We Were Both Broken In Our Own Ways, Sifting Through The Rubble For The Wrong Things
Chapter: 2/?
Song: Underneath The Sycamore- Death Cab For Cutie
Word Count: 3,704
Summary: I know you've got a vengeful heart, I cannot be stopped as soon as I start- Death Cab For Cutie
He leaves her sleeping on the couch in the morning and feels just a little bit guilty for doing so. But he had to get up. He didn’t have anything to make her for breakfast and she needs to eat. He’s learned from experience that when she’s hungry she gets into a mood. She doesn’t need another reason to be annoyed.
And, he needs to get out of the house, create some distance between them. He did technically, albeit completely innocently, sleep with her, even though she was the only one sleeping. He mostly sat up wide awake trying to figure out the best way to position himself so she would be comfortable. But none of that seemed to matter to her because she slept soundly and his neck aches from contorting his body.
He just needs to step away for a bit. Maybe briefly look at another girl in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store just so he can get Amy out of his mind. She doesn’t need his confused feelings right now. He has to put an end to that before she sees right through him and it’s revealed that somewhere between the shifting of his shoulders last night he has to physically stop himself from touching her or waking her up just to tell her that she looks beautiful because he’s afraid that she doesn’t hear it enough.
He fucking hates himself for that.
He knows he can’t pursue anything with her. He’ll mess it up. Something will get messed up and he’s determined to hold onto her for dear life.
Unfortunately for him, there’s no one worth looking at in the store at seven in the morning so he has to sit in his car in his driveway with the radio on to try and clear his mind. It doesn’t work and he can’t hide forever so he has to go in.
He quietly unlocks the door and takes his shoes off so he can walk through the house without waking her up. She’s still sleeping stretched out on the couch with her face buried in a pillow, which must have taken the place of his body when he got up.
He starts to make breakfast, eggs and bacon and orange juice, nothing fancy, just what he can handle without waking her up and having to ask her for help.
He accidentally wakes her up when he cracks an egg into a bowl and gets a shell in with it and yells ‘shit’ without even thinking about it.
“How am I not dead?” She asks him and he turns around. She moves silently without even trying.
“Did I wake you up?”
“Your swearing did.” She smiles and his heart aches. There’s not enough distance in the world to stop it.
“I’m sorry, are you hungry? Do you want to go back to sleep? In a real bed this time, you do have the guest room.”
“No, no.” She puts her hand on his arm and then removes it. “I’m hungry. But you’re cooking, should I be scared?”
“No way, I know what I’m doing; I studied on The Food Network. Rachel Ray can eat her heart out.”
“You’re going to go all 30 Minute Meals on me?”
“Hell yeah, but I’ve been working on this for almost an hour.”
She laughs then cringes when she sees all the bottles on the counter, and then the few that are still remaining in the living room.
“God, seriously, how am I still alive? And how do you drink like that on a regular basis?”
“Years of practice.”
“Ugh. I don’t think alcohol is for me.”
“Maybe that’s for the best.” He says softly as she sits down at the bar and he pours her some orange juice.
“I don’t even remember half of what I said to you last night. I didn’t do anything embarrassing, did I?”
“Nah.” He turns back around and puts some scrambled eggs onto her plate. “You just got naked and forced me to play twister with you.”
She stops drinking mid-sip. “Oh my god, what?”
“I’m kidding, totally kidding.” He bursts out laughing.
“You are such an ass.”
“It was funny and what if it were true?”
“I wish it was. It would take my mind off of everything else.” She sighs. “I feel like shit, Jared. I have a headache, I’m starving but I’m afraid that if I eat I’m going to throw up, I have no place to live. I have to leave his place…”
“You’ll stay here.”
“Jared.”
“This is not an argument.”
“But won’t I...I don’t know, what if you want to, you know….bring a girl back here?”
“Took you forever to get that out.” He laughs.
“Well I’m a little uncomfortable about it.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t be a problem.”
“What does that mean? I don’t want to kick you out of your own house.”
“You won’t be.”
“So, what, you’ll go back to their place?”
“Why are you so obsessed with this?”
“I’m not, I just want to make sure it’s not an issue, I don’t want you to resent me.”
“It will be a nonissue. And I would never resent you.”
