Second Chance at Love

Chapter 7

Arriving at home, I turn off the jeep, I stayed seated in silence for a moment. No one else moves or speaks either. Taking my key out of the ignitions, I turn to the girls.

“Let’s get your girls inside. I’ll get some pajamas and towels out. You can each take a turn in either the upstairs bathroom or the downstairs one.”

Getting out, I open the front door to the house, letting in some very gloomy looking girls. Each taking turns showering, they all gather in the living room still looking gloomy. I can tell they’ve all been crying. Specially Kaylee.

“Mom… I’m so sorry I lied to you. I ... I should never have!” She says, sobbing in her hand. It breaks my heart to see her like this.

Getting up, I bend down in front of her, taking her hand out of her face, making her look me in the eyes.

“Was it wrong to lie to me? Yes. Was going to an unsupervised party, stupid? Definitely. Am I a little disappointed? Yes, I am. But do I still love you? Yes, I do. And you know what else I am?” She shrugs her shoulders still sobbing hanging her head in shame. “I am proud of you,” I tell her, smiling.

She lifts up her head so fast, confusion taking place on her tired features.

“What? Why?” She asks, looking at me as if I had 3 heads.

“I’m proud you had the courage to call me regardless of your mistake. I’m proud that you trusted me to help you when you really needed it. I am proud of you for this. This situation, could have been much worse, you do realize this, right girls?” I say, looking at each of them in turn.

They are all looking at me stunt because of my little speech. But it’s true. Thank god she called me when she did, God knows what those little shits could have done to them if they had put something in all their drinks. I sure hope they learned their lesson.

“Do you think Makenzie’s going to be ok?” Bree asks in a very small voice.

“I think she will. She's in good hands. The doctors will take care of her. Now, off to bed, I’ve added a mattress in Kaylee’s room. No talking, you girls need some sleep.” I tell them, getting up, giving them all a quick kiss, and a comforting hug.

“I love you mom, and I’m so sorry, I’ll never do anything like this ever again! I promise!” Kaylee says, holding me tight into her embrace.

“I know BB. I love you too” I tell her, giving her one last kiss before she heads to bed with her friends.

By the time the house falls silent, it’s half past 7 in the morning. I think about everything that’s happened since last night and I feel all kinds of emotions surfacing. Not wanting to wake the girl up, I step outside and sit on the front porch. Letting all my emotions take over, a great big sob escaped my lips while tears run down my face. I put my head between my knees, covering my face with shaking hands. It feels like my heart being squeezed so tightly; I have a hard time breathing.

“Tasha… Are you ok?” Jumping in surprise from someone being here so early and seeing me cry like this, I lift my head up, not bothering wiping my tears away.

“What are you doing here Mat?” I ask, surprised to see him here.

“I was really worried about you. I thought I’d come over to make sure you were. Clearly you’re not…” He says, walking up closer, bending down in front of me. Putting down 2 cups, he lifts his hands toward my face. Unsure of what he’s about to do, I dodge his touch getting up from my seat on the porch. Looking slightly hurt, he gets up and places his hand back to his side.

“Why would you even be worried about me?” I snicker at him. “It’s not like you actually give a s**t about me, right? To you, I’m just a liar. Someone that would just trick you into a f*****g non-existing pregnancy, right!?” I yell out, still feeling hurt about everything he said from that god-awful night back in high school. Having had no sleep doesn’t help me keep my emotions in check. It might be a good thing, finally letting him know just how much he hurt me by not being there for me after everything I when trough back then.

“Seriously, how could you ever have thought I would ever trap you like that!? It’s insane! If, and this is only a supposition, If I would have gotten pregnant, you’d have been the first person I would have told because you were the only person I would have ever trusted with anything that was going on in my life!! You were my best friends and you left me! You ignored me and didn’t trust me! You didn’t even have the decency to even ask me if that f*****g rumors were true or not! How could you have trusted them over me?! HOW?!” I fall back down to my knees, unable to stop the tears from flowing down my face. Holding myself, I feel another pair of big strong hands grab me. Mat’s pulling me on his him, cocooning me into his arms.

“LET GO OF ME!” I tell out, fighting to get out of his embrace.

“No, I won’t let you go! I’ll never make that mistake ever again!” He says so calmly to me, while I’m still fighting him to get out of his hold.

“LET ME GO! Please… just let me go… I can’t do this. I can’t take this. Please.” Not having the energy to fight him anymore, I let myself go, crying into his very rock-hard chest. How can he have become so buff?

Nop, no no no, not the time to be fantasizing about his chest, I’m still furious! I try telling myself.

“I’m so sorry, Tasha, so sorry. Noting I say can ever erase what I did and what happened. But I will make it up to you. I’ve missed you so much over the years. I’ve looked for you, but your mother wouldn’t tell me where you when, she didn’t even know for a while. But when Benji told me his girlfriend hade a single friend, that her name was Tasha and wanted to match us up, I told myself, there’s no way it's her. I’ve looked for her for years, can it be that easy to find her for a friend to match us up on a blind date? And then he shows me your picture. And it really was you! I was so happy to have finally found you. And you looked even more beautiful than what I remembered. Seeing you turn around in that kitchen, you took my breath away. You looked like a goddess straight from the heavens. It broke my heart when you said we weren’t friends. I felt so ashamed of how I treated you after that stupid party. Your right, I should have just come straight to you and asked. I should have trusted you. I don’t even know why I didn’t in the first place. There never once was any doubt between us before that. I… I don’t know how to explain this. But I’ so sorry. I will do anything to make it up to you! Anything! I swear!”

Holding on his shirt tightly, I cry my heart out, wetting half his shirt with my tears. He suddenly takes my face between his hands and places a light but fierce kiss in my lips. I’m so shocked, I don’t make a single movement. Taking his soft lips off of mine, he places his forehead against mine.

“I swear I’ll never hurt you again, Tasha, I swear.” Taking a deep, shaky breath, looking into his eyes intensely, his eyes falling back to my lips, I let him kiss me again.