CHAPTER 18: The Torn Punching Bag
“I said, what are you doing here?” Brent repeated, his voice cold; there’s resentment.
“Is it forbidden to visit my children?” the man said. Oh, he’s probably Brent and Bri’s father. I went down the stairs carefully and quietly so their conversation will not be interrupted. I looked around the living room but Bri’s not there. For a second, I panicked. Where is she? I rushed to the kitchen, still trying my best to sneak quietly.
I found Bri, scooping a Nutella with her spoon and she licks the spoon. The fridge is open and she’s nonchalantly standing right in front of its glowing light. Her face is smeared with some Nutella. “Hey, little Bri. What are you doing here?” I kneeled down so I am as tall as her.
“Hi Paigy, Brent’s got a visitor so he told me to stay here. I’m hungry,” she replied innocently. She’s so cute. Her messy hair makes her even cuter.
“Do you want me to make you a sandwich?” I offered her and her face lit up, beaming a toothy smile at me. I searched for the ingredients around the kitchen and I’m glad Bri helped me searching.
“Do you know who the visitor is?” I asked Bri. Does she know? If I compute it, their dad left almost three years ago so that means she was two then. I don’t think she remembers.
She shook her head. “He’s scary,” she pouted. I get a plate and served her the sandwich. Good thing I don’t have to cook anything for this sandwich. Bri’s tone implies that she’s not familiar with her father. “Brent’s angry,” she added.
“Go away! We don’t need you,” Brent demanded angrily. I looked at Bri, fear evident in her face but she chooses more to indulge with her sandwich than dealing with adults. She’s a strong kid. “We don’t need your dirty money! We managed to live without you.” Brent’s voice has a tint of hurt but more of resentment.
“I’ll make sure you’ll come back to me kid. And say hi to your pretty girlfriend.” Brent’s dad said. Shit, he saw me? I thought my ninja skills are excellent.
“Stay away from us, son of a bitch!” and Brent closed the door. Actually he slammed it hard.
“Bri, I’ll just talk to your brother. Is it okay if you stay here?” I ask her.
“Sandwiches!” She said happily so I put the rest of the sandwiches I made within her reach. I ruffled her hair and she beamed me her toothy smile once more before I made my way to the living area and Brent is seated on the couch.
I sat down beside him, carefully assessing him. His blue eyes turned several shades darker. He’s resting his elbows on his knees. His chiseled jaw clenched and his fists clamped together, his knuckles turning white. For a moment, I didn’t feel terrified when I saw him in anger now. I admit it, before I really feared him especially when he caused havoc in the school hallway. I slowly held his hands. His face softened but I can see that the anger is still there. I was glad he didn’t pull his hands away.
Since I suck at consoling people, I just hugged him—like what I did when he confessed about his mom dying up until Peyton’s death. We stayed like that for I don’t know how long, maybe 20 minutes. But that’s the point, I can’t feel the time running when I’m with Brent. It’s better than I give him my suck-ish advice.
“He was a perfect father,” Brent started, his breath fanning my neck. I’m still hugging him and I tried pulling away earlier but he just tightened his arms around me. He didn’t want to let go. “I thought that I had the perfect parents. They obviously loved each other. But when mom got diagnosed with cancer and we started to lose all the savings we had, he turned into an alcoholic and violent bastard.” He stopped. I don’t know if I’m supposed to console him at this point. I don’t know what to say, damn it.
I remained silent since I don’t want to say something that may or may not be the best advise so I started to stroke circles on his back. The tense in his body loosened and I was thankful that somehow my actions worked.
“He loves my mother so much that I never thought he would actually turn into a monster. Mom’s condition worsened and so his. Everytime I get back from school when I was 13, he’s holding a bottle of vodka. At first he just yells at me when he’s drunk but later on he started beating me up. I thought it was a good release of his anger if he beats me but in the end he just scarred me for life. He engaged himself into drug trafficking so we can sustain mom’s treatment. He loves mom so much. I know that. He just chose the worst way to deal with the problem. I didn’t have a doubt that he’s using drugs too. As each day passed, I just turned into a torn punching bag.” He explained, almost whispering. His revelation made my heart ache. I pulled away from the hug and stared at him in his eyes.
I can feel his pain, not that I experience what he had but based on his state right now, I have no doubt. I now understand where he gets his violent side. He’s scarred. I never thought that behind his playboy happy-go-lucky façade is a dark past that causes his anger issues.
“Is that the reason why you…uhm” I can’t bring the word out of my mouth. I don’t know how he’ll react. “You know, your anger issues,” I closed my eyes. I don’t want to see his reaction. When I opened my eyes, he’s staring at me and I know immediately the answer. Duh, it’s because you’re stating the obvious. I snapped out of my sarcastic and bitchy subconscious.
Brent’s face became calm and he held my hands. His touch makes the oompa loompas and unicorns in my stomach go crazy again. I thought that phase is done but here I am, still feeling them like what I felt during our first kiss. It just escalated now, one touch and I’m all goo.
“Sorry if I’m overwhelming you with my past,” Brent said. I shook my head and leaned closer so our foreheads are resting against each other.
