Hey guys! If you read Age Is Just a Number then you'll know the reason why I've been MIA.
Anyways this chapter was giving me some writer's block but I think I came out with something half decent.
True Love Always Finds a Way - Chapter 4: 21 Years Later
The doorbell rang and Jesse got up from the couch to answer it.
"Emily! Cory! Your mom's here to pick you up!" He called upstairs before pulling the door open for his ex wife and their other 2 kids. It was Friday afternoon so it was the day were the kids got swapped for the weekend.
Alexis ran to her father's leg and clung on. "Hi daddy!" She exclaimed.
"Hello baby girl, why don't you go put your stuff up into Emily's bedroom." He smiled down at his youngest daughter before she began to head upstairs. "Remember and come back down to say bye to Mommy!" He called after her.
"Sup dad?" Owen gave his father a fist bump on the passing before disappearing upstairs.
"Hey." Beca said.
"Come in." Jesse ushered her inside, almost giving her a hug before he shut the door behind her.
It still felt very awkward between the two especially since they were used to kissing and hugging every time they saw each other. In fact the first time they were dropping kids of/picking them up, both of them accidentally kissed each other which unfortunately the kids had seen.
"How's work?" Jesse asked to break the silence as they waited at the foot of the stairs for their kids.
"The usual." Beca's eyes looked anywhere apart from Jesse. "Emily told me she spoke to you."
"Yeah. I guess you were right all these years huh?" He chuckled, playfully nudging her. "Does she have...you know, a girlfriend?" He asked, clearing his throat.
"Not that I know of." Beca shrugged.
The parents cut their conversation short as their kids walked down the stairs. "We ready to go?" Beca asked Cory and Emily as they reached the bottom of the stairs with their bags in their hands.
"Yeah." They both said before bidding their farewells to their father.
"I'll see you later, mom." Owen leaned in and gave his significantly shorter mother a kiss on the cheek.
"Bye Mommy." Alexis ran to her mother and Beca got down on her level to give her a hug.
"Bye sweetheart, I'll see you soon okay?" The woman kissed the top of her daughter's head as she stood up. "I'll see you later, Jesse." She gave her ex a smile and small wave as she exited the house.
"I call shotgun!" Emily called as they walked towards the car.
"No way!" Cory protested as he ran forward and started pulling at the door.
"Hey! I called shotgun." Emily tried pushed her little brother out the way.
Beca just sighed heavily, looking down at the keys in her hand. "Neither of you are getting in the car until I unlock it so there's no point in fighting."
"Mom tell him I should get it!"
"She always gets the front seat!"
"Okay! Okay! Emily you can get the front seat, Cory you can get it next time." Beca rolled her eyes as she unlocked the car, Cory huffing his way to the back seat.
"It's not fair! Just cause she's older, she always gets her way!" The 13 year old protested from behind and Beca sighed as she clipped her seat belt in. God if she knew kids were this much hard work, she would've taking birth control more seriously in her 20s.
"Oh you're so dramatic!" Emily rolled her eyes, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
Emily and Cory were the kids that clashed the most, Jesse and Beca didn't know why. It was probably because they were the middle children and felt that they were less important that the eldest and youngest (certainly untrue) and they just wind up butting heads with one another.
"Would you guys calm down? Please?" Beca pleaded as she pulled away from the curb.
They instantly silenced.
"How was dad's?" She asked, glancing at her daughter before looking at her son in the rearview mirror.
"Sucked because you weren't there." Cory grumbled as he stared out the window.
"Cory you tell me the same thing every week. Your dad and I, well we tried to make it work. We just figured that we weren't working out and it was time to go our separate ways. I still love your dad-" Beca tried to explain once again but was quickly cut off.
"If you still love him then why aren't you with him? You should try your best to be with the one you love right?" Emily decided to slip into the conversation, her and her brother ganging up against their mother. Putting her in the hot seat.
"I learned that you can't always be with the one you love a long time ago." Beca replied, leaning forward slightly to check both ways.
Emily knew exactly what her mother was referencing too but she didn't bother commenting.
Beca sighed. "Guys look at it this way. Would you rather your dad and I being friendly to each other like we are now, or completely biting each other's heads off every second like it was before? Getting some time apart is good for us."
Neither teenager said anything. About 10 minutes past before Beca spoke up again.
"Em, I need you to stay in and watch your brother later."
"Why? The loser can take care of himself." Emily scoffed which only made Cory kick the back of her seat.
"I need you to cook something for dinner because I'm going out and might not be back till later." Beca explained.
