Breaking the Cycle

Chapter 5

Vincent

I was struggling to hold myself back, but when I saw Claire going pale I had enough. I’m pretty sure Crystal heard me yell.

When Claire was back in bed I couldn’t help but ask why she stayed with him. She only stayed because she was scared to lose another friend. The guilty feeling grew inside me. I hope that she could see that I never left her. Maybe she already knows how much of an ass Levi really is, but was just scared she’d walk away like I did.

I watched her sleep and without realizing it I had fallen asleep beside her. I remember having the same nightmare of when we had our argument near the end of eighth grade. I was reaching out for her as I watched her walk away. I remember crying out for her not to leave.

The next thing I see is her lying next to me. I feel her hand gently caress my face and I place my head in the crook of her neck. Taking in her delicious scent. I kissed her neck and then I heard her whisper my name and when I nibbled at her neck she let out the sweetest sounding moan I have ever heard. That’s when I realized it wasn’t a dream. I jumped out of the bed so fast that I nearly fell over the chair.

I was glad she didn’t bring it up because I didn’t know how I was going to explain that I was having a fantasy about her. She was weird all through dinner and I didnt know why till I found out she had seen a text that Katie had sent me.

There really was nothing going on between me and Katie. We messed around a little, but I never went further than that. She only came to me when Levi couldn’t satisfy her.

I’ve caught them in the act a few times at some parties before Claire started dating him. He had cut off Katie for a while, but I guess since Claire wasn’t putting out he started to go back.

I only found this out last weekend when Levi had left her high and dry to go spend time with Claire at the Cafe. She just kept whining and complaining about how she was better than Claire and he would realize it soon enough.

Claire seemed to forgive me and we spent the rest of our time watching a movie. We had talked till almost one in the morning and finally fallen asleep. Only to be woken up by Crystal at four in the morning.

“You know if Mason catches you in here again you’ll both be in for an earful”

I stretched and snuck back to my room. I loved Crystal. She was always cool to me. She was never scared to tell us the truth even when everyone else thought we were too young.

I thought about asking her about my birth mom, but decided I better just keep this between me and Claire. My head just hit the pillow when I got a text from Claire.

‘Thank you :)’ - Claire

I was tired, but now it seemed harder to sleep. I was able to hear Mason get ready and leave for work. Most of the time Crystal would leave a little later.

She came in to wake me up for school, but then said I looked like I was running a fever. She winked and said she’d call the school and let them know that me and Claire wouldn’t be attending today.

She was the best. I went downstairs to have breakfast with Crystal and Leon. I’m assuming Claire was still sleeping. Crystal walked Leon out to the bus stop and when she returned she poured herself another cup of coffee.

“So… did the two of you finally make up?” Crystal said sipping her coffee.

“What?”

“You can’t fool me. Claire came home crying the day you two fought and since then you were hardly around anymore, except for family dinners”

I was a bit embarrassed that she knew about our fight.

“What do you guys have planned for today?”

“Just catching up on school work”

“Alright. Please make sure she eats something”

“Will do”

She then took off for work. I decided to go check on Claire and see if she was awake. I made her some avocado toast and a cup of coffee. When I walked in I was surprised to see that she had already showered and was sitting in the middle of her room with papers strewn across the floor.

“Well good morning,” I sat the plate on the desk and handed her the cup of coffee.

“Morning”

“You’ve been busy”

“Yeah. I couldn’t sleep when my mom woke us up and decided to start on the homework we have. When I finished I decided to shower and get started on our search,” she stood up.

She had on maroon leggings and a white sports bra with a thin forest green sweater over it. Her hair was still wet, but she had it in a fishtail braid. It looked like she was ready to go for a run.

“What have you come up with?”

“Not much I haven’t been able to find much about our parents when they were kids. The only thing that I can think of is maybe searching the archives at the school. If our parents knew your birth ones then maybe they met at school”

“Good point. Looks like we’ll have to continue the search on Monday”

She took a sip of her coffee and only took a few bites out of her toast. She started to pick up the papers and placed them in a file for me. I couldn’t help staring at her when she started stretching.

“Isn’t track over?”

“There is one more meet and then that’s it for the season. Does Travis not talk about it?”

“Not really”

“Oh. He’s really good. I never get a chance to talk to him when we travel”

“He’s the same old Travis. You know you can always come hang out with us if you want”

“I’d like that,” she smiled.

I finally showered and we spent most of our time relaxing on the couch and searching on our phones for any information about myself or my birth parents until we heard a knock at the door.

“Are you expecting someone?” I looked at her.

“No,” she sat up and moved her legs off my lap, “maybe it’s for you?”

“Why would there be someone here to see me at your house?”

“I don’t know”

I got up and looked at the security panel screen and saw it was Levi. I opened the door and smiled when I saw him scowling at me.

