This chapter was fun for me to write, especially the end, though i had some trouble in spots, I hope my lack of sleep won't effect my writing too much l0l
Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or any of it's characters
Braden awoke cheerfully early in his bed as the sunlight shone through the glass doors in his room. He and Vegas hadn't been out real late or anything, but they had gone out to the beach and he was trying to teach her how to surf. She was kind of hard to teach because she felt the urge to laugh at everything he said, which made him feel awkward. He had a feeling she got this little habit from Sienna, or maybe Sienna got it from her. Who knew, and anyway, what did it matter? He was having the time of his life with Vegas and what they had together was the ultimate summer romance. Braden's cheerfulness dimmed a little as he thought of this. He knew that when school started, that him and Vegas would probably end because she wasn't the kind of girl who wanted a long distance relationship. He wasn't sure he was that kind of guy either. Still, he didn't know how he'd be able to let her go by the end of the summer.
With how close they had gotten in these past weeks, Braden wondered how much closer they would become. Would he even be able to let her go? The question lingered uneasily in his mind as he rose from bed. He told himself that he would worry about it when the time came, for now, him and Vegas still have half the summer left. And with that in mind, he was going to head to the beach before practice to show his coach that he was still dedicated to the team.
"Jay, please, listen to me, this has to stop!" Braden could hear Ava's pleas from his room and curiosity got the better of him. He leaned on the door and listened in.
"Can we wait until a commercial to talk about this? Hope is just about to tell Rick--"
"Would you listen to yourself?" interrupted Ava as if she was frightened of him and Braden had to admit, hearing Jay talk excitedly about soap operas was no laughing matter; if he was doing that, than there was definitely something very wrong. Jay didn't seem to pay attention to Ava's little outburst and he kept shoveling the ice cream in his mouth. "I think that's enough ice cream too. You know it won't make you feel any better."
"I am not eating ice cream to feel better, I am eating it because it tastes good," corrected the delusional Jay.
"How long are you going to go on pretending nothing is wrong?"
"There is nothing wrong." Jay put simply.
Ava couldn't deal with this answer. If Jay would only accept what happened between him and Erica, then he would finally be able to get over it. But if he continued to be in denial….
"If you don't want me to eat ice cream anymore that is just fine," replied Jay curtly.
"This is hardly about ice cream and you know it!" Ava was getting simply exasperated by this attempt to help Jay. He was so far in denial that it was impossible for her reality checks to bring him back. He refused to believe that Erica and him were over.
"All I have heard is you complaining that I like soap operas and the taste of ice cream, and while it may seem a little girly, I am comfortable enough in my manhood to proudly watc—"
"Okay, that's it. I really hoped I wouldn't have to tell you this; that you would learn to move on without hearing this, but your being delusional! Jay, I did call Erica that night that you told me to. And I know I had said that she didn't pick up, but she did." Braden looked through the slit in his door and saw Jay's ears prick up when he heard this. For the first time, his eyes left the television screen. "She said she wasn't coming back. That she was going to Europe with some of her friends, and she wouldn't tell me where."
"Did she tell you why?" his voice sounded strained.
Ava didn't want to tell Jay this, but the sooner he knew, the sooner he could start recovering from his devastation. "She said it was because she was tired of her life going in circles with you and that she wanted more than just a surfer with low-income. Her parents expected more and so did she. She wanted to…."
"Stop" Jay stated. Emotion was vacant from his eyes and he sighed. He stood up slowly throwing the blanket off of him and onto the couch. He put the ice cream down as well and simply walked out of the living room. He didn't go into his bedroom either; he just kept walking, never breaking his stride.
Ava stood their gaping at him. What was he going to do?
………………………………
Later that day, Braden was working at the shop with Sienna. Even though the two weeks where they were supposed to be working side by side was over, Jay had decided that that system worked best. So he made it permanent. They would be working together all the time.
The entire time at work though, Braden was worriedly telling Sienna what he heard between his Aunt and Jay. Then he tantalized what he could do about it. He wanted to help Jay more than he could possibly say. But he didn't know how.
