Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. That was definitely a challenging chapter to write. However, I loved every second of it. Now it is time for the fallout.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for my crazy original characters.
Once again, the title comes from the Linkin Park song Waiting for the End.
Chapter 15: Picking up the pieces, not knowing where to begin
October 10, 2008, 4:53 PM
"Can someone please explain to me what happened?" Sharpay heard the RA say just minutes after Taylor ran from the room on the verge of tears. Ms. Lopez was obviously furious.
"I told you to tell her on the telephone," Amanda said as she started to put the furniture back in the community room. "Chad just broke up with his girlfriend. She didn't take it very well or really at all."
"I'm going to be filling out incident reports all night." Ms. Lopez said in annoyance as she surveyed the damage.
"On the bright side, Taylor owes me $35.00 for all the cursing during her tirade. The swear jar has been very good to me today. Are you going to take me home, Sharpay?" Jason asked, pulling Sharpay out of her confused state. She couldn't believe that this went so badly. There was at least $10,000 worth of damage to the building alone. There went her black card shopping spree this Thanksgiving. Her dad was going to kill her.
"Just give me a minute to change," Sharpay said, walking into the bedroom with Chad behind her.
It was an absolute disaster area. Glass and stuffed animal fluff cover the room. Her comforter was torn to shreds. Her television was destroyed. The only reason she still had a laptop was that it was designed for punishment. She saw the pictures of Taylor taking a baseball bat to it earlier. Hundreds of CDs and DVDs were smashed to pieces and scattered around the room. Almost every outfit she owned was ruined. No one was able to stop Taylor as she doused all her clothing with bleach. Apparently, all her underwear outside of a particular black bra we're currently on the sidewalk outside the building. She wanted to cry; however, Sharpay Evans did not cry. Well, she did not cry in public anyway.
A little voice in her head told her this was what she deserved. Even though she was not trying to cheat, it happened. It didn't matter that they didn't have sex; they might as well have. In some ways, emotional infidelity is worse. She stole Taylor's boyfriend. Sharpay never hated herself more than right now. For the first time in her life, Sharpay actually felt like the evil villain that everyone said she was in high school.
"It's not true," Chad told her. It was like he could read her mind. "Whatever she said to you before I got here, it's not true. You are the most intelligent, beautiful, infuriating, passionate, and compassionate woman I have ever met. You are the first partner I've ever had to see who I really am."
"It's hard for me to believe that right now. I stole someone else's boyfriend." Sharpay whispered.
"That's not entirely true. You did not take my heart from Taylor because she never had it. Maybe that's my fault because I couldn't give it to her, but I freely give it to you. But that's on me, not you. My heart is yours." Chad said, kissing her on the lips for the first time that was genuinely real and not the two of them pretending or an 'accident.' She wanted this so much. That wicked voice in her head wondered if all this pain was worth this. As he continued to kiss her, she knew he was worth everything.
"This is such a mess," she said as they broke apart. That statement could refer to the room and the entire situation in general.
"I should've broken up with her on the phone." Chad side.
"You think," Sharpay said sarcastically as she pulled a piece of fluff out of his hair.
"I doubt that I will find anything wearable here. Taylor basically destroyed my entire fall wardrobe." Sharpay sighed again.
"Good thing you have all the other seasons at the mansion," Chad said in jest.
"I'll take Jason home like this. I'll call the cleaning crew and daddy from the car. I want him to hear about this from me and not Lisa."
"According to a text I got from Ryan, your dad already knows. He took care of it." Sharpay smiled at that. At least her little brother had her back even though she knew he was mad at her. He was so right when he warned her.
"I should still call him and Ryan as well."
"I'll meet you in a minute. I just want to see what Taylor did to my room." Chad tells Sharpay as he kisses her on the cheek.
"No, stay here. I can do this by myself. Just meet me at the mansion at 7 pm. One of us probably needs to talk to campus police. Just bring junk food. If I see a salad, I will hurt you." She said, smiling at him. It was her fake 'I'm trying to be OK when I just want to cry' smile. She wanted to kiss him again but decided against it. Instead, she left him and this mess behind.
