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Aaron closed his eyes and ran a tired hand across his face, hoping that the motion would bring about some idea of what
he could say to straighten things out. Unfortunately, he still didn't know where to begin. He didn't know exactly what had
brought him to the point of half-assing his character. He only knew what point he had finally arrived at, and so he decided
to start there.
"I can't do it anymore."
When Cal furrowed his brow in concern, though, Aaron knew that wasn't
near enough.
"What can't you do? The musical?"
Aaron's laugh was too bitter for a man of eighteen years. "No,
not that. It has nothing to do with the musical."
Cal abandoned his authoritative tone for once and chuckled. "No,
I didn't think it did. So what's this about, then?"
Aaron heaved a sigh, knowing internally that there weren't enough
sighs in the world to prepare him to tell this particular story. "My brother. It's about my brother."
"The Backstreet
Boy?"
He nodded. "Yeah, the Backstreet Boy." Of course, after the title came the natural pause, and he had to correct
himself. "Well, the former Backstreet Boy. Unfortunately, the damn group isn't together anymore, so I'm the only one left
to deal with him."
Cal asked even though he already knew the answer. "And why do you have to deal with him?"
Aaron
threw his arms up in despair. "Because he's living in my fucking house, with my fucking roommates, screwing
up my fucking life because he can't take care of himself!" He sighed again and shook his head as though
not even he could believe the mess that had arisen. "I honestly thought we could make him better. I thought that, between
Cara and Theresa, something would happen to where he could straighten himself out. I thought he could solve these problems
he's had since that fucking group dissolved. And it was better for awhile, but now he's just getting worse, and I honestly
don't think we can help him anymore. I think he's beyond help." He laughed again, the bitter laugh that would've made Cara's
skin crawl. "Hell, I know he's beyond my help. He's been beyond my help for the past five years. I really did think that Cara
and Terry had a good shot with him, though."
Cal's eyebrow rose. "And why would they have a good shot with him?"
For
the first time all day, Aaron's face showed the first traces of a small smile. "Because they had a damn good shot with me."
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