"Break ups are hard no matter what and there is nothing anyone can do or say to make it better." Sienna seemed to be very wise on this topic and Braden wondered why. "In fact, sometimes when people talk and try to make you feel better, sometimes that makes you feel worse because then you know that people are pitying you"
"I never thought about it that way," commented Braden while putting some things in the back room. He decided he mine as well ask her, "You seem to know a lot about this subject."
"Yeah…" she said dryly, "Well, with me and Boston over with, after seven months—"
"You and Boston broke up?" Braden was horrified at himself when he felt a certain smugness about hearing this news. What was the matter with him?
Sienna furrowed her brows, "We've been broken up since the Yacht Party; didn't Vegas tell you?"
Braden shook his head. He saw a certain sadness in her usually twinkling golden eyes, and he realized that the sadness he had seen earlier was because Boston had broken up with her; and he had been too distracted with Vegas to ask her about it. He felt guilty and asked gently, "You want to talk about it?"
She winced, "See that right there, pity. Doesn't feel too great."
"I'm sorry"
Sienna rolled her eyes and showed a flicker of a smile, "Its just as well, we had been on the verge of breaking up for a while, and even if we were still together, I'm grounded anyways."
Braden eyed her to see whether or not she could handle humor to cheer her up. "I didn't know rich girls got grounded."
She grinned, "Well, they don't. I am not a rich girl; you know that! I told you how my dad left me and my mom nothing."
"Yeah but, I figured that……"
"We still had plenty of money left?" asked Sienna her eyes glittering.
"Kind of, well, yeah." He was uncomfortable saying these things out loud. He had been raised that saying this stuff was really rude, but he knew that Sienna loved bluntness. "And I figured your stepfather maybe had some cash lying around, you know?"
"Yeah," she nodded understandably, "you would think, but he doesn't. He is the chief of police in this town so of course he gets paid a good amount of money, but not the amount my mother and I are used to,"
"Oh, your dad is a police man?"
She looked disgusted as she said, "Sadly yes."
"Why sadly?" he smiled, she was getting back to her witty self, slowly, but surely.
"Well, he sort of abuses his cop privileges. Like having his buddies track me down, or pulling my boyfriends over for no reason. He even busts parties all the time, trying to land me in jail or something."
This surprised Braden, he wondered whether or not this was an exaggeration because he knew how it could seem that extreme when you're living with it, but then in real life, it's nothing. He voiced his shock nonetheless by saying a single, "Whoah"
"Yeah well, what can you do right?" she wiggled her eyebrows, "I'll just keep on trucking, I guess."
"And just spend as much time away as possible right?" added Braden jokingly.
She looked up at surprised and stared at him intently for a few moments; her catlike eyes boring into him, trying to tell him without forming the words. She nodded while never losing his gaze as she responded, "Exactly"
Braden thought he got it. That's why she was in all those clubs and sports and associations. She wanted to be away from home as long as possible. That's why she wanted to go to Harvard too. That was so far away that she would never have to see her family again if she didn't want to. Wow, Braden thought, that's kind of sad to hate your home life that much.
He didn't have anytime to reply to this because Jay had just walked through the door looking disheveled. There was no laughter in his eyes as he said, "You two can go on break now." Braden realized that Jay had finally given up on putting on a brave face. Maybe he would start to accept that Erica wasn't coming back. I doubt it
Sienna and Braden walked out into the gorgeous sunlight and breathed in the fresh, salty air. "Where do you want to eat?" questioned Sienna while gazing around her.
"Let's go to Johnny's restaurant," Braden said not really caring where they ate. As long as it wasn't Chinese, he was okay with it.
Braden also kind of had the inkling to talk to Johnny about Jay, and ask him what they could do. Johnny usual had some good solid advice, but as Braden looked around the restaurant, he couldn't see Johnny anywhere. He shrugged and assumed that it could wait until later.
