Chapter 12: We Are

Simon couldn't believe what he was seeing. Right there before his own two eyes was the worst possible sight he could ever see.

It was his ex-girlfriend, Cecilia, with another guy.

He'd seen them walking up towards the house across the street from his own. They were holding hands. Then they stopped and kissed.

He just couldn't believe it. Cecilia was dating another guy. And worse, he knew this guy. It was Martin Brewer.

Martin lived across the street from him. He was stunned. Cecilia and Martin a couple. Unbelievable.

Simon's thoughts were interrupted by a voice shouting up the stairs, "time for dinner!"

Simon left the room.


Dinnertime at the Camden house. This was a favorite of many who lived there. Nothing like Annie's home cooked meals after a long, hard, tiring day. Food was like fuel, the more you moved around, the more you needed it.

Right now, Annie, Eric, Lucy, Kevin, Sam, David, Ruthie, and Lizzie were all seated at the kitchen.

Lucy caught everybody's attention, "guys, I have an announcement."

Everyone turned to Lucy.

"What is it Luce?" Annie asked her daughter.

"Well, I ran into Robbie Palmer at Pete's Pizza today. And I invited him to our house for Thanksgiving dinner," Lucy explained.

"Why didn't you ask me Luce? I know we welcome everyone to our home but that means I have to cook more food now," Annie said, sounding stressed.

"Mom. I asked you before," Lucy replied.

"Oh, sorry Luce. I've just been kind of stressed lately," Annie said apologetically.

"It's ok Mom," Lucy said. She wasn't going to get mad at her mom for being stressed.

"Cool, Robbie's back in town!" Ruthie exclaimed excitedly. Her and Robbie had always been close.

Lizzie turned to Ruthie, "who's Robbie?"

Ruthie replied with, "he's Mary and Lucy's ex-boyfriend. He lived with us for awhile. He's really cool. You'll like him."

"Oh," Lizzie said simply.

"I'm glad you invited Robbie. It will be nice to see him again," Eric said.

"Oh great. Robbie's coming back, I thought he left for good. This is just great," Kevin mumbled to himself.

Sam and David were talking amongst themselves having one of those little twin conversations. Just then, Annie got up out of her seat.

"Everyone, I have a surprise!" Annie exclaimed.

"What is it Mom?" Ruthie asked curiously.

"Come on out!" Annie said. Everyone gave her a questioning look.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Simon stepped into the room. There was a lot of excitement in the air.

"Simon!" everyone, except Lizzie and Annie, shouted at the same time.

"Hi everybody," Simon said, sitting down at the dinner table.

Lizzie had been feeling uncomfortable throughout the whole meal. She wasn't that hungry, so she decided to leave the table.

"May I be excused, I'm not that hungry?" Lizzie asked politely.

Annie turned to Lizzie, "sure Lizzie."

"Thanks," Lizzie said before quickly exiting the table.

Lucy watched as Lizzie exited the room. That was weird. Usually Lizzie loved to eat. And dinner was her favorite meal of the day, which made it even more odd that she just wandered off like that.

Come to think of it, Lizzie had been acting weird all day. Lucy wondered if something was wrong. Oh well, she could talk to Lizzie later. For now, she should just enjoy her dinner.


"Can't we wait to tell them?" Roxanne asked Chandler while they were eating their dinner.

Chandler looked up at her, "Roxanne, we have to tell them sooner or later."

"But why now?" Roxanne whined.

"Because, you're going to start showing soon and we have to get it over with sometime," Chandler said. He didn't sound happy about telling them either.

"Great, just great. I can picture it: the minute my dad finds out…let's just say all hell shall break lose," Roxanne said unpleasantly.

Chandler looked at her again, "you're scaring me."

"How am I scaring you?" Roxanne asked.

"I don't know. You just are." Chandler said simply.

"Whatever," Roxanne said and then started back to eating her dinner.

Chandler laughed to himself. Roxanne was crazy sometimes…actually a lot of the time. But he loved her and nothing would change that.


Edie sighed as she pulled the covers of her bed over her head. She couldn't sleep.

It was impossible to sleep with what she was about to do tomorrow. She was about to get on a plane and visit her son. What was she thinking?

She flung the covers off of her head and glanced at the clock on the night table. It read 2:51 a, in big, red, blocky letters.

"Damn, sleep! Is it so hard to ask for?!" Edie complained before angrily pulling the covers over her head again.

This time she fell into an uneasy sleep. Boy, this Thanksgiving was going to be one to remember: the Thanksgiving from Hell.


Sid looked around his room. He couldn't sleep for some odd reason. But he didn't care. He didn't need sleep.

It felt weird to be in this room again. He had gotten so used to the rooms at the rehab center. The one he went to to try and rid himself of drugs and alcohol once and for all.

Drugs and alcohol used to be known as his "escape" from his parent's cruel words, or maybe just life when his day had been bad enough. He wasn't like Chandler, who had chosen a career choice his parents despised, religion. No, he'd used drugs and alcohol to try and show his parents once and for all what they were doing to him. Making him so miserable that he'd resort to using such crappy substances.

