Aaron Connor (5 page)

My room was small, but it was
enough for little old me. My bed was in the left hand corner where
above hung posters of Cheryl Cole, Tulisa Contostavlos and members
of The Beatles. The Beatles are my secret pleasure. If Simon got
news that I was into the Fab Four, he’d never let it go and would
fuel him for some more taunting. I have every one of their songs on
my MP3 player and I have DVDs of their films: A Hard Day’s Night,
Help!, The Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine. We all have
our guilty pleasures.

I flung my backpack onto the
bed before falling backwards onto the spongy mattress. I had one of
those memory foam deals, the ones that leave an imprint of you when
you get back up. It was lovely and comfy as it allowed my weight to
sink right into it, until I was about halfway immersed in yellow
sponge. I wriggled around for a bit before lying still, staring at
the ceiling.

I liked doing that, just
staring at the ceiling. It helps me think. I’ve learnt that if I
try and think with my eyes shut I just fall asleep, and then I’d
wake up and forget what it was I was thinking about, so pointless.
My ceiling was made of that plaster like stuff that’s been made
into many circles. It hadn’t been done that well, as there were
blotches and balls of plaster splattered around everywhere. When
I’m having one of these thinking sessions, I like to count all of
these circles as it sometimes helps me to concentrate.

I was thinking about the
future. A bit deep I know but it was only then that I really begun
to worry about it. I couldn’t really get a job with the grades I
had. I’d be stuck with me parents for the rest of my life. Yeah,
that’s romantic init? Bring a girl around after a date before
warning her to be quiet, as to not wake up my folks! Blimey, this
was going to be a sad existence.

I lay there quietly for a
while, before kicking my bag aside. Soon I climbed myself into the
bed properly and fell asleep almost instantly.

CHAPTER FOUR

I was woken up by my Mum, who
was shaking my shoulder violently. She was also shouting at an
incredible volume. I was still half asleep when this happened, so
at first I had no idea what it was she was going on about. Through
my sleepy eyes she was nothing more then a screaming blur. All I
could make out was her face, her hair and a piece of paper that she
was waving in my face.

Then it finally clocked in my
mind. She must had gone into my bag and found the GCSE results. My
vision cleared and blimey she looked mad. Her face had gone bright
red, she was covered in sweat and her eyes looked like they were
about ready to explode from their sockets.

“
What is
this?!” she exclaimed with unbelievable fury, “Explain yourself
Aaron! Why did you fail all your subjects but one! Why didn’t you
study harder! Why didn’t you listen to a word I said?!”

“
I did Mum” I
pleaded, “I did study Mum, honestly I did”

“
Well, that’s
not what this result table says” retorted my Mum, “don’t lie to me
Aaron!”

“
I’m not!” I
insisted,

“
You are, why
else would you have done this? You’re going to amount to nothing!”
Mum screamed, she was off on one now, “You’ve just gone and screwed
up your entire life! Why didn’t you just try and be a better son?
Why didn’t you work harder for me at least? Answer me
that!”

I didn’t know what to say. I
wasn’t going to win this argument no matter what I said. That alone
was clear. My head was still sleepy and wasn’t quite switched on
yet. I was having trouble thinking of something to say to her. All
this did was allow my Mother the go ahead and keep on shouting.

“
So what are
you going to do now Aaron?” she yelled, “Mooch off me some more?
You’re 16 and you’re going nowhere. You have no future ahead of
you. You’re going to be stuck in St.Ians all your life! Is that
what you want?”

“
No” I replied
meekly,

“
What was
that?” my Mum asked,

“
No” I
repeated, “that’s not what I want”

“
If that’s the
case, then why didn’t you try harder and listen to what your
teachers were saying?”

“
I WAS
Mum!”