XXXX
Taylor was uncertain how she made it to her favorite cafe 10 blocks from the U of A campus. She was just glad she had the presence of mind to bring her bag and cell phone. Taylor was currently listening to the TLC song lovesick for the fifth time, eating a jumbo nacho with sour cream and guacamole by herself. This wasn't really helping her figure out what to do next. How did this happen? How did he fall out of love with her? Did he ever love her? Why didn't he tell her about Jamie? Was she just his beard? Unfortunately, TLC held no answers for her.
If this happened last year, she would be calling Gabriella, not anymore. Taylor missed high school Gabriella. College Gabriella was too busy making straight As and hanging out with Mercedes. There was no way she would call college Gabriella. Ryan was out because he was too close to the situation. Despite what he told her earlier, he was still Sharpay's brother and Chad's best friend. He couldn't deal with this objectively. Taylor can even bring herself to read the numerous text messages she has in her inbox from him.
Taylor thought about calling her mother and asking her to pick her up. They could pick up Ben and Jerry's and cry over sappy love stories. However, her mom was too busy planning her anniversary party. Besides, she couldn't provide Taylor with the answers to any of her questions. Then she remembered the one person other than the person in question, who may know why Sharpay Evans is now the love of Chad's life. (Ryan probably knew, but again she wasn't ready to talk to him yet.)
She quickly dialed the number. Fortunately, Troy picked up.
"Hello,"
"Troy, why couldn't your best friend love me?" She asked as she tried to keep the tears out of her voice.
XXXX
Jack Bolton has had many different opinions about Kimberly Kim over the years. When she was 14, he saw her as the inquisitive drama girl who asked too many questions in health class. (Although now he wished she asked more questions during the human reproduction chapter.) When she was 15, he saw Kim as the girl in gym class that never wanted to lose or break a nail.
When she was 17, he saw her as the solution to his son's bad grades in math and English. After Chad got so frustrated trying to tutor Troy that he threw a book at him, Kim became his only hope of keeping Troy eligible for basketball. She exceeded his expectations, and Troy was making honor roll by the end of his high school career.
When she was 18, Jack saw her as the woman that broke his son's heart when she left so suddenly. She only left a note that he never could give to his son. No matter what, he didn't want to break his son's heart any more than it already had been.
At almost 21, she became the mother of his grandchild. At least now he understood why she left 2 ½ years ago. He also had a good feeling that the note left that night was, at the very least, a cover for a much more complicated situation. Carolyn suggested that was what was actually going on two years ago when this all happened. He really should listen to her more often.
Right now, Jack didn't know how to deal with Kim. She seems so different from her high school self. When he asked her the initial question in the gym, she froze. He expected her to run from the room. Instead, she asked to go somewhere away from campus.
Now he was sitting drinking coffee with his son's ex-girlfriend and his grandchild. A grandchild, he was not even aware of the possibility of his existence until a few weeks ago. Chad being Chad, sent Carolyn a bunch of pictures of Alex and Kim from their labor day pool party. Carolyn sent them to Jack as support of her theory that Kim ran because she was pregnant. When he saw the first picture, he was 99% sure. Alex looks so much like Troy; it was spooky. He was almost a mini Troy; he even had Troy's food allergies. (As he found out when he tried to order a strawberry Danish.)
"So, are you going to answer my question now?" Jack asked as he took another sip of his coffee.
"Not really. Can we start with something simpler? Like why does prejudice exist?" He laughed at her joke. If she wasn't ready to answer the big question, he would give her more time.
"How about an easier question, why are you an education major right now?" Jack asked, instead. "When you were in school, you wanted to be an actress like your friend Sharpay."
