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Why not just tell me from the jump?
“Mommy, can we have pop tarts?” Rellick’s voice takes me away from my thoughts. He’s sitting inside a buggy in Thibodeaux’s, the local food market. Reluctantly, I sigh, giving Rellick permission to add the pop-tarts to the basket.
Our apartment has nothing but Rellick food. Pop-tarts, cheez-its, chicken nuggets, and Yoo-hoos. I grab a few boxes of noodles and sauces, packs of meat, and some milk. I have other stuff at home that I can make, but I know Rellick’s favorite. I would rather not eat than him.
A nasally male voice calls out my name, startling me. “Brianna? Is that you?”
Turning, I can feel the dread begin to sink into my body. Chad Weathers stands in front of me, his blonde hair slicked back with way too much gel and his body doused in cologne.
I haven’t seen him since the horrible night I ruined my life. The night I slept with him to prove to my best friend that he didn’t love her. There’s no excuse for my actions. I can say I was overcome with grief, that I just wanted my best friend to be happy, that I didn’t want to lose anyone else….
The truth is much worse. I was an immature bitch who wanted everyone around me to be as miserable as I was. Brittany was making new friends. She had a boyfriend who took up all her time. I missed my grandparents, and she was all I had left. I should have gone about letting her know what a piece of shit Chad was in a different way. I never should have slept with him. No best friend would ever do that. I was a horrible human being and if it weren’t for Rellick, who knows where I would be.
“Oh, my God. It is you!” He pulls me in for an unwanted hug, freezing against me when he sees Rellick in my buggy. “Who’s this?”
I don’t want to introduce my son to him. He doesn’t need to know about Rellick, and Rellick certainly doesn’t need to know anything about Chad. He’s met enough men in the last month.
“Hi! I’m Rellick!” And we definitely need to work on the ‘stranger danger’ stuff again.
I push away from Chad, moving to block his view of Rellick. Chad looks to me, confusion and hurt on his face, making his green eyes look almost black. “How old is he?”
“It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to know anything about him.” I’m ready to leave. I have half a mind to grab Rellick and run, leaving all the groceries we still haven’t paid for behind.
Chad can see the look of terror on my face. I know he can because he capitalizes on it, quickly reaching for my arm and squeezing. “How. Old. Is he?”
His voice is low and menacing. I’m surrounded by demons all the time now and it has no effect on me, but this? Chad Weathers, who helped me ruin my own life, holding me hostage in a small market? It’s scaring the shit out of me.
“Baby? Where are you?” NO! Brittany Taylor, my former neighbor turned best friend, rounds the corner of the aisle. Her eyes immediately land on Chad who has finally dropped my arm and moved away from me. “Who have you run into, Baby?” She moves to his side, placing her hand on his arm. A gaudy pink diamond ring sits on her finger. Standing next to each other, they look like Barbie and Ken.
Brittany’s fake smile drops the moment she recognizes me. “Brianna? What are you doing here?” Her attention shifts to Chad. “Why were you with her?” She doesn’t give him the chance to answer before shifting her focus back to me. “Stay the fuck away from my fiancé, Brianna. Don’t ruin this for me again.”
I don’t defend myself. She is justified to think what she does about me. She was my best friend since elementary school and in college, I completely tried to ruin her life. I slept with her boyfriend to prove a point. Brittany has every right to be hostile towards me.
“Hello, Brittany.” My voice is low and mumbled. I don’t even attempt to make it sound strong. I haven’t seen her in almost five years since I ruined everything between us. “Congratulations on your engagement.” I don’t think she should be engaged to this piece of shit, but I lost the privilege to tell her that. I may have slept with her boyfriend, but said boyfriend; now fiancée, slept with her best friend.
She studies me, her eyes filling with disgust as she takes in my old leggings and oversized sweatshirt. My hair isn’t done and I’m not wearing makeup to cover the brand on my neck or behind my ear. From a distance, I guess they would look like hickeys.
I know I shouldn’t care, but I do. This is Brittany Taylor, my former best friend.
Her attention shifts to Rellick, and I want to throw my hands up to block her view. I know he’s too young to understand what’s going on, but I never want him to know who I was in college after my grandparents died. I never want him to know how horrible I was. “Who’s the kid?” Brittany takes in my baby boy, noticing how his hair isn’t quite as dark as mine and his eyes are more of a golden green opposed to my brighter ones. His face is rounded in youth. I always thought he looked like a perfect mixture of me and Rafe.
To Brittany, he probably looks like a mixture of me and Chad. I can see the gears turning in her mind. He’s the right age since I met Rafe a month after everything went down. His coloring is similar, but I know the difference. I know that Rafe is his father.
“Is he yours?” Her words are laced with venom. I give a small nod in response. “What’s his name.”
“Rellick,” Chad answers for me.
“How sweet.” Her tone is mocking. She knows what the name means to me. “You named him after the father you never knew.” Brittany was never condescending towards me. She was always sweet and kind and funny. I made her this way, cynical and horrid. I ruined her personality. “Did you hide him from Chad on purpose?”
“I didn’t hide him.” For the first time in this whole conversation, my voice is steady and confident. “He’s not for Chad.”
Chad scoffs making Brittany’s blue eyes turn navy in anger. “How can you sit here and lie to our faces? I think I would recognize my fiancé as a child.”
“He’s not Chad’s,” I repeat, a growl growing in my voice. “This isn’t Maury, and he is not the father. I may be a lot of things but as a girl who grew up without a father, I would never willingly keep a father from his son.” I turn to Chad, repeating myself. “He’s not for you.”
Brittany shakes her head in disappointment. “Then who else’s boyfriend did you fuck?” My body stiffens at her words. “I was your only friend in college. Shit, I was your only friend in life. You always were a loner and just couldn’t handle that I was making friends other than you.” She gives a little inessential laugh. “I never took you for a whore.”
Her words hit me like a physical blow. Before the sins, I had only ever been with two people; Chad and Rafe. Yet here I stand, a whore in the eyes of someone I used to think the world of.
