You need to give her an out.
I can’t. Not now, it’s too late.
I want her.
For how long?
Long enough.
“I’m glad you could make it,” I whisper in her ear, ignoring the voice in my head.
Note to self: Have Helen up my meds.
Chris
Something happened. I keep trying to think while Lauren has locked herself in the bathroom. Everything has gone so wrong, it’s usually what happens after he comes out. He ruins everything. This is the worst I’ve felt in a long time. Not knowing what the hell is going on, what he did. Why Lauren looked at me with a hint of resentment in her eye, that’s when she did look at me. It’s like she can’t even look at me at all, and how can I expect her to? What the hell did he do? Why am I in Venitan? I want to know everything but I know this isn’t the time to bombard her with questions, she seems about a second away from having a nervous breakdown. I try to pull myself together. I have to fix this. Whatever happened, whatever he did to screw things up I have to fix. I always fix them, this shouldn’t be any different. I hear my phone ring and go to pick it up. It’s my mom.
“Hi,” she says hesitantly.
“Mom,” I say relieved. No matter how bad things get her voice always gives me hope that they can get better.
“Chris! It’s you honey. Thank God. Are you okay is Lauren okay? William, it’s Chris!” she says, going a hundred miles an hour.
“How’s Caylen?”
“She’s fine Christopher but where are you? What happened?” It’s my dad's voice on the phone.
“I’m in this place called Venitan. I-I don’t know how I got here. Or why I’m here,” I say, trying to sound as calm as I can.
“It doesn’t matter son. You just need to come home. Now. The safest place to be is with us,” my dad says.
“Is Lauren with you honey?” my mom asks.
“Yeah, she’s in the bathroom. She’s pretty overwhelmed with all of this. She didn’t expect to see me this morning. I’m guessing Cal came back,” I admit, feeling my stomach sink. “When she saw me, she seemed confused and upset but the worst part of all this is that I think she was disappointed that I was here and Cal was gone, but I mean what did I expect?”
“Oh honey. Please don’t think that,” my mom interrupts me.
“Well, son, that is the problem with you being with Lauren. She’s not rooting for you. It’s always going to be for Cal,” my dad interjects.
“William, you don’t know that,” my mom says defensively.
“I do know it. We all do. That’s why it’s best for her to leave once she gets Caylen,”
“What!” my mom snaps.
“Look what’s happened. He goes away with her alone for a few hours and Cal takes over. I told you she was the trigger.”
“We don’t need to talk about this over the phone,” my mom says.
“Mom’s right. I’ll see you guys soon, okay,” I say, hanging up.
I take a deep breath and see that I have several missed calls and voice mails. Aidan’s called me almost more times than my mom. That’s really not like him. I dial his number and after a couple of rings he picks up.
“Where the hell have you been?” he asks angrily.
“Look. I have a lot going on right now so if this isn’t important,” I cut him off.
“No it’s real important man,” he says, his voice not giving away a hint of amusement which is unlike him and I feel my heart start to beat. What else can go wrong?
“What is it?” I ask reluctantly.
“It’s not something I think we should talk about over the phone dude,” he says, his voice hushed.
“Just tell me Aidan, I have enough crap on my mind than to wonder what’s next,” I tell him frantically. There’s a long pause which seems like a thousand years.
“Just say it!”
“Look man, Lisa came over here yesterday crying and a fucking mess.”
“What are you doing?! What the hell are you doing Aidan?!” I hear yelling in the background. It’s Lisa. The phone becomes muffled.
“Hey! Hey guys what the hell is going on?” I scream loud enough I hope that they can hear me. After a few seconds I hang up the phone in frustration. I hear footsteps and see Lauren enter the room.
“Is everything okay?” she asks looking like the time in the bathroom did her well. Maybe I need to spend a few minutes in there.
“Lisa and Aidan are idiots that are trying to drive me crazy,” I say, trying to laugh off how worried I am. The expression on Lauren's face doesn’t make me feel less worried.