Hi everyone! I realize this chapter took longer than the other ones to get out. I really want to write longer chapters, so the wait might be a little long. I took a tiny break from actually writing so I could plan out the story and where I want to go. I have a good number of stuff planned, so hopefully it'll last more than 11 chapters.
This has been so fun for me, writing this chapter, despite the dark tone of it. Everything is completely new material and I'm so happy to get back into writing like I used to.
There's a lot of swearing in this chapter (for those who don't like that) and there's a good bit of violence. There's fluff, and I plan on adding more fluff in the story to stretch it out. I really hope you all like this chapter.
I've got exams coming up, so I'll need to do a lot of studying and I don't know how quickly I'll be able to even start working on chapter four, so I hope this long chapter holds everyone over.
Leave a review telling me what you think!
-Sky
"Chapter 3 – Surrender"
"Taken down, I give into what I can't disguise. Broken down, I give into what I can not have. Locked in, buried under my skin, riding on the whispers, restless in the wind, hunted, I can feel it coming." – Digital Daggers
Sunday morning.
"We didn't get to tell them yesterday," Cat mumbled as she lay on her back, staring up sadly at the ceiling.
"We'll tell them later," Robbie promised in his half asleep state. He snuggled up closer to her and placed his hand on her stomach beneath the comforter, kissing her bare shoulder. "They'll be just as excited as we are."
She gasped excitedly and shot up, knocking her husband's hand into her lap. "I'll make one of those cute little themed dinners!" she suggested, twirling the edge of a lock of hair. "I'll make baby carrots and baby squash and baby rutabagas!"
"I don't think anyone likes rutabagas," he joked quietly, his eyes still blissfully closed. "Or that those are real."
She breathed in deeply and fell back onto the bed, pulling the covers back to her chin. "I just wish Cassie were here," she sighed. "I'm sure she'd love a little brother or sister."
His eyes shot open and he stared at her in worry. She must have felt his arm tense along her body, because she turned on her side with a sad smile before kissing him on the lips.
"I'm okay," she assured him. She looked away with a thoughtful pout before looking back at him with a loving gaze. "Well, I'm as okay as anyone else in this situation. But we're gonna find her one day, and she's gonna be the best big sister to our little peanut."
Unsure of what else to do, he kissed her gently. "I love you," he whispered.
"I love you, too," she laughed back.
And as she kissed him again, he desperately hoped she'd be okay for the next nine months without her antidepressants.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
Hector slept curled against his brother for the entire night. He hated it the most that their parents were fighting, and he assumed his dad was still angry when he didn't come to check on them like he did any other time he and his wife argued.
He still hadn't spoken since he found out about the divorce, and Tony wasn't about to force him to.
If anything, the elder boy was angry. He was angry about the divorce, angry about his mother's ex-boyfriend coming back, and especially angry that his best friend's parents argued way more frequently than his own, yet they weren't getting a divorce.
He didn't understand why his parents couldn't get along, why they couldn't just kiss and make up. He and Hector needed both of them together.
Around ten o'clock that morning, Danny and Tori Kerrigan were definitely together.
"I didn't think you'd even bother coming back," he seethed, standing near his son's door. Even though Hector slept soundly, Tony had barely gotten any sort of sleep.
"I just came to get a few things," she announced, trying to be as calm as possible. "I think it'd be best if I stayed with my parents for a while."
"You couldn't just get Andre to hire someone to get your stuff?" he questioned maliciously. "You must think I'm an idiot if you think I don't know you're staying with him."
"And what if I am?" she snapped. "You don't want anything to do with me anymore!"
Danny laughed scornfully. "It figures you'd go back to him," he snarled. "Are you so terrified of being alone that you'll latch back on to him because he's showing you affection?"
Tony flinched slightly upon hearing a sharp slap. Hector stirred slightly, but didn't wake.
"Just because you're my husband," his mother began lowly, "And just because we're both unhappy with each other, you do not get to talk to me that way. I get that you're still upset about the baby, that you don't trust me anymore, but I am still a person. I treat you like one, so you could at least have the decency to do the same."
For the longest of moments, everything was silent. Tony wondered what was going on, but didn't dare risk getting caught even further in the crossfire. Maybe five minutes later, he heard the front door slam shut. But by then, he was too numb from his anger to move.
He wasn't sure how long he laid there, staring blankly at his ceiling, but he finally moved when his little brother stirred awake beside him.
"Are Mom and Dad still fighting?" he asked groggily, keeping his head on the pillow and his eyes shut.
"Yeah," Tony breathed. "Get dressed and pack some stuff. We're gonna go stay with Abuelita and Abuelito."
"Okay," Hector sighed, slowly climbing out of his brother's bed.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
As much as she hated it, Anna Elizabeth forced herself to delete all messages between her and Jensen. She had no doubt that her mother would try and confiscate her phone sooner or later, and everything would go to hell if she found out about him. Because of her dad, she didn't think they'd move again, but she doubted she'd even live to send him another message.
That morning, she paced around her room trying to think of anything she could do to get out of meeting her father. She didn't care if she ever met him, and that made her mom angry.
Her phone buzzed in her hand and she looked down at it, smiling.
I miss you.
She bit her lip, thinking about the kiss they shared not even twenty four hours ago. Kissing him felt better than kissing Paul ever did. She wanted nothing more than to stay with him and continue kissing him, but she had to go home.
The welts on her back were worth it.
I miss you, too.
In a few hours, she would have to go see her dad. But maybe she could get out of it with Jensen's help…
You wanna hang out today?
She bit her lip again after sending the message, bouncing her knee nervously. With her free hand, she held her wrist, and lightly scratched it as her eyes honed in on her screen. He would be her only hope since Darla was grounded. She didn't think she was close enough to Erica to hang out with her, and it was blatantly obvious that Tony didn't like her.
