Stef
Great what now? We can't afford anything. Lena is currently bankrupt and it will take a long time before we get that money back and hopefully we actually get most of it back.
"So about the job…" I asked her hoping for some good news.
"I don't have one…"she said and I groaned rubbing my temples.
"Fan-tastic, fucking kick us while we are down" I yelled and she sighed.
"Stefanie" she said in her warning voice.
"No Lena what are we supposed to do, honestly. We can barely afford food on just my pay" I yelled.
"Stefanie stop"she yelled in a warning voice.
"How are we supposed to afford things?" I shouted not really listening to her.
"I don't know, Stefanie!" She shouted back shutting me up.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know. I know i'm bankrupt and I know I don't have a job and no I don't know how we are supposed to afford things. I'm sorry that I can't possibly help pay for things right now…. But you know what it's not my fault" she said in a way that implied she's being biting her tongue not to shout it. I know it's not, deep down I do know that.
"I know it's not" I said she sighed sitting down.
"Do you? Because you say that you believe I didn't hurt you but you don't act like it. I know that everything got complicated... " she trailed off.
"Complicated? You were gonna shoot me:" I yelled and she groaned trying to keep her cool.
"Ok do I have to lock you two in a room until you stop" Stewart said coming downstairs. I guess the whole house can hear us.
"No:" I said.
"Look maybe it's none of my business… but you guys are the best couple i've ever seen. Don't let this ruin it… Stef I've never seen my daughter in love like she is with you until she told me all about you" he said and I smiled a bit looking over at her.
"And Stef I could just tell when I first met you that you loved her just as much from just how you looked at her and every little thing you did. So don't let this ruin that…" he said and she smiled at me.
"especially when i'm trying to nap" he finished in an irritated warning voice. He went back upstairs and we both started laughing the original tension gone.
"Damn your dad becomes your mom when tired" I said and she laughed.
"Don't get me started." She said and there was an awkward pause.
"I know that you aren't guilty and i'm sorry if I made you feel like I was blaming you." I said.
"We need to work on this" she said and I sighed.
"How about after we find out how to keep a roof over our heads" I said not looking forward to our 'homework'.
"My parents can help us out financially. What they can't help us with is our relationship" she said and I groaned. I hate borrowing money, it's so shameful and stressful.
" You know we could just say we did it" I said and she rolled her eyes.
"Stefanie"
"It's his fault really he called it homework, which makes me want to cheat at it" I said and she shook her head.
"You're awful"
"I know i've been bad send me to the office" I joked and she laughed.
"Oh I will… listen we need to do it. Ok, I love you and I thought I was going to lose you too many times to give up on us." She said and I nodded.
"I know I love you too it's just…": I said.
"What scares you about it?" She said and I didn't know what to say. I just shrugged and she nodded.
"You don't trust me" she said and I sighed.
"That's not true" I stated or at least not completely true. I do trust her but this whole situation has made it hard not to be freaked out.
"Yeah ok, I don't believe you for a second."
"I do trust you, Lena…." I said before sighing at her infamous look.
"Ok you want the truth?" I asked actually waiting for an answer and she waited a second before realizing it wasn't rhetorical.
"Yes" she stated.
"You scared me that day. I thought you didn't love me that I was just something in the way of you being with Monte and that you were going to kill me. I know now that that's not it.. But I just thought back to…" I said trailing off.
"Eric?" She asked and I sighed. I don't want Eric to have anything to do with my present, especially in my marriage. I wish I could just put it in a box lock it and never touch it again. It's in the past and I wish it could stay there. I tried to keep it there but it only made it worse when it was dugged up and unlocked.
"I don't want it to affect us…."
"But it does" she said taking my hand in hers.
"We need to work on talking about Eric, I know it's hard to talk about it but together we can work this out. We need to work on communication and trust and to do that we need to work through Eric" she said and I know she's right.
"Oh and by the way I would have done anything to get you out safely that day.. I would have preferred her to shoot me than to have to shoot you" she said honestly and I blinked away tears.
"I love you" I said and she kissed me. One of the first real genuine kisses we have had since this all started.
"I love you too" she said.
Lena
I stood behind her waiting for her to fall. Something that literally shouldn't even have taken a minute is taking us almost fifteen minutes.
"Stefanie, honey I'm going to catch you please just do it so we can move on with our day." I said..
"It's scary" she said and I groaned.
"It took me two minutes" I complained. She sighed and went to do it I went to catch her but she caught herself.
"Ok this is clearly unsuccessful" I said annoyed and she sighed.
"I'm sorry." she said.
"How are we supposed to work on trust if you don't trust me enough to work on trust?" I asked getting frustrated and she gave me an apologetic look.
"We will try again later, let's go make supper" I said and she nodded going downstairs. I followed closely behind her and before I could warn her that Jesus's skateboard was right below the last step. She stepped on it and I immediately went to grab her catching her right in time.
"You alright?" I asked hoping it didn't sprain her ankle but it doesn't seem likely.
"No what the hell" she asked slowly moving her foot and wincing.
"Ok let me help you " I said helping her up and guiding her into the living room . Jesus walked into the living room once I got her sitting down.
"Oh what happened?" he asked and she looked at him pissed.
"Let me hurt him" she said trying to get up and I rolled my eyes.
"You left your skateboard under the stairs you almost killed your mom" I said and he gave her a look of 'woops'.
"Sorry"
"Grab her some ice and an ace wrap" I said and he went to get it. I lift her ankle up and she winced.
"That hurts" she said whining.
"I know honey… think on the bright side we have some of our homework done you finally fell" I said and she laughed.
"Well at least you caught me" she said and I kissed her.
"Always"
Stef
I got to work and started to do the paperwork I have to get done before the end of the day because I procrastinated all of it.
