Chapter Text
He had fucked up. He had fucked up so bad.
Aaron just wanted to get some groceries; that had been it. Just as he had done so many times before. It should have been simple and easy, a trip of maybe thirty minutes tops.
Going shopping, and, for that matter, driving by himself wasn’t necessarily his favourite thing in the world, but he usually managed well enough.
Usually.
It just had to go wrong so soon after Andrew had finally allowed him to drive the Mas. Being trusted to drive his car had been such a big deal for Aaron; he didn’t want to ruin it by mentioning that he was actually pretty scared of driving. So he took this small offering, this olive branch that Andrew was extending towards him, and never complained about it. Because honestly, it was really nice to be more flexible and to get around more easily. It was just his stupid anxiety that was getting in the way. But that was just in his head, so he had to ignore it.
Pulling up to the store, he didn’t have to search long for a good parking spot that was close to the entrance. It was a bit of a squeeze, but he really didn’t want to walk. Turning in his seat, Aaron slowly backed into it.
Slowly, very slowly, he backed up. He always struggled with gauging the distance while parking.
Just a bit more. Almost there.
Aaron almost jumped out of his own skin when the hum of the motor was suddenly overshadowed by an ugly scraping sound that rattled through his skull. That was absolutely another car he was scraping along. In his panic, his brain went offline, and for some stupid, idiotic reason, he changed gear and hit the gas, making the car lurch forward. As if that would undo this mistake.
The only thing it accomplished was that he scratched along the car again. He finally hit the brakes, leaving the Mas standing halfway in the parking spot, still touching the other car.
Everything was quiet now; there hadn’t even been anyone around to witness it.
Aaron was all alone, frozen in his seat, unable to do anything besides gripping the steering wheel for dear life. This could not be happening. After Andrew finally trusted him enough. After he had been slowly working on his driving anxiety. Taking deep breaths, he tried to ground himself, keeping the panic at bay.
It was fine. No one was hurt; it would just be a little scratch at most. Nothing a bit of paint couldn’t fix.
It had just happened so fast that he couldn’t do anything about it. The heavy silence that had settled over him now almost lulled him into a false sense of security. Maybe he had just imagined it, and it hadn’t really happened.
After finally gathering all the encouragement he could muster, he slowly unbuckled and got out to check the damage.
It was so much worse than he had feared.
Not only was there a giant scratch in the side of the Mas, but the blue paint of the other car was also scratched out along its side. He hadn’t even considered that the other car would obviously also get damaged.
His ears started rushing, and his heart was hammering away. He had fucked up so bad.
He was so fucking scared suddenly. Why did he have to go alone? When would the other person come back?
I hope it’s not a woman.
Please don’t be a woman.
Suddenly, that was the only thing he could think of. He was utterly terrified of an angry woman coming out and screaming at him. His brain went into a downward spiral, quickly reaching the worst possible conclusion.
What if she hits me?
He quickly took out his phone; his hands were shaking terribly. He kept looking toward the store. His stomach started cramping he was convinced he had seconds until he would be beaten.
He called Andrew on instinct. He needed him here, before she came back from the store.
It was already ringing when his brain suddenly conjured up the thought that he would have to tell Andrew about the scratch in the Mas.
He’s going to be so mad. So disappointed.
He cut the call before it could connect. Andrew thankfully hadn’t picked up yet.
He tried to take a few deep breaths, but could only manage shallow gasps. His eyes were tearing up; he didn’t know what to do.
Nicky. He needed Nicky.
His cousin picked up on the second ring.
“Aaron! Thank god, did you just call Andrew? We were worried-“
“Nicky.”
He hated how pathetic he sounded, all shaky and weak.
Nicky’s voice took on a panicking note.
“Aaron? Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?”
He tried not to cry, but he was so scared. He had fucked up so bad.
“I’m- I’m sorry. The car, its….”
He sobbed, trying to regain composure. He absolutely hated this. Meanwhile, Nicky was freaking out.
“What happened with the car? Are you hurt? Where are you?”
“In the parking lot. Of the store. It's-“ He took a deep breath, before dropping his voice to a whisper. ”I scratched it on another car.”
A short silence followed, and before Nicky could say anything, he continued.
“I know. I'm sorry. Don’t tell Andrew. It's just- I'm scared.”
Another short pause followed before Nicky spoke up softly, clearly hesitant.
“Scared… of Andrew?”
“That too. But more of the person whose car I scratched. Can you hurry here? I don’t want to be alone when she comes back. What if she's-“
Angry? Violent?