If you're not busy…
Was that too much? Was she sending too many messages at once, bothering him? He wouldn't be too bothered by her, would he? Were they dating now? Did she have a new boyfriend?
Sure. When and where?
No, I'm not busy.
Suppressing a squeal, she jumped up and down in glee, grinning from ear to ear as her hair flapped around her. They would get to spend time with each other and she could avoid seeing her dad. Two birds with one stone!
Can we meet at the mall again? ASAP!
She put her phone down on her bed, bouncing around her room to get ready for their meeting. Maybe she would wear a dress today. She could straighten her hair… No, she didn't have enough time for that. Would a dress be too much for a casual get together? Or should she go with leggings? What about leggings and a top? God, how would she do her hair?
She ran over to her closet and pulled clothes out left and right, throwing them onto her floor without any regard. Her hand stopped on a floor-length, light purple sundress with a black trim near the bottom. She bit her lip in deliberation as she stared at it.
Because of her tiny frame, she often had to buy clothes from kids' sections. And most of the time, the clothes her mother bought her were too tight by her standards. She didn't think she was well endowed in the chest department, but the dress would definitely give the impression that she was. Would she be trying too hard to impress him if she wore it? The little spot on her knee that she'd been scratching all week had eventually ended up bleeding and scabbing over. Showing any kind of leg would be out of the question because of it.
Oh well.
She snatched the dress off the hanger and darted to her bathroom to think about how she would do her hair. Staring at the girl in the mirror, she pouted and scrunched her face. Her long, curly, black hair pointed every which way atop her head because she'd gone to bed without putting it in her usual top bun.
Brushing it would only make it worse.
Should she take another shower and wash it? No, she wouldn't have time for that either, and she hated going out with wet hair.
She'd been wearing a ponytail pretty much all week because she wasn't sure what to do with her hair—not that her mother was any help—so she didn't want to wear another.
Why was this so stressful?!
She sighed and bundled her hair at the nape of her neck. A ponytail that left her hair draped over her right shoulder wouldn't be bad, right? It was casual enough, but it still gave the hint that she was at least trying to care about her appearance.
She snatched a scrunchie from her sink and pulled her hair into it, letting it fall over her right shoulder. She left a lock of hair to fall over her left eye and smiled in content before shimmying into her dress. Then, she hiked it up and ran back into her room to pick shoes that would look nice and cushion her fall when she jumped from her second story window.
Unfortunately, she didn't feel comfortable wearing tennis shoes with her dress. So she slipped on her thick-soled bedroom shoes and grabbed her favorite pair of gladiator sandals before scrunching her dress tightly into her hand to prevent it from flying up when she jumped.
She walked over to her open window and tossed her sandals out, watching them as the fell beside her mother's rose bushes. She grabbed the clutch wallet she'd recently been 'gifted' from Laura and leapt out of the window, thankful for the unbeatable balance provided by her years of cheerleading as she gracefully landed on her feet.
She put her clutch on the ground and slipped out of her bedroom shoes. She retrieved her sandals and hopped into them, zipping them up in the back before grabbing her clutch and taking off.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
Laura drove hot under the collar, her fingers gripping the steering wheel tighter and tighter with every mile she drove that her daughter wasn't in the car.
They'd been planning this for a week now; it wasn't a surprise that they were going to see her father.
She should have put a tracker in that damn girl's phone.
She wanted to drive all over California to find her ungrateful child, but finding her lost love was more important.
The drive to Santa Monica was far too long, even with her accelerated driving speed. Her left leg bounced nervously as the minutes ticked away on her radio. She'd waited fourteen years to see him again, even longer to be with him.
It had been hell, waiting for him, but she would have waited forever if it meant she would get to be with him another day. She loved him far more than anyone would ever know, and she was not about to let some brat ruin this for her.
A grin raged from ear to ear as she pulled down the road that would lead to his house. She may not have been able to be with him over the last fourteen years, but she kept tabs on him. She made sure she knew where he lived, where he went to physical therapy, and what he'd been doing with his life.
He'd stayed at the same home in Santa Monica for fourteen years now. His physical therapy had given him back his ability to walk, but he still needed a cane since he would always carry a staggering limp. He'd gone through several jobs over the years since most jobs weren't always willing to hire ex-convicts, but he was never out of work for long.
But with her help, he would never need to worry about work ever again; she'd made enough money—though not always legal—to support their prospective family until Anna Elizabeth was ready to start her own family.
She parked her car in the driveway and took a deep breath.
This was it…
Slowly, she stepped out of the car and made her way to the front door. She probably should have called before she came over, but he hadn't planned on doing anything today, so the formality didn't matter.
Flashing her brightest smile, she rang the doorbell.
"Just a minute," he called, presumably from his small kitchen. He'd love her home in Glendale.
She held her hands behind her back to keep him from seeing her wringing them. If she saw how nervous he was, then he wouldn't take her seriously; he wouldn't see how much she loved him and he'd never take her back.
Agonizing moments later, Liam West opened the door, towering over her. For thirty-nine, his brown locks were already greying. There were lines beneath his eyes and around his lips, showing off his age. The only thing about him that hadn't changed, really, was the gratuitous amount of muscle on his upper body.
He squinted at her. "Can I help you?" he asked politely, scanning her up and down.
"Liam," she breathed excitedly in her Southern accent. "Baby, it's me." She reached out and grabbed his free hand. "I came back for you."
His eyes widened in confusion and he snatched his hand back, stumbling backward slightly. "Chris?"
She nodded eagerly.
"W-what the hell did you do to yourself?" he stammered, scanning her up and down once more. "You…you changed…"
"Well I had to," she stated simply. "That terrible sister of yours framed little old me for something I could never do! Don't you think I'm pretty anymore?"
Slightly stunned, he reached out and touched her hair.
"You like redheads, right?" Her voice started to falter, her face falling slightly. "I did all of this for you, baby."
