We found us | Book 1

The mess I made

The next day

Tom:
I get out of my car and close the door as I walk away from my car.
I open the front door but before I can walk inside Evi walks out of their house.

It stays awkwardly silent for a moment until she asks me the obvious question.
"How was your date?"
I put a little grin on my face and shrug my shoulders. "Not my type."

I can be wrong but she looks relieved by this answer.
"What are you up to?" I ask, referring to the clothes she is wearing.
"I'm going for a run."

"I didn't see you as the running type." I say in a flirting way.
"I'm not." she laughs. "Anyway, I should go."
She gives me a quick little wave before she starts walking away at a quick pace.

I walk inside and close the door behind me.
"Hi." I greet Bill as I walk into the living room.
"Hej." He says, clearly derived.
"You okay?" I walk closer to him.

"I messed up, Tom."
"What do you mean?" I take place on the chair in front of him.
"Evi, Brenda.." He keeps staring at his hands and speaks in a sad voice.
"What are you talking about?"

"I can't tell you." He stammers.
"When did we stop talking to each other, Bill? You never told me about you and Brenda. I thought we told each other everything."
He looks at me in shock. "How do you know?"
"Brenda told Evi, Evi told me. What are you doing, Bill?"

Tears form in his eyes and I notice him hassitating for a moment. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
"Not this."
"What can be so bad, that you can't talk to me about it? You're kind of scaring me to be honest."

"Don't worry about it."
Bill stands up and starts walking away from me, towards the hall and out the door.
"Bill?" I go after him and try to stop him by grabbing him by his arm.

"Let it go, Tom!" He snaps at me, pulls his arm out of my grip and walks away. I hear the front door slam shut.
I take my phone and call Leen.
"Leen, we need to talk." I say when she answers the phone.

I walk to her house. Bill took the car but thankfully Leen doesn't live that far away.
It takes me 15 minutes to get to her house. I ring the doorbell and unpatiently wait for her to open the door.

"Hi." She says and steps aside to let me in.
"Hi." I say with a little smile on my face and walk inside.
We walk to the living room and for a few seconds we stand there in silence.

"You want something to drink?"
"Whatever you have is fine."
She nods, disappears to the kitchen and comes back with a beer bottle and some sparkling water.
"So, what did you wanna talk about?" She asks and sits down on the couch diagonally across from me.

"What is going on with Bill and Brenda?"
"Uhm," she stammers. "what do you mean?"
"Something is going on. Bill doesn't wanna tell me and I have a feeling you know more."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She avoids eye contact and I notice her holding her breath for a few seconds to long to be normal.
"Don't lie to me, Leen. Please." I lean closer to her and put my hand on her knee.

"Please, tell me what's going on."
I stare into her eyes and tighten the grip of my hand around her leg.
"Brenda is blackmailing Bill, in a way."
I look at her confused and pull my hand away, straighten my back again.

"How? What? I don't understand. What can she possibly have on Bill that is so bad he would go along with it."
"It's not about Bill." She stammers and looks at me in a painful way. "It's about you."

"Me? I didn't even knew they used to have sex."
"Brenda is in love with Bill. She always was. Bill gave her falls hope and when he met Evi, without any explanation he stopped hanging out with her and stopped talking to her. So she-" she stops talking and takes a deep breath.

"She threatened to hurt you if Bill didn't break up with Evi."
"I'm not scared of her." I say firmly.
"She has some friends you should be scared of. They don't play games."

A deep sigh leaves my mouth and I lean against the back of the couch.
"I'll go talk to her." I get up from the couch and walk past Leen.

"Don't!" She yell and grabs my arm tightly. I turn my head and look at her. I can see fear I her eyes and as she gets up from the couch I turn my body towards her, her hand still firmly around my arm. "She can't know that you know."
"I'm not scared of her or her friends."

"But I am.." she implored. "I don't want you to get hurt." She looks at me concerned.
"What will they do? Kill me?" I say somewhat sarcastic.
"I don't know.." she mumbles and let's go of my arm. "Just please, don't go."

"We have to do something." I sigh. "She can't force Bill to be with her forever."
"What do you suggest? Because me and Bill have no idea how to fix this."
"Let me handle it." I say confidently.

Evi:
I'm at the park me and Bill were yesterday, looking for his ring.
I know he left it here somewhere and I'm sure he will regret not taking it with him.

I walk to the place where we sat yesterday and I let my eyes wander over the grass.
The ring is big enough to be seen through the grass.
I gasp with joy when my eyes catch the ring and bend over to pick it up. I smile at the ring and quickly put it on my finger.

"Hi Nick," I greet my brother as I walk into the living room. "how was Christmas Eve at Jessy's house?"
He shrugs his shoulders indifferently.
I look at him with a questionable look on my face. "She broke up with me."

I notice a little crack in his voice as he says these words. "What? Why?"
"She's still in love with her ex, apparently, whatever." He shrugs his shoulders again and a sigh leaves his mouth.
I sit down on the chair next to him and sigh deeply. "I'm sorry."