Chapter Text
Robert Sugden was no different to any other teenager, well not really. If there was a party being thrown, then Robert would always be there. It started off as just a way for him to get away from his siblings on a Friday night, despite having to get up early and work on his father's farm the next day, but soon enough his little sister Vic had started to tag along with him. Robert didn't really mind Vic intruding but on one Friday night she'd brought their brother Andy along and Robert was less than pleased.
This week’s party was being thrown at Adam Barton's house, which was the other farm in the small village of Emmerdale where they lived. Robert was pretty sure that Vic had a crush on Adam and that was why she insisted upon coming, though he had no idea why she decided to invite Andy and his awful girlfriend Katie. Robert hated them both. Whenever he was around the two of them, he felt as if he was on edge. They always ruined everything for him.
As soon as they had gotten to the party, Vic had left Robert to go in search of Adam and Robert was left alone and in search of a familiar face. He stumbled across Ross Barton, who was notorious at their school for dealing drugs and approached him.
“Do you have anything I can buy?” Robert asked him, he’d never really been interested in drugs before and wasn’t sure how someone went about buying them.
Ross laughed, looking so smug that Robert almost turned around and left right then. “What can I get for you, Sugden?” He asked, holding out a little bag of cocaine. “Would this do you?” Ross had to shift a whole bunch of the stuff unless he’d get in trouble with his boss and he had very little regard for the safety of whoever he was giving it to.
Robert nodded, taking the bag and putting it in his pocket quickly so that nobody would see. “Keep quiet though, yeah? I don’t want anyone finding out.”
“My lips are sealed, mate. Twenty Quid.” He held his hand out for Robert to pay him and walked off with that same smug look on his face once he had been paid.
Sheepishly, Robert took the coke in the upstairs bathroom, completely unaware that Aaron Dingle had seen his whole deal with Ross. Not that Aaron and Robert were that close, in fact the pair had barely even spoken despite going to school together ever since year eight. The cocaine took around ten minutes to kick in and once the blonde began to feel the unfamiliar buzz in his system, he headed downstairs. It was a strange feeling, everything around him felt amplified; the music blaring through the speakers Adam had set up, the laughter from the White sisters in the corner, the way his clothes felt against his skin. It felt like the room had rapidly became a hundred degrees hotter than it really was, his freckled cheeks now red and flushed. He felt euphoric and yet when his eyes landed on Andy and Katie, he felt a sudden rush of anger through his body.
He slammed Andy up against the wall nearest to them, the drug making him confident he could take on his much taller and much stronger brother. All it took was one swift punch from Andy and the next thing Robert knew was that he had been thrown out of the party and right into the mud outside of Adam’s house. The teenager groaned softly, reaching up when he felt blood dripping down his face. It wasn’t a shock that Andy had busted his nose, the pair of them had fought plenty of times in their life and Robert always came out worse off. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand, forcing himself up off the ground and beginning to walk down the gravel track towards the village.
Time seemed to pass so slowly for Robert, the short walk turning into half an hour of him dragging his feet along the gravel until he finally reached the village park. He bent over, clutching his stomach as he felt the contents of his stomach coming up and spilling out onto the grass beneath him, covering his posh designer shirt, that he’d spent ages saving up for too. He felt a heavy hand on his back, guiding him away from the park but didn’t really register anything until he was back in the stranger’s bathroom, lay in the bathtub with the shower pouring down on him. Robert’s head lulled backwards, hitting the tiles behind him with a heavy thud that he would feel for several days after. Double vision didn’t do much help for his nausea but eventually he began to make out the stranger in the room. Aaron Dingle.
Aaron looked down at Robert, guiding a bottle of water to his mouth to try and keep him hydrated. “What were you thinking taking anything that Ross sells? You idiot.” He scoffed, helping Robert out of the shower and shutting the water off.
“Andy’s fault.” Robert mumbled, his body limp in Aaron’s arms as he helped him to his feet. He was like a deadweight leaning against Aaron and somehow, he managed to drag Robert into his bedroom, tucking him into the bed while he went downstairs to clean Robert’s clothes for him. Aaron silently thanked his family for being away for the night as he stuffed Robert’s clothes into the washing machine, putting it on a boil wash since he figured the stench of sick would be pretty hard to remove.
Eventually he returned to his bedroom, taking a second to admire a sleeping Robert. The blonde looked pretty as he lay there, no hints of any troubles on his face. Aaron felt sorry for him, he had heard all about what had happened to Robert’s mum, Sarah. It was tragic and Aaron understood why Robert had always been a little messed up. He pushed Robert out of the way and climbed into bed besides him, attempting to fall asleep despite the huge lump snoring besides him.