Scars

“Are you sure this will work?” Jake asked Sophia as they wondered around the store.

“Not entirely, but it’s the best idea we’ve got.” She replied with a small smile.

“I guess so.” He muttered.

>”>

Arriving home from work, Tonya gathered the mail from the mailbox and walked up the driveway to her front door.

She walked through to the kitchen and placed the mail down on the kitchen counter, a glass of wine the first thing on her mind. Valentines had never been her favourite day of the year and the salon had been full of women getting treated either by their partners or in preparation for a special evening to come.

She took the bottle out of the fridge and poured some into the glass, taking a sip before slipping onto the stool beside the counter. She reached for the mail, discarding the first envelope knowing that it was junk mail. The second was a bill and the third was addressed to Jake, a valentine’s card judging by the perfumed pink envelope. She set that to one side ready for when her son returned from school and picked up the next envelope. Another pink one this time addressed to her. As she picked it up she saw the smaller lilac envelope underneath. She held them both, studying the handwriting. With a raised eyebrow she opened the first envelope and pulled out the card.

Her breath caught in her chest as she read the name written at the bottom. Brian had sent her a card. She starred at it for a long moment, reading it over and over. Did this mean what she thought it meant? What she secretly wanted it to mean?

Maybe she should have sent him one too so that he knew that she still had feelings for him. Should she ring him? Go and see him?

Lifting her gaze she reached for her glass of wine and took a long sip. As she placed the glass back down on the counter she spotted the other envelope which she’d been distracted from opening. She picked it up and opened it and as she read what had been written on the inside a look of confusion fell onto her face. It was also from Brian.

Or was it?

Taking a better look, with the first card held next to it, she studied the handwriting again. They were both very different.

She pursed her lips as she continued to study the two cards. Were either of them from Brian? The more she studied it the more she started to convince herself that neither of them were written by him.

So who had written them and sent them? Jake? Stella? Jimmy? Johnny?

It could be any of them. And if it was any of them what were they hoping to achieve from doing so.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing followed by the sound of her son’s voice.

“Jake? Can you come here please.” She called out, a few seconds later Jake and Sophia both walked into the kitchen.

“Hey mom, you okay?” he asked with a smile.

“Do you have anything to do with this?” she ignored his question and held up the card in her hand. She watched him as he looked at the card and shook his head. “What about this one?”

She held up the other card and watched as he and Sophia blushed, their eyes widening.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” she said putting it back on the counter. “Dare I ask why?”

“We wanted to try and get you back together.” Jake said quietly. "After all it’s my fault you split up in the first place."

"We sent one to Brian too." Sophia added.

Tonya started at them in shock. She didn't know whether to yell at them or hug them. Their intentions had been good. And if she was honest with herself she was only mad at them because she was disappointed that it meant Brian hadn't actually sent it.

"Who's the other one off anyway?" Jake asked stepping forward to retrieve it off the counter.

"Brian. Apparently." She murmured.

"Well we had nothing to do with this one, so maybe he did." Sophia said cheerfully. Tonya looked up at her and nodded thoughtfully. She had been so caught up in the fact that they both obviously can’t have been from Brian that she hadn't thought if the fact that one of them may actually have been from him.

"I doubt it." She muttered quietly.

“Why not, he still loves you, maybe this is him reaching out to you.” Sophia reasoned.

“It’ll be easy enough to find out, just ask him.” Jake added.

“And what if it’s not, how much of an idiot will I look like then when I ask him.” Tonya replied quietly.

“You want it to be from him though right?” Sophia asked watching as Tonya nodded.

“Do you really want us to get back together?” she said turning to her son. “And I mean really? no more “You’re not my dad” bullshit?”

Jake nodded. “Stella was right. I’ve been a spoilt brat. I guess there was a part of me that was jealous that Brian was getting so much attention, it felt like he was taking it away from me, so I lashed out at him. But I like him mom, he’s a nice guy and in all honesty, he’d make a pretty awesome step-dad.”

“Really?” she asked wanting to make doubly sure.

“Really mom. I want you to be happy, and being with Brian does that, I’m willing to do anything to make things right between you again.” he said.

Tonya smiled the truest smile she had smiled in a long while. “Well you can start by explaining to him about your cards, come on, both of you are coming to the tattoo shop with me now.

