Damn the Day I Met You

I woke up before Toby in the morning. Though this was no surprise; that guy sleeps until the early afternoons if he can. I’m pretty sure his days and nights are mixed up. My whole body aches from the less than comfortable floor I have. I quietly leave the room and go next door to check on Tristan and Lucy. When I peek in I find Lucy sleeping soundly on the bed. And only one thought was going through my mind as I watched her sleep: How could I leave this girl? Now or in a few months. She was such a wonderful person with a not-so-wonderful family history. And everyone knows Tristan will freak out and practically lock her in the house once she reaches her teen years. Though at the rate it’s going, I’d probably do the same. I glance around the room but Tristan himself is nowhere to be found.

Confused, I leave the room and decide to just head down for breakfast. It doesn’t make sense to wait for everyone or search the house for everyone. I’d rather feed myself than have a serious conversation anyways. Passing by one of the offices, I hear the voices of multiple men talking. Well, more like fighting. So I could easily guess who those men were.

Opening the door made no difference. They all just kept at it, screaming a bit louder to overpower the other person. But two things stood out to me. Tristan wasn’t saying anything, and looked anything but happy. There were three other men in the room; my dad, Zach, and someone I did not recognize. It was my dad and the unknown man who was fighting the most, though Zach definitely added his thoughts when he felt it was necessary.

“You could have changed his life, changed our lives. But you decided against. You Adam. Not your wife, not your parents, you.” The unknown guy yells at my father.

My dad took a step forward quickly being stopped by Zach, “your wife just tried to kill my daughter, Ben. We are not going to stand here and fight about something that happened over 10 years ago.” His shoulders relax a bit and Zach lets go of his arms, “and if I had signed those adoption papers, Lucy wouldn’t be here today. And let’s be honest, she’s the only hope for your family.”

This time it was the unknown guy, whose name I guess is Ben, who lurched at my dad. And this time it was Tristan who pulled him back. “It’s probably a good thing. Tristan didn’t have to live around an attention-grabbing, spoiled, whore.”

And that my friends is when the official first punch was thrown by none other than Tristan himself. “What is it with mom and you calling my girlfriend names?” Tristan continued to beat the crap out of who I can only presume to be his father, though Ben got a few punches in too, and no one else seemed to care.

“STOP!!” I holler at the top of my lungs. Tristan freezes mid-punch and everyone looked towards the doorway, towards me. I take a few cautious steps into the room, “Tristan, you are coming with me. Zach, help clean that guy up. And dad, go to your room. I’ll let mom deal with you.” My dad opens his mouth, most likely to tell me I have no right to tell him what to do, but I cut him off before any words are spoken, “do you really want to go there right now? Your room, now.” Everyone got to their feet and went to their ordered places. I dragged Tristan out of there and to my bathroom to clean up the little bit of blood.

Minutes passed without a word spoken. I knew that I was mad at him. He knew I was mad at him. And really, there wasn’t anything else to say. I took out my first aid kit and began to clean the few wounds he had. “How is Toby doing?” Tristan finally asks staring at the hand I was cleaning.

“Good, he’s good. We talked some, and then just watched Boy Meets World.”

“A movie?”

I pause for a second and look up in shock, “sometimes I forget where I am. No, it’s a TV series from my childhood.”

He nods understandingly, “sounds like a fun night.”

“It was.”

There was another short bit of silence as I washed some of the cloths I had been using. “So, do you need that spa day?” I could tell by his voice that he didn’t really know what he wanted my answer to be let alone know what my answer would be.

I set down all of the first aid items and walk over so that I’m once again standing in front of him. “I want to go make some breakfast and bring it back up to my room. I want to kick Toby out so that it’s just you and me. I want to spend some time cuddling, talking, kissing. “

“I hear a ‘but’ coming up…”

Rolling my eyes I playfully slap his arm, “...but I can’t ignore the inevitable and the longer I wait the more I feel like I’m just running away from everything.”

Tristan jumps down from the counter, “fair enough,” he kisses my forehead and reaches behind me for a few bandages to put on his hand.

I watch his movements and realize that his ‘fair enough,’ wasn’t the end of the conversation. “I hear a ‘but’ coming up…” I repeat his words. Tristan, now smirking, looks down at me with a glint in his eyes.

“…but I said after breakfast. I want breakfast.” The way he was looking at me I knew he didn’t mean he wanted breakfast as in the food, but breakfast as in the time slot. He wanted spend one last moment with me, as us, before everything fell apart. And even though I wanted to promise him, swear to him, that I didn’t care and that I just wanted the truth, I knew that that would be a lie. Because truth be told, I have absolutely no clue what I’m about to hear, and by the way everyone has been acting about it, I have a feeling it is the one thing that could break this apart.