“My, my, Jared Followill, are you saying that you’ll give up sex for me?”
“Well…”
“Because if so, that’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
He was going to say he’d just go back to their place but this is the best for her then he won’t ever take that away. And, if he’s going to be truly honest with himself, he doesn’t see himself with anyone else but her.
“Whatever you want, Amy.” He says softly and he turns around just in time to see her avert her eyes from him and a blush color her cheeks.
“See, things are already looking better. You have a place to live and we can go get your stuff from his place today.”
“Oh, that’ll be fun.” She says sarcastically. “I just don’t know what I’ll do now.”
He looks over at her; her head is in her hands. He doesn’t know.
“I don’t know if I can do this. My parents spent all that money. There’s a dress, a really expensive one hanging in my closet.”
“So?”
“So, that’s money wasted. They don’t have that kind of money, Jared. Maybe I should just…”
“No.” He interrupts and shakes his head. “Don’t, shut up, please don’t finish that. Don’t say what I think you’re going to say.”
“Well I’m sorry but I’m just trying to be practical here.”
“It’s stupid.”
“He said he was sorry.”
He drops the pan back onto the stove and she startles.
“I don’t give a shit, Amy. Are you crazy thinking about going back to him because of money or because your parents will be pissed at you?
Are you kidding me with that shit?”
“You don’t know what it’s like to not be able to throw money away.”
He sighs and turns around and puts some bacon on her plate. “If I worse come to worse I’ll pay for everything.”
“Not a chance in hell, do you really think I would ever let that happen under any circumstance? I can’t believe you even said that.”
“I’m trying to do whatever I can to make sure you don’t screw up again. I already feel guilty for not stopping you sooner.”
“You couldn’t have stopped me, you’re not my father.”
“So if I had told you I thought he was cheating on you, you wouldn’t have cared?”
“I’m not saying that, I just…” She huffs out a breath. “Why are you trying to fight with me?”
“Because I know you’re not that stupid but you’re acting like you are.” He sits down on the opposite side and a few seats down.
“Why are you sitting so far away?”
“Because I’m mad at you.” He snaps and she rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her orange juice.
There’s a tension filled beat of silent before a knock at the door and Jared springs up, thankful for a distraction but annoyed that he has to deal with someone else and mumbles a swear under his breath.
His feelings only get worse when he opens the door and Kyle’s standing there, his hands balled into fists, already on the defensive.
“Why the hell are you here?”
“I know she’s here.”
“How can you know that?”
“Her car’s in the drive way, dumbass.”
Jared’s tiff with Amy clearly made him a little slow and by the time he realizes that Kyle insulted him he’s already pushed past him and entered the house calling Amy’s name.
She’s standing next to the bar when Kyle gets into the kitchen and he runs over to her and puts his hands on her elbows.
Thankfully, she pushes him away.
“Come on, baby.” He soothes and she rolls her eyes.
“Gross, Kyle, seriously?”
“Yes seriously, come on, let’s go home.”
“I’m not going home with you.”
Kyle pulls on her arm and she stumbles forward a bit which causes Jared to leave his post standing next to the fridge with his arms crossed and take a few steps towards them, towards him. But she regains her balance and puts a hand up to Jared to tell him its okay. He stops and resumes his position. He’ll give them just enough time for her to tell Kyle off.
“Kyle, it’s over.”
“I just want to talk to you, just let me talk to you.”
“Fine.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Talk, I’m actually sincerely interested in what you have to say.”
His eyes flick over to Jared. “I want to talk to you alone.”
Jared rolls his eyes and pushes himself off the counter again. He’ll leave them alone as long as he can stand around the corner and eavesdrop.
But Amy holds a hand up to him again.
“No, he stays, I want him to stay.”
Jared leans back. He’s not going to argue with her.
“Well, that’s not surprising.” Kyle scoffs.
“What is that supposed to mean? And how did you find me anyways? Did you just drive around and look for my car?”
“No, I came right here, where else would you run off to? I bet you were just waiting for some excuse to come over here at night, all alone.”
“How dare you accuse me of doing that.”
“I never accused you of anything, but nice to know where your mind went.” He looks over and sees the empty bottles on the counter. He
laughs shortly. “What happened, did you get drunk and then fuck him?”
