A World of Fiction
Again, my blurb/drabble is from the the world of Nick, Grace, Benji, and Izzy again. Seems like no matter how hard I fight it, they keep coming back into my mind. I've even began thinking of tenative titles for the fiction that I refuse fear hate fight to write. Something along the line of Lost Love or perhaps Childhood Charms... Reminising on Romance... Like I said, it's tenative.
Blurb
Hearing a painful grunt amidst what had been soft snoring caused Nick’s bleary eyes to pull apart with awareness, the soft lighting of the makeshift nursery coming into view. Jerking at the precarious sway of the rocker he had perched upon, he felt Isabella startle within his arms. Hurriedly, he hefted her higher within his arms, burying his face into her light golden curls to soothe her. She made no noise as he stood from the rocking chair, easily nestling her back into the crib he had purchased when she first arrived with her mother and brother. Then as he turned, Nick squinted despite the dimness of the room to locate the source of the original noise. It wasn’t long till he noticed Benjamin squirming uncomfortably within his bed. Throwing the covers from his small body, he turned onto his stomach to thrust his backside high into the air. Burying his face within the pillows, he muffled a whimper and remained sleeping.
Nick knew that the boy was having another restless sleep, but it was pointless to jar him from it. This was the first night in what seemed like months that Benjamin had actually gotten to sleep without too much difficulty. So, muffling a heavy yawn, Nick turned back to cover Isabella with her blankets before sneaking from the room. Taking a cursory look to his watch, he noticed that it was past two in the morning and saw the empty guest room that Grace had taken over. For a moment terror had seized his body, thinking the worst, but the soft click of the front door and alarm system caught his attention.
Swallowing a ball of anger that had knotted in his throat, Nick jerked the children’s door closed and hurried to run downstairs. Never in his life had he known Grace to be so reckless. Even in their youth she had been responsible, making sure that someone knew her whereabouts. He couldn’t even count the number of times she had chewed him from the inside to the outside because he hadn’t bothered to make an effort to check in with her. And, he refused to release that thought as he barged into the threshold of the living room to see Grace carefully toeing off her sneakers. She swayed slightly as if her equilibrium was misguided and he exploded, “What the Hell do you think you’re doing this time of night?!”
“Coming inside the house?” Grace returned in confusion, stumbling slightly over her sneaker before she collapsed onto the couch with a heavy groan. Glancing briefly to her watch, she felt the dull ache of exhaustion creeping into her body. AJ had been so insistent on taking her out that evening. He had practically yanked her into the vehicle before she had time to object, giving Nick a quick phone call to assure that he’d watch the children. Not that it had been a horrible evening. AJ was funny and charismatic. He always knew how to make her laugh. But, she would have rather been home with--
“Well, while you were having the time of your life with AJ, I was stuck with your children--”
Flinching at the abrasiveness of Nick’s tone, Grace shot him a sharp scowl and was quick to interrupt. “It wasn’t a date, so please don’t start this jealous streak again--”
“There is no jealous streak, I’m simply looking out for the welfare of--”
“You’re lying,” Grace intruded, gesturing to the way he picked at the hem of his shirt. It was the telltale sign of his nervousness, which correlated directly with his lying. Though, only Grace knew him well enough to pick up on the subtle change of his sapphire irises into the dull grayness that complimented the chewing on his inner cheek.
“Damnit, Grace,” Nick whined in disbelief, throwing his bare foot into the corner of the couch as means of expressing his anger. But, when the result came in form of a burning pain, he fell onto the couch and tugged repeatedly at his streaked platinum locks.
“Be honest with yourself and then you’ll be honest with me. Like we always promised.”
“Fuck…” Nick sighed heavily, slumping further into the couch before glancing sideways to his childhood love. “Gracie… Why wouldn’t you ask me to take you out on a date?”
“Nick, it wasn’t a--”
“Yes, it was. AJ took you out and it was a date. You went out on a date with my best friend when you know damn well how I feel about you. All these years, you’re still pushing me away. Farther and father till I go falling off some huge cliff onto the sharpest rocks that’ll obliterate my soul. And you don’t care. Just like you didn’t care back then--”
“Nick, I never wanted to do that to you--”
“Then why turn me down so many fucking times? We love each other so much and--”
“I wanted normalcy, Nick.”
Nick’s dull gray eyes turned a burning flint of dark gray steel. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!”
“Your life wasn’t anything remotely akin to normal, Nick! You were part of the media industry. We were barely teenagers and you just up and left with your mother. You were never home! If you weren’t overseas somewhere, then you were spending as much time with your family till you got yanked away again. Then, when you finally came home and we thought it was over, everyone in the States started to love you. Then you were in another state doing a concert, an interview, a signing, or something else promotional.--”
“I asked you to come with me all the fucking time, Gracie! I wanted to show you the world and have you with me!”
“And when the paparazzi caught us in the streets?”
Nick blanked for a moment and snorted in disgust, “Your point?”
“Damnit, Nick, you weren’t allowed to have a girlfriend. And, no matter how badly I wanted to be with you, I couldn’t handle that kind of stress!”
“It’s different now!”
“But it’s still the same stress under the limelight! I don’t want to be there!”
“So you let me do it by myself while you went to college and had the time of your life? Going out with friends to the pizza parlors while I was fighting serious jet-lag going from state to state? Deciding which guy you wanted to take you to prom when you knew I was dying to be there but had to be at some fucking interview. You got to walk with all our friends in a graduation ceremony while I worked my ass off with some home school nonsense with AJ. Then you had to go to college and be everything you wanted to be without me! Became the ideal picture of a fucking nurse with her doctor husband while I was all alone?!”
“You were never alone, Nick.”
“I could have been in a crowd of people, Gracie, but I always felt like I was alone when you weren’t close to my heart.”