Dazed

Chapter 19

I blink out of my state of shock and stand to meet my mom's fiance. I've never met the man and they're getting married. Plus, ahem, he's my new boyfriends dad! We shake hands and I politely exit to my room, dragging Jace with me. I close the door tightly and sit on the floor. Jace and I remain quiet, thinking and taking in the news. "I thought your dad was married to your mom who's in a coma?" I speak up to stop the awkward silence. 

"Stepdad. That's my real dad you just met." Jace replies with his head in his hands. Both of us fall back into the silence, letting it eat the comfortable feeling away. "Well, fuck." 

"I guess this is the end of our relationship." I shrug an trun to look out of the window again.

"They're not married yet." 

"No shit." I scoff.

"Exactly. They're not married yet. Therefore, I'm not your step-brother and your not my step-sister. We still have time to be together. Little secret dates here and there. We could 'strengthen our sibling bond'." Jace smiles at this plan of his. As I digest what he suggested, Jace moves closer to me.

"Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of being siblings? I don't want to develop stronger feelings for you in a relationship and know that in the end, it won't happen. So it shouldn't happen at all." I stand and head for my door saying, "We should go downstairs."

We both reach the kitchen with no words to each other. The lovely couple are playing Uno with Emma and Matt, everyone smiling and having fun. I pull up a chair and Jace does the same. "Deal me in." I say with a devilish smile.

~~~

"I WIN!" Emma shouts as she slaps her final card on to the table. I can't believe it; I just got beat by my little sister. So did Jace. Time to fight for second place. The color is blue and I have two cards left; both blue. Jace has one card. Matt has three. Mom and Jace's dad both quit to go make us dinner. I could win second place, I've got this.

"Go Matt." I nod to him. He smiles and throws down a plus two card that goes to Jace who groans, takes his two cards from the pile and puts down a regular blue four card. I smile and place my blue six card on the table and shout "UNO!". Matt rolls his eyes and puts a green six card down. Little boy is messing with me by changing the colors. "UNO!" Matt hollers. Jace puts down a green reverse card and Matt eagerly throws his last green card onto the table. "I win second! You two are losers!" He high fives Emma and they run off into the kitchen.

"I'm fighting for third." I say as I draw a card from the deck because I have nothing to put down. Jace does the same and says, "Me too." I look in my hand and see that I have a color change card. I got the lucky pick. Finally, I'm going to end this game. "Blue." I say as I put the color change card in the middle of the table. I smile and Jace gets an annoyed look on his face as he draws yet another card. I place my final card down and smile. "I win third. Ha. Ha."

"Oh, you won third. I will never play Uno with you again! Because you won third." Jace says, words laced together with sarcasm. I roll my eyes and clean up the cards, putting them back into the box neatly. "My step-dad just texted me. I have to go to the hospital. He won't tell me what's going on until I get there."

"I hope it's nothing bad."

"Me too." He pops into the kitchen to tell everyone goodbye and I walk him to the door. Just as I am about to close the front door, I hear, "Addison," I pull the door back and see Jace standing next to his car. "My offer about our relationship still stands." 

My breath hitches. I thought he forgot about that. We were perfectly fine playing Uno ten minutes ago. Not all flirty, just happy. I nod, "Sorry Jace. Just let me know what's going on at the hospital." I close the door and lock it, hoping that no one heard that.

"Addison, dinner!" As I enter the room where my family is, I am overwhelmed with the amazing smell. I seat myself between my siblings and help myself to the food.

"So, Shane," I look at my mom's fiance, "did I meet you before the accident?"

"Yes. We met briefly once, your mom and I had just met. When you disappeared, I decided to help her find you and take care of Matt and Em." He nods.

"Okay, cool. So this" I motion between them with my fork, "isn't just some random thing that started a week ago. Good."

"You thought I would do that to you and your siblings?" My mom speaks up.

"No, just wanted clarification." I shrug and continue eating. 

"How'd you meet Jace?" Shane asks and I choke a little.

"In a cemetery." Shane gets a slightly weirded out look at my answer, but shrugs it off. "Actually, I should tell you guys this." I blurt, not expecting that from my own mouth. I guess I'm telling them- "Jace asked me out. Today actually, just before you guys got home."

I see my mom's eyes go wide and Shane's body tenses. "Matt, Emma, you two go finish eating in the kitchen." The two nod and carefully walk off into the kitchen with their food. "What did you say?"

"Yes. But then you guys came in and-"

"You rushed off to your room." Mom cuts in.

"Yes. I told him it can't happen."

"And he did what?" Shane cuts in.

I take a deep breath. This is beyond awkward. I shouldn't have opened my mouth. "He wanted us to sneak around. I told him no, again."

"Good, honey, good." My mom says as she starts to gather the leftover food to put away.

"Why? Do you think I would do something like that, Mom?"

"Of course not. But you don't remember."

"Remember what?" My eyebrows scrunch, trying to think of every memory relating to this subject. My mom and Shane remain silent. "Tell me what you guys are hiding. Now." The words come from between gritted teeth as my face starts to heat up. 

"You met Jace before the accident." Shane spills. "When I met your mom, she was with you and I was with Jace."

"He said he just moved here."

"He moved here with me. Then his mom got messed up. He never approved of your mom and I being together while you were gone." Shane explains and everything suddenly makes sense. He knew this town like the back of his hand when he drove me around. Never lost like someone new would be. He moved so fast with our relationship. His offer.

"He's using me to break you guys up." I say, but then I realize that the table was clean and I was alone. I guess it took me a while to process. Jace never cared. He offered to sneak around with me to break our parents up. That was his intention all along.