Jared watches her closely, trying to see how that will shake her and how she’ll respond to it. How she does shocks him.
She tilts her head and pops her hip out with attitude.
“So what if I did?” She says coolly and Kyle raises his eyebrows, just as surprised as Jared is. “What if I did have sex with him?”
“You wouldn’t.” Kyle shakes his head. “You don’t have the guts.”
“The guts? What the fuck does that mean? Do you mean that I don’t have the…the…douchey personality trait that would let me betray you like that? Because here’s the thing Kyle, I don’t have any kind of loyalty to you anymore.”
She’s calm. Too calm and Jared knows that she’s going to lose it at some point, in some way. Some grand gesture or a meek and quiet one that he won’t even see. She’s either going to blow up at Kyle right now in his kitchen or she’ll give it a few hours, stew over it and cry herself to sleep tonight. He can’t say which one he prefers. He knows that if she does go at Kyle he’ll have to stop her, eventually and he would really love to just let it happen. Kyle might be taller and outweigh her but Jared’s sure that with Amy’s anger he’s no match for her.
“You’re my fiancé.”
It’s the wrong thing to say, it’s clearly wildly inaccurate since she flung the ring into the water but she just takes a deep breath and composes herself. She won’t start to yell at him. It will hit her later tonight. He’ll probably hear her crying and he’ll have to make the choice to go and comfort her, climb in her bed and hope he has the self control to not take some kind of advantage of her, or let her cry it out.
“I am not your fiancé. You know that, you just came here to make him upset and put on a show, didn’t you?”
“I came here because I love you.”
“That is such bullshit.” She laughs. “Why don’t you go tell that to that girl that you’re fucking? Why don’t you dive into the river and find the ring and put it on her stupid finger?”
“That was a mistake, it was a onetime thing, I don’t care about her, I’m sorry.” He’s close to pleading. It’s pathetic and Jared rolls his eyes.
“So what? So you said that you’re sorry, just because you said it doesn’t mean that it gets taken away. It happened, you cheated on me and
if you did it once I promise that you’ll do it again and I won’t be that wife that sits at home pretending to not know where my husband is. I
refuse to do it.”
“So you think your life will be that much better with him?” He nods his head to Jared. “Because I hate to break it to you honey, but he doesn’t have the best record with women.”
“Would you leave him out of this?” She glances over at Jared, just to make sure that he’s okay with them talking about him, in front of him.
He nods, letting her know to keep going but he can tell that she’s losing steam. She looks back at him and lets him know that she’s going to need him to step in soon. “He has never hurt me.”
She’s chosen to overlook the awful things he’s said to her when he was drunk just to prove a point.
“Well then you’re setting yourself up for a big letdown, it’s only a matter of time before he sees what you really are…”
“That’s enough.” Jared cuts him off before he can slander her. His voice is quiet and Kyle just knows that this isn’t a time to challenge him.
“Alright man, don’t worry about it.” He puts his hands up and backs away. “You just enjoy her for all she’s worth and then move on, that’s what I did.” He says casually, with an infuriating smile on his face and once again Jared moves forward, ready to use much needed force with him but once again she puts her hand out to stop him and they both stand still, Amy averting her gaze from his as they listen to Kyle’s footsteps wander out of his house and the front door close behind him.
They don’t move until they hear his car start up and drive off down the driveway.
Then Jared puts his hand on her hip and she pushes him away, she’s not in the mood to be touched.
“I have to go get my things from his place.” Her voice is monotone. She’s headed for a breakdown.
“You want me to take you?”
“Yeah.” She seems to perk up a little. Break down won’t be right now. “But not now, today, but not right now. Maybe I can catch him while he’s out so I don’t have to deal with him.”
“You know I could go for you, you wouldn’t have to deal with him at all.”
She laughs dryly. “Why, so you can beat him up and he’ll call the cops?”
“That won’t happen.” It’s a soft lie.
“I have to do this.” She sighs. “Did I say that right things to him? I feel like I could’ve really bitched him out and he just got off really easy. You know, I’ll regret a lot of things about that relationship and right now my biggest fear is that I let him off the hook.”
