Scars

For two weeks the house had been filled with tension and silence. Feeling guilty about how he had behaved on New Years Eve, Jake had avoided his mother as much as possible. When he was not at school, at Jujitsu or at his friends’ house’s he hid away in his room, claiming that he had loads of homework to do.

His actions had had bigger repercussions than he’d first thought imaginable. Initially all he had wanted to do was have a good time but it had ended in disaster and a whole load of people not talking.

As well as his mom and him being short on words, there was his argument with Sophia. She hadn’t spoken to him since and he was too embarrassed to talk to her and apologise. He’d tried to text her his apologies but fear of her response, or lack of one, had left the message saved in his drafts.

Secondly there was his mom and Brian. from what he could gather from the conversation he’d overheard his mom have with Stella, Brian had taken his words that night to heart and decided that it was for the best if they split up, so they hadn’t spoken to each other since neither.

Then there was his mom and Stella who had argued with his mom sticking up for him when Stella had called him a spoilt brat. They hadn’t spoken to each other neither.

Finally there had been his mom and Jimmy. When she had found out who had given him the vodka in the first place she had flipped out, yelling at Jimmy calling him careless and irresponsible. Two days of sincere apologise and Tonya had accepted his apologies and forgiven him.

At least that was one pair of people who were still talking. And all of this because he had been the world’s biggest idiot. He needed to fix things but he didn’t know how or where to start. He did know that it had to be fixed sooner rather than later.

He was sat quietly beside his father’s grave stone, the place he came once a week to tell his dad what had been happening in his life.

“I know mom just needs some space and I just need to prove to her that she can trust me again.” he said picking at the short blades of grass that covered the grave. “And her and Stella are as stubborn as each other, mom doesn’t say sorry easily does she? So I may have to force those two to talk, maybe get Matt to help me.”

He paused for a moment as if he was listening to his father’s silent reply, imagining what he would have said to him if he had still been around to offer his son advice.

“It’s Brian and mom that are going to be the problem, and that’s because of the way I’ve acted towards him. I’ve been an ass. Mom loves you, she always will I think, but Brian made her happy too and she deserves to be happy. And I like Brian, I do, and I should never have said any of the things I’ve said to him, I’ve just been scared that he’s going to take your place; that we’ll both end up forgetting about you.”

“You’ll never forget son.” Jake twisted his head around, shocked to find his grandfather stood just yards away from him. “And neither will your mom, especially with you becoming more and more like Luke every day.” he said walking over to him. “But she has to move on sometime and there could be a lot worse guys than Brian.”

Jake sighed, “I know and she was happy with him until I started being an idiot and pushed him away. I just don’t know how to get them back together.”

“We’ll think of something son, we’ll have them both sorted out soon just you wait. Now, we also need to sort out things between you and Sophia too don’t we?” he replied, Jake blushing slightly as he nodded. “I think I can help you there.”

“Really? Cos I hate not being with her.” Jake asked hopefully.

“Jake, believe me, I’ve been married to your Nanna for almost fifty years, I’ve made my fair share of apologies, I’m sure we can sort something out.” he said with a wink and a smile. “You had your allowance this week?”

“Are you kidding me? Mom is barely talking to me, let alone giving me allowance.” He replied as they made their way out of the graveyard.

“In that case you’ll just have to owe me.” he responded with a smile.

~*~*~

Sorry wasn’t a word Tonya said often or with ease. She had always been stubborn when it came to apologies. When she was a child it was usually forced and insincere, said only so that she could avoid being grounded or detention. When she was married, Luke knew her well enough and knew the signs that meant that she was sorry and went to her to offer his forgiveness.

Two hours after her argument with Stella and she had know that she owed her best friend an apology, but here she was two weeks later and she still hadn’t managed to build up the courage to call her up or go over to her house and apologise.

She had driven past her house and the store several times as well as dialing her number but never hitting the call button. The longer she put it off the harder it was becoming to make the move she desperately wanted. She missed her best friend and needed her now more than ever. She had split up with the man she loved and her son was avoiding her like crazy she couldn’t cope with losing her best friend too. So she had decided to man up and head over to Stella’s to apologise to her and hoped that it wasn’t too late.

Pulling up outside the house to took a deep breath, looking over at the driveway where Stella’s Red Toyota Prius sat. Grabbing the bag of goodies off the passenger seat she stepped out of the car and took another deep breath before walking up the path to the front door. Reaching her hand up slowly she nervously knocked on the door.

It was Matt who opened it a look of surprise on his face. “Tonya hey, come on in.” he said stepping away from the door to allow her to enter the house.

“Am I welcome?” she replied with a nervous smile.

“Of course you are, come on.” He assured her as she stepped slowly into the house. “She’s not here at the moment though.” He added closing the door behind her.

“Oh?” she questioned quietly.

“Yeah, she’s actually headed over to your place to talk to you.” he said leading her through into the living room.

“Really?” she asked with widening eyes.

“Yes, really.” he smiled as they both took a seat on the sofa. “She’s missed you like crazy but is a stubborn madam too by the looks of things. She’s been stomping around here for the past two weeks cursing at you for being so stubborn when it came to apologising, adamant that she would not be the one to make the first move, even though she was partly to blame.”

Tonya let out a small laugh and shook her head, “So what happened today to change her mind?”

“I don’t know. She misses you though, I know that much. She’s gone to call you to tell you some gossip a few times over these past two weeks.” he told her with another smile.

“I’ve missed her too.” she replied in a whisper.

“She should be back soon. You must have passed each other.” Matt said. “She’ll be so happy to see you sat here.”

Tonya nodded, retuning his smile. After a brief moment of silence Tonya spoke again. “How, how is Brian?”

Matt shook his head, “Honestly, I’ve seen him better. He’s been a bit of a mess really.”

“Oh…” before she could say anything else she looked up at the sound of the front door opening.

“She wasn’t there.” Stella’s voice called out sadly.

“I know.” Matt replied, winking at Tonya who was smiling again at the sound of her best friends voice.

“How do you know?” she replied walking into the living room, her eyes widening at the sight before her. “T?”

“Hey.” she replied quietly.

“I’m sorry.” They both said at the same time, both letting out a laugh.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Matt said. “Call me later babe?”

“You don’t have to leave.” Tonya protested.

“Erm, yes I do.” Matt replied, taking his car keys out of Stella’s hand. “You two have two weeks worth of gossip to catch up on, I’m getting out of here.”

“Thanks babe, I’ll call you later.” Stella replied, reaching up to kiss his lips briefly.

“I’m sorry Stel, about what I said…” Tonya began.

“No T, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said what I did, especially about Jake.” She countered.

“Can we just forget about it all and start the year over?” Tonya asked.

“It’s over and done with.” Stella replied with a wide smile. “Now, I took these over to yours as a peace offering.” She added holding up the bottle of wine, a bag of chocolate and her Johnny Depp box set.

Tonya chuckled as she held up the bag that she’d brought filled with a bottle of wine, chocolate and her Pirates of the Caribbean box set. “Great minds think alike hey.”

“I’ll get the glasses and the bottle opener, you get the DVD loaded.” Stella replied heading towards the kitchen.