He continued to give her his curious stare, running his hair through her colored locks.
"I have a surprise for you," she told him softly, looking up at him through her lashes. She looked inside his home. "Aren't you going to invite me in?"
Liam snapped out of his stupor and nodded. "Y-yeah," he stuttered, hobbling aside to allow her entry. "I don't know if I can handle any more surprises."
"Then you better sit down," Laura advised, walking into his living room and dropping her hands to her side. She took a seat in the recliner near the kitchen and crossed her legs, resting her hands atop her knee.
"You shouldn't be here, Chris," he told her, limping to the couch and plopping down on it.
"Baby, I need you to call me by my new name," she announced. "I go by 'Laura' now. I really missed you."
"It's been a long time," he acknowledged. "What's this other surprise?"
She smiled broadly and sat up straighter, excitement radiating through her. "I brought our daughter with us!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper.
Liam's face hardened, staring at her incredulously. "We…don't have a daughter," he reminded her slowly. "You lost the baby."
"I lost a baby," she corrected, her grin faltering slightly. It picked back up before she spoke again. "I was pregnant with twins, but I lost one of them; it's called vanishing twin syndrome. The doctors said that one of my babies won't developin' like the other, so I lost her. They said I probably woulda had two girls, but I'm so blessed that I have one." Her face fell into a dark grimace. "Or I woulda been if she won't so ungrateful that she wouldn't come to meet you."
For a moment, he looked down at his lap. The news…was too much for him to take in. How…how was this possible? She…she never said anything about multiple babies. How could he believe her? He'd believed that his sister had gotten pregnant with his twins—which he thought was a miracle—but then she'd shattered every renewed hope and dream of him being a father when she told him they weren't his.
But with Chris…with Laura, he hadn't been there with her when she'd had her miscarriage; he'd been at work. He'd been at work when she'd clinically confirmed her pregnancy. He couldn't exactly say she was lying; he had no proof.
And now, with his life finally getting back on track, he desperately wanted more than anything to be a father.
"Why didn't you bring her when you came here for my parole hearing?" he asked lowly, keeping his eyes on his lap. He slumped forward, resting his arms on his legs. He wasn't sure if he could look at her yet.
"I didn't want her to be around the movers," Laura answered. "She never liked loud noises, and I knew they'd scare her to death. My mama took real good care of her while I was away, and I was gonna bring her up here so we could start visitin' you since you won't in jail no more, but that witch of a sister of yours said I stole a baby. I had to leave and keep her away for a while; if anyone saw me with a baby girl, they'd think I went and took her. I promise that she's our baby girl, no matter how ungrateful she is."
He looked up to her, his eyes beginning to water. "Maybe she wasn't ready," he offered in a hushed whisper. He cleared his throat and sat up with a loud sniffle. "I couldn't be there for her for almost seventeen years; she might just need more time. Tell me more about her."
"Well she's turnin' seventeen this December," his ex-girlfriend explained happily. "She's got long black hair and the biggest brown eyes. She's the prettiest little girl I ever did see, and I know you'd think so, too. She's real smart, too. She did pageants like I used to do and she's real good at paintin'. I know you don't like all that artsy stuff, but I know you'd love her stuff."
"I can't believe it," he sighed, his eyes falling to the carpet. "I got a little girl."
Laura stood, giving a comforting smile that he didn't see. She walked over to him, her heels thudding slightly on the carpet. Descending as light as a feather, she sat beside him and put her hand on his cheek, turning his head so that he would face her. "You got a family," she amended quietly as she leaned in to kiss him lovingly.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
"Would you be mad if I kissed you again?" Jensen asked quietly as Anna Elizabeth climbed into the Mazda his father had convinced his mother to let him have.
"I'd like it if you did," she breathed, thankful she didn't stutter as she met his eyes.
He leaned toward her and stopped centimeters in front of her face. "I really like you," he whispered, the warmth from his lips radiating to hers.
"I really like you, too," she whispered back, her eyes lulling to a close.
He lifted his hand to rest on her cheek and she closed the distance between them, pressing her lips eagerly against his. His lips caressed hers tenderly as his hand slid to her ponytail. Gently, he took the scrunchie in his fingertips and slid it off, pulling her hair slightly in the process—though she didn't protest. Her hair fell loosely behind her shoulder and he inched his hand to the back of her neck.
She brought her hands up to his neck and placed them on the side, her fingertips lightly resting on his skin. She started to feel a stirring sensation between her legs and quickly brought her hands back. She pulled back at him and looked at him nervously. If she let it go on, she would have slept with him right there in the front seat…in the parking lot of the mall.
"What are we?" she blurted out.
His eyes shot open and he sat up. "What?"
"I wanna know what our relationship is," she explained. "Are we…am I your girlfriend?"
"I want you to be," he answered honestly, "I want to be your boyfriend, and I want to get to know you more than I already have. Lately, you're the…first thing I think about when I wake up…and the last thing before I go to sleep."
She smiled broadly and grabbed his hand. She looked down at his hand in hers and gently ran her thumb over the back of it. "My last boyfriend took me on a lot of dates before he ever called me his girlfriend," she announced. She looked up at him with her innocent, doe-like eyes. "I needed that with him; it made me feel comfortable. But…I feel so comfortable around you."
"I want you to feel even more comfortable," he told her softly, brushing his free hand against her cheek. "If that's what you need to feel comfortable, I'll take you on as many dates as you want." He gave her a small smile before kissing her on the forehead. "I've got the perfect place."
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
Lazily, Darla pushed her cart down the aisle of Brendon's, the organic grocery store twenty minutes north of Beverly Hills; her aunt thought it would be better if they started eating organic food—especially since they could afford it on a regular basis—and her father had convinced her mother to go along with it for the past five years.
Like her daughter, however, Jade couldn't tell the difference between the fancy stuff and whatever she could find at Wal-Mart, but she just went along with what Cat wanted since the erratic redhead could quickly become a nuisance about it.
