Almost Broken (25 page)

“Whoa!” Aidan says. Jenna is about to return the favor, but Lauren’s friend has nearly leapt over the table ready to grapple. I quickly grab Jenna and pick her up and drag her out the door. It’s time to leave this commotion behind.

“What was that in there?” I say, barely able to contain my anger.

“Are you yelling at me? After I basically got attacked?” she screeches.

“You kind of deserved it.”

Her mouth drops open. “Why would you bring that up in there?” I ask her, and she looks at me in disbelief.

“Because it should have been brought up!” she yells back at me.

“You did it to embarrass her, to hurt her,” I say pointedly.

“This isn’t my fault, Chris. If you would have told her when you were supposed to that wouldn’t have happened! How do you think it makes me feel that you haven’t done that?”

“You didn’t have to act like that, Jenna. I can hardly recognize who you are anymore,” I say honestly. Her frown hardens.

“You don’t recognize who I am?” she responds with a mirthless laugh. “If that’s not the most ironic statement of the year, I don’t know what is!” And, with that she storms off to her car. She storms off a lot these days. Like my own personal hurricane. I have too many of those in my life right now. I’m getting tired of cleaning up in the aftermath. My dad appears on the porch, his face red, and he looks flustered.

“Where’s Jenna?” he asks, exasperated.

“Gone,” I say, letting out a deep breath.

“You just let her leave?” Now my dad seems angry with me, and to tell the truth, I don’t want to hear it right now.

“What was I supposed to do? She was wrong in there. She shouldn’t have talked to Lauren or Mom like that,” I tell him, and he groans.

“This girl has been nothing but trouble since the day she got here. Her and her crazy family,”

“Oh that’s real nice dad,” I spit back.

“Because we’re the picture-perfect family,” I say sarcastically and walk past him. When he grabs my shoulder, I snatch away from him and go back into the house. The kitchen is empty besides my mom, cleaning up the aftermath of what’s just happened. She looks at me, exhausted and regretful.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I apologize, and she shrugs.

“It’s not your fault, Chris. Things like this are to be expected, I guess. We’re all getting to know one another’s personalities and such. It’ll get better,” she says, giving me a reassuring squeeze before she finishes sweeping the floor. I enter the living room and see Lauren’s friend Hillary sitting on the couch next to Lisa and Aidan sitting across from her.

“She’s a fucking bitch,” she spouts angrily, her legs crossed and her arms the same way. She’s still furious. Her hair is blond at the roots, but turns a bright shade of red. She’s wearing leather boots up to her knees and a white leather jacket. She looks like she still wants to fight. If she wasn’t so pissed off, I’m sure she’d be a pretty girl. She and Lauren seem different. She actually reminds me of more hotheaded version of Lisa. She glances up at me when she sees me enter the room and rolls her eyes.

“Look, I’m sorry to disrespect your house like that. I told your mom, so now I’m telling you. For that, I apologize,” she says, throwing her hands up. “But I’m not going to let anyone talk to my best friend that way, especially when she’s really trying to be nice. I don’t know if you’ve seen Lauren pissed, but she can go there fast. She was really trying in there,” she states.

“How long have you guys been friends?” Lisa asks cautiously.

“Since college. We’re not on the best terms right now, but I’ll be damned if I let someone talk to her like that.” She then turns her attention to me.

“At first I thought you were lying. I didn’t know whether to believe all this or not, but now I know you’re not Cal,” she says, looking at me bitterly.

I sigh. “Why is that?” I ask.

“Cal would never let anyone talk to Lauren like that,” she says before getting up and brushing past me. I think this is the first time in my life I’m embarrassed to be myself.

“Dude, I think I’m in love,” Aidan says, following her.

“Chris. I’m sorry. I told Lauren I’m sorry. If I wouldn’t have brought it up that would have never happened,” Lisa says, walking over to me.

“That was going to happen sooner or later.” I sigh.

“What’d Jenna say?” she asks.

“She’s pissed and left.” I shrug with a sigh.

“You didn’t go after her?” she sounds surprised.

“No. You think I should’ve?” I ask, just as surprised.

“No. Just surprised you didn’t.” She shrugs.

