Always Be Together (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Chapter 13: Locked In

Dedicated to Chloe aka cityscape. We aren't friends (please, she's a brilliant writer beside her I'm an amateur) but she has been such a great inspiration and I'm obsessed with her novel. 5:48. It helps me write sometimes. So thank you Chloe for bringing Claire, Jaspar, Drew and Erza into this world.

 

Chapter 13 : Locked In 

Skylar

My mind was reeling, exploding and repeat. I don’t know how to feel about her after she admitted that she named her kids after my idols. It meant even after our spat, she thought of me when she named her kids. I don’t even know what to think anymore. I heard the kids walk away from us after throwing the words, “Sort out your issues, you four.”, casually at us. 

I needed to sit down and have a drink. So I did, on the floor. The entire cabin was cleared out except for food items left in a corner, enough last us the entire day. My kids were smart; they knew that I could use practically anything to pick a lock or find a way out. So they took out everything and just left us resources to survive. They even left us a water bag to drink from. A bloody water bag, just so I couldn’t use the plastic bottle to make something. I had to hand it to the kids to think everything through. 

“Um…Sky?” I turned to Cassandra. She looked shy; that was new for Cassandra Nolan. She was anything but shy. The Cassandra Nolan I knew was confident and bold but the woman in front of me wasn’t the girl I knew all those years ago. The woman in front of me looked meek and shy.

“You’re staring, darling.” Dylan whispered in my ear. I snapped back into reality. I tried remembering what Cass was like back then but nothing much came up. I closed the door to that part of my past when I married Dylan. Even when I was younger, it was all about the future, never about the past. I always kept moving forward, never looking back. 

“The past holds ugly memories.” I blurt out. The three of them turned to look at me.

“Um…sorry, I was thinking out loud.” I apologised and looked away feeling embarrassed.

“Shit, the kids broke her.” Wes and Dylan say at the same time. Awkward. The staring match broke out. Cass sighed sadly. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Something wrong, Cassandra?”

 “It feels like high school all over again. Boys fighting over you and you being completely oblivious. You were perceptive of everything but your love life, social life and boys.” She gestures to both of our husbands. 

“What are you talking about, Cassandra? No guys ever fought over me in high school. Everyone adored you and I wasn’t the type to bask in guys’ attention; that was all you. The only guy I ever needed was Dylan. Thanks to you and Wes, I found Dylan and got my happy ending. Happy middle. You know what I mean.”

Even after all these years, some things never change. Cassandra Nolan lives for attention. Is that why she ran off with Wes? For attention? I’m going to kill her if that’s what went down.

“Quick question, Cassandra. You and Wes don’t really love each other do you? I learnt to let go of what you did to me because I thought you two actually love each other, but seeing you two together now. You can barely stand each other.”