But they didn't care. Mr. and Mrs. Big Bucks just sent him off to some crummy old rehab center. And it worked for him. He was glad it did, he no longer wanted anything to do with drugs or alcohol. He wanted them to no longer be in his life.

He looked out the window. Just think: tomorrow he'd be on a plane, flying, on his way to visit his brother who he hadn't seen in almost nine months. That was a good thing, right?


Terry was trying to watch TV, but he just couldn't focus on the screen. He was too mad at himself for accepting his daughter's invitation to Thanksgiving dinner.

Oh well, he couldn't stay mad at himself and his daughter forever. And he couldn't hate Chandler, his soon to be son-in-law, forever.

Could he? He'd learn to like Chandler soon enough. Wouldn't he?

What had he gotten himself into?


Roxanne and Chandler entered their house. They were still talking about Thanksgiving dinner.

"I hope he doesn't bring his gun," Roxanne said, referring to her dad.

"Why would he?" Chandler asked.

"Remember back in February? You and my dad met for lunch for the first time, and he pulled out his gun and put in on the table to scare you?" Roxanne questioned.

"Oh yeah. And he had one of his friends on the police force arrest me on false charges," Chandler remembered.

"He always does stuff like this. But I know he'll get mad if I tell him I'm pregnant before marriage. He'll scream at me and probably kill you," Roxanne said shakily.

"Kill me? Is he really that intense?" Chandler asked, secretly shaken up by the thought.

"I have no idea, and I never intend to find out," Roxanne said.

"Oh well, it's my funeral," Chandler said jokingly before heading towards the bedroom.

"Hey, that's not funny!" Roxanne yelled after him.

She ran into the bedroom after him to change into her pajamas.


Lizzie sat up in her bedroom. Her face was hidden in an issue of Teen Beat that she was reading.

She still felt guilty for cutting herself. She was trying really hard to stop thinking about it. After all, it was in the past.

Lucy entered her room, "Liz?"

Lizzie didn't need to look up to know who it was. She could recognize Lucy's voice, "yeah."

"Are you ok?" Lucy asked sounding concerned.

"I'm fine," Lizzie replied, pretending to be more interested in an article on Hilary Duff than Lucy. Then hopefully she would leave Lizzie would be alone. She needed to be alone right now.

"Ok. But if you need to talk…" Lucy started to say.

Lizzie cut her off, like I said, I'm fine."

"Ok," Lucy said and left the room.

As Lucy walked down the hallway she pondered what could be bothering Lizzie. Lizzie never acted the way she just did. She never skipped dinner.

Sure, she said she was fine. But Lucy knew something was wrong, terribly wrong. And she intended to find out what.


Roxanne and Chandler were sitting around. They had on the TV, but they were too engrossed in their conversation to notice it. Just then, Roxanne got the craving to eat ice cream, mint chocolate chip flavor, out of nowhere.

"Darn pregnancy cravings," Roxanne mumbled. First spices, now mint chocolate chip flavored ice cream. What was next…liver and onions?

Chandler heard Roxanne mumble, "what is it this time?" he asked her. They kind of had a routine set up: Roxanne craves it, Chandler brings in to her. And it was working pretty well so far.

"Mint chocolate chip ice cream," Roxanne said. She hated these cravings. She seemed to be craving things she'd usually never eat.

"Ok, I'll see if there's any in the freezer," Chandler got up to check.

He went into the kitchen and opened up the freezer. There was no sign of any mint chocolate chip ice cream anywhere.

"There's none in here," Chandler told Roxanne.

"Great," he heard Roxanne mumble.

"I'll go buy some," Chandler said grabbing his wallet and coat and heading towards the door.

"Ok, hurry back," Roxanne called out to him as he exited the house.


Simon sat on his bed, thinking…mostly about Cecilia. She was beautiful: her hair, her eyes, her laugh, her everything.

He thought he'd gotten over her, but apparently not. He was still in love with her. But now she was with Martin.

Oh well easy come, easy go, right?

Not this time, not anytime.


Chandler exited the ice cream place on the Promenade. He'd gotten Roxanne's mint chocolate chip ice cream. He was about to head towards his car when he was interrupted.

"Chandler…Chandler Hampton, it that you?!" a female voice called out to him

Chandler turned around to see a somewhat familiar girl heading towards him.

The girl now stood in front of him, "not to be rude, but do I know you?"

"You don't recognize me? Hello! It's me, Eileen O'Greay!" she said.

Chandler looked surprised, "Eileen, I can't believe it's you!"


Keep watching from your picket fence
You keep talking but it makes no sense
You say we're not responsible
But we are, we are
You wash your hands, you come out clean
You fail to recognize the enemies within
You say we're not responsible
But we are, we are, we are


Songs Used: "We Are" by Ana Johnsson is not mine.