Jane
Brandon spent the entire day sleeping. At lunchtime, I went to ask him for lunch, but he was fast asleep, so I left him alone, not disturbing his sleep.
It was almost dinnertime, and I was preparing some food when I heard a knock on the front door.
I opened the door, coming face to face with Brandon standing in the doorway. His eyes focused down on the ground as he brushed his hand over his hair.
“Jane,”
I moved aside from the door, giving him the space to enter the house.”Come in.”
Liam and Marlene are both in the living room watching Frozen. But seeing Brandon enter the house, Marlene jumps from her seat beside Liam, racing towards her daddy, and landing directly in his arms. “Daddy,”
“Are you alright, now daddy?” Marlene asked Brandon.
Brandon appeared puzzled by her question. “What do you mean?”
“Jane said…, you’re sick, and that’s why you are resting in the house. We should not disturb you,” she said, burrowing herself in his embrace.
Brandon directed his eyes at me, staring at me.
I avoided his glance, changing the subject. “Let’s eat before the food gets cold,” I said, leaving the three of them alone.
Brandon’s presence in my house reminds me of the emotions, and the procrastinating thoughts I haven’t felt in years.
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Brandon is my best friend and nothing else. I always have to remember it.
“So explain now,” I asked Brandon after the kids went to sleep.
“Explain, what?” Brandon replied, taking a sip of tea from his cup.
“Explain what happened to you earlier,” I said, sitting beside him on the couch.
Brandon stared at me for a few moments in silence, sipping the tea from his cup silently.
My feet started tapping on the floor. Without even my knowledge, annoyed by the silence between us, “Cat got your tongue or what?” I urged, not enduring the silence anymore between us.
Brandon placed the cup on the table. “Why do you want to know?”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay if you don’t want to share it; just know that I’ll always be by your side, in pain and, in happiness, just like you did with me,” Brandon turned his head towards me, with both our eyes staring at each other.
“I’ll never forget the day when I was so lost and alone, and you were the one who was always there for me when I needed you the most, you never left my side whenever I was alone, lost….. It’s because of you, that Liam is also here with us.” Tears started streaming down my eyes as I was speaking, “Just so you know that you’re not alone,” I said, brushing the tears away from my face with the back of my hands.
“Jane,” Brandon wrapped me in his arms and hugged me tightly all of a sudden. “I’m sorry for worrying you, but I feel so lost that I don’t know what to do. I’m helpless,” he said, not leaving my arms.
“What do you mean?” I questioned as Brandon separated himself from me. “She is going to take her away from me,”
“Who is she?” I asked,
“Marian,”
“Who? And how can she take her away from you?” I questioned and Brandon glanced at me, running his hand over his hair. “Marian is my ex-wife.”
Brandon’s married, and I’m hearing about it now. After five years, Great. “You are married, and you’re telling me now,”
“Was,” Brandon corrected with a stern face.
“Was…, but not once in the last five years, did you talk about her, not even to me,” I said. “I thought we were best friends.”
“We’re,” he said, putting his hands over mine. “The reason I never talk about her is that of our past.”
“Let’s say everyone is not fortunate to be in a relationship bound by love. In the beginning, everything seemed great. Then everything changed.”
I nodded at his words. Brandon is right, spending your whole life with someone is not as easy as we might think. Relationships are not always similar to the ones we see in movies or read in books. As teens, we always dreamlike fools about finding the one who’s made for us, something like a missing piece, a soul mate. But growing up, when faced with reality, we realize soul mates are myths or stories in children’s books that might seem good as a child, but as an adult, finding one is not enough to spend a whole life with them. Why do you think divorce happened in the first place? It’s not because you don’t love the ones you married, but because the bond, the spark that you once felt with your partner, no longer excites you the same way. Maybe that is the case in Brandon’s life. I don’t know I haven’t had time to be married.
“Why are you talking about her now, then?”
“Because she filed a report against me in the court, desiring full custody of Marlene, taking her away from my life forever,” he said, with his voice filled with rage and fury.
“How… I mean, why?” I questioned, raging at the thought.