!JAKE'S POV!
"Hey Sarah," I say, placing Crystal on the floor, as she immediately runs off. Alyssa walks past me with one of the twins on either side of her. The twins run off and she starts toward the kitchen. "What's wrong with her?" Sarah asks. "Actually, I have no clue." I told her. I really didn't. She has just been acting really weird lately. And I've been working way too hard to talk to her about it. I'm sure she'll get over it soon. "...Why don't you ask her?" Sarah asks. "You can't just avoid it. That'll do no good." I shrug. "I don't want to start anything." "You're starting something by not saying anything." I looked at her. "Obviously, you don't know her as well as I do." Sarah just gave me a look and walked away. When the dinner was ready and we all sat down, she pretty much ignored me, she only said a few words to me. She really needs to lighten up. When Alyssa was standing on the back stairs, watching the kids play, I walked over and stood next to her. "Hey, what's wrong?" I ask. "I don't want to talk about it here, Jake." "Well you have to talk to me about it sometime." "I said not here, Jake," she snapped at me. "Ok, ok. Geez, relax," I said backing away. I really don't think that helped much though. She just glared at me. Hard. Oh well, if she didn't want to tell me what was wrong then I shouldn't feel bad about this.
!SARAH'S POV!
Everyone was over at our house for our monthly get together but it wasn't as fun as it normally is. Everybody is fighting. Jake and Alyssa were pretty much ignoring each other and I saw Audrey glare at Kevin a few times. It made me feel better about my relationship with Kyle, though. The phone rang again during the get together, though. I answer it. "Hello?" There's no answer. "Hello?" I say again. Finally, there's a response on the other end. "Um..." The phone clicked off. That's like the 10th time that's happened this month. What is going on? At first, I didn't really think anything of it but now it's freaking me out more and more. I bring out the macaroni and cheese. As I sit the dish on the table, I lean over and whisper in Kyle's ear, "They called again..." His eyes got big for a second, but then his face went back to calm. "We'll worry about it later." After everyone left, the phone rang again and once again, there was no answer. "Hello? Is anyone there?" there was a long pause. "STOP CALLING HERE!" I practically screamed into the receiver as I hung up. Right after I hung up, the phone rang again "I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING HERE!" I yelled again as soon as I picked up the phone. "Sarah?" It was Alyssa. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Alyssa." She laughs. "It's ok." "What's up?" "Not a lot. What was that all about?" "...It's a long story."
!KEVIN'S POV!
Our monthly get together was at Sarah and Kyle's house this time. I felt a bad feeling in the atmosphere, though. Audrey had been avoiding any sort of conversation with me the past couple of weeks. It's almost as if we're in college or middle school again. When I can get close enough, I grab on to Audrey's wrist and pull her close to me to whisper into her ear. "Stop acting childish, Audrey. Especially in public." She jerked away. "I'm not the one acting childish." She said in a low, harsh voice as she walked away. I just sighed and hoped nobody saw that. Dinner was quiet. Sarah and Kyle were the only ones who actually tried to start a conversation. Everybody else just sat there. At home, there was still silence. Even with Eve around, there wasn't as much spirit in the air. It's strange how good Audrey is at avoiding doing anything with me. It was almost as if I were a wall. Finally, one night at dinner, I attempted to start a conversation. "Audrey, can we please talk about this?" She ignored me. I stood up. "Can I speak to you in the kitchen for a moment?" I asked in the nicest voice possible, not wanting to start anything in front of Eve. Without a word, she stood up and started toward the kitchen. "Listen Audrey, we need to talk about this. You're not setting a very good example for our daughter." "I'm going to adopt that boy. I don't care what you say, Kevin," Audrey says calmly, not responding to my question. I feel like arguing this question, but see that Audrey is set on this. "Ok," I say. Audrey looks startled. "Ok? That's all you're going to say?" "Well, if it's that important to you..." She looked at me in disbelief "It is that important to me." "Well...ok then. Can we go back and have a nice, calm dinner now?" She nodded, with the same look of disbelief on her face.
!ALYSSA'S POV!
I had been pretty much ignoring Jake all month but he didn't seem to really care. It seemed that he chose all the wrong times to try to talk to me about it too. Tonight was one example of that. We were all sitting there mostly silent, and eating when he leaned over and whispered "We really need to talk about this." I just whispered back "Not right now." When we got back home I said "Geez, you always pick the worst times to talk" Defending himself he said "Well, at least I'm trying to talk about you. You just ignore me every time I try to bring it up." "Well, that's because every time you bring it up, we're out in public and this is something we need to discuss in private, not in front of our friends." "But that's the only time I ever have to talk about it!" "That's the whole point! You're ever home. You leave before we even wake up and get back when we're all asleep! When you are home, all you do is sleep! You don't spend any time with anyone anymore but your co workers!" And with that, I went to bed. The next day was Cayden's career day that Jake was supposed to go to. When he got up I asked him if he was going and he said "Yeah. I'll be there." But of course at around 11, I got a phone call from Jake. "Hey. I can't make it to Cayden's. The boss needs to me to help him." I couldn't believe it. "Jake! You can't do this to him! You promised him!" But he had already hung up. Jake wasn't coming and guess who had to break the news to poor Cayden.
!AUDREY'S POV!
It was hard avoiding Kevin. I just wanted to stop him and yell at him and tell him why I wanted to adopt this poor boy. Finally, when I let Kevin confront me about it, he gave in. He understood that this was important to me. The next day at work, Christian came in. We talked about the usual stuff. Finally, we got to the subject of his mom once more. "Hey Christian, what would you think if I were your mommy?" Christian looks at me bewildered. "But you're not my mommy." "What if I were?" He thinks about my question for a second. "I think it would be fun!" I laugh. "It would be fun," I say. Later that night, I was working on some paper work when Alyssa called. She clearly sounded upset. "Hey Alyssa. What's wrong?" She didn't spend any time beating around the bush. "It's Jake. He's at work all the time. I mean, I never see him anymore. I've gone a few days without seeing him. He's even broken promises with the kids. I don't know what to do." She sounds likes she's on the verge of tears. I let her keep talking. "And I was thinking, since you're a psychologist and all, maybe you could help Jake and me." "I'm a children's psychologist, though," I say, taken aback by her offer. "More of a psychologist than me and Jake, though." I laugh. I look at my schedule. "All right, I seem to have a slot open tomorrow at 12:00. Why don't the two of you come in and see me tomorrow?" "I'll be there. I'll just have to pull Jake from work." "I'm sure he'll be there." She sighs. "I hope." The next day, I watched Christian leave with the social worker, who brought him to and from his sessions. He was growing more and more each and every day. I see Alyssa pull up in her van after Christian and the social worker leave the parking lot. Alyssa comes through the door and I give her a hug. "Hey Alyssa! Where's Jake?" She sighs. "He said he'll be here."
!KYLE'S POV!
The get together was not as fun as they normally. No one talked the whole night. Sarah and I kept trying to start conversations but no one really did anything but sit there. Plus, I could tell Sarah was still distressed about the phone calls. I'll get down to the bottom of this somehow. Meanwhile, Sarah was still working hard on her business, although we haven't found a place for it to be yet. One day when we were going to go hunting for that building, we had just loaded the kids up in the van when a red sports car pulls up next to our house. "Do you know anyone with a red sports car?" I asked Sarah. She shook her head. "No. I don't." All of a sudden, Sarah let out a big gasp. I jerked my head around. "What is it? What's going on?" She looked shocked. "Oh...it's nothing...I just thought. Well. Never mind. It couldn't have been."