“I said that I’m more than willing to understand you. And here I am, don’t I?” I smiled at him. He closed his eyes again and he breathed in and out loudly until he opened his eyes again. The dark blue shade that overpowered his eyes is now lighter, and sparkling. How does he manage being mercurial?
“Thank you,” he murmured then he lip locked with me again. I can do this all day if I want. My inner goddess said. Woah, i never thought that I have a kinky subconscious. I just want this moment to last forever.
A giggling sound cut off our moment. Sometimes I think that I’ll look forward to every make out session we’ll have in the future. At the far end of the living room where it meets the kitchen is Bri standing. She covers her eyes with her left hand but her fingers are parted; her eyes are showing. Her right hand covers her mouth trying to silent her giggle but she obviously failed. She’s just so adorable.
She giggles harder when I looked back to Brent and his eyes are wide and he flushed. He’s embarrassed. Ha! Brent turned to face Bri. He cocked his head to the side; making a line out of his pursed lips.
“You kissed her!” she pointed at me and she giggled again. I blushed at what she said but I can’t contain her cuteness so I also chuckled. “You look adorable,” she added. Aw, she doesn’t know her innocence makes her more adorable.
Bri went to Brent and she climbed into his lap. “Awwww, she’s so adorbs!” I cooed. Bri isn’t paying attention. She started tracing the letters on Brent’s Abercrombie shirt. Brent turned to face me and raised an eyebrow. He smiled with amusement and it doesn’t show that just a while ago he was almost breaking down.
“Adorbs? Is that even a word?” he smiled at me, amused.
“A-huh,” I nodded. “I’ll petition Merriam-Webster to put it in their dictionary.” I joked.
“I bet they’ll close the door and never want you to come back again if you insist that word,”
“Oh, come on. I’ll burn down their office!” I whined.
“I never thought that your arson-tendencies will reach offices. I thought you’ll stick with burning down kitchens,” he retorted.
“Stop that mister, or you’ll be sleeping on the couch!”
“Oh.” He pouted. I grinned at him. If Bri is not here, I have hugged him tight already.
~~~~~~~~
Brent put Bri to her bed. She fell asleep while we were talking about random things. We went back to his bedroom. As much as we can, we avoid making out. We might end up doing kinky things if our hormones lit on fire so we decided to continue talking. You know, ‘bout random things. I liked the topic which involved Peyton, photography, books and piano which really reminds me a lot about Peyton.
“Do you still play the piano?” Brent asked.
“Uhm, only the white keys.” I answered. I can’t play the black keys. It’s Peyton’s.
“I see,” he grinned.
“Why’d you ask?” I turned my head to the side to face him. We are lying down on his bed horizontally, still with clothes on, of course. Our legs are dangling on the edge of the bed. He has his right arm under my head and the other one wrapped around me. Yeah, we’re cuddling in bed again. And I’m in ecstasy.
“I like to see you play,” he stared at me, happiness reflects from his eyes.
“I still can do that,” I smiled.
He stood up from bed and extended a hand to me. I cocked an eyebrow. “Come, I’ll show you something.” He beamed me the award-winning smile.
We walked across the hallway and we stopped in front of the room farthest from the stairs. He opened the door and a bed room is revealed. The room is neatly cleaned and it’s spacious. This might be the master’s bedroom. A queen size bed covered in white sheet is in the middle. The duvet and pillows have floral embroidered prints. The walls are painted in cream white with intricate gold pattern. At first I thought it was wallpaper but when I looked closer, it was manually done. I can tell. The room is so cozy. I turned to face him again and I cocked an eyebrow.
“So, what are we doing here?”
“This was my parents’ room,” he smiled. I exactly don’t know what to feel. Why is he showing me his parents’ room? He tugged my hand with his and dragged me to the side of the room opposite to the queen size bed. There’s a baby grand piano that I didn’t notice when we enetered. “This is my mom’s piano. She played it really well.” He said. He opened the cover and pressed some random keys with his fingers. “You remind me of her.” He let go of my hand and pulled the piano seat. “Can you play a song for me?”
His eyes shout of longing. He misses his mother so much. I feel honored when he said I remind him of his mom. On top of the baby grand piano are photos of his parents when they were younger. Brent’s mom looks like Bri. Her hair is like Brent’s and Bri’s; blonde. One of the photos is his mom playing the piano. She’s so beautiful. His father is as good looking as Brent. His hair is dark brown and he resembles Brent but I’m not sure with their eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Garris look perfect together.
I sat down and pressed a key with my index finger. It’s been long since I last touched a piano so it was kind of hard for me to start playing. Brent took a seat beside me and kissed the side of my head. If reminding him of his mom is a way to make him happy then I’ll do it.
I played a piece where no black keys were involved and Brent listened beside me, his eyes are bright and a smile can’t be erased from his face.
“I love…” he started. My heart start pumping? Shit is he going to say the L-word to me? “seeing you play the piano.”
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AN: oh my goodness, sorry for the suuuuuuuuuper late update! It took me forever because we've been busy with my cousin's birthday celebration.
Oh yeash, Brianne is so adorbs, isn't she? haha, I'm already plotting a sequel to this story. Do you have some suggestions on what will be the title?
Wattpad story of the chapter is Faking Delinquency by Tainted Rain.
Cooment, vote, and ask! :))
Love you lots like jelly tots! ~Anj