“
Oh yeah?”
asked Mum, looking about ready to go ballistic, “that’s not what
your head master told me. He told me that you’re bunking off,
playing games on your phone in class, talking back and…”

“
THAT’S A
LIE!” I interrupted with a bellow to my Mum’s surprise, “That
Bertgill’s had it in for me since I started. I’ve tried so hard to
behave and take notes and study and revise and…”

“
Stop lying to
me!” my Mum interrupted in a horrific shriek, “where are all these
lies going to get you? I’ll tell you, nowhere! Why do you do this
to me? I’ve worked hard all my life to get a good job, raise a
family and for us to have a roof to sleep under and this is the
thanks I get? Wait till your Father gets home, he’ll have a thing
or two to say to you!”

Before I could say anything in
reply she stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
My Mother, as you just read, had a furious temper. She’s been in
and out of clinics to get it sorted out with no avail. When she
gets mad like that, it can be scary. When she’s raging about
something nothing can stop her. That is until all the anger has
drained out of her system. Then she’d usually come back up and
apologise for the outburst, but tonight I wasn’t even going to let
her do that.

She made me feel so stupid. It
made me feel like I was nothing more then a village idiot. She
wouldn’t listen to me because she’d already heard some information
from a higher authority, some made up crap about me which she
believes in because the man’s a Head Master. That was it. I wasn’t
going to hang around until Dad got back. I was leaving.

It genuinely was a spur of the
moment type thing. Sometimes when you are given that nudge from
inside you to do something, you’ve got to act upon it. I still
think taking the advice from my inner instincts was the best
decision I ever made. I was on the second story of the house and I
couldn’t go back into the corridor, in fear that I might encounter
the Mrs. Hulk again.

I needed to get out. Even if I
did change my mind and come back again I needed to get outside. I
needed some fresh air. There was too much going on in my mind for
this tiny room to bear. I needed open spaces and maybe even a good
walk to get some thinking done. I thought that maybe after that,
I’d feel a lot better about everything that was going on.

I opened my window to see a
large tree right next to the house. I looked out to see that there
was a thick branch quite close to me. I looked at the branch and
had a look at the small distance between it and the window. Below
was a frightening drop to the ground. One bad slip and whoosh,
splat, bye-bye Aaron.

Ever since I was little, I had
thought about jumping out of the window and climbing down the tree,
but I was always too afraid of falling to go through with it.
Tonight though, I just didn’t care. I was now certain that I had no
real future. My brain was overloading with anger and depressive
thoughts. The air in this room now felt far too thick. I felt like
I was going to explode from repressed anger. I needed to
escape!

I climbed onto the windowsill
and stood there for a while. I kept on staring at the branch I
wanted to jump onto. I was determined to get onto that branch. I
wasn’t going to allow my fear to get in the way of that. I took a
deep breath, counted to three and jumped.

I only just made it on by a few
millimetres. As to not fall off I shuffled forwards carefully until
I was safely on the bulk of the tree. The cold night air felt
refreshing on my skin. I hadn’t noticed that when I woke up it had
suddenly turned dark. I’d just had a daytime nap of a few hours,
meaning that I was going to be able to stay awake longer that
night.

I looked back at the window
behind me and smiled. I’d always wanted to do that. After all the
unpleasantness that the day had brought, that one little
accomplishment made none of that matter. I felt so much better,
almost relieved. Then I realised that I couldn’t stay there long.
Mum might have come back into the room and spot me on the tree
outside. So I turned around and started to climb down.

I landed on both feet onto the
ground below. Without looking back I ran away from the building and
jumped over the fence. Once over I didn’t go anywhere else, I just
sat there on the path to catch my breath. I now knew I was out of
sight from anyone back in the house, so I’d have some time to sit
back and relax for a moment or two.

I’d found myself at the head of
a cul-de-sac of identical semi-detached houses. These houses were
slightly nicer than the one I lived in and outside in the drives
was some fairly decent cars. I wasn’t jealous or anything. In fact
I was happy for them for doing better then us.

I’m usually someone who’s happy
with his lot anyway. I didn’t moan when I didn’t get what I wanted
at Christmas, I was just happy with what I was given. I didn’t have
a TV or Games Consol in my room as we couldn’t afford it. That
didn’t matter because what I did have was a lot of books.

