You, of course"

"Nothing wrong with me, it's you with the problem brother"

"He knocked you back, what you going to do about it? Repeat of the last time?"

Jason scoffed. "I got help, I'm alright now" he told him quietly.

"Nah, you're teetering on the edge Jason, you're going to crack…"

"You don't know anything about me, for being brothers we know nothing about each other, except of course that you're a lying cheat and that you're doing it again, with Chas" he added quietly.

"Totally different league to what you've done in the past, let me ask you something yeah? Do you remember the look in his eyes, his face? Do ya?"

Jason growled in frustration and got off the stool and stormed out of the pub but Cameron followed him out into the night. "Well!" Cameron yelled. "There was nothing in his eyes, nothing! And you did that and I'll be damned if I let you do it again!"

Jason stopped and turned around quickly and marched up to his brother and swung a hard fast punch which struck Cameron on his jaw which knocked him back.

…

In the garage Aaron was sat on the cold hard floor in a corner with his phone up to his ear. "…I just don't know…why would he do that?"

"It sounds like he really likes you Aaron, he might have just got a little ahead of himself that's all" Hazel told him.

Aaron sighed. "But he knew Hazel, he knew about Dale head before he even brought it up, what the hell is he playing at?"

"Oh I don't know love but sitting in the garage for as long as you have been won't help you, you need to talk to him"

Aaron sighed and nodded. "Yeah, suppose you're right as always" he said with a smile.

"You can call me anytime love, I might be hundreds of miles away but that doesn't change anything, I'm here for you"

Aaron smiled. "And I appreciate it, I appreciate you…I-I just wish sometimes like now, tonight that I could go back to how it used to be" he said as a sob escaped him which was heard on the other end by Hazel.

"Oh love, don't cry" she said sadly. "I know exactly how you feel, I feel it every day it never goes away I doubt it ever will but you just have to stay strong and live your life…this situation with Jason will work itself out"

"I'm not" he sniffled. "I'm not going to cry" he told her as he blew out a breath. "I'll talk to him and I'll call you again soon yeah?"

"You better had, take care of yourself Aaron"

"You too, bye Hazel" he said and ended the call.

As soon as he did there were three quick bangs on the garage doors which scared the life out of him. "Aaron!" Chas yelled. Aaron frowned and got up and walked to the doors and opened them. "Adam said you were here…"

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's Cameron and Jason; they're fighting in the street"

"Oh god!" he let out a sigh and ran as fast as he could, he'd lock the garage when the situation was dealt with. When he left the grounds of the garage and started running up the village, he saw them rolling and struggling against one another on the ground as punches were thrown. "Hey!" he screamed as he approached; he dived onto Jason who was on top of Cameron and he pulled him off him in the process.

Jason however was in a blind rage and he punched, and kept punching. "No!" Chas screamed as she watched Aaron struggling to get away from him but the punches still hit his face. Cameron recovered, getting his breath back as he watched, stunned. "Do something!" Chas demanded and Cameron then jumped into action and pulled Jason away and shook him violently. "LOOK!" he shouted as he forced his brother round so he could see who he was hitting.

Jason's eyes were wide with horror and he swallowed hard as the damage he had inflicted could be seen on his boyfriend, blood from his nose and lip covered the bottom half of Aaron's face. He placed his bloodied hands over his mouth and shook his head.

Aaron sniffled as he pushed himself up. Chas glared at Jason as she rushed over to help her son. She wrapped her arm around him and led him away.

"A-Aaron I- I didn't…I didn't mean it, I didn't know it was you"

Cameron shook him again. "Not happening again, no? This is always the start…or at least the way it went last time…"

Jason shook his head in denial. "It's not…Cameron it's not, I won't do that again"

Angrily Cameron pushed him away angrily. "Get out of my sight!"

Just as they reached the pub Aaron pulled away from his mum's gentle hold and started walking down the village. "Where are you going?"

"The garage needs locking up" he called back to her as tears ran down his cheeks.

"That can wait, you can't"

Aaron shrugged and kept on walking. Jason watched him then started running after him. "Aaron I'm so sorry please, please forgive me!"

"Don't you dare come anywhere near me!" Aaron growled back which indeed made Jason stop.

Jason frowned in confusion, it wasn't happening again, he'd had help since the first time, this wasn't a repeat, just a massive severe mistake in a blind rage, he genuinely thought it was Cameron; he had no recollection of being pulled from his brother. Aaron would forgive him, he had too he needed him – he loved Aaron and he loved him.

TBC…