Paul opened the garage door and walked in, noticing all the lights in the house were off, "where is she?" He closed the door behind Stephanie and followed her out to the dark living room, "is she asleep already?"
"I'm in my bedroom," Leona opened her door, filling the hallway with light, "Madison fell asleep about an hour ago and I put her in the crib in your bedroom. And I closed both doors so I wouldn't wake her up. Where have you two been? Stephanie, you look exhausted."
He looked over at Stephanie and saw she was not only tired, but her cheeks were red and still a little tear-streaked, "what are you doing in here?" He stepped into the bedroom, seeing all his mother's clothes strewn about, "why is it such a mess?"
"I'm packing a small bag for tomorrow," Leona smiled, "I'm not gonna take all my clothes to Laurie's if I'm only gonna be there one night."
"You're going to Laurie's house tomorrow?" He was clueless, "when did those plans happen?" He looked over at Stephanie, "she told you I'm sure."
"Yes, I did tell her, I told her before I even came over. I'm going to Laurie's house and taking Madison with me so she can have some time to meet her new family. And you guys get the whole night alone, because obviously, you two need alone time, you guys are acting weird."
Stephanie rolled her eyes, "I'm going to bed, goodnight Leona," she smiled, then looked Paul over before walking away, "oh, how about you tell your mom that she can borrow your car tomorrow, we don't need to have both cars here."
He sighed, "yeah, mom, you can have the Mercedes tomorrow," he closed his eyes for a second, "what do you mean when you say Stephanie and I are acting weird?"
"I don't know, you two seem like, you're bored with each other already, and you've only been married for a little over a month, when your father and I got married, let me tell you, we didn't get bored with each other for at least a year."
"Yeah, I didn't need to hear that," he put his hands over his ears, "we aren't bored with each other, we're just have other things on our minds right now. Considering I just came back from the police stations because I was detained for possession of marijuana."
His mother looked him over, "that's how you put up with her for so long huh?" She smiled, "so how much trouble are you in?"
"A little, but don't worry about it, I admitted it and its fine now, they made sure I wasn't high while driving, which I wasn't." He rubbed his forehead, "in other news, Shawn and I aren't talking anymore, I'm done being the nice person for everyone, including Shawn. It was his weed in the truck, not mine." He looked around, "that's why Stephanie's mad right now."
She smiled, "well go talk to her and I'll see you guys tomorrow, goodnight," she reached up and kissed his cheek, "tell Stephanie to pack a bag for Madison, so I can have everything ready early tomorrow."
"Alright, I'll tell her, goodnight mom." He closed her door and walked down to his, letting out a long exasperated sigh before opening it, "my mom wants you to pack a bag for Madison soon so she can leave early tomorrow," he quietly went to his closet and took his shirt off, "you and I have the entire day alone, why is she doing this to us?"
"I don't know," Stephanie pulled her side of the blankets out and tried not to watch him get dressed in his closet, "goodnight," she lied down and pulled the blankets back up.
"Goodnight," he pulled a T-shirt over his head, "I'm gonna go watch TV in the living room," he grabbed his pillow and walked out of the room, he knew she was upset and didn't feel like talking to her. He made his way to the kitchen and opened the freezer, grabbing the tub of ice cream. When he closed the door, Stephanie was standing in the dark, "fucking A," he dropped the ice cream on the floor, "you scared the shit out of me, what are you doing out here?"
"I want to talk to you," she picked the ice cream up and gave it to him, "I miss the way we used to talk at work, I want to be like that again."
"You mean the way you used to talk to me at work, I didn't talk much," he opened the ice cream and scooped it into his bowl, "what do you want to talk about?"
She pushed herself up onto the counter, "I want you to talk," she flipped the light switch behind her, "what's on your mind?"
"Ice cream," he took his bowl to the living room, "that's pretty much the only thing on my mind right now," he sat on the couch, feeling uncomfortable when Stephanie sat next to him, "what do you want?"
"How come you never told me you had a brother?" She watched as his face turned pale, "don't think, just tell me why you never explained that."
He put the bowl on the coffee table, "did my mom tell you that?"
"Well you never did," she rested her head on his shoulder, waiting for him to talk again, but suddenly she heard him sniffle, "come here," she held her arms out to him, "just come here and give me a hug," she grabbed his shirt and pulled him into her arms, where he sobbed on her shoulder for what seemed like forever, "are you okay?"
"Yeah," he sat up and wiped his eyes, "I didn't want to talk about this, I just want to sit here and eat my ice cream and try to go to bed."
She handed him the bowl and got up to get the remote, "if we have to live together for five to six years, we'd better learn how to communicate. At the end of this, we're either gonna be best friends or one of us is gonna end up dead." She sat beck down beside him and turned the TV on, "let's start talking, your turn."
"Why do you have to do this to me? Maybe I don't want to talk to you, maybe I like to keep my life to myself."
"You can't go on doing that forever, or you're the one who's gonna go crazy and then I'll have to be the one to kill you, if you don't kill yourself first."
"Or if I don't kill you first," he smiled, "but then I'd still have Madison and I wouldn't know what to do with her by myself."
"Shut up," she playfully punched him in the arm, "you know exactly how to take care of a baby. And she likes you, that's a plus. See if I were to kill you, we would have a problem because you have all your family who would know it was me, because they still think I hate you."
"I can't believe we're sitting here talking about the consequences of killing each other."
She rested on his arm, "so are we gonna talk or what? It's not that I'm trying to force you to talk about something you don't want to talk about, I just would like to know something that you keep to yourself, cause I know you keep a lot inside."
"Cameron died in a car accident, he was drunk, I was going to pick him up from a party and he hit me. He died and my whole body has been fucked up since then. It explains why I take Ambien to sleep, because I'm in pain all the time and can't sleep on my own. Even with my expensive, made-for-me bed, I still have problems."
"I know, I just wanted to hear it from you. I've learned a lot about you in the time we've been married, and none of its from you, its been either your mom, or your sister, or Rebecca and Shawn. Your mom thinks it's a little weird because she says something about you, and I have no clue what she's talking about, so she has to explain the whole story, and most of the time, it's a story that most people would tell their friends, or wives."
"Well like I said, I keep stuff to myself," he got up and walked back to the kitchen, "why are you so adamant on making me talk about myself?"
"Why does it bother you to talk to me?" She waited for him to come back, "I mean, we could talk through the awkwardness of going to bed together, to make it less awkward."
"Or we could just go to sleep when we go to bed together," he smiled at her, "but tonight I think I want to sleep out here, to clear my head." He walked past her and turned the light off, "don't ask why, just let me do it."
"Fine, goodnight then, see you tomorrow." She pushed him out of the way and slammed his bedroom door behind her.
Paul sighed and threw himself on the couch, thinking how nice it would be if him and Stephanie could just get along. Even though he knew he was the one being stubborn.