Tale of Two Cities
Chapter 4: Numb the Feeling if You Can
Vanessa awoke to an empty house at around eight-thirty in the morning. She sighed as the events of the last two days came rushing back to her. Silver was engaged and taking care of her fourteen year old daughter, Serena was having an affair, Jenny and Erik were on the rocks, Naomi was as happy as a clam and Georgina and Liam were in town. Groaning at the thought of Liam, Vanessa sat up, ran a hand through her tangled hair, threw back her sheets and walked into the kitchen to make something to eat.
As she made breakfast, her home phone rang, so she turned her stove on low heat and picked up the device. "Hello?" she asked.
"Hi," it was Georgina's cherry voice on the other line. "Was I interrupting anything? You sound mad."
"Sorry, I just woke up and I was making breakfast," Vanessa said with a smile. "What's up?"
"I wanna hang out today, but everyone's busy. Are you busy?"
"No,"
"Okay. So we can meet at that new café near the beach. Say around eleven-thirty?"
"Okay, see you then Georgie, bye." Vanessa said hanging up the phone, not knowing that on the other end, Georgina was grinning like the Cheshire cat. Who said after sixteen years, she has changed? She was still a cunning bitch, but nicer.
Sawyer sat on the bleacher, his video camera in hand as he recorded the lacrosse team at seven-thirty in the morning, on a Wednesday and Ethan was his team practice while other students hurried along to get to school and hang out with their friends before first bell rang. And it was times like this that he was happy he hated sports and only took interest in them to document them.
Which was way he had woke at six-thirty in the morning and waited for Ethan to get ready for work and suffered a fifteen minute car ride with him, all while wanting to jump out the passenger seat the moment he started talking about his mother.
"Hey Abrams," he didn't need to turn his head to see her. Rose Collins was one of the only people he actually liked at this school, and she was a damn good soccer player and cool to be around, unlike her bitch of a twin sister. "Where's your girlfriend?" she asked sitting down next to him. He could hear the smile in her voice.
Zooming in on Ethan's frustrated, slightly tinted pink face as his players slowed down in their runs or didn't do their routine right at all, he smiled. "Observe how the coach is angered by the lack of stamina his players lack. Maybe he shouldn't have called an early morning practice."
Rose rolled her eyes and watched as the team continued to play. She turned back to Sawyer, watching how his smile was real, his eyes shone with excitement and he narrated the video with ease. He pressed the stop button before turning to her. "What?" he asked.
"You didn't answer my question,"
"She's with her mom probably," he muttered.
"Okay," she said. "Lissa just wants to know."
After a small pause the both laughed and thought back to that weekend. Rose had been dragged by Lissa to go with her to the mall for some school clothes when they saw Sawyer twirled around a small brunette girl with a happy smile. Rose knew than that Lissa was jealous because Sawyer was paying more attention to some girl instead of her.
The girl had introduced herself as Rosette Connors, an Australian transfer student and Sawyer's girlfriend. Lissa in return had fumed all weekend and all during the car ride to school, while Rose blasted music in her ears to ignore her. It didn't help, so now she was avoiding her sister as best as she can.
"So what's her real name?" Rose asked. "I know it's not Rosette."
"Meet me at lunch and she'll tell you herself," Sawyer said and stood up. "I have to get to class. See you later Collins."
Rose rolled her eyes and knew better. It was the first day back to school and Sawyer Abrams was doing the one thing he was really good at. Ditching.
Vanessa walked into the café looking around for Georgina. She couldn't find her anywhere so as she turned around to leave she didn't expect to hear someone call her name. She froze at the voice and mentally cursed herself for not thinking it through that Georgina might have played her. Turning around she came face to face with Liam.
"Don't tell me you're going to leave."
"No," Vanessa said it too fast. "I mean—okay yes I was. It's just because I wasn't expecting to see you here. I was actually looking for Georgina."
"She had a last minute thing, so she asked me to fill in for her,"
"Oh," she said with small smile. Looking at Liam now, she could see how well Sawyer looked like him, so much that it hurt. She toyed with the napkin that sat on her lap as they talked about their lives. Apparently Liam had become a guidance counselor after all he went through as a teenager and she remembered him telling her that he wanted to start over after all that happened with Jen.
"So," Liam smiled. "Did you adopt him?"
"Excuse me?"
"Your son I mean."
"Oh," Vanessa muttered. How was she going say this? Hey Liam, remember sixteen years ago when we first met and screwed around? Yeah, Sawyer was the outcome of that. No, she couldn't say that, it would be too…weird. "No, I didn't adopt him."
"You didn't?"
"No," she whispered and sighed. She looked up into his eyes and bit her lip. "Liam, do you remember that night?"
"Sixteen years ago? Of course I remember it," he retorted with a groan. "So many things happened that night. Like our…"
"One night stand," she finished for him. "Well something happened."
"What?" he asked.
"I…" she froze, the words suddenly dying on her tongue. But she swallowed all guilt and fear and said, "I got pregnant."
Liam raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"I got pregnant, but I didn't find out until about a few weeks later."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he was angry now, she could see it.
"I called," she whispered. "But your mom answered and told me you were out of town. So I asked her to tell you and have you call me back. I figured you didn't want anything to do with Sawyer at all."
"Wait," he stopped her right there. "Sawyer is my son?"
"I only have one child Liam."
"I can't believe this," he whispered.
"Why didn't you call?"
"I didn't know. My mom told me no one called for me at all during the summer. My cell phone got taken away; I was Montana on some…hippie retreat. And when I tried to call you, you were never there. Serena told me that you had cut yourself off from everyone for four years. And by then, I had met Georgina. Oh God Gina," he said, placing his hands over his face. "What's she going to think?"
"I already know," both looked up to see Georgina looking at them with a sad expression. She bent down and kissed Liam briefly. "I knew about Sawyer, I had to get her a bit wasted to know the truth, but I knew. I kept her secret like how she kept mine. I forgave her, Liam, because it was in the past. And I still love you and Vanessa. And I love Sawyer."
"You knew," he breathed out. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"It wasn't my secret to tell. It was Vanessa's and she was afraid. You can't blame her for anything. She didn't want to keep it from you, but she didn't know where you were."
"Who else knew?"
"Not many people. Chuck and Blair knew Sawyer was her son, but they didn't know you were the father. Silver, Naomi and I found out when Sawyer was younger."
"I'm sorry," Vanessa whispered. "I know this is big news for you, but…"
Liam stood up and walked over to her and smiled. "I forgive you Ness. But…I'd like to meet my son, for real this time."
She smiled. "I'll see what I can do."