Chevelle's Story

chapter 17

The next morning, Chevelle laid awake in her bed, unable to stop the flashbacks of last night from racing through her mind.

She'd been experiencing phantom dick ever since Abel had pulled out of her to go and get the vacuum. She felt it the entire drive home and even he had noticed the way she was squirming in her seat. He'd asked her if she was okay and she had to make up some lie about feeling sick because she wasn't really sure how to explain it to him. You either knew how it felt or you didn't.

All things considered, she'd had a pretty good birthday. Although it had a rough middle, it had started off well and ended even better. It was up to Chevelle to choose which parts she wanted to remember the most.

By the time Abel had dropped her off last night, it was early morning and the house was fast asleep. Now though, she could hear the voices downstairs. She could hear the sound of Farah's laughter, of dishes knocking against each other, the creaking floorboards.

Although Chevelle knew that, objectively, she hadn't done anything wrong yesterday, she also knew that it didn't matter. Regardless of the reality, the fact of the matter was that she hadn't left her family in the most amicable way. She knew that her mother would still be upset about her leaving with Abel, and whenever her mother was upset, her father wasn't far behind. Chevelle didn't really want to deal with any of that drama this morning—she was 24, freshly fucked, and it was a new day—but, she also knew that she had no choice. This was the price she had chosen to pay when she decided to extend her stay. More joy in exchange for more pain.

When Chevelle came downstairs, she saw Farah, Jared, and Josephe sitting together at the kitchen table having an animated discussion about some politician that had been caught doing some illegal activity. Nadègine was in the living room, holding a tray of food that she set down gingerly in front of her husband with a smile.

"Mon amour, your breakfast," she said.

Antony lowered his newspaper to peek at the food his wife had brought him, muttering an inaudible thanks under his breath, before turning back to his paper.

Nadègine nodded. "Se plezi'm," she said, straightening up and spotting Chevelle at the foot of the stairs.

The smile on Nadègine's lips faded almost instantly when she saw her daughter, and Chevelle had to fight to keep from rolling her eyes. They hadn't even spoken, and already Chevelle could tell this would be a very long morning—and since her car was still in the parking lot of Le Château Moelleux, there was no easy escape this time.

Chevelle followed her mother into the kitchen, saying her good mornings to everyone except for Jared, as per usual. When Josephe saw Chevelle, he greeted her, but was quick to finish his food and leave the room before she could speak to him any further. It had been like that ever since she'd brought up Seline the other day. He'd avoided being at tables with her, avoided long conversations (and short ones too, honestly).

Her birthday breakfast had been the exception. Chevelle wasn't sure why Josephe decided to let his anger go for that. Maybe because the energy had been different that day, or maybe he was just more mature than her. Either way, she had naïvely taken that to mean he was no longer upset, which was clearly not the case. He still wanted nothing to do with her.

At the time, she'd thought her acting out had been justified, but as the days passed, Chevelle realized that she may have actually taken it too far. Despite Josephe chasing her away from his house and despite him antagonizing her about her birthday celebration, she still felt a heavy guilt about having put a timer on his relationship with Seline. What she'd done hadn't just been a joke; it affected his entire life. She knew well enough that her parents were stubborn and hardheaded about the most pointless things, and something as small as introducing Seline to them too soon—before they were ready to accept her for who she is—might impact the rest of Josephe's life.