15. Peyton
peyton
. . .
M y mom speeds down the freeway, weaving in and out of traffic. Her hand is glued to the horn, yet no one seems to care. I have one hand on the door handle and the other is clutching my seat. This could be reminiscent of the accident I was in, but Kyle wasn’t being a daredevil and trying to kill us. Not that my mom is either but tell my mother the one thing she doesn’t want to hear, and she becomes a madwoman.
When the text came in from my sister, I thought it was a joke. The words “Alicia’s back” could’ve meant anything but to our family it means the depths of hell have risen, and to my mom, it means her son’s in trouble. And that’s how I find myself sitting in the passenger seat, while my cool, calm, and normally collected mom curses at every car that gets in her way.
She finally exits, but the onslaught of dangerous driving continues. I don’t know why I said I would come with her. Maybe because it’s my brother and he needs all of us around, or maybe it’s because I didn’t want my mom to be alone with her thoughts. There will be no eyewitness to give an account of the brutality my mother will enforce on that wretched monster, and I’ll happily help dispose of her body.
We’re close to Quinn’s when I hear her sob. I look over and see her staring toward my side of the car. My mom pulls over and pushes the button to drop my window down. “Quinn!”
The man turns. It’s my brother and my heart breaks. I open the door and rush to him, wrapping my arms tight around his waist. “Quinn, I’m sorry.”
He doesn’t say anything. There doesn’t need to be words to match his sobs. I’m pushed away, replaced by my mother. Anyone else would be jealous, but I’m not. He needs her. He always has. They share a bond like no other.
“My son,” she says as she holds his face. “Get in the car, honey.”
He does, crawling into the backseat. I follow, sliding in next to him. Quinn lets me hold his hand. He doesn’t talk and only stares out the window. When we arrive at his apartment, my mom doesn’t shut off the car.
“Peyton, I need some time alone with Quinn.”
I nod in understanding and start to slide out of the car. Quinn’s hand grabs ahold of my wrist, halting my exit.
“She’s going to come to the apartment. She has a bag of clothes on my bed, give them back to her and tell her I don’t want to ever see her again.”
“Alicia?” I hate saying her name aloud and cringe at the look on my brother’s face.
He shakes his head. “Nola. I’m through with her. Done. What she did, it’s unforgivable.”
“What has she done?”
He doesn’t say anything.
“Quinn,” I say his name softly. “Maybe you should talk to her.”
He looks at me. His eyes are bloodshot, and his face is blotchy. I can’t remember the last time I saw him like this, if ever. He may be a somber guy, but never overly emotional. “She played me, P. She brought that woman into my life, blindsided me in a place where I felt safe. I’m done. She lied about who she is and what she’s doing here, all because of who she knows. I can’t have people like that in my life. People associated with?—”
“Okay,” I tell my brother, holding my hands up. “Okay.” I don’t need to hear any more. The girl he brought home to meet us has betrayed him in the worst way. Quinn can take a lot, but not when it comes to the woman who abandoned him.
My mom drives away with Quinn. I stand there in the parking lot, watching the red taillights of her SUV until they’ve blended in with the other cars on the road. Inside, his apartment is clean, and it smells girly. You can easily tell a woman’s touch has been here.
I find the bag Quinn told me about and set it by the door. Part of me is hoping she doesn’t show up here, but if this were me, I would. I’d knock and pound on that door, demanding he listen to me. Although, I ran from Noah when things got hairy between us. I shut down and acted like I was fine, but I wasn’t. I was cut deep, bleeding from the stab wounds inflicted by him and Dessie. He’ll never know though because telling him only hurts him and I love him far too much to do that.
My phone rings and his beautiful face fills my screen. I smile, despite the situation. “Hello, handsome.”
“Hey, babe,” he says. “My dad just got here. How’s Quinn?”
“There’s been an issue.”
“Are you okay?” I’m always his first concern no matter what.
“I’m fine. I’m at Quinn’s. It seems that…” I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a moment. “Nola had something to do with Alicia being here.”
The silence is deafening until Liam lets out a roar of some sort. “Noah?”
“I’m here, Harrison just called and spoke to my dad.”
“This is bad,” I say.
“Very much. Where’s Quinn?”
I shake my head, even though he can’t see me. “I don’t know. My mom took him somewhere to talk.”
“I’m coming to you, Peyton. Sit tight and try not to worry. I knew I shouldn’t have let you leave with your mom.”
At Noah’s words, tears slip from my eyes. “It’s hard, Noah. I love my brother so much and I’ve never seen him like this. He’s hurting.”
“Everything will be okay, I promise. I love you, P. I’ll be there shortly.”
