Aaron Wheeler

Grocery bags in hand and the sun in their faces they walked home on the sandy sidewalk with far too many holes, but Theodore already knew them by heart and could walk without looking or tripping. Sometimes he thought he died and entered a parallel universe all this time ago, when he caused the car crash and this wasn’t actually his life, but then Holden tripped him and Theodore barely didn’t fall. “The fuck was that for?” Holden jiggled the bags in his arms higher and shrugged, looking ahead with scrunched up eyebrows. “Sometimes ya get that look, like your face is relaxed, but ya look empty, and it’s fucking creepy.”
“You could have just said something instead of making me eat the sidewalk!” Theodore had never met a person so observant as Holden, and sometimes it scared him just how well Holden understood him, how easily he could read him and know exactly what was going on in Theodore’s head. He smiled at Holden and thought one day, he would give him a ring, just like Isiah gave Tate one. “Where’s the fun in that?” Holden smiled at him and Theodore kicked him in the shin and like that they continued their way, shoving and kicking each other while trying not to drop their groceries or swallow any mosquitoes and Theodore just laughed until no sound came out as everything around him was dipped in orange and Holden’s eyes sparkled, and he felt so comfortable he shuddered. Raindrops hit the top of his head, rain fell down slowly until it poured. They looked at each other and bolted down the street, groceries clutched to their chests, wind against their faces and maniacally laughing, because everything was fine.
“Come on! There’s a shortcut!” Holden yelled as he disappeared in a narrow street, lined with apple trees, Theodore had never been to. As they ran, Theodore caught a name on one of the rusty mailboxes that lined the sidewalk, and for a moment he stopped and stared at it before laughing uncontrollably, out of breath and sweaty he laughed at the mailbox, at the blue dragonfly sitting on top of it as tears filled his eyes. Theodore stood in the pouring rain, Holden yelling at him to come on, but Theodore felt as if his feet were rooted in the sidewalk, and he never thought a name on an old mailbox could cause him to feel the way it did.

Aaron Wheeler

Holden had told him his mother didn’t make it out of that town alive and back then Theodore prayed to god he would, but now he doesn’t want to leave, thinks he couldn’t. And it’s good. He found a home within himself and in this town, just like Aaron did.