Our Only Exception

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I rushed back to my parent's house and ran, still barefoot, to the door. I threw it open and saw Carmen standing in the kitchen yelling at my mom. Wait, CARMEN? Why was James' mom here and what did she do to him?! "Get. Out." I half yelled, half sneered at her. She frowned and marched defiantly over to me, stumbling over her feet.

"Don't tell me what to do, kid." She spat immaturely, glaring at me.

"Where's James?" I frantically looked around but couldn't see him.

"Who cares where that spoiled brat is? I slapped him around a few times. Maybe that'll knock some sense into him."

"You hit him?! Carmen, he's three!" I screamed, continuing to search for him.

"Oh please! He's almost four!"

"He's in your old room." My mom cut in, trying to stay calm as she always was.

"She doesn't need to know where he is! I'm his mother, not this twelve year old baby!" I wanted to fight back but my common sense was telling me to just ignore her because it wasn't worth causing more drama. All I had to do right now was find and comfort her broken son.

"Sweetie, are you in here?" I looked around the room and spotted him in the corner crying. Seeing him like that absolutely broken my heart and made me hate Carmen even more for doing that to him.

"Kay?" he whimpered, rushing over to me and jumping into my arms. I picked him up and just held him, not ever wanting to let him out of my sight again. Going to that stupid party was definitely not worth this happening to him. "Kay, she scares me real bad."

"I'm so sorry, Jay. She should not treat you like that; no one should ever treat you like that, ok?" He nodded his little head and I wiped away a few of his stray tears.

"She's gone." My mom announced, suddenly appearing at the door. I nodded weakly and followed her downstairs. We all sat on the couch, James still in my arms, and once he was asleep I asked her what the heck had happened. She sighed and began to explain.

"Well I put James to bed and went downstairs to watch a movie in the living room. I left the door unlocked so you father could get in when he got home from work. He had to stay late but he lost his key since it's separate from his car keys. Anyway, I didn't hear her come in, all I heard was his scream." I winced at that part; just thinking of her going anywhere near him made me sick. She looked at me sympathetically and continued.

"I rushed upstairs and saw him on the floor crying and her standing over him. I didn't know what happened exactly but I sure can guess. I got her out of the room and then we came downstairs. She began yelling at me and that's when you came in."

I watched a movie with my mom, while James was sleeping on the couch right next to me, until my dad came home. I stayed for a few minutes talking to them but then decided I should get us home.

When we got back to the house, Adalie wasn't home yet so I put James to bed and called her. "Hey!" She greeted when she answered her phone. There was loud music in the background and I was surprised she even heard her phone ring.

"Ad, are you at Christian's party still?" I pretty much knew she was but figured I'd ask anyways.

"What? I can't hear you! Wait, hold on I'm gunna go outside!" I waited a couple minutes until there was virtually no background noise anymore. "Ok, what?"

"Are you still at Christian's party?" I repeated, sitting down on the couch.

"Yep. Oh speaking of him, he was asking where you went and if you were ok or not. I will talk to you about him later but onto the more important subject; where did you go?"

"There was kind of a James emergency. He's fine now but his mom showed up and things didn't go so well there. Sorry I didn't mention anything to you, I was kinda in a rush to get to him." I explained it all with my eyes closed, realizing how tired I was.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so glad he's fine now! Listen, I'll be home soon, okay?"

"Okay. See ya later."

"Bye." After we hung up I set my phone down on the coffee table and walked into James's room, lying down on his floor just to be close to him if anything happened.

"Kay! Kayla! Wake up!" Adalie whispered, shaking me slightly.

"What time is it?"

"It's eleven at night, come on let's go talk in the living room, I don't want to wake him." She helped me up since I was still half asleep and we walked into the other room. We sat down and that's when she started firing off the questions.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Add, calm down. I'm not even fully awake yet. One question at a time." I spoke softly and quietly, rubbing my eyes.

"Ok sorry. Just start at the beginning, from when we got to the party."

"I went to the pool, Christian came and sat with me. We talked briefly and then my mom called. She said something was wrong so I left and went to her house. Carmen was there and had got in the house. She hit James before fighting with my mom and finally left." I summarized quickly, not really feeling like reliving the night. None of it was that great for me, except that we were all ok in the end.

"Wow, I'm glad nothing serious happened! You should look into an adoption or something." She suggested casually, but that made me wide awake. What if I did adopt him? Would that work? "Hellllooooo!" Adalie tried to get my attention after a couple minutes of me thinking.

"Oh, sorry, I was just thinking that was a really good idea." I answered only half paying attention to what I was saying. Adopting him seemed like the perfect solution; I could get him away from his parents and give him a normal life.

We went to bed soon after that and I fell asleep quickly and drifted into a dreamless sleep. I woke up around 8:00, unsurprised to see James standing over me. "Wake up!" he shouted sweetly, shaking me until I finally gave in and followed him out of my room. Add was already in her usual Sunday morning routine making eggs, bacon, coffee and hot chocolate.

"Good morning sleepy heads!" She joked as we walked into the kitchen with her. "What do you wanna do today after church?" Add was the type of person, just like me, that always needed to know the plan for the day.

"It's up to James today! Do you wanna hang out here and watch movies or go to the zoo, buddy?" His face lit up as he got an idea, just like it did every time we asked him what he wanted to do.

"Can we stay here? Watch mooovies and play outside?" He smiled and I couldn't say no to him right then! Well, I never could but today he looked especially excited so I immediately agreed.

Our day was filled with just what James wanted it to be filled with; watching movies, playing with his toys and him riding his little tricycle. Around dinnertime he suggested that we have spaghetti but we didn't have all the ingredients so I offered to run to the store while Add watched him. I was walking through the aisles of the grocery store when I ran into a familiar face. He recognized and greeted me right away. "Kayla? Hey!"

"Hey, Christian." I tried my best to sound friendly but not so friendly that he'd think I wanted to be anything more than acquaintances.

"So we didn't really get a chance to talk at the party, you think we could meet sometime to get to know each other better?" No. No, no, no, no, absolutely not. I barely had time to have friends, how could I have time for someone who could possibly turn into a boyfriend? Exactly, I wouldn't have the time.

"Um, I don't know. I've gotta go." I attempted to be nice about it but I needed to get the point across that I wasn't interested. His face fell and I felt the usual pang of guilt that I felt every time I did this to a guy. I didn't want him to think it was personal, but I also didn't want to tell him the real reason; James.

"Am I going to get to see you again?" Probably not, I answered in my head. However, I wasn't going to be that cruel to him because he'd definitely think it was personal if I said that.

"If it's meant to be, then I'm sure we'll see each other again. Bye, Christian." I said simply, hoping that was an adequate answer. It most likely wasn't but I was strangely ok with that- as bad as that sounds. Relationships are overrated; someone always ended up hurt in the end and I couldn't handle anyone I was close to, or myself, getting hurt right now.