Scanning the list, she pushed on through the aisles. Auntie Cat wanted a lot of vegetables, half of which she couldn't pronounce, and Uncle Robbie made it be known that he wanted brown eggs, not white. Her father wanted skim milk and regular butter, while her mother wanted two-percent and honey butter. She needed to pick up various kinds of beef, different cuts of chicken, turkey and turkey slices, ham, pork, and even…lamb. They wanted enough food to feed an army, and her biggest challenge would be loading all of this in and out of the tiny little car her mother let her 'temporarily' drive.
As she pushed her cart, turning down the snack aisle to pick up vegan brownie's and Kendall's chocolate covered pretzels, she kept her eyes on the list and inadvertently crashed into someone else's.
"Crap," she breathed hastily, dropping the list onto her purse in the baby seat before looking up. "I'm—Mason?"
"I'm pretty sure that's my name," he joked. He moved his cart out of the way in order to walk over to her and kiss her. "I missed you, babe."
"I m-missed you, too," she stammered out of shock and reflex after the kiss. Regardless of if she did or not, it was the first thing that came to mind. Then, she remembered she was supposed to be angry with him. She stepped back and crossed her arms, glaring. "I'm still upset about what you did."
He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You didn't get my texts?" he questioned, disturbingly unfazed by her demeanor.
"I got grounded and my mother took my phone away," she announced flatly.
"I apologized," he told her, gripping the side of her cart. Her eyes darted down to it, her mouth plummeting to an annoyed scowl. He pulled it back and shoved it in his pocket. "I just can't help myself around you." His eyes softened to that of a guilty child's. "You're so damn sexy and it's hard for me to control myself around you."
"Well try harder," she spat, effectively masking her excitement with anger. She'd never once been told that she was sexy, especially not by an older, college boy. It was the self-esteem boost she didn't know she needed.
But was she verging into dangerous territory? The way he touched her, the way she caught him looking at her, suggested that he was most definitely wanted to have sex with her. While she didn't like that he'd tried to take advantage of her in the ocean, but she otherwise liked his touch.
Did she want him to be her first?
"Forgive me?" he pleaded, stepping up to her and wrapping his arms around her waist.
She looked away for a moment, keeping her arms crossed. Part of her didn't want to forgive him, to push him off, slam his cart out of the way, and go about her business, but he was her first boyfriend; other boys would probably act the same way. Tyler and Connor both talked about their scores with girls they'd just met. She didn't even want to know about her twin's conquests.
She'd been dating Mason for a few weeks now. He'd waited patiently to be intimate with her, since he undoubtedly wanted to, so maybe he was worth keeping. Maybe his outbursts were her fault. She was being difficult and of course it would leave him frustrated.
Maybe he was special, maybe he was taking things slow with her. She couldn't let him go then; she probably wouldn't find a guy as patient as him.
"Okay," she coved, looking back up at him as she uncrossed her arms.
Smiling in accomplishment, he leaned down to kiss her.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
It made Anna Elizabeth nervous, not knowing where she was going, but she trusted that he would keep her safe. She wanted to turn the radio on since they drove for a way in near silence, but Jensen never made the move to turn it up, and he never gave her the okay to do so herself.
She kept wanted to talk to him, but her growing nervousness weighed her down. She had the strongest urge to scratch, but she couldn't do it in front of him; it'd freak him out. So instead, she focused on her breathing, trying to take in slow steady streams to calm herself.
When she couldn't focus on her breathing, she tried to keep her eyes on her surroundings, and they widened as she spotted a big red tent in the distance.
"What's that?" she asked, turning to the driver. At first, he didn't even act like he heard her, keeping his eyes locked on the road. She wondered if she spoken loud enough, or if she'd even spoken. Biting her lip in deliberation, she reached out to touch him on the shoulder.
"Hang on," he told her as he pulled over into a parking lot. By now, they were near the tent and she could see the big Marina del Rey Carnival sign in front of it. He turned to her with a warm smile. "Yeah?"
She turned away and shook her head. "Never mind," she breathed.
His face fell slightly, feeling as if he'd missed something important, but he forced the smile when she looked back to him with an excited grin.
"I've never been to a carnival before," she beamed.
"We like to take my little brother every year," he told her. "Dad thinks it's hard for him always in the spotlight, so we bring him to one twice a year to help him relax and make him feel like a kid."
"That's so sweet!" she gushed. "Let's go!" She wrenched the car door open and jumped out, bouncing excitedly as she waited for Jensen to join her. When he came up to her, she grabbed his hand tightly and ran with him to the front gates. Once there, he paid for their tickets and she ran with him onto the large boardwalk where the majority of the carnival games and some of the rides were held.
Being that she'd never been to a carnival before, she was ecstatic to see the variety of games they had. Upon the mole whacker—and various other animals—games, dart games, toss games, and baby golf, she dragged him to Bingo Shooter. When they stood in front of the large, multicolored booth with various stuffed animals and movie characters hung from the rafters, she pointed at a stuffed corgi. "Look how cute!" she exclaimed.
Amongst the crowd of chattering people, the hum of whirring machines, and the music playing obscure pop songs he couldn't make out, he didn't quite hear what she said. But he smiled at her anyway, taken aback by the radiance of her excited grin.
"One dollar to play," the booth operator, a Hispanic man in his late thirties and greying hair, announced enthusiastically. "Five shots. Get five balls in five consecutive slots on the board behind me and win the little lady a prize! They can go left to right, up to down, or diagonally, just as long as you get five in a row. Spell BINGO and you get two prizes."
Jensen looked back to Anna Elizabeth who had her eyes locked on the stuffed dog and turned back to the carnie with a determined glare before pulling a dollar from his wallet and sliding it over the counter. Pleased by the transaction, the carnie slid the dollar into a little box out of civilian sight and reached into another box to pull out five white tennis balls.