“Where is she?” He hissed.

I gestured to welcome him in, still grinning. Claire was laying back down on the couch.

“Hey, how are you feeling? I tried to call you but you didn’t answer”

“What?” She looked at her phone, tapping on the screen, “it must’ve died.

“Typical,” I held out my hand and she placed her phone in it.

I walked to the side table and plugged it in, but when j did it turned on and the batter life was at 80 percent.

I saw her scoot up on the couch and he grabbed her legs and pulled them onto his lap making her scoot lower on the couch again.

“Sorry, I’m feeling better, just a bit nauseous”

I couldn’t help but laugh, which I tried to cover with a cough, earning glares from both of them. I know she was actually fine, but it was the smell of his cologne that made her nauseous.

“Can you let go of my legs please,” she pulled them back and held them against her chest.

I could see she was playing with her anklet to calm her nerves.

“I stopped by because I was hoping that if you were feeling up to it, our last game is tonight and I wanted to see if you would come,” he placed his hand on her knee.

I could see the look of guilt on her face.

“I’m sorry, but my dad won’t let me go since I missed school for being sick. It’s his whole, ‘if you're too sick to go to school then you're too sick to go out’ thing”

I could see the frustration building on his face.

“Maybe you can come to my house tomorrow. Everyone is coming over to pregame before the party”

“Party?”

“Yeah, not the one at Katie’s. This is one that some guy on our team is throwing to celebrate after the game”

“Sorry. I have to work tomorrow”

“Just tell them you have other plans”

“I can’t. Pop’s has a doctor appointment so they need me to come in”

“Tell them to figure it out for themselves. You shouldn’t have to be taking care of them and I don’t even understand why you work. Your parents are loaded and they still live in a small house like this”

He had said the wrong thing. He was starting to piss me off as well though.

“Get out,” she shot up off the couch.

“What? Why?”

“Got out now!”

“I was just about to leave anyway,” he headed for the door.

Claire behind him and me behind her.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he leaned in to kiss her.

“No you won’t,” she avoided his touch.

“Excuse me,” he took a step towards her trying to intimidate her.

“I’m not going to see you tomorrow. We’re done,” she took a step forward too.

It was cute to see her being so tough since there was a noticeable height difference. I don’t think he was dumb enough to try something while I was around, but I was still on gaurd just incase.

“What do you mean we’re done?”

“I will not leave my family to figure things out for themselves so I can hang out with you and your friends to drink. I work because my parents' money is theirs, not mine and we still live in this house because it is our home and we have everything we need here. I don’t ever want to see you at our house again”

“What are you saying?”

“It’s over Levi. Find some other girl to get your rocks off too”

I laughed when she said that. I tried really hard to compose myself, but I knew I made things worse for her.

“I see how it is. You're leaving me for this guy?”

“No”

“You two have the whole house to yourself and I’m supposed to believe you’ve done nothing all this time? Look at the way you're dressed,” he gestured to her outfit.

Leon had just come running up to the house and froze at the scene before him.

“Everything okay?” He asked.

“Just trying to figure out a topic for our thesis,” I smiled at him.

Leon’s eyes grew and he ran inside. Since we were little we were taught to have a safety word in case we were in a dangerous or uncomfortable situation. Our word was thesis.

“There is nothing wrong with the way I’m dressed, I'm not going to be shamed for wearing it. It’s the same thing I wear to the gym and track practice at school. It’s a lot more than what Katie wears,” I felt the chill in her voice as she said that and I know he did too, “maybe she can free up some time for you”

He turned red and when he would go to say something he would shut his mouth. He stomped back to his car, got in and sped away.

When we couldn’t see or hear his car anymore Claire sighed in relief. I saw her start to tremble.

“Hey,” I pulled her into a hug and slowly walked with her inside, closing the door behind us.

I walked to the couch and sat down, as she curled into a ball and rested her head on my chest.

“You did the right thing. He didn’t treat you the way you deserved to be treated”

“I know. I was just so scared and reckless. I know there was really nothing I could’ve done to make him leave”

“True, but I could’ve. I will always be here if you need me. I can run from your house to mine in 4 minutes easily”

She laughed and we heard the office door open slowly. Leon poked his head out.

“Is he gone?”

“Yeah he’s gone,” Claire sat up and put her arms out for him.

I have always been jealous that Claire had a sibling. They were so close. Most siblings would fight constantly, but these two hardly ever fought. Sure they’d have their moments, but they always made up by the end of the day.

As she sat there hugging him he turned to look up at her.

“What was that about?”

“We broke up”

“Finally, that guy was such an ass”

“Leon!”

“What? Vincent said it first”

“Vincent!”

“Hey! To be fair… was I wrong?”

She picked up the pillow and smacked me with it. We all sat there laughing and watching T.V like we used to.