Secrets of Love

Withholding Truth

"Peyton's my lil thugette." Trent said laughing while I'm telling him how she hid Aniya in the guest room.

"That's not funny. I was ready to strangle that heffa." I said handing him a plate so he could dry it.

"So what are yall going to do with her?"

"Personally, I don't want her here, but I can't ask him to choose between them. On top of that I didn't know that Derrick was letting Bre's mom see her. I'm sure that's not helping her behavior either."

"Maybe you all need to sit down and have a talk. I mean you could always beat Peyton's ass. If you don't want to do it. I'll gladly volunteer."

"Stop." I laughed, but really considered it. "We're trying alternative ways of punishment. Except that day I tagged her. Throwing stuff and yelling like she's crazy."

"For real though just work with her, Cam. Maybe she does feel left out. She might just be a little jealous."

"We'll deal with that later. What did you come over here for? I know you wanted food, but you wanted to talk to me. What's up?" I asked sitting at the table with a bag of cashews.

"I know we said we'd never talk about this, but you're the only one who knows. You're the only one I can talk to about this." He ran his hands down his face and his eyes held this distant look.

"Trent, look we can't-"

"Mimi, the nightmares are back. This isn't like when it first happened and I could climb in your bed and you'd hold me. It's getting worse and worse."

"Trent, we go through this every year. It'll be over soon." I grabbed his hand and rubbed the back of it with my thumb.

"I'm telling you this time it's different. I feel like I need to tell someone about this. I can't handle this." He shook his head.

"Trenton, we said that no one would ever know and that's how it stays. Brandon can never find out about this." I said staring into his eyes.

"Do you remember that Sunday that I sent you that text?" He got up and leaned against the island with his back to me.

"Yeah. I told you that I forgave you, Trent. We have a lot more to lose now than when we were younger."

I heard sniffles and I walked over to him and rubbed his back. I knew what he was feeling because I felt the same way. We couldn't take back the events of that night, but bringing it up would only cause more trouble for us both. I wouldn't relive that night for anything, but when it was around that time of the year Trent went through this stage.

"Hey. We're going to get through this. We always do. We take turns having our guilty moment, but we can't take it back. I don't think we would if we could."

"Thanks, Mimi." He said turning around and pulling me into a long, tight hug. "This stays between us."

"This stays between us." I repeated after him.

"And what might that be?" Brandon asked with a look in his eye that I couldn't define. He looked from me to Trent and back to me again as we moved away from each other.

"Umm-Trent is planning a special night for Lexi. He didn't want me to ruin it." I lied looking him in the face.

"Y-yeah. Just want to spoil her a lil bit ya know?" Trent grabbed an apple and bit into it.

"Yeah sure." He squinted his at me. He nodded and asked Trent if he could talk to him in private.

I went to go check on Aniya while they were talking. She was awake so I changed her diaper and prepared myself to nurse her. I was rocking her and feeding her when I noticed that Bran was standing against the door frame staring at me. I was trying to read him, but I failed. I had my heart was beating out of my chest as I started to think of what could be going through his head. Our stare down didn't end until Aniya started to whine a little bit.