TENNESSEE WHISKEY -corpse husband-

BAD NEWS (42)

He wouldn't stop calling. It had been nearly a month of ignoring him, and he wouldn't stop calling.

"What, Nathan?" Weston finally snapped, answering the phone on her way home from work. She was already having a bad day, fuming from the treatment from her boss, and frustrated that rent was due in three days and she was $400 short from calling out the past month. She was having a bad day.

"Weston," he sounded surprised that she had actually answered the phone. "Listen, I want to apologize-"

"Honestly Nathan, I don't care. If you want me to accept your apology to make yourself feel better, that's fine. I accept your apology. But to be fucking honest, I'm not in the mood to go back and forth with you," she practically yelled. Her hand gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles practically white.

"I understand. I'm sorry you're not having a good day, but I just wanted to let you know I'm not going to fight for Killian. It was a stupid thing to try to say in the first place. I crossed the line," he admitted.

Maybe Weston should've felt endearment. Maybe, she should've felt relieved, honestly, she didn't know or care. But it felt like nothing, coming from him. Nathan was a liar. He had lied his way through his entire life.

"Well, thanks for letting me know," and she tried hard to not sound sarcastic.

"I also... Well, when I was trying to find a way to contact you, I ended up calling your parents," Nathan spewed.

Weston froze. What the flaming fuck.

"I was just trying to talk to you about Killian, and they were the only people I could think of that would have your number, or something. They.... they thought we were still together."

Weston's ears were ringing. Oh my god. What the fuck.

"Weston? Weston?"

She slammed on the brakes, almost unintentionally running a red light. She huffed.

"Nathan, I haven't talked to them since I moved to California with you almost eight years ago. Not that it's any of your business. Thanks for letting me know," and she hung up the phone.

She could feel the tears in her eyes before the light turned green. Could the day get any worse?

She drove home, trying to keep her emotions under control. If she could just make it through dinner with Killian, bath time, and put him to bed she could curl up in a ball and cry over all of this, but right now she needed to be a mother. She sighed before opening the front door to her apartment.

She didn't see Killian or Corpse but she heard them both from the bathroom. Setting her stuff down on the floor, she took a deep breath, giving herself a moment before going to the bathroom where she heard the laughter.

"Mommy!" Killian screamed loudly, splashing the water around.

"Hi, baby!" Weston tried to match his excitement. "What happened to taking showers by yourself?" Weston asked jokingly.

Killian had been trying to be more independent, dressing himself, showering alone, brushing his own teeth. Corpse had even made him a list of chores to do daily when he got home from school. They did them together, so Killian wasn't alone, but he enjoyed seeing the progress of cleaning up on his own. Some days he didn't want to do it, and Corpse didn't make him. He wanted him to view cleaning as a healthy thing, and not necessarily a toxic chore for validation.

It was endearing.

"He said he had a bad day and wanted to spend time with me instead of being alone," Corpse told her.

That was another thing they were working on: communicating openly about his emotions. They didn't want him to bottle things up, and lash out.

They were trying their best for Killian, because they knew how much these things affected their own childhood. Both Corpse and Weston feared Killian ending up like them. They were trying their best to make sure that didn't happen.

Settling onto the couch, Corpse pulled Weston into his lap. She curled into him gently, taking deep breaths to try to calm herself down. She was still struggling with everything. Her brain was full of information she had no idea what to do with. She didn't know what to do moving forward. Did her parents want to make an effort to see her? To see Killian?

She didn't know what to think.

"Something happened today. What's wrong?" Corpse asked, kissing her head gently.

"Everything," she choked out before beginning to cry. Weston wasn't usually emotional, but she had been bottling things up for weeks, and now, it was all spilling out at once.

"Oh baby, it's okay," Corpse shushed her quietly, pulling her into him tighter. "I'm sorry," he apologized, not knowing what he was saying it for, but he just felt bad all of this was going on anyway.

"It's not you," she reassured him, sniffling, trying to control herself now. "I... well, I don't have enough money for rent this week, I can't... I want to quit my fucking job because I can't stand to work with a narcissistic asshole, but I can't afford to do that. I can't afford to do anything! And then, everything with my parents-"

"Your parents?" Corpse sat up more, separating from her slightly, facing her.

Weston sighed. She was talking with her hands now. "Yeah, Nathan called my parents-"

"You've talked to Nathan? Why the hell have you talked to Nathan?" Corpse was getting defensive.

"Corpse, I really, really need you to listen to me. You're assuming the worse for no reason. Please just listen to me!" Weston said exasperated, tears falling again.

    "I am listening! And you said you willingly talked to a man trying to take our son!"

    "Corpse-"

    "Are you crazy? What if he had lawyers with him? What if he was recording that call? You can't always assume the best about people all the fucking time!"

    "Stop yelling at me!" Weston said loudly, still crying. They were both standing now, breathing deeply. "Please," she said quieter. Weston crumbled back down to the couch.

Corpse realized quickly that he needed to give her a minute to talk and explain. He was being selfish by being overwhelming.

    He bent down in front of her, his hands tilting her head back up to look at him. He gently rubbed circles on her cheeks, wiping the tears away. Weston placed her hands on top of his, looking into his eyes.

    "Are you going to be something else I have to survive? Because I-I can't do it, Corpse," Weston admitted, choking on her own words.

"I'm sorry, I love you. I was being mean. I'm sorry," he apologized genuinely, grabbing her shaking hands. He kissed her palms gently, encouraging her to continue explaining.

"Nathan has been blowing up my phone for weeks, and I was already in a shitty mood, so I answered it. He was trying to apologize about everything, and told me he was giving up on the whole going to court thing, and he told me he called my parents to get my phone number. He.. he told them about Killian. I... they haven't called me or anything, and they... they know I have a son, and I'm not with Nathan anymore. "

    Corpse sighed and pulled her into his chest. He didn't know what to say or do.

    God, what the hell had they gotten themselves into now?

NOTE!!
love you all dearly. thanks for being here.