My mother had been making novenas every night for weeks over this change in her perfect boy. She hardly saw him but she was in tears. Dad just seemed to lose himself in drink more.
Between going out with Gloria and working with and for Pepper, Aaron had turned into a pretty interesting dude. His language had gotten quite bad, probably from emulating Pepper's wonderful vocabulary. It turns out that Gloria liked beards so he was often unshaven. He smoked a couple of packs a day and liked a fun time. He was still getting along quite well with Pepper even though they had had a terrible fight over Gloria. Pepper thought that she was an ugly tramp and unfortunately told Aaron this. They got into a screaming fight first and it almost went to blows but Pepper pulled back and apologized. I think he saw that Aaron was nuts over this girl and would likely do any crazy thing if pressed about her.
The night he was thrown out, my Mom came in from work at 7:00, quite early for her. Gloria and Aaron were doing it on the front room couch when she walked in. Aaron had paid me to get lost for the evening so I was around. I guess it was quite a scene. My mother called her all sorts of names and blamed her for the change in her perfect boy. Aaron slapped her so hard that she hit her head against the wall and was unconscious for a bit. When she woke they were back at it - with her right in the room. This time she told them to get out and never come back. Aaron apparently laughed right in her face, but he left.
When I came home at eleven, the police were there and my dad was actually home. I stood around until I found out generally what had happened and then I went up to my listening spot in the bathroom while all the gory details had been mulled over. The police took a report but Mom didn't want to charge him. Dad kept screaming over and over "I'll kill him. I'll kill the bastard." and the police kept trying to calm him down. It was an exciting end to a pretty dull day otherwise.
***
Once Aaron moved out of the house I saw him a lot but only very briefly. He was there every day at work to pick Gloria up. They had apparently moved into together into a back apartment off one of the houses on Niger street. He had apparently been dealing more and more and was one of the top men in the quite lucrative business that Pepper had developed.
Whenever I saw him he looked more and more well off. He changed his car twice over the next two months, his clothes, though they were still of the leather jacket variety were obviously more expensive, he lightened his hair so that it began to look more like Pepper's and every time I saw him and Gloria together, it looked like he was going to hump her right then and there.
I started getting angry or maybe a bit jealous. I had wanted to hurt Aaron and make him ridiculous and maybe get back at my mother and father, but it had backfired and Aaron was turning out to be everything I wanted to be but didn't have the guts to go for. The more I thought about it the more pissed off I got.
I thought it time perhaps for God to make another visit.
School had started again. I was a junior this year, but I knew it was going to be more boring than ever. I waited until school had been in about three weeks, went off to school on a Tuesday morning - when I knew Gloria would be working - and went to Aaron's flat for the first time.