Chapter 3: When The Unexpected Happens

“You’ve been moping around this house for a week now and it’s enough.”  

Andrea rolls her eyes at the sound of her mother’s nasally voice and rolls away from her in bed. She pulls the covers of her comforter up to her chin in comfort and closes her eyes to try to drown out her mother’s voice. Her mother, Gale had agreed to let Andrea and Tessa say with her and Andrea’s father for as long as she needed to. Gale hadn’t expected her daughter to be so reclusive and just plain depressed. She’s been there for two weeks now and she barely even gets out of bed. She doesn’t get dressed and doesn’t eat she just gets up long enough to spend a little time with Tessa before passing her off to Gale or Andrea’s father, Ken.

“I came to stay with you so that I wouldn’t have to get over it.” Andrea mumbles into her pillow before turning over to face her mother. “I don’t want to pretend to be okay anymore. I just want to lay in bed and feel sorry for myself.”

“And you’ve done that and it’s time for you to get out of this bed and off your ass and go take care of Tessa.”

“Mom,” Andrea groans.

“Tessa is very confused right now and she needs her mother to explain why her mom and dad aren’t living together anymore and why her mom cries at night.”

“She’s seen me crying?” Andrea asks with tears beginning to form all over again, but for a different reason all together this time. She thought she was doing a better job of shielding Tessa from everything. She should have know that she wouldn’t be able to hide her tears form her daughter—she may only be five, but she’s good at picking up on things.

“I don’t know what to tell her. I don’t even know what’s going on.”

“You and Justin need to discuss that.”

Now when Andrea told Gale about Justin cheating she immediately got the ‘I told you so’ speech. It’s wasn’t in those exact words but the same point got across. Gale was never really supportive of Andrea and Justin’s relationships. It’s wasn’t just because of how fast things progressed between them, but also because of his chosen occupation. She told Andrea that because Justin was a celebrity something like this was bound to happen. That didn’t really help the situation.

“Mom, I don’t think I can go back to him.”

“Mommy?” Tessa tiny voice interrupts their conversation and in turn doesn’t allow for Andrea to be able to cry any more tears.

“What is it sweetie?” Andrea asks with a forced smile. She sits up in bed and motions for Tessa to come sit with her. Tessa rushes towards the bed and bounces up to sit on the lap of her mother.

“I miss Daddy.” She pouts.

“Me too.” She smiles sadly, running Tessa braid through her fingers.

“When do I get to go see him?”

“Soon.”

As if on cue the house phone rings and moments later her mother enters the room again with the cordless in her hand. From the look on Gale’s face, Andrea already knows who is on the other line. She sits up further in bed with Tessa sitting on her lap with her back against her mother’s chest and holds out her hand for the phone.

“It’s Justin.” Gale mouths as she hands the phone to her daughter. Tessa immediately realizes who’s on the phone and yells out for her daddy excitedly.

“Hello?” Andrea speaks lowly in to the phone, hoping that Justin won’t be able to detect the sadness and depression in her tone.

“Hey,” Justin breathes after a few moments of hesitation. He hasn’t heard her voice in two weeks now. He hadn’t realized how much he’s truly missed her until this very moment, which was making it very difficult for him to keep his emotions at bay and not break down. “Are you sick? You sound a little stuffy.”

“No,” She sniffs wiping at her eyes and forcing a small smile for her daughter. “What do you want?”

“Uh,” He clears his throat awkwardly. “I was just wondering when ya’ll were coming home. I miss my girls.”

Andrea chooses to ignore the last part of his comment and respond as though she didn’t eve hear him. “I don’t know when we’ll be back. Maybe in another week or so.”

“Rea,” Justin whines, tears in his voice at the thought of being without his family for that much longer. He was miserable all alone. He moved his things out of house two days after Andrea and Tessa left and is staying in one of their condos not far from Trace and Elisha’s place. “I know you don’t want to see me, but I haven’t spent more then two days with Tessa since I got back from touring.”

“Well, I can bring her back up this weekend to see you and you two can spend the week together.” Andrea concedes though she would love to tell him that he doesn’t deserve to see their daughter and he should have at least thought about her while he was cheating.

