Chapter 20 : How To Give Baby Food A Black Eye
For the first night since I’ve met him, he slept alone. I was sleeping on the other bed, him in the other. It took me a while to fall asleep because what we did just kept replaying in the back of my mind like a broken record. I was beyond upset with myself because I let it happen.
Around ten in the morning, I gathered all of our things and took them to the car. I checked us out of the motel room, then went back up and braced myself to wake up Warren. It was not fun to wake up a hung-over man, especially when said hung-over man attempted to sleep with you the night before. He was completely conked out, snoring and everything.
So I grabbed an empty cup, filled it with water, and splashed it over him.
I stepped back ten feet as soon as I did it. His eyes opened instantly and a large, animalistic growl lunged out of his throat. His eyes were steaming as he tried to claw at nothing. When he finally calmed down to see that he was drenched with water, he groaned loudly and squeezed his eyes shut.
“The fuck did you do that for!?” He snapped at me loudly.
“To wake you up,” I said dully. “All our crap is in the car already. All you have to do is get in it. We’re going to Gerber’s house.”
He groaned, obviously paying no attention to what I just said. But I knew that he heard me. “Fuck,” He muttered under his breath, rubbing at his probably painful headache. He sat up and I knew he was dizzy.
“I’ll be in the car,” I muttered quietly. I didn’t want to be in the same room with him right now. Being in the car with him for an hour was going to be torture.
After fifteen minutes passed as I sat in the driver’s seat, I considered leaving him here. Right when I was going to pull out, he clambered into the passenger seat. I left him a fresh change of clothes on the bed next to him. He tossed his pajamas into the back and somewhere in his backpack he must’ve had sunglasses, because he was wearing them when he got in.
I took off and for the first five minutes on the highway, it was quiet. He had his seat dipped lightly, so I thought he was asleep. But he wasn’t. “Did you say we were going to Gerber’s?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Where did you find him?”
“I found his number still saved in my phone,” I explained. “I texted it, and he answered. I asked him for his address and said it was important.”
It was quiet. Too quiet.
“YOU FUCKING HAD HIS NUMBER THIS ENTIRE GODDAMNED TIME!?” He roared, making me flinch as he sat up straight.
“Yes.”
He lowered himself back into the seat. I glanced at him. His jaw was clutched, but he had gum in his mouth because he was chewing it before. His hands were gripping the armrests a little too forcefully. I didn’t care if he was pissed off at me. I was glad that he was in a bad mood. That’s what he gets for drinking so much.
The entire drive there was tense and awkward. I didn’t give a rats ass, though. He probably didn’t even remember what happened last night. The bad part was, I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to or not. I wish I could just delete what happened. But I can’t, because life is all about making mistakes, whether we do them on purpose or not.
Gerber lived in a townhouse. It was two story and was very thin compared to other houses. I had to park on the side of the sidewalk because there was no where else to put the car. “Stay here,” I seethed at him.
He flipped me the finger as I got out, not bothering to look at me. I went up the flight of stairs and rang the doorbell. I waited, and waited, and waited. I eventually thought nobody was home. I was about to turn around when the door opened and out popped Gerber.
He wasn’t as tall as Warren, but he was taller than me. His black glasses were on his face and his brown hair had a tidal wave going through it, just like it always did. Even if he wasn’t working, he would always wear fancy clothing. Like he was now. A dress shirt with slacks.
“Alexa,” He said finally, eyes widening. “I got your text, you said it was urgent, are you alright?” Gerber grabbed me and pulled me into a tight hug. I had to force myself to hug him back. That’s when I heard the car door open and slam closed.
I heard the footsteps of Warren come up the stairs. “So you’re Baby Food,” He said quite loudly behind me. But it wasn’t his normal, laid back tone. It was uptight and upfront. Something was wrong.
I pulled back and cleared my throat. This wasn’t going to be awkward at all. “Uh, Gerb, this is Warren. He’s my friend.”
“Friend,” Gerber said slowly, as if he didn’t believe me. “What’s he doing here? Is he hurting you?”
Warren snorted so loudly I thought he was going to suck up a fly. I shot him a glare. “No…we’re kind of in trouble.” I swallowed. “Can we come in?”
Gerber was hesitant to let Warren into his house. I knew this because he wouldn’t even let me into his house when we first started dating. “Alright.”
When we got inside, I told Gerber almost everything. I told him how I got fired, all my passes were taken away from me, and that they were after me because of a formula I created. What I left out was why and what kind of formula. And, more importantly, what Warren was.
Gerber let out a breath and leaned back into his couch. I was sitting next to him, and Warren was sitting on the chair on the left. He was very tensed because he kept moving around and glancing over at us. I let it slide as his hangover problems.
“This is insane,” Gerber blew out a breath. He wrinkled his nose like he usually did when something was bothering him or worrying him. “What do you want me to do?”
“I need you to create a distraction for a couple of minutes so I can get my formula with your pass. You‘re the only person I know that trusts me enough,” I said. “It’s on our level, so it should be quick. You just need to get everyone out of there as fast as you can for as long as you can.”
By now, Gerber was shaking his head and running his hand through his hair. “I - I can’t do that,” He whined. “I won’t be able to, I - I’m a horrible liar.”
“Please.” I put my hand over his and rubbed it soothingly. I could feel Warren’s eyes burning our skin. “Do it for me.”
Gerber stared into my eyes and I could tell he was having a civil war with himself. It usually took him a long time to decide between things. I pouted a little bit, hoping it would help him decide a bit faster. We didn’t have another whole week to wait. I was still rubbing his hand when I heard Warren snap.
“That’s it,” He growled out. He got up from his seat and grabbed the skinny Gerber by his dress shirt. Gerb’s nose wrinkled, probably because he was going to have to iron that shirt again. He slammed him onto the wall that was nearby. “Listen here, you little brat,” Warren was seeing double by now. “You’re going to do this for us or I will force-feed you baby food for an entire week.”
Gerber looked terrified. I pulled Warren off of him. “You’re suck a jerk, I was handling it!” I snapped at him.
“Yeah, you had it alright,” Warren spat at me. I could see it in his eyes that he was angry at him. And me. And probably at himself.
Gerber breathed out and his eyes darted to me. “Alexa…if I do this…d-do you think…maybe…we could have another chance?”
Warren was facing me when he asked the question. I wasn’t looking at Gerber. I was watching Warren light up on fire like a match. His eyes slowly burned to a crisp, then his nose, and then the snarl on his mouth, until his whole body shook with rage. I shook my head, the words on the tip of my mouth, but the damage was done. Warren whirled around and hooked a punch clean onto Gerber’s eye.
Gerber fell to the ground, grasping his eye and whined loudly. “If you ever,” Warren started. He was on fire, enriched, flames licking his skin. “Ask that again, I will break every bone in your flimsy little body and toss you in a grave myself.”
Warren turned to me and grabbed my forearm tightly. “That,” He snarled my way, “was jealousy.”
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