Supernova Love

Ryah sat on the couch; the same place she had been since she’d convinced Brent to leave and she only felt worse about the situation she was in. Jonathan had flat out lied to her. The fact that he lied to her wasn’t even the worst part of it. It was the severity of the lie. Rather than being at home with her, he chose to be elsewhere. Her gaze drifted to her stomach. She bit her bottom lip as tears sprung to her eyes. She dialled her fiancé again and to her surprised after the third ring he picked up.

“Hey baby! I’m so sorry! The flight was late. I’m just on my way now.”

“Jon, it’s nearly midnight.”

“I know baby! I’m so sorry! You know I would much rather be home in bed with you.”

“Uh huh.” She mumbled as she heard what she now knew was another lie.

“Go get in bed. I’ll be there in ten minutes. I love you baby.” He told her before hanging up. That was his last chance, and he’d failed. Ryah got to her feet and headed for the bedroom. Rather than climbing into bed like Jon has suggested, she pulled out a duffel bag and began filling it with clothing. She stepped into their ensuite bathroom and tossed her toothbrush on top before heading back into the bedroom. She grabbed the framed sonogram picture that she had set on her bed side table and put it into the bag before zipping it up and returning downstairs to wait.

Ryah felt oddly calm, until she saw the headlights in the driveway, that is. Suddenly she could feel her whole world crumbling beneath her and she felt so helpless. Jon stepped through the door and instantly Ryah was furious at him for ruining what they had together.

“Hey Ry..” he stopped seeing the look on her face and the tears in her eyes. “Ryah.”

“Don’t.” She warned, stepping away from him as he moved towards her. That was the moment that he saw the large packed bag. His eyes darted to hers. That bag was much too large for her to be spending the night at her sister’s like she had done numerous times before. “I called you a million times.” She told him.

“I know! I was in the air! I couldn’t..”

“How long?” She cut off his lie with the only thing she really wanted to know. She had a hundred questions to ask. Where had he been? Who was he with? Why? But the only question she really wanted to know the answer to was how long this had been going on for.

“How long what?” Jonathan asked sounding every bit as vulnerable as he looked. He knew that she knew. He just couldn’t come clean about it even when she had fire lit beneath him.

“How long..” she continued. “Have you been lying to me.” Jonathan felt his heart leap into his throat. She couldn’t have found out!

“What?? Ry, I’m not..”

“Brent was here, Jon!” She shouted much louder than she had intended. “He came here four hours ago to hang out with us but you were still somehow on a plane with the team.” She accused. Jonathan’s head was spinning. He didn’t know what to say, and right now he couldn’t even seem to be able to put words together to start his defense. He’d fucked up and he had done so beautifully.

“Ryah, I don’t..”

“Save it.” She told him as she reached for her bag and picked it up by the handle. “I’m leaving.”

“What?!” Jon exclaimed. “Ryah come on! Don’t do this! Baby, I’m sorry! I just..”

“I don’t want to hear it, Jon!” She exclaimed as she pushed past him on her way to the front door. Jonathan hurried between her and the oversized wooden door.

“Jon I’m tired. I’ve been wondering where you’ve been for the past few hours and I really want to get some sleep.”

“Then go up to bed.” He insisted, pointing at the staircase.

“Don’t make this any harder than it already is.” She muttered as she tried to step past him. Jon gripped Ryah’s waist and moved her backwards and in that instant she caught a whiff of something. Her eyes widened and she pulled out of his grasp.

“You’ve been drinking!” She exclaimed, shocked. She could smell it now as strongly as anything. The way that he smelled she knew for a fact that he had drank quite a bit.

“Ryah it was just a drink after we got in. That’s all!”

“A drink that took four hours to drink?” She questioned before leaving the house.

Jonathan stood there for quite some time hoping that she’d come back but the longer he stood there the more he felt like an asshole. And the strong the urge became to pull out a bottle of something. The look in her eyes made him hate himself. He swore that after the last time they’d split up he would never hurt her again. Looks like that just went down the drain.

Ryah let herself into her old apartment quietly, but Brent was in the hallway the minute the door opened.

“He came home?” He asked. Ryah nodded and padded to her room in silence with Brent on her heels just waiting for her to fall apart, but she never did.
_____

Jenna burst into Brent’s apartment to find him and Ryah in an intense game of COD. “OHH! NO! No, no, no…YES! I got him!” Ryah shouted.

“”I know. I see that, now – SON OF A BITCH!” He yelled as he was viciously attacked from behind. “You can’t go getting excited every single time you kill someone. Keep your head in the...OH! Hey Jen.” He stated, just now seeing the tall brunette standing off to the side, her eyes filled with concern.

“Ryah.” She stated.

“Hey Jenna.” Ryah replied, greeting her sister verbally but not looking up from the 60’ flat screen.

“Hey Jenna?!” Jenna repeated. She was shocked at the scene that she had walked in on. It was nine in the morning and she had just gotten a call from a very drunk and very distraught Jonathan Toews. He was looking for his fiancé whom he claimed left him two nights ago. “What happened, Ry? I just got a call from Jonny. He’s..”

“I don’t care.” Ryah stated simply.

“You don’t care?” Jenna repeated. She had never seen her sister like this. Sure she had fought her feelings for Jonathan long and hard, but once she came to terms with it she had allowed herself to fall madly, head over heels in love with him.

“No. I don’t.”

“Ryah he’s upset. I don’t know what happened, but I do know that he’s all torn up over you leaving him.”

“Yah, well..it’s his own damn fault.” Jenna stared at her sister. She looked so angry. Jenna knew Ryah very well. She was not one to get so frigidly angry. Ryah was a crier and the fact that she was not beside herself with grief didn’t sit well with Jenna. Either Ryah did not care enough about the situation, or she was more broken up than Jenna even knew. Knowing how Ryah felt about Jonathan she was willing to bet her life on option number two. She glanced at Brent who was studying Ryah as well.

“Brent.” Jenna spoke. “Can you give us a few minutes?” Brent nodded and rose to his feet. He kissed the top of her head as he made his way out of the living room. He cared about that girl so much it was ridiculous. Seeing her in this kind of pain just killed him and knowing that he couldn’t do anything about it was the worst part. He knew that Ryah was having an exceptionally hard time with this. She had yet to break down. This was not Ryah and it scared him. He hoped that Jenna could talk to her because he couldn’t get Ryah to open up to him about it at all.

“Is Burr home?” He asked Jenna.

“Yah. Doors open.” She told him. As Brent left, Jenna approached her sister. “What happened?”

And that was all it took. Ryah burst into tears, crying her heart out as Jenna pulled her into her arms.