"I can’t say that I haven’t seen this sort of thing before. My own parents were a perfect example, God rest their souls," sighed Andre, sitting behind a massive oak desk. A shiny tal naplate on the desk read: "Andre Esposito, full partner, Esposito and Associates LLP".
Father Abel and Aaron sat in the leather chairs in front of the desk. The office was large and slled of leather and wood polish.
"I only wish I could have educated Ivan at least, I thought he’d show more backbone for his own son," grumbled Father Abel.
"Well what’s done is done, can you emancipate Mr. Esposito?" asked Aaron.
"Yes. I’ll draw up the emancipation papers and serve them to your parents. However, you have more pressing matters, such as finding a place to stay and a ans to support yourself. I have recently bought a loft here in the city. Would you like to move in with ?" asked Andre.
"Yes please. I have about twenty grand saved in my own bank account. How much do you want as a deposit?" asked Aaron.
Andre waived his hand dismissively. "You may be emancipated, but there is no way in hell I’m letting you pay rent until you turn 18," he said.
"Very well," said Aaron.
"Now, so conditions for moving in. You must complete your education. I will hoschool you the best I can on my days off, but you will have to study, clear the SAT and go to college. Agreed?" asked Andre.
"Yes sir," said Aaron.
"Now as for your financial situation, you may work no more than 14 hours a week while you are studying. Agreed?" asked Andre again.
"No. I intend to pay for my own tuition in college, so I will be working longer than that," said Aaron, his blue eyes boring into Andre’s brown eyes.
"Very well, but I insist that you prioritize your studies and having fun over working. Agreed?" asked Andre his tone clear that his insistence was more of an order.
"Yes sir," said Aaron.
----
"I know that this has been a terrible ordeal for you. However, Aaron will be safe, taken care of and given the love and support he needs.
I urge you to focus on your wife and daughter now and not bear any resentnt to them," said Father Abel, as Ivan drove him and Aaron to Andre’s new loft, Aaron’s belongings stuffed into the BMW M5’s trunk, and rear seats.
Ivan nodded silently as tears rolled down his cheeks.
They arrived at the loft, to find Andre waiting for them.
"You got everything?" asked Andre, looking at the BMW’s trunk.
"Yup, we got everything, including the signed paperwork," said Father Abel, handing Andre a manila envelope.
"Co on, let’s get Aaron settled in," said Andre, leading the way into the loft.
The four of them took turns carrying Aaron’s belongings into the loft, and placing them in the room that Andre had cleared for him.
The room was soon full of Aaron’s belongings, his desktop computer, his clothes, and a few books.
"I’m so sorry I wasn’t strong enough for you Aaron. Please don’t hate ," said Ivan as he hugged Aaron tightly.
"I love you Dad. Please take care of my sister. I know that this was not easy for you," said Aaron tenderly, returning the hug.
With that, Ivan left, knowing that it would be the last ti he saw Aaron.
----
"When the hell did you take the SAT?" demanded Andre, slamming the letter onto the desk.
"About a week ago," replied Aaron, not looking up from the code he was working on.
"Well, let’s see how you’ve done," grumbled Andre, shaking his head and ripping open the envelope.
"Damn! 1440, that’s pretty good!" he said.
"It should be enough to get a computer science course at Bunker Hill Community College," said Aaron, glancing at the score.
"You don’t want to go to MIT?" asked Andre.
"I’d rather not cause further embarrassnt to Ivan," said Aaron as he opened the web browser to apply to Bunker Hill Community College.
"Very well, but I don’t think you’ve saved enough for the tuition," said Andre, frowning slightly.
"That can be redied over the sumr, I intend to apply for a full-ti sumr job," said Aaron.
"I anticipated that, and so have got you a job as a system administrator for our firm. It pays quite well. You interested?" chuckled Andre.
"Yes," said Aaron.
----
"Hey! Check that kid out,"
"Is he even old enough to be here?"
"Black leather suit? What is he? A try-hard villain?"
"Wearing animal hide, ugh! So insensitive!"
Whispers followed Aaron as he walked through the cafeteria of Bunker Hill Community College.
His black leather business suit glead under the fluorescent lighting, each step giving off a creak from the polished leather, and a commanding click from his black leather ankle boots.
He took his tray and sat down at an empty table, ignoring the stares and whispers of the other students.
A tall young man approached him carrying a tray laden with a Hamburger and fries.
"Hello. Are you new here? I’m Harry Smith, a civil engineering freshman," he introduced himself.
"I’m Aaron Zakhrov, a computer science major, also in the first year," replied Aaron in a clipped tone as Harry sat next to him.
"So. What brings you here instead of so fancy Ivy League place?" asked Harry as he tucked into his lunch
"Accentuating circumstances," said Aaron.
"Relax, I’m just trying to be friendly," chuckled Harry through a mouthful of his burger. He swallowed and looked at Aaron seriously.
"Listen, I was a senior at St. Ignatius, so I know a little about you, but if you don’t want to talk about it, I understand," he said.
Aaron gave Harry a cold stare. "Lets just say that I was expelled for being a thorn in Senator Clarke’s side" he said.
"Damn. Well consider yourself lucky, things went downhill pretty quickly after you left.
They relaxed the uniform code, cut out catechism and ethics class in favor of a gender studies program.
My final sester was basically a long ass lecture by so blue-haired overweight woman about how masculinity is the root cause of evil," grumbled Harry.
"Sounds like sothing she would implent," said Aaron with a hint of amusent.
"So what exactly did you do to get on her bad side if you don’t mind my asking?" asked Harry.
"Let’s just say it was because of a video ga I was making," said Aaron.
Harry whistled softly. "Damn. That’s rough. So you’re a ga developer?" he asked.
"I have the code and the plot, I don’t have any artwork, because I suck at drawing," said Aaron.
Harry leaned forward with interest. "How about we collaborate? I’ll draw the artwork for you," he suggested.
"I’d rather not get expelled on my first day here Harry, so I’ll have to pass on that," said Aaron, pushing away his tray, and preparing to stand up.
Harry held up his hands. "Wait, wait don’t dismiss so easily! Here, take a look at so of my work," he said pulling out his laptop from his backpack.
Aaron stared at Harry’s laptop screen. The art that Harry had shown him was an ani girl, chained to a post, getting whipped by an ani style man. A look of pain and ecstasy on her face.
"Interested? As you can see, I’m a fellow admirer of BDSM," chuckled Harry.
"Very well, what is your commission fee?" asked Aaron.
"50% of the profits on the sale of the ga" said Harry promptly.
"40% though I’m not entirely sure that we can sell it" said Aaron.
"All right how about this. I’ll look over the script of the ga, and then we decide?" asked Harry.
"Very well, co by to my place after class. I refuse to bring the ga out of the house" said Aaron as the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch break.
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