Coming Home

Chapter 9

After we helped Tegan unpack all her boxes, which took about three hours, we gathered in the living room. I sat down on one end of the couch, tucking my legs beneath me. Tegan and Liam sat down on the loveseat adjacent to the couch and Cayden, after a moment’s hesitation, sat down on the other end of the couch. It seemed like he was over the shock of finding out he was a father and was now enjoying being in his friends’ company.

“Okay! So we’re doing this like old times so let’s go!” Tegan said, springing up from the couch and pulling Liam with her.

“Where are we going?” I asked, although I was pretty sure I already knew.

“We’re going to go race!” She yelled, pushing us all out of the house.

I laughed as she struggled to push the three of us at the same time.

“It’s not funny. This would be a lot easier if you guys would cooperate and help me out here,” she grumbled.

“You didn’t give us a chance Teg. You automatically started pushing,” Cayden said with a laugh.

“I didn’t want to take the chance of you guys resisting,” she said as she guided me to Cayden’s truck.

I didn’t say anything as Tegan opened the passenger door and pushed me into the truck. As soon as I was completely in the truck, she slammed the door closed and ran to Liam’s truck. I laughed, shaking my head as I turned around to see Cayden sitting behind the wheel next to me. It’s pretty tense between us and I don’t know what to say.

I grabbed my seatbelt and pulled it across my body as Cayden started the truck. Out the side mirror, I could see Liam backing out of the driveway. Tegan was hanging out of her window, yelling something. I assumed the yelling was directed towards me but I didn’t bother rolling my window down so I could hear. Instead, I waited for Cayden to follow Liam. To my surprise, he shut the truck off and turned to me.

“Wha-?” I started to ask, but was cut off when Cayden started talking.

“Look, I know we’re in a weird and somewhat difficult situation here. I’ve made mistakes that I know you haven’t forgiven me for and I don’t expect you to, at least not yet. You have to admit that you’ve made some mistakes too and I understand why you did what you did. Do you think it’s possible that we go back to being friends? You’ve been my best friend since the day you were born, Kenz. These last three years have been hell without you and I know it’s all my fault. I’m not asking if we can go back to how we were right before you left. I know if that were to happen again, it won’t be for a while. All I’m asking is that we go back to being friends. This awkwardness and tension between us just isn’t working and pretty soon, the two of us won’t be the only ones affected by it. So what do you say?” he asked, a hopeful expression on his face.

I sat studying his face for a minute, trying to decide if I could do it. The more time I spent with him, the more I realized that I still loved him, but I knew I couldn’t follow through with that. He’s hurt me once and it was like a living hell. I couldn’t go through that again. i wasn’t sure if I could be just friends with him when I still loved him like I did. Then again, he had a point when he said we weren’t going to be the only ones affected. Liam and Tegan would have a hell of a time as well as our families. Plus, our sons were going to be with us soon and it would affect them as well. I took a deep breath, knowing what I had to go.

“I’m pretty sure I can manage that. I won’t lie and say that remembering or past doesn’t hurt, but we have to move on from that. We have our sons that need us and we can’t fully be there for them if we’re caught up in our past. You’ve been there my entire life, even before we started dating. You’ve helped me through everything and it’d be pretty foolish to throw all of that away because of adolescence stupidity,” I answered, staring back at him.