Our Time Bomb

Chapter Forty ~ Broken Family

Yay chapter 40! Idk why, but this is kinda a milestone for me. Cuz like, chapter 39 doesn't seem nearly as long a book as chapter 40. If anyone actually read this far, god bless u.

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(Continuation of previous chapter)

I waste no time weaving my way through the crowd to get to Red, Christopher, and Luna. I nervously bite my lip, it's a habit. I can't help but notice the way that Christopher stands. It's just like his father. It kills me thinking about it. Thankfully, I see the three of them joking around with smiles on their faces. Obviously they are not talking about anything serious.

I approach them, trying to communicate a confused, yet warning look to Red. He looks at me. His smile melts, "oh hey... I just met your Uh kids."

"Hey mom." Luna says casually. There is no positivity in her tone however. I think she is still upset with me.

I raise a brow at her, then sigh at Red, giving him a look that says what are you doing?

He shrugs, "What?"

I glare at him but turn to my twins and manage a smile, "So you've met Red then. We've been friends for a very long time."

He nods and drinks in the sight of the twins. I feel a guilty prick in my heart. Is what I'm doing selfish? Or is it for the best?

To be honest, Red and the kids don't look all that terribly similar. They've got orange gold and blonde hair. His hair is dark, so are his eyes. It's sorta weird how they didn't inherit any of that from him. Yet somehow it's so obvious they're related. It almost scares me. What if they notice?

Christopher laughs at something Red said. I haven't heard that boy laugh in quite some time. It is bittersweet music to my ears. It brings a smile to my lips.

"That actually happened? Mother fell into the waste pit?" he is grinning.

Red confirms it, "Yup. When she was seventeen, she was looking in the pit and she somehow fell in."

My jaw drops, "Red!" I elbow him.

He displays an extra cheesy grin.

He is talking about the waste pit. It's the place where all of the garbage and human waste from the compound goes.

"Yeah I fell in there once, so what?" I shrug.

Luna smirks slightly and Chris outright laughs. His laugh is squeaky and high pitched. It always makes other people want to laugh with him.

"Yeah," Red continues,  "When we fished her out she was covered in slime and all kinds of shit."

I clear my throat, but a smile surfaces, "Okay too much information."

"Got any more embarrassing stories?" Luna asks.

"Nooo." I shake my head.

"She used to be such a ditz." Red says, "Once she even..."

I slap his mouth but can't help laughing, "No, no more stories."

He puts his hands up, "Okay okay."

"Can I talk to you?"  I ask, gesturing to the other side of the room.

He nods, "Yeah, what's up?"

"I mean alone." I roll my eyes.

"Alright... Well Chris and Luna, it was awesome to meet you. I've wanted to for so many years. I mean, you know, meeting my best friend's kids would be... Pretty great." He says.

"Good to meet you too." Chris and Luna say.

I sigh as he and I slip off into another room down the hall away from the big gathering room. "Why'd you do that?"

He shrugs, "can you blame me? Honestly? I wanted to meet them, even if they don't know who I am."

We find a small room that's empty. We enter it and shut the screen door.

"Why are you so worried? Do you not trust me? Do you really think they'd find out?" he questions.

I switch on a dim lamp and stand across from him with my arms folded. There were cobwebs on the lamp, so now I'm brushing them off of my fingers onto my skirt.

"I don't know..." I say, "Look it just makes me nervous."

"Can't I just get to know them? Even if they don't have any idea who I am?"

"Red, they aren't idiots. If you talk to them enough, they might notice something strange and find out. I mean, can a person really talk to their father and not feel weird in the slightest. There has got to be some sort of instinct involved."

He looks into my eyes,  "What are you so afraid of? If they found out, do you think they'd want us to be a family again or something?"

I shrug,  "I don't know..."

He nods, "Well you seem really troubled. Do you regret it? Do you regret the two of us bringing them into the world?"

I mindlessly twirl a string from my dress between my fingers. I hate questions like this.  "No I don't regret it, but..."

"Then what's the matter?" he cuts me off.  "Erika what if we made this work? We could have been a family."

I frown, "You know why."

"That Gyardican eh?" he sighs.

"Jefferson, you mean?" I say,  "Yes that's why we could've never worked."

He stares into my eyes, "indeed... You aren't with him still are you?"

I frown, never having thought about it this way before, "Yeah, I'm done with him though. Nothing can be done about it. We're enemies, and enemies can't be married."

He looks at the ground, "I'm... Sorry."

"It's alright." I say.

Our eyes meet again, what are his intentions in asking these questions?

Suddenly he starts to move toward me. He leans against the wall, inches from me. "I know feelings between us kind of went away during your marriage with Jefferson, but I'll be honest. Erika, I always liked you."

My heart starts to pump vigorously, my hand finds my throat, as though it's trying to find words and draw them out from within the depths of speechlessness. I am indeed speechless.

He touches my arm gently,  "What do you say?"

My skin tingles at his touch, I feel so damn guilty. "What am I supposed to say? "

"Just let the past go, you gotta move on." He pulls me close to him.

I'm not sure why I'm not stopping him, but I'm just not. "I suppose you're right."

I allow him to kiss me, pushing aside any thoughts that are trying to intrude.

Memories flood back to me at an incredible rate. Not memories I'd forgotten, but memories I haven't visited in a long time. I remember when we were fifteen years old and about as in love as any two fifteen year olds could possibly be.

I picture us walking through the forest, hand in hand. We'd sneak out of the compound often, whenever we could. We weren't actually allowed out of the compound alone till we were eighteen, but we were young and rebellious. What can I say?

Once, we were outside the compound sitting in a tree, hoping no one could see us. We sat there for hours, watching people come and go from the hidden compound entrance.

Unfortunately, I sneezed by accident and someone saw me. We were both punished, though we still laugh about it to this day.