youth, aaron taylor johnson

viii. phonecall

incoming call from quickie!
✧∘ଂ ࿐ ཾ

maire was awoken by her dog licking her face and her phone ringing stimutaniously. she groaned, burying her head into her pillow as she blindly teacher for her phone on the bedside table and answering it.

"i need a roommate."

aaron knew maire wasn't one to drag out a conversation, and he didn't beat around the bush. the quickest way to get attention was to be straight up, and it worked.

"good morning, quickie"

she rubbed her eyes and yawned, but nonetheless sat up in her bed as aaron was already well into making his case.

"one, you've got to stop
calling me quickie, two,
it's one pm. three, i love
my parents but i seriously
cannot live with them again."

did aaron think he would ever move into a flat with a twenty-one year old who had somehow managed to become his best friend? no. frankly, he could've probably just got one for himself but he hadn't lived alone since he was eighteen, and he wasn't sure he wanted to either. nonetheless, he couldn't be almost thirty and living with his parents again, either.

"again, i repeat, good
morning quickie"

he sighed, the unfortunate nickname was stuck with him. the nickname had been stuck with him since they had met. he understood the connection between lizzie's witchy and his quickie, he just wished quicksilver could've shortened down to anything else. but it was grandfathered in at this point, and he was going to be literally living with it if all
went according to plan.

"again, do you still
need a roommate?"

maire picked up the white ball of fluff that was trying to burrow himself between the blankets and her legs, placing him beneath the blankets right next to her— his favorite spot, and the only one she was willing to share a blanket with.

"besides my dog? yeah.
i have my eye on a few
places, but hugo the pup
doesn't exactly pay rent."

hugo's head popped out of the blankets, his ears perking up before maire scratched his head and he settled down again.

"you're gonna bring hugo
with you when you
move out?"

aaron laid down in his own bed, the twin that he was far too grown for. he didn't know who he was anymore, but he figured this was the shot he had at a way to find out.

"i would like to. but
he can stay here if
you don't want to."

she was bluffing really, there was no way she was going anywhere without hugo. she loved aaron, but she was loyal to her dog as much as he was loyal to her. they were a package deal.

"oh, so we're
roommates now?"

maire placed the phone on speaker and set the phone on the bed next to her, and turned to grab the laptop off the side table.

"you're the one who
called me, quickie."

"i'd love to have
hugo around."

hugo's head popped up again upon hearing his voice, and then upon realizing that it wasn't someone in the room but rather someone over the phone, he laid back down under the blanket.

"and pedro?"

"and pedro."

aaron sighed, but laughed nonetheless. if maire wanted her death trap in their garage, so be it. but he'd be avoiding it as much as humanly possible.

"deal, i'll send you some
wee places i've been
looking at. we can
book some showings."

maire was already pulling up tabs she had saved over the past while of flats she had
been looking at.

"you've been planning
this all week, huh?"

she shrugged, although he couldn't see it. her laugh though, gave it away. admittedly, she had scoped out flats for just her, but she had looked at some with the possibility of knowing aaron was around again, too.

"hey, aaron?"

they'd both stopped laughing. maire could hear his breaths on one end, and aaron could hear hear her typing on the other

"yeah?"

"i love you"

the sentence made him smile. it was something they said to each frequently enough, but he after all he'd been through over the course of the divorce, it meant more to him than ever to hear it. even if was platonic. someone cared, and though he knew that all along deep down, after feeling so isolated from everything as he tried keep himself together through the divorce, sometimes a reminder just meant the world.

"love you too, mars."

✧∘ଂ ࿐ ཾ
mars bars has ended the phone call!
✧∘ଂ ࿐ ཾ