Chapter Seven

David hopped off the bed and rushed toward Aaron, his bare feet slapped noisily on the tile floor. He wrapped his arms around his waist. “Thank you Dad.” He said and hugged him. “I missed you so much.” David squeezed as hard as he could.

“Davey.” Aaron said and wrapped his arms around his brother. “Oh Davey, I’m not Dad.” Aaron barely even registered; he had changed from calling him Dave or David to his childish moniker.

David looked up at him and his lips pucked into a little pout, then his brow furrowed in concentration, then he just looked sad. “Oh. Yeah.” He said and his arms slipped away from his hug. As if everything he did caught up to his sixteen year old self David realised just how childish he just acted, jumping on the bed and running around in nothing but a T-Shirt. His cheeks glowered red and he looked away from his brother, he pushed himself away and shivered a little.

“Davey… You okay?” Aaron asked cautiously. He looked down at his little brother, the height difference was a little startling, he barely came up to his waist.

“Uh-huh” David hummed and shivered again. “I don’t have any clothes.”

Aaron let out a chuckle. He had been certain David would freak out, yell or get mad. He smiled at him and nodded. “I guess we’ll need to do some shopping again.” He told him.

“Yeah!” David agreed and started to collect his previous clothes. He at least wanted something to cover himself up with. After hoisting up his old pants and slipping into his shoes he somehow looked even more like a kid. Like he was playing dress up with his older brother’s clothes.

“Are you two going to be alright?” Dr Bellamy asked curiously. She had finished filling in some paperwork. “I want you to update me everyday. Aaron, please call me every day and I think we should continue our visits every other day.”

Aaron seemed to think that was reasonable. “Is he going to be okay?” Aaron asked, a little marvelled at how fine David was acting.

“I’m fine.” David said and was tying his old sneakers as tight as possibly with the sloppy knot.

“I don’t know.” Dr Bellamy admitted. “That was a large and untested dose of The Treatment. Just call me with any updates, even if they seem insignificant.”

Aaron agreed and slowly the two of them headed back to his car. David had to hold up his pants to have any hope of them staying up.

Aaron got into the car and then heard the back door open and David sat behind him. “Davey?” Aaron asked. “What are you doing back there?”

David seemed to think for a moment about his question and then looked sheepishly away. “Sorry.” He said and started to climb into the front. It was awkward in ill fitting clothes. “I wasn’t thinking.” He admitted.

Aaron observed his brother, it was a weird mistake to make but it made Aaron think about it. He probably was a little short to be sitting in the front seat, he barely took up any room at all now. He considered telling him to stay back there but let it drop when he dutifully put on his seat belt.

Aaron started driving but couldn’t get the whole thing off his mind. “How are you holding up?” He asked.

“I’m fine, just need some new clothes.” David told him.

“You’re like… Okay with this?” Aaron said with concern in his voice.

“What do you mean?” David asked.

“You're just… So small.” Aaron told him.

David bit his lower lip thinking about it, then chuckled a little. “Yeah!” He said enthusiastically. “I’m like… Perfect.” David pulled down the mirror in the car to look at himself. He smiled at his reflection. “Okay… Maybe I look like a kid.” He admitted. “Being ten isn’t so bad.”

“It’s seven David.” Aaron corrected him.

“Right… Seven…” David said with a little concern. “Like… What should I tell people?”

“What do you want to tell them?”

“I doubt anyone will believe I’m sixteen when I look like this.” David said thoughtfully.

“You can tell people you’re sixteen.” Aaron told him. “What's the big deal?”

“It would be a lot to explain.” David told him.

“What would you tell them?” Aaron asked. “That you’re actually seven. People would treat you like a little kid.”

“Yeah… Good point.” David agreed.

The two of them finally pulled into the parking lot of the store. “Do you want to come in or let me pick something out?” Aaron asked David.

“I’ll come in.” David told him and got out of the car. He walked around to the other side and slipped his right hand into Aaron’s left. He held his pants with the other.

Aaron was a little caught off guard but led his brother through the parking lot. After about ten seconds David realised what he had done and what his brother was letting him do. He was holding his hand! He had done it without even asking, he didn’t even know why. David was way too humiliated to rip his hand out. But the more he held his brother’s hand the more he didn’t want to let go. He was totally confused and preoccupied by the situation that he didn’t even pay attention until Aaron let go, they had made it all the way to the boys clothing section of the store.

Aaron had decided on a different department store than last time, hoping to avoid seeing any familiar faces from before. The selection wasn’t very big and even he had to admit were pretty childish. The shirts all seemed to have some type of cartoon characters on them.

David almost didn’t seem to care and quickly grabbed the shirt he was closest to. It was a bright red and blue shirt with an image of Spider-Man on the front. He then moved quickly to the pants section and grabbed a pair of red sweatpants. “I’m going to put these on in the changing room.” David said to his brother.

“Okay…” Aaron said, shocked by his brother’s selection in clothes. He knew David liked comic books but the outfit he picked for himself was completely garish.

David was anxious to get into any outfit that fit. He followed his brother to the changing rooms and slipped inside. He quickly discarded his previous outfit and stopped to look at himself in the full length mirror. He wore nothing but the oversized underwear.

