Aaron by J.P. Barnaby Read Free Book Online Page B

Out of habit, Aaron read through the criminal justice list with a pang of regret. In high school, he’d wanted to be a lawyer, like his father. Working toward that career, he’d gotten involved in political campaigns, joined debate, and sometimes helped his father do research for a case. But that wasn’t his life anymore. No way would he be able to stand in front of a courtroom and be confident or articulate like his father. At this point, he needed to work with what he had left.
    Starting with Information Technology, he scanned the different opportunities, searching for one that would allow him the comfort of isolation. Networking, mobile communications, project management, they all sounded like group type settings. Instead, he moved down to the Associate Degree programs. Maybe he should start smaller. More than one shrink had used the phrase “baby steps” with him. He fucking hated that term. They had no concept of what it meant to increment your life by inches.
    He clicked on the software development associate degree and read the description. Yes, he liked to solve puzzles, or at least he used to. Yes, he liked computers, as well as anyone else. He felt comfortable with them, more comfortable than he did with people, anyway. Computers didn’t stare at your scars or give you looks of pity and disgust. They couldn’t burn you or destroy your soul. He read through the rest of the description and decided that it sounded just as good to him as anything else would. With grim determination, he clicked the Apply Now button and filled in the form.
    When he received the response, he read through it briefly, feeling the sweat bead on the back of his neck. They would be sending him a brochure for the college, and wanted to schedule a campus tour. They’d be calling to talk to him. They wanted to meet with him. Forwarding the email to his mother, he slammed the computer closed and all but threw it onto his desk. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t. His breathing came in sharp, pained gasps as he rolled to his side and pulled his knees up. Curled like a baby, he stared at the wall and tried not to think about what would come next.
    Just because he applied, that didn’t mean he had to go.
Until it did.
    Just as she took care of everything else in his life, Aaron’s mother handled everything with ITM. She met with the dean to explain about Aaron’s issues. She met with his instructor to give him an idea of what having him in class would mean. She didn’t accept the dean’s recommendation that maybe Aaron should wait before attending college. His class was scheduled, paperwork was completed, tuition was paid, and throughout the process, Aaron sat idly by and watched his life being lived without him.
    As Aaron sat ordering his textbooks for the new semester, the one thing his mother let him do alone, he wondered why in the hell he couldn’t just take classes online. He could register online, buy his books online, even turn in homework online—it was a fucking computer degree, and yet he couldn’t take classes online. He’d signed up for only one of the recommended four courses. Baby steps. After talking it over with his mother, they decided to wait on taking English and public speaking. English frustrated the hell out of Aaron, and his mother planned to talk to the dean about public speaking. They were sure when they explained the magnitude of Aaron’s discomfort, the school would let him take a different elective. It would take him much longer than two years to graduate at that rate, but degree or no degree, he doubted that he would ever be high functioning enough to hold down a job. Most of the time, he was barely able to make it to dinner.
    Entering the credit card number that his mother had given him for the books, Aaron set the pick-up date for the Friday before classes started. His mom could take him over to the college. Even in his diminished capacity, he should still be able to walk into the bookstore and pick up a