>”<

“One of them could be from that punk chick that was in here last week, the one with the blue hair, had that purple fairy thing done on her back” Johnny said looking at the two valentines cards that Brian had received that morning. “She took a real fancy to you.”

“That’s true, but what about the one that was delivered to my place. That has to be from someone I know, right?” Brian replied from where he was led on the tattoo table on the other side of the shop, his arm draped over his face.

“True.” Johnny replied simply.

“I’ll be honest with you Bri, as much as you and I for that matter want it to be from Tonya I really don’t think it is from her. It’s not something I think she would do. Her and Luke never even celebrated Valentine’s.” Jimmy explained.

“Shit.” Brian muttered quietly. “I just want it to be her so bad.”

“Why didn’t you send her one yourself then?” Matt asked from where he was sat next to Johnny.

“I thought about it, but then decided against it.” Brian replied quietly, not moving at the sound of the shop door opening. Until he heard her voice. He sat up, too quickly, white spots flashing across his vision. “Tonya? Hey.”

“Hey Brian.” she said smiling shyly at him, her cheeks flushing slightly.

“Do you think we should leave?” Jimmy said in a loud whisper to Matt and Johnny.

“I dunno dude, the kids are here.” Johnny whispered loudly back.

“It’s okay guys, you can stay. It’s the kids that have something to say.” Tonya replied with a smile, standing to the side to allow Sophia and Jake to take a step forward.

“Um, yeah we’ve come to apologise.” Sophia started quietly.

“Apologise?” Brian questioned.

“For the card we sent. We’re sorry, we shouldn’t have sent it.” she continued.

“You sent me a card?” Brian asked confused.

“We sent one to mum too, we were hoping it would help.” Jake explained.

“Help?”

“We wanted the two of you back together.” Jake added.

Brian smiled, glancing over to Tonya who was smiled bashfully back at him. “Are you sure you want that Jake?”

He nodded, “Like I’ve just explained to mom, I’ve realised how much of a spoilt brat I’ve been lately and I’ve realised that you made mom happy and she deserves to be happy. If you get back together you won’t get anymore jealous bullshit from me.”

Brian slipped off the tattoo table his gaze slipping to Tonya who has subconsciously taken a step forward towards him. “T, I’ve been so miserable without you. I felt like a Dementor had kissed me and sucked all the happiness out of me.”

Sniggers filled the shop and Tonya had to giggle too, “Did you just make a Harry Potter reference?”

“I believe I did, yes.” Brian replied blushing with a small grin that was gone quickly as he took a step closer to her. “The bottom line T, is that I love you more than I’ve loved anyone or anything ever before. Being separated from you has been horrible. But if you’re happy with what Jake said and you want to start again where we left off, I want us to make a proper go of things.”

Tonya stood there staring at him, her smile widening with every word. She turned towards Jake. “No more shit?”

“Mom I promise, I’ve realised how much of a dick I was being.” He said with a nod as she turned her gaze back to Brian who was watching her attentively.

“I love you Brian.” she whispered, happy tears filling her eyes as she watched him cross the space between them in a heart beat, his lips pressing softly against hers as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer to her.

“I may be happy for you two to be together but I don’t really want to see that.” Jake said loudly causing the two of them to part lips, Brian keeping a tight hold of her hand.

“You know I always thought it was the father who was supposed to give his blessing, not the son.” Jimmy stated teasingly.

“The man of the house Jim.” Jake replied smugly causing the guys to laugh.

“I’m not letting you go again.” Brian whispered against Tonya’s ear.

“Good, I’m not planning on letting you.” she replied.

“So was it you that sent the other card?” Sophia asked.

“Other card?” Brian asked confused.

“Yeah, mom had two cards sent to her, one from us, but we don’t know who sent the other. They both had your name on the bottom.” Jake explained.

“Sorry babe, but neither was from me. You must have a secret admirer?” Brian asked Tonya with a smirk.

“You’re a fine one to talk, you don’t know how sent you the other cards.” Jimmy piped up.

“Cards? Plural?” Tonya replied with raised eyebrows.

“Um yeah, about those.” Matt began. “You may wanna talk to Stella about them.”

“I should have known.” Tonya replied rolling her eyes with a small shake of her head. “She’s lucky I love her.”

“You didn’t think to tell me this while we’ve been talking about it for the past half hour?” Brian asked.

“No dude, Stella made me swear not to tell either of you that she’d been meddling.” He replied with a shake of his head.