Cry
"Emma, don't play with that soccer ball in my kitchen!" Sam said, pulling her ham out of the oven. "Do you want to hurt my masterpiece?"
"Oh, ham!" Emma said, reaching to pick of a piece of meat, only to have her hand swatted away by her mother.
"Absolutely not! I've been slaving over this baby for hours," Sam said. "I'm finally over that stupid stomach virus, and I have four days of meat to make up for. Besides, don't you have some soccer game to get to?"
"Whoa, you have a soccer game tonight?" Freddie asked, coming into the kitchen. "Why didn't I know this? I didn't have time to find my cool light up sign, I think I lost it."
"Yeah…lost it," Sam mumbled, putting a piece into her mouth, avoiding her husband's eye contact.
"It's an away game," Emma told him. "In Olympia. My friend's picking me up and she's going to drive me to the school, and then we're taking a bus to the match."
"Oh," Freddie said. "Well good luck then, sweetie."
"Luck…crab! I forgot my lucky sweatband," Emma said.
"I put it in your room, top drawer of your dresser," Sam said. "Oh my God, this is good ham!"
"Hey, where's Ashton?" Freddie asked as Emma ran up to her room.
"With the Jessie dude," Sam replied, wiping her hands on her jeans. "I think she said they were hanging out at his house tonight."
"Jessie…" Freddie muttered darkly.
"Come on, him and Ashton have been going out for like, four months," Sam said, rolling her eyes, amused. "You still hate the kid?"
"Yes!"
"Just because he's dating your daughter?" Sam said. "Baby, you've got to get past this. The girls are fifteen now; they are going to want to date boys."
"It's not just because he's dating my sweet, little daughter!" Freddie snapped. "I just don't get a good vibe from that kid. What, do you like him?"
Sam shrugged. "Ashton really seems to. I haven't actually talked with him too much, and neither have you! But see, I'm a nice person, and don't judge people before I get to know them."
Freddie nearly choked on the soda he had just swigged. "Um, okay, last week you made us leave the Cheesecake Warehouse because you said you hated our waiter before he even took our order!"
"He had weird hair!" Sam defended.
"And remember the time that you refused to go to my Christmas party at work because you said you knew you weren't going to like this one guy's wife even though you had never even met her?" Freddie continued. "Or that time-"
"Okay!" Sam exclaimed, grabbing her tray of ham. "Jeesh, I'm gonna go eat my ham in peace."
….
"Sweatband, sweatband," Emma mumbled up in her room, rummaging through her drawer. "Ah-ha! Found you!"
Just then her bedroom door opened and Ashton came in.
"Oh, back already from your date with Jessie," Emma grinned, closing her drawer.
Ashton didn't reply as she kicked off her shoes and sat down on her bed.
"What? Did all that kissing with your boyfriend wear out your mouth or something?" Emma asked, rolling her eyes. She looked over at her sister, and frowned, as she realized that her eyes were red and there were tears falling down her cheeks.
"Hey," Emma said softly, sitting down next to Ashton. "Ash? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"Me and Jessie broke up," Ashton said shakily.
"What?" Emma said. "But-But I thought you were so in love with him. He's all you've been talking about and thinking about since you two got together."
"Well he's been cheating on me," Ashton mumbled. "So I guess it was a pretty one-sided relationship."
"He cheated on you?" Emma gasped. "That-That jerkwad!"
"I just thought he liked me as much as I liked him," Ashton said, rubbing her eyes. "But I guess that was stupid of me, right?"
Emma put her arms around her twin and hugged her tight. "You can do thirty times better than a loser like Jessie Delfigalo. He's the one who should be crying right now, because he just let the best chick he'll ever date go."
Suddenly they heard a car horn in their driveway.
"I need to go," Emma said, slowly getting to her feet. "I have that soccer game…"
"Yeah, good luck," Ashton sniffed.
"But-But when I get back, we can have that girls night you've been bugging me to have for ages," Emma said quickly. "We can do our nails and put those weird face masks on and watch some cheesy chick flick."
"Thanks," Ashton said glumly.
"You'll be okay?" Emma asked, heading towards the door.
"Yeah, I-I'll be fine," Ashton nodded.
Emma gave her a small smile as she closed their bedroom door behind them and hurried downstairs.
"Bye, Em," Sam said from the couch where her and Freddie were sitting. "Oh, and did Ashton just come up?"
"We thought we heard her come in," Freddie said.
"Yeah, she's up there," Emma nodded. "But, um…she's-she's really upset."
"What do you mean?" Sam frowned.
"What's wrong?" Freddie asked.