"Because you can't be a dreamer when you have a kid. I did not have a toddler in high school. Also, I spent two years without my trust fund. After being so broke, we qualify for food stamps; I learn the importance of having a career that comes with a steady paycheck." Jack remembers Carolyn telling him something similar when she explained her decision to defer law school. Although, in her case, she was never food stamps poor.
"I like teaching. It feels good to help others learn. In the future, it will be nice to have the same hours as Alex when he starts school." Kim said as she attempted to stop Alex from throwing food at the other kids in the coffee shop. Troy used to do the same thing as a kid.
"What do you mean you spent two years without your trust fund?" Jack asked for the sake of clarification.
" My mother, Zhēn, had full control over the trust fund created for me when I was born by my grandfather, Hóng Yì Cáo. Yes, I am one of the Beijing Gardens Cáo. When Zhēn found out I was pregnant, she wanted me to have an abortion. I said no. Zhēn then threatened not to pay for my education, I still said no. It did not matter because I was on scholarship anyway. I applied because I knew I would have to break away from her eventually. I was not going to give up my child because I didn't get pregnant by the right person." He noticed that she did not say 'right time.'
"Zhēn gave up on forcing me to have an abortion and decided to get me to give Alex up for adoption by taking my trust fund hostage. I spent most of my freshman and sophomore year of college as a full-time working mom and college student. I am not sure how I managed to get by. Finally, my father and stepmother manage to get my trust fund restored in June." It made Jack feel better, knowing how hard Kim fought to keep his grandson. Kim reminded him of Carolyn in a lot of ways.
"I am sorry you had to go through that without support from us. Why did you not tell us this was going on? We would have helped you." No matter how he felt about Kim, he wouldn't let his grandchild suffer. He wasn't going to be Carolyn's dad.
"Like I was going to tell you and your wife after what Lucy did to us?" Jack could hear her anger.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, confused.
"Did you know your wife blackmailed me into leaving your son?" That question caused Jack to choke on his coffee.
"She did what?"
"I'll take that as a no, which supports what Chad told me. Your wife threatened to send me to prison for statutory if I didn't break up with Troy." He found that thread laughable. "Only recently did I found out she was bluffing thanks to some legal documents Chad's mom sent Sharpay."
"Carolyn's great like that. New Mexico statutory rape laws aside, Kim, the entire faculty at East High knew you and Troy were sleeping together. Ms. Darbus caught the two of you having sex in the garden on the roof after the spring dance. That was the talk of the teachers' lounge for weeks. If we thought you were a threat, you wouldn't be allowed to be a student-teacher this year." All blood drained from Kim's face as he spoke.
"You knew?" Kim whispered.
"I knew you two were together. I was not completely happy about it because I felt Troy was too young to be sexually active. Ask Chad about his mom someday. At the same time, I knew Troy was happy with you, and I wasn't going to stand in his way."
"Chad told me all about his mom, which probably explains why he was so helpful even before he realized that Alex was Troy's son. In hindsight, I agree with you about the sexually active part. Teenage hormones tend to get in the way of good judgment sometimes. It's good to know that you would have been supportive because your wife was not at all."
"What were her other threats?" Jack was sure there was more than a statutory rape charge that wouldn't stick.
"If I didn't leave, Lucy also threatened to remove Troy from East High for homeschooling so he couldn't play basketball or be with his friends. That's the one that had me packing for New York the next day." Jack felt like there was more, but he didn't know what. Did Lucy bring out a shotgun like Carolyn's dad?
"You should have come to me. I would have divorced her and sued for full custody before I would let Lucy get away with something that stupid." At the time, he probably would've taken such drastic action to keep Troy playing. But now Jack cared more about keeping Troy happy. He knew Troy was miserable being away from Kim.
"Chad said the same thing. He wants me to tell you just as much as Troy. I just thought it would be better if I left. It was not until a few weeks later that I found out I was pregnant when I collapsed in class."
Jack wanted to ask her why she didn't call. Then he remembered Lucy changed all their phone numbers at that time. She made it very hard for Kim to contact them. Dammit, why didn't he see that at the time? What else did Lucy do? What if Lucy was the one who wrote that nasty letter to Troy instead of Kim?
