Bittersweet Attractions

Chapter 16

Bernice woke up the next morning with her heart heavy with the reality of the previous night. None of it had been a dream. Janet had tricked her boyfriend into a relationship. And she was sure Charity had plenty to do with it too.

Her stomach turned as Janet and Brian walked in through the front door.

"May we have a talk," Janet asked. She looked like she had been crying most of the night, her eyes were puffy it almost made Bernice think Janet had not done this to hurt her. However, she was not going to fall for it. She most likely just cried for show. Bernice almost spat at Janet, noticing how she was wearing Brian's shirt over her dress.

Bernice shook her head, "I would like to speak to Brian. Alone."

Janet narrowed her eyes, "you had a lot to say to me last night. I just feel its time I get a chance to explain myself."

"Janet, I said what I wanted to say and I'm done. Now I would like to speak to Brian, privately," Bernice said standing up.

"Why does it have to be privately?"

"Let me just hear what she has to say," Brian said reassuringly.

"No," Janet took his hand and pulled him back, "she is angry with both of us. She should talk to both of us at the same time. We are going to behave like adults."

Bernice clicked her tongue in annoyance, "how do you expect me to deal with you like an adult when you acted like a child. Seducing my boyfriend just to get back at me for an issue that should not concern you much."

With eyebrows raised, Janet asked daringly, "And what issue is that?"

Bernice ignored Janet and looked at Brian, "if you just admit to me that during a moment of weakness you fell for temptation, I will forgive you and we will go back to how we were."

Brian was shaking his head, "she did not seduce me. I'm in love with-,"

Bernice interrupted, "no. No. that is not possible. What we have is real. What we have is love. What you have with Janet is a big lie; it started as a lie and will end as so. It's just a big lie."

"Mom, now you are just embarrassing yourself and being a hypocrite."

Brian frowned. Janet had called Bernice 'mom' last night and had just called her 'mom' again. What was going on?

"Why do you keep calling her mom?"

"Because she is my mother,'' Janet hurried to say before Bernice could cut in to extend her lie, "yes, she is not my sister. She is my mother."

The lump in Bernice's throat did not allow her to speak when Brian searched her face with eyes desperate for an answer, for a denial.

Turning to Janet, eyes clouded with disappointment, Brian asked, "Why are you only telling me this now?"

What she had feared from the beginning of her relationship with Brian was now staring right at her.

"I was scared and ashamed," Janet said in a small voice and felt her heart break into a million pieces as Brian freed his hand from her grasp.

"Scared? Ashamed? Is that really it?" this tone of his voice was foreign to her ears. She had never heard his voice so full of accusation and anger, "or does lying just come so easy to you?"

All she could do was shake her head franticly as her voice failed her. Of course lying did not come easy to her. She hated lying. She had felt guilty about it the whole time she was lying. Yet this felt a thousand times worse than her guilt. Brian was looking at her as though she was a total stranger, and maybe she was. What real thing did he know about her except that she loved him? And he was probably doubting that fact too. He did not know she had a father whom she loved to death, who was her pillar of strength. He did not know she had an over-protective older brother and a stubborn yet very loving older sister. She had never told him how much her family meant to her. All he knew was the phoney family she had helped Bernice conjure up. Yes, she had helped build this whole lie and she deserved everything that was coming her way.