"How'd you sleep?" AJ sat in the kitchen herself as Punk stumbled in through the door, his hair all over his face, basketball shorts and a t-shirt hanging on his body as he rubbed his eyes.
"Good. You?" He asked her, opening up the fridge and taking the carton of orange juice out, searching in every cupboard for a glass, usually if he was in his own home he would have just drunk it from the carton.
"He wouldn't stop kicking me when I was trying to get to sleep." She said, recalling back to last night where her son just wouldn't let her get to sleep.
"Yeah?" Punk smiled over to her, finally finding the glasses and pouring the juice into one, taking a seat across from AJ after putting the carton back in the fridge.
"I think whenever I'm awake, he's sleeping, and whenever I'm sleeping, he's awake." She told him with a sigh.
"Most likely." Punk chuckled.
"So really, how did the conversation go with my mom?" AJ asked, having not got a lot of detail from Punk last night.
"It was ok. We didn't exactly have a heart to heart, but we talked." Punk nodded, "I don't think she's ever going to like me." He whispered to his wife as she sighed.
"Her loss then." AJ leaned back on her chair, resting her hand on her belly just as Fiona walked in through the door, glimpsing over at her daughter and Punk, quickly turning away and walking to the fridge.
"How did you sleep April?" Fiona asked.
"Good. He wouldn't stop kicking me though." AJ laughed, forgetting that she hadn't told her mom what the baby was yet.
"He?" Fiona turned to them both, "It's a boy?"
"Yeah… sorry mom, I was going to tell you later, we both were." She looked at Punk with a smile.
"A boy…" Fiona whispered, "Father like son." She muttered to herself, holding her head in frustration, "Forgive me, April. I think I'm getting one of my migraines, I'm going to have a lie down." She said, walking out of the kitchen, leaving Punk and AJ staring at each other.
"What is her problem? Can't she just be happy for anything?" Punk looked at his wife, getting angry now.
"I don't understand why she hates you so much." AJ shrugged, it frazzling her mind, how could anyone hate Punk, he was sweet, gentle and kind, he treated her right. What was so hard about liking him?
"Neither do I." Punk shook his head and ran his hand over his hair, leaning back on the chair and sighing.
"It'll be ok." AJ smiled, taking his hand in hers as he tried his best to smile, not knowing what else he could do to humour this woman, he couldn't win.
Punk and AJ spent the day in the house while Fiona was at work. AJ could sense a sadness coming from Punk as she lay with him watching TV later on in the night. She didn't blame him, her mother wouldn't even give him a chance.
"We don't have to stay the full weekend." AJ said, "We can leave tomorrow, or tonight." She told him.
"No… I'm not leaving here until she understands how much I love you." Punk said firmly.
"Maybe she's just jealous." AJ shrugged at the possibility.
"Of what?" Punk asked in confusion.
"Well… my dad left her, she probably gets lonely, maybe she doesn't want to see me happy when she isn't." She said.
Punk went a little stiff at AJ bringing up her dad, but shook it off none the less, "That's a little selfish, don't you think?" He looked down at her.
"I don't know, Phil. I don't think she's ever going to be ok with us. I don't know what she has against you." She sunk down against him, holding on to him tightly as he ran his hands through her hair continuously.
"Neither do I." Punk whispered just as Fiona came in the door.
"April… are you home?" Fiona shouted as she came in the door.
"Yeah. We're in here." AJ called out to her mother as Fiona walked into the living room, looking on at her daughter curled up against Punk, taking a seat on the chair across from them.
"How was work?" AJ asked politely.
"It was ok. Do you want anything to eat, April?" Fiona asked, deliberately excluding Punk from her questions, truth be told she was trying to pretend he wasn't here.
"Me and Phil were actually going to go out… for dinner." She turned to Punk with a smile, "You don't mind?" She looked back at her mother.
"Suit yourself." She nodded, "What did you get up to all day?" Fiona asked, again, not including Punk in any type of question she was asking, making it so obvious to AJ and of course Punk.
"Phil is here, you know that, right?" AJ raised her eyebrows to her mother.
"Wish he wasn't." Fiona muttered under her breath.
"I can't do this anymore." AJ shook her head and sat up straight from leaning into Punk, "Why can't you just be happy for me? Are you… are you jealous of me, just because dad left us isn't my problem." She said, "Phil is trying his best with you and your just being such a bitch." AJ shrieked.
"April!" Fiona shrieked back at her daughters word choice for her.
"Calm down." Punk told his wife, resting his hand on her lap as he watched her just stand up and begin to walk away.
"I am done trying with you. I don't know what else you want me to do." She threw her hands up in the air as she began to walk out of sight.
"You are just too gullible, April." Fiona stood up as her daughter turned back around, while Punk sat quietly on the couch, his head resting on his hand, slumped over and trying to deafen out the argument going on.
"Gullible? What are you talking about?" AJ shook her head.
"Him…" Fiona pointed to Punk, "You're a fool to believe anything that comes from his mouth." Fiona said.
"God, what are you talking about, mom?" AJ pulled at her hair as she looked across at her mother, her heart beating rapidly as her brain twisted and turned inside, wondering if it was her mom that was the crazy one.
"Lost your job, my ass…" Fiona looked over at Punk, "Why don't you tell April the real reason you went crazy… tell your wife. Go on." Fiona folded her arms as Punk stood up, looking across at Fiona coldy, shaking his head.
