The next morning I woke up with a headache and slightly confused; the arm around me and the body behind me was too scrawny to be Justin. I turned over slowly confused until I saw J.C. laying there and all the events of the night before came crashing down on me all over again. I wanted to burst back into tears, longing for Justin, just for his arms to be around me, for him to tell me it was going to be okay, just for a simple kiss on the forehead, but I was too exhausted to even muster up the tears.
“Morning.” J.C. smiled waking up beside me.
“Hey.”I smiled weakly curling up against him.
“How you feeling?”J.C. asked wrapping his arm around me and burying his face in my hair inhaling deeply.
“Same.”I sighed as he started to slowly rub my back.
“It’ll be okay, I’m here for whatever you need. Just ask.” J.C. soothed running his fingers thru my hair lazily.
“Honestly I just want to try and forget everything, can we go do something fun today?” I asked innocently looking up at him with big eyes.
J.C. just chuckled “Whatever you want darling, why don’t you go get a shower and I’ll go get some breakfast started.”
“Sounds great, will you get Brayden dressed too?”I asked sheepishly.
“No problem.”J.C. smiled as he kissed my forehead and got up to make his way downstairs.
I sighed as I stood in the shower wondering how things could have possibly gotten so messed us so quickly. It wasn’t even the fact that Justin was upset over the news, I wasn’t really shocked by that. It was the look of utter disappointment on his face that really hurt. He looked like I did this purposely to trap him. I told him from the start I expected nothing from him, he was the one who came back to me, and when I told him I was pregnant again I wasn’t expecting anything from him. Maybe I was fooling myself, maybe he never really trusted me after everything that had happened. Maybe he could never trust me. J.C. was great though, and I really don’t know what I would do without him. He was always there to pick up the pieces Justin left behind. He was always understanding, and never quick to judge or to yell like Justin. He always had a calm air about him, and because of that I couldn’t help but to feel at ease with him no matter what was going on.
I sheepishly smiled as I walked into the kitchen and saw J.C. frying bacon with Brayden sitting at the table coloring. “Morning baby.”I sighed kissing Brayden on the head and making my way to the fridge to pour myself a glass of juice.
“Morning momma! J.C. said that we get to go the zoo today!!”Brayden exclaimed excitedly looking up from his coloring book.
“Oh? He did did he?” I asked smirking at J.C. who just laughed from the other side of the kitchen.
“I figured we all needed some time out of the house.”
“Sounds perfect.”I smiled as I started to sit down but I heard the front door open.
“I’ll be back.”I whispered as I meekly walked out of the kitchen to see Justin standing awkwardly in the living room.
“Hey.”I mumbled refusing to look him in the eyes.
“Hey.”Justin sighed running his hand thru his hair nervously, “Uhm, would it be ok if I took Brayden for a few hours?”
“That’s all you have to say?” I said incredulously daring to sneak a glance up at him.
“YEAH” Justin said angrily, before calming his tone “I just….I’m not ready to talk to you, and I promised from the start that no matter what happened Brayden wouldn’t suffer for it.”
“What about your unborn child?”I spat back at him my anger slowly rising with every word out of his mouth, and every corner eye glance he was giving me.
“That’s not fair! I never asked for this!”Justin exclaimed his voice rising.
“Right, and I did?”I retorted angrily.
“I don’t know. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME YOUV’E DONE THIS.” Justin replied screaming now.
“You act like I did this purposely?” I said my voice cracking under his stare and rising of his voice.
“I just…fuck Abbey I duno…”Justin faltered looking back down at the floor again not sure what to say.
“I would never do anything to hurt you or purposely jeopardize your career Justin. Not then and definitely not now.”I sobbed my knees going weak under me and I immediately reached out to grabbed onto the couch to steady myself.
Justin immediately stepped up and caught me wrapping his arms around me and pulling me down onto the couch beside him. “Are you okay?”He asked concerned brushing a piece of hair out of my face.
“Fine.”I said bitterly pushing away from him.
“Yeah, well like I said I just want to take Brayden for a few hours.”Justin said brushing off the intimate moment and nervously standing up from the couch.
“J.C. promised to take him to the zoo today, so I don’t know if that’s possible.”I said getting angry again.
