For Better Or For Worse (Sashay)

Chapter One

Once she knows I'm still in love with her, it's over.

She would do anything to make me more miserable.

I grabbed my grey hoodie from the coat rack and drank my remaining coffee in one gulp. Then I called the kids to come out as soon as they were done. Not a minute later, Avery came out of his room with his Converse still untied. He was wearing a yellow flannel over a white shirt and dark grey jeans. And his hair was a little messy and his glasses were a little lopsided.

"Ready to go, buddy?" I asked as I was grabbing my black leather messenger bag from the counter.

"Wait." He simply said, running off to his room once again.

As soon as he entered his room, Ashley came out from hers, wearing a yellow skirt, white blouse and white Converse. She also had an orange sling bag hanging from her neck.

"You got everything you need?"

She nodded and smiled. "Where's A-"

"Let's go." Avery cut off Ashley.

He topped his outfit with a red fedora and he had a small backpack.

"You look like a loser." Ashley rolled her eyes.

"Says you." Avery retorted with his signature Pieterse smirk.

"Guys, come on. You're big kids, you aren't supposed to fight about this." I said.

Avery sighed. He led us out the front door and gestured for me to open the the Range Rover. I got in, got the kids in and drove out of the fancy, quiet neighborhood.

"I'm bored. Can you please play some music, Mom?" Ashley asked as she faced the window with her chin on her palm.

I sighed, knowing that the songs installed in the family car were our songs. We used to listen all day long and sing with them, not caring if we were off-key.

I pressed the play button on the installed music player and Every Night by Imagine Dragons came out.

I'm the colorless sunrise,
that's never good enough
I'm the wind that's in your hair,
that ruffles you up

If you can find a reason,
you can let me know
I won't blame you,
I'll just turn and go

At this moment, I had a weird feeling about that song. It's like I never really understood it enough up until now. Now I knew what it feels like to be that colorless sunrise, to never be good enough. It hit me. The realization suddenly dawned itself to my head. Maybe I was like the storyteller of the song, looking for an explanation and being contented with just that. Then I'll leave. Like nothing ever happened.

"Hey, isn't that one of your songs with Mo-err...Sasha?" Ashley asked me.

"Don't remind her, Ash. It's making her uncomfortable." Avery whispered to his sister. "You can turn it off if you want to, Mom."

"Thanks. But let's just leave it on." I smiled.

They exchanged shocked glances and I shook my head at their worry for me. Another thing they got from their Mommy. Constantly worrying about things they weren't supposed to be in on.

We arrived on the Los Angeles Court House and was greeted by a bunch of paps. I told them to wear their sunnies so they wouldn't attract much attention before stepping out of the car and ushering them in the crowd of unwanted stalkers. A lot of people shoved their mics in front of our faces but everything was okay when we got inside. We went over the front desk and told the woman our names and our case. We took our sunnies off and Avery replaced his with his graded glasses. The woman typed something in her computer and one of our lawyers were sent to meet us and bring us to Room 341.