To the One I Loved

Chapter Twenty-Five: Let's go to Beth's house

Alex's POV:

Even after Nina and I left the table, they still continued on. We didn't go back down until after we heard the front door close.

We both went downstairs together, but the only people who had left were my parents and Angela. "Why are you even here?" Nina asks. Her father and mother turn to face her.

"Nina!" Paul says.

"What?" She asks, "I'm curious. Why would he want to come see someone who he thought was one of God's mistakes?"

"Oh my goodness," Joan quietly breathes out. She raises her hand to her forehead, covering her eyes.

"Wow," her dad said, "I um, I didn't know that that's how you thought I felt."

"Oh, I don't think that," she says, "I know it. I may have only been eight years old, but I have ears. Leukemia doesn't make you deaf!"

"I was young. I was stupid. I wasn't ready for the responsibility of having one healthy child, let alone two. And when you got sick, I used it as an excuse to not be around anymore. And I realized I was wrong. And I'm so so sorry," he says.

Nina's quiet now. Everyone is, but only for a brief moment. "Well, I'm not ready to forgive you, yet." Then she headed back upstairs. This time I waited down stairs which would force her to come down whether she was planning to or not.

After hearing the door slam twice, she came back down the stairs. She had her jacket on, her phone in her back pocket, and her purse hung across her body.

"I'll be home later," she said to her mom, then she grabbed my hand and dragged me out the door with her.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we both got into my car.

"I don't know, and I don't care," she says, "We can go to Beth's house or something" she said carelessly.

I put the key in the ignition and started it up. "Okay," I said. Then I took off, towards Beth's house.

Beth's POV:

I was just walked into my house. Everything seemed nice and clean. I walked back towards the kitchen my mom was in there pouring two wine glasses.

"Are you expecting company? Or are you just getting drunk?" I asked.

"I actually have company," she responded. "In the dining room."

I walk over to the swing door connecting our kitchen and dining room. There was a lady sitting at the opposite end of the table from where my mom's place sat.

"Hi," I say, walking into the room. "I'm Beth. Jackie's daughter." I walked over to her extending my hand.

"Beth, hi," she responded. "So nice to finally meet you. Your mother talks about you all of the time!" She says it so ethuastically as if my mom talked highly about me.

"Oh," I say, because I didn't have anything to say to her. I didn't even know who she was. Then the doorbell rang and that was my ticket out. "I'll just go get that," I said to her. She nodded as I walked back through the door into the kitchen and back into the living room.

I opened the door. It was Alex and Nina. Nina's eyes were red and puffy like she'd been crying. "Aw, hey babe," I said pulling her inside with a hug. I rubbed circles on her back. "It's alright." I said as breathless sobs came from her.

I pointed upstairs to Alex and mouthed the word: mom. He was the only one who knew what that meant. It meant that either she wasn't in a good mood and we shouldn't be around her, or she was busy and would kill us if we bothered her.

Then Alex headed up stairs, and I followed, my arm wrapped around Nina's waist.