Page 11 of Despite It All
“Uh, yeah, no problem.” Matt glances at me, and all I can do is shrug before my sisters each take an arm and drag me inside.
“Wow, guys, what’s going on?”
“Just hurry up,” Waverley snaps.
They pull me in the house then peer out the sliding glass door.
I cross my arms and huff. “Okay, guys, what the hell is going on? Tell me right now.”
My sisters glance at each other and Waverley nods for Winry to start. “So, Anna is here, and she brought her brother with her.”
“Okay, and? I told her it was okay. What's the big deal? What, is he weird or something?”
Waverley snorts. “No, but he’s a super-hot blonde whose name is Jett.”
My eyes go wide. It couldn’t be… could it?
“Well, I’m fairly positive there is more than one person named Jett in this world. I’m sure it’s a coincidence.”
“Yeah, possibly.” Winry shrugs. “But I mean, I don’t know of any Jetts besides the one who knocked you up…but there’s one way to find out for sure. Look out this way. Owen and Graham are stalling them.”
I want to move and look, but I’m terrified. What if it’s him? What if it’s not him? It can’t be him—there’s no way. I mean, really, the chances that Jett just stumbled into his own daughter’s birthday party nearly five years later is something that happens in books and movies.
“Oh, come look, you’re killing us.” Waverley pulls me in front of her so I can look out the door, and all it takes is one quick glance to confirm that I have indeed left reality. Because Stevie’s dad just waltzed right into his own daughter’s birthday party, and he doesn’t have a single clue. Someone call Jerry Springer. He’s got an announcement to make.
“Well, is it him?” Winry asks.
Is this room spinning? I think it is. “That’s Stevie’s dad. Oh fuck, I need to sit down.”
Winry turns one of the kitchen chairs around, and I collapse into it. “You’re sure?”
My head barely bobs up and down. “This doesn’t make any sense… How is he here?”
“Apparently, he’s Anna’s brother. She’s only ever called him J, and we’ve never told anyone Stevie’s dad’s name.” Waverley peers back out the glass. “What do we do? Do we ask him to leave and you can call him later? Kind of feels like now isn’t the right time.”
Winry swats her arm. “Then tell him what? You know that party we kicked you out of? Yeah, that was your daughter’s birthday.”
Wav swats her back. “Don’t hit me. I was trying to say—”
“Guys!” I interrupt their oncoming bickering. “What do I do? When he sees me with Stevie, he might get suspicious. I don’t want to find out how he’s going to react in front of an audience.” Then an even more terrifying thought enters my mind. “Shit, what if he doesn’t recognize me? What if he has no memory of me at all?”
Winry bends down in front of me. “Oh Wyla, he’ll recognize you.”
“We don’t know that, Win. It's been five years. Five!” I bury my face in my hands.
Fuck, what do I do?His face has been seared into my brain. Despite having a few drinks that night, we were nowhere close to being drunk, but that doesn’t mean I had the same impact on him that he had on me.
Waverley bends down too and squeezes my hand. “Wyla, what do you want us to do? We’ll do whatever you think is best for right now, but you know you have to tell him.”
I take a deep breath. “I know, I know. Do you think we could get him inside so I could at least talk to him privately? Or far away from Dad, specifically.” Gah, Dad’s going to lose his shit.
“Yeah, I’ll text Owen to bring them inside. He’ll think of some excuse.” Waverley pulls out her phone, thumbs flying across her screen.
“Why don’t we go to the living room?” Win asks, taking my hand. She tries to force me to sit, but now that I’m up, I can’t manage to sit back down.
I start to pace. Waiting for them to come in feels like an eternity. Biting at my nails, my mind starts to race. Shit, what do I say?
Waverley joins Winry on the couch, watching me dig a ditch in the carpet with all my pacing.
