It's You: Book Two

Chapter Twenty Five

I angrily walk around the living room with the vacuum, giving people the stink eye when I reach them so they lift up their legs.

After I kicked my parents out, I decided between going into my bedroom to angry cry, or angry clean.

I've so sick of crying all the time because of my hormones, so I chose to angry clean. I cleaned the whole living room, picked up the toys, put all the laundry in the wash, cleaned the kitchen, changed the laundry over, and now I'm vacuuming. Aiden keeps offering to help me, but I don't like people helping me clean because they're going to do it wrong and I'll get annoyed, and then I'll feel bad because they're just trying to help.

I shut off the vacuum and go storming across the ground floor to the cleaning supply closet. I wrap the cord back up and roll the vacuum in there. A tub of cleaning supplies fell off the top shelf, and now the door won't close.

"I mean, seriously?" I mutter to myself. I've frequently been talking about how angry I am, out loud, to myself.

Aiden has tried on multiple occasions to get me to calm down but every time he talks to me, I calmly tell him not to talk to me, that I love him and I don't want to be mean.

I start throwing the cleaning supplies that spilt all over the floor back into the tub, and then I put the lid back on and pick it up, struggling to put it back on the shelf.

Then the tub slips out of my hand and falls on the ground, busting open.

I open my mouth to start yelling, and then I close it.

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

"Aiden? Can you please come put this tub away before I light it on fire?" I ask calmly once my heartrate goes back to normal.

I hear footsteps, and then he comes walking over to me.

He puts the supplies back into the tub and places it back on the shelf, and then he shuts the closet doors and turns to me.

"You're going to give yourself a hernia. At least let me help."

"No."

"Honey, I don't care if you snap at me." He says. I just want to help.

"Please leave me alone, Aiden! I love you very much, I don't want to be rude!"

"Why are you so angry?" he asks, following me to the kitchen. "You already know he's wrong, right?"

"Of course I know he's wrong! I'm pissed off because he said those things to me! What kind of father would say that? That's not the man that raised me, that's for sure!"

"He's just hurting." Aiden says gently. "He didn't mean it."

"Don't make excuses for him, Aiden." I put my hands on my hips.

"I'm not making excuses." He says.

"I don't care. I don't care if he's hurting. That doesn't make it okay for him to lash out at me. You're telling me if Declan walks up to me right now, I can be mean to him because I'm upset?"

"Of course not. I'm not justifying what he did, I'm just telling you why he did it."

"How do you know why he did it?" I demand. His eyes leave mine immediately. "Aiden? Did you contact him?" he doesn't answer. "Aiden?!"

"Yes." He says finally. "I texted him."

"Why?!" I throw my hands up.

"To tell him he was wrong, that he needs to come back and apologize to you."