Finding Sawyer

Chapter 10 | Blood Doesn't Make A Family

Chapter 10 | Blood Doesn't Make A Family

"Maybe Beckett and I should just go to court and let the Justice of the Peace marry us," Aspen randomly suggests.

"Justice of the Peace?" I echo, glancing over at her from the wedding dress magazine I'm flipping through. "Why?"

"I'm just so over all of this planning and all of this spending and all of this stress," She sighs. "It's all so annoying."

"You've been planning your dream wedding since we were kids," I remind her. "What's really going on with you?"

Aspen and I are currently over at my mom and dad's house planning for her (and Beckett's) wedding. Well, maybe I shouldn't say we're planning for the wedding, because it's really just me. Aspen just kind of sitting down on the other end of the couch, staring up at the ceiling and that's exactly what she's been doing since she got here about an hour ago.

For the past week or so, she's been really down in the dumps and I can't figure out why for the life of me. Ever since that morning a few days back when Beck came over to the apartment to see me and she started crying to him about something, she's been so sad. Over what though, I have no idea, because she refuses to talk to me (or anyone) about it.

Whenever I bring it up, she just changes the subject. And it's not just her either, it's Beckett too. Whenever something's really bothering him, he'll talk to me about it, but he's made it clear that whatever is going on just isn't up for discussion.

And now she's talking about cancelling the wedding and just getting married by the Justice of the Peace downtown, so now I know for sure that whatever's going on with the two of them must be something major. Aspen's always been the kind of girl who wanted to go all out for her wedding. I mean, since I've known the girl, she's been collecting pictures from wedding magazines and putting them in a scrapbook in preparation for the day she finally got engaged. So for her to be willing to throw years and years of planning down the drain, she must be going through something really terrible.

Before Aspen says anything in response to my question though, in walks Chace. Since he's back home from Tennessee for the summer, he's been staying here with our parents (that's still so weird to say) and the kids, for whatever reason.

"I just can't take it anymore," Chace huffs, plopping down in the armchair, grabbing the remote, and turning on the TV.

"Can't take what anymore?" I ask him, deciding to give the Aspen thing a rest for now. I'll get her to spill sooner or later.

"Babysitting," He sighs. "I don't know how Dad and Heather handle them all the time. They're so needy and energetic."

Since Chace is staying here with our parents for the next few months, he's become something like an on-call babysitter for Nicholas and Savannah. So when our parents have to work or run errands or whatever, Chace has to babysit for them. They usually send the kids to daycare, but I guess they figured they'd use Chace since they don't have to pay him.

Luckily for him though, he's gotten a bit of a pass these last few days. Ever since my disastrous dinner with Graham last week, I've been staying here too. It's just that my apartment is so full of Graham and I can't stand to be there. 

A few of his old shirts and hoodies are still there and just a bunch of other stuff he never reclaimed and I can't bring myself to throw it all away, so I've decided to avoid the apartment entirely. Not the most logical decision, but that doesn't matter.

Speaking of Graham, we haven't talked since that night and I'm beginning to think that that very well might have been the last time we'll ever talk. He's tried calling me, but at the time I didn't want to hear his voice because I was still pretty upset over the dinner debacle. And by the time I was ready to talk to him a couple of days ago, I guess he didn't want to talk to me because he didn't answer. But that's understandable, of course. I'm sure this whole situation is hard for him.