He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. Nicky still understood.
“Hey, calm down. We’ll be there in just a second. Just stay in the car. If anyone comes, just call me again, alright.
We?
*
He had gotten lucky. By the time he saw Matt's car pull up, the other person hadn’t come back out of the store. He still waited until they parked directly next to him to unlock the car and get out. Nicky was with him in a second, and he gratefully accepted his hug. He was so relieved, he started crying all over again.
When he looked up again, he saw that Nicky had brought Kevin, Neil and Andrew with him. There was a small sense of betrayal, but he should have assumed they were all there to witness the call.
They were currently looking at the damage. Aaron closed his eyes and hugged Nicy tighter. He did not need a visual reminder of how badly he had messed up.
Then another voice spoke up.
“Excuse me? What's going on?” They all looked over to see a young woman standing in front of them, holding her shopping cart. She was about the same age as all of them, and looking at Neil, who was standing closest to her.
“Is that your car?” Neil asked her.
“Yeah, why?”
Aaron's grip on Nicky's clothes tightened automatically, his heart picking back up.
Neil glanced over at Aaron once before looking back at the woman. “We accidentally scratched it with our car.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and she let her cart go, briskly walking around it to get a better look. Apart from her, everyone noticed the way Aaron violently flinched at her movement, pressing himself closer to Nicky, who hugged him tighter. Kevin made a hand gesture to Nicky, after which Aaron was quickly guided to the other side of Matt's car, where he sat in the backseat.
Nicky stood outside in front of him, trying to calm him down.
“Hey, it's okay. It's not that bad. She seems nice, and we can pay for it. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
Aaron looked at his feet. “Andrew. Is he…”
“He's not mad at you, if that’s what you're worried about. He scratched it up a few times himself already.”
That didn’t make Aaron feel much better. It was Andrews' car after all, who cared if Andrew broke it.
After a while, the others came around the car and joined them. Aaron looked up at them, avoiding Andrew's eyes. Neil spoke first.
“We exchanged information. It's kind of open and shut; we'll obviously have to pay for it.”
Aaron felt sick. He tried to speak, but Neil continued.
“Whatever it is, we can manage easily; it's just surface scratches anyway.”
He looked down at Aaron.
“Calm down. I have enough money to pay for ten new cars. This is nothing.”
He should have felt irritated by Neil's flippant attitude toward money, but he just felt grateful. He probably looked horrible, eyes still wet and face bloomy from crying, but he managed to hold eye contact with Neil.
“Thank you.”
Neil's obvious surprise amused him before Andrew spoke, addressing Nicky.
“You guys drive back already. We will go and get it fixed right away.”
He meant Neil and himself with that. Andrew looked down at Aaron, frowning ever so slightly. He opened his mouth to speak, but Aaron was faster.
“I'm sorry.”
They all looked surprised at that as well, looking from Aaron to Andrew, who, for a moment, paused. Then he shook his head softly.
“Happens. But, you're not driving alone anymore.”
Fine by Aaron, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to drive at all anymore, but definitely not alone.
“Okay.”
They were on their drive back, Nicky behind the steering wheel, and both Kevin and Aaron in the back for some reason. He couldn't help but think that Kevin had been instructed to take care of Aaron in case he freaked out again. At some point, Nicky spoke up softly.
“You know why he said that you're not allowed to drive alone anymore. Right?”
He made eye contact through the rearview mirror.
“So I can't fucking crash the car anymore?”
“Nope. It's so you're not alone if something happens. He's worried about you.”
Aaron found that hard to believe. He broke eye contact, looking down at his lap
“Yeah right-“
“I mean it! That call freaked him out. I've never seen him look so scared.”
“I'm sure. No offence, Nicky, but you do tend to over exaggerate people's reactions-“
Kevin suddenly interrupted Aaron mid-rant.
“No, he's right. Andrew looked terrified something happened to you. Your call freaked us all out, to be honest.”
He started at Kein, mouth open. He hadn’t expected that, hadn’t thought they would be scared.
“Oh. Sorry. I should have probably been more straight to the point”
He didn’t know what else to say. He and Kevin held a few seconds of uncomfortably intense eye contact before Nicky spoke from the front seat again.
“Don't be. Not like we were much better after you told us what actually happened. We practically raced to you. We didn’t want you to be there alone.”
He felt warm and kind of happy. That they cared so much to be scared, to be worried.
They didn’t really talk about it again after that. The scratch was gone from the car the very next day, and apart from Matt, whose car they had borrowed, none of the other foxes had even known that anything had happened.