You Call It Chaos, We Call It Family

Chapter 12

The most painful thing about Claire's break-up was the fact that Mason had formed a deep and caring bond with Owen in the eleven months they had been dating, so the kid was also dealing with a heartache. It was understandable that he was missing Owen and his pain was just added to Claire's.

It didn't seem to get better as days went by, either. Not only her morning sickness and other symptoms were getting worse and it felt like they were slowly killing her, but Mason's way of handling the news that Owen wouldn't be coming around anymore, relied completely on blaming Claire for it.

The following Wednesday —only four days since the last time Claire had seen Owen, held him, kissed him, and had been able to hear him say how much he loved her — Mason was throwing the most heartbreaking tantrum of his eight years of life.

Not even when Josh had stood him up for his birthday, Christmas, or any day in particular had the kid been like this. The fact that the smell of the pepperoni pizza in front of them was threatening to make Claire throw up didn't help, along with her pounding headache.

"But why can't Owen come over and have pizza with me!?" Mason was crying; Owen had never left the kid stood up. Mason was still too young to understand how mom breaking up with her boyfriend meant he was out of both their lives. That night, Mason felt completely abandoned by the man he had grown to love like the father he had always wanted.

Claire almost never cried in front of Mason. She was too proud to let him see her in a vulnerable position, or maybe it was because she wanted to stay strong for him and be able to offer him comfort. Though this time, she failed to keep her tears from quietly running down her cheeks.

She sobbed and shook her head, looking down while serving the kid some pizza. Mason threw his plate into the box.

"I don't want to eat until Owen is here!" He insisted. "You promised Wednesday pizza was something the three of us would do and he is not here!" He cried loud.

Claire frowned, unable to scold him for his attitude. She didn't have the energy and the pain in the kid's voice and eyes were too heartbreaking for her to sit him down.

"That's how break-ups work, babe." She was devastated. She missed Owen terribly and Mason was not helping by making her feel so guilty about it. "We are not together now so he doesn't come around anymore." She sobbed, resting her hand on her belly. She closed her eyes for a second and started breathing slowly and deep, trying to control the urge she felt of barfing every time she said out loud she was no longer with Owen.

"Just like when you and dad weren't together anymore so he stopped caring about me too!" He cried, his little brain getting to that conclusion.

Claire gasped and whimpered a couple of times, "No. it's nothing like that." She mumbled a few words, unable to explain to her kid how Josh not reaching out had nothing to do with the divorce, without sounding like the heartbreaking reality that his dad simply didn't care about him. "You are too young to understand, so please drop it!" She demanded firmly.

"Stop telling me that!" He was tired of hearing her treat him like a baby. He was eight and the fact that he had been raised by a single mother and had to learn be more independent than kids his own age, gave him a level of emotional maturity that was underestimated.

"Sit down and eat your food please." Claire sobbed. "I have my reasons to have ended it with him and I'm not going to allow you to scold me for it. I'm still your mother and I know what's best for us." She cried.

"It's not fair that he doesn't come play with me and eat pizza with me because you don't want to!" He sobbed loudly. "I don't have to stop loving him because you don't love him anymore! That's not fair!!"