Bad for You by Weston Parker

32

BRITTANY

If there had been a time in my life that I’d ever been this happy before, I couldn’t remember it. School had let out last week, and Lou and I had been getting to know each other. Tristin was around a lot too, with us every minute he could spare, and it was starting to feel like we were a family.

We played board games, took trips to lots of fun and interesting places in the area, had movie nights on the couch with popcorn, and were getting into a daily routine. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, but I hadn’t expected it would be.

Lou often cried about things that had happened in his past. He cried for the loss of his father and now his mother, who had taken off without saying goodbye as well. We had her forwarding address, and I knew the lawyer and social worker had been talking to her, but she hadn’t even asked to see Lou before she’d left.

There had been a few nights when he’d cried himself to sleep, and all I could do was hold him while he’d let it out. Bursts of anger still came out of him at times, but we were working toward providing him with the tools he needed to channel it all in healthier ways. We had a long road ahead of us, but I was committed to him and being at his side every step of the way. So was Tristin.

The guidance counselor and social worker assigned to his case had been absolute angels in our lives as well. They helped us a lot, providing whatever support and guidance they could to make the transition easier. We were lucky in that respect.

I’d heard so many horror stories about kids in Lou’s situation and what they went through with the authorities, but that just wasn’t true for us. While there had been bumps in the road, we were actually doing really well under the circumstances.

Lou was blossoming before my very eyes, doing better with each passing day. I’d known that children were resilient, but now I was getting to witness it firsthand, and I was in awe of Lou for it.

The professionals supporting us had advised that we give him a little time to adjust before bringing up making the arrangement permanent. Tristin had been worried about taking too much time, but the social worker had assured him that she was satisfied we were committed and that she knew we were waiting for the dust to settle for his benefit.

We’d finally received the go-ahead from them, and I was planning on talking to Lou about it tonight. Tristin had said he’d be there too, but I didn’t want Lou to feel like we were boxing him in or ambushing him.

It had to be his decision as much as it was ours, so I’d told Tristin to let me break it to him and that I would text him to come over once Lou had had some time to process.

Lou and I were at the park now, and I was watching him run around with some other kids, having fun and smiling. It filled my entire being with warmth and joy to see him this way, and all I wanted to do was go over there to give him a big hug, but I kept my distance. Some of the kids he was playing with now were other students, and it was important that he socialize with them without my interference.

So I just sat on a bench under an old oak tree, watching him and preparing myself for tonight as best I could. I really wanted our talk to go well, and I was scrolling through articles on my phone looking for tips on how to approach the conversation in a gentle way.

Shelley’s name popped up on my screen with an incoming call, and I smiled as I slid my thumb across the green bar. “Hey, girl. How are you? We’ve only been on break for a few days. You can’t be missing me already.”

“I am, actually,” she said, but there was something off about her tone. “That’s not why I’m calling, though.”

“What’s wrong?” My brows tugged together as panic chilled my blood. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She blew out a breath. “It’s you I’m worried about. Have you seen the news yet?”

“What news? Tonight is the big night, so I’ve been a little preoccupied today. What’s going on?”

Even as I asked the question, I knew her call was about Tristin. She still had that alert set up for him, and if she was calling with news, it was about something she’d seen from that alert.

Dread sank into my bones, making them feel as heavy as lead as I waited for her to reply. “I don’t know if I should tell you, Brit. I don’t want to hurt you, and it could be nothing.”

“If it’s in the news, I need to know about it anyway. Even if it does turn out to be nothing.” Those pictures of him at lunch with Faye appeared behind my lids when I closed my eyes, and a shiver ran down my spine.

“It’s just that you’ve been so happy lately, and Tristin seems to be an amazing guy. I don’t want to cause trouble. Maybe you should phone him and ask. I just wanted to check in to make sure you were okay.”

Fear sparked deep down inside me, joining the dread to turn my entire skeleton into a frozen weight that rendered me completely immobile. “Please tell me what’s going on. You’re scaring me.”

“Shit. I didn’t mean to do that.” My phone beeped after a brief pause on her end of the line. “I’ve sent you the link to the article I saw, but let’s not jump to any conclusions, okay?”