I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his chest. “Breakfast.” I agree, “Just you, me, and some food. No talk about family. No talk about the recent events. Just us.”

Tristan leans down and brushes his lips against mine, “that sounds absolutely perfect.”

After kicking Toby out of my room and gathering a bit of food, Tristan and I settle on my bed with a tray full of Italian pastries and coffee. “I have a question,” I say, popping another grape into my mouth.

“I’m an open-book at this point.” He replies, with his mouth full of food. I make a disgusted face at him and he just laughs.

“That day in the park, why did you actually come over to us?”

“You mean besides the fact that my sister is crazy about you?”

“Yes, besides that.”

“You were mad, Zach was mad, and there were at least two photographers in the area very curious about what was going on.” He replies as if it’s no big deal.

I stare at him, dropping the food that was in my hands, “but there was nothing about that fight, and I mean, you came in after I threw his phone in the fountain.”

At the mention of that Tristan looked away from me and wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I—uh, took care of them before heading over to you two.”

“You took care of them? You took care of them how?”

He gulps and stares at the plate of food, “well, just some basic everyday threats. I swear I didn’t touch either one. I dated a lawyer’s daughter, I know the basic rules.”

“And then you come over and interrupt our fight, just in case.” I state, still in awe of the situation. What I thought was just terrible timing on his part turned out to be the best distraction out there. And even more so, that showed he cared long before letting me in on that secret.

“Exactly how long have you liked me Tristan?”

He looks up at me then, meeting my eyes easily this time. Though I could still see conflict in them, as if he were struggling on his answer. “You want the truth?”

“Of course.”

“A lot longer than you think.”

“What’s that—”

“nu-uh, it’s my turn to ask the questions now,” He rearranges his legs so that our feet are more or less touching at the end of the bed. I should have taken the smirk playing on his lips as a warning to what his question would entail. “Are you virgin?” I gasp and throw a pillow at him, “What? It’s important information. Also, you totally just answered the question without meaning to.” His smile widens and I just glare at him. “Goodness, I was kidding. You don’t have to kill me with your stare. Now, my actual question: Why did you ever date Zach?”

The question was much unexpected. Especially jumping from the joke to something that serious, something I didn’t even really know the answer to. “He was safe.”

“Forget everything you know now. I mean at the time. When you guys met.”

“That’s why. I wasn’t exactly a good daughter in the eyes of my parents. Well, during my teen years I wasn’t. I always got in trouble, snuck out of the house, got caught by the media doing some questionable things. It just was a big mess.” I pause, remembering those days as if it were yesterday. “Zach and I, we were friends for most of freshman year before he asked me out a few months before summer. He won my parents over quickly. And Max. Max loved him. So I did what seemed right at the time, which was to date him. He was someone my parents approved of and I wanted to make it up to them for all those terrible years. Because of athletics, partying was limited for him, so it was for me too. He didn’t have a lot of money, and didn’t like me spending a ton, so I cut back on reckless spending. I guess at that time in my life I just needed the stability and balance that Zach offered.”

Tristan lifts the tray of food and sets it on the ground beside him. Without the barrier, he crawls over to my side and lays down, pulling me with him, “Well I’m glad I know for sure that this relationship isn’t to please your parents.”

I lean down, our foreheads touching, “oh? And how do you know that Bertina?”

Instead of answering he crashes his lips against my own. The kiss answered every question I had, every question that was important. Reluctantly I pull away to take a breath. Tristan’s heart was pounding fast like mine; his breath coming out in pants like mine, his eyes glowing will love like my own. And I knew, at this moment in bed with him, that I couldn’t leave without the truth finally coming out from both our lips.

“Tristan?”

“Mhmm?” he murmurs against my neck. I feel tingles run through my body, making this slightly harder to do. Tugging at his hair I pull him back up to eye level. He sobered up a bit once he noticed the look of seriousness in my eyes. “Tell me.”

Taking a deep breath I let it all out. “I don’t know what’s going to happen down there. It could be disastrous; it could be a simple misunderstanding. But whatever goes down, whatever happens to us, I need you to know that I love you.” I pause to allow the words to sink in, “I love you Tristan Bertina.”

It didn’t take another second for Tristan to respond, “I love you too Katie Richards DiGerlando.” He presses his lips against my temple, “I love you so freaking much.” And with those last words he returned to kissing me until I was ready to face my biggest fear.