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Seventeen

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It had worked pretty nicely, she guessed, because what happened after she left the house was a turn.

Nathan was outside within five minutes, and she knew why.

She'd been waiting for him.

"April!" He called her name, approaching the area she stood, a few feet away from where Hannah and the others were listening to Shawn sing. In fact, if she listened closely enough, she could hear their clapping along to the song.

"Have you lost your mind?"

"In general or the mind you've always liked poking at?"

"I'm serious, don't joke right now, I'm very serious."

She shrugged. "Well good then, dad always says be serious, right?"

"What were you trying to cause? A fight?"

"Between me and Dad?"

"Who gives a fuck what your deal with dad is?!" He raved. "I was talking about Javier. He's trying to finally get in his dad's graces after all the stupid shit he's done in the past, with your influence! What do you think you're doing now? Reminding Klein of reasons to hate his own son again?"

"You're talking bullcrap, Javier's dad doesn't even know his middle name. What does he know about him to make him hate his son?"

"Enough shit to make it possible, April! You don't know what it's like to be an heir. The responsibility it carries."

"That's so important to you doesn't mean it is to every first born son in the world. The fact that you've committed your life into kissing dad's ass and swimming in his footsteps doesn't exactly mean that's what everyone wants. Your lifestyle isn't as priced as you think...and it sure as hell isn't near perfect."

Point made, she started walking towards the others to rejoin their game.

Nathan could follow if he wanted.

"What's wrong?" Paige was the first to ask, cutting Shawn off on his 'stitches' chorus, and soon all the clapping stopped, and all pairs of eyes were plastered onto April and Nathan.

Malia got up to attempt a typical 'what's wrong darling' on him, but he'd ignored her like good authors to negative comments.

"Nothing, I'll be inside."

"You alright?" Amanda asked him, halting his step. It would've screeched had he been in a car. He turned around as if making sure, then nodded slowly, before turning around again.

"April, what happened?"

She plopped down beside Shawn, dusted her knee and prepared the best words to reply Hannah. "Dad's gonna lose his shit."

Her eyes widened and she got up in a hurry, heading for the inside.

The others, excluding Malia, who was facing the ground trained their eyes on her.

She smiled and clasped her hand to Shawn's. "Where'd we stop, stitches? I love that song."

"Same," Paige deadpanned.

|••|•|••|

An hour later, April was in pyjamas, debating whether or not she could sleep in the same bedroom as Amanda.
Her head had cleared a little, but the memories of everything cleaved to her.
She remembered every single word she'd spoken, and the only thing she regretted was the 'we' slip up in front of Javier's father.

What if it had caused problems?

"Hey, sweetie," Hannah greeted, snaking an arm around her shoulders as she did.

She swallowed and turned to face her. "Hey," she said back, just when Hannah engulfed her into a hug.

"Going to sleep?" She asked.

"Yeah, not so sure."

"Want coffee instead? I know you're drunk," she chuckled, leading her away from the door and back downstairs.

Was it that obvious?

"Is it obvious?"

Hannah shook her head. "Not if I was a stranger, but I'm your stepmom, and on top of that, I know a drunk teenager when I see one, no matter how slight."

She smiled and took a seat at the chilled marble counter, while Hannah reached up for coffee beans to begin the night.

"What did you have? Alcohol smoothies?" She asked, unscrewing the jar lid with her back to April.

April's brows wrinkled. "Y-yeah, how'd you know?"

Hannah smirked and adjusted her pink, flowery robe. "Shawn told me."

"That's how you know I'm drunk," April disclosed, pointing toward her. "You're sneaky."

"Thanks," she smiled and began the brewing.

By the time the cup was set in front of April, her eyes were trained on the counter, her thoughts from earlier doing rounds of sprints in her head.

"Wanna talk about it?" Hannah asked in a low voice, retying the robe and settling down beside her with her own cup.

"Should you be–" She gestured to the cup, vaguely remembering a talk on the radio about who should and shouldn't drink coffee.

"Nah, it's fine, I diluted it. I'm not far along anyway, just three months."

She pulled her cup toward herself. "Oh, good. And not good, you're gonna get mad at me for what I said."

Hannah smiled and patted her back. "What? About your mother?"

Her eyes widened as Hannah chuckled.

"Dad told you?"

"We talk, sweetie...it's a major part of all relationships. Always, always talk."

She took a sip, letting the hot liquid envelope her tongue. It was just the right temperature; hot enough to remind you of its presence and cool enough not to scald your tongue if you drank slowly. "I just needed a scorer, you know? And she seemed the next best thing."

"Mhm, and you used the fact that she what exactly?"

"Thought you said you 'talked?'"

Hannah chuckled and nodded. "We did, and he got me that far before falling asleep," she said, blowing against the invisible steam on her mug. "Plus, he doesn't ever say much about your mother. I don't blame him, there's just some issues we haven't fully talked about yet."

April cocked her head to the side in surprise. "Like what?"

"Well, for starters my own past relationship. I've never really explained in details, just as he hasn't yet opened up fully about your mother. I can tell she was everything though."

