Love in Unexpected Places

chapter 5

When I woke up, my head was on his chest, my arms wrapped around his side. That was all I could reach. Lucus had his arms wrapped around my entire torso, cradling me to him. He was still asleep, but when I slightly moved my head, his eyes opened and his head turned in my direction. He had a puzzled look in his eyes.

" What is it?" I asked, confused by the look on his face.

He seemed to chose his words very carefully before speaking, " After you fell asleep, you started to talk in your sleep. Well, you kept saying one name, Tabitha Marie."

I knew I had dreamed of her, but I didn't think I had started talking about her. I knew I had to tell Lucus about Tabitha and Chase. There was no ther choice now.

" When I was thirteen, I fell in love with a boy named Chase Parkers. We wern't careful enough withour relationship and I got pregnant. Right before I was about to tell my parents, they where diagnosed with terminal cancer, so I didn't tell them. After they died, I became really depressed and I tried to comit suicide. After Tabitha Marie was born, Chases parents used that incident and my depression to get custody of her. When the whole thing was settled, they moved to the other side of the country and took chase with them, there was nothing I could do," I explained.

I looked deep into Lucus's eyes, trying to predict his responce to the secrets that I had sprung upon him. His mouth dropped open and he waslooking for the right words.

"So, let me get this strait. You have a 2 year old daughter that lives on the other side of the country with the baby-daddy family, you loved someone before me, and you tried to comit suicide?" He questined.

I nodded. I didn't know what to say.I had already probably ruined our fast grown relationship, I didn't know how I was supposed to respond to that fact. His face seemed to switch through a whole rainbow of emotions in just a few seconds. First there was anger, then hurt, then confusion, and then there was something I did not recognize. Understaning maybe?

He spole slow and controlled, " I know that we just met a little under 24 hours ago, but I know that I will always love you. Nothing can change that, not even the fact that you have a kid you didn't tell me about and an old lover you will always have a small amount of feelings for. I love you Victoria and I always will."

His words moved me and shocked me at the same time. He was so understanding about the whole thing. I didn't think that he would be able to comprehend the situation. I was shocked that he could guess about Chase. No matter how much I tried to convince myself that I no longer loved Chase, he was my first love and there would always be a part of me that would love him.

" I think I understand why you didn't tell me about your past, I think I would have just as much of a hard time as you. You didn't want to tell me about Chase because you thought that I would not want to be with you if you had already been in love with someone else. You didn't want to tell me about Tabitha Marie because you were afraid that the thought of being a father to a child that isn't mine. Even if she isn't here she is still a part of you and one day you will again be with her and I would be with you," he said.

"I didn't think you would be able to understand and I was completely wrong. You understand almost better than I do, and that is one of the reasons I love you," I breathed.

" I don't think there is anything that you could spring on me now that would drive me away. Can I be honest with you, about my past I mean?" He asked.

I was slightly confused. I guess it was nieve of me to think that I was the only one who fall in love before Lucus. I guess we had both loved someone else before each other. I nodded my head and he began to tell his tale.

"When my mom was in high school, she became best friends with Mandy Mirenda. They got married around the same time and she got pregnant shortly after my mom did. My mom had a boy, obvously, and she had a girl. We grew up together and we developed feelings for each other as we got older. I loved her and she loved me. We started to grow apart the closer it got to when I would move. We broke up on good terms the day I moved. I will always have a special place for her in my heart as my first best friend and my first love," he told me.

It was no where near as dramatic as my past, which was a good and bad thing at the same time. It threw us out of balance, but at the same time it was a reliefe to not have both of us having some kind of thetrical love story. It was bad enough that I still had feelings for Chase that I refused to acknowledge, but I also had a child with him that I was preparing to fight for to get her back.

"At least you dont have a kid with her," I said jokingly, laughing slightly.

" Ya, theres that," Lucus laughed.

We continued to lay there and laughed for what seemed like hours before I thought of my brother.

"Holy crap! What about Andrew? I stayed out all night with you and never called or anything!" I screamed

"Oh, I completely forgot about him,"

"What am I going to tell him?" I asked Lucus

" Tell him we fell asleep, it's not like its not the truth," Lucus said laughing.

I laughed too, mainly because that was the only choice,unless I lied. Lieing was something I had absolutly no intention of doing that to Andrew. He had barely started trusting me to use knifes, it was a miricle that he let me go out with Lucus. I knew that I would have to just have to make it up as i go.

We got up and got dressed, gathered up all of the stuff he had set up. The car had lost a lot of room with all the stuff in it.

We didn't speak much on the way home. The silence didn't feel uncomfortable or awkward, it felt nice, peaceful even. With the only noise being the wind rushing past us, it gave me the chance to think about the night before.

I had no regrets, but I wish I ad better explained Chase and I. There was much more to us than I had let Lucus know. There was a whole world worth of information about the bond Chase and I had shared.