"Is Viola going to walk Father Abel?" asked Javier, the campus security guard stationed outside, as Father Abel handed him the bat.
"I hope not," said Father Abel grimly.
The door to the Principal’s office opened, and Senator Clarke stord out, followed by Viola and her parents.
"Hey, Spielberg! You better watch your back!" Martin threatened Father Abel, following behind Senator Clarke with his arms around Viola.
"Abel! Get in here!" shouted Father Joseph, his voice booming through the hallway.
Father Abel sighed and opened the door, stepping back into the office.
"This is the last ti you turn my office into a courtroom, Abel. Pull this kind of stunt again, and I’ll have you suspended," snarled Father Joseph.
"What about Viola?" asked Father Abel.
"Her parents have voluntarily withdrawn her, thanks to your shenanigans, and I’m feeding you to any wolves Senator Clarke brings on us," growled Father Joseph.
"Bring it on, Joseph. I can handle myself," said Father Abel, his eyes narrowing.
"Relax, Abel. I’m just giving you a heads-up. I already was leaning towards throwing those idiots out, it’s one less headache for ," said Father Joseph, his tone softening slightly.
"You had worried there for a mont," chuckled Father Abel, shaking his head.
"Yeah well, find out what makes Zakhrov tick, we can’t afford another incident like this one," said Father Joseph, his tone serious.
Father Abel nodded and left the office.
----
Aaron knocked and entered to find Father Abel with a very grim look on his face.
"I see you have already amassed quite a fearso reputation. That little stunt you pulled in the parking lot has had all the students terrified of you," said Father Abel grimly
"I intended no harm. I rely wished to either scare her or attract campus security," answered Aaron.
Father Abel pulled out his phone, and showed Aaron a video of the incident.
From the angle the shot was taken, it looked like the BMW was revving, getting ready to slam into Viola and her car.
Viola herself had an expression of abject terror and was frozen in place.
"I believe my father and campus security can testify that there was no danger to Ms. Viola. I only wished to prevent her from vandalizing the car with her baseball bat," said Aaron.
Father Abel sighed wearily. "We know that, which is why you are not in trouble. However, it has made your ability to socialize much more difficult," he said.
Aaron raised an eyebrow. "If my peers don’t have the intelligence to understand the context of my actions, then I’d rather not associate with them," he replied, eliciting a wry chuckle from Father Abel which he quickly suppressed with a shake of his head.
"Onto another matter, I’ve had the most disturbing phone calls from i and Kate." said Father Abel grimly. His eyes boring into Aaron’s.
Aaron regarded Father Abel. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
Father Abel rubbed his temples. "Did you notice that they were calling you ’Master Aaron’ and obeyed your commands despite them being much older than you?" he asked.
"Well yes. I’ll admit that I liked it even if they were just humoring " said Aaron.
"They weren’t humoring you. They actually enjoyed the control you had over them," growled Father Abel.
Aaron’s Stoic deanor cracked, and he looked confused, giving Father Abel the confirmation that Aaron didn’t realize the power he had over them.
Father Abel sighed, "What you are feeling is not uncommon, but it is sothing that needs to be addressed.
You have a strong desire to control your environnt and the people in it.
This can manifest in many ways, including the way you interact, and the way others respond to you" he said gently.
Realization dawned in Aaron’s eyes. "So what I’m feeling is normal?" he whispered. His Stoic mask crumbled, and Father Abel saw the vulnerable side of Aaron for the first ti.
Father Abel felt a wrench in his gut. He realized that Aaron’s stoicism and extre self-control were the result of him attempting to suppress these urges. "When did you start to feel these desires?" he asked gently.
"Three years ago" replied Aaron. He then poured out to Father Abel exactly what had happened:
Three years ago, when Aaron was 10, Ivan had taken him to a BMW dealership to take delivery of the new BMW M5 Ivan had bought.
Aaron, who had seen his father work long and hard on extra projects, was thrilled and proud of his father for being able to buy such a beautiful and powerful car.
That night though, he witnessed a vicious and violent argunt between Annette and Ivan.
Believing that he was asleep, Annette had confronted Ivan about his purchase of the BMW M5, she could not believe that he was actually serious about owning it and had taken on extra work to earn enough money to afford it.
She was simply furious and scread all sorts of things like ’toxic male’, ’brute’ and had even tried to slap Ivan.
He had caught and twisted her arm, threatening her in a low voice, before releasing her.
The argunt continued, with Ivan calmly but firmly standing his ground on his purchase decision while Annette was hysterical.
Finally, Annette had scread that he could keep his stupid car, but it would be the last ti he ever pulled sothing like this, or she would leave him and take Aaron with her.
Aaron had felt fear for being separated from his father, and was confused why Annette was so angry about the car.
His confusion about Annette’s anger over the car only grew, and ca to a climax the day after the delivery of the car when she had scread in terror when Ivan had pushed the car to its full acceleration on the highway.
At that mont, he felt pleasure over Annette’s fear and happiness that Ivan was enjoying himself.
He also felt guilt since it was his mother who he was happy to see scared, but he realized that this was sothing deep within him.
Ever since that day, he had been trying to control and suppress his desire to see girls and won in fear.
Drawing from his knowledge of movies and TV shows, he adopted a persona to hide his emotions.
As he practiced his stoicism, he ca to realize that he liked the way it made others feel uncomfortable around him, and he liked the feeling of control his ability to hide his emotions gave him.
After he had finished speaking, Aaron felt as if a massive weight had been lifted of his shoulders. Father Abel, ca around his desk and laid a gentle, comforting hand on Aaron.
"I am sorry that you had to witness that fight Aaron. But do not worry. You are not alone. There are lots of people who have the sa tendencies as you." he said gently.
"Thank you, Father Abel" sniffled Aaron, drying his tears. With several deep breaths, he stopped crying and returned to his Stoic self.
"Your use of stoicism to control those tendencies do you great credit. Another person would have resorted to thuggery or bullying to satiate those desires." said Father Abel, admiration clear in his voice.
"I don’t look for trouble, but I won’t back down from it either," said Aaron.
Father Abel sighed in relief.
"All right, now on to our current situation. Both i Ling and Kate have agreed to minimize their interactions with you, friendship is not off the table, but no more flirting or any other behavior that could be construed as romantic," he said, his tone serious.
Aaron nodded, "I understand Father Abel. I will respect their wishes," he said.
"Another word of caution Aaron. This sort of thing is not widely understood or accepted, and can be horribly misinterpreted. I urge you to not openly discuss this with anyone," said Father Abel as a final warning.
"I understand Father Abel. I’ll keep it to myself" said Aaron as he stood to leave.
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