𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter sixty five.

"Now are you sure you're not going to throw anything? I mean it."

Claudia had to talk to Janis, again, about throwing stuff. She made sure sharp objects and desks were far away from her. She certainly didn't want a desk being thrown out the window.

Janis smiled innocently. "I'll think about it."

Claudia rolled her eyes. "This is serious, ma, I want you to understand what's happening here without someone getting hurt."

Janis dropped her smile. "I fell like I'm in school again. Doesn't help that this was my homeroom. I think. Everything looks the same. You know what, my homeroom might've been downstairs."

"I love your mum." Ben whispered to Claudia.

"Do you love her enough to hold her back when she sees Nate?" Claudia whispered back to Ben.

"When I said that I'm with you all the way that also meant making sure your mum doesn't hurt herself or your dad that you found in Detroit with your mum's best friend."

Claudia tried her hardest not to smile at his phrasing. "You make this sound so dramatic, Ben."

"Yup, I've been told that many times, especially by Lucy."

Suddenly, Janis stood up from the chair and slammed her fist on Claudia's desk. "Alright, order in the court, meeting in now in session. Bring in the traitors, my devil child."

Both Ben and Claudia looked at each other with worry. "I'll stay beside her," Ben whispered. And with that, Claudia went to open the door and in came Nate Stratford and Lara Harmon, or in some cases, Farrow.

Janis watched as the man she once loved entered her daughter's classroom. She kept her eyes on Nate. He didn't look at her, his eyes were on Claudia. Then came in Lara. Seeing the two of them together broke Janis' heart. She knew they hated each other, despised each other's presence, but somehow they found each other.

"Ma, be nice, please. And for the love of god, let them finish talking then you can speak." Claudia walked over to her mom. But all Janis could do was nod slowly.

Nate finally looked at Janis. She didn't look any different from when she was young. Her hair was still dark with no white hairs, which Janis bragged about since she knew people her age with a full head of white hair. Her eyes were still Nate's favorite thing about her. He took one look at her and it was like he was a teenager again. Some of the happiest times he had were with Janis if he was being honest. He missed that.

But he knew Janis wasn't going to forgive him that easily and act like he never left. After all, he could tell she was better off without him. She had a great job, raised Claudia perfectly and, most importantly, she had someone special in her life. Janis was happy and that's all that mattered.

"Do you need anything?" Ben stayed closed and watched the older woman slowly sit back down in the spinny chair.

"I'm fine," she managed to say. "where were you? Both of you?"

Nate stared at Janis. "Detroit. Lara took me there, but nothing happened between us. If I had the chance to leave her at some shitty motel, I would do it."

Lara interrupted. "You actually did that once. He took my car and left me. I didn't have any money, but a nice old lady bought me apple pie and gave me a lift back," she tried to lighten up the conversation, but was met with silence. "i'll stop talking."

"Still doesn't explain shit," Janis ran a hand through her hair and looked away.

"I know it doesn't, but please hear me out. It was my parents. This," he motioned between him, Claudia and Janis. "wasn't planned. I didn't want to leave, I didn't have a choice. You know how my parents-"

"Hated me? Probably wanted me dead in a ditch? Yeah, I know. All they wanted was a perfect woman for their precious son and they got me. What a disappointment it was for them when they saw me walking through their doors in my beaten up shoes and my flannel shirt with holes. Meeting your evil mom and shit dad was the worst day of my life. Wait, nevermind, meeting you was and will always be the worse day of my entire life." Janis spoke, glaring at Nate. Claudia saw how emotional her mom was getting and immediately started regretting her actions. This was a mess, her mess and she didn't know what to do.

Then Janis turned to Lara. "And you, oh god, I trusted you! You were my only friend and you betrayed me. I was hurt and you weren't there. Instead you were with him, out of all people, Nate fucking Stratford, the man i loved. Not only that, but the father of my goddamn child. Actually, you never were her actual dad, so I don't need to call you that."

Lara tried to speak, but got cut off by Janis. "No. You don't get to say anything to me. I needed you, Lara, and you hurt me so bad. Both of you did. But not only did you hurt me, but Claudia too. She was just a little girl, how could you?"

Claudia immediately grabbed Ben's hand for support. He turned to look at her and saw a small tear roll down her cheek. He squeezed her hand, bringing her close to him.

"My little girl, no dad or aunt. This fucking school had a Father's Day dance and no surprise there, Claudia didn't have a dad to take her to a dance. So I took her out to get ice cream and she told me if she could make me a card for father's day. It was like she knew you were never going to come back." Janis stood up from her seat.

Nate looked down at his shoes, not wanting to say anything knowing anything he would say was going to anger Janis.

"I'm sorry, I can't sit here and pretend that everything is fine when it's clearly not. I can't listen to both of you talk on why neither of you wanted to be apart of Claudia's life." Janis walked out of the classroom without hesitation.

Worried for her, Ben assured Claudia he was going to make sure she was okay, leaving Lara, Nate and Claudia alone.

Claudia wrapped her arms around her body, keeping herself warm. She wiped her tear away and approached Nate. "I'll get you a hotel room and an uber for both of you. She's definitely not going to let you into the house after this. Um, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking when I brought you here, I'm so sorry."

Nate shook his head. "It's fine. This needed to be addressed sooner or later, I just didn't think it would be this soon."

"Soon? Isn't your kid like almost thirty or something? I would say soon, Nathaniel," Lara said. "and don't worry, I kinda had a feeling Janis was going to react this way. It's understandable."

Nate nodded. "Her boyfriend didn't show up?"

"Traffic, I guess. But Edward is the best. He has a teenage daughter, she's amazing. Maybe one day you'll get to meet them," Claudia said.

Lara noticed how quiet Claudia was. Maybe she wanted to talk to Nate alone, she figured that was it so she excused herself and left the classroom so the dad and daughter could talk alone.

Claudia only had one question. Just one. It was a simple question that haunted her for years. She couldn't ask Janis, mainly because she avoided talking about it, but now that Nate was here, he was the perfect person to ask. In a way, he was the only person to ask.

Claudia cleared her throat. "Why didn't you tell her before?"

Nate was caught off guard. "What?"

"Before you left. You could've told her everything and maybe she would understand. This could've been easier if you just told her instead of leaving then maybe you two could've worked something out and we could've been a family." Claudia cried out.

"Claudia, it wasn't going to work out-" Nate tried to say.

"It could've, Nate! You should've tried. If you really loved her back then, you should've stayed . . . or, I don't know, done something instead of leaving."

"It's like you didn't hear a word I said."

Claudia sighed. "I did and I wonder if things could've gone differently. Maybe I could've gone to those dances with you, or we could've gone to see a movie and eat as much ice cream as we wanted. Maybe if you stayed, you would've gotten those father's day card instead of her."

An: saw black widow and now i need marvel to pay for my therapy