"Whenever you're ready."
Taking in a deep breath, Jensen pushed blond locks out of his eyes, careful not to let his CI show, and threw the first ball. He'd never really done sports—that was more of Darla's thing—so he was prepared to face the embarrassment of not being able to win anything. But to his surprise, he'd made the shot into the third row of the I column.
"You got one!" Anna Elizabeth exclaimed, her hair bouncing around wildly as she jumped in excitement. She held his bicep and looked up at him with big coffee-colored eyes that made him crave Starbucks. "It's okay if you don't win." She spoke lowly, and he couldn't really hear her. He gave her a small smile, but she could see in his eyes that he hadn't registered what she'd said. When he turned back to the game, she frowned and stepped away so he would be able to throw.
He threw another ball, but he felt how bad the throw was. He grimaced slightly when he made the ball in the N column, the spot diagonally above the first ball. He really wanted to win her two prizes in this game, but now he'd only have the possibility of getting one, as long as he didn't mess up.
With the third throw, he'd miraculously gotten the B slot diagonally below his first shot, and he'd gotten the O slot at the very top of the board. He doubted he would be able to make the G ball, but he desperately wanted to win the dog for her; that's what boyfriends did.
Putting all of his energy into it, he threw the ball as hard as he could…right into the second row of the N column…
"Oh," the carnival worker sighed, his features falling. "Better luck next time, son. But good try! Try again for only a dollar."
Jensen bit his lip in deliberation, but Anna Elizabeth stopped him as his hand slunk back to his wallet. He looked to her in confusion.
"Let's go try a different game," she suggested, pulling him away from the booth.
He sighed, feeling as though he'd failed her, but he said nothing of it as she led him to the Pirate's Pendulum. He most certainly was not a fan of heights, and he made a valiant effort to avoid this certain ride and others like it whenever his family visited the carnival. This ride would swing them back and forth up to two hundred feet off the ground, as if it were about to propel them into the water. He wasn't a bad swimmer, but there was the possibility that he would break his cochlear implant if he unexpectedly went into the water with it.
But he would ride it anyway if she wanted to.
"It looks so scary!" she exclaimed as she continued to push her way through the crowd, her hand latched onto his. But because she was in front of him and they moved through a tight group of people practically shouting over each other, he wasn't even sure she'd spoken.
By the time they'd gotten to the ride, there was a line that he wasn't particularly excited to be in. Since she stood in front of him, she turned around to strike up a conversation with him. He kept squinting his eyes at her, hopelessly trying to look at her mouth, but she talked a mile a minute and it was hard for him to keep up. She kept asking him questions, and his face turned red whenever he took too long to answer and she got upset by it.
Pouting, Anna Elizabeth decided to try another tactic.
She'd spent a lot of time trying to brush up on her sign language when she wasn't doing homework, getting attacked by her mother, or scratching, so she felt somewhat confident enough to hold a slightly coherent conversation.
The first full sentence she'd forced herself to learn was 'Can you hear me?' With what little confidence she had, she moved her hands in the appropriate formations. But the look of disgust he gave her halted her before she could even finish the sentence.
His face turned even redder and he looked away, scowling hard. Unsure of what else to do, he pushed his way out of the line to find a quiet place; he was starting to get a headache from the strain of trying to block out the ghost of every little thing just so he could pretend to hear her. He'd worked so hard to keep her from finding out about his hearing issues, and sure he'd slipped up a few times by more than likely saying the wrong thing in response to her, but he tried so hard.
For nothing.
He made it back to the car before she caught his arm. "Wait," she pleaded, raising her voice in the event that he wouldn't hear her.
"What?" he snapped, turning around to face her. "Gonna laugh at me now 'cause I can't hear?" He kicked one of the tires out of frustration. "This was stupid."
Anna Elizabeth ducked between him and the car, making direct eye contact with him. 'It wasn't stupid,' she signed to him. She still had the habit of mouthing the words as she signed, still not completely confident with it. 'I wouldn't laugh at you because you can't hear. I…wish you would have…told me sooner, but it doesn't change how I feel about you.' Her form was sloppy and she broke too many times during the sentence out of forgetting the words, but she hoped he would see that she was trying.
"I don't like talking," he announced, his voice low as he tried to make his words as clear as possible, "But I want to talk to you. I want to be normal for you."
She laughed softly and lightly punched him in the arm. "Ain't nothing about me normal," she told him, speaking loudly and slowly as she made sure he'd see her mouth. "I care a lot 'bout you, and I wanna keep being your first and last. I know a lil' bit of sign language, but I want to know more. I wanna be able to talk to you whenever, however."
He smiled at her and placed his hand on her cheek. Any worry he'd had about the relationship had melted away with her words, and he was so happy he could hear them. He would gladly teach her sign language if that meant they could grow closer. With the other girls he'd been with, they never noticed his hearing problem, not that they'd paid close enough attention to him, and he'd never been self-conscious about it. But this girl was something else, and he wanted to do whatever he could to impress her.
But it was exhilarating to find out that he had one less thing to worry about.
After giving her a deep, passionate kiss, they walked hand-in-hand back to the carnival to play games, ride death defying coasters and attractions, and even gorge on funnel cake.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
Darla and Mason gallivanted around the grocery store, causing a ruckus and making a bigger mess than normal patrons. They had a sword fight with the salami, had a pillow fight with oversized chip bags, and even bowled with soup cans and a grapefruit. They nearly got thrown out, but it was worth it since they were having fun.
When they got to the gluten-free aisle that no one hardly went to, he pulled her close and kissed her again. She thought it would be a quick kiss, but he kept her close when she tried to pull away and she just went along with it. She felt his hands moving near her waist, but she thought nothing of it. And the next thing she knew, she heard a zipper and felt something poke the button of her jeans.