“Where’s Lauren?” I ask.

“In her room with her aunt. I think she’s trying to get Lauren to go back with her,” Lisa whispers.

“Today?” I ask.

“I mean, could you blame her after the disaster just happened in there?”

I nod. She’s right. “How serious was Lauren about staying here?” I wonder.

“She seemed to be seriously considering it. I don’t know about now…” she trails off as Lauren’s aunt Raven emerges from the room. She doesn’t look happy.

“Christopher. Can I talk to you?” she says, looking up at me. She’s only about my mom’s height, but the expression on her face couldn’t be more intimidating.

“Sure,” I say. Lisa smiles tightly before excusing herself.

“I’m going to be blunt here. I’ve tried to convince my niece that she should come back home with us.”

“I understand,” I say, nodding my head.

“She’s refused. I’m not surprised. I’m upset, but not surprised. She’s still stubborn as all get out. But of course you know that.” She glances up at me.

“Or maybe you don’t.” She sighs, rubbing her head.

“I want my Lauren to come home in one piece, Christopher. I’m not generally a harsh person, but I want to impress upon you the importance of what I’m saying to you.”

“I understand,” tell her genuinely.

“I don’t think you do. Most people don’t want to hurt anyone it just happens. She’s been through so much. If you’re confused about all of this, if you’re in love with that other girl, just let her go. Don’t play with her, don’t string her along. We’re going to be stuck together for at least 17 more years, even longer than that. You do not want to be on my bad side.” And with that, she leaves me standing in the room alone.

T
hey’re gone. It wasn’t easy to get them to leave without me, but I did it. The only reason I’m staying at this point is that I promised Mrs. Scott. I promised myself that I’d stay until I get some type of closure. The closer it gets to the time I’m supposed to leave the more it feels like I’m saying goodbye, goodbye to my past, to the man I love. There have been instances along the way where I thought I might get my happy ending after all. But, as soon as they come along, something horrible happens, and I feel that happy ending being snatched away. But this was the real show stopper: divorce papers.

He’s had divorce papers all of this time. All of the times we’ve laughed and joked and spent time together, he’s probably been thinking how he’s going to get me to sign the papers to make a clean break. I wish he would have mentioned this to me before. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so blind-sided, so embarrassed in front of his friends and family and mine. I know there’s not a good way to say ‘hey I want a divorce’ but, as terrible as it could have been, it would have been much better coming from him than Jenna.

I don’t understand why he’s with her. I won’t lie, she’s a pretty girl when she’s not frowning I’m sure she could be considered beautiful, but her attitude is absolutely disgusting. Then again, she hates my guts. I can’t really blame her, but if the roles were reversed, I’d never treat someone how she’s treated me. There has to be something sweet and kind about her in there…but who am I to judge? A lot of people didn’t understand why Cal and I were together. They failed to see the good in him, even his own dad. Thankfully, I haven’t been able to obsess over what happened today.

Caylen’s been crying all night. She has a little tooth coming through. I’ve walked her around, gave her warm milk, and baby pain reliever, but it’s been no use. There’s starting to be a small ringing in my ears from the crying, but I’d rather not hear my own thoughts now.

“I know, baby. I know,” I say, walking the room, bouncing her up and down again. I hear a knock at the door. It’s probably Mrs. Scott coming in again to offer her help. She’s done it several times, and I told her she needs her rest. She gets up so early in the mornings for the farm and I don’t have anywhere to be.

I open the door and see Chris standing there instead. I haven’t talked to him since the dinner earlier today. I haven’t wanted to talk to him.

I’m not exactly ready to talk to him.

“I texted you. You didn’t respond” he says bashfully.

“Kind of hard to hear an alert with a screaming baby,” I joke, but my tone is dry.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asks, reaching out for her.

“She’s teething,” I say, gladly handing her over.

“Aww come on, big Cay, that little tooth is nothing,” he says to her. It’s a nick name he’s given her. He bounces her up and down, hugs her close to him, and makes faces at her, but the crying goes on and on.

“Is she okay? Should we take her to the doctor?” After five minutes he’s worried. Huh, he’s an amateur.