I pulled my phone away from my ear without making any promises I didn’t know if I’d be able to keep. The article was from one of the city’s prominent gossip pages, with a headline jumping out at me reading, “Billionaire’s Love Triangle.”

My stomach bottomed out when I saw those words, but I forced myself to keep going. Underneath the headline was a photo of me kissing Tristin next to his car that day at the arcade. Next to that picture was another, one of him kissing Faye in that very same fucking car.

It was dark, but there was no mistaking that it was him. And her. The date stamp on the picture of them was for only a couple of days after we’d gotten back from the coast.

Disbelief slammed into me, but there was no denying what I was looking at. Just a couple of days after he’d convinced me that I was his world and that he didn’t give a fuck about anyone else, he’d been kissing the woman his mother had supposedly chosen for him.

I couldn’t help it. I lost it right then and there, turning my body away from the playground so Lou wouldn’t see the tears streaming down my cheeks. He’d had an explanation for their lunch together, and I’d believed him. Selena hadn’t been in those pictures, but I could see how she could’ve orchestrated it that way.

She also wasn’t in this picture, but that meant she wasn’t physically pushing their heads together to make them kiss. No, she couldn’t have orchestrated this. There was no way.

“Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation for it again,” Shelley said after a minute. “It might not be what it looks like.”

“The photo speaks for itself,” I said, every insecurity I’d felt about being in his life rushing back to the surface. “That’s the woman his mother has chosen for him. Obviously, he’s decided to listen to her after all. I fucking knew this was going to happen. I knew he’d figure out sooner or later that he needed someone like her instead of someone like me.”

“You don’t know for sure that’s what happened,” she said cautiously. “It could be another setup.”

“Have you accidentally tripped and kissed someone while you were sitting in your car?”

“Uh, no—”

“Exactly. Neither have I. Kissing doesn’t just happen, and from the looks of things, that wasn’t just a friendly peck either. She’s got her hands in his hair and everything.” I screwed my eyes shut in a desperate attempt to stop the tears. My heart was ripping itself to shreds in my chest, but it wasn’t Shelley’s fault. I couldn’t snap at her about it, and I couldn’t let Lou see me this way. “Can I come drop Lou off at your place just for a few hours, please?”

“Of course. My nephew is the same age, and he and my sister are visiting. Take all the time you need. He’ll be fine here.”

“Thank you,” I choked out, my throat so tight that it was almost painful to speak. “We’ll see you soon.”

It took me longer than I was proud of to get myself together enough to face Lou. In the space of that one phone call, my life had fallen to pieces, but that didn’t mean he had to know about it just yet. He loved Tristin. I couldn’t yank the rug out from underneath him again when he was only just finding his footing.

Thankfully, I had a small package of wipes and a compact mirror in my purse. After putting myself back together the best I could, I gathered up Lou and told him I was dropping him off at Shelley’s for a while.

He looked confused over the change of plans for a minute, but then he shrugged when I told him Shelley’s nephew was vising. “Sure. That sounds like fun. Ms. Hart is nice. I hope he is too.”

“I’m sure he will be,” I said in as confident a tone as I could muster, my fingers white-knuckling the steering wheel as I fought to hold back the deluge of emotion threatening to break free at any given moment.

Shelley, being the rock star of a friend that she was, was waiting for us on her porch. She ushered Lou in as fast as she could, hugged me, and told me again that he was welcome to stay as long as I needed him to.

Once I was back in my car, I picked up my phone with shaking hands and texted Tristin to come over. It took me another few minutes to calm the flow of tears enough again that I could see, and then I drove home for the big confrontation.

It felt like the floor had dropped out from underneath me and I was plummeting into the depths of hell itself. Was I being cheated on? Lied to?

Was I the dirty mistress? The not-so-secret lover of the powerful man? Dear Lord, has he really turned me into a cliché on top of everything else?

I didn’t want to believe it. Didn’t want to believe that Tristin was such a good actor, such a good liar, that I’d really fallen for nothing but empty lines and bullshit promises. But those pictures spoke a thousand words, and none of them were ones I wanted to hear.