She gasped and jumped back, looking at him with wide eyes. She looked down at his exposed, fully erect penis—which was larger than she thought it would be—and covered her mouth to stifle another gasp. "What the hell?" she hissed when she finally took her hand down.
"Come on," he urged, nodding his head downward. "No one's around."
"No!" she shouted loudly in offense. "No way!"
"You're such a fucking child!" he shouted, positioning his penis back into his pants and zipping them back up. He flipped her cart and she jumped at the loud crash, its contents spilling everywhere and rolling under shelves. He left her with the mess without another word.
In shock, she looked from the groceries strewn on the floor to the spot where he once stood. What the hell was his problem? First off, he was crazy if he thought she'd do anything remotely sexual in a supermarket, especially after she'd gotten pissed at him for trying to be sexual at the beach.
Second, who the hell acted like that? Why was sex so important to guys? Did they all get angry like that when they didn't get it? Maybe she should have just done whatever he wanted her to…
But what if they got caught? There was no doubt they'd be in the press again, and her mom would kill her if she saw another article about her daughter and her rambunctious mystery man.
He wouldn't have let that happen, though, would he?
He apparently knew what he was doing if he told her to do something, right? So maybe he had a plan in case they got caught…
She was always screwing up with him!
Sighing, she collected everything that fell out of the cart and put them back in after setting it upright. She would need to get new eggs; she had no doubt the majority would be broken. All of the bread—the wheat and the cruel-free sourdough—had been squished, so she'd need to replace that, too.
She decided to do that before going to find him. At the end of the day, she needed to do what her mom wanted…except for staying away from her boyfriend.
By the time she had gotten new bread and eggs, she found her boyfriend in the chip aisle…flirting with a woman in a sleek, black business suit. He spotted her out of the corner of his eye and made sure that Darla heard him tell the woman that he'd be in touch.
She grimaced and crossed her arms expectantly. "Who was that?" she asked as he stood in front of her.
"No one," he shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets.
Biting back questions she wanted to ask, she looked up to him apologetically. "I'm sorry for how I acted," she said. "I…I guess I overreacted."
"You did," he nodded, "But I forgive you." He held his arms out to her, waiting for her to come to him and return the hug. Slowly, she lowered her arms and moved to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing the side of her face to his chest. And unbeknownst to her, he slipped a metal tube of natural-ingredient-and-animal-cruelty-free lipstick into her purse in the baby seat of the shopping cart.
"Walk me to my car after I pay for this?" she questioned, looking up at him with hopeful eyes and a nervous smile. Should she even be asking him for anything after making him angry like that?
"Sure," he agreed with a warm smile that soothed her slightly. He slipped an arm around her waist and walked beside her as she pushed the cart to the registers. After she'd greeted the cashier and loaded all of her groceries on the conveyer belt, he held up his hand to stop her as she reached for her bag. "I got it."
"Are you sure?" she gaped, her grey eyes alight with confusion.
He gave her a soft smile as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket. "Yeah," he answered quietly before turning back to the cashier and handing over his credit card.
Now she felt worse.
First she'd pissed him off again by not doing sexy, adult things, and now he was paying for her absurdly expensive groceries. She should have put up more of a fight to pay for it, but she made sure to grab all of the grocery bags and move them to the cart while he finished paying for everything.
"Thanks," she breathed as he shoved the receipt and his wallet back into his pocket.
He shrugged again. "Anything for my girl," he told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
As she wheeled the basket out of the store, he kept his eyes on her purse in wait. The metal of the lipstick holder would definitely sound the alarm once she went through it. All he had to do was wait.
The ear-splitting beeping of the shoplifting alarm caused Darla to jump in her boyfriend's arms and she looked around in worry.
"Ma'am," the manager—a tall woman with greying brown hair and a mustache that could be seen from space—called to her. "I need you to step back inside and show me what's in your bags."
Wordlessly, Darla rolled her shopping basket back inside and over to the manager's cubicle at the end of the row of cash registers. "I don't know what could have set it off," she explained honestly. "I double checked to make sure I got everything."
Not buying her story, the manager scowled. "Can I see your receipt please?" she asked in a husky voice.
"I've got it," Mason announced, pulling the crumpled paper from his pocket. He handed it over to her and she scanned it with piercing green eyes before rummaging through Darla's grocery bags.
After sifting through everything and matching it all with the contents of the receipt, she grimaced and eyed Darla's purse. "I need to check your bag," she announced without even bothering to look up at the frightened girl. She picked it up out of the baby seat and dumped its contents out onto her desk. Scanning everything over, her scowl deepened.
Then, she spotted the lipstick.
The bright pink canister held a white seal over the twistable top that was still intact. She held it up, glaring at the young girl. "I guess you didn't look hard enough," she spat.
"I don't know how that got there," Darla cried, her eyes as wide as the moon. "I didn't even go down the makeup aisle."
"This is just a misunderstanding," Mason intercepted, coming to her rescue. "We were being clumsy earlier and knocked over her cart. It must have been on the floor when we were picking everything up and she must have put it in her purse without realizing it. It's an honest mistake, ma'am. To make up for the commotion we've caused, I'll gladly pay for it right now."
"It's twenty dollars," Darla hissed, snapping her head to him in surprise. "No one I know spends that much on lipstick."
"It's fine," he waved off in a normal tone of voice as he pulled his wallet out once more. He took out his credit card and handed it to the manager with a dashing grin, exposing perfectly white teeth. "I apologize for the disturbance."
The older woman's face softened as she took his card. She turned around to her personal register after giving a nasty girl to the dumbfounded West-Oliver girl. The card and lipstick were given back to Mason without another word, and the young couple exited the store.
"Thanks for that," Darla mumbled once they were at her car. "I feel really bad about what happened; I really don't know how it got in there."
"It's okay," he assured her as he lifted the trunk and started loading in groceries. "I told you I'd take care of you. I know you're younger than me and we're gonna go about things differently, but I care a lot about you; I'll do whatever I have to in order to make you safe. I'd pay whatever I had to if you needed it."
