Her Brother's Best Friend - Aching Hearts Series #2

Chapter 25 - Opposite Moods

CHAPTER 25 - OPPOSITE MOODS

If the elders had paid more attention, they would have noticed that their kids weren't at all in a festivity mood, actually, none of them seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The tradition, which dated back to when their kids were indeed children, of setting youth on one side of the table, adults on the other, had remained, and now it caused a pretty evident display of difference in mood: on the right side of the table, there were Mrs. Evans next to the soon to be Mrs. Jacobs, Renée and her grandma, chatting gleefully with Mr. and Mrs. Robinson at one end, Mr. Ferris at the other, while on the left side, there was a very awkward silence.

Fate, here also known as Sybil Robinson, had wanted for Jason to sit between his fiancée and his (ex) teen lover, dampening the mood so much that neither of them dared utter a single word.

Next to Vanessa, there was her brother, who was just as torn, between needing to know where his sister had been all day, and why was Emily – who was sitting next to Mr. Ferris – so gloomy.

That was the same thing their teacher was worried about, but he was too kind to ignore Renée as she talked to him, therefore he was barely able to exchange a couple of words with his favorite student, words that went along the lines of "aren't you hungry?" and "this is delicious, isn't it?". All in all, there was such a disparity between moods, that even a stranger would have noticed.

Vanessa did her best to look normal, eating despite not being hungry, talking to her brother now and then, exchanging a couple of words with Renée, just not to seem too silent, but mostly, she was careful to conceal the way she needed to keep her left wrist hidden away, securely tucked beneath the table, and the way said wrist, which was sprained, hurt.

She'd been to the hospital, even if reluctantly, after ice and rest hadn't worked, and they'd bandaged it, that's why she was now wearing a long-sleeved cashmere off-shoulder brown sweater whose sleeves covered her up to the hands even, especially if she wanted them to; she'd paired that with lighter brown leggings, and fold-over knee-high boots that, differently from the usual, barely gave her a couple of inches more.

In a word, she was dressed to be comfortable but also not to give the idea there was anything wrong: Vanessa was a fashion lover, if she ever happened to be unstylish, it would be all too clear that something was up.

To complete the outfit, but also to better hide the small bruise on her right shoulder, her honey blonde hair was left cascading. Lucky thing that she knew how to cover every single flaw of her skin, otherwise the bags under her eyes would have been all too clear.

She hadn't slept. Not a single minute. Sure, that wasn't new, she'd had long sleepless nights while crying over her broken heart, but now ... now there was only fear in her, fear and angst.

She'd seen Chad in the morning. Turns out, he'd followed her when she'd left home early, to get some fresh air, and they'd fought. Badly.

It hadn't been the kind of couple-fight that ends in slammed doors or broken plates or even only screams, no. It had been the kind of fight that had Vanessa get truly scared for the first time in her life, as her boyfriend slammed her against a tree, having her knock her right shoulder.

It had been the kind of fight that had Vanessa struggle to breathe as her boyfriend's hand wrapped around her neck while he hissed his menaces, about her having to report to him whenever she went out, to answer to her phone when he called – which she'd clumsily forgotten to do the night before –, about how she was not allowed to talk back at him, and, finally, about how it she had to "stick into that girly mind of hers that she was his private property", and that she better not dare think otherwise.