Ex with Benefits (Sequel to Roommates with Benefits) [NEW VERSION]

16. A good man

Gloria

I buried my face in the pillow, muffling the sobs I couldn't hold back any longer. My chest ached, the kind of ache that made you feel hollow and heavy at the same time.

When Nicky told me, I thought she was pranking me — one of her usual cruel jokes. But now Mom had confirmed it. They were getting divorced.

Of all my friends, I was the only one who still had both parents. They always told me how lucky I was, how great Mom and Dad looked together, how it would be forever. Well, I guess forever means nothing.

A rough knock on my door made me freeze. I'd recognize Nicky's harsh touch anywhere. I knew she'd follow me, so I'd locked the door before throwing myself onto my bed.

I didn't want her to see me like this. She'd remind me it was good riddance, that our father was a bastard and it was best to be rid of him now than later.

She just didn't understand that it didn't matter. I didn't know what he'd done, she'd never wanted to tell me, but even if I knew, how could I not miss him?

Even if he didn't miss us.

Every time I saw Zach call or text Dad my heart clenched, because he never got an answer, and his eyes always filled with tears. I hated to see my little brother like that.

Why couldn't Dad just take one minute to answer him? To tell him he was fine and he would be back. Even a white lie would suffice.

Another knock echoed through my room, harder this time, followed by a muffled, "Gloria, open this damn door." My sister's voice was cold as usual, but still not as harsh as it would normally be.

Nicky was misunderstood. She could be a real bitch sometimes, that was true, but ultimately, she was the best big sister Zach and I could have ever asked for. She always protected us, be it from bullies or from the dysfunctional Hell we called a family.

But she was so deeply rooted in her hatred for our father that she didn't see anything else. I'd had to make her swear on Granny Eloise's grave that she would never tell Zach what Dad did. I didn't know either, but sooner or later I'd find the guts to ask. I just didn't want our baby brother's heart to break.

I pressed my face deeper into the pillow, hoping Nicky would give up and leave me alone. She did understand I needed to be on my own, I was sure, but she always said that it was exactly because I felt that way that she couldn't let me wallow in my misery.

Yet again proof that Nicole Marie Bennet wasn't the cold-hearted bitch she pretended to be.

Sometimes I thought she dressed and acted the way she did just to piss off Dad. At least, Mom said she did. I'd heard her talking about it both with Uncle Sean and with Auntie Kay.

I hated it when Dad and Nicky fought. They shouted so loud, I could see such anger on their faces that I hardly recognized either of them.

I didn't understand how we had gone from being so happy to being so miserable. Over the past few months, Mom had cried more, and over the past week she'd cried almost every day.

She thought no one could see her, but her home library wasn't such a hidden spot — not when she had a bookworm son who was too little to reach higher shelves and often asked his sister to get the volumes for him.

After finding Mom in there crying while sitting in her corner nook — the one Dad made for her, so she'd have a place to read in peace — in her home library, I started making sure Zach never went in there unless I was with him.

It wasn't just that I didn't understand; it was that I didn't want to. Some questions were better left unanswered, buried beneath the rubble of our once-happy family.