"I don't know what you're talking about, nor does April. We came here for a nice weekend, to maybe talk about you visiting when the baby comes, to be involved with your grandson, to be involved with your daughter, regardless of the hatred you have for me. But we don't deserve this… April, doesn't deserve this. We'll just go to a hotel tonight, because this…" He pointed from him to Fiona back and forth, "It's not going to work."
"Oh, give it up, will you? Stop trying to pretend you are a hero. You went crazy in your own guilt. You never lost your job or friends… you claim to love my daughter? Then why have you been lying to her all this time. How could you possibly look her in the eye every day, knowing what you done." Fiona said.
"Phil… what is she talking about?" AJ asked, standing behind the couch as she looked on at her mother and husband facing each other.
"Where were you, Phil? Six years ago… on the 23rd of May?"
It hit him like a ton of bricks. Why he hadn't thought anything of it before was beyond him, but it all came rushing back to him, every little detail, every little moment, it was a date he would never ever forget, for so many reasons. He never thought he would have to tell anyone about it, especially not his wife, she'd never look at him the same again, this would crush her, drive her away from him.
"You've been digging into my past?" Punk looked across at Fiona.
"And rightly so." Fiona said.
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" AJ asked, clueless to the situation that was occurring right now.
"Go on, Phil. Tell your wife, tell the woman that is carrying your child… tell her about the little secret you've kept from her all this time." Fiona said.
"I think it would make sense if you went first. You're the one that's been lying to her all this time about something she definitely had the right to know." Punk said, bowing his head in guilt, "I swear… I didn't know it was him." He shook his head, not really knowing who he was speaking to at this point now, Fiona or AJ.
"But you left him, at the side of the road… what stopped you from getting out and phoning for help… you could have saved him." Fiona said.
"What are you both talking about?" AJ asked, getting angry now that everyone kept ignoring her, including Punk now.
"I panicked." Punk said, "I didn't know what to do. I was… I'd been drinking." He said as April lifted her head and looked his way.
"You don't drink." AJ shook her head.
"And there's another little lie." Fiona smirked to Punk whose nostrils flared her way.
"It was the first time I'd ever got drunk. I had just lost my job, I was passing a bar on my way home, it seemed right." He shrugged.
"Why did you never tell me?" AJ shook her head. She would have understood if Punk told her, but something was telling her that this was not what this confrontation was about, there seemed to be more to it, from what she was hearing.
"So you were drunk, that justified you leaving him, at the side of the road, not to be found until the next morning." She gritted her teeth, trying her best to look strong.
"When I hit him… I knew what was going on. I didn't feel drunk, I knew what was going on, I knew what I'd done. I-I would have got put to prison… I was driving under alcohol." He said.
"Hit who? Phil, what did you do?" AJ shook her head.
"He killed a man, April." Fiona looked at her daughter, "He hit a man whilst driving and didn't even call for help, he just left him there." Fiona said.
"Is this true?" AJ asked as she looked at Punk, swallowing the lump in her throat the best she could, feeling like she'd swallowed a brick.
"No.." Punk shook his head as Fiona turned to him quickly, glaring at him, "It wasn't just any guy… It was your dad." Punk said, already knowing he had lost her, for good this time, it had only occurred to him that it was her father when Fiona started speaking of him last night when April was in the bath. He was ashamed, disgusted, pitied by himself, it haunted him every day. The look on her face right now had already killed him and brought him back to the life to pay the consequences, the way she shook her head, as if trying to assure herself it wasn't true. She looked so confused, so filled with pain so quickly and knowing he was responsible, it killed him.
"In future…" Fiona said, looking towards her daughter who had filled up tears in her eyes, ready to unleash them any second, "Trust me before some lunatic you meet in a hospital." Fiona said, walking by her daughter who called her back.
"You told me dad left us…" AJ turned around, her back facing Punk now who had his hands running through his hair, his heart beating rapidly, unknown of what and where his and AJ's relationship stood now.
"That was only to protect you." Fiona said, "He's dead… and he's the reason why." Fiona pointed behind April to Punk.
AJ turned around and looked across at Punk, "Tell me she's lying." AJ asked, tears running down her cheeks, looking into the eyes of her husband, never suspecting such a deathly lie to come from him.
"She's not lying. I… I never knew it was your dad until we came here." Punk said, "I didn't know what I was doing that night. I'd just sat and drank at a bar, I'd lost my job, I wasn't thinking… the last thing I needed was being arrested." He said, knowing that if he replayed what he just said, he probably sounded incredibly selfish.
"You-You've both lied to me…" AJ shook her head as she backed away from both of them, "I expected something like that from you." She pointed to her mother, turning her head to Punk.
"I… I can't even look at you." She said to him, quickly walking away upstairs, her crying heard from both Punk and her mother.
She ran down the hall and into her bedroom, closing the door tightly and locking it, taking deep breaths in and out, feeling like she couldn't breathe anymore, everything felt so tight, she felt like so many knives were being put in her back.
Finding out her father had been dead all this time would have been hard enough, but realising it was her husband who had killed and left him, realising her husband, the only person she thought she trusted, had been lying to her all this time, she was beginning to fade into that unstable bubble she felt herself go into many times before.
10 REVIEWS = New Chapter.