‹ Prequel: The Pros and Cons of Loving
The Pros and Cons of Growing Up
Part Thirty-Eight (Updated 12/22/09)
Several Weeks Later
Aiden’s POV
I had to admit, I was very surprised at how clean Eric and I had managed to keep our house over the next few weeks. It was odd how owning a place and paying for (okay, helping to pay for) a house could make you actually want to take care of it.
Although I had originally planned to start school the following fall after my anorexia bout, I had decided it would be better on me if I took off a year. I was in the process of looking for a job but wasn’t having much luck. As it was, Eric was going to school full time and still working a few hours a week at the textbook shop on his campus. Our house was only ten minutes away from his school so he walked a lot which cut down a lot of the gas money out of our budget, but I still really needed a job.
I won’t lie. Things had been hard, living away from home. I talked to both of my fathers on a daily basis, and had even gone home to sleep over several times. I had become very dependant on both of them, but I hadn’t realized it until they had been gone every single day. I had been doing better with my eating disorder. Sometimes it still hurt to eat, but it was at a point now where if I forced myself to actually eat the food it would stay down and I would feel better once it started to digest. Some foods still made me gag and I had quickly learned to cut them out of my diet entirely.
Eric was still in school, and still undeclared. It wasn’t that he couldn’t decide what he wanted to do. Last semester after our fighting had ended he declared himself an English major, then a math major, then an Italian major (don’t ask me why—he did this after only one semester of the language), and then her went through every science major the school offered. Finally his advisor told him the next major he picked he had to keep at least a year. Needless to say, he decided to un-declare again incase he “found ‘just the right’ major” for him. I love the boy with all of my heart, but lately he couldn’t make a solid decision to save his life. Just going to Fazolis with him was an ordeal—should he get the baked spaghetti, the lasagna, or the pizza? Oh, he really loved that pizza.
“Aiden, don’t forget we have to make those chocolate candies tonight for that work bake-sale tomorrow.” Eric had come out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, where I was laying in bed half asleep and thinking. When he had gotten out of bed it woke me up and I hadn’t been able to get back to sleep.
“Hmm?” I cracked an eye open. He was standing there shirtless in only boxers, towel drying his hair. How had I managed to get someone as beautiful as him? It still baffled me. No, we weren’t perfect. But we were pretty close to it in my opinion.
“The bake sale. For cancer awareness. You forgot, didn’t you? You didn’t go to the store last night and get the molds and chocolate to melt?” he sighed, pulling on jeans.
“Shit. I did forget.” I pulled the pillow from behind me and put it over my head.
He pulled it off of my head, leaned down, and kissed the top of my head. His hair fell against my face, getting me a little wet. “Can you go and get them today then? We may not even have enough time to get it done. I’ve got that night class tonight.”
“Text me and remind me? I’m still half asleep. I’ll forget.” I said.
“At least you’re honest.” he giggled, kissing my head again. “Yes, I’ll remind you. Take it easy today though, I know you’re stomach was bothering you last night. Make sure you—.”
“Eat.” I interrupted him, rolling my eyes and nodding. “I will. I’m meeting Daddy for lunch at noon.”
Eric nodded and kisses me on the lips before pulling away. “Alright. Just make sure you do. Tell Gerard I said hello.”
“Will do. Night, Eric.” I rolled over, pulling my pillow back over my head and promptly falling asleep.
SIX HOURS LATER…
Why is it that whenever I get a great idea, a really good one, that I muck it up? No, seriously. I had it all planned. I was going to clean the house up but couldn’t do that because the repair man came to fix the television. I didn’t even know the television was broken, but whatever. Then as I was on my way out a man came to install a dishwasher that Dad had apparently ordered. I don’t know why, but the man cannot accept that Eric and I know how to wash our own plates.
By the time I was able to actually have lunch with Daddy it was three o’clock. I had called him before to change the time, but when I did finally get there he had already ordered our food and was sitting towards the back of the restaurant, his notebook open in front of him. He was writing songs again, and had been very excited about them for a few weeks.