"Like on a date?" Emily asked with a straight face.
Beca opened her mouth to speak but Cory interrupted. "You're replacing dad already?!" He asked incredulously.
The woman oh so desperately wanted to bang her head off the steering wheel multiple times. "Can I get a chance to speak please? No it's not a date, I'm just meeting up with an old friend." She thought her eyes were going to roll out of their sockets.
"Chloe?" Emily smirked, not even bothering to look up from her phone.
Once again, Beca barely got a chance to even open her mouth before her son barged in.
"Replacing dad with a girl? That's even worse." He protested and Beca glanced at Emily who just locked her phone and turned to the window.
"Cory that's enough, you're not letting me get a word in before you keep blurting out your silly remarks. You need to think before you speak because what you said just offended your sister." Beca was slowly losing it, thank god they were just pulling up into their driveway.
"It's not my fault she's a dyke." He muttered.
"Hey!" Beca exclaimed as she parked the car. She was actually taken aback, she didn't raise any of her children to be homophobic, even if it was just little snide comments like that.
"Fuck you!" Emily yelled before climbing out the car and forcefully slamming the door.
"Emily!" Beca called after her daughter who was already unlocking the front door with her own key. "You, up to your room right now." She opened Cory's door and sent the teenager up to his room.
Cory silently went upstairs and closed his bedroom door behind him, Beca on the other hand went straight to Emily's room.
"Why the hell did I even bother coming out?" Emily let out a frustrated sigh as she paced her bedroom, quickly glancing at her mother who closed the door behind her.
"Hey don't say things like that." Beca approached her daughter and grabbed her hands before leading her to her bed. "Don't listen to him, he's 13. He'll hear shit in school and just repeat it."
"Ever since you and dad split up he's just been a moody little-" Emily cut herself short of swearing. "I mean seriously though, I literally just came out and he doesn't even have the sensitivity to not call me stuff like that. He only thinks about himself."
"Em, I know what it's like to be called that and I know it hurts but Cory didn't mean to hurt you like that. There's a reason why he's acting how he is Emily and we've all been through it." Beca began to laugh trying to lighten to mood slightly.
"What?"
"One word. Puberty. I know it was wrong of him to call you that and don't worry I'll make sure he never says it again but just remember what it's like to be 13." Beca always tried her hardest not to take sides because she knew it just cause a bigger row.
"Oh come on, a girl going through puberty is so much harder than a guy going through it." Emily scoffed and the older woman laughed, rubbing her daughter's back.
"I know. Grow a pair of balls? More like grow a uterus and some ovaries huh?" Beca playfully nudged her daughter who cracked a smile.
"Totally. No uterus, no opinion." They both laughed at the Friends reference. Watching reruns of the show was one of their usual lazy Sunday afternoon mother and daughter activities.
"Alright, I'm going to talk some sense into your little brother because I'll need to get going soon." Beca kissed the top of her daughter's head before heading towards the door.
"Hey mom?" Emily got the woman's attention just as she grabbed the door handle.
"Yeah?" Beca turned around.
"If you are meeting up with Chloe, you know I won't tell dad right?" The teenager offered.
"Em, I'm meeting up with Chloe to set things straight between us because our break up didn't go exactly to plan. I'm not getting back together with her so there's nothing to hide from dad." Beca couldn't help but roll her eyes and laugh.
It had been a couple of days since Beca and Chloe had first ran into each other at work and it was only now when they decided to talk. They had been totally avoiding each other but it was Chloe who approached Beca this morning and invited her out for coffee to talk things over.
"Hey." Chloe greeted Beca in the parking lot with an awkward hug.
"Hey." Beca returned before the women made their way inside the coffee house. They quickly ordered their coffees before taking a seat in one of the booths.
"So you married Jesse?" The redhead blurted out and Beca just closed her eyes.
"How did you even find that out?" Beca opened her eyes and just shook her head at Chloe.
"Okay for one, your last name is Swanson, it's not rocket science and two, your kids told me." The redhead explained and the brunette furrowed her brow before glancing out the window.
"My kids - What? What do you mean my kids told you? How do you even know my kids?" Beca began to get defensive at the mention of her children.
"Beca calm down." Chloe hissed, her eyes darting around, noticing that Beca had attracted the attention of others by raising her voice. "On Monday I came in here and well they came up to me and told me you were their mom." She shrugged.
"Wait which kids?" Beca asked although she probably didn't have to, knowing who is most likely to be the culprits.
"Owen and Emily. Wait how many kids do you have?" Chloe asked before taking a sip of her coffee.
