Monroe
Present
You know the saying,The devil’s whispers have nothing on the rumors spread by the resident small-town gossiping hens? Well, I never paid much attention to it, though I always found myself in the center of it all. Today feels like I’m smack dab in the middle of a heavyweight boxing match, taking blow after blow from all the saintly, strait-laced women of Crossroads who are shaking their heads at the mess my life and reputation have become.
A wise woman once said,Small towns are like pressure cookers, and gossip is the steam that keeps them simmering.It made little sense when I’d first read it, but as the years went by, my hometown of Crossroads, North Carolina, a quaint southern town full of good old devout Christians who never judged thy neighbor, continued to prove the sentiment correct. I knew my fair share of dirt about some of the townspeople, most I wish I’d never learned. In turn, they knew, and judged, everything about my and my family's lives.
I guess it comes with the territory of not only living in the same place your whole life, but having your family be the anchor that holds the rumor mill together. We were the town enemy—the only thing all of Crossroads agreed on.
In a place where everyone knows everyone and believes it is their birthright to be in each other's business, discretion is key. I couldn’t have heeded the warning any less. I went on and created a scandal of my own, one juicer than this town had seen in years. Actually, there’d been a whole wave of them the last time my family got together.
Something was in the air when the Bishops were together. It had been a blessing in disguise that hadn’t occurred in nearly a decade.
We Bishops were known for our poor decisions and unconventional ways of doing things. My alcoholic father was viewed by the town as a crooked man who could never be trusted, while my neglectful, gold-digging mother abandoned us when I was eight years old. Not to mention my troublesome brothers, four of them I might add, were a nuisance to the people of Crossroads since the day they were born and began wreaking havoc everywhere they could. Being part of the gossip mill wasn’t anything new.
Despite my best efforts to preserve my family’s reputation as best I could, keeping to myself and out of trouble, this time it was different. Because this time it was my fault. I’d gone and slept with the one man I knew I should never have gotten involved with, ending up pregnant from our one-night stand. I’m the one who tried to keep my pregnancy a secret and refused to admit who the father of my baby was until it was broadcast to the entire town during last month's Harvest Festival.
Jase King is my best friend’s brother. Worse than that, he is the father of my baby and a man this town adores. Which means they have more of a reason to hate me than before.
When I first met Jase, I was around sixteen years old. I honestly thought he was a jackass. He completely ignored the fact that I was sitting on the swing right out on the back porch of the house I lived in with my brother Monty, and threw his backpack right on top of me.
From that day forward, I swore to pretend he didn’t exist too. It wasn’t hard at first. I had way too much going on in my life to care what my brother’s best friend was up to. That not-so-foolproof plan quickly changed when, as the years passed, and I became closer to his sister Bailey, I saw another side of Jase. I became curious about the man beneath the enigma the rest of the town got to see.
Might have even harbored a small crush on him when we were in college and I was a little boy crazy. But that crush was fleeting when I realized that, just like every other guy our age or older, Jase was a serial dater, always flirting with the hometown girls and honestly any female who came his way. It's not like he ever bothered giving me a second glance. Not that I needed him to.
It wasn’t until we met up in Florida earlier this summer, by some weird coincidence or happenstance, that something changed. Suddenly I felt a pull like no other. I can’t explain it, but his aura and allure was just impossible to ignore.
After we spent one of the best nights of my entire life together, I knew it couldn’t amount to anything more than what it was, for both our sakes. We agreed to move on and pretend it didn’t happen. Leave it in the past. What happens in Florida stays buried in the swamps.
That should have been the first sign. A forewarning that our night together would be plagued by mistakes and regret. Though why I ignored it still haunts me to this day. I wasn’t supposed to wake up the next morning tangled in his sheets, with my heart pounding in my chest for all the wrong reasons.
What should have stayed a secret turned into the universe thinking it would be hilarious to give me a big ol’ fuck you and remind me I have no say in the life I’m dealt. If I’d known the consequences that would have come from our one night of passion, I don’t think I’d have done anything differently. However, at least I’d have known to be a little more wary of our time together.
I can vividly recall the sensation of my heart dropping to my feet when I saw those two little lines appear. I couldn’t believe it. Worse, I had no idea how to cope with the fact that I was pregnant. I, Monroe Bishop, was about to become a mother.
So I did what I do best. I hid, I lied, I pretended it wasn’t true. Until I no longer could, and then lied to my two closest friends, making them believe some stranger I hooked up with on our trip was the father and I had no intention of contacting him.
“I can’t believe Jameson King wasted his time with the likes of her,” I hear Anne-Marie Whitmore snidely whisper as I pass her and the equally delightful Mary Beth Baker heading toward the counter at our local convenience store. I was so deep in my thoughts, I hadn’t even realized they were standing right in front of me. If I had seen them, I would have walked in the opposite direction.
“I heard she drugged him,” Mary Beth continues, equally smug as her counterpart. “I mean, how else would Crossroads' very own golden boy end up with the Bishops’ daughter?”
I take a deep breath, will myself to have the courage not to turn and slap the damn woman I’ve disliked since high school and instead, continue on my way to gather the few items I came this way for. That is until they keep running their mouths.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she thought it would be the best way to trap him and get her hand into the King family's riches. Must be the same stuff her brother gave Bailey.”
I hadn’t thought about the consequences. I didn’t really think about how I would continue hiding this pregnancy from my family. I just knew I couldn’t have a baby with Jase, and I was going to ensure he never found out.
Talk all the shit you want about me, but my family? Oh, no, sweetie, the only girl who gets to shit on my brothers is me. Though before I can say my piece, another woman slides on by, ripping them a new one for me.
“You know Anne-Marie,” Raven Dawson says as she joins us. “If you and Mary Beth spent as much time running those sour little mouths of yours on praying or sucking dick, I’m sure you two would have found a man to nag and bitch to by now.”
The looks of utter disbelief and disgust on their pretty yet pretentious faces is enough to make me forget whatever nasty remark I was about to shoot their way.
I freaking love Raven. A newly minted friend of mine, who works over at Stingers Tavern with Bailey, Raven, has quickly become one of my favorite people. She’s Crossroads bred, but much like me, this town and what it stands for doesn’t define us.
Rae’s got her own closet full of skeletons rattling to be freed, but overall she’s as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, and that’s a trait I look for when deciding who the good people are.
“Is that what you spend your nights doing, Raven?” Mary Beth asks as she swallows back her tears. The fake smile she gives us fails to mask her insecurities. I hate people like her. Bringing people down only to make themselves feel better. It never works. Nothing but a temporary dopamine hit that disappears just as quickly as it came.
