Tonight, We Collide

Ashley watched her husband intently. He was running around with Bronx, they were simply playing a game of catch, but to Ashlee it meant so much more than that.

Because as a child it was all about Jessica. Even though she was passed it, it still made her heart swell every time she saw her beautiful son laugh with joy as his father taught him new things.

Deep down Ashlee wished that her father would've done that with her, instead of just handing her a credit card.

The past cant be changed, and Ashlee knew this well. Everyone thought that she didn't know, that she was unobservant to the noticeable resemblance between her husband and her best friend's son.

She didn't let it bother her though, the past is the past Her husband didn't know, and he wasn't in love with Tara, so it didn't matter to her, she had her picture perfect family at last.

But if Tara was to open her mouth and say something to Pete about her bastard, then she would have to say something. She would have to start war, and fight for the man she loved.

Because Ashlee wasn't a dumb blond, she wasn't her sister. She knew that half the songs Fall Out Boy ever created was about Tara. That thought chilled Ashlee to the bone.

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Tara was a nervous wreck, the table was set and the pasta was almost cooked. But the thought of her son knowing the truth, and the risk of having her biggest secret leaked to the world, or worse, Pete, scared her.

Tara wondered what had happened to her. She used to be strong, she used to be like a stone. If she was in this ten years ago, she would've told Peter the truth by now, and would've told him to look at this as a blessing.

But she had gone soft. And now she stood a nervous wreck. She was scared.

Scared never even used to be in Tara's vocabulary ten years ago. She had gone soft.

And it was all because of her husband. Of Patrick Stump and his God forsaken words, his persuasion.

She still remember the way he proposed.

They were sitting in a small Italian restaurant, Patrick's mother had willingly took Peter for the night. He was seven at the time. This little gesture should have turned the light bulb in Tara's head on, but it didn't.

As they sat threw all the wonderful food they finally received dessert, and so delicately put on top of her creme bur lait was a ring.

Patrick had looked at her, and said the words that forever were branded into Tara's mind.

"I want you to marry me Tara," He said more like a command than a question, "I want to adopt Peter as my own, and I want to buy a big house for all of us to live in, so you can cook, clean, do mom things. Without having to ever worry about money again. All I want is your hand in marriage, to love me back," He had said smiling.

The thought was sickening, like a bargain. If she 'loved' him back and was a perfect wife, all she ever needed would be taken care of.

To the day Tara wonders why she said yes. Why she couldn't off taken off right then and there and told Patrick that he was a sick son of a bitch and needed to grow a pair and actually ask a girl out. Not persuade them with money and gifts.

But she had weakened. He had weakened her.

Now Tara stood, a perfect mom and wife, miserable and dying on the inside.