“I love you, please hurry. I don’t want to be alone.”
It turns out that I’m not alone. As soon as we hang up, there’s pounding on the door, followed by some yelling. If I hadn’t been expecting Nola to show up, I’d be scared out of my mind right now.
“Quinn, open up. We need to talk. Please, Quinn.”
I open the door and stare down Nola, with a tear-streaked face. I want to rage. I want to grab her by the neck and ask her what the hell she was thinking. Instead, I hold onto the doorknob, squeezing it until the pain sets in.
“Elle—” she says. The need to roll my eyes is great. I refrain. It’s a common mistake but one that is making things worse for Nola at the moment.
“It’s Peyton.”
“Oh, the nice one.” I tilt my head to the side as if I’m asking her if she really just said something so rude. She closes her eyes and wipes angrily at her face. “I’m sorry, that was incredibly rude of me.”
Instead of placating her, I tell her how things are in my family. “Listen, when it comes to my family, I’m as wicked as the next person. My brother, he doesn’t want to see you. In fact…” I reach down and hand her the bag of clothes. “I believe these are yours. He says you don’t have a key, so I don’t need to ask for that back. I suggest you run along back to the Tuckers because you’re not wanted here.”
“Wait, please?”
I sigh, and this time I do roll my eyes.
“Please tell Quinn that I love him. All I lied about was my name and who I was, not because I was hiding anything from him, it was because I was hiding from myself. I can’t explain Sofia and Alicia, other than I went to school with Sofia and we were roommates and I thought best friends. She talked about him all the time.”
“So, you knew who he was?” I cross my arms over my chest. “You knew who my entire family was and pretended like you didn’t.”
“Yes and no.”
“It can’t be both.”
“Yes, I know, but Sofia?—”
“What is she doing here?”
Elle stands behind Nola, the murderous rage in her eyes is something I’ve never seen before. Not only did Nola mess with our brother, but she’s screwing around with one of Elle’s musicians, and that group is so important to my sister.
Nola steps back as Elle stalks toward her until she’s pinned against the wall. I should intervene, but I don’t.
“I’m only going to tell you once, get the hell out of here. Don’t you ever call my brother again and don’t even think about showing up here. You’ve done so much damage, you have no idea. You have no clue what you’ve done, bringing that wretched woman into his life. I want you gone. I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again. And for the love of all things holy, you better hope you’re not pregnant because I’ll make damn sure my brother takes that baby from you. You’re not any better than the whore that gave him up. Now get out!”
My eyes drop open as Elle unleashes. She said everything I was thinking but would’ve never been able to put into words. Nola cries out and rushes down the stairs. Elle stands here, waiting until she can no longer see her. When she turns to face me, the angry sister is gone, and tears are now in her eyes.
We fall into each other’s arms and cry. We’ve always known Alicia would come back again, but as the years went by, we expected it less. When Quinn turned eighteen, we walked around on eggshells for a year, waiting for word that she reached out to him. When he moved to California, I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack. She spent more time traveling back and forth between here and Beaumont. It felt like she lived on the airplane.
And it hurt Elle and me. Our mom was so focused on Quinn, she missed things, but we understood. Growing up, he questioned everything. Mostly, why his mother couldn’t love him the same way our mom loved him.
Elle and I are still standing in the doorway when Noah and Ben come rushing up the stairs. We break and go to our respective men, and both sob. The guys manage to get us back into the apartment, where the only thing we can do is wait. I text Quinn to let him know that he left just in time. I don’t want to know or even think about what a confrontation between the two of them would be like right now.
We’re anxious. The four of us. Ben had food delivered and Noah makes sure our phones stay charged in case someone tries to call. Elle paces while I stand and look out of the window, waiting for Quinn to come home.
“That bitch is going to fuck up my band,” Elle seethes. Ben is by her side before I can respond. Quinn’s stronger than the drama that surrounds him, at least I hope he is.
“We’ll make sure Quinn has the support he needs,” Noah says. I smile softly at him, silently thanking him. My brother is going to be Noah’s best man, there isn’t anything Noah won’t do for his best friend.
“It’s going to take Quinn a long time to recover from this. To trust anyone.”
“Noah and I will take him out, get him shitty ass drunk and find him a one-night stand to help him get over this.” Elle goes over to Ben and slaps him across his chest. “Ouch,” he says.
“There will be more of that if you turn my brother into a man-whore. He needs friends and family. He needs to know that not all women are evil. He needs the band and music. It’s his passion, it’s what he loves.” My sister runs her hand through her hair and sighs.
She’s right, but our brother loves Nola, and the pain she’s caused, coupled with Alicia making her presence known isn’t going to go away anytime soon.