She rambles and then stops to stare at him, waiting for a response. He’s always so quick witted, always ready for a comeback. She always told him he could do more damage with his words than with his strength and now she’s seeking his approval.
He takes a chance and touches her; puts his hands on her arms and she doesn’t push him away.
“You did a good job.” He’s full of reassurance and she smiles in spite of herself.
“Just a good job?”
“Well….”
She shoves him playfully and he laughs.
“You did a really great job.”
“But what he said…”
“Just proves that he’s a dick. There wasn’t anything you could do about that.”
She nods slowly. “I’m going to chose to believe that because I’m too tired to believe anything else right now. I think I’m going to go lie down for a little while, if that’s okay?”
“Yeah, hey, this place is as good as yours now, do whatever.”
She smiles softly. She’s never taken much from him but she won’t turn this down.
They go and get her thing when she wakes up a few hours later. She’s visibly nervous, her hands wringing together on her lap as she sits in the passenger seat beside him.
“If you’re this nervous then maybe I should just go in.”
“Nope.” She shakes her head. “Not gonna happen.”
“Why not?”
“I already said. I don’t want you fighting.”
“Why not?”
She looks over at him and sighs. “I’m not even going to honor that with a response.”
“You never let me have any fun.” He says softly, trying to get her to smile as he pulls up to Kyle’s house but he sees that’s hopeless when Kyle’s car is parked in the driveway. “You could at least let me go in with you to help.”
“No thanks.” She unlocks and opens the door. “I got it.”
“How much stuff do you have?”
“Not a lot.”
“Okay. I am giving you ten minutes.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ten minutes to get your things by yourself. Then, I’m coming in to get you.”
“You can’t give me a time limit.”
“Yes I can, ten minutes, anymore than that and I’ll know that he started something.”
She stares at him for a moment. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
He laughs. “No, I’m dead serious; you have ten minutes starting when you get in the house.”
“You’re not my father, Jared, when I say I can do something on my own, I mean it, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to take care of
me.”
“Fine. Ten minutes starting now.”
“Jared.”
“You better hurry up; you know I’ll do this.”
She huff out a breath and kicks her foot against his tire in annoyance. “You suck.”
“Whatever.” He looks down at his watch. “You got nine minutes and thirty seconds now so….”
“If you ever have a daughter she’s going to be pissed at you all the time.”
He rolls his head to the side and looks at her through the open window. “Time is ticking, Amy.”
She frowns at him before she walks off.
He’s glad he pissed her off. That way, if Kyle should say something to her she’ll really let him have it. Take her rage out on him where it’s supposed to go.
Kyle answers the door and lets her in without any fuss, but Jared kept his hand on the door of the car, ready to get out just in case.
His eyes constantly move from his watch to the door and back, waiting for her to either emerge or the time to run out.
He finally sees her with about thirty seconds left on the clock. She’s carrying two big suitcases at her side and he gets out of the car and meets her halfway ready to take one but she walks past him.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’m fine.” But she’s a little shaky; she’s trying too hard to seem fine.
“Amy.”
“Just open the trunk.” She snaps and stops at the back of the car, waiting for him.
He obliges and reaches for a bag but she slaps his hand away.
“I don’t need your help.”
“You’re not still mad at me, are you?” He leans against his car. “Come on, I was only trying to help you, I want to make sure you’re okay.”
She tosses her hair over her shoulder as she gets one bag into the trunk and he sees her face and the tears forming in her eyes and he stands up straight.
“What the hell happened?”
“Nothing.” She mumbles as she gets the other bag in. “It was nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Did he say something to you?”
She closes the trunk and starts to walk to the passenger side door and he follows after.
“Did he do something to you? I told you I should’ve gone with you; I knew he would pull some shit like that.”
“Jared.” She yells and turns around. “Would you just back off? I know you think you’re like, my guardian or whatever but you’re not. Some things are not your business. This is one of them. It’s my deal and I’ll figure out how to handle it on my own. Just mind your own business.”
She gets into the car and he tries to understand what just happened as he walks around to his own side.
They drive back in silence. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she stares out the window while he sneaks looks at her. When they back to his place she has her door open and she’s out of the car before he even shuts it off. She waits for him to pop the trunk and then grabs both bags herself and climbs the front steps where she waits again for him to unlock the house door.
