Pas de Trois

Chapter 35: "Is this why I'm here?"

All Chloe knew when she walked into the house that night was that Avery was having another screaming match with Brent. She couldn't understand anything he was saying but as soon as she reached the top of the stairs, Avery threw himself in her arms.

"What did I miss?" Chloe asked.

Avery never managed to give her an answer. He started blubbering about something but when he looked up and saw Danny he got even more red-faced and stomped away.

"Sorry," Danny gave Chloe an apologetic look.

"You didn't do anything," Chloe pointed out.

"Yeah, you know, guys don't love crying in front of other guys," Danny shrugged.

"That's exactly it, he's embarrassed because I showed up at camp today," Brent said. "He didn't know I was coming, he was talking to a girl and when she saw me she didn't want to talk to him anymore. And then he cried in front of someone he really looks up to - we're just lucky it wasn't Slade or he might never leave his room again."

"Where is Slade? Is he coming over too?" Colin suddenly paused his video game.

"No, we broke up, remember?" Chloe sighed.

"Yeah, but Danny's here," Colin pointed out. "I thought you and Slade broke up because-" Colin's face changed, like he realized partway through his sentence he didn't want to finish it. "Nevermind."

"We didn't break up because of Danny," Chloe insisted. It wasn't that she really wanted the whole family to know all the details but the night she and Slade broke up she'd had a little bit of a breakdown in the car on the way home from the dinner and ended up explaining the whole thing to everyone.

"Are you and him really having sex?" Colin made a face at Danny.

"Colin, drop it," Brent intervened before Chloe could react. "I'm sure he really doesn't want to have this conversation with you in front of me and Chloe."

"Yeah, thanks," Chloe tried to drag Danny away before it could get worse.

"What? Slade was like the man when it came to girls, I don't get it," Colin said as they walked away.

"The man," Danny snorted. Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine," Chloe headed for her room. "I'd probably think it was funny too if I weren't, you know, brokenhearted."

"Yeah," Danny's eyes widened when he saw her room.

"Sorry, I'm not really in the mood to clean up," Chloe knew she should be embarrassed by the mess. Dirty clothes were everywhere and she had a nice collection of diet soda cans and water bottles - some empty, some not - strewn over every surface.

"Oh my gosh, you are killing me right now," Danny pouted and pointed to a pile of tissues. "Ugh, why am I even here? Do you just hate me?"

"Actually, I don't," Chloe pushed the tissues off her bed and tried to smooth the covers so Danny could sit down. "I can't tell when I'm crying about Slade and when I'm crying about Aimee anymore, honestly. I'm just..." she had to stop because she knew she was about to start crying again.

"Have you talked to her since she left?" Danny asked. "Is she texting you back yet?"

"She Facetimed with Dad last night so I got to see her," Chloe nodded, taking the clean tissue Danny handed her. "She doesn't want to talk to any of us. I tried to listen when the dads were talking to each other about checking her in somewhere but Emma saw me and then Dad caught both of us."

"Is it really that bad?"

"I don't know anymore," Chloe lost it. "Dad wants me to do counseling too now. I might, I don't know," she couldn't decide what being in counseling would actually do for her. It wasn't that she had anything against it but she wasn't sure she really needed it. Not like some people did.