Better Man

"Hey, Scotty," I scooped up my son and held him on my hip. "How was school?"

"We did paintings, we had to do our family,"

"Did you take it home?" He nodded. "You wanna show me?" I set him down and he ran off, to his room, while I searched for Brian. Only to find my brother sitting with Aedan, feeding him a bottle of formula.

"How was it?" Zacky asked.

"Alright. I guess. Where's Brian?" I asked, with a sigh, knowing well where he was.

"A friend called, car problems," Brian knows fuck all about cars. "So I picked Scotty up early from school. Sorry, but it was easier and-"

"It's okay. Thanks," Scotty set a painting on my lap; Aedan was the little blob, I was the tall one, and Scotty was apparently the one near the tree. "Where's Daddy?"

"I didn't want him on it," My son simply said. "Can I have an apple?"

"Sure, go for it," I looked at the painting then to Zacky. "Thanks for your help, Zack,"

"It's alright. I might head off though, or did you need help?"

"Nah, I'll be right," I took Aedan, and began burping him as Zacky kissed the top of my head and then left the house. As Aedan drifted off to sleep, I placed him into his cot then went to the mirror in my bedroom where I looked in it. Seeing my reflection was one of the hardest things, I wasn't ugly, I didn't have that much extra weight considering I had a baby three months ago; so why didn't Brian want me?

"Mum?" Scotty skipped into my room, eating the red apple. "Can I play Crash Bandicoot?"

"Sure," He left and I looked back in the mirror, needing to practice how I was going to tell Brian it was over. "Brian, we've been through- no, that sucks," I sighed, then started again. "I know about the other ladies you've been sleeping with-"

"I'm home!" Brian called, loudly, causing Aedan to cry. "Ooops," I rolled my eyes and picked our son up, trying to calm him down.

"Brian could you not yell in the house?" I asked, calmly.

"I'm sorry, Anna," He pecked my lips, and I could smell a perfume on him.

"Why do you smell like perfume?"

"Oh," He thought for a minute. "I wanted to supirse you, I was buying you a present,"

"How sweet of you," I forced a smile, and looked down to Aedan, he was back asleep so I put him into his cot then went to go clean up the house. Just when I started on the kitchen, Brian's phone rang in my pocket again; I took it over to him, and dropped it on his lap.

"Thank you," He went and answered it while I continued to clean the kitchen up. "Babe?" Brian wrapped his arms around me, and kissed my neck.

"Yeah?" I grumbled, continuing to scrub the bench.

"What're we doing tonight?" He asked.

"Didn't bother making any plans, you usually go out,"

"Well I'm not tonight," I stopped scrubbing, and turned to him as he leaned on the bench either side of me. "So can we drop the boys to your brothers house and spend some time together?"

"I don't think we can ask more of Zacky," I answered.

"What about Rev?" I shook my head, no. "Fine," He grumbled, leaving the room and going to our bedroom. Returning a few minutes later, changed into some other clothes.

"I thought you were staying home tonight,"

"Something came up," I rolled my eyes. "I'm going to go meet up with a friend,"

"Fine. Do whatever you fucking want, Brian. I'm tired of this," Picking up the cleaning things, then shoving them into the cupboard was enough time for Brian to leave without saying a word. That's when I broke down in tears, they poured down my face so quickly that I couldn't catch them with tissues.

I didn't do anything that afternoon, I just cooked Scotty's dinner, got him to bed around seven, then lay in bed watching the clock right up until five am when the sound of Brian pulling into the driveway made me crawl into the bed. I pretended to sleep as he crawled into bed with me and wrapped his arms around me. I turned to him, he was grinning.

"Why're you so happy?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"I just had a good night," Nodding I turned back over and closed my eyes hard, hoping I'd avoid crying again.