A Timeless Place

Chapter 44 - Part I

Just then my phone rang. With lightning speed it was already out of my pocket. But my face fell when I saw who it was from.

Wes' dad said Wes called in sick and went home early. – J

Just then another ding! sounded.

Drag Wes' sorry ass back, we've got a play. – E

Sick is for the weak. - Kv

Tell him to feel better! - Jn

I turned my feet into the direction of my house to grab my car.

Wes seemed just fine this morning, he didn't seem like he was getting sick...
But why else would he decide to leave right before the play? He needed high marks to get into a medical school so he wouldn't have just thrown these marks out of the window for no reason at all. Unless he really was sick. I felt a twist in my stomach. What if he was really sick and I was just standing here thinking about the damn play? Who cares about a play when Wes' wellbeing was way more important.

I unlocked my car and reversed out of the driveway before heading towards Wes' house. Oh god, is he okay? Please God let him be okay. Please let there be nothing wrong. Different scenarios were going through my head as I pressed the gas pedal down harder, going much higher than the speed limit.

I finally reached his house and pulled up beside the curb. I unlatched the seat belt ready to charge down his front door but I saw him emerging from the front door just then. He didn't look remotely sick at all- he was actually smiling. I smiled involuntarily, turning to open the door but immediately stopped myself when I saw another person walking out behind him. Renee. It looked like she was just leaving so I decided to stay in the car until then. But what was she doing here? With Wes, too. Didn't she have classes to attend to? Just like him?

They were talking very animatedly and she took a step back and said something, looking up at him with an easy smile. He laughed in response, giving her that smile. The smile I never saw him use with anyone else except me. My smile. And just then. Right when I could feel a little tightening in my throat and twinge in my navel, Renee leaned in and kissed Wes on the mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Hold on. Wait. What?

I didn't want to be where I was right now. Rene shouldn't be here. Wes shouldn't be here. Wes should be at school. With me. I pulled the handbrake and hit the gas. Way too early and hard. I jumped at the sudden speed, adrenaline pumping through me as I lifted my foot off the pedal quickly to finish my U-turn. The car made a screech and I flew down the street, back home.

I looked straight into the roads I flew by- refusing to think. To feel. To even consider what had just happened.

I left my car in the driveway and broke down the house door, slamming it shut behind me. Slamming away what I had just seen behind me. It couldn't be. I ran my hands through my hair in frustration at the confusion that clouded my mind.

Renee is Mason's fiancé. Besides, Wes hated Renee. So what did I just see?! Wes skipped today's classes to be with Renee?! His brother's fiancé?! How could he do that to his brother. To me?! But why-

The front door slammed open and Wes came in, slightly out of breath.

"Kitty," he took a deep breath.

"Wes," I crossed my arms over my chest.

"That was you, wasn't it?" he gestured behind him towards my car out front.

"You were going to miss out on the play," I replied. My voice felt as if it were detached from my body, my throat. I was frozen to the spot I stood on, my arms intertwined as if with superglue.

"I had something to do," he rubbed the back of his head.

"You mean 'someone'," I corrected sardonically, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No! Tha-," he reached a hand out quickly, shaking his head.

But just then the door across the hallway to dad's study opened and dad appeared in the doorway, looking around the house before his eyes landed on Wes and I.

"Catherine?" his eyebrows creased together. "I thought I heard voices. Aren't you supposed to be at school?"

I opened my mouth to answer but I was immediately cut off by another voice coming from behind dad.

"I still can't believe you have a teenage daughter!" a female voice rang through the room. Her voice echoed awkwardly, seemingly out of place in this large house. "But you look so young!"

I raised an eyebrow at dad as he gave me a sheepish look. Dad was giving me a sheepish look? There was honestly nothing more I wanted right now than to have today cancelled. Yup. Folks, today is cancelled. Forget everything that's happened and go back to sleep and you'll wake up tomorrow like nothing's happened.

"Well," dad said, rubbing the side of his neck awkwardly. "Laurina, this is my daughter Catherine. Catherine, this is Laurina; an owner of another company we're doing business with."

Just then I noticed my dad's tousled hair, as though a pair of hands had recently run through it. The top buttons of his shirt were messily undone and his tie loosened. Oh, my God. She didn't look any better with her blonde hair sticking up in places and her red lipstick slightly smeared.

"What kind of business?" I muttered under my breath.

"Oh, it's all new at the moment but it is very big and promising," Laurina smiled at me, not recognising my sarcasm. "I've got your dad working day and night to get this on a roll. It'll really pay off in the long run."

"Oh and this is Catherine's friend, Wes," my dad motioned towards Wes.

"Boyfriend now, actually," Wes shook their hands. I glowered at Wes to tell him otherwise.

Okay, so first I saw Wes with Renee. And now this. What. The. Hell. I haven't seen my father for weeks and now I find out he's been spending his time with this woman Laurina. And bringing her home with him while I was at school. I felt like I was about to throw up. I had forgiven him for overworking all these years, knowing he was doing so to get away from what had happened with mom. Because he was hurt. But to find out he wasn't really overworking, but spending it with an unfamiliar woman instead of his daughter. That really hurt.

"I can't believe you," I said in a low voice, balling up my fists and looking directly at dad.

Laurina looked between my dad and I uncertainly, evidently only now noticing the tension.

"I'll be outside, Adrian," she told him before walking to the front door. When she reached me, she turned to me and smiled. "It was nice to meet you, Catherine."

Dad looked distractedly at Laurina until she shut the door behind her before he finally looked at me and noticed my outraged expression.

"What's wrong, Cath?" dad raised an eyebrow.

"How dare you?" my voice was barely a hiss.

"Excuse me?" dad pulled his eyebrows together in confusion, not understanding my reaction.

"How could you do this to mom?!" I exploded. He was taken aback, his face contorting into shock at my words. But he quickly regained his composure, his face turning into the ice mask it had been in the months after mom died.

"It's been five years, Catherine," he said, his voice distant and cold. "It's time we move on, especially you."

"Move on?!" I stated incredulously. "How can I move on, dad? You were the reason she died!"