He bit his lip when he saw the little boy staring at him in the mirror. On one hand he was perfect, uninjured and new. On the other he was tiny. Like teeny tiny. He wasn’t a teenager anymore; he looked like he was about to go into grade one or two. He then considered the outfit he had picked out himself and cringed further. It wasn’t like anything he had worn before. He threw it to the ground. “Aaron!” He called out.

Aaron was waiting for him on the other side of the door, mostly just waiting for him to come out; they hadn’t gotten nearly enough clothes. “Yeah. Everything okay?” He called back.

“Umm. Uhh.” David stammered. “It doesn’t fit.” He lied.

“Oh.” Aaron hummed. “Can I see?”

David was starting to get mad at his brother and stomped his foot. He picked up the sweat pants and shirt and pulled them on. Of course the stretchy pants fit perfectly fine. They were just too bright. When he opened the door he could tell Aaron was confused.

“You look fine.” Aaron told him.

“I don’t like it.” David complained.

“Did you want something else?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t know.” David said and looked at his shirt again, pulling it away from him.

“Wear that for now.” Aaron decided and went into the changing room to collect his old clothes.

Aaron took him back to the clothes in the store to find something for David once again. He tried to find something more mundane, no cartoon characters and duller colours.

David wasn’t really all that interested in picking out even more clothes and settled on the fact he would need to put up with what he already had on. “Can I browse another section?” He asked his older brother.

“No Davey, stay with me.” Aaron told him, almost naturally. “Actually if you aren’t interested in clothes go try on some shoes.”

David quickly rushed away not wanting to have to try on endless clothes, Aaron seemed to be picking much more mature outfits anyway. He didn’t really trust himself to pick out something after selecting a Spider-Man sweat suit. He went over to the shoes but they all seemed the same, red or white. He rolled his eyes quickly and measured his foot. His feet were so small now. He pulled off his big shoes and discarded them. Rather than spend a ton of time finding the right size he picked a pair of Crocs off the shelf and wore those instead.

Satisfied with his blue Crocs David wandered the store, he wasn’t really all that interested in clothes shopping and ended up browsing some of the new LEGO sets. One in particular caught his eye, it was a roaring tiger.

Aaron finally picked out a few outfits for David and carried them away. He also picked out a pair of pyjamas for him to wear at night. The pyjamas were incredibly childish so he went with his brother’s instinct and picked ones with superheroes on them, this time Super Man. The long sleeve T-Shirt had a big ‘S’ on the front. The only problem now was that he didn’t know where his brother had wandered off to.

Aaron pulled out his cell phone and called his brother, he rolled his eyes when he heard it ringing from David’s old pants. He had placed everything into a very full basket and found David’s discarded old shoes in the kids shoe section, still no sign of his now very little brother. He was starting to consider getting the store to page him when he looked into a toy aisle to see David holding two boxes of LEGO, one in each hand.

“Davey?” Aaron asked. His brother didn’t move an inch, clearly transfixed by the boxes of building bricks.

“David.” Aaron said firmly which made his little brother turn his head.

“Uh huh.” He said and looked back at the boxes.

“You wandered off.” Aaron told him.

David looked at him directly now and looked past him. He could see the shoe section from the aisle. “Not really.” He said and shrugged.

“You were supposed to get new shoes.”

“I did.” David told him and lifted up a foot to show him the Crocs.

Aaron let out an exhausted sigh. “Fine.” He told him. Aaron remembered a particular lengthy conversation with David about how Crocs were barely shoes but he didn’t comment on it. Anything was fine, it’s not like he had to wear them.

“Can I have these?” David finally asked and showed his brother the LEGO. One tiger and another one was a fox.

Aaron looked at him sceptically. “We are just getting the clothes.” He told him. He still had even more things he would need to buy David due to the changes.

“Pleeeease.” David said, making sure to make it sound a little desperate. “Please Dad.”

Aaron scrunched his face for a second. David noticed. “Davey… I’m not Dad.” Aaron told him.

David frowned. Tears welled in his eyes. He threw both boxes to the ground in a fit. “Forget it!” He screamed at his brother and pushed past him. “Let’s just go.”

Aaron followed him carrying everything with him. “Davey wait.” He told him. His brother was already wiping his face with the sleeve of his arm. Aaron felt like he was failing his brother. One thing after another he kept letting him down. All because he wanted some toy.

David kept slowly marching faster through the store. He didn’t really even know why he wanted the LEGO, it just seemed like it would be fun. He wanted both because having two animals seemed like it would be better. He didn’t really have any money of his own, his brother paid for everything. Then he had also called him ‘Dad’. Again. It kept slipping out. It wasn’t fair they looked so similar to each other. “Aaron.” He muttered under his breath. “Aaron. Aaron. AARON.” He said louder.

“Davey.” Aaron said finally having gotten to the checkout, he was worried he was going to walk right out.

“I know you aren’t Dad.” David told him. “Sorry.”

Aaron let out a relieved breath. “It’ll be okay.” He reassured him. “I won’t correct you anymore.”

David’s face was all red and his nose was stuffy from crying. “Thanks.”

Aaron paid for everything. He had to pull the tags off the outfit David was wearing but the cashier didn’t seem to mind. Once they got back in the car they headed straight for home.