"Her and Jessie broke up," Emma told them. "He cheated on her."
"What?" Freddie exclaimed, clenching his fists.
"Oh man," Sam sighed.
"She was crying when I left," Emma said.
"We should go and talk to her," Sam said to Freddie. "You go to your game, Em. We'll handle Ashton."
"Okay," Emma said. "I'll see you guys later."
"I knew I hated that kid!" Freddie said angrily as Emma left. "How dare he hurt Ashton like this! Oh man I want to just go and grab his scrawny little neck and just…ah!"
"Jessie's a good six inches taller than you," Sam pointed out.
"He's not fueled by fatherly rage, though," Freddie said.
"Well before you go beat up any teenagers," Sam said, patting his shoulder. "Let's go check on Ashton."
"Right," Freddie sighed.
The couple headed up to the twins room and knocked at the door.
"Ashton?" Sam called.
"It's open," the heard their daughter said quietly.
Freddie opened the door and him and Sam entered to find Ashton curled up on her bed, tears streaming down her face.
"Oh, sweetie," Freddie said, rushing over to his daughter and pulling her into his arms, his heart shattering at the sight of her obvious sadness.
"Did-Did Emma tell you?" Ashton asked between her sobs.
"Yeah," Sam said gently, taking a tissue from the nightstand and wiping the smeared make-up from Ashton's face. "She did."
"I-I just can't believe he was cheating on me the entire time we were together," Ashton sighed. "I-I thought I actually loved him. He was the best guy I ever dated." She began to cry harder into Freddie's shoulder. "I had just left his h-house today, when I-I realized I left my phone there. So I went back to get it, and-and he was standing right outside his door with this other girl, k-kissing her!"
Sam shook her head. "I'm so sorry, honey."
"He told me that-that that girl was the girl he really loved," Ashton squeaked. "And that I-I was just some piece of arm candy for him to have around school."
Freddie could feel the anger coursing through his veins for the boy who had done this to his daughter.
"He never deserved you, Ashton," Freddie said firmly. "If he couldn't see how beautiful and perfect you are, then he shouldn't be lucky enough to have you in his life."
"But I was so sure that he liked me as much as I liked him," Ashton said. "I thought he loved me."
"I know you did," Sam said. "But sweetie, I know how bad you're feeling right now, but you'll find someone so much better than Jessie some day. Some one who will realize what a great girl he has and won't dream of doing anything to hurt you."
"Or I can just keep finding losers like him," Ashton mumbled.
"Hey," Freddie said. "Don't say that."
"Why not? It's true!" Ashton said angrily. "If I'm stupid enough to not know that the boy I was so in love with didn't even love me back, how am I ever supposed to find a decent guy?"
"Look, Ash," Sam said. "You can't just let one bad relationship that you had when you were only fifteen determine your life. Jessie is one guy. Don't give him the satisfaction of doing this to you, nobody's worth that."
"No," Freddie agreed.
Ashton sighed. "I still feel suckish though."
"That's okay," Sam said. "It hurts when you get your heartbroken, sweetie, I know."
Ashton let out another cry and Freddie hugged her again.
"You're not going to feel like this forever," Sam told her. "You'll feel down for a few days, sure, but then you're going to bounce back; you're a strong girl!"
"I don't feel like one now," Ashton mumbled.
Sam gave her a weak smile and stood up. "You will," she promised. "Anyway, your dad and I will leave now, because I'm guessing you want a little alone time."
Ashton nodded. "Yeah…I do."
"You know you can come get us if you need us," Freddie said.
"Thanks," Ashton said softly.
"And there's ice cream and cookie dough downstairs, if you need it," Sam said knowingly.
"You know I'm going to hurt that kid," Freddie said once him and Sam had left the twins' room.
"Yeah, baby, I don't know when you think you became all fighty, but throwing punches really isn't your thing," Sam said.
"He broke our daughter's heart!"
"And you don't think I want to make him suffer?" Sam said. "But I also don't want to have to drive out of my way to the hospital to visit you for the next week!"
"Well then what? You can't get in any more trouble after that fireworks stunt you pulled last month, so is he just going to get away with it?" Freddie snapped.
"No," Sam said, her eyes glistening. "We are going to make a quick phone call to my Uncle Carmine."
"I never thought I'd be so happy to hear those words," Freddie said, a grin sneaking onto his face. "Your family of prisoners is finally going to come in handy! So you call him, and I'm going to go get my laptop."
"Why?" Sam frowned.
"I may not be fighty, but I can dish out virtual hurt," Freddie said. "I hope Jessie's ready to kiss his computer fun goodbye, because he's got a mighty virus coming his way."