"Four."
The redhead almost choked on her coffee. "You have 4 kids?" She asked incredulously, a smirk playing on her lips.
"How is that so hard to believe?" Beca challenged, smirking back at Chloe.
"I dunno, it's just when we were together you always told me you never wanted kids." The redhead shrugged. "So I've met Owen and Emily, I take it they're your eldest?" She moved on quickly, trying not to linger on the topic of their relationship for long.
"Yeah. Then there's Cory who's 13 and Alexis who's 6." Beca opened her purse which was lying on the table and pulled out the family picture she kept in there. She looked at it and smiled sadly, it was a photo of all 6 members of the family that had been taken fairly recently. "Here." The brunette handed the picture over to Chloe.
"You and Jesse made cute kids." The redhead chuckled as she handed the photo back. "So how did it all happen?" She gently pushed.
"Well I just started to develop feelings for him so we gave dating a shot, next thing we knew, I accidentally got pregnant at 19." The brunette shrugged, looking down at the table. She sighed before continuing. "We weren't planning on having another baby but then once again we accidentally got pregnant and had Emily. Jesse and I finally decided to get married after that and well now...We're uh divorced."
"I...I'm really sorry Beca, I had no idea." The redhead reached forward and took Beca's hand in her own.
The brunette looked down at their hands and old memories of her and Chloe came rushing back to her all at once. Her heart began to beat a little faster until she moved her hand away. "You don't have to be sorry for anything." Beca shook her head and glanced up, giving Chloe a small smile. "Anyway, enough about me, how are you holding up? Got any kids?" She teased lightly.
"Nope. No kids, no wife. I've just been focusing on my career all these years." Chloe shrugged. "What made you want to go into teaching? I thought you wanted to move to LA." She took a sip of her coffee.
"That was the plan until I got pregnant. Anyway I love teaching. I'm qualified to teach English, that's what I started out doing but then I moved to teaching music." Beca explained.
"That's amazing Beca, you're so talented, I'm sure you're an amazing teacher." Chloe said with a smile and Beca found herself smiling back. "Come round to this side, we need to take a photo." The redhead grabbed her phone off the table whilst she patted the seat next to her.
Beca rolled her eyes playfully as she reluctantly moved around to Chloe's side of the booth. This reminded Beca of Chloe when she was a teenager, she had always been obsessed with capturing everything with that damned camera of hers. God help Beca if they had the phones that are around nowadays back then!
"Are you still into your photography?" Beca asked, when they were young Chloe would always go on about wanting to be a photographer one day.
Chloe felt Beca's eyes on her as she opened up the camera app on her phone. "Yeah, I still take photos now and again, nothing major though." She shrugged before holding the phone out in front of her before throwing her arm around Beca. "You ready?"
Beca nodded and the redhead snapped the photo.
"Are you on Instagram?" Chloe wondered.
"Yeah."
"Here." The redhead handed her phone to the brunette who quickly typed in her own Instagram account and hit follow.
Beca reached forward and grabbed her own phone after handing Chloe's back to her. She opened up her Instagram and followed Chloe back before having a little look through the redhead's photos. "Wow these are beautiful Chlo." She was taken aback by some of her ex's stunning landscape shots.
The redhead smiled down at her own phone, getting a warm fuzzy feeling at Beca calling her 'Chlo'.
Beca tapped on the notification that said Chloe had tagged her in a photo and her eyes widened. The picture they had just taken had been put in a collage with one from when they were dating, Chloe had captioned the picture: "21 years later, finally reunited with this weirdo. Pretty sure we haven't changed a bit!"
"Holy shit." Beca muttered as she looked at the 2 pictures side by side. "21 years...I can't get my head around that. We're so...old." She chuckled and Chloe joined in. Her phone started to ring and Emily's caller ID came up. "I'll call her back." She hit decline and looked back up to Chloe.
"What if it was important?" Chloe wondered.
"Important to Emily is like asking me where her phone charger is." Beca barely even got her sentence out before her phone began to ring, this time it was her ex husband though. "I better take this, I'm sorry."
"No don't worry about it."
"Hello?"
"Beca, hey. Uh Cory's had a little accident on his skateboard-"
"That fucking skateboard…" She muttered down the phone, running her hand down her face. "How is he?"
"He's got a pretty nasty cut on his arm that'll need stitches but other than that he's called me from the Emergency Room and we're still in here waiting, Owen is watching Lexi at my place." Jesse explained and Beca sighed.