“She’s fine, she doesn’t have a temperature her gums are just irritated, and she’s fighting her sleep,” I say flatly. Truth is, I’d be as concerned as he was if I didn’t take her to the E.R. the first time one of her teeth came in. He looks relieved to hear that. Then he glances back over at me.

“I kind of wanted to talk to you about earlier,” he says, still attempting to comfort her.

“This isn’t really the best time,” I say, glad to have an excuse. He’s a guy, and I’m sure his ears will only take so much before he has to excuse himself from the room.

“If I can get her to stop crying, will you talk to me?” he asks in all seriousness. That’s not going to happen.

“Sure,” I say with a disbelieving laugh.

He nods and hands her to me. “I’ll be back in five minutes,” he says and slips out of the room. If he comes in here with sock puppets or something, it’ll be completely adorable, but won’t help a bit. I continue to walk Caylen
around, her crying at the level I’ve grown accustomed to. Soon, Chris is back, this time with a beautiful black guitar in hand. I can feel my eyes widen. He smiles sheepishly.

“I haven’t done this in a while,” he says nervously. “Can I sit here,” he asks, gesturing towards the bed. I nod, feeling my stomach start to knot. He sits on the bed and strums a few chords. God, he looks so freaking sexy, and he hasn’t even played a song. I’m not supposed to think he’s sexy. I’m supposed to be mad and irritated at how wrong he was for hiding the fact he wanted me to sign those papers.

He takes a deep breath and starts to play a little more fluidly, and I recognize he’s playing
London Bridges,
but a slower version. It’s beautiful. I watch his hands and how he looks at the instrument so intently. I’m so lost in watching him play, I don’t even realize that
Caylen’s stopped crying. Once he’s done with that song, he goes into another song. It takes me a minute then I realize it’s a song that’s on my iPod playlist for Caylen.

Oh, Mr. Sun.

Cute.

He plays it fasts, and then he slows the tempo and starts to sing.

And, oh my God, he can sing and not like the average karaoke singing, but like if he was on one of those talent shows, all the teenage girls would be crying after he’s done. The funny thing is, he started off nervous and a little unsure of himself, but as he keeps playing the nervousness melts away, and he’s completely confident in what he’s doing. He’s good, and he knows it. He looks up at me a few times with a small grin. He plays like it’s a therapy for him. Caylen has drifted off to sleep so I put her in bed. I sit in my rocking chair to watch him and listen. I close my eyes, feeling all the stress of today melt off me. His voice is like a mix between Ed Sheeran and Connor Maynard. I cannot believe I’ve never heard him sing before this.

If this were Cal, I’d know for sure he was trying to seduce me, but this is Chris, and I don’t know if he realizes the affect this is having on me, but if he plays one more song, I’m pulling him out of this room and being charged for sexual assault.

“Lauren.” His voice, the normal one, wakes me up out of my trance.

“I can’t believe all of these years, and I’ve just heard you sing,” I say quietly.

“That’s because you weren’t with
me
all of those years,” he says, an amused grin on his face. I run my hands through my hair. I don’t really know what to say to that, but the glint in his eyes makes my skin heat up.

“I—I wanted to talk to you about earlier,” he says, clearing his throat. He cannot show me those divorce papers now. It would be too cruel, not after he’s done that.

“Jenna had them drawn up... She gave them to me, and I told her I would talk to you about them,” he says, and I can’t look at him anymore. I look at Caylen. I keep my focus on her, that’s what this is all supposed to be about anyway.

“It’s okay, Chris,” I say with every ounce of strength in my body as I look at Caylen. I can’t look at him and say this.

“If that’s what you want,” I say, trying to force the words out without my voice breaking.

“I wasn’t going to give them to you,” he says, focusing his green eyes on mine, and I feel my heart stop.

“What?” I ask him, confused. I’m trying to read him, but his expression gives away nothing. Not one single thing.

“I just want to slow things down a little. Really think about the future. I want to make sure I’m not making the wrong decision,” he says simply but his words are anything but simple. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?

“What do you mean, Chris?” I ask, hearing the nervousness in my voice.

“I just don’t want to move so fast anymore. There are a lot of things I need to figure out.”

Great he’s confused, and that leaves us in limbo, but I’ll take it.