She smiled broadly up at him and took his hand. "You're too sweet," she breathed. She wrapped her other hand around the nape of his neck and leaned up on her toes to kiss him again. And he smiled into the kiss, not because he was happy to be with her, but because he'd earned her trust.
He'd go a long way with that.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
An 8-bit rendition of her wedding song woke Jade from a long overdue nap.
Grumbling, she shot up and bed and snatched her phone from the bedside table.
"What," she snarled without looking at the caller ID before hitting answer.
"Jade, it's Carol," her rep announced. "We've got a problem."
"Another one?" she groaned, falling back onto her bed, her head bouncing slightly. "What is it now?"
"Check TMZ," Carol advised. "And whatever you do, don't kill her." She hung up without a mention of farewell.
Grinding her teeth as she held her phone inches from her face, Jade scrolled through the internet until she landed on the popular celebrity news website. And lo and behold, her daughter had made another headline. This time, it was for shoplifting.
Furious, she scrolled through the article, her eyes darting from one end of her phone to the other as she read. Darla had been caught red handed trying to steal twenty dollars' worth of lipstick. A snappy comment was made about her boyfriend being her 'knight in shining armor,' and segued into someone spotting Jensen out in Marina del Rey with a girl whose face she couldn't get a good look at.
"Beck!" she screeched, jumping out of bed. At least one of her children wasn't in the tabloids. She stormed out of her room, clomping downstairs in nothing more than one of his old shirts and her underwear.
"In the kitchen!" he called back to her over running water.
"Look at what your daughter did," she growled, tapping him roughly on the shoulder and holding the phone up to his face.
"Can you scroll up, please?" he asked nonchalantly as he stared at the screen. "All I'm seeing is Jen with a girl."
Groaning, Jade slid her thumb up on the screen, sending it back to the top of the page. She waited for a moment while her husband read about Darla's latest scandal.
"What are we going to do about this?" she asked in a demanding tone, throwing her phone onto the counter. "I'm tired of her being so reckless. We're gonna have to put a shock collar on her just to make sure she doesn't see that idiot anymore!"
"Babe," Beck breathed, picking his hands up out of the soapy water and drying them off. He turned around to wrap his arms around her waist and plant a small kiss on her forehead. "Just calm down a little and wait until she gets home. There are two sides to every story; remember when they said you and Chloe Grace Moretz allegedly got into a fight on set?"
"The little grunch started it," she grumbled, looking away from him with crossed arms and a highly displeased demeanor.
"But they said you picked the fight," he reminded, turning her head so she'd meet his eyes. "The tabloids only report the first thing they hear, even if it isn't true. Let's hear her side of things and go from there."
His wife rolled her eyes. "Fine," she spat. "But you talk to her first."
They both turned toward the front door at the sound of it unlocking and he smiled at the challenge. "Deal," he breathed, pulling away from her and going to meet his daughter.
Darla stopped in her tracks upon seeing her parents exit the kitchen, nearly dropping her groceries at her mom's menacing glare. "Before you guys say anything," she started hastily, "It was all an accident. I didn't even plan on meeting Mason there, but it just happened. I swear I would never steal anything."
"This wouldn't have happened if you stayed away from him like I told you to!" Jade screamed.
"I wasn't even trying to meet up with him!" her daughter cried in defense. "You have my phone, remember? I had no way of telling him where I was; it was just a coincidence!"
"Coincidence or not," the older West-Oliver woman continued on, "You should have steered clear of him the moment you saw him. What part of 'I don't want you seeing him anymore' do you not understand?! I'd like to go back to not having my children in the tabloids."
"Well then maybe you shouldn't have had children!" Darla yelled, throwing the grocery bags onto the couch and running up the stairs.
"You're grounded for another week!" her mother shouted as she slammed her bedroom door.
Amongst the commotion, Cat appeared at the top of the stairs. "What's going on?" she asked in her light voice as Jade stormed back into the kitchen."
"Paparazzi took pictures of Darla and claimed she was shoplifting with her boyfriend," Beck explained quickly. "Can you go talk to her while I try to get a hold on my wife?"
"Go screw yourself!" came his wife's shrill voice, along with a sopping wet spoon that he so narrowly avoided.
With a small squeak, Cat turned around and made her way to Darla's room.
Taking in a deep breath, Beck braved the kitchen, preparing himself for the worst.
"I'm so tired of this!" his wife exclaimed as she lodged a knife in the wall with a sharp throw. She turned to her husband with rage clouding her blue-green eyes. "I'm doing so much to make sure she doesn't go through what I did; I'm doing my damnedest to give her the life I never had. And for what?! This stupid boy who's nothing but trouble?!"
"Maybe it's time we tell the twins about their uncle," he suggested calmly, standing his ground a safe few feet away from her. "If they knew, they'd probably be more careful when we're not around."
"But what if Jen starts asking question about who his dad is?" she whispered, worry completely evacuating her anger.
Sensing the danger to be over, he stepped forward and took her into his arms. "He won't," he assured her, "And neither will Darla; they've probably never even heard of superfecundation."
"But what if they start searching and come across it?" she persisted, her eyes clouding with terror. "I don't want them to find out they have to different dads if that's even the case; I don't want my oldest son knowing that he could be the product of rape." She pulled away from him and turned to the sink to finish the dishes. "We're not telling them about Liam, and that's that."
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
Meanwhile.
Slightly perturbed by the commotion downstairs, Cat knocked on her niece's door. "Rocky?" she called softly. "Can I come in? Your mommy and daddy are downstairs."
There was a moment of silence before Darla's door clanked loudly as she unlocked it. She pulled it open just enough for her aunt to come inside and shut it once more, locking it back. She turned around and crossed her arm, mimicking her mother's dark stature.
