Ten | Cole
Ten
Cole
The day seemed to be going better than last night, even though I noticed multiple times that Ben flat-out ignored Lyric.
Kara had come around, but part of me wondered if it was because Kara was happy to finally have a woman around, given it’d been just her dad and me raising them for so long.
Sure, she was around my mother often, but it was different talking to your aunt, who was in her early thirties, than talking to a woman in her sixties.
Ben and I had finished mounting the TV on the wall when I stepped back to look at it.
It was way bigger than I thought it would be, but I knew the kids would love watching movies on something so huge.
Clay had always talked about getting a big-screen TV for them or having backyard movie nights with a projector, but he never got around to it.
“What do you think?” I asked, glancing at Ben as he grinned at the TV.
“I think it’s going to be great playing Call of Duty on,” Ben replied with a laugh. “It’s going to be so bad ass—”
“Language,” I reminded him with raised eyebrows.
“What’s Call of Duty?” Lyric asked as she stood beside me and nodded her head in approval of the TV.
“It’s just a video game. You wouldn’t be interested,” Ben replied dismissively as he kept his head down and typed something on his phone.
“Oh. Cool.”
I could hear the hurt in her voice, even though she tried to disguise it with a smile before walking away. After she left the room, I looked at him and shook my head before swatting his phone out of his hand.
“Hey, what’s your problem?”
“What’s my problem? Your behavior is my problem.” I folded my arms over my chest and waited for him to pick up his phone and give me his full attention. “Why are you being so rude to your aunt?”
He lifted a shoulder and let it drop, but didn’t say anything.
I blew out a breath, trying to get myself in a better headspace before I made things worse. I couldn’t imagine what Ben was going through after losing his dad, especially with how close they were. But I also couldn’t stand by and allow him to treat Lyric the way he was.
“Look, I know things are different right now,” I said gently. “But you have to make a better effort with Lyric. She’s trying really hard, and you keep putting up a wall every time she tries to connect with you.”
“Because I don’t want to connect with her,” he replied, looking away from me. “We were doing just fine before...”
I puffed my cheeks full of air and held it there because there was absolutely nothing I could say that would help. Everything had changed in the blink of an eye, and none of us were prepared for any of this.
“It doesn’t matter whether you want to or not, Ben. You’ll only be making things harder on yourself if you don’t. She’s your aunt, and she loves you very much—”
“Then where was she when Mom died? Where was she when Grandma and Grandpa died? Why hasn’t she come back before now?
All of a sudden, Dad dies, and she thinks she can just waltz right in and control us?
I’m sorry, but just because she couldn’t have kids doesn’t mean she can come in and boss us around. ”
I opened my mouth to say something, but stopped when I spotted Lyric in the hallway. She turned and headed in the other direction, toward her bedroom. The sound of the door closing shattered the silence in the room as Ben and I stared at each other.
“You had no right to say that,” I said angrily.
“You have no idea what your aunt has gone through or how much loss she has suffered in trying to become a mother. How much loss she and I have both suffered. How dare you stand there and act like she owes you something. Your aunt has been off, trying to find her way in a world that has repeatedly tried to break her, but you don’t see that.
All you see is a reason not to like her, and I won’t stand by and let you keep treating her the way you have.
Your dad would be pissed if he knew what you said. ”
“Yeah, well, too bad he’s not here to hear it. Oh, wait, that’s because he’s dead,” Ben bit out. “Everyone I love dies, so why should I bother getting to know her? Why should I let someone new in when EVERYONE I LOVE DIES!”
Tears filled his eyes before he could stop them, and I finally realized that it wasn’t Lyric he was truly angry with. It was the constant, devastating loss he’d endured that left him unwilling to trust that the next person he loved wouldn’t be taken away from him like everyone else.
I grabbed him and pulled him into my arms as I hugged him tightly, not bothering to hide my own tears.