"Right after you left, Troy got a really horrible letter that was supposedly from you. Did you send him a letter?" His heart dropped at the expression on Kim's face.
"What letter?" Kim asked in complete confusion. Oh god, it had to have been Lucy.
"The one where you tell Troy that you were just using him and didn't love him. Thankfully for you, Carolyn made me make a copy." Jack said as he pulled up a copy of the letter he kept on his cell phone per Carolyn's instructions. He was very thankful he listened to her right now.
XXXX
Troy Bolton was incredibly tired of Chad's girlfriends calling him with their relationship problems. Actually, Troy should amend that to the gender-neutral "significant others." Troy has also had to deal with Ryan's numerous text messages discussing why Chad was ready to leave Taylor for Sharpay but not him.
Troy was happy to answer those questions from Ryan because he was the only one who knew that Chad wasn't heterosexual until a few weeks ago. No one else could really help Ryan understand Chad's mindset at the time. They concluded that Chad wasn't ready to be out back then, but he was now.
Troy could also understand Sharpay coming to him. Without knowing, he contributed to the problem. Thinking about it now, maybe, he should have talked to Sharpay about why he wasn't ready to date her instead of dating Gabriella.
However, he was not responsible for the current situation. Except, he was sort of. He agreed to help Kim and Ryan get Chad and Sharpay to realize their feelings for each other. Troy's punishment was to explain why Chad fell in love with Sharpay to a furious Taylor. This would be difficult because Troy was not even 100% sure why Chad fell in love with Sharpay. It just happened despite Chad. He knows that Chad never loved Taylor. She was only his safe port during the divorce storm. Troy thinks that might have something to do with the disaster that was Jamie, but he doesn't know for sure. Troy doesn't want to tell Taylor any of this. It wasn't his place.
"You don't ask easy questions, do you, Taylor. Isn't this a conversation you should be having with Gabriella? I know we're friends, but this is more of a best friend conversation." He said in hopes of trying to get out of this ridiculously awkward conversation.
He knows not to suggest Ryan since he just read through the screenshots of Ryan's last conversation with Taylor. Troy was just glad he didn't need to call his dad anymore because he's been avoiding his dad for the previous three weeks. If he speaks to him, Troy knows he's going to tell him everything.
"Unfortunately, as you know, my alleged best friend is too busy probably getting drunk at a frat party to help me through this crisis. Besides, Mercedes is her best friend now. She doesn't give a fuck about me or anyone else."
"This is unfortunately true despite it not being 6 pm yet. Gabby is probably doing jello shots in a dorm room somewhere." Troy answered sarcastically. He was getting really tired of Gabriella blowing everything off for the college experience.
"She shouldn't be ignoring you. You give up your dream of going to U of A just to be near her, and this is how she treats you. Maybe if you were here, this whole mess would not have happened. You could have kept Chad from falling in love with the ice queen." Troy decided it was in his best interest not to tell Taylor he was team Chadpay.
"First, I didn't give up my dream for Gabriella or anyone else. U of A was not my dream; it was my father's. I refuse to be the person everybody wants me to be any more. I've lost too much." He thought of Kim at that moment.
"You have a point."
"I don't think anybody could have stopped Chad and Sharpay from happening eventually. Those two had a strange connection since kindergarten when they got in a fight over chocolate milk. Maybe the connection that seemed like hate was really their passion for each other. Maybe what we thought was hate was really lust or even love. You remember the summer at Lava Springs? No one could make those two madder than each other. Yet they kept making excuses to be around One another." Like Chad being Sharpay caddy for the rest of the summer.
In addition to the Jamie stuff and not being ready to be out, Troy is sure that Chad's latent feelings for Sharpay were another reason he turned down Ryan. Troy is going to keep that theory to himself.