“Hey Daddy!” I said cheerfully, hugging him and then sliding into the seat next to him.
He hugged me back, closing the notebook. “How are you doing?” he pushed my plate and drink towards me before biting into his cheeseburger. Oh if Dad knew we had met in secret to eat cheeseburgers and fries he would be pissed, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Right?
“Good. Thanks for the dishwasher by the way.” I grinned at him, then bit into my burger.
“What dishwasher?” his eyebrow rose and he looked at me blankly. “Did Frank send you a dishwasher? I told him to stop! Having the third bathroom installed was enough. But then the garbage compact… the second sink in the kitchen. Adding in that pantry room! It’s like he’s building your house up so we can move in with you or something.”
We looked at each other for a few seconds, and both of our eyes seemed to widen in unison.
“You don’t think—.” I began.
“Oh, I do think. You should see him moping around the house, cleaning messes that aren’t there. I kid you not when I say I saw him trash the living room. Literally. He took the trash from the kitchen and spread it across the living room. Just to clean it. It was disgusting.” Daddy shook his head. “He needs therapy to cope with you leaving the nest.”
“It’s been three months!” I laughed. “And he calls me at least three times a day.”
Daddy nodded again, finishing off his cheeseburger. “I know it has. He’s counted the days. It’s on the fridge.”
…
…
So I wasn’t able to clean the house, but I was able to buy all of the candy molds and candy for the bake sale tomorrow. I decided I could surprise Eric by getting a head start. All you had to do was put a few chocolate pieces of candy into a plastic bag, heat it in the microwave, and fill the mold. Honestly how hard could it be? It was made for little kids to do.
The first tray of molds went exceptionally well. I had managed to do designs on all of them. If I say so myself, I’d say they looked professional. I put them in the refrigerator to cool, refilled the same plastic bag and placed it in the microwave for two minutes (as the directions said to do, might I add), and ran to the bathroom.
I knew the microwave would shut off after the two minutes, so I didn’t rush myself in the bathroom. It wasn’t like the oven after all. Microwaves turned themselves off after the time had passed. I looked at myself in the mirror. For the first time I didn’t feel repulsed at the person looking back at me. My cheeks had filled back out, which really made a difference in my appearance. My eyes looked normal again, whereas before when I was so skinny when they had almost bugged out of my head. My arms were also beginning to fill out again, making me not like quite as frail. All in all, I was beginning to look healthy. It had been a while since that had been the case.
I had been there, surveying my body, when a burning smell filled the air. My eyes widened and I ran from the room and into the kitchen. the entire back side of the kitchen was on fire! I’m not talking small one-pot-on-the-stove fire either. We are talking the entire back wall of my kitchen engulfed in eruptive red and crackling flames. The fire was beginning to move to the left side wall as well.
I stood staring at the flames in shock. I had never seen a fire before in my life, unless you counted the flame from a cigarette lighter. Which is a lot less scary. It probably took another full minute for it to register in my head. There was a fire! My microwave was on fire, my stove was on fire, and my HOUSE was on fire!
I scrambled from the room, running up the stairs. There was no use in trying to put the flames out myself. It would have been too dangerous. Not that running upstairs wasn’t, but I had to get some things. As I ran I piled every picture in our bedroom into a dirty clothes basket, grabbed anything of Eric’s that was school related that I could find including his laptop, and also grabbed the manilla folders we had hidden containing our person information.
“Hello, this is 9-1-1. Please state your emergency.” A woman’s voice said on the other end of the phone that I had been dialing on my way up.
“Yes, my house is on fire!” I said frantically, then went on to tell the woman my address as I threw anything else important that I could find into the box.
Man. Eric was going to kill me.
Aiden’s POV
I had to admit, I was very surprised at how clean Eric and I had managed to keep our house over the next few weeks. It was odd how owning a place and paying for (okay, helping to pay for) a house could make you actually want to take care of it.
