Regrets

Chapter Thirteen

"Do you remember when you and Jessica went ice skating that one Christmas?" James asks over dinner of sushi ordered in.

Vincent laughs and then looks at me. I just stare right at James. All he's talked about since I've been here is Jessica, Vincent's ex-fiancé.

"Yeah, I remember." Vincent says between his teeth sensing how tense I am.

"So James, got a girlfriend?" I tease.

Vincent snorts. And James smiles taking a drink of his coke.

"Actually I have a lunch date tomorrow. Nothing special. And not to brag, but she has a nice rack." He winks.

I laugh loudly and Vincent just stares into his plate. It's almost like he sees a whole other galaxy or what not.

I nudge him and he jumps out of his daze. "You hear that?" I laugh.

"Yeah. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed early." He kisses me on the forehead and takes his dishes to the kitchen before I hear the bedroom door slam tightly shut.

"What was that about?" I ask, taking a drink of my coke.

"Eh, I'm sure it's nothing." James stands up taking his plate. "Want me to take that?"

I sit back and swallow my coke. "Yeah thanks." I say.

After James loads the dishwasher him and I settle on watching a comedy movie. We occupy the opposite corner of the couches and laugh at all the puns before my curiosity gets the best of me.

"I know you know whats up with Vincent."

"Look, Taylor I do. But he wouldn't want you knowing." James smiles and turns his head back to the movie.

"Tell me anyway." I plead.

"He's just... worried, or something."

"No he's not. I know him when he's worried."

I sit there waiting for a reply. My -Vincent's- sweatshirt sleeve is slightly rolled up just enough to see the stitches on my wrist. I look at it and remember how much I miss cutting. The sting. The blood. The blades.

I look up and catch James's eye.

"Whats on your wrist?" He asks reaching for my arm.

"Nothing." I say briskly, pulling my sleeve down. I'm too late, he grabs my wrist and looks at it.

His face churns with disgust and horror.

"Jesus Christ what happened to you?" He spits.

"I... uhm..." I'm at a lost for words.

"She got cut." Saved by the boyfriend. "At the hospital. I told you how she was in that car crash. It's just one of the wounds that hasn't quite healed." Vincent smiles at me and sits down beside me on the arm of the couch.

"And the scars?"

I pull my arm back and shake it off. Vincent situates himself practically on top of me rubbing my thigh.

I grab his hand and place it around my shoulder as I make room for him on the cushioned part of the couch. He slides down and plants a kiss on my cheek.

James sneers, "You still want to know, Taylor?"

"Know what?" Vincent asks.

But James has already beat me to rejecting the offer. "He cheated. On Jessica." Vincent tenses next to me. "She left him. And the next day she died in a car accident. That's how they met as well. In the hospital after she was in a car accident." James laughs out loud and takes a swig of his beer that I didn't know he had. Vincent's arm around me is tight. When I look at him you can see how tightly clenched his mouth is.