Someday Promised

Chapter 13

Brooks's POV

I heard voices but couldn't decipher who they were amidst the ringing in my ears. All I knew was that I needed to see Sydney, to make sense of this fucking mess, and to try and figure out if I could salvage what it was that had shattered between us. 

The words, sperm donor, replayed in my head over and over...how could someone be so vindictive or manipulative or desperate? I wanted to scream or break something but I didn't. I just sprinted to my Jeep and peeled away from my childhood home faster than I could blink away the tears pooling in my eyes. 

I gripped the steering wheel tightly,  my hands aching before I got to the other side of town. I pulled up outside the small white house where Sydney lived. I had no idea why she left the party, or what had happened but I knew if it had anything to do with me or Courtney I wanted to be the one to make it all better. 

I quickly parked the Jeep and left the door wide open as I hurried up the sidewalk and climbed the two steps to her porch. I pounded my shaking fist against the wooden door, yelling, "Syd!" My voice cracked with emotion, but there was no answer.

"Sydney!" I yelled again, the tears ready to fall like rain all over this tiny porch. She had to answer, I had to explain. I needed to tell her it wasn't mine the baby wasn't mine...it felt like a knife to my fucking chest. I felt like such an idiot to have fallen for Courtney's stupid games. My fist hit the door over and over and over again until it was red and tender. 

"Sydney, please answer the door," I cried, but she never responded.

 As I stood there and looked across the street at The Graveyard, reality struck me like lightning. The pressure that hit my chest felt like an avalanche.

 The years wasted on this useless relationship, while it ripped the one out from underneath me that I truly wanted. The way I let my dad still control my life, even from the grave. And the baby that I thought would make me a father, the one whose heartbeat gave me some hope for myself to hold onto, all went up in flames.

I grabbed a hold of my chest as the breath tried to escape but felt trapped. I gasped for air, I clutched onto my shirt and held myself back from ripping it off my body entirely. I felt like I was drowning as if the ground under my feet would open up and swallow me whole. I didn't know what to do or where to go. I needed Sydney to forgive me, I needed her light back in my life beyond flirting or text messages, I couldn't let Courtney's manipulation take it all. 

I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes and wiped away the tears that had fallen as my breath stayed caught in my throat, my chest heaved, my skin sticky and the wind around me picking up its pace felt like a relief to the anger that coursed throughout my body. 

I pulled out my phone to call Sydney, "Please pick up, please fucking pick up," I whispered as it rang once and went straight to voicemail. Damn it.

Feeling overwhelmed, I desperately searched for an escape from the pain weighing on my chest. As my heart rate slowed, I noticed the flickering open sign of The Tavern and saw it as my refuge. Dragging my heavy feet, I returned to my Jeep and drove across the street to drown my sorrows.

***

Sydney's POV

It had been hours since I had left the Dawson's house, and the headache that had started turned into a full-blown migraine once I got home. I had turned off my phone, locked the door, stripped from my dress into an oversized t-shirt, and fell into my bed with a cold rag over my head. 

I woke up feeling hot and sweaty, with the linen comforter pulled over my head to block out the light that had still been shining through the windows when I fell asleep. Now, it was replaced with nothing but darkness.