“Oh yeah, that’s just great, let him hang out with some other guy and not his father.”Justin snapped anger rising his throat.
“He’s one of your best friends.”I said angrily as I stood up. “Just go. Just go, and if we get back later and he wants to see you, I’ll have J.C. bring him over.”I said tears threatening to spill out of my eyes again.
“This is fucked up Abbey!”Justin’s voice echoed as he slammed the door behind him.
I sighed as I turned and walked into the other room to see how much of the commotion J.C. and Brayden had heard, but when I walked into the kitchen neither were to be found. I looked around confused for a moment before seeing the door slightly ajar and seeing them chasing one another around the yard. I slowly made my way to the door and exasperatedly sighed making J.C. look and catch my eye. He immediately strutted over to me and enveloped me into his arms, not asking questions, just holding me, comforting me. “Did it really sound that bad?”I snorted bitterly pulling away slightly.
“I didn’t hear much, I just didn’t want Brayden to hear you guys fighting, so we made our way out here.” J.C. said bringing his hand up and caressing my cheek as I just nodded looking down defeated. “Hey,” J.C. whispered locking his finger under my chin and forcing me to look at him “why don’t we eat and go to the zoo?”He said grinning his irresistible smile that even I couldn’t resist.
“Okay.”I giggled calling Brayden over and following J.C. back into the house.
“Momma, why couldn’t daddy come with us?”Brayden asked innocently as we were getting out of the car and making our way towards the zoo’s entrance.
“He had some meetings today.”I said smiling lightly not liking lying to my son. J.C. immediately noticed my uncomfortable demeanor and changed the subject ushering Brayden into the zoo. The three of us spent the day milling around the zoo lazily as J.C. and I scurried to catch up with Brayden at times. We had a nice lunch, took a million pictures, and everytime Brayden would bring up his dad J.C. would steal a glance at me out of the corner of his eye and immediately change the subject to alleviate any tension that I might be feeling. J.C. walked right beside me all day gently guiding me with his hand and trying to make sure that I was as busy and as occupied as possible so that my mind didn’t wander. I couldn’t say that I minded, but I knew I would eventually have to get back to reality and the thought of that only made my heart ache more.
We got back to the house right before dinner time all of us completely exhausted from the sun and walking around all day. “I’m going to take a shower, can you take Brayden next door to Justin?”I asked quietly so that Brayden couldn’t hear.
“Yeah.”J.C. smiled lightly calling out to Brayden. I gave Brayden a kiss and watched as they retreated out the door before slowly making my way upstairs. I winced as I stepped into the shower the water scolding my skin as it washed over. I got a little more sun than I had thought today, but the pain of the water was just enough to make me forget about Justin for a few more minutes, until I couldn’t stand it any longer and had to step out of the shower. I was slowly patting myself dry when I heard the bedroom door open and I inhaled sharply anticipating Justin walking into the bathroom any second.
“Abbey?” I heard J.C. asked as I exhaled exasperated not realizing I had been holding my breath.
“Yeah I’ll be out in a second.”I sighed as I slipped on a loose fitting sundress and pulled my hair up into a ponytail. “Everything okay with Brayden?”I asked wanting to hear something about Justin, but too timid to ask.
“Yeah he’s fine.” J.C. said absentmindedly not giving me any inclination as to what Justin was doing or feeling, “You want me to order some Chinese?” J.C. finished as if everything was normal.
“Uhm…yeah that’s fine.”I sighed as I walked past him and down the stairs.
“Alright food should be here within the half hour, why don’t you pick a movie?”J.C. suggested coming up behind me catching me off guard making me jump.
“I don’t care.”I said disinterested as I turned back around to add a couple teaspoons of sugar to my tea.
“Hey.”J.C. said softly as he grabbed me by the hips and turned me to face him. I looked at him with a sad smile before turning my gaze to the floor. “Hey.” J.C. repeated again this time barely above a whisper as he lifted my chin forcing me to look at him. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”He said matter of factly before bringing his lips down to crash against mine. I gasped completely caught off guard, but J.C. just chuckled trying to deepen the kiss. I stood there frozen for what seemed like an eternity before what was happening finally registered with me and I pushed J.C. away as hard as I could with both hands.
Story Tags: daddyj
