youth, aaron taylor johnson

xv. facetime

incoming call from mars bars!
✧∘ଂ ࿐ ཾ

"have you ever noticed that our ship name sounds like moron?"

aaron answered máire's facetime call from his seat at their dining table, his mouth full of a bite of cereal he'd only half-chewed through before she'd immediately begun to speak the second the call connected through

"you know those three years
you spent getting your degree?"
he paused. "yeah, what purpose
did that serve, exactly?"

máire's squinted at him in a glaring expression,
rolling her eyes in humor

"shut up, you wanker."

aaron noticed her surroundings — her hair pulled up in a bun as she seemed to be reclined in a bathtub, bubbles up to her chest.

"are you in the the bath?
why are you calling me
from — " he stopped, "is
that fionn's bathroom?"

the blonde girl shrugged, picking up a mimosa from out of view and sipping on it casually.

"his tub is nicer, and we
were out of champagne,"
she shook her head, "and
anyways, that's not why
i called you."

"okay, fine. why are you thinking
about our ship name, then?" he
asked, a smirk appearing across
his face, you harboring a crush
on me or something?"

"you wish." she scoffed, "no, i
was just accidentally reading
some comments when i was
going through my instagram."

aaron sighed, worried about the things people were saying to her. he figured they wouldn't be all awful — he knew plenty of people didn't hold sam in too high of a regard — but he was sure there'd still plenty of people in there to hate on her. he knew how much some people would like to attack someone like her for anything they could get their hands on. young women couldn't do anything right, most of the time. there always a catch with someone.

"well, that's one way to fucking
destroy a relaxing bath."

"it's not all bad." she reassured,
trying to keep the mood light,
"i'm not really the villain here,
to most people."

máire knew the sly dig was probably immature, but she didn't entirely care. she cared about aaron — she'd never liked his ex-wife all that much anyways, it wasn't uncommon knowledge. she knew aaron had just brushed her feelings about her to the side over the years for the sake of their friendship. which, perhaps, had probably been for the better. an eighteen years old opinion probably wouldn't have stood a chance up against the way his wife would have felt if she had ever caught a whiff of the distain maíre felt towards her.

"people online are nice to you?"

aaron hoped that was the case. people had always had things to say about his wife, for reasons enough, but he felt more inclined to protect máire from it, for some reason. probably because he remembered how the comments had made him feel at her age. he'd never want maíre to have to go through the same things.

"absolutely not. a good chunk of
comments are calling me a home-
wrecking whore. but some of them
are good craic. the other ones would
probably send you to therapy, though."

he knew what she was referring to — the things that were said about him, about his relationship. the things he was almost too afraid to truly consider.