A Cacophony

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We walked around the block until we got back to our house. "No way I would ever say that. Your memory is messed up," I said laughing as we entered the house.

Dennis quipped, "No, my memory is great. I mean, how could you forget telling me that you snuck downstairs in the middle of the night and ate a whole wheel of cheese?"

"Okay, I have so many questions about this scenario you completely made up just now, on the fly." He shook his head, "No, no you told me this happened."

"Wow, okay when did we ever have an entire wheel of cheese in our house?" He tried to interrupt me, but I continued, "And even if there was, why would I do that and ever tell you about it?"

As we talked we traveled further into the house. "Mom bought it for some special recipe thing and your stomach was upset. I asked you what was up."

I laughed, "Wow, what a terrible liar you are." In the distance toward the kitchen, I could hear my mother's soft voice. As we neared the kitchen, we peeked in through the archway and saw her making hot cocoa over the stove with her phone stuck to her ear.

"Yes, I understand. Can we please discuss this at the meeting tomorrow?" She paused, "I completely understand that, but I'll be so much more comfortable if we converse in person. I want to see all the files and hear everything with you looking me in the eyes, Mr. Norman. Okay, thank you, I'll see you in the morning." She placed her phone on the counter with more force than usual and hung her head over the stove.

Gently, we walked in, "Hi Mom," I said.

"Oh, I thought I heard you two come in," she said looking up at us with a false smile.

"What was that about, if you don't mind me asking?" I said with a serious look plastered over my face.

She wiped her brow. "Just a meeting with Mr. Norman tomorrow. Nothing to worry about, I promise."

I sat on the island in the middle of our kitchen, "Here I was thinking we were done lying," Dennis said intensely eyeing our mom.

"It's minuscule really, I have a meeting with my lawyer tomorrow. It's just a lot of legal trouble, especially with you kids being involved. Your father is determined to make this dif- challenging. It's nothing to wrack your brains about. Let's just leave it there for now, okay."

Denny and I both exchanged looks, "Yes ma'am," I said holding onto his shoulder.

With frustration, she said, "I made hot chocolate for you. It's so cold outside. I don't know why you choose to go out there."

"That's what I said," he looked at me with an unreadable expression.

"It should be ready to drink now," she declared, starting to pour the delicious drink in our favorite mugs.

It was almost off-putting, the way she was acting as if it was a normal Wednesday and Dad would be getting off work soon. "What did you talk about in your trek around the block?"

I deflected, "Oh, just that Denny's imagination is completely out of this world."

He scoffed, "So is your appetite in the middle of the night." She flashed us a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Mom, when school gets out I'm going to see Jay," I said as we sat on the couch and started watching Family Feud.

"I wonder why," Denny said under his breath resulting in my elbow hitting his shoulder. He laughed almost like he used to.

She said, "Sure that's fine."

"I'll be home, so I can cook dinner. He'll probably be coming back with me." I tried to sound nonchalant.

She nodded, "That's such a stupid answer and question now that I think about it! Name something you associate with a goldfish. And she said the answer was kids."

"Well, it was your idea to watch this," Dennis replied.

"I'm pretty sure we've watched every Christmas movie on Hallmark twenty times by now. I figured this would be something different." I turned around and looked at the clock on the wall, waiting for 3 o'clock to sluggishly creep up on us.

A little while later, I grabbed my big fluffy coat that was hanging by the door, and yelled, "I'm going to Jay's, I'll be back later," towards the direction of the stairs.

After a full marathon of about six episodes, Mom went to bed. Dennis took off to see some of his friends, leaving me to my own devices. I wrote in my journal for a little while on my daybed.

From time to time I would sit in my room and write about whatever came to mind. I wrote about breathing. I know that's such a weird thing to write about, but it was calming to me. It's something that we do without thinking and it's necessary to survive. No one teaches us how to do it, we just know. When you have anxiety, you get used to doing breathing exercises and it does bring me some calmness.

I got to Jay's house and I saw that his car was in the yard, so he was home from school.

He texted me this morning to ask if I was okay, but I didn't respond. Primarily because I couldn't answer that question at the time and to some extent because of something else.

I should have gone through the front door, and seen his family. To ask them if he was home. It probably would've been the smart thing to do, but I didn't.

Walking around to the back of his house, I looked behind me and saw my footfalls in the ivory snow. I saw the lone door on the side of the house closest to me. I wasn't surprised when it was open.

Jay rarely locked it. The rest of his family could just walk in from the entrance inside the home. He was the only one who came that way, besides me. Traipsing down the stairs, I began to hear noises that I most certainly didn't want to be hearing at that moment, or any moment for that matter.

