Chapter 6
six
Tristyn
Andrew called me after I got done with physical therapy.” I flop down onto Vince’s couch and pull my legs up to my chest.
“What did he want?” Vince takes a sip of his coffee, leaning against the back of the couch.
“His occasional check-in, you know, basically how I’m failing as a mother, and how Henry would be better with him, but—”
“Not mentioning any actual desire to have custody of Henry?”
“Exactly.”
“I fucking hate him. I don’t know what you ever saw in him.”
“I was fourteen, Vince. Never in a million years did I think my first love would become my worst nightmare.”
Andrew was also a different person when we first met. He was caring, sensitive, and ambitious. He came from money, but never seemed like he did. He was normal. Until one day, he wasn’t.
We broke up when I was sixteen, and I found out I was pregnant a few weeks later. After I found out I was pregnant with Henry, it became a never-ending cycle of getting back together and breaking up. He disappeared for a while, then popped back in, and we’d try to make it work, but it never did.
If I didn’t have Vince, I don’t know if I would’ve ever gotten out of the situation.
He still has a hold on me. He’ll always have a hold on me.
But he has the one thing I don’t—
Money.
So, he gets what he wants. To come into Henry’s life when it’s convenient for him, when he wants something, when he’s drunk and thinks he can convince me to get back together.
I hadn’t heard from him since that night. The night that led to the brace on my wrist.
“Well, he’s still a fucking dipshit.”
“No argument here.”
“So, when does he want to see Henry?”
“He doesn’t, not right now. Says he’s still super busy, but that it should calm down in the next week or so, so be prepared for him to come by.”
“I think we should move back in together. I don’t like the idea of him just deciding when to stop by and you being alone, and what if what happened before happens again, and—”
“I appreciate the concern, Vince, I do, but we moved away from each other for a reason. You’re a bachelor and deserve to be a bachelor without me and my son cramping your style.”
“You know you can stay here whenever you want, right?”
“Of course, and since Henry’s already passed out in your guest room, we will be staying over tonight.”
“Good. We’ve got to finish season three of Dawson’s Creek tonight.”
“Well, I guess I should go make the popcorn.” I pat his arm, get up from the couch, and head to the kitchen.
I throw the popcorn in the microwave and lean against the counter while I wait for it to pop, running my hand along my brace.
I wish I didn’t have to worry about Andrew. I wish his family didn’t have money, and that they didn’t know people. I wish I could be free from him. From this.
But no matter how far I try to run from my past, I have something that will tie me to Andrew for the rest of my life.
And as much as I hate where I’m at right now in life because of Andrew, he gave me Henry.
And Henry’s my whole world.
And I wouldn’t trade him for the world.