Ache With Me

“Hey little sister, you look great!” Hunter jumped up out of the booth to give me a hug, Eden close behind him. I’d convinced them to come along to the restaurant tonight, mostly because Max and I were still barely speaking and I couldn’t sit through one more awkward dinner. I had to cover a restaurant for the paper; there was no way in hell I was going with just Max.

“Thanks Hunter.” I let Eden fold me into her arms. She’d been stuck on the phone with me for the last week listening to me bitch about everything that was going on with Max. He hadn’t told me what had actually happened to him. All I knew was that he hadn’t been with Hunter that night and someone had beaten the crap out of him. He went to the doctor’s for an X-ray and found out he had two cracked ribs; I only knew because Eden had overheard Hunter on the phone with Max. I had a feeling Max wanted me to forget about the whole thing and didn’t want to tell me about all of his injuries.

As soon as we sat down, I could tell this was going to be awkward. I couldn’t even look at Max and he was crammed so far against the wall of the booth he had to be uncomfortable. At least I was on the outside, thanks to my pregnancy bladder. When Hunter and Eden had sat back down they’d switched spots so Eden was directly across from me. Her foot brushed against mine, getting my attention.

“Bathroom?” She mouthed. I nodded, grateful for her noticing how shitty the whole situation was tonight.

“Excuse me, baby’s pushing on my bladder.” I scooted out of the booth. Eden didn’t make any excuses, just followed me out.

“Fuck!” I yelled as soon as the door had swung shut behind us. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“Lily, calm down honey.” Eden caught me by the shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“No, it’s not. My boyfriend got the shit beat out of him and he’s lying to me about it and I’m fucking pregnant and I don’t want to be!” Now that I’d opened my mouth everything was flying out. “I’m tired of my sister micromanaging my entire life, I’m tired of carrying this baby, I’m tired of my boyfriend lying to me, I’m tired of everything! I’m done!”

Eden was silent for a moment before shaking her head. “He’s lucky Hunter is out there or I’d go add to the damage. I don’t know what’s going on either but whatever it is, it must be really fucking bad for him to keep it from you.”

“He shouldn’t keep something from me. I love him. We live together. His shit is my shit and if it comes home with him-” I gestured helplessly at my stomach, ballooning out from under my dress. “We’re not the only players involved here.” I didn’t know the sex of the baby, because Avery and James didn’t want to know and I was sure I’d accidentally blurt it out if I knew. But this child, I refused to call the baby an “it,” was something I had to consider, as much as I was ready to be not-pregnant again.

“I can take you home if you want. I drove Hunter and me here.”

“No, as much as I’d like to, I gotta write an article on this place.”

“Zina would let you off the hook if you asked. Just tell her you were sick.” I blew out a long breath, mulling it over.

“Let’s go back out there, if the vibe is still bad we’ll bail.” I was going to try to stick it out as long as I could. I couldn’t believe this was starting to affect my job now.

When we walked back out, Max and Hunter were arguing in hushed voices across the table. Hunter spotted us first and leaned back. Max was visibly agitated, raking his hands through his hair. He nearly knocked me over on his way out, muttering something about needing a smoke.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I dissolved into loud tears in the middle of the restaurant.

“Honey, please don’t cry.” Hunter sat me down in the booth and tried to dry my face with a napkin. Eden elbowed him out of the way.

“I’m taking her home. You can get in the backseat or you can wait with fuckhead, your choice.” Eden sounded like she was about to go on the warpath, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

“Can I spend the night with you?” I asked through hiccupping sobs. I knew the whole restaurant had to be talking about the pregnant girl who was crying. If only they knew how fucked up this whole thing was.

“Sure baby, come on.” She got me up and out of the restaurant, Hunter following us and clucking like a worried mother hen. He’d been coming to get me at work lately since Max was “in meetings.” If he knew what had happened he wasn’t telling me, but he was doing his best to take care of me while Max was distant.

“If this keeps up, I’m breaking up with him.” I said as we pulled out of the parking lot. Hunter let out an exasperated sigh, the sound cut short when Eden started glaring daggers at him in the rearview mirror.

“Hunter William Scott, if you think for one minute that this is the way a good boyfriend acts you can get out of the car right fucking now.” She hissed.

“I didn’t say anything.” He protested. “I’m pissed at Max, not at Lily.”

“Thanks.” I said dryly, dabbing at my eyes with a tissue. “Can we just drop it? I just want to go to sleep.” Thankfully they both listened to me and the only sound in the car was the radio playing classical music softly. Eden barely stopped the car long enough to let Hunter out at his house before she pulled away. I felt guilty for interfering with their relationship. It wasn’t Hunter’s fault that Max was acting like this. I shouldn’t have let our problems bleed all over them. Just another thing to chalk up to this mess.

As soon as we got to Eden’s townhouse, she put me to bed. She was like a little whirlwind, getting me into pajamas and cleaning my smeared makeup off my face and tucking me in. It was a little odd to be this high up off the ground in her four poster bed. I was so used to my mattress on the floor, with Max by my side and the cats at our feet. I sniffled again, thinking about how badly I wanted everything to be back to normal. I didn’t want to feel this way.

“If you need anything, I’ll be right outside. I have something I have to get done for work before I can go to bed.” She kissed my forehead and left the room, turning the light off as she went.

If something didn’t change soon, I was going to break up with Max and that was it. I wasn’t willing to wait around for him to sort his shit out if he was going to act like this. I managed to put it out of my mind to go to sleep, for a while at least.

“Lily? Wake up.” Eden shook me awake none too gently.

“I’m up, I’m up.” I grumbled, rubbing my eyes. “What time is it?”

“It’s after midnight.”

“Then why are you waking me up?”

“Hunter just called.” She hesitated, chewing her lip. “Max is in the hospital.”