At the local charity shops down
the road they sold three books for a quid. I grew to love reading,
probably why I’m not doing too badly writing this book.
Unfortunately when it came to English class at school, I wasn’t so
good at analysing symbolism and stuff like that, so I failed. Some
of my creative writing assignments came back with at least a C or a
D which would make me smile, but overall I didn’t do that well on
the course.

I do love books though. I
remember some of the ones I had back in that room were: Junk by
Melvin Burgess, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain,
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson and Carrie by
Stephen King. A bit of a random selection but I liked variety,
well, variety depending on what the charity shop had in stock.

I was quite content by simple
means, so I didn’t do what most kids in my situation would do and
get bitter over what they didn’t have. I’ve found that it’s far
easier to not do the latter, as it makes you aggravated when
there’s no need to be.

I didn’t look too long at the
houses anyway, as the night sky was stunning. The moon was up and
the stars were shining bright. I don’t know why but I’m forever
fascinated by the night sky. Like a child I’ll still crane my neck
up and look up in awe at the large expanding universe above. Even
by that alone I had already forgotten what I was so angry about
before. Simple things can calm the nerves, if you have access to
them.

There was suddenly a tap on my
shoulder. It made me jump out of my skin and I gave out a quick:
“huh!”. I looked around to see the large beautiful eyes of someone
I knew very well. It was Lizzie. She was in the same clothes as
before but now wore a black Paul’s Boutique jacket. Her pencilled
eyebrows were pointed downwards to express concern. Her lovely
white blonde hair was partly concealed in the jacket’s black
hood.

“
What are you
doing out here?” I asked,

“
I came out to
ask you the same thing” she replied, “I saw you climb down the tree
from my bedroom window. Is something up?”

“
Just had a
nasty argument with my Mum” I said sadly,

“
Did she find
the GCSE results paper?” she asked,

“
How’d you
know that?” I asked,

“
I just
assumed that was what it was about” she answered, “They weren’t
exactly the best scores in the world now were they? I couldn’t
believe it the first time you showed me”

“
You got about
the same as me didn’t you?” I asked,

“
Yes” she
answered, “But I thought you were the smart one!”

I sighed and looked away.
Lizzie sat down next to be and gave me a cuddle. I returned the
cuddle, gave out another sigh and put my hoodie over my head to
shelter from the cold. If someone saw us as they walked past with
our hoods up, they’d think we were up to no good. The truth of the
matter is that hoods are just comforting things.

They enclose you in soft
material, save you from the wind and rain and it makes you feel a
little bit safer. I’m still not sure why it makes me feel safer, it
just does. Next time you see some blokes in hoodies on a cold
street corner before assuming the worst, go to a clothes shop, buy
a hoodie and try it for yourself. You’ll then probably understand
what I’m talking about.

This pleasant surprise was
exactly what I needed. My arm was wrapped around her small body, I
could smell her perfume and could feel her breathing gently against
my body. I felt so relaxed and calm. Before I realised what I was
doing, I turned my head and kissed her hair.

Slowly Lizzie moved her head
from her shoulder and looked up at me. After staring at me for a
few moments, she just smiled at me sweetly. Lizzie then pressed her
lips against my cheek. She then replaced her head on my shoulder. I
felt rather happy with myself after that.

There was the sound of a
growling engine in the distance. I and Lizzie instantly brought our
heads to see what it was. At the far end of the street we could see
some beams of light shine across the bushes. The lights got
brighter and brighter until, a bright yellow Moped appeared at the
end of the street. Adam was riding it. My heart sank.

I knew that this serenity
wouldn’t last long. I knew that something would come along and ruin
it. Something had come along. It came along in the form of that
yellow bike and the procession of people walking behind it. It was
no surprise that it was the gang of kids in black hoods, with Simon
Grant at the front of the little parade of horror. They were all
wielding weapons such as cricket bats, crowbars and
flick-knives.