"I just don't understand how they can go from hating each other to what I saw this weekend. It was like Chad and Sharpay were together for their entire life."
"They have been. Chad and Sharpay have had classes with each other since kindergarten except for the year Sharpay's family lived in Rhode Island." Troy remembered how miserable Chad was that year. It was as if part of him was missing because he didn't have Sharpay to argue with.
"As for hating each other, I don't think they ever did. Chad and Sharpay just had too much fun fighting."
"Now, they are having too much fun making out," Taylor stated bitterly.
"You walked in on them?" He asked, wondering if Ryan left something out of his text messages.
"I saw the PowerPoint even though Ryan told me not to look. I would like some context to go with what I saw today." Now that Troy did see in the text messages.
"You really want to know the entire story?" Troy wasn't even entirely sure he had the entire story.
"I would like to know why I took a baseball bat to Sharpay's television an hour ago. As well as why Chad should've been on the academic decathlon team last year. That's not even mentioning the fact that I didn't even know Chad had an ex-boyfriend until about two minutes before he broke up with me."
"You took a baseball bat to their television?" Now he really hoped she never found out about his involvement in this fiasco. Or Ryan's, especially anything related to the ill-advised post-baseball make out session.
"I wasn't thinking clearly at the time." Apparently not, Troy thought to himself.
"Like I stated earlier, Chad and Sharpay have been in each other's orbits for years, but they needed a catalyst." That catalyst was Ryan, but Troy wasn't sure how to explain that without telling Taylor about Chad and Ryan making out. That's when he decided to blame Penelope.
"I don't know if you remember Penelope Castro from West high, but early in the school year, both Chad and Sharpay found out that Zeke was screwing her for most of last year. Penelope was trying to make Chad her latest conquest despite his discomfort. Chad told her multiple times that he had a girlfriend. Apparently, you being on the other side of the country was not a deterrent to Penelope."
"I'm aware that cross-country girlfriends are not the best deterrent in these situations."
"Chad 100% did not want to have anything to do with Penelope, but she wasn't taking the hint. Chad had this brilliant idea to keep Penelope away by having Sharpay pretend to be his girlfriend. Sharpay agreed to help him out, and it just snowballed from there."
"Snowballed, how?" Taylor asked.
"That's a long story," Most of which I can't tell you.
"I have time."
Troy began to tell her the twisted story of how Chad and Sharpay got together. At the same time, he sent a text message to the only person who could get him out of this uncomfortable conversation.
XXXX
Sharpay sat in the driveway of the McKessie home for a few minutes after dropping Jason off in hopes of calming herself down. She was expecting her father to call her at any moment to yell at her. Ryan could only do so much damage control. Her father's assistant Daniel had informed Sharpay that her father was in a conference with Carolyn, Lisa, and Gordon from judiciaries. She was so screwed. This is why Sharpay did not want to attend a university where her dad was on the Board of trustees.
As Sharpay finally pulled herself together enough to drive to the mansion, she heard a knock at the window. It was Dr. McKessie. She was probably there to tell Sharpay to stay away from Jason because she had hurt Taylor so badly.
"Are you OK?" Dr. McKessie asked her. She was not expecting that. The mother of the person she hurt should not be sympathetic toward her.
"Not really," Sharpay said with a sigh." I am guessing Jason told you what happened?"
"Yes. Apparently, my daughter went ballistic when Chad broke up with her. Jason sent me a text message and footage of the incident. I do not care that she is 18 when she gets home; she's going to wish I could still ground her." Dr. McKenzie was not happy.
"That's OK, it was all my fault. I did take Taylor's boyfriend."
"No, it wasn't. I have known that Chad Danforth was never going to become my son in law for a long time. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I knew more about him than my daughter ever did. This breakup was going to come eventually." The doctor placed a hand on Sharpay's shoulder.
"I'm just glad he found you. Sharpay, you can't blame yourself for my daughter's actions. How about we take a drive, and I tell you the story of how I really met my husband." Dr. McKessie said as she sat in the front seat of Sharpay's Lexus.
