Shattered Portrait (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter Five

The clang and clatter of bowling balls knocking down pins filled the bowling alley the next weekend. This and the sound of four five year olds squealing and running around were filling my ear drums. I started to wish I had chosen something more calm to do for Luke's birthday.

My mother, father, and JJ were walking behind me up to the shoe counter to get everyone's shoes. Kaitlyn was wrangling up Luke and his friends who had run over to the pool table area. I had appointed myself in charge of carrying in the cake and presents from the car. It was a handful and I was struggling a little bit. My parents always went overboard when it came to birthday presents, especially for their grandkids.

At the shoe counter I set the presents on the surface and sighed in relief that I hadn't dropped anything. The teenager behind the counter looked at my family and I expectantly, needing to know our shoe sizes and how many lanes we would be needing. I started listing off the shoe sizes, watching as the teenager hurries around behind the counter to get all of the shoes.

Instead of making me do everything, my father ushered me away after the teenager gave us our one numbers. He told me to go set everything down and put everyone's names in the computers for the bowling lineup.

The day was already long. It was only 1 in the afternoon and I was ready for bed. It was a hassle trying to wrangle the boys this morning and then trying to go pick up Luke's friends was a disaster. Kids are tiring.

I purposely didn't put my name on the lineup, just so I could kick back and relax for the next two and a half hours and watch the kids have a good time. That is, it wasn't on the lineup until we got three visitors.

As soon as he walked in, the boys knew. I don't know if it was instinct or if they could smell him, but they knew, and they went running into his arms.

"My boys!" Jack exclaimed, dropping Emmaline's hand so he could form a group hug with the boys. "Look at you, birthday boy! You're growing up so fast!" Jack planted a kiss on the side of Luke's head, watching his smile grow wider.

Once the three of them disconnected, they started to walk over to where I was, bringing their two tagalongs with them. One of the tagalongs was Emmaline, tottering on her own two feet in a cute pastel blue romper with pink flowers on the front of it and sunglasses falling off of her face. She had a huge smile on her lips that would have distracted me from everything, had it not been for the other person that was with them.

She was shorter in person, but her legs were still long, which gave off the illusion that she was tall. Her black hair was pulled up into a messy bun with two strands hanging down on either side of her face. She, too, was smiling and her smile got wider as JJ sidled up beside her and started speaking with her.

It was no question who she was. She was the one Greta was stalking on Facebook, she was the one that was in the car when Jack came to pick the boys up. It was her. It was Angeline, or Angie, or whatever she wanted to be called. And I was trying so hard not to stare, but it was hard to look away because she was radiant. And the more I looked, the more I become hostile towards her. I was conflicted, I wanted to be best friends with her because she looked so nice, but I hated her because she was with Jack and she seemed to be closer to JJ than I had been lately, which made me hate myself because not only was I a terrible parent, but I also hated a woman who seemed genuinely nice.

"Mommy, look! Daddy brought Emmaline and Angie!" Luke yelled over the clattering and slamming of bowling balls.

"He sure did." I smiled a tight lipped smile and gave Jack one of the looks that we used to give each other as a sort of secret code, but he wasn't paying attention to me, he was looking at her.