Fractured

Chapter 35

"It's called open conversation.  I read about it in one of those books for dummies," Francis defended himself, staring down Shannon with a small smirk on his face.

Just as they spoke though, Brooke chirped in again.  "It's alright, daddy told me Aunt Clare is the B word so I'm not confused anymore."

"Francis--" Mike moaned. 

"Jesus Christ Francis."

"What the hell were you thinking?" Three voices chirped in at once, aimed at Francis who sat back and put his arms up in surrender, face defending and shocked at the shots they took on him, which was actually quite amusing. 

He ignored them though and glanced towards Clare, as if to try to save whatever relationship he and her had (if there even was one).  I glanced to Clare at the other side of the table, who was just caught off guard from this eruption of voices all of a sudden and from what Brooke said for the most part.  Her eyes met Francis's in surprise and hurt - whether real or fake, I didn't know.

"Look, I was only upset at the moment about what you did, Clare."

"And now you're alright with it?" I asked him, intervening between him and Clare and not giving her a chance to respond.

"Okay!" Luke said, speaking over everyone.  I glanced up at him as the clatter of outraged voices spoke simultaneously together continued.  "Hey, Brooke, you want to go play a game?" he asked her,  trying to cover all the talking probably not best for a seven year old to be exposed to.  As amusing as all this was, I understood where he was coming from.  I bet he wanted to get out of the room himself.  Glancing to Brooke, she nodded, none the wiser to begin with and a bright smile lit her face as she stood up from where she was sitting.  Her and Luke left rather quickly to play a game while the chatter continued and I directed my attention to a smirking Mike.

"Yeah, nice parenting move.  Have your brother be the one to save your daughter from this conversation," Mike snorted.

"Hey," he defended, chuckling slightly.  "What did I just say?  Open conversation.  It makes sense!"

My eyes glanced from Mike and Francis to see Jan just shaking her head slowly, taking a deep breath and even with a woman as sweet as her, she even seemed to have found this humorous.  Not the situation really but where all this was taking a turn.

"I'm on Mike's side," I jumped in.  "But I agree, Clare is a bitch!" I said, purposefully loud and when I glanced over at her, I saw her eyes filled with overwhelming sadness.  Lips dipping and pressed tightly together, her eyebrows followed the same movement.  She was tense and frozen, all except for her hands when she grabbed her plate in front of her full of spaghetti and pushed it away from her.  When she did, she rested her elbows on the table where her plate was a moment ago and came to bury her face in her hands.  Awe... poor baby.

Francis wasn't exactly concerned with defending Clare anymore though.  Just himself against us accusers (which was just too funny).  "Alright," he said in an angry voice.  Her raised his arms in exaggeration, gesturing his hands above us to drive his point. His scowl gave his words an effect too. "It was in the book!"

I erupted in laughter... at just everything.  Jan was the only one not smiling but I still couldn't help myself from chuckling like I was.  My hand moved down to my stomach as I laughed incredibly hard, as if holding myself together.  When I glanced over to Clare and saw her face still buried in her hands in embarrassment and anger, all that did was make me hiccup even more with my laughter. "Oh my god," I whaled.  "This is great," I said under my breath just as it began to die down. 

After a moment more, I knew I needed to keep going.  To keep pushing at her.  Even when I was amused by all this, I needed her to break.  Because even with that smile on my face and my stomach aching from my laughter, with the subject being brought up, more came to me.  Like that anger, the hatred I had for her, over what she did to me.  And all I needed her to do was give in, show her sadness even more and not stick with her anger and ego.  She must break.