The Two Middles

Chapter 11: The atmosphere's gasoline

   A gorgeous woman wearing a yellow cotton dress, with short blonde hair and light grey eyes answered the door. She took one look at my face, smiled a hard smile and said, "Come in, you've been crying." 

I stood there, staring at her. I liked her already, inviting a stranger into her home only because they were upset and all. 

"Hey," I said as I stepped in. "Is Jaden home?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you Blair Carter? If you are then I'm sorry if you're SO upset about the smell, but me or my son don't know who did that to your nose or your car, really." Her tone had this sort of panic attached to it.

She was so adorable! I almost felt good again. "No. I'm Aubrey. Aubrey Andrews."

"OH!!!!!" She literally cried in happiness. "YOU'RE Aubrey! The one who HELPED Jaden! Why're you crying, sweetie?! What happened?! JADEN! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!"

"Oh, nothing really. Just, um, stuff at home..."

She nodded towards me kindly, implying that she didn't want to invade my privacy. she then pointed to the white couch we were suddenly standing in front of, and I sat without a word.

Jaden came downstairs a minute later, "What happened? Who died? You haven't screamed like that in...well, an hour. AUBREY?!" the boy finally sees!

"Aubrey's upset, Jaden. Talk to her. Please." His mom cut in, and left.

I was sitting on the couch staring at nothing in particular. As Jaden's mom spoke the words Aubrey is upset, my mind wandered back to why I was upset. It was then that I started recalling the day's events, my brain now focused on nothing and no one around me.

My dad had gone a little far a couple of times, but today was way beyond the line. He'd never yelled at me. I'd never seen the ice in his eyes before, and never had I ever felt him spit out all of his insults with so much meaning. What had I done to him? Why did he always treat me like I wasn't enough? It always managed to strike a sound blow to my mind. In some twisted way, it made me feel like I was the one at fault. What if I was the failure? Why couldn't I live up to his expectations, as high as they might be? Why did I fail at everything? Why hadn't I stood up to him before it was too late? I failed at life. Now, instead of at my father, I was angry at myself, and started to sense the tears coming again.

Jaden made his way over and to the couch and sat next to me, really close, and sighed. 

Tears filled my eyes and rolled down my cheeks...again. 

Jaden closed the space in between us and hugged me without hesitation. "I see it's not okay so I'm not gonna say it is. Cry if you want to, Aubrey, let it out. Honestly, soak my shirt and I couldn't care less. Just talk to me and tell me what happened when you feel like it. Then we can punch pillows together. I promise."

Somehow his words comforted me more than any "hey, it's all gonna be fine" or "don't cry, it'll be okay" or "This is just life's way of making you realize that there's better things out there. We all have our ups and downs" Jaden's words made more sense.

A minute later the tears stopped and my crying had been reduced to mere shaken breaths. I still held on to Jaden, though, my head buried in his shoulder-neck region.

"I don't really like my father too much.." I whispered.

 I felt like a kid. Like a five year old with a broken crayon, crying over something completely inane and disturbing everyone around me.

"Too bad you don't have two moms eating your head out all the time.."

"I CAN HEAR YOU, JADEN!" his mom was in the kitchen, which wasn't too far from the living room.