"I'll leave right now and meet you guys there." Beca and Jesse had to have the clumsiest children alive, they couldn't go a full year without multiple hospital visits.
"Okay, see you soon." Beca hung up the phone and let out another heavy sigh.
"Is everything alright?" Chloe asked in concern.
"Cory fell off his skateboard, he's at the hospital with Emily and Jesse just now. I'm so sorry Chloe but I really need to go." Beca genuinely felt really bad, giving Chloe an apologetic expression as she pulled her handbag off the floor and placed it in her lap.
"Beca…" Chloe took the brunette's hand in her own. Beca stopped rummaging through her bag and looked at their hands. "Please stop apologising, your kids are your main responsibility." The brunette looked up to be met with Chloe's soft smile.
"Thanks Chloe." Beca returned the smile, slowly taking her hand away from the redhead's. She took a pen out of her bag and scribbled down her number on the back of the receipt of the coffee before handing it to Chloe. "Here's my number, maybe we could do this again."
"Wow I got your number without even having to take you out on a date this time." Chloe joked with a sly wink. "I'd love to do this again. Listen, I hope your son gets better."
"Thanks Chloe, I'll see you later." Beca gave the redhead a small wave, chewing on her bottom lip as she slowly walked away. For once in a long time, she had felt like a teenager again.
"I swear to god, I'm going to break that skateboard in two." Was Beca's first words as she approached her family in the waiting room.
"Mom, I'm fine." Cory rolled his eyes and Jesse moved up a seat so Beca could sit between him and their son.
"If you were fine, you wouldn't be in hospital. Let me see." The woman pointed to his arm which had been wrapped up to stop the bleeding. She gently unwrapped it and took a look at the gash on his arm. "You've got to be more careful Cory. You alright?" Her voice softened and she put her arm around her son.
Cory nodded and leaned into his mother. He was a tough little guy but he still loved getting a hug off his mom.
When Cory's name was finally called and they were all lead down the corridor, Beca held Jesse back a little so she could talk to him. "Hey did Em tell you what Cory called her today?" She whispered.
"No she didn't, what was it?" Jesse furrowed his brow at his ex wife before casting his eye at his two kids who were just a little in front of them.
"He called her a dyke Jess. I don't know where he even heard that but you don't understand how much it hurt me when he said that never mind Em."
"No way." He whispered incredulously. "Do you want me to talk to him about it?"
"I've already yelled at him for it so don't flip out at him just sit him down and explain to him that he can't go around saying that." Beca explained
"Got it." Co-parenting as a divorced couple at its best.
They were lead into a room and Cory was instructed to hop up onto the bed whilst his mom, dad and sister sat in the chairs beside him.
"Okay Cory, what happened here then?" The doctor asked as he began to examine the damage.
"I fell off my skateboard."
"Oh dear." The doctor said sympathetically as he pushed up his glasses and took a closer look. "You're definitely going to need stitches. I promise it won't hurt alright?"
Cory nodded.
Beca's phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out, noticing she had a text message from Chloe. The redhead had texted her on the way over to the hospital so she could save her number.
[From: Chloe]
I hope everything is going okay :)
[Sent at: 17:37]
Jesse curiously glanced at his ex wife's phone from the side. "Since when has Chloe been back in town?" Jesse asked whilst the doctor and nurse were preparing Cory for his local anaesthetic.
Emily widened her eyes and watched the exchange between her parents.
"Since when have I asked you to read my texts?" Beca shot back.
"Right sorry." Jesse rolled his eyes and apologised in the most unapologetic tone.
"Guys." Emily said through gritted teeth, feeling a little embarrassed that her parents were starting one of their petty fights in the presence of company.
"Cory this may sting a little but it'll be over in seconds." The doctor warned as he lowered the needle down to the boy's wound.
Beca had slid her phone back into her pocket and offered her hand out to Cory who just gave her a 'really mom?' look. That all changed when the needle was injected into his cut though, he grabbed onto Beca's hand for dear life.
"I know you too well boy." Beca chuckled shaking off her hand once Cory had let go.
"Nothing beats the comfort of mom huh?" The nurse smiled.
Cory got stitched up okay and they got home at a decent time. Beca had just settled down on the couch when her phone buzzed with a text.
[From: Stacie]
I'm coming over. You need some post divorce girl talk.
[Sent at: 18:10]
Beca rolled her eyes but she had to laugh, typical Stacie...
Enter Stacie to get Beca's divorced little ass back out there!
Hoping to kick up the Bechloe soon!
I've got a little writers block for Hold on to Sixteen but I'll try and get an update done soon.