"Shh, my parents are home we have to be quiet," were just a few of the words being whispered as I stood there in the middle of his staircase in shock. Without my knowledge, my legs were moving downward until I reached the last step.

Subconsciously, I think I had to see it to believe it. All I could see was her hands covering the freckles on his back and her long bleach blonde hair splattered over the pillows. My ears were filled with intimate words and a cacophony of noises and movements as I heard her wail, "Oh! Jay, oh my God," in what I perceived was a cry of pleasure.

It was not.

He lifted his head and made direct eye contact with me. It felt like the world stopped. Both of our faces dropped. Everything quickly started moving again as he started rustling out of bed. I mustered the courage to turn around even though my legs were rattling.

After what felt like one hundred years of shaky steps and clutching onto the arm hold, I finally reached the top of the staircase. My legs gave out underneath me, I fell onto the top stair, and my arm hit the side of the wall vociferously.

"Jay, what is happening?" I could hear an angry Olivia yell from the basement. I assembled all the strength I had to get me out of that cursed stairwell. I was out on the blanket of white with a loud slam of the door.

I wasn't thinking. I didn't look behind me even though I heard footsteps coming from that direction. All I did was run as fast as could. I couldn't tell if it was fueled by my heartbreaking. Or if I was having a rush of adrenaline, if rage overtook me, but I was determined to get out of that situation.

My heart and head were pounding out of my control. I was overwhelmed with a flurry of emotions. I was barely in his neighbor's yard when I heard his voice. A voice that was exchanging unkempt words with his girl not long ago.

"Daya, stop!" He yelled with a crack in his voice.

For some reason, despite myself, I did. My legs just stopped moving even though I didn't want them to.

I couldn't even turn around and face him. "Jay, I'm so sorry I wouldn't have come over if I-," I wiped my face with the back of my hand.

"Day, it's... it's okay," he said panting giving me vivid flashbacks to what I had heard several minutes before.

"No, no it's not. I should've called or at least knocked. Jesus, I'm so stupid," my body was swaying awkwardly to keep tears off my face.

Jay was holding himself to protect from the elements. "Stop, it's my fault, you weren't meant to see or hear that. Did you see anything?" I peered my head over my shoulder and saw him slightly in his underwear.

"You didn't even get dressed," I whispered, and he said, "I... I didn't want you to be upset."

Way too late for that. I nodded my head quickly, my mouth curled into a frown. I turned around in one movement to look at him.

He was disheveled, his hair was all over his face and he was still panting. A shirt and pants were nowhere to be found and his hazel eyes were fixated on me.

"Jayson get back here!" Olivia yelled as she hid her bare form behind the doorway. Jay looked back at her for a second with his hands up in a stop position.

"I can't do this right now," I said exasperated.

I wanted this to be over. "It's not what you think, Day," I opened my mouth and closed it again a few times.

"You, err, I," I sighed. "You can... no, I don't believe you... and her were not sleeping together Jay," my words got quieter and quieter as I continued. I stopped looking at him and crossed my arms around my chest like I was covering myself even though he was the one exposed.

"Jayson, I am serious. I will drag you back into this room if you don't come here right now!" I didn't dare to make eye contact with Liv as she yelled.

I could barely look at him. I assumed she stomped back down the stairs to get dressed and make her threat come true.

"I didn't want you to see that," he repeated.

Disgust was all over my face. "Yeah, of course, you... didn't. I don't.... even know what to say to..... you. But you, you must have more than that to say."

I resumed, "We're outside.... in the ice... and snow. You were in so much of a rush you didn't.... put on shoes. Cars are driving by... and we have an underage naked dude standing in front of his neighbor's house... talking to me. Liv is... right there. You must have more to say than that," I said huffing.

I shakily stepped closer to him, but he still felt like he was miles away, "So say it."

He crossed the distance between us and looked at me deep in my tear-rimmed eyes. He reached out to touch my face and I pulled away.

"What do you want from me?" He said with a baffled look.

I confided in his ear. "To not sleep with someone else... after you told me you loved me and tried to kiss me," I took a few antsy steps backward.

"Damn it, Jay, we slept in that bed together... two days ago. The same bed... you've been intimate with her in and this can't be the first time. I can't even look at you anymore," I spoke before turning on my heels and walking away.

"Day, please," I heard him say as I continued walking down the sidewalk.

* Thank you all for reading this part. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember to comment, follow, and share!

How do you feel about the events that happened in this part?

Who do you think is right and wrong here?

I hope y'all had a great Mother's Day! *