"Beck told me what happened a little bit," the redhead announced. "But what really happened? And who's your boyfriend?" She plopped down on Darla's bed with a loud sigh. "No one tells me anything anymore."
Pouting, Darla joined her aunt on her bed. "His name is Mason," she told her. "I met him a few weeks ago before school and I think he's really nice, but Mom doesn't like him because we're in the headlines. But that's not my fault that those stupid paparazzi people follow me around!"
"I know it's not," her aunt nodded in agreement, "But you need to keep that in mind and be careful what you do. I know it's really bad, but whatever you and your brothers do goes back to your parents, and it can look pretty bad for them; if it gets so bad, no one will want to work with them anymore."
"I didn't ask to be rich," she huffed, falling back onto her bed and glaring at the ceiling.
"I know you didn't," her aunt breathed, placing a reassuring hand on her knee, "But your mommy tried really hard to make all the money she did so you, Jensen, and Kendall wouldn't have to worry about money. She had a really bad childhood; she didn't have a lot of money, and she had to stay with me and my mommy sometimes because her parents couldn't pay bills sometimes. She worries about you the most, though; a lot of her problems came from mean boys."
"But I thought Dad was her first boyfriend," she scrutinized, sitting up.
Cat's eyes widened slightly for a brief moment before going back to their normally large size and she beamed radiantly. "Guess what," she breathed, changing the subject.
"What?" the West-Oliver girl questioned, her face falling at the flippant woman before her.
"I'm pregnant!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper. She grabbed her niece's hand and placed it on her stomach above her blue tank top. "You're gonna have a new baby cousin in a few months!"
"That's great!" Darla congratulated with genuine excitement. She guessed that was the case yesterday, but it was still amazing to hear it out loud.
"I was going to tell everyone yesterday at the party," Cat began sadly, "But then Daniel got mad and it didn't feel like the right time anymore."
Her niece looked down at the hand being held skeptically. "What…what happened with Mrs. Kerrigan and that guy that crashed?"
Cat let go of Darla's hand and took in a deep breath through her nose. "They used to date in high school," she breathed. "She dated Daniel before that, though, and somehow they wound up back together. They got married when you, Tony, and Jensen were two, and they've been through a lot; not as much as your mommy and daddy, though." She smiled as she lightly pinched the younger girl's cheek.
Darla smiled and played along, but something didn't sit right with her. How long had Tori dated that guy before she got married? They couldn't have dated very long if Tony was two when they got married; she calculated it, and her parents were only sophomores when they became parents. But Tori seemed like she'd dated that guy longer than maybe a year and a half.
Had they been dating while she was pregnant? Did he even know she was pregnant, or did she break up with him before then?
She had so many questions about her friend's parents, and now she was starting to worry about her own.
Her aunt had basically said that there was someone else in her mom's life other than her dad. What if she and Jensen weren't even twins? What if something really bad happened and they just covered it up by saying they were fraternal twins? What if he'd been born a year or something before her? She'd always wondered why he looked so different from her, but she'd let it die down.
And now, she wanted to know.
Keep me under cover in what could have been.
Etta Mae had raised her daughter Christiane—now formally known as Laura Jean Ragland for some unknown reason—on Hollywood gossip from the day she learned how to speak. That being said, Laura made sure to always be caught up with the latest news, no matter what time of day; sometimes she would even wake herself up in the middle of the night to see what the buzz was about. And with the ever increasing advancement of smartphones, she found it wondrously simple to know everything there was about Hollywood's stars and starlets.
So naturally, she spotted the article about Jensen West-Oliver spending time at a carnival near the beach with a girl who had a dress and height eerily similar to that of her daughter's.
She waited damn near an hour for that girl to come home, and she hadn't left her spot on the couch the second her eyes left her phone. Her rage ever increasing, she drummed her nails on the arms of the couch. It was bad enough that the little bitch skipped out on meeting her daddy and didn't make their family whole, but she did it so she could be with a boy?
This was not good.
In her good time with her boyfriend, Anna Elizabeth completely forgotten she'd snuck out of the house. So instead of scaling the side to go back to her room, she went straight for the front door when Jensen dropped her off. And as she opened the door, she froze in her tracks when her eyes fell on her infuriated mother in the living room.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Laura shouted, shooting up from the couch. She clamored over to her daughter and yanked her into the house, slamming the door loudly behind her. "Get your ass in this house right now!" She turned the tiny girl to face her and gave her the hardest slap she'd ever dished out. "Why do you always have to ruin everything for me?" She held her phone with the tiny article about Jensen up to her now crying daughter's face. "What do you think your daddy's gonna say if he sees you out with some stupid little boy?"
"I don't even care about him!" the tiny girl shrieked, tears running down her face. She stepped back. "We were just fine without him! Why do we need him?" The world moved in slow motion as her mother's fist crashed into her cheek, sending her to the floor.
"You watch your damn mouth, you ungrateful little bitch!" she shouted. "It doesn't matter why we need him! We have to be a family. Just you, me, and him. You best not see that shitty boy again or I swear ta God Almighty and I'll kill the both a ya! I've worked so hard to get where I am, ta be with the man I love, and I ain't gone let you take that away just 'cause you found some jackass that ain't gone give a flying fuck about you once he screws you!"
"But I love him, Mama," Anna Elizabeth whispered, holding her throbbing cheek. "And I loved Paul, too. Why can't I be happy?"
Suddenly, Laura's face fell to a blank state and she straightened her posture. Then, disgusted eyes fell on her daughter. "Your daddy's going out of town for a while," she announced flatly. "He's gonna call me when he gets back, and then you're going to see him." She walked over to the cowering girl before her and snatched the black clutch beside her where she assumed the girl's phone would be. "You'll get your phone back when you see your daddy." She turned on her heels to head toward the stairs.
"And remember what I said about that boy," she called monotonously over her shoulder. "I'll kill you both."