Once inside she and her bags disappear into her room.
Song: Underneath The Sycamore- Death Cab For Cutie
Word Count: 3,704
Summary: I know you've got a vengeful heart, I cannot be stopped as soon as I start- Death Cab For Cutie
He leaves her sleeping on the couch in the morning and feels just a little bit guilty for doing so. But he had to get up. He didn’t have anything to make her for breakfast and she needs to eat. He’s learned from experience that when she’s hungry she gets into a mood. She doesn’t need another reason to be annoyed.
And, he needs to get out of the house, create some distance between them. He did technically, albeit completely innocently, sleep with her, even though she was the only one sleeping. He mostly sat up wide awake trying to figure out the best way to position himself so she would be comfortable. But none of that seemed to matter to her because she slept soundly and his neck aches from contorting his body.
He just needs to step away for a bit. Maybe briefly look at another girl in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store just so he can get Amy out of his mind. She doesn’t need his confused feelings right now. He has to put an end to that before she sees right through him and it’s revealed that somewhere between the shifting of his shoulders last night he has to physically stop himself from touching her or waking her up just to tell her that she looks beautiful because he’s afraid that she doesn’t hear it enough.
He fucking hates himself for that.
He knows he can’t pursue anything with her. He’ll mess it up. Something will get messed up and he’s determined to hold onto her for dear life.
Unfortunately for him, there’s no one worth looking at in the store at seven in the morning so he has to sit in his car in his driveway with the radio on to try and clear his mind. It doesn’t work and he can’t hide forever so he has to go in.
He quietly unlocks the door and takes his shoes off so he can walk through the house without waking her up. She’s still sleeping stretched out on the couch with her face buried in a pillow, which must have taken the place of his body when he got up.
He starts to make breakfast, eggs and bacon and orange juice, nothing fancy, just what he can handle without waking her up and having to ask her for help.
He accidentally wakes her up when he cracks an egg into a bowl and gets a shell in with it and yells ‘shit’ without even thinking about it.
“How am I not dead?” She asks him and he turns around. She moves silently without even trying.
“Did I wake you up?”
“Your swearing did.” She smiles and his heart aches. There’s not enough distance in the world to stop it.
“I’m sorry, are you hungry? Do you want to go back to sleep? In a real bed this time, you do have the guest room.”
“No, no.” She puts her hand on his arm and then removes it. “I’m hungry. But you’re cooking, should I be scared?”
“No way, I know what I’m doing; I studied on The Food Network. Rachel Ray can eat her heart out.”
“You’re going to go all 30 Minute Meals on me?”
“Hell yeah, but I’ve been working on this for almost an hour.”
She laughs then cringes when she sees all the bottles on the counter, and then the few that are still remaining in the living room.
“God, seriously, how am I still alive? And how do you drink like that on a regular basis?”
“Years of practice.”
“Ugh. I don’t think alcohol is for me.”
“Maybe that’s for the best.” He says softly as she sits down at the bar and he pours her some orange juice.
“I don’t even remember half of what I said to you last night. I didn’t do anything embarrassing, did I?”
“Nah.” He turns back around and puts some scrambled eggs onto her plate. “You just got naked and forced me to play twister with you.”
She stops drinking mid-sip. “Oh my god, what?”
“I’m kidding, totally kidding.” He bursts out laughing.
“You are such an ass.”
“It was funny and what if it were true?”
“I wish it was. It would take my mind off of everything else.” She sighs. “I feel like shit, Jared. I have a headache, I’m starving but I’m afraid that if I eat I’m going to throw up, I have no place to live. I have to leave his place…”
“You’ll stay here.”
“Jared.”
“This is not an argument.”
“But won’t I...I don’t know, what if you want to, you know….bring a girl back here?”
“Took you forever to get that out.” He laughs.
“Well I’m a little uncomfortable about it.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t be a problem.”
“What does that mean? I don’t want to kick you out of your own house.”
“You won’t be.”
“So, what, you’ll go back to their place?”
“Why are you so obsessed with this?”
“I’m not, I just want to make sure it’s not an issue, I don’t want you to resent me.”
“It will be a nonissue. And I would never resent you.”
“My, my, Jared Followill, are you saying that you’ll give up sex for me?”