Although I had originally planned to start school the following fall after my anorexia bout, I had decided it would be better on me if I took off a year. I was in the process of looking for a job but wasn’t having much luck. As it was, Eric was going to school full time and still working a few hours a week at the textbook shop on his campus. Our house was only ten minutes away from his school so he walked a lot which cut down a lot of the gas money out of our budget, but I still really needed a job.
I won’t lie. Things had been hard, living away from home. I talked to both of my fathers on a daily basis, and had even gone home to sleep over several times. I had become very dependant on both of them, but I hadn’t realized it until they had been gone every single day. I had been doing better with my eating disorder. Sometimes it still hurt to eat, but it was at a point now where if I forced myself to actually eat the food it would stay down and I would feel better once it started to digest. Some foods still made me gag and I had quickly learned to cut them out of my diet entirely.
Eric was still in school, and still undeclared. It wasn’t that he couldn’t decide what he wanted to do. Last semester after our fighting had ended he declared himself an English major, then a math major, then an Italian major (don’t ask me why—he did this after only one semester of the language), and then her went through every science major the school offered. Finally his advisor told him the next major he picked he had to keep at least a year. Needless to say, he decided to un-declare again incase he “found ‘just the right’ major” for him. I love the boy with all of my heart, but lately he couldn’t make a solid decision to save his life. Just going to Fazolis with him was an ordeal—should he get the baked spaghetti, the lasagna, or the pizza? Oh, he really loved that pizza.
“Aiden, don’t forget we have to make those chocolate candies tonight for that work bake-sale tomorrow.” Eric had come out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, where I was laying in bed half asleep and thinking. When he had gotten out of bed it woke me up and I hadn’t been able to get back to sleep.
“Hmm?” I cracked an eye open. He was standing there shirtless in only boxers, towel drying his hair. How had I managed to get someone as beautiful as him? It still baffled me. No, we weren’t perfect. But we were pretty close to it in my opinion.
“The bake sale. For cancer awareness. You forgot, didn’t you? You didn’t go to the store last night and get the molds and chocolate to melt?” he sighed, pulling on jeans.
“Shit. I did forget.” I pulled the pillow from behind me and put it over my head.
He pulled it off of my head, leaned down, and kissed the top of my head. His hair fell against my face, getting me a little wet. “Can you go and get them today then? We may not even have enough time to get it done. I’ve got that night class tonight.”
“Text me and remind me? I’m still half asleep. I’ll forget.” I said.
“At least you’re honest.” he giggled, kissing my head again. “Yes, I’ll remind you. Take it easy today though, I know you’re stomach was bothering you last night. Make sure you—.”
“Eat.” I interrupted him, rolling my eyes and nodding. “I will. I’m meeting Daddy for lunch at noon.”
Eric nodded and kisses me on the lips before pulling away. “Alright. Just make sure you do. Tell Gerard I said hello.”
“Will do. Night, Eric.” I rolled over, pulling my pillow back over my head and promptly falling asleep.
SIX HOURS LATER…
Why is it that whenever I get a great idea, a really good one, that I muck it up? No, seriously. I had it all planned. I was going to clean the house up but couldn’t do that because the repair man came to fix the television. I didn’t even know the television was broken, but whatever. Then as I was on my way out a man came to install a dishwasher that Dad had apparently ordered. I don’t know why, but the man cannot accept that Eric and I know how to wash our own plates.
By the time I was able to actually have lunch with Daddy it was three o’clock. I had called him before to change the time, but when I did finally get there he had already ordered our food and was sitting towards the back of the restaurant, his notebook open in front of him. He was writing songs again, and had been very excited about them for a few weeks.
“Hey Daddy!” I said cheerfully, hugging him and then sliding into the seat next to him.
He hugged me back, closing the notebook. “How are you doing?” he pushed my plate and drink towards me before biting into his cheeseburger. Oh if Dad knew we had met in secret to eat cheeseburgers and fries he would be pissed, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Right?
“Good. Thanks for the dishwasher by the way.” I grinned at him, then bit into my burger.
