Faith
"You lied to me," I said, storming into his house, knowing he was alone since his parents were never home on weekdays. I walked past him and through the door he held open for me.
He looked bewildered as I threw my jacket in the entrance closet, unapologetically stepped into his dining room, and sat down onto the sturdy table.
"What exactly are we discussing?" Brendan asked, confused. He followed me into the room, as nervous as Brendan Wenthward could possibly be.
"You told Chad, even though you promised me you wouldn't tell anyone," I explained, picking up an apple from the centerpiece behind me. "You lied."
He walked over to me to snatch the red fruit from my hand and placed it back on the table. His hand was still travelling from behind my shoulder to his side when he retorted :
"Yeah, well why did you believe me?"
"You're the biggest joke I know Wenthward, seriously."
He smiled.
"At least I'm something to you now. Not too long ago you practically wanted me to drop dead."
I shot him this incredulous look and hopped off from the table.
"Oh trust me, I still do. You betrayed me by going around my back and telling my dad about Xander..."
"A guy who was, as you discovered, up to no good," he cut me off, "Don't tell me you didn't dodge a bullet right here thanks to yours truly. He was insane Faith, and it was just a matter of time before you'd become his next punching bag!"
"Xander was not insane. Lost, confused, broken, maybe, but not insane. He just needs time to fix things, and... And how'd you even know about his past in the first place anyway?"
His face softened and his stared left my face to fix the ground for a second. He walked away from the kitchen, heading towards the spacious living room. I trailed behind, not intending to let this slide so quickly.
"So?"
"This isn't what you came here for, right?" Brendan replied dryly, taking a seat on the sofa.
I stayed up, arms folded over my chest.
"I still want to know."
He placed his face in between his slender fingers, staring straight ahead of him.
"Girls aren't the only ones who talk, you know?" he sighed out, "Mason told me about how he didn't want to turn out like his brother, and that he wanted to protect Nadine as much as he could instead of hurting her. Did you even think for a second that he wouldn't have told me about his brother's violent outbursts as soon as he heard he and you were a thing?"
Okay, that made sense, but I still didn't know if the thought of him going to the extreme lenght of befriending my father to get Xander and I to split up was comforting or not. So I simply stood there, eyeing him as I normally would, mouth pursed and eyebrows slightly frowned.
He rolled his eyes.
"I shouldn't even have told you this, you probably don't believe me," he burst out, getting up from the couch.
I walked the small distance that separated us and caught up to him.
"No, I do," I said, when we were face to face. "I believe you."
And I meant it. He probably noticed since his stare didn't try to escape mine. The blue eyes scanned me and I felt little the way he looked at me. I had stepped too close to him and with just a swift movement our bodies could've collided into one.
So naturally I had to ruin the moment.
"But why the hell would you tell Chad, of all people, about the one thing I told you not to tell him?"
He blinked and for a second I thought he wouldn't open his eyes again to face me, but he proved me wrong.
"I slipped up okay?" Brendan finally admitted after a few moments.
"Really? You slipped up? For a fine manipulator, you're really wack."
"Yeah well thanks for reminding me," he sarcastically grimaced, passing his hand through his tousled hair. It was messy today. The golden strands of hair weren't nicely styled straight with gel, but rather fell in short subtle waves at the top of his head. It looked better that way. "So what actually brings you here? You didn't take two buses all the way here to scold me, did you?"
I froze, looking everywhere but in his eyes.
I did come for something else, but now that I was here, I couldn't get myself to tell him. Shame was eating me up at the simple memory of the letter I had opened yesterday night that my parents had tried to hide from me for weeks.
I just couldn't tell him. At least, not now.
Brendan still appeared confused.
"Just tell me the truth," he said, blue eyes gleaming with good intentions.
In fact, the truth was at the tip of my tongue, wanting so badly to be uttered, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.
The words on the letter had appeared so dark and so bold last night, as if the ink that made them up had been ready to jump out from the frail paper and attack me. My whole world became meaningless after seeing the formal sentences warning my parents that our lives were on the verge of changing forever —for the worst.
Tears unwillingly began to blur my vision and I fought hard to keep them from straying away from my eyes.
"I wish I could," I whispered out, "And I will, soon. Just not right now."
"That's fine," he murmured back, although I could tell a part of him wanted me to admit everything, "You can tell me anything, any time."
I nodded and he pulled me into an embrace. Even though Brendan wasn't as tall as Chad or Xander, he still gave amazing hugs. My face rested perfectly at the very top of his chest, near his shoulder, and he managed to place his chin near my cheek.
It felt good being held by him. But no matter how great it felt, I was still hollow, the only thing seemingly filling me up were the problems life had created just for me.
"I know what will help," he murmured, still holding me up.
"Let me guess, a party?"
"No," he answered, as if it hadn't been his idea to another one of my problems just a few days ago. "Let's watch a movie."
I smiled.
This seemed like a great idea.
And so we spent the entire afternoon on his couch watching movies, huddled underneath a plaid blanket. He fell asleep as The Notebook came on and when I noticed that the shut eyelids rested comfortably and his breathing had deepened, I slowly slid out of the blanket. When I got up, soft fingers clutched my wrist.
"Stay."
I easily squirmed out from his weak hold.
"I promised my mom I'd be back early. Besides, don't you have some place to be?"
"Next to you."
"Shut up," I laughed out, rolling my eyes. I walked toward the entrance and he leisurely followed me.
He grabbed my jacket for me and before handing it back, he asked :
"You feel better?"
"Yes. Thank you. For everything." The blue eyes still stared at me intently. "I mean, I'm sure you've got a million other girls on hold wanting to spend quality time with you, yet I'm the one who got to spend a day with you."
He smiled jokingly.
"Don't worry about it. They can wait."
I smiled back at this before taking my jacket and passing through the door.
I took the long way home. The walk to the bus, then the bus to the subway, the subway to the second bus, and the second bus to a short walk that led me back home, finally.
"Mom? Dad?" I let out loudly, "I'm home."
The only thing that replied was the sound of the neighbor's obnoxious loud television. I sighed, dropping my jacket onto the couch and plopping down next to it. My eyes quickly laid on the small coffee table beside the sofa and I noticed a pile of opened letters messily scattered on top of it. I grabbed one of them and recognized it as the one I had read yesterday.
An eviction notice.
My eyes watered up as I threw it on the floor. It was then that I saw the letter that had been tucked underneath the sofa cushion —a letter from the hospital.
It had my mother's name on it along with billing information. I knew it was. But I didn't know she was sick. My breathing heavy and my palms sweaty, questions began to flood my mind, but one stood out.
Were we going to be okay?
We couldn't do this alone. Not anymore.
I grabbed my phone and dialed his number.
He answered on the second ring.
"How many weeks exactly would I have to work for your dad's company to get ten thousand dollars?"
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a/n : LAST UPDATE WAS SO LONG AGO I'M THE WORSE SORRY ♡♡♡