When she finally awoke the next morning, she could hear the quiet chatter from downstairs. She looked down at her clothes; the ones she had been wearing the day before and decided to try to make herself look presentable before she headed downstairs.
Once she descended downstairs, she could hear her mother's voice, talking to Lori in the kitchen. Her brother and her dad were seated at the table.
She cleared her throat when she walked in, "good morning."
Everyone turned and looked at her surprised.
"Do you want some breakfast?" Barbara asked, already getting her a plate.
Stevie shook her head, "no mom, it's okay. I'm not hungry."
Lori glanced at Barbara before looking over at Stevie, "are you going to tell us what you're doing here?"
Stevie recounted the events from the past couple of days; how Kristen had called to inform Lindsey she was pregnant. How the next day he went to her ultrasound with her. Then how he came home and wrecked her life. By the time she got to that part of the story, she was sitting on the kitchen floor against the cabinets, sobbing and shaking.
No one really knew what to say at first. They all thought Stevie and Lindsey would make it this time. Barbara and Lori leaned down to pull her to her feet and they both held her. Her mother stroked her hair, "I'm so sorry my sweet girl. You stay here with us as long as you need and everything will be alright."
Stevie nodded a little and wiped her eyes. She glanced at Lori, "call Karen and let her know where I am and that I won't be back for a while. Make sure under no circumstances does she tell Lindsey where I am."
Lori nods, "anything else?"
Stevie shakes her head before resting it on her mother's shoulder as she begins to cry again.
Jess gets up from the table and goes to hug his daughter, "do you want Chris and me to go kick his ass?"
This gets a quiet laugh out of Stevie as she hugs her father, "no, that's alright. I do appreciate the offer."
"Honey, I really think you need to eat," Barbara says worriedly.
Stevie sighs, knowing her mother won't give up until she eats something. She sits down at the table to eat breakfast. She pushes the food around her plate and wipes her eyes. Her parents leave her be, for which she is grateful.
Lori sits down next to her, drinking a cup of coffee and watching her sister in law. "Do you want to talk?"
"About what? About how the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with and have a family with left me because he knocked up his ex girlfriend?"
Lori looks at her as if she regrets asking, "yeah....."
Stevie clears her throat, trying not to cry again, "do you know what the worst part is? We were trying for a baby."
"I'm so sorry," Lori says, reaching for Stevie's hand and holding it tight.
Stevie shakes her head, "maybe it's just not meant to be, you know? We can never seem to get our timing right. Someone always ends up getting hurt. Now he's having a baby with another woman and I've officially lost him. This isn't something that's just going to go away. He's going to be responsible for this baby for the next eighteen years." She pauses and takes a shaky breath, "it's just that I really, really love him. More than anything in the entire world and it hurts. It feels like there's...a hole right through my chest. Sometimes I feel like I can't breathe. I don't understand how he could just up and leave like that."
"I think that finding out he's going to be a father probably scared the shit out of him. I wouldn't be surprised if he was back at your place right now," Lori says, trying to understand why Lindsey would just leave Stevie without a second thought.
"If he is there; good. Let him see that I'm gone. Let him feel just a little bit of the pain I'm feeling right now."
Lori tucks some hair behind Stevie's ear, "hey, you're going to get through this. You know that, right?"
Stevie nods, "I've done it before. I can do it again. I just need some time."
"There's nothing wrong with that. You take as much time as you need. We all love you and we're all here for you."
"Thanks Lori," Stevie says as Lori gets up to go check on her daughter.
Stevie closes her eyes, enjoying the moment of peace without someone breathing down her neck, wanting to talk about her feelings. She knows that regardless of what happened or why he left, it was only a matter of time before Lindsey would be calling her parents house, asking where she is. She knows they won't tell him; that she's safe here. It just kills her that she had to run away from him again. She thought they were past this point in their lives. She thought they had finally figured it out. She was always one to believe in fate and destiny, but she couldn't understand why destiny kept bringing her back to Lindsey, only to tear them apart over and over.
All she knew is this time she wasn't going back.
Author's Note: So I've had this idea in my head for a while. I hope it doesn't suck. I'm much more comfortable writing in second person like Then, Now, and Again, but it just didn't seem right for this story and I wanted to try something new. I trust you guys to tell me if it sucks or not.
Last Kiss
Start from the beginning
