The Tattooed Flower

24. Not Again

Dave-

"Okay, Aves. I'm up. I'm up." Avery is tugging on my arm. It's too early for this.

"Daddy! Daddy! C'mon you're gonna miss it!"Avery squeals.

"Miss what?" I groan, tugging myself into a shirt.

"Quinn! Quinn is on TV!" Avery shouts pulling on my arms again. "C'mon Daddy, lets go."

"Okay, baby, I'm coming, I'm coming."

"I am not a baby!"

"No. But you're my baby."

"That doesn't make any sense." We make it out to the living room and I sit down on the couch, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Daddy how come that lady called her Paisley?" I look up at the screen and find a face there. A familiar face. One that I've trusted my child with, my business with, and my best friends heart.

"Oh my god." She has blotchy cheeks, a red-hot stare, and a fake name. But the worst part isn't the mugshot she stands in, or the headline explaining her charges. The worst part is the pounding of my heart in my chest. What's going to happen to Caleb?

***

"We're on our way to Caleb's, meet us there, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, I'll be there as soon as I'm done with work. Babe, what's going on?" Matthew's voice is worried even through the phone.

"Just try not to look at the news, okay?" I'm about to hang up when he tells me he loves me, he never forgets. I take a deep breath. Everything is going to be okay. "I love you too."

"I LOVE YOU DADDY!" Avery screams from the backseat. Yeah, everything is going to be okay.

"Do you have your seat belt on?" I ask looking back at my beautiful, little girl.

"Yup!"

We drive.

***

Everywhere I look I see her, she's in everything about the place. The flowers lining the house and driveway, the carpets that are so neatly vacuumed, and the pictures that line the shelves. She brought him to his best and she taught him so much. God, I love her so much for that, for teaching him. When we walk through the doors we don't ring the doorbell or knock or announce our arrival in any way at all, I know exactly where he is.

"Ave's you wanna go to the art room?" I don't want her to see him. He'll be passed out, drunk, and more than likely bruised. Avery just nods and walks off to find the bedroom Caleb and I converted into an art room. Quinn always let Avery do whatever she wanted in there, even if it meant destroying whatever Quinn had been working on.

There aren't many ways to hurt Caleb, he's been thrown around a lot in his life, but she found a way. They always find a way. The worst thing she could have done to him was leave him. Cheating, he could have gotten over, lying, neglect... But not this. She left him in love with her and thats the worst way to leave a person.

When Caleb and I were younger, seniors, Hailey had a boyfriend and Caleb hated him. Caleb would've hated this guy even if he were perfect and he was close. Hailey was young though, we all were. The boy's name is Matthew and he turned out to be gay and my future husband. Caleb hated him after the murders. Matthew and Hailey had broken up a week before the murders. Tuesday, the night Hailey and Mrs. Meants were killed, was always their date night. It was easy to blame Matthew, I blamed him too. When Caleb learned that we were dating, he was furious. He quit talking to me, and I couldn't even blame him. It wasn't until later that I learned the true root of Caleb's anger. Matthew didn't kill Hailey, Caleb knew that, but Matthew had broken her heart. She was still in love with him; she died heartbroken and Caleb knew exactly who deserved the blame for that. Caleb eventually got over it, but it took a long time and a lot of screaming.