“What about you? He asks tentatively, hoping not to push her too far.

“What about me?”

“I miss you Rea.” He whispers through tears.

“Tessa wants to talk to you.” She gasps trying her hardest not to cry in front of him or Tessa. He tries to plead with her, to get her to just talk to him, to listen, just anything so that he doesn’t have to go another minute without hearing her voice. She doesn’t allow herself to listen to him though. She gives the phone to Tessa and listens through glazed eyes with an aching heart as Tessa chat animatedly with her father.

~*~*~*~*~

“What she say?” Trace asks his sober friend as Justin hangs up the phone and returns to the living room couch.

“She’s gonna bring Tessa by this weekend.” He smiles slightly. “I get her for a week.”

“Well that’s good.”

“Rea’s not gonna stay.” He grumbles, disappointment evident on his face and in his tone. He knows that he shouldn’t have expected her to stay, but he was hopeful—he’s always been an optimist. He thought that if he could just talk to her, get her to listen, that maybe, just maybe he could convince her to come home and let him back in the house so that they could try to fix this mess. Justin should have known better though. He screwed up too much this time and Andrea was a strong and stubborn woman. That was partly why he fell in love with her. They would argue about the silliest things like which type of laundry detergent smelled better. She didn’t speak to him for two days once because he insisted on buying All instead of Tide—she wasn’t really angry, she just did it to get him and because she was so stubborn. He misses those petty arguments.

“Did you really think she would?”

“Not really.” Justin sighs lazily looking over at his friend. “I just miss her so god damn much. I royally f**ked up this time and I don’t know how to fix this. I can’t just buy her some chocolates and take out for a romantic dinner. She told me she doesn’t think we can fix us.”

“You just need to give her time dude.” Trace encourages as best he can. He’s really been at a lose for words since all this happened. He always looked to Justin and Rea as sort of a role model couple for him and Elisha and if they can’t make it what chance does he have? Plus he’s sort of been stuck in the middle. He was always very close with both Justin and Rea, though his loyalty ultimately must lye with Justin. After seeing Andrea so torn up it’s been very difficult to stay on Jay’s side.

“How much more time does she need?” He asks desperately, tears starting to surface again. “All I’ve given her is time.”

“Only Rea knows how much time she needs. You’re just gonna have to respect that.”

Justin nods his head falling to his hands. They sit for a few moments in complete silence before Justin lifts his head again to look over at Trace. This time tears are openly sliding down his cheeks and he’s not even trying to hide it.

“I was gonna tell her man, I swear it.” He vows. “I don’t even know how she found out.”

The thing is, Justin doesn’t know that it was Trace who ‘ratted him out.’ If he knew it was Trace he sure as hell wouldn’t be sitting with him right now. Best friends just don’t do that. They have a code that they must live up to and telling such a monumental secret would definitely be in violation of that code. Seeing how much Justin needs a good influence in his life and just someone to keep him sane, Trace hasn’t confessed that small detail to him yet. But when he does, he may just lose his best friend.

“I know Jay, I know.”

~*~*~*~*~

She checks once, twice, three times over her shoulder as she picks up the small pink and white box. The last thing she needs is for some paparazzi to snap a picture of her with this purchase. The rumors sure would fly then. She quickly tosses the box into her shopping basket and covers it with her other purchases as best as she can. As she starts towards the register she stops herself and on an afterthought and picks up two more similar boxes, of different brands, just to be safe.

“Did you find everything you were looking for ma’am?” The store clerk asks as he rings up her items. What was that supposed to mean? She stares into the young man’s mocking eyes that seem to laugh at her situation. How dare he judge her.

“Yes, thank you.” She replies quietly wishing he would hurry it up already. The young clerk scans the last item; it was the first small pink and white box she had picked up. He scans it once, twice, three times….nothing. He looks up from his register and smiles at her with gleaming eyes. She watches him lean forward and speak agonizingly slow into the microphone announcing her purchase to the entire store. “I need a price check on the Confirm 1-step home pregnancy test. Repeating, I need a price check on the Confirm 1-step home pregnancy test….”

TBC.....