"Oh hey today is Candice's trial and new outbreak she has been at it for a number of years killed a handful." David said and I sighed of relief that she's probably going to get locked up.
"Oh great so she was an assassin?" I asked.
"Yeah pretty much anyways… good news is with her at the least getting charged with identity theft we have access to her bank account and she transferred Lena's money into her bank account so we will transfer it back to hers" he said. Oh thank god. I was worried about us not getting that money back. I hate relying on her parent's.
"All of it?" I asked but I know realistically we won't get it all back.
"Well no there's about 300 dollars missing but most of her savings is there" he said and I nodded. Could be worse I guess.
"Ok thank you. Let me know how her trial goes" I said and he nodded before leaving and I sighed looking at the pile of paperwork on my desk. At least a week off for a sprained ankle will force me to do my work.
Lena
I met Stef at the therapist before going in hoping today feels slightly less like being in the interrogation room. Once he finally came out to get us he looked at Stef's leg concerned before giving me a sideways glare. Why didn't I realize Stef's latest injury is going to make me look guiltier.
"Oh what happened?" he asked her.
"Oh well the homework didn't go well" she said not realizing that makes me sound terrible.
"Oh um I didn't think I had to specify you were supposed to catch her" he said in a passive aggressive accusing tone which was only betrayed by a slight forced smile.
"I did catch her!" I said almost defensively. He looked at me shocked and Stef who seems oblivious to what was happening looked confused.
"She fell on Jesus' skateboard at the bottom of the steps" I said and I could have sworn he gave me a disbelieving look.
"Oh wow that's an awful place for it… did you break it?" he asked.
"No just sprained."
He lead us back to the room and I sighed hoping this is over quickly. Stef gave me a worried look and I dismissed it.
"Anyways so the homework didn't go well. How is everything else been?" he asked.
"Not bad. Getting back to normal life." Stef said.
"Good. So last time we talked about improving trust and communication so since trust fall wasn't done well we should take it back a step and try just talking." he said.
"So let's say something that you haven't told each other yet" he said and Stef gave him a good look.
"How is that supposed to help us?" she asked and I gave her a look of 'what are you not telling me?' and she shook her head.
"Doesn't have to be emotionally charged or your deepest darkest secrets just something random like oh I don't know middle school years or an eighties hair style" he said and Stef rolled her eyes.
"Your evil don't use my words against me" she said and he laughed.
"Sorry couldn't help myself. Anyways I think a few little things will help get the conversation rolling"
"Ok fine… um when I was five I lost my mom in the store because I started playing with this toy and when I realized I lost her I sat down there and cried until a woman tried to help me but I was afraid she was bad so I just screamed stranger danger until my mom found me" Stef said and I laughed sadly.
"You literally screamed stranger danger?" she asked.
"Yep and it worked my mom found me and I didn't get kidnapped." she said and I put my hand on her leg.
"Ok Lena?"
"Um alright when I was in college I was dating this girl and well I was friends with this guy and somehow he thought that for whatever reason he thought that we were dating it was so awkward when we were all at a party and he tried to kiss me" I said and Stef laughed.
"How does that even happen?" Stef asked and I laughed.
"I don't know"
"That wasn't that hard now lets try that with the situation as you guys like to call it" he said.
"Ok so Lena I can tell that being accused of this was hard for you" he said and I couldn't tell if the word accused was forced or if i'm a paranoid mess.
"It was i'm just glad it's over now" I said and he nodded.
"Well now that it's over you can't tell me that you didn't feel betrayed?" he asked and I watched Stef looked down ashamed. I know she feels bad that she didn't 'stay loyal to me' or whatever but honestly she had my back up until being forced to put her at gun shot and I would lose trust in anyone in that situation.
"This was hard on everyone and saying that she betrayed me by losing faith in me for what a whole two seconds is refusing to understand what she went through" I said and he nodded.
"That's all great and all but you couldn't possibly go through all this to not get mad" he said.
"I was mad not at Stef at Candice. This woman ruined my life, my marriage, got me fired from my job, stole all my money and turned everyone against me. Yes i'm pissed!" I yelled unlike myself.
"Good you should be it would be weird if you weren't. So you weren't mad at Stef? Even when you thought she believed it was you?" he asked and I shook my head.
"Nn I honestly I wasn't mad but thinking that she thought I was capable of that when I knew regardless of the evidence against me that I didn't do it was the worst feeling I've ever felt. I love Stef and I could never hurt her and I needed her to know that, needed everyone to know that but I just honestly felt like I lost everyone" I said tears in my eyes and I blinked them away.. Stef grabbed my hand and rubbed the back of my hand.
"You want to know why I believe you?" he asked sincerely and I laughed half-heartedly.
"I was on jury that day, reason I recognized you so quick. Anyways I only live about two blocks away from your house and drive this center is only a block or so away from Anchor beach and I very rarely get home from work at rush hour in under thirty minutes for you to have gotten to the house at the time you did you would to have had to of been driving over the speed limit to get home sooner than that is not reasonable" he said and Stef looked over at me in one of her mock 'you did something bad look' and I rolled my eyes.
"I was only like ten mph over the speed limit" I said and and she shook her head.
" Man breaking all the laws." she said.
"The reason I said this is because you thought I didn't believe in your innocence and this can't be at all effective if you don't trust me" he said and I sighed forcing a smile.
"Fair enough" I said.
"You said that everyone was turned against you do you still believe that?' he asked and I shrugged.
"Not everyone a lot of people though" I said
"Well it will go back to normal" he said but all I heard was yeah the rest of my life i'm going to be hated by everyone (including some members of my own family) for something I haven't even done.
Ok let me know what you think. One or two more chapters.