She sighed and took another sip, leaning both elbows on the still cold marble top. "Well, her name's Leah, so piece of knowledge from me."

Hannah chuckled. "I will take that into account."

A small moment of silence passed before Hannah spoke again.

"Sweetie, I know you're going through this stage right now, and everything seems jumbled up and scary, but trust me when I say this–" she leaned in. "–It is terrifying, and makes you mad and want to quit so badly."

"You can say that again," April chuckled.

Hannah got up and stretched her hands out. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm pregnant! You know how scary that is?"

Her brows knitted. "Um...Hannah?"

"Right, right, you couldn't possibly," she laughed. "But let me tell you, I am currently thirty eight years old, and I am scared as hell."

The way she'd said it made April laugh, because she'd suddenly gone crazy, raising both her legs.

"You okay?"

"Caffeine." Hannah nodded and held out a thumbs up. "Coffee at night is never a good idea for me, no matter how small."

"Yeah, and you're pregnant, you should've known that! You've done this once before!"

April couldn't help but laugh at Hannah getting hyper as she held out one hand, with two fingers up.

"Twice."

"What?"

"I've done this twice."

Did that mean–

"Paige has a sibling?!"

Hannah chuckled and sat down again. "No, Brody didn't let me get keep it."

Another shocker. "Brody?"

Hannah nodded. "My ex-husband," she whispered as if there was a taboo on saying those words.

April nodded, a silent request for her to go on. She wouldn't force it out of her, but there was probably a story coming next.

Hannah sighed and took her white mug between her palms. "Brody was good," she started. "He used to be so sweet and calm and at the time in my life, I felt I had it all. I was new to college at eighteen and Brody and I had been together for three years prior to that. All was going well and I thought it was it," she paused to sip again.

"So naturally, I didn't second guess when he asked me to marry him. We did straight away, despite my mother's warnings against it. She never liked Brody, but to me, he was the ideal man."

April nodded, watching Hannah's shoulders release from their hold as she exhaled, going right back into the story.

"Things went fine until we got our own house and started actually living together against our parents that shit hit the fan. He would come home drunk or high, and I wouldn't know what the problem was. Naturally, I blamed myself like I had been the problem. He actually made me feel that way because he got physical at some point."

Wait what?

"He'd come home at 3AM, screaming my name and asking for something incoherent. When I couldn't deliver, he'd take his belt, or anything within reach and just lash out on me, calling me names, saying I was perfect, out of his league while still hitting me."

"Asshole," April couldn't help but say.

Hannah nodded. "It went on like that for months, and I kept going back because I believed that was my only chance at finding love. My mother's marriage didn't make it, neither did my grandmother's, or her own mother's."

Well shit.

"I wanted to be the deal breaker, so I went back every time after recovering. It was during one of his lashes that I lost my first pregnancy...It had been a boy. I left him for that."

"Better,"

She shook her head. "Worse, actually. He came back begging me and promising to be better. He went to rehab, he made friends, bought me flowers and all, so I went back again. Gave it three weeks and well, it started again."

April had since dropped her mug, but Hannah was still clutching hers as she told the story like it was nothing.

"... It was until I found out I was carrying Paige that I knew I had to leave completely. My second chance at having another life companion made me realise I'd failed to break the curse."

She continued to narrate how she'd gotten a place in Washington with her mother's help, how she'd moved in, and how she'd met Patrick on her first day.

"Wait, Patrick who?" April interrupted.

"Patrick O'Brien," Hannah giggled. "We met at the bank, nothing happened, but something happened all at the same time."

April's eyebrows furrowed. "And here I was thinking you two met because of me and Paige!"

"No, no, no, we did. I just didn't believe in fate, you know? I once thought I had everything and then I lost all and I was recovering and the next thing I know I'm meeting some man in a suit offering to 'pay for my parking.'" She did air quotes on 'pay for my parking'.

April chuckled. "Right?"

"We wouldn't have really met if it hadn't been for your annoying asses playing matchmaker, so thank you, again. Forgetting your shoes and bags at each other's houses and leaving your homework in Paige's bag all the time gave me my happy continuation."

Both women laughed. April noticed Hannah had said 'continuation', not happy ending just yet.

"Wish I'll end as happy as you are."

"You will if you listen to your heart–"

"But–"

"No, no, let me finish," Hannah cut her off. "You cannot, I repeat, cannot listen to your heart if you're already thinking of what you want it to say."

April smiled. Okay that made sense.

"Wanna know what Mine's saying right now?"

She nodded. "What?"

"I love you, April."

"Wanna know what mine is?" She chuckled as she replied with the same nod. "I love you, too." And a bunch of other things she left unsaid in that moment.

Hannah reached out to hug her again.
"You know, I'm actually so happy I just told you that...I feel I could tell your dad."

April's brows went up like smoke. "Really? What if it doesn't make him open up?"

"That's another thing I'm exercising."

"What's that?"

Hannah smiled and pushed her mug toward April. "A leap of faith."

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