2 Places || The Sophomore Trilogy || Tori Kelly

The Situation At Hand

"If your dad, is going to walk out on such an amazing girl, then that's his loss. You and your kids don't deserve that. You deserve better," he said. The last part however, had nothing to do with the relationship she had with her father.

Tori started to feel a pull in a direction she was not meant to go and immediately pushed them apart. "Uhh, yeah." She awkwardly replied. "I guess you're right. Hey I'll text you later. I have to go pick up my brother from school soon," Tori lied, grabbing her things and heading out. Bruno slapped the sound board as the door shut. On the other side, Tori took a deep breath and placed her hand over her stomach.

Too close.

The singer sprinted to her car, knowing that the bomb she almost detonated could've destroyed her family had she pulled the pin. That session was supposed to bring her peace. But now all she has is a mess of feelings tangled with a man who is not her husband.
—

An hour away, André sat a weight down on the rack as the sweaty mess that was his cousin surfaced before him. "Dude, you good? You really put the work on that press," Caelan asked. André nodded, not wanting to get into anything. He just wanted to keep his head low and get out. "Dré, what's up?" Caelan pushed. André shook his head, and snatched his bag from the floor.

"Nothing man. I've just got a lot on my mind. It's chill, bro," André deflected. Caelan knew his cousin wasn't being transparent, but didn't want to push the envelope or worse rip it. So he dropped it and watched André disappear out of the doors.

12:15 PM

Tori and André rode home to Temecula in silence, with forty-five minutes left on the journey. Tori's eyes where glued to the road with her hands firm against the wheel. She felt like André could sense Bruno all over her even if they hadn't done anything.

"So what are we going to do?" André reluctantly asked, dropping his phone in his lap and glancing at the tense statue of his wife.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Tori stuttered. He couldn't be talking about the baby. He didn't know. And he definitely couldn't be talking about Bruno.

"What do I mean? With your father! Are we just accepting him or what?" André frustratingly asked. Tori was a bit taken back at his tone. Why was he being short? For all he knew, Tori hadn't done anything.

"I don't know. I mean he's here. He said he wants to be apart of our lives again. I th—" Tori was cut off by a short scoff from André's direction. "What's the problem?" She asked, getting to her own place of defense.

"He says a lot of shit. But we've seen no action. Where's the money he promised for Noah's soccer stuff. Or all the weekends he was supposed to take him. Or any of the time he's was going to come to Sunday dinner?" André just barely yelled. Tori felt a quake in her body, unsure of why all the anger was coming to her.

"Babe, I don't—"

"Don't say you don't know. You never know anything!" the angry giant yelled.

"Dré!" Tori fought.

"You're so fucking stupid," he muttered. Tori's mouth gapped, never having heard him call her anything out of her name in such a derogatory way.

"Why are you yelling at me? I didn't even do anything." She tried.

"Just, shut up! You never fucking do anything," He burst, before turning his back on his wife. A knot formed in the back of Tori's throat.

What the hell?

Tori's brain was so confused as to how this became her fault. He was just as clueless as she was, but somehow she was stupid? Silent tears fell from Tori's eyes as she tried to block out her thoughts and just get home.

2:18 PM

André locked himself in the office off the foyer playing X-box, while Tori was stuck in the living room with the kids. "Mommy," Joey whined, forcing Tori to check back in to see her eight month old sitting in her walker playing with toys. And her two year olds, pointing to a paused TV. Netflix was asking if they were still there and of course the boys didn't know what that meant.

"Goldie and Bear!" Jaxon whined, as Tori looked around for the remote. Under a blanket she found what she was looking for and resumed the kids show, before blocking off the gate and heading to her bedroom. Exhaustion had hit and Tori was out before the theme song of the kids show was over.

2:46 PM

"Tori!" André yelled, throwing his wife back into reality. She looked up to see her husband holding Ella, but she was only in a diaper. "Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day? Get up. Your kids are hungry," he grouched, dropping Ella on her abdomen. A short wave of fear came over the mom of almost four, as the weight of her daughter slammed into her unborn. However, the remembrance of how much Tori's body went through whilst pregnant with Ella, put her mind at ease.

André stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind himself, causing Ella to jump. "They're your kids too," she mumbled, sliding from under Ella and picking her up. "Ella, where's baby?" Tori asked with a smile. The child looked around for a second, then pointed to her chest. "No, this baby," she giggled, taking Ella's hand and guiding it to her stomach.

The child started to babble to her mother only receiving head nods as Tori acted like she could understand her. "Yeah, I'm hungry too. Let's eat eat," Tori replied, taking them out of the room, to the kitchen.

—

Almost an hour passed, before André finally emerged from the game room, hungry. "Tori! What'd you cook?" He asked, seeing his kids eating at the table and Tori nibbling at her plate.

"Spaghetti," she answered, sliding the plate towards him. "But you can have mine. I don't feel good," she said, getting up to clean the kitchen, André gladly accepted the food and took his wife's seat.

"What's wrong with you? You sick or something?" He sassed, taking a huge bite of one of his favorite dishes.

"No. I'll be fine," she insisted. As she started to put the food away and run the water for the dishes, Tori got a bit light headed, but hoped André hadn't noticed. Sadly, he did.

"Yo, you drunk or something? When was the last time you actually ate?" He asked, attitude ridden. An eye roll flew from Tori as she continued to clean.

"No. I can't even had a drink. And I'm not hungry." She said.

How much clearer could I be?

She thought. André took her answer and decided to just eat his food.

Guess I'll have to spell it out.

"Hey, we need to talk."

"I don't want to."

"You don't have a choice."

🙃🙂🙃
To Be Continued...