Indestructible: Reinforced

Chapter 59

Chapter Fifty-Nine

     September 2012

     Present Day

     “Holy shit.” Gaby said after I was done relaying to her the entire thing. She sat there looking stunned and speechless. I’d cried throughout the whole thing, and now I was trying to calm down and control myself. I didn’t want to wake Christian. Good God, that baby could sleep through a lot of noise.

     “Yeah.” I sighed and wiped my face. “That’s basically what anyone could say.”

     “And how the hell did you two go from that to being like that?” She asked. “Yesterday you seemed fine. There wasn’t any hostility between you. How did that happen?”

     “Things cooled down.” I answered. “And she changed tactics, so I think he figured out what she was doing at some point.”

     “She was playing him?” Gaby’s eyes rounded. “She was playing him, wasn’t she?”

     “She still is.” I nodded. “And I couldn’t get through to him. After he snapped out of it, maybe I could’ve talked to him. But I couldn’t.” A lump formed in my throat again and I took a deep breath to make it go away. I didn’t want to start crying again. I needed to get a grip on it. “She came to me, Gaby. She stopped by Venus a couple of days later and lashed out at me.”

     Gaby frowned and leaned in. “What did she say?”

     “She told me she’d known about Drake and I for a while.” I remembered that day vividly. I’d replayed it in my head a million times before. “And that she’d let it go on for a bit. And she told me that she had every right to be with him because I was the one who’d dumped him. I told her that I really loved him, and that she didn’t. And she told me that she didn’t care. He’d wronged her and I’d wronged her too, and we were paying the price now. She told me that someone needed to teach me a lesson and that she was taking care of that now, since nobody else could stand up to me. She told me I was a horrible person for doing what I did, and that I didn’t deserve to be with someone like him because even though he cheated on her, he was still a good person.

     “I couldn’t deny any of that because it was true. And I just stood there and let her insult me and convince me that I shouldn’t try and ask for his forgiveness because I didn’t deserve it. And then she brought up the baby bump thing.” I looked down at my somewhat flat stomach and gingerly put a hand on it. “She told me that not only was I a bad person and didn’t deserve him, but that Drake needed someone who looked nice. Who didn’t look like a goddamn whale.” I shuddered and blew out a breath. “Ofcourse that got to me more than anything else, and I started crying. She took that as sign and really went for it. She made me hate myself and left me whimpering on the couch. It was horrible.”

     Gaby’s nostrils were flaring and her face was really red. “Please let me kick her ass.” She hissed. “I didn’t get a chance to do that to Cynthia. Let me have this one, Avy.”

     “It’s over.” I shook my head. “It’s done. He’s leaving her, I think.”

     “What the hell took him so long?”

     “Don’t start on him.” I frowned. “He was just feeling guilty. Drake’s a good person, and he did something horrible. He felt bad. He stayed with her because he felt guilty. He felt ashamed of what he’d done and he hated himself.”

     “What brought him to his senses, then?” She asked as she leaned back in her seat. “Why the change of heart?”

     “He loves me.” I shrugged. “That’s what he says. He wanted us to get back together but I asked him to wait. I need some time to calm down a bit, you know. Emotionally, I mean. But we’ll see each other, it won’t be like before. We have Christian now, we can’t be apart.”

     “You’re a family.” Gaby looked at Christian and smiled. “I can’t believe it. You and Drake have a baby together. Who would have thought?”

     “Not me, for sure.” I chuckled. “If you would’ve told a fifteen-year-old me that someday I was going to be having Drake’s baby, I would’ve laughed so hard and would’ve run to Jake to tell him.”

     “And what would Jake have done?”

     “He would’ve hated Drake and tried to break up the friendship we had.” I shook my head. “Is he still here, by the way?”

     “Yeah.” She nodded. “He still needs to talk to you, though. But he told me that he was going to wait till you were up for it. And if he didn’t get a chance to meet you this time then he was going to come over again for a weekend or something.”

     “That man is persistent.” I sighed. “I’ll see him, alright. This time probably. I’ll just get it over with, once and for all.”

     “Don’t be so harsh on him.” She frowned. “He messed up, and he’s come to apologize. Just hear the man out and keep an open mind.”

     “Enough with this new-age hippy crap.” I waved my hand dismissively. “We’ll see what happens when we talk. Where’s Drake?”

     “He went home to sleep.” Gaby sighed. “He’s tired and he drank a lot of coffee last night. He needs to sleep it off. But he’ll come back in a couple of hours no doubt.”

     “Let him rest, yeah.” I nodded. “I’m sorry I kept you all up. I feel really bad about it.” I paused. “But I needed my family around me. I felt really bad, and alone. Thank you, Gaby.”

     “Can we not have a moment?” She squirmed. “I don’t want to feel emotional at all. And you need to calm down a bit. Be detached and cold. Give your emotions a break.”

     “I was trying to be nice to you, you bitch.” I laughed. “Serves me right for trying to be polite.”

     She chuckled. “Sorry, had to.”

     “If I’m being a bitch then I don’t hear the end of it.” I shook my head. “But I’m never going to do something like that again. I’m never going to go after people like that. Revenge is so overrated.”

     “You’re going to become a goddamn hippy.” She groaned. “You’re going to be just like Jake. What is happening to the world?”

     I laughed. “Well, I’ll still have my violent tendencies.” I sighed. “But I don’t want to hurt people who haven’t really hurt me. Who haven’t really done anything wrong. I’m done fighting Amelie and Cynthia and all the others. I don’t have it in me anymore.”

     “Amelie really got to you, didn’t she?” Gaby frowned. “Does Drake know about her meeting with you?”

     “I don’t know.” I shook my head. “But I don’t want to discuss it. I don’t want us to talk about it again. He said he’s going to leave her. If he does, then that’s that. And if he doesn’t, then I’ll have to deal with it. But I don’t know if I’ll try and get him back again if that happens.”

     “Why wouldn’t he break up with her?” she asked. “He told you he would, didn’t he?”

     I gave her a look. “He told me he was going to break up with her the first time, Gaby. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

     “And I thought Josh and I had problems.”

     “You have it easy.” I shook my head. “I have never seen a couple who had it as easy you two do. It’s unbelievable.”

     “Well, don’t jinx it!” She scowled. “Come on, you’ve had your little break. Tell me what happened after you left Drake’s apartment that night.”