Page 21 of A Love So Wrong
"What is it?" he called out, taking long determined strides to the girl. "Is mom ok? What's wrong?"
The stricken look on Jade's face felt like a vise on his heart, clamping down around it in painful worry.
Standing up to meet him, Jade looked up at him with overly bright eyes as if tears were ready to fall at any moment. "He called Gideon, he called her while I was out. When I got home, she told me that she invited him back home."
The clamp around his heart hardened until every vein in his body felt like stone. There was no need to clarify who “he” was, Gideon knew.
Looking over her head towards the darkened windows of the house, Gideon could imagine his mother sleeping happily in her bed. Did she even know what she just did? Did she even care to know?
Dropping his gaze back down, worried hazel eyes met his. She was waiting for him, waiting for him to tell her what they were going to do, waiting for him to assure her. But dear God, he had nothing. Normally, he would have turned to Henry. Henry was the one who had years and years of experience and wisdom. Henry was the one who never let his anger take over when things went bad, he would just calmly access the situation and handle it. But now Henry was gone, and for the first time in a long time, Gideon felt a brief moment of doubt. Was he even half the man Henry was?
Soft and warm, the pressure of a familiar hand wrapping around his pulled him from his thoughts. Looking down, he stared at the slim hand closing around his and immediately felt his confidence pump through his bloodstream once again. Pulling her hand until she leaned closer, Gideon wrapped his arms around Jade and held her tightly.
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out."
~*~
Ron arrived just as Henry predicted. Stepping out of a sky-blue van that had certainly seen better days, Ron looked nothing like Jade had expected. As he walked into the house, Jade had watched as his eyes, the same grayish-blue as his mother’s, scanned the rooms and halls. She expected his face to be like his father's, kind and round, or that he would have the gentle demeanor of their mother. He had none of those things. A narrow-faced man with a greasy mop of hair that parted down the middle and hung shaggily around his ears, Ron seemed to be made up with the worst features of the wrong parent. With barely concealed contempt, Ron's sharp eyes darted around the house Jade had painstakingly straightened and cleaned, as if everything was out of place from how he left it years ago, and seeing it now out of place only angered him. Lagging behind him was the woman he introduced as his girlfriend, Marie. Pale blotchy skin, the woman reminded Jade of a wilted sun-bleached daisy. There was a hardened fatigue around the woman, a kind of permanent tiredness that only the constant rigors of life could cause.
Gideon and Jade sat awkwardly in the kitchen that day as Sandra cooed and fussed over her estranged son in the living room, as if he had merely been out of town for a month and not kicked out of his home and family years ago. Sitting at the kitchen table, Jade tried to discreetly examine the man's narrow stooping back as he conversed and caught up with his mother. Jade tried to imagine that maybe it was all just a big misunderstanding, and maybe just maybe Henry had made a mistake about his son. But as she looked down at Gideon's clenched fist lying on the table next to her and his bright amber eyes watching the man with suspicious alertness she had never seen before, she turned her eyes back to Ron and reconsidered.
Unfortunately, Ron and his girlfriend didn't leave when the evening arrived, and the sun faded behind the trees. With little to no choice, Jade found herself setting down extra plates around their dining room table as Gideon begrudgingly carried an extra chair over to the table. Sitting down in her usual spots between her mother and Gideon, Jade did her best to ignore the feeling of repulsion as Ron sat in Henry's empty chair.
"Goddamn, this looks good," Ron exclaimed, his eyes going wide over the full plate of food before him. Grabbing his fork and knife, he didn't bother with grace as he began cutting into the tender pork chop. "See Marie, this is why you need to learn to cook. I told you my momma was the best cook around."
Marie didn't say anything as she took a huge bite of her macaroni.
"Actually," Sandra began proudly. “Your sister, Jade, cooked all of this."
The forced reminder of the family title seemed to draw all the sound out of the room, leaving it awkward and stark before Ron finally grinned with a mouth full of food.
Wiping his mouth with a napkin he rested one arm on his thigh and tilted his head to the side as he gave Jade a slow considering look that made her skin crawl. "Did she now?" Ron said slowly. "I have to say, little sis, you did one helluva job."
Jade could feel the tension swirling and coalescing next to her. Not brave enough to turn and look, she could feel Gideon's anger lap against every surface in the room. Hardly touching his food, Gideon sat next to her like a stoic giant. Already taller than everyone in the room, Gideon sat ramrod straight in his chair, towering over everyone as if at any moment he was ready to leap out of his seat and attack.
As if sensing the tension, Ron took another huge bite of food and turned his slippery dark gaze to the source, the determination to play with fire evident in his expression.
"So, I hear you’re just boy-wonder of Stardust, huh?" Ron asked glibly before turning his gaze to her. "And you're like a genius or something?"
"No, I'm just a regular student," she said carefully, painfully aware of Gideon's rising tension.
Before Ron could reply, Gideon leaned forward and placed one elbow onto the table's edge with crafted casualness. "And where would you hear that from, exactly?" Gideon asked, mirroring the same flippant tone Ron had used. "Since you know, you don’t live here and all."
Anger flashed in Ron's eyes. "I got friends everywhere."
Gideon nodded with a smile that only made Jade's stomach drop. "I'm sure you do. In high and low places."
The sound of Ron's fist slamming against the dinner table caused all the women to jump as the silverware jangled from the force. "Ok, let's just get this out and done with," Ron growled. "Do you have something to say, pretty boy? You don't like me, is that it? Did Henry fill your heads with how fucking terrible a son I was?"
"Yeah, I got a problem with you," Gideon said, standing up from the table and leaning both fists onto the table's hard surface.
Covering one of his fists with her hand, Jade squeezed it as she looked up to him, trying to pull his attention back to her. "Gideon, please."
Gideon ignored her. "You show up the moment dad dies with fake concern over mom. You have been MIA for years, and now you show up,” Gideon gestured with his hand and gave a knowing smirk. “I'm just waiting for the excuse, the reason you’re going to tell mom why you think you should stay here. How are you going to weasel back in—"
Now it was Ron who was getting up from his chair. "You haven't heard from me because my bastard father kicked me out on the streets," he yelled. "You haven't heard from me because while he replaced me for you,” he spat viciously, pain and resentment coating his words. “I was out struggling to survive."
"Boys, please," Sandra cried out, looking frantically at both men who were circling the table towards each other.