“What dishwasher?” his eyebrow rose and he looked at me blankly. “Did Frank send you a dishwasher? I told him to stop! Having the third bathroom installed was enough. But then the garbage compact… the second sink in the kitchen. Adding in that pantry room! It’s like he’s building your house up so we can move in with you or something.”
We looked at each other for a few seconds, and both of our eyes seemed to widen in unison.
“You don’t think—.” I began.
“Oh, I do think. You should see him moping around the house, cleaning messes that aren’t there. I kid you not when I say I saw him trash the living room. Literally. He took the trash from the kitchen and spread it across the living room. Just to clean it. It was disgusting.” Daddy shook his head. “He needs therapy to cope with you leaving the nest.”
“It’s been three months!” I laughed. “And he calls me at least three times a day.”
Daddy nodded again, finishing off his cheeseburger. “I know it has. He’s counted the days. It’s on the fridge.”
…
…
So I wasn’t able to clean the house, but I was able to buy all of the candy molds and candy for the bake sale tomorrow. I decided I could surprise Eric by getting a head start. All you had to do was put a few chocolate pieces of candy into a plastic bag, heat it in the microwave, and fill the mold. Honestly how hard could it be? It was made for little kids to do.
The first tray of molds went exceptionally well. I had managed to do designs on all of them. If I say so myself, I’d say they looked professional. I put them in the refrigerator to cool, refilled the same plastic bag and placed it in the microwave for two minutes (as the directions said to do, might I add), and ran to the bathroom.
I knew the microwave would shut off after the two minutes, so I didn’t rush myself in the bathroom. It wasn’t like the oven after all. Microwaves turned themselves off after the time had passed. I looked at myself in the mirror. For the first time I didn’t feel repulsed at the person looking back at me. My cheeks had filled back out, which really made a difference in my appearance. My eyes looked normal again, whereas before when I was so skinny when they had almost bugged out of my head. My arms were also beginning to fill out again, making me not like quite as frail. All in all, I was beginning to look healthy. It had been a while since that had been the case.
I had been there, surveying my body, when a burning smell filled the air. My eyes widened and I ran from the room and into the kitchen. the entire back side of the kitchen was on fire! I’m not talking small one-pot-on-the-stove fire either. We are talking the entire back wall of my kitchen engulfed in eruptive red and crackling flames. The fire was beginning to move to the left side wall as well.
I stood staring at the flames in shock. I had never seen a fire before in my life, unless you counted the flame from a cigarette lighter. Which is a lot less scary. It probably took another full minute for it to register in my head. There was a fire! My microwave was on fire, my stove was on fire, and my HOUSE was on fire!
I scrambled from the room, running up the stairs. There was no use in trying to put the flames out myself. It would have been too dangerous. Not that running upstairs wasn’t, but I had to get some things. As I ran I piled every picture in our bedroom into a dirty clothes basket, grabbed anything of Eric’s that was school related that I could find including his laptop, and also grabbed the manilla folders we had hidden containing our person information.
“Hello, this is 9-1-1. Please state your emergency.” A woman’s voice said on the other end of the phone that I had been dialing on my way up.
“Yes, my house is on fire!” I said frantically, then went on to tell the woman my address as I threw anything else important that I could find into the box.
Man. Eric was going to kill me.
♠ ♠ ♠
Hey guys! Long time, no add! I know. But I reread the series on my computer, decided to once again give it a crack, and here I go. This is really filler but I've got a serious plot coming from this. I'm really excited to begin working on this story again. I know its unlikely anyone will even check this, but in the event you do please comment! I know this isn't too great, but I've got some really good ideas, I'm excited about Pros/Cons again, and I'd like to know if anyone is interested anymore.Let me know. :) Hope it isn't too terribly crappy.
I'll try to keep timely updates. Keep in mind, however, that I'm in college and working so I'll get it out when I can. :) Thanks guys, as always you are all amazing. If I get any comments, I'll update tomorrow after work.