Becoming Mrs. Bryant

𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

Nalani

February 27, 2023

Nova's dad and I had been seeing each other once again for about a month now. Of course, I felt wrong about not telling Nova, but I feared that she wouldn't take it too well. Her father leaving her pained her greatly, and I just don't want her to feel like her father is a free-loader or is only back because Nova's rich and living her best life.

Odell and I had a long, touching conversation about being a couple again. Our marriage originally fell out because, at the time, Odell wanted to explore other things that I wasn't willing to give him. It was a cheating situation, yes, but I tried to dub it as something else so that it wouldn't hurt me more than it already was. I let Odell go because I couldn't handle it anymore. It destroyed me, which was visible through my actions, but it was my own personal feat that doesn't include Nova.

"Have you told her yet?" my ex-husband asked, and I shook my head. "Don't know how to," I admitted, "and on top of that, she has a few issues right now."

"What's going on?" Odell asked, and I debated telling him. It won't hurt Nova because she doesn't even know that he's back in my life, but I still wondered if she'd want this to be private.

"Her friend was in a little mess." Odell nodded, "I think I heard about that rape story, it was on the news. I assume that's what you're talking about because Nova goes to that school right?" I nodded.

"Yeah, he's her close friend," I replied. "She, the boy being accused, her ex, her wife's ex, her girl best friend, and the boy that's being accused's former girlfriend. They're all one big group."

"Wife?" Nova's dad asked, seeming to only care about that part. "I mean you told me that she had gotten married, but I thought she married a man. She's gay?"

"It was a hard topic for me to quite understand as well," I said honestly. "I didn't expect it, but truthfully, I don't think she expected it either. She started her senior year being with a boy, then another boy, and somehow, she and Aubrey ended up together." Odell stared into the distance.

"How did you find out?"

"Her wife's mother came to our old home one day, with Nova's wife beside her. They said something about wanting to go to the school department because they read an article about Nova and Aubrey being lesbians or something, which upset me because at the time I assumed Nova was straight. Aubrey's mom and I went to the school, and the principal showed us footage of the two girls kissing." Odell didn't say anything, he just continued to blankly stare at whoever knows what.

"Do you think," he began, but he didn't say anything beyond that. "Do you think?" I asked, curiously.

"Do you think that if I had stayed, Nova wouldn't have turned out that way?" I shook my head. "I don't believe that this had anything to do with you" I replied. "Nova didn't marry a woman for revenge or because she decided that she suddenly doesn't like men since her dad left. She genuinely fell in love with Aubrey, and even though I didn't understand why, or how, I could still see the pureness in it all."

"I don't know," Odell sighed, folding his arms. "I just never envisioned that for Nova."

I rolled my eyes, trying to understand given that Odell's reaction was once my own.

"it's not about you."

Odell remained silent, so I continued. "You can wish this and wish that for Nova all you want, but this is her life, not yours. If she wants to be with a woman, she can be. Trust me when I tell you that I felt the same at first. Nova had to live with somebody else because I was so upset about it. But I came around. This is your only child, assuming you didn't have any more while we split. You just have to love her for who she is."

"I know," Odell said, "and I do. I'm just not getting it. Doesn't she want kids? Her own kids?"

"She's a woman," I replied, "she can have kids."

Nova

"I'm starting to feel terrible about the whole going behind Aubrey's back to see Rico thing" I admitted to Hailey. I mean, yes the kid spooked me, but I turned out fine. Nick and Jason are practically crucifying his ass at some point. "I fucked up." Both Jason and Nick had been telling Lewis about how they "fucked up Rico" yesterday while sitting in my and Aubrey's kitchen. They assumed I was showering, and I was about to, but then I heard the mention of Rico's name and decided to eavesdrop.

Hailey looked into the distance, "everybody does fucked up shit they don't mean at times" she said in a very low, guilty tone. I looked at her, "did you do something fucked up Hailey?" I asked, curiously. Hailey gave me that obvious side-eye look that she only gave when she was guilty of something.

I raised an eyebrow, "speak!" I chanted.

"I cheated on Zach," Hailey said, which didn't surprise me. "Didn't we kind of plan that?" I asked, to which Hailey tilted her head in an "eh" kind of way. "Well here's the thing" she continued, "I slept with his best friend and he literally caught me. Like he came to my house, came up the stairs, and caught me." My mouth went agape, "damn" I said simply, "that's quite the story. What happened next?"

"Well Zach swore that he was going to expose me, but he didn't. Not to my knowledge anyways." I nodded, "Okay, so good. You got what you wanted and Zach didn't expose you. Perfect." Hailey shook her head, "no Nova" she argued, "I found out that Zach wasn't cheating on me. He has cancer."

I gasped, "what?!" I asked, standing up. "Hailey, what the heck do you mean he has cancer? How do you even freaking know that?" Hailey shrugged, "he has stomach cancer, and that's why he's out often. He's always home sick or at the doctors, barely having enough strength to get to his phone. As for how I know, his mom told me after I had damn near harassed her. Zach refused to come to the door." I shook my head, "no way" I replied, "I don't believe that shit." Hailey sighed.

"Nova you gotta see him to understand" she persisted, "he looks skinnier and has a little bit of a yellow tinge to him. He has eye-bags now and just, kinda looks a mess. I didn't think that was amongst the cards before which is why I didn't think anything of it, but now that it was mentioned, I see it." My heart beat picked up a little and I lightly bit my lip. I've lost people before, but if Zach were to die, it would feel weird. He was like a somewhat distant cousin to me, and we kind of adopted him into our family ever since he and Hailey began dating.

"Is he gonna be okay?" I asked after an awkward moment of silence, to which Hailey nodded, though she clearly looked unsure. "Should be" she said, "but I'm not sure. Point is, I fucked up, bad. I don't think he'll ever want me again. I don't know what to do."

"Support him from a sideline" I suggested, "but don't overdo it." Hailey nodded.

Nick

I was about to come inside Nova and Aubrey's home, but then I overheard Nova and Hailey speaking about Zach. The conversation seemed to periodically worsen, but cancer was absolutely crazy. I'm not surprised Hailey cheated given who her best friend is, but I am in total shock that Zach has cancer.