"Jason said you two met in high school and instantly fell in love. You two were married during the beginning of your sophomore year of college." Sharpay said as she pulled out of the driveway and onto the main road.
"That's the happy version that we tell the kids. The truth is we hated each other in high school. Much like you and Chad."
"Wait, really?" Sharpay asked.
"Yes. So much so, we couldn't stand to be in the same room together. In college, we became friends because we were away from everyone else we knew. Unfortunately, when we fell in love with each other, he still had a girlfriend. Who was ironically enough a freshman at Yale University." OK, this story was way too similar.
"Did she smash a baseball bat into your television when she found out that you two fell in love?" Sharpay asked.
"Surprisingly, no, considering she found out by walking in on the two of us having sex." Sharpay accidentally ran a stop sign when she heard Dr. McKessie say this. Fortunately, there were no other cars around.
XXXXX
"I promise you I did not write this," Kim retorted, half tempted to throw the phone across the room. Unfortunately, they were in public, and it wasn't her cell phone. "I was in love with him. I would not say that, even if it was just to make him forget about me. " Thank god Jack made sure Troy never saw this.
"I believe you." He said to her quietly.
"You asked me earlier why I didn't tell you or Troy about Alex. Part of it was, I was afraid that I would be rejected. Most of my family still sees me as the black sheep that dishonor the entire family. I couldn't deal with any more people despising Alex because of the circumstances of his conception."
"That would not have happened. Carolyn would smack me upside the head if I did, despite being in DC now."
"They say hindsight is 20/20. I have been preparing myself for the last couple of weeks to tell Troy during Thanksgiving break. Although it looks like the timetable to tell him has been moved up a little bit." Kim sighed. Too many people already knew.
"I won't tell him. This is something you need to do. Just tell me this, was there any other reason why you kept this to yourself?" Jack asked.
"Troy was 16 when Alex was born. I didn't want to take the last few years of his childhood away. I mean, come on; if he knew about Alex, he wouldn't have played in the championship game junior year or found his inner thespian. He was not ready to be a dad yet. I had to protect him from that."
"Are you sure that's not just your fear talking?" Jack asked her. Fortunately, before she could answer, the boy in question sent her a text message.
"I have to check this." She said as she grabbed her phone from her purse. "It's from Troy. Apparently, Taylor decided to call him to find out why Chad dumped her for Sharpay. He wants me to pick up Taylor from a restaurant a few blocks away so he can stop explaining how Chad and Sharpay got together. He's trying really hard not to tell her about Ryan's involvement in all of this." Or the Jamie truth.
"You still talk to each other?" Jack asked.
"We started talking to each other again a couple months ago to get Chad to break up with Taylor before it blew up. We failed miserably." At that moment, Kim showed Jack a picture of the damage Taylor caused earlier in the day before going back to texting Troy.
"I actually had to get his phone number from Ryan. Apparently, we're being punished today." She did not tell him that they emailed each other almost three times a day and call the other almost as much. Kim really owes Ryan a humongous gift basket, mainly because he's keeping quiet about Alex's paternity.
"What are you telling him?" Jack asked.
"That there is no way I am letting our child anywhere near that woman. I have more pictures," Kim said as she pressed the send button and then handed jack the phone with a picture of Taylor smashing a lamp with a baseball bat.
"I can see your point." He said, passing the phone back to her as another message from Troy popped up, begging her to get Taylor.
After five more minutes of text messages between the two, Jack apparently became tired of watching the two go back and forth. On the other hand, maybe it was the fact his son was now resorting to dirty text messages to get Kim to help.
"I could watch Alex." Jack offered. "It would give us some time for grandson and grandfather bonding." Kim agreed quickly, deciding it was better than Jack finding out some of the things Troy use to do to her that made her scream. She was so telling Troy about this incident later.
"I'll go get his bag out of my car."
