“Baby,” Cole says in a pained voice. “Let me help you.” He gets down on his knees beside me and tries to take the scrub away from me, but I yank my arms away from him.
“No!” I yell. “I have to do it. I have to clean it! This is my fault!” I wail as my body shakes violently.
He grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me roughly one time. “Look at me!” he shouts. I do and all I see the sorrow in his bloodshot eyes, so I close my eyes. “Look at me, dammit!” My eyes remain closed as I shake my head stubbornly. “Look. At. Me. Blake,” he repeats again.
“I can’t,” I say, my voice barely a whisper.
“Please. Please look at me,” he pleads brokenly as he lets go of my arms. I open my eyes and feel my face twist in agony as I start to cry again. I throw my arms around his neck and sob uncontrollably as I squeeze him.
“I’m so sorry,” I say in between sobs. “I’m so so sorry.”
He wraps his arms around me tightly. “Baby, it’s not your fault. None of this is your fault. Please don’t blame yourself. I know your heart is as broken as ours. She was a mother to you too.”
“Oh God,” I say as my chest heaves. “Why? Why? Why her? WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?” Our bodies tremble as we hold each other, sitting over our loved one’s spilled blood, tasting the smell of iron and Clorox that now lingers around the kitchen.
He pushes away and wipes his face with the back of his long sleeved shirt before wiping mine with his thumbs and kissing my forehead.
“We’re going to be okay, baby. Leave this, let’s call a cleaning company to do this,” he says softly.
I shake my head. “No. I have to do it. Let me do it, please.” He takes a deep breath and nods slowly.
“Okay,” he agrees, “but let me help you.”
I don’t want his help I want to do it on my own, but he insists on helping me—like he always does. So we scrub together. We scrub until the skin is peeling from our knuckles.
Becky and Greg get in later that night and we all comfort each other by looking at photos of all of us together and telling stories about Maggie.
“You know she told Cole to stay away from you, right?” Aubry says smiling sadly.
“What do you mean? When?” I ask confused. I’d never heard that before.
“When you got here from Shelley’s. She sat us both down and she said she wasn’t worried about me because she didn’t see me ogle you. But Cole, she told him...what was it that she told you, dude?” Aubry asks turning his face to look at Cole.
Cole lets out a laugh. “She told me that if I knew what was good for me, I would stay away from Blake. That she saw the way I kept looking at her and she wasn’t sure she could deal with a pregnant teenager in her house,” he says smiling. “She even said if I tried to chase after you, she’d find you another home to live in.”
“What?” I shriek. “I can’t believe that!”
Aubry chuckles at my reaction. “Obviously she was kidding! She just didn’t want Cole to be trying to have sex with you.”
“But still! She never said anything to me at all,” I say frowning. “I can’t believe that. She seemed so happy when we finally started dating.”
Cole smiles brightly. “That’s because I asked her blessing the night of that Halloween party.”
I laugh and crinkle my nose. “You asked for her blessing to drag me out of a party because you saw me making out with another guy, and practically forced me to start dating you?”
Aubry, Aimee, Becky, and Greg laugh collectively as Cole snickers and gets up to sit on the floor beside me. He sits so close to me, that I’m forced to turn my body to meet his ardent gaze.
He grabs both sides of my face as he softly strokes my cheeks with his thumbs. “First of all, that guy you were kissing, was a douche. Second of all, I didn’t force you to do anything. You wanted me from the moment you stepped into this house. You think I didn’t notice your catty looks every time I brought a girl over?” he asks with a raised eyebrow. “Why do you think I kept doing it?” he smirks when my mouth drops open. “I knew you wanted me, but I also knew you were scared of getting involved, so I left you alone until I couldn’t take being without you anymore.” He leans in and nibbles on my bottom lip before he coaxes it open and caresses my tongue with his. For a moment we’re lost in a world where only he and I exist. Where nobody can harm us or tear us apart. We’re in heaven, until Aubry clears his throat loudly, and we’re brought back to reality.