“Stop acting like you care what’s going on with me. All you and Dad want to do is argue. You can do that without me sitting here.”
His words sting. I never want my kids to think we don’t care about their feelings or what’s going on with them.
“That’s not true, baby.”
“Sit your ass back down,” Andrew barks over me.
AJ shakes his head. “I’m out of here.”
He heads for his bedroom. Andrew grabs his arm, and AJ yanks away from him. Andrew takes a dangerous step toward his son. I step in between the two. I’m not sure what’s going on, but everyone needs to calm down.
Mitch places a hand on my arm, sliding me out of the way. He takes my spot.
“AJ, despite how you feel, you will be respectful to your parents. Your mom asked you to sit down, now sit down.”
My son looks at his godfather, his eyes shining with tears dancing in them. Slowly, he lowers himself back onto the couch.
I watched the entire interaction. It leaves me wondering what the hell has happened to us that our son no longer listens. I’m so thankful to Mitch for being here. Had he not been here, thatsituation would’ve gone to a place that could’ve been hard to recover from.
“Maybe we should put a lid on this conversation,” I suggest. “Emotions are too high at the moment.”
“Good idea,” Mitch agrees.
“Andrew, what do you think is a fitting punishment?” I ask my ex hoping we could keep this together long enough to figure that part out.
He glares at me in a hostile way. “You know what, since you’re so hell-bent on ruining his fucking life, how about you figure it out without me?”
With those last words floating through the air, he storms out and slams the door so hard behind him that the picture on the wall falls to the ground and shatters.
The house is silent. The only sound left is the racing of my heart.
“Mom, I’m—” I hold up a hand to cut my son off.
“No phone for two weeks, and you will be going back to see your therapist.” With that, I turn and walk out of the house, heading to the back porch. I needed a moment of silence to gather my emotions. At the moment, they are all over the place.
Mitch
Admittedly, I probably should have left when I heard the screaming from the porch. When Ella called me and asked if I could pick up Cam and Jacob from school, I knew something was amiss. She always gets the boys from school. It’s part of her routine.
It was even more startling to pull into the yard with the boys and see Drew’s car. I sent Cam and Jacob to my house as I made my way over here. Hearing Drew talk to her the way he did had me ready to walk into the house and beat my friend’s ass. I had to stand out there and take a few deep breaths before I walked in.
Glad I came in when I did. Things were about to go south really fast. I take a seat on the edge of the chair beside AJ. He leans back on the couch and tosses his head back.
“Talk to me,” I demand.
He shakes his head. “I let it get to me.”
“Let what get to you, kid?”
He shakes his head again. “This stupid kid was making fun of the quiet, chubby girl in class. I told him to knock it off, and he made a rude comment about me screwing fat chicks, and I lost it.” He lets out a deep sigh. “I know it was stupid, Uncle Mitch. But seeing her sit there taking all that idiots' remarks just got under my skin.”
I let him finish his story. Not going to lie, I feel better about why he started the fight, but I need him to be able to handle these situations better.
“I commend you for standing up for the young lady. No woman should be talked down to like that by a man. Can’t say I’d have handled it any better than you did.” I chuckle.
He cut his eyes to me before sitting up.
“You also wouldn’t spend your entire weekend with your son talking badly about his mother.” The words come out low, but I hear them.
