Almost Easy

Liz’s POV

The next morning I woke up without the shadow of a hangover, something I had been well prepared for when I set out a shot and a handful of ibuprofen for myself before going to bed in a separate room from Danny. Everyone had crashed around the house, but we were the only ones sleeping completely alone. I was in the kids room. I sat up on the small, uncomfortable bed and listened. I could hear muffled voices coming from downstairs and got up.

I made my way to the bathroom and cleaned up my face and made sure my clothes were appropriate. A tank top and shorts, I couldn’t remember when I had changed into them, but I was ok with that. I was tying my hair up in a bun when I entered the kitchen to find Brian and Zack drinking coffee.

“Well good morning to you.” Zack smiled evilly and handed me a cup of coffee sitting beside him, “Did you check on Danny?”

“No…? Should I have?” I asked and took the cup, hoisting myself on to the counter as I eyed him.

“He’s not in the room. Or outside. The cars also gone.” He shrugged, I groaned, “Welcome home darling.”

“I… Fuck.” I looked around, “Who else left? What time is it?”

“Noon. We’re the only ones here, I made Matt leave when I realized Danny was gone.” Brian took a drink of his coffee, “The girls also all carpooled home. We figured this might be a conversation best had without an audience.”

“What conversation? Am I getting a fucking lecture?” I asked, glaring at Zack, “This isn’t what I want right now.”

“No I mean the conversation about you fucking Matt and the one bound to happen when Danny comes back. I’m… I’m assuming in good faith he’s coming back.” Zack looked around, “Unless you think he’d ditch.”

“He’ll be back.” I looked at the floor, still disgusted with myself how I could let this happen, “I feel so stupid.”

“Good, at least your feelings match how you look.” Brian smiled, “God, Liz, really? Not even two days into being home and you just couldn’t keep your legs closed? For Matt, of all people? It’s been five years of therapy and he finally came around, like, two months ago.”

“I know!” I threw my hands up, feeling tears welling up in my eyes, “I worked really hard to leave this all behind, too. I just…” I paused as my mind ran down the series of unfortunate events that lead up to where we currently were, “I should never have gotten social media.”

“Or shouldn’t have left in the first place and dealt with this all like an adult.” Zack shrugged, “Just, I mean I’m just throwing ideas out there. Have you thought about seeing mom and dad yet? Is that even on your agenda of places to bring the hurricane that is your life, Liz?”

“I didn’t plan on it until we figured out what Colton’s going to know… I guess now would be the time to address the visiting situation.”

“Dad said you can come over today.” Zack looked up from his mug as he slurped, “I called him an hour ago.”

“When did you get up, fucking freak?” I asked, “I mean I can still hold my own but… Shit.”

“I was up at nine, I’m not the pussy that stopped drinking.” He smiled at me, “But really. What’s your game plan here? With Danny that is, are you two going to go back to Indy with hurt feelings and hash it out there? Was it just a fluke? What’s he going to believe since you seem to know him so well?”

“I’ve been with him for five years,” I shook my head, the feelings racing through my body at the thought of Matt’s hands on my skin again, “I don’t know him half as well as I know Matt.”

“Exactly.” Brian slammed his head into his hand, “I don’t want to advocate for this, but I think you should really have a sit down with Danny… Because the goosebumps that just ran a train on your skin when you thought about Matt… That was gross.”

“Shut up.” I rubbed the skin on my legs and shook my head, hearing the front door open, “Fuck.”

“Liz?” Danny’s voice called out as Zack and Brian shared a concerned look.

“Kitchen.” I called as I watched him round the corner of the hall and walk towards me, a coffee in his hand, “Hey.”

“Well we obviously have mediators.” He nodded at Brian and Zack, “That’s a scary thought.”

“We can leave,” Brian pushed his chair back, “We kind of just stuck around out of habit.”

“It’s fine.” Danny put his hands up, “I’d kind of like some outside perspective because things clearly aren’t what they were outlined to be. What the fuck, Elizabeth?” Danny turned to face me, his expression was emotionless and hurt, “Honestly? Not even two days in, what… what was the plan coming out here? Was I just not supposed to find that out?”

“No, that’s not…” I paused as I felt a lump in my throat, “This is why I didn’t want to come back, Dan. This exact reason. He’s like a fucking black hole that sucks me back into it’s toxic vortex. I don’t… That’s why I left in the first place. There is no us existing without fucking things up. IT’s what-“

“I think the mistake wasn’t coming back, Liz.” Danny shook his head at me and looked behind him as Matt appeared around the corner, my stomach churning, “I think the mistake was you leaving in the first place. We had a really good drive this morning.”

“Fucking plot twist.” Brian’s jaw dropped as Matt took a sip of his coffee, nodding, “So what’d you two do, suck each other’s dicks?”

“We talked about Liz,” Matt completely ignored Brian’s attempt at lightening the dismal situation, “Danny wanted a good background on her and there wasn’t much she left out but then he asked for what my entire side was…” He paused again and looked down at the ground and scuffed his sneaker on the wood floor.

“Liz,” Danny looked up at me and shook his head, “I really think this is where you belong, I… It hurts, it really hurts and I hate that those words are leaving my mouth because of the great life we built but I honestly feel you built that life out of spite. I don’t doubt you were happy and that we had something good, but… I think this is your home and the fact you can’t trust yourself around Matt, even when you claim to be so in love with me, means you’re really not ready to move on from this.”

“But-“

“It makes sense, Liz.” Danny cut me off, “I can’t live a lie with someone, I can’t invest that much of my life in someone who keeps up this wall that I can’t break down no matter how hard I try. It’s not… It’s not fair, to be honest with you. Last night I wanted to leave, fly home, change the locks, completely erase you from my life, but I knew the adult thing would be to talk this out.”

“Right.” I nodded and took a deep breath, “I just can’t wrap my head around what’s happening right now.”

“What’s happening right now, Liz,” Matt interjected, “Is that Colton is going to come stay with me while you sort things out in Indy. We’re going to tell him today, and Danny is flying home tonight to pack your things. You’re going to spend the rest of the trip with all of us, get him acclimated and comfortable, then you’ll fly back and figure out moving things back. You can either stay with me, or probably Zack-“

“Definitely Zack.” Zack piped up.

“Until you find a place, and a job, but that’s how this is going to work. If you can’t keep your life on the tracks, we’ll do it for you.” Matt watched me, carefully, “I thought the plan out, Danny agreed, it’s all going to seamlessly transition so Colt is a minimally impacted as possible by the drama.”

“Fine.” I nodded and felt tears spill over my eyelids, “I’m going to go sit on the beach for a bit and we can tell Colt when I get back…” I looked between Matt and Danny, “You two can apparently figure out who hangs out with him until then.”

I hopped off the counter, snatched Zack’s sunglasses off his head, and walked out the back door of the house, wiping the tears off my cheeks furiously as I let my bare feet hit the sand that was just beginning to warm up in the sun. I planted my ass far enough away from the house, pulled Zack’s glasses over my face, and stared out at the ocean. It felt so far away, I just wanted to go lay in the water and let it drag me away.