“Well…”
“Because if so, that’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
He was going to say he’d just go back to their place but this is the best for her then he won’t ever take that away. And, if he’s going to be truly honest with himself, he doesn’t see himself with anyone else but her.
“Whatever you want, Amy.” He says softly and he turns around just in time to see her avert her eyes from him and a blush color her cheeks.
“See, things are already looking better. You have a place to live and we can go get your stuff from his place today.”
“Oh, that’ll be fun.” She says sarcastically. “I just don’t know what I’ll do now.”
He looks over at her; her head is in her hands. He doesn’t know.
“I don’t know if I can do this. My parents spent all that money. There’s a dress, a really expensive one hanging in my closet.”
“So?”
“So, that’s money wasted. They don’t have that kind of money, Jared. Maybe I should just…”
“No.” He interrupts and shakes his head. “Don’t, shut up, please don’t finish that. Don’t say what I think you’re going to say.”
“Well I’m sorry but I’m just trying to be practical here.”
“It’s stupid.”
“He said he was sorry.”
He drops the pan back onto the stove and she startles.
“I don’t give a shit, Amy. Are you crazy thinking about going back to him because of money or because your parents will be pissed at you?
Are you kidding me with that shit?”
“You don’t know what it’s like to not be able to throw money away.”
He sighs and turns around and puts some bacon on her plate. “If I worse come to worse I’ll pay for everything.”
“Not a chance in hell, do you really think I would ever let that happen under any circumstance? I can’t believe you even said that.”
“I’m trying to do whatever I can to make sure you don’t screw up again. I already feel guilty for not stopping you sooner.”
“You couldn’t have stopped me, you’re not my father.”
“So if I had told you I thought he was cheating on you, you wouldn’t have cared?”
“I’m not saying that, I just…” She huffs out a breath. “Why are you trying to fight with me?”
“Because I know you’re not that stupid but you’re acting like you are.” He sits down on the opposite side and a few seats down.
“Why are you sitting so far away?”
“Because I’m mad at you.” He snaps and she rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her orange juice.
There’s a tension filled beat of silent before a knock at the door and Jared springs up, thankful for a distraction but annoyed that he has to deal with someone else and mumbles a swear under his breath.
His feelings only get worse when he opens the door and Kyle’s standing there, his hands balled into fists, already on the defensive.
“Why the hell are you here?”
“I know she’s here.”
“How can you know that?”
“Her car’s in the drive way, dumbass.”
Jared’s tiff with Amy clearly made him a little slow and by the time he realizes that Kyle insulted him he’s already pushed past him and entered the house calling Amy’s name.
She’s standing next to the bar when Kyle gets into the kitchen and he runs over to her and puts his hands on her elbows.
Thankfully, she pushes him away.
“Come on, baby.” He soothes and she rolls her eyes.
“Gross, Kyle, seriously?”
“Yes seriously, come on, let’s go home.”
“I’m not going home with you.”
Kyle pulls on her arm and she stumbles forward a bit which causes Jared to leave his post standing next to the fridge with his arms crossed and take a few steps towards them, towards him. But she regains her balance and puts a hand up to Jared to tell him its okay. He stops and resumes his position. He’ll give them just enough time for her to tell Kyle off.
“Kyle, it’s over.”
“I just want to talk to you, just let me talk to you.”
“Fine.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Talk, I’m actually sincerely interested in what you have to say.”
His eyes flick over to Jared. “I want to talk to you alone.”
Jared rolls his eyes and pushes himself off the counter again. He’ll leave them alone as long as he can stand around the corner and eavesdrop.
But Amy holds a hand up to him again.
“No, he stays, I want him to stay.”
Jared leans back. He’s not going to argue with her.
“Well, that’s not surprising.” Kyle scoffs.
“What is that supposed to mean? And how did you find me anyways? Did you just drive around and look for my car?”
“No, I came right here, where else would you run off to? I bet you were just waiting for some excuse to come over here at night, all alone.”
“How dare you accuse me of doing that.”
“I never accused you of anything, but nice to know where your mind went.” He looks over and sees the empty bottles on the counter. He
laughs shortly. “What happened, did you get drunk and then fuck him?”