"How many?" asked the hostess
"2, non smoking," answered Sienna while let out a slight gasp and her gaze was fixated across the room. Braden followed to where she was looking and there was Boston with his arm around some big-boobed blonde. Not just any blonde though, her hair was white. He was caressing the girls' thigh with that sly grin on his face and he started kissing her neck.
Braden glanced quickly at Sienna, "Maybe we should go somewhere else?"
"Nonsense!" she said with her lopsided grin. He felt lucky that he wasn't Boston in that moment. He was sure that Sienna intended to send him to hell in a hand basket.
The hostess sat them down in a table where they had an extremely clear view of exactly what Boston was doing to that poor bimbo. Right as they were sitting down, he started nibbling the girl's ear and running his hands through her hair.
Braden couldn't feel any more uncomfortable as Sienna announced that she had to go to the bathroom, which on her way she just happened to walk right by Boston's table.
His face when he saw her passing was priceless, "Sienna?"
She smiled warmly at him while batting her eyelashes, "Hey Boston!" She said this as if they were the best of friends and she couldn't be happier to run into him nuzzling some other girl.
"Er….Hi?" said Boston uncomfortably.
The blonde looked at Sienna with a pout on her face. "Whose this?" she whined while eyeing her, "Is this the girl you lost your virginity to?"
Boston looked at Sienna and he stuttered, "Well, um, Cora, she…." He trailed off. Obviously he had been feeding her some kind of line like he had only been with one other girl and wanted to know how it would feel to have a real woman under him and blah blah. Anybody who fell for that crap was a fool and deserved to be tricked.
"Yeah, I'm Sienna!" she brightly shook Cora's hand and added briskly, "I wish you two the best of luck. But I feel I must warn you, sometimes, dear Boston has trouble getting his little 'monster' awake. So all you have to do is show him pictures of zoo animals and that turns him right on."
"Sienna!"
"especially zebras, I don't know why they get him going so much, but once he sees a picture, he is practically a volcano!" Sienna was fighting back laughter now as she saw both Boston and Cora's revolted faces. She hoped she would have that effect on them. "And, I've got to tell you, it's the cutest thing…after we do it, he cries like a little baby in my arms. It is simply adorable."
"That's enough!" demanded Boston while slamming his fists on the table. Sienna saw her opportunity and went for it.
"Careful you'll knock over your drink, you silly goose!" she chided as she motioned to steady his hands, but he flinched and in all the confusion, she purposely knocked the drink in his lap. "Oh my goodness!" Sienna put her hands innocently to her face in shock and fake sympathy.
Braden could have sworn that he heard Boston growl before Sienna spoke again, "You know, with that water on your pants like that, it reminds me of that one time in bed where you had lost your hard-on because there were no zebra pictures around and in your effort to get excited, you pissed yourself. Isn't that just adorable, Cora?"
Sienna was the best fucking actress that Braden had ever seen. She honestly looked like she was being genuine. He felt like he should be applauding because she was the master of manipulation.
Cora looked at Boston with a sickened expression and said meekly, "I think maybe we should try this another time."
As she got up and grabbed her purse, Boston desperately grabbed her hand, "She's lying, please don't go."
She cringed at his touch and replied coldly, "Call me later to reschedule." By her tone, everyone knew that she had no intention of ever returning his calls again. Cora withdrew her hand from Boston's and quickly bustled out of the restaurant.
The quiet was deafening as none of the other people at the restaurant made a move. They had all watched the scene unfold and weren't sure whether or not it was over. Sienna was still standing in front of Boston's table and she giggled, "Well, that was embarrassing!"
Boston spun around to face her and he seethed, "Go shove it, Sienna!"
She gave him a killer smile and a gaze that told him she was laughing at how pathetic he really was. Then she replied plainly, "And you can go find another zebra."
Sienna tossed her hair and strode confidently back to the table oblivious to the fact that the entire restaurant was watching her. She sat down and picked up the menu, "I heard their fettuccini Alfredo here is amazing!"
He had never admired her so much than he had in that moment.