XXXX
10 minutes later, Kim found herself at the café to retrieve Taylor. If it wasn't for the fact Kim felt guilty for pushing Chad and Sharpay together, there was no way she would let Troy talk her into taking care of Taylor for the weekend. Kim may love the boy, but she was not crazy. When Kim overheard Taylor arguing with Troy on the phone, she considered walking back to Jack to take her kid and leave. Kim definitely did not want to do this.
"You expect me to believe that they believed it was OK to make out with each other all the time because they were allegedly just pretending?" Kim could hear the sarcasm in Taylor's voice.
"We didn't say that we thought it was OK. We said Chad and Sharpay thought it was OK. It took them several weeks to come out of their relationship denial." Kim said as she approached the girl. "I had to make a PowerPoint." It still took another week after that.
"I saw. Who are you?" Taylor asked.
Kim could barely hear Troy tell Taylor to put the phone on speaker.
"I'm Kim, Sharpay's friend," Kim said, extending her hand, but Taylor did not accept.
"I really never want to see a friend of Sharpay's ever again."
"I totally get that." Kim sighed.
"You can trust her, Taylor; she's my ex-girlfriend." Kim was surprised that Troy referred to her as his ex-girlfriend to anyone.
"First Chad had a secret boyfriend, and now I found out you had someone else besides Gabriella in high school. How oblivious was I?" If Kim were a better person, she would tell Taylor that no one knew they were dating in high school. However, she was not in the mood, not after reading the letter that Lucy obviously wrote. God, Kim hated her.
"It's easy to miss things sometimes when you're too close to a situation," Kim tells her. "I'm here to take you to a safe place so you can scream at Chad and Sharpay in the privacy of my guest room. We can pick up ice cream on the way." Apparently, the promise of ice cream managed to get Taylor to leave with her. On the way to the car, she sent text messages to the two people she was the angriest at.
XXXX
"This is way too nice for a college student," Taylor said in a somewhat condescending way as they pulled up at Kim's house 30 minutes later.
"I'm just renting right now, although having a multimillion-dollar trust fund does have its perks. I only have one roommate. I thank Vanessa every day for getting my trust fund reinstated. She's the best stepmom ever." Kim said as she got out of the car.
"Are you Aunt Vanessa's stepdaughter Kimberly? The one that was going to college in New York?"
"I decided to come back to New Mexico recently, but that's me. I guess that makes you the amazing Taylor Tot."
"I can't believe she still uses that name." Taylor sighed.
"She calls Alex Baby Nibbles, so you got off lightly. I'm sorry that I didn't put the pieces together before. I kind of missed the wedding due to being extra pregnant and dad not wanting me to shame him. We have a complicated relationship."
"I'm aware. Vanessa said some things to my mom that I overheard."
"If you're uncomfortable with me, I can call Vanessa. I'm sure if I explained the situation, she'd let you stay there." And this wouldn't count against Kim's babysitting weekends. She only gets so many a year.
"I want to avoid my family right now, even pseudo-aunts. She will probably remind me that she's my dad's ex-girlfriend and they're still friends. I can't deal with that right now." Now Kim wondered if Taylor's dad was the ex-boyfriend of Vanessa's who she walked in on fucking someone else. Vanessa never gave Kim a name, but her stories were the best. Although Taylor probably wouldn't see that story in a good light at the moment.
"Understandable," Kim said, opening her front door. "Since I have a kid-free evening, I am going to work on my education and film class projects. Make yourself at home." Kim said, pointing to the living room. "My roommate is out of town to meet with her boyfriend this weekend. In the meantime, enjoy the ice cream." With that, Kim was getting out of there.
"That was your kid this morning? When exactly did you and Troy date?" Kim heard Taylor ask, but she was already halfway down the hall.
"Also, feel free to eat anything in the kitchen you want. We can order pizza later. I'm just going to go work on that project now." Kim ran to her study before Taylor could ask any more questions. Shit! Why does she keep surrounding herself with people who keep figuring it out?
To be continued…