Forever & Always (Forever & Always #1) (boyxboy)

We Love What's Broken

They that love beyond the world 

cannot be separated by it. 

Death cannot kill what never dies.

- William Penn

Priscilla was a woman on a mission. For a few weeks she turned up everywhere. Noah's football games, she would sit front and centre. When Noah got his licence she was at the DMV. It was irritating having to look over my shoulder the whole time.

I saw her at school a couple of times. She would hang around Chris' office and when he didn't show she left. She never stayed for more than twenty minutes and sometimes I could see her looking through the windows.

It was starting to feel like she was stalking us. Mom was getting increasingly stressed. The pregnancy was taking it's toll and Priscilla was making things worse. It got worse when she was put on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy.

My temper was hanging on by a thread. I was becoming increasingly moody. Not that I was snapping at people, I just isolated myself from people. It hurt Noah and mom the most. Daddy never commented and I wondered for a while if he had been through something similar.

Mom ended up redecorating the first week, of her bed rest. She wasn't one to sit around all day. So when the chance to move things around came up, she snatched it up. I was roped into helping her the third day.

“Jesse, you shouldn't distance yourself from us. We're your family and we love you. We want to help you through this shitty situation. Your dad and I want to help you with this. And I want to prove the old hag wrong.”

She started to protest when I told her to sit down, but her face was pale. I was adamant. “Think of my baby sister. You look like you're ready to fall over, just sit down for a few minutes. Please mom, don't make me get mad.”

“All right, calm your horses. I'll sit down for a few minutes. My feet are killing me anyway.” She pulled up an old kitchen chair and sat down with a plop. She looked instantly better and the colour was returning to her face.

Noah walked in the door as I was starting to pull down the curtains in the living room. His cheek was scratched and he had a black eye. Mom rushed over and pulled him down into a vacated chair. She was examining his eye as she spoke.

“What the fuck happened? You look like you got into a bar brawl.” She was holding his head in her hands and he was trying to break her grip. The clash ended when I took over and started cleaning the cuts.

“I was in a small fight, nothing big. But I'm not allowed back for a while... So, I can spend the day with you two.” He was a lot happier than we were about the situation. Noah was never one to dwell on things too much.

When his face was cleaned I pulled him into our bedroom. Mom was asleep on the sofa, a blanket draped over her body. Her bump appeared to grow daily at that time and she was getting more tired as the pregnancy progressed.

Once inside the bedroom I crowded Noah against the wall. “What was the fight about? Let me guess. Me. I'm not stupid Noah, I can tell when there's something going on. I want you to tell me everything. Now!”

“Jess, come on. Don't wor-” I cut him off with a growl and he sighed in defeat. “They were talking about Andrea, I flipped out and told them to go and fuck themselves that didn't go down to well and one hit me and I hit him back.” He looked at me steadily, “that's it.”