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"I'm thinking about cutting my hair," Katelyn said in the car, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Okay. I mean you don't need my permission, and I think you should do it if you want to, but why?" Aaron asked.
"I mean with Emma and everything, I mean I feel like it's the least I could do," she replied. A few weeks ago, one of the vixens had been diagnosed with cancer and it had been hard on all of them. A few of them had decided to band together and cut their hair in a show of support.
Aaron loved how caring she was, caring about everyone from her found family with the vixens to fucking Josten sometimes. He could never, and probably will never, understand how those two came to be friends.
When he picked Katelyn up from her hair stylist's place- which was really just a friend of a friend of a sister's- Aaron's first thought was that she looked amazing.
His second thought was that she looked like Josten. God. His girlfriend, of all people looking like the Palmetto striker who happened to be fucking his brother.
Auburn hair atop a thin face with bright blue eyes flashing in the sunshine.
"Do you like it?" she asked warily.
"Do you?"
"Yeah, I really like the feel and the look," Katelyn responded.
"Then yes, I do," Aaron smiled. He pushed all thoughts about his twin brother and his boyfriend out of his head.
His girlfriend was amazing and lovely, and nothing like Josten. He kissed her and pulled out of his parking spot.
When he pulled up to practice later, he saw Josten standing next to Andrew and it nearly gave him a heart attack. When he couldn't see Josten's obnoxious face, his first thought was that it was Katelyn. God. He loved Katelyn more than he loved himself, but he had to figure something out if he thought of Neil fucking Josten every time he looked at her and vice versa.
The more he thought about it, the more he didn't like it. Katelyn was kind, forgiving, and the woman he loved. Neil was ruthless, hotheaded, and the boy who was going after his brother.
Maybe they did look a little similar though. He could admit that. Maybe admit it, but not deal with it. If he ignored it long enough, maybe it would go away.
Sitting in front of Bee a week later, it did not. Clearly. When he was sleep-deprived, for example, he nearly called Neil Katelyn, and he couldn't stop thinking about she looked like Neil when he was kissing Katelyn yesterday. It was seriously fucking him up.
Andrew was running late for their joint session, and he would never talk about it with Andrew. They have enough problems as is. Bee could just tell something was wrong. He could see why Andrew liked her. Maybe "liked" wasn't the word; more like "she appealed to him." He would never understand their relationship and he's given up on trying to.
So when she asked him what was bothering him, he said fuck it and told her. Legally, she couldn't tell anyone.
"So does it bother you that Katelyn and Neil look similar, or that it's Neil she looks similar to?"
Turns out Neil, speaking of the devil, was sick and Andrew decided to skip and take care of him. Aaron had no idea how that made him feel, or whatever it was that Betsy asked because he didn't care. Andrew could skip their session with a fake excuse that he was taking care of his multiple-night stand. He was okay to skip his weekly torture, but Betsy asked him to stay.
Which is how he wound up talking about his current issue.
"I mean- they're so different, and Katelyn and I care about each other, and she could never be like him."
"So it's the fact that she looks like Neil that's bothering you," Bee replied.
"I didn't say that," Aaron protested, "I just hate that they are nothing alike but look so similar."
"And how exactly are they different?"
"Well Katelyn's amazing and I love her, and Neil's well- just Andrew's boyfriend and they don't actually care about each other; Neil's ruthless and rude, and everything Katelyn isn't."
"So is this about you and Andrew then?"
"I did not say that."
"But you meant it," Bee quirked an eyebrow. "And I think you might be upset that you and Andrew aren't as different as you may believe."
"Are you going to give me a solution to stop thinking of my brother's- whatever Neil is to him- or are you just going to sit there and psychoanalyze me?"
"You are welcome to leave if you don't want to get to the root of the problem," Bee replied, completely straight-faced.
"I don't want to get to the root of the problem, I just want it fixed."
When Katelyn picked him up, he tried to push everything relating to Andrew and Neil out of his head.
It was small talk before a genuine question about how therapy went before making out in her car and thinking that this was everything compared to his brother and Neil.
But it wasn't that he didn't care about Andrew, because he did and he was learning to; it was that he could never see how Andrew could look at Neil like he saw Katelyn.
Ignoring it worked for a little while, and he watched the sunlight streaming through her hair as she carefully drove her car back to the dorms. Completely unlike Neil's reckless driving, swerving between lanes like he was still on the run.
They said goodbye in the hallway with a kiss as Aaron opened his door. He trudged through his mountain of homework before waiting outside the Maserati for practice.
Neil and Andrew approached the car and hopped in the front seats of the car. Fuckers.
He rolled his eyes and hopped in the back. He looked at Neil leaning back in his seat and watched as his hair caught fire. Just like Katelyn's did. Fuck. God.
When they finally pulled up to the stadium Aaron jumped out of the car as quickly as he could and slammed the door. Neil looked at him weirdly, but Aaron didn't need anything from the source of his problem at the moment.
They had the same hair and the same eyes. They weren't anything like each other, right? Other than red hair and blue eyes. A fairly rare genetic combination doubling up in Palmetto to torture him. Figures, knowing his luck around anything concerning his brother.
The longer he zoned out staring at Neil, Aaron sort of started to see exactly what was bothering him.
It wasn't just that they were different, and that Neil annoyed him whilst Katelyn did anything but. Maybe it was the fact that Andrew had someone that wasn't him.
He remembered the nights on the bus where Neil comforted Andrew and the time Katelyn punched a guy who catcalled her. As much as he hated to admit it, both he and his brother had found people. Similar people, to say the least.
And whether or not they looked similar, well. It was funny that short auburn hair was what caused Aaron's entire predicament in the first place.
Andrew had Neil. Whether it was an actual relationship or just whatever they did, they were happy and Aaron was okay with that. And Aaron had Katelyn with that, and Andrew was coming to be okay with that.
God, admitting to himself that he and his brother were even somewhat similar was uncomfortable. Not in a bad way, more like it was something he was going to have to get used to.
A week later, he was sitting in front of Bee and he made eye contact and muttered a quick
"You were right."
She smiled and offered him hot cocoa. Andrew didn't say anything or even ask, and he silently thanked his brother for his apathetic attitude.
When Andrew left, Aaron stayed behind.
"I think it was more that it was Andrew's person or whatever," he said.
"Was this about Neil or Andrew?" Bee asked.
"Both, I think," he hesitated, "Maybe that Andrew and I had found people, and maybe even that they were similar." What had Josten even done to him. He wasn't exactly complaining about his mending relationship with Andrew, but now he was talking about his problems.
"Well, Aaron, I think that is a good explanation and that you have made good progress, especially with your brother." He nodded at her and got up from his chair.
In the car, Andrew raised an eyebrow, one of his only tells of emotions, and said, "If you're waiting for me to ask about whatever the fuck is going on with you I'm not going to."
"I wasn't waiting for you to do anything, asshole. And nothing's going on with me," Aaron replied through gritted teeth.
Just because he accepted whatever Josten was to Andrew does not mean he had to play nice with his asshole brother or his boyfriend. But for now, he was okay with his asshole brother and his even worse boyfriend.