Jared watches her closely, trying to see how that will shake her and how she’ll respond to it. How she does shocks him.
She tilts her head and pops her hip out with attitude.
“So what if I did?” She says coolly and Kyle raises his eyebrows, just as surprised as Jared is. “What if I did have sex with him?”
“You wouldn’t.” Kyle shakes his head. “You don’t have the guts.”
“The guts? What the fuck does that mean? Do you mean that I don’t have the…the…douchey personality trait that would let me betray you like that? Because here’s the thing Kyle, I don’t have any kind of loyalty to you anymore.”
She’s calm. Too calm and Jared knows that she’s going to lose it at some point, in some way. Some grand gesture or a meek and quiet one that he won’t even see. She’s either going to blow up at Kyle right now in his kitchen or she’ll give it a few hours, stew over it and cry herself to sleep tonight. He can’t say which one he prefers. He knows that if she does go at Kyle he’ll have to stop her, eventually and he would really love to just let it happen. Kyle might be taller and outweigh her but Jared’s sure that with Amy’s anger he’s no match for her.
“You’re my fiancé.”
It’s the wrong thing to say, it’s clearly wildly inaccurate since she flung the ring into the water but she just takes a deep breath and composes herself. She won’t start to yell at him. It will hit her later tonight. He’ll probably hear her crying and he’ll have to make the choice to go and comfort her, climb in her bed and hope he has the self control to not take some kind of advantage of her, or let her cry it out.
“I am not your fiancé. You know that, you just came here to make him upset and put on a show, didn’t you?”
“I came here because I love you.”
“That is such bullshit.” She laughs. “Why don’t you go tell that to that girl that you’re fucking? Why don’t you dive into the river and find the ring and put it on her stupid finger?”
“That was a mistake, it was a onetime thing, I don’t care about her, I’m sorry.” He’s close to pleading. It’s pathetic and Jared rolls his eyes.
“So what? So you said that you’re sorry, just because you said it doesn’t mean that it gets taken away. It happened, you cheated on me and
if you did it once I promise that you’ll do it again and I won’t be that wife that sits at home pretending to not know where my husband is. I
refuse to do it.”
“So you think your life will be that much better with him?” He nods his head to Jared. “Because I hate to break it to you honey, but he doesn’t have the best record with women.”
“Would you leave him out of this?” She glances over at Jared, just to make sure that he’s okay with them talking about him, in front of him.
He nods, letting her know to keep going but he can tell that she’s losing steam. She looks back at him and lets him know that she’s going to need him to step in soon. “He has never hurt me.”
She’s chosen to overlook the awful things he’s said to her when he was drunk just to prove a point.
“Well then you’re setting yourself up for a big letdown, it’s only a matter of time before he sees what you really are…”
“That’s enough.” Jared cuts him off before he can slander her. His voice is quiet and Kyle just knows that this isn’t a time to challenge him.
“Alright man, don’t worry about it.” He puts his hands up and backs away. “You just enjoy her for all she’s worth and then move on, that’s what I did.” He says casually, with an infuriating smile on his face and once again Jared moves forward, ready to use much needed force with him but once again she puts her hand out to stop him and they both stand still, Amy averting her gaze from his as they listen to Kyle’s footsteps wander out of his house and the front door close behind him.
They don’t move until they hear his car start up and drive off down the driveway.
Then Jared puts his hand on her hip and she pushes him away, she’s not in the mood to be touched.
“I have to go get my things from his place.” Her voice is monotone. She’s headed for a breakdown.
“You want me to take you?”
“Yeah.” She seems to perk up a little. Break down won’t be right now. “But not now, today, but not right now. Maybe I can catch him while he’s out so I don’t have to deal with him.”
“You know I could go for you, you wouldn’t have to deal with him at all.”
She laughs dryly. “Why, so you can beat him up and he’ll call the cops?”
“That won’t happen.” It’s a soft lie.
“I have to do this.” She sighs. “Did I say that right things to him? I feel like I could’ve really bitched him out and he just got off really easy. You know, I’ll regret a lot of things about that relationship and right now my biggest fear is that I let him off the hook.”
She rambles and then stops to stare at him, waiting for a response. He’s always so quick witted, always ready for a comeback. She always told him he could do more damage with his words than with his strength and now she’s seeking his approval.
He takes a chance and touches her; puts his hands on her arms and she doesn’t push him away.
“You did a good job.” He’s full of reassurance and she smiles in spite of herself.
“Just a good job?”
“Well….”
She shoves him playfully and he laughs.
“You did a really great job.”
“But what he said…”
“Just proves that he’s a dick. There wasn’t anything you could do about that.”
She nods slowly. “I’m going to chose to believe that because I’m too tired to believe anything else right now. I think I’m going to go lie down for a little while, if that’s okay?”
“Yeah, hey, this place is as good as yours now, do whatever.”
She smiles softly. She’s never taken much from him but she won’t turn this down.
They go and get her thing when she wakes up a few hours later. She’s visibly nervous, her hands wringing together on her lap as she sits in the passenger seat beside him.
“If you’re this nervous then maybe I should just go in.”
“Nope.” She shakes her head. “Not gonna happen.”
“Why not?”
“I already said. I don’t want you fighting.”
“Why not?”
She looks over at him and sighs. “I’m not even going to honor that with a response.”
“You never let me have any fun.” He says softly, trying to get her to smile as he pulls up to Kyle’s house but he sees that’s hopeless when Kyle’s car is parked in the driveway. “You could at least let me go in with you to help.”
“No thanks.” She unlocks and opens the door. “I got it.”
“How much stuff do you have?”
“Not a lot.”
“Okay. I am giving you ten minutes.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ten minutes to get your things by yourself. Then, I’m coming in to get you.”
“You can’t give me a time limit.”
“Yes I can, ten minutes, anymore than that and I’ll know that he started something.”
She stares at him for a moment. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
He laughs. “No, I’m dead serious; you have ten minutes starting when you get in the house.”
“You’re not my father, Jared, when I say I can do something on my own, I mean it, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to take care of
me.”
“Fine. Ten minutes starting now.”
“Jared.”
“You better hurry up; you know I’ll do this.”
She huff out a breath and kicks her foot against his tire in annoyance. “You suck.”
“Whatever.” He looks down at his watch. “You got nine minutes and thirty seconds now so….”
“If you ever have a daughter she’s going to be pissed at you all the time.”
He rolls his head to the side and looks at her through the open window. “Time is ticking, Amy.”
She frowns at him before she walks off.
He’s glad he pissed her off. That way, if Kyle should say something to her she’ll really let him have it. Take her rage out on him where it’s supposed to go.
Kyle answers the door and lets her in without any fuss, but Jared kept his hand on the door of the car, ready to get out just in case.
His eyes constantly move from his watch to the door and back, waiting for her to either emerge or the time to run out.
He finally sees her with about thirty seconds left on the clock. She’s carrying two big suitcases at her side and he gets out of the car and meets her halfway ready to take one but she walks past him.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’m fine.” But she’s a little shaky; she’s trying too hard to seem fine.
“Amy.”
“Just open the trunk.” She snaps and stops at the back of the car, waiting for him.
He obliges and reaches for a bag but she slaps his hand away.
“I don’t need your help.”
“You’re not still mad at me, are you?” He leans against his car. “Come on, I was only trying to help you, I want to make sure you’re okay.”
She tosses her hair over her shoulder as she gets one bag into the trunk and he sees her face and the tears forming in her eyes and he stands up straight.
“What the hell happened?”
“Nothing.” She mumbles as she gets the other bag in. “It was nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Did he say something to you?”
She closes the trunk and starts to walk to the passenger side door and he follows after.
“Did he do something to you? I told you I should’ve gone with you; I knew he would pull some shit like that.”
“Jared.” She yells and turns around. “Would you just back off? I know you think you’re like, my guardian or whatever but you’re not. Some things are not your business. This is one of them. It’s my deal and I’ll figure out how to handle it on my own. Just mind your own business.”
She gets into the car and he tries to understand what just happened as he walks around to his own side.
They drive back in silence. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she stares out the window while he sneaks looks at her. When they back to his place she has her door open and she’s out of the car before he even shuts it off. She waits for him to pop the trunk and then grabs both bags herself and climbs the front steps where